Web Site of the Month--SciGuides
By Kathy Ishizuka -- School Library Journal, 6/1/2005
Educators who have a tough time finding authoritative science resources online have a new tool to assist them. Produced by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), SciGuides allows teachers to forgo exhaustive—and often unproductive—Web searches by providing specially designed tools to quickly and easily locate information from NSTA-reviewed Web sites.
SciGuides also offers online lesson plans, audio-clip tips from master science teachers, and effective student assessment tools that help teachers adapt science content to classroom learning. SciGuides is organized by major science topics, such as genetics or matter, with links to about 100 Web sites on each topic. The sites are also organized by grade level and are continually updated by NSTA experts.
Eleven SciGuides are now available and cost $4.95 a unit. The units include "Life Cycles