Science Education Hall of Fame

Would you like to do some searching on your own? We have found some of the best starting points for science education on the web. Most of the sites feature free and creative science content. Enjoy and Explore!

National Science Education Standards	Both sets of National Science Education Standards have provided a critically needed pathway for K-12 institutions to construct a relevant and meaningful science program for their students. We commend this work and urge others to join this effort to bring great science programs to children through these documents. Both are available online and from Amazon.
The National Science Education Standards (1996)	The National Science Education Standards were developed by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. "In a world filled with the products of scientific inquiry, scientific literacy has become a necessity for everyone. Everyone needs to use scientific information to make choices that arise every day. Everyone needs to be able to engage intelligently in public discourse and debate about important issues that involve science and technology. And everyone deserves to share in the excitement and personal fulfillment that can come from understanding and learning about the natural world." These words begin a wonderful document that can be viewed online at The National Science Education Standards or purchased at this link from Amazon.com.
Benchmarks for Science Literacy (1993)	Benchmarks for Science Literacy was the pioneering effort of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Published in 1993 this document provided the framework for a comprehensive science, mathematics, and technology experience for students. This document is online at the above link and can be ordered from Amazon.com.

Science Museums	Online since 1993, San Francisco's Exploratorium was one of the first science museums to build a site on the World Wide Web. The site now contains over 15,000 Web pages exploring hundreds of different topics.
	The American Museum of Natural History - New York's world class science museum has much to explore online and off. Some of the really nice parts of their web site include: Resources for Learning, OLogy, Seminars on Science, & Science Bulletins.
	The Franklin Institute - One of Philadelphia's finest contributions to science, besides Ben Franklin himself! Visit the heart and many other fun stops.
	The Science Museum of London has some interesting online exhibits. There are so many brilliant parts to this web site, we particularly like Making the Modern World and Ingenious.
	TryScience.org comes from the New York Hall of Science. Great explanations for at home labs and a nice collection of online simulations.


Commercial Sites	Explorelearning.com features "Gizmos". These simulations in math and science are aimed at middle and high school students. Some of the most innovative, well designed, content-clear, simulations on the web.
	BrainPOP - Not just science and math, this web site has done a great job of developing age appropriate content in many areas of K-12 education.
	Froguts.com - Don't let the name fool you this site has tremendous virtual dissections of many organisms. Try one of their demos to get a flavor of the quality.
	Scientific American - This is not your father's Scientific American. The recently revamped, award winning magazine has a wonderful web site that accompanies each monthly edition.
	discoveryschool.com - This site features a host of science related resources. Check out Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators and their Curriculum Center.
	Sumanas, Inc. - This company was founded in 1994 with a commitment to developing high-impact interactive products for higher education. You can see some examples of their work when you click Animation.
	BioChemHub - This is a wonderful, jam packed site. This Online Biology and Chemistry Education Center is an eclectic group of resources that are aimed at high school and college students. This site was produced by Schmidel & Wojcik: Web Weavers.


Government Organizations	The National Science Foundation is a tremendous organization that has funded countless efforts in science and math education. Although their web site may be a bit daunting, we highlight many of their projects.
	The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives for Interactive Mathematics is filled with clearly designed, age appropriate tools to help students learn math and science. Funded by the National Science Foundation.
	NASA continues to be one of the real pioneers in web based science education. One great example is NASA's Earth Observatory. Check out their Data and Images for new ways for students to view and use data.
	The National Institutes of Health has a wonderful science education division called The Office of Science Education. The web site is rich with all sorts of videos and interactives, for all age levels. They also feature a wonderful tool called LifeWorks, which is a career exploration web site of the health sciences. Great work for science education!
	BBCi - A fine web site with topics in science and nature. The interactive are so well done. Subject categories include Animals, Prehistoric Life, Human Body & Mind, Genes, Space and Hot Topics.
	USGS - The U.S. Geological Survey - This site is a tremendous starting point for information and very accessible date on volcanoes, earthquakes and other geologic phenomena. Innovative design and intuitive navigation make this a winner!
	Earth Observatory from NASA - Current and clear, this site has designed a very clever way of making data accessible for the science student, check out the data in the section called Data and Images.
	Nova - One of the premier science programs on television. This award winning series also features many terrific web sites that accompany their program. They have some great interactives also.


Universities	PhET Physics Education Technology is one of the most innovative sites for physics education. Their focus is high school and higher education physics education. These fun, interactive simulations of physical phenomena make bridges to the real world, from the Physics Education Technology Project at the University of Colorado.
	Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education - hi-ce is the Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education--a group of educators, computer scientists, psychologists, scientists, and learning specialists at the University of Michigan. We are dedicated to educational reform through inquiry-based curricula, learner-centered technologies, comprehensive professional development, and administrative and organizational models. A great web site for and by pioneers of educational computing.
	Instructional Multimedia at the University of Alberta has created some wonderful interactives in the life sciences. ONce you get here look to the right hand column for more!
	Molecular Expressions - This site explores the world of light microscopy. Great gallery of images and fascinating, well designed tutorials make this pioneer one of the best science education sites on the web. Brought to us by Florida State University.
	The Biology Project - If you love biology you will love this site, which has been developed by the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the University of Arizona. Cutting edge activities and clear, concise explanations make this site exceptional.
	Physics 2000 - An award winning site that uses well designed java applets to explain physics concepts. Developed by the University of Colorado at Boulder. They also feature a downloadable version of the site for teachers.
	The Chemistry Collective is a collection of virtual labs, scenario-based learning activities, and concepts tests which can be incorporated into a variety of teaching approaches as pre-labs, alternatives to textbook homework, and in-class activities for individuals or teams. It is organized by a group of faculty and staff at Carnegie Mellon University for college and high school teachers who are interested in using, assessing, and/or creating engaging online activities for chemistry education. Be sure to check out their Virtual Lab.


Miscellaneous Organizations	Edheads is a leader in providing high quality, innovative, and fun interactives for science education. Their work is conceptually clear and developmentally appropriate. The four "learning tools" we feature are Simple Machines, Weather, The Odd Machine, and Virtual Knee Surgery. What a great web site for kids and teachers!
	The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is an amazing web site. It is filled with clever design, great content, and stimulating simulations. The For Educators portion of this web site features Teacher Professional Development, Online References, and Online Learning opportunities.
	Sodaplay. - Don't let the name mislead you, this is one of the most creative physical science sites we have ever seen. In Sodaplay, you use the Sodaconstructor to make models out of masses linked by springs and muscles. Then you can manipulate this microworlds' gravity, friction, and spring stiffness. Stunningly life-like models are the result in this notable achievement in web learning.
	nobelprize.org - The Nobel prize is an international award given yearly since 1901 for achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and for peace. This site is filled with interesting and fun information.
	Quia.com - Although this site is not specific to science, it offers one of the most creative suites of web-based resources for teachers. Create easy web pages for your classes, share activities with other teachers around the world, utilize online assessments with your students; these are just a few of the things you can do from this valuable resource.

Individual Web Sites	John Kyrk has produced some of the most incredible animations for biology and biochemistry. They are truly groundbreaking in the way they display information about the most important molecules and processes of life. The "learning tool" John has created is called Cell Biology Animation, just click to visit this wondrous work.