Science NetLinks - Lessons for the Common Core

Science Netlinks is a project of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Like EDSITEment!, it is a member of the Thinkfinity Consortium. You can find plenty of good information and links galore here. Unfortunately, I didn't find that the lessons and activities supported a high level of inquiry. Most were didactic, though thorough.  

I am, however, excited that one of the lessons led me to a real discovery: the work of Vicki Cobb, the Education World Science Editor. You can read her philosophy of teaching science and find her Show-Biz Science activities archive on EW's website. They are great!

Vicki is the winner of the 2012 AAAS/Subaru Science Books and Films’s Lifetime Achievement Award for more than 85 nonfiction books for children. Her books would be wonderful to add to your classroom library, in light of the emphasis on reading informational text in addition to literature in the CCSS. The added benefit? Many are books that contain embedded investigations for your kiddos to carry out.

BTW, the SB&F Best Books of 2011 special issue is available for download for a limited time with full text of reviews. Included in this guide are all of the finalists and winners of the 2012 AAAS/Subaru Book Prizes - great guidance for books to use DURING your reading/language block for both science and reading instruction!

I also discovered a link to more than thirty first-person accounts of the 1906 Fan Francisco Earthquake and Fire, located at the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco. These accounts would be perfect primary sources to use for developing close reading skills as per the CCSS.

The Science NetLinks site is divided into five sections:

• Afterschool - informal, often hands-on, science activities. Each one includes a facilitator page, as well as online and printable pages for kids. 
• Collections - groupings of lessons, tools, Science Updates, and other resources relating to a single topic
• Lessons - can be filtered and searched by grade and theme: astronomy, biology, careers, chemistry, earth science, engineering, health/medicine, math/statistics, nature of science, physics, social sciences, and technology
• Science News - up-to-date science Facts, Updates, and Educator Blog. Includes a monthly newsletter. 
• Tools - provide descriptions of online resources in four categories—hands-on activities, interactives, teaching aids, and websites— with tips to integrate them into your classroom.

I urge you to go look around. You will, no doubt, discover other gems available to help you align your teaching of science with inquiry and with the literacy goals of the Common Core.