With the help of the California Academy of Sciences, educators can design Life Science, Earth Science, Astronomy, or Physical Science lessons around current research and experiments, or use one of the site’s free K-12 lesson plans or unit studies in an even wider variety of subjects. Take your time exploring the website. Many of their resources are difficult to locate through browsing but can be found through the excellent search options instead. Or, try bookmarking the more robust areas, such as lesson plans and topic videos.
Consider viewing one of the museum’s webcams with your class at various times throughout the year. Use the Science Notebooking lessons at the beginning of the school year to get learners excited about keeping a science journal. Try one of the included scavenger hunts to get learners out of their seats and interacting with the world. Or, if you’re local and can arrange a field trip, comb the site for ways to prepare for your visit.
Standout lessons and videos:
- Exploring Energy: Designing a Better Future: This is a Flipside Science unit including videos and activities that cover the current state and future of energy.
- Farallones Webcam: Study the Farallon Islands through a live camera feed and you might just see whales, seals, and exotic birds.
- Gene Therapy for Color Blindness: View a video clip showing how gene therapy has cured color blindness in squirrel monkeys.
Students and educators who use the California Academy of Sciences site will find no end to the informative learning experiences. There are plenty of resources to which educators can point learners while they work independently, but the biggest strength is in the unit studies and many, many lesson plans from which educators can plan large chunks of their curriculum. Kids get hands-on experiences through these lessons, benefiting from the museum’s deep collections while engaging in the material in their own classrooms.
Students can choose from a few highly engaging learning tools, including live webcams from which to observe sharks, penguins, whales, seals, and exotic birds in their natural habitats. Also, the video gallery has a broad variety of resources, from quick clips to full-length Academy lectures. In addition, the site’s up-to-date news on science and scientists helps learners learn what’s going on right now in the world. This is particularly powerful, and a key strength is that the featured scientists include men and women of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, encouraging kids to participate in areas of science themselves.
Website: http://www.calacademy.org/explore-science
Overall User Consensus About the App
Student Engagement
This interactive website is filled with fascinating lessons, videos, pictures, articles, webcams, and games that draw learners into the world of science. The site also describes the events and exhibits currently happening at the Academy.
Curriculum and Instruction
Lesson plans and online courses get learners working and thinking about science by actually doing science. Also, learners can view specimens, hear about research, and see scientists and animals in action through videos and webcams.
Customer Support
The search options help narrow down the site’s resources in fine detail, and almost all pages have suggestions on how to integrate or extend learning. Some lessons and videos are also available in Spanish, Tagalog, and Chinese.
