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Resources for teachers interested in science, technology and mathematics

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Microscope Imaging Station:Explore a tiny universe. The Microscope Imaging Station at the Exploratorium in San Francisco lets visitors take control of powerful microscopes. Take an up-close look at stem cells, sea urchins, and immune cells bent on destruction.
Office of Science Education: Free resources for science teachers.
NIGMS School Resources: Free interactive games, posters for the classroom, and other science education tools are available online for students and teachers.
Environmental Health Science Education: Get easy access to an array of classroom activities and curricula.
The 2012 Comvita Science Challenge: Comvita Science Video Challenge is a fun way to learn and communicate science. Year 9-10 Secondary School students or Tertiary School student may enter(Secondary schools and Tertiary schools are two separate categories.).All that is needed is to create and submit a 3 minute video explaining how some healthy food ingredients impact one’s health.
Prime Minister’s Science Prizes The 2012 round for the Prime Minister’s Science Prizes is open. The five prizes are:
- The Prime Minister’s Science Prize: An individual or team who has made an transformative discovery or achievement in science that has had a significant impact on New Zealand or internationally
- The Prime Minister’s MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize: An outstanding emerging scientist undertaking research for a PhD, or is within five years of the date of the award of their PhD
- The Prime Minister’s Science Teacher Prize: A science teacher for outstanding achievement in teaching Science
- The Prime Minister’s Science Media Communication Prize: A practising scientist who is an effective communicator, to provide them with an opportunity to further develop their knowledge and capability in science media communication
- The Prime Minister’s Future Scientist Prize: A secondary school student for outstanding achievement in carrying out a practical and innovative research or technology project.
To find out more about the prizes, visit www.pmscienceprizes.org.nz
Freshwater invertebrate studies: You may find this new NZ web resource useful . t’s free to use and there’s no registration or login process – just go to the address and enjoy!
Climate Change: CREST question: Is temperature the only variable that changes? Design and carry out an experiment to investigate variables other than temperature.
POTBot (Pictures Of The Bottom) :What lurks at the bottom of the ocean? Find out in this video!
Cracking the Egg Sprinkler Mystery: When engineer Tadd Truscott was in grad school, one of his classmates at MIT suggested they spin an egg in a puddle of milk and film it with a high-speed camera. What they saw was a tiny sprinkler system: the milk rose up the sides of the spinning egg, shooting off at the egg’s equator. This became a household science experiment for Truscott and his kids, until one day he realized he didn’t know why the milk rises up the egg. Armed with a PhD in hydrodynamics, Truscott, now at Brigham Young University, and colleagues including mechanical engineering student Ken Langley, set out to crack the case.
Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink’: An ELI activity investigating how to get clean water from dirty ‘pond’ water. This investigation could be used in any lessons involving discussions about water supply.
Early Wall Art: A massive block of limestone in France contains what scientists believe are the earliest known engravings of wall art dating back some 37,000 years, according to a study. The 1.5 tonne ceiling piece was first discovered in 2007 at Abri Castanet, a well known archaeological site in southwestern France which holds some of the earliest forms of artwork, beads and pierced shells.
Time travel to ancient Paphos:A team of archaeologists are unearthing layer upon layer of history at the ancient theatre of Paphos in Cyprus. Follow their painstaking work and see their precious finds.
Scientists lift lid on turtle evolution: The turtle is a closer relative of crocodiles and birds than of lizards and snakes, according to researchers who claim to have solved an age-old riddle in animal evolution. The ancestry of the turtle, which evolved between 200 and 300 million years ago, has caused much scientific squabbling – its physiology suggesting a different branch of the family tree than its genes do.”The evolutionary origin of turtles has confounded the understanding of vertebrate evolution,” the scientists write in a paper published in the Royal Society(London) journal Royal Society Biology Letters.
Snip Chips. New Zealand science and technology has been used in recently published international research on the genetic history of sheep. High-density single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) chips (‘snip chips’) created in New Zealand are genetic selection tools that quickly and cheaply screen sheep DNA for useful genes.
Core Math Tools Home: A downloadable suite of interactive software tools for algebra and functions, geometry and trigonometry, and statistics and probability.
Olympic Torch survives wind, snow and rain: A technological torch. Imagine a torch that has to stay alight for 70 days. It has to stand up to the worst of the British weather – wind, rain and even snow. It has to travel 110 miles every day and stay alight if it is dropped. That is the Olympic Torch‘s mission. Can anyone build a torch like this?
