Teaching ScienceHelp for trainee Science teachers

If you want advice and ideas for using Plants in the classroom, then the SAPS website is well worth bookmarking. (Science and Plants in Schools)

You can download a pdf version of their booklet – Living Processes and What Plants Need to Grow from this page. (download each section separately)

Also look out for

Plants for Primary Schools – a series of booklets

Parts of a Plant and their functions

Reproduction and Life Cycles 1

Reproduction and Life Cycles 2

Here’s a link to a cool website that lets you view how the planets in the Solar System move around the Sun : http://www.gunn.co.nz/astrotour/

You can run it automatically, and change the speed. or pause it and step through slowly. You can choose to view the whole thing with the sun at the centre, or to follow a particular planet around.

The controls at the side let you zoom in so you can see a few planets more closely. You can also make the planets bigger to make them easier to see on an IWB.

Another nice touch is that if you click and drag any planet, all the others will move in time with it.

This is a neat little tool to show how the planets orbit the Sun. You can see how some move faster than others and use the dates to calculate how long it would take some of the outer planets to complete one orbit. Visit the site now and have a play!