PrometheanPlanet

I'm always on the lookout for good resources to help the teaching of science on the Interactive Whiteboard. Your whiteboard allows you to run simulations, play videos and demonstrate using animations. It can also provide you with a window on the world (and other worlds).

Here are 10 of my favourites:

1. Absorb Learning from Yenka : From the makers of Crocodile Clips, this website containts hundreds of free IWB animations for KS4/KS5 Chemistry and Physics.

2. ARKive : With the help of the world's best filmmakers, photographers, conservationists and scientists, ARKive is creating the ultimate multimedia guide to the world's endangered species. The site contains thousands of free wildlife videos and photographs, including great Darwin resources.

3. FreezeRay : This site contains a large bank of interactive Science Flash animations for KS3 and Ks4 from the Great Barr School. The resources are designed to be used as rich sources of visually stimulating material, making use of both animations and drag and drop interactivity.

4.Periodic Table of Videos : On this site, produced by the University of Nottingham, you will find videos of all the different elements of the periodic table. The videos are hosted on YouTube, so you'll need to have YouTube unblocked in your school if you want to use this site.

5. Skool.co.uk : skoool.co.uk is an Intel® driven project that brings you highly innovative, interactive and exciting learning resources for KS3/4 Science (and Maths). The site is good for self-study, as well as for display on your IWB.

6. PhET - interactive simulations : The University of Colorado has produced some excellent java-based physics simulations for KS3 and KS4 Science. You can run them via the website, or you can download to run offline.

7. KScience - This is a simple site that provides many different Flash animations for KS3/4 Science. You can also download a toolkit that will help you produce your own animations if you like.

8. Phun - This is the only one of the sites above that you can't use immediately online. You need to download this to your computer. It's well worth it though. Phun is an amazing, free, physics simulator. You can draw objects directly into the world, then make them behave in different ways. You can build quite complicated structures and devices.

With an IWB you have a fantastic full colour screen. While I really like the interactive nature of the board, sometimes it is good just to display an eye-grabbing image to capture the attention of the students. These could be displayed as they come into the classroom to make them think before the lesson starts, or form part of a class discussion.

Two of my favourite image sites are:

9. Astronomy Picture of the Day - Really provide the Wow factor with some of these images. Each day it features a different image or photograph from somewhere in the Universe, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Normally there are links to find out more. You can search the archive to find other images.

10. The Big Picture - The Big Picture is a regularly updated section of the Boston Times website. Every few days they add a gallery of 30-40 high quality photographs on a topic that's currently in the news. In recent weeks it's featured images from Space Shuttle Launches, the Iceland Volcano and the Louisiana Oil Spill. You can search the archive to find images that would fit many science topics. (Let your geography and RE colleagues know about the site too, there's some great images for them as well!)

It is always very hard to narrow down my favourites to just 10. There are so many good websites out there. If I could sneak another in it would be Google Moon / Mars and Sky (OK, that's 3 websites, but they work well as a package). You can find more links to great science websites via my Whiteboard Blog, and also on my delicious page www.delicious.com/dannynic/science+iwb

Happy surfing!

Danny Nicholson

www.whiteboardblog.co.uk

Links used in this page

http://www.absorblearning.com/media/search.action#search

http://www.arkive.org/

http://freezeray.com/

http://www.periodicvideos.com/

http://lgfl.skoool.co.uk/index.aspx

http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/index.php?cat=Featured_Sims

http://www.kscience.co.uk/animations/anim_1.htm

http://www.biologyinmotion.com/