SciCon12: The Theme of the conference is “Making Connections” and this could mean making connections with teachers from primary to tertiary, researchers, scientists and companies that produce resources for science education. It could also mean making new IT connections or connections with new ideas and ways of teaching, especially those that help us to implement the new curriculum effectively, in the hope that all of these have a flow on effect to the learning of our students.
Using the healing properties of mānuka honey: Use the Biotech Learning Hub’s teaching resources to find out more about cutting-edge New Zealand research. Innovations – Comvita (Video clip). Comvita’s mānuka honey is not just a tasty spread for toast. The company employs the renowned healing properties of the native mānuka in healthcare and skincare products. Honey to heal (Focus story). You may have been spreading honey on your toast for a few years, but people have been using it to treat illnesses for thousands of years! Now, honey is being used to make a product that can help wounds heal more quickly. The properties of honey (Experiment). Honeys are a complex mixture of sugars, water, enzymes and various other compounds. In this experiment, you can compare the taste, colour, texture and pH of different honeys. Antibacterial effects of honey – (Experiment). Honey is antibacterial and can prevent growth of most types of bacteria. This experiment compares the effect of different types of honey on bacteria growing on agar plates
Drinking candle: Sometimes too. Try this experiment and find out why!
Sandcastles and slopes: What makes sandcastles and slopes collapse? Ask pupils if they have ever made a big sandcastle. What was the steepest angle they could build the side walls of the castle? Could they make a steeper wall if the sand was dampened? Questions like these go well beyond the playground or beach. Many people have been killed by the collapse of unstable slopes of loose rock or sand. This ELI investigates the factors which affect the angle at which loose materials rest before they begin to slide.
Forensics: Download video clips from TVNZ’s Ever Wondered? Series 2 and Innovation Stories and use the Biotech Learning Hub’s teaching resources to find out more about cutting-edge New Zealand research. Developing ( Video clip) .In Episode 10, Part 2 of Ever Wondered? Series 2, Dr John Watt meets two Auckland University postgraduate students researching potential new methodologies for forensic science. DNA profiling( Information sheet) DNA profiling is the process where a specific DNA pattern, called a profile, is obtained from a person or a sample of body tissue. Solving a mystery using a scientific approach (Unit plan) Students collect, store and analyse forensic samples from a mock crime scene and process the evidence so that it can be presented to a ‘jury’ with a focus on fair testing. Solving a mystery using a technological approach ( Unit plan).Students develop a mobile evidence-collection system designed to collect forensic evidence from a crime scene in a reliable, repeatable way.
Google in Education: Google has several tools and programs which may be useful for both primary and secondary science teachers. Explore Google tools, browse other teachers’ ideas for using Google programs in the classroom and share your ideas with teachers, educators and science-lovers all over the world.
Puffy Paint Pictures: Can you paint using a microwave? Indeed you can
Entertaining ways with science: A recent conference in the US looked at STEM education across the globe, and shared learning about where education meets entertainment. The presentations included how the popular “Sesame Street” show is being used to promote greater interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) among young viewers. See videos of this year’s conference presentations.
20 Apps for Science Teachers. Some of these apps are specifically science focused, others are aimed at teachers and students, while some apps are simply brilliant and deserve a mention.
Primary Science Week 7-11 May: National Primary Science Week provides opportunities for free local professional development around the regions for teachers, access to the Big Experiment, competitions for schools, free science activities and resources to help science teaching.
Science in The New Zealand Curriculum: Years 5 to 8 (ERO May 2012) .The Science in The New Zealand Curriculum: Years 5 to 8 report shows that primary school science programmes need improvement.The report shows that only 27 percent of schools have effective or generally effective science programmes for Years 5 to 8 students.ERO makes several recommendations including that schools review the priority given to science teaching and learning in their curriculum, and the quality of science teaching and learning.An earlier report published by ERO in 2010, Science in Years 5 to 8: Capable and Competent Teaching, provides examples of high quality teaching and management practices related to science education. It includes self-review questions and indicators of good practice which schools can use to review their science teaching in Years 5 to 8. Both reports are available on ERO’s website
TED-Ed: A video library of the world’s most inspiring lessons, brought to life by talented animators. Suitable for primary and secondary science, you can use, tweak, or completely redo any lesson featured, or create lessons from scratch based on any video from YouTube.

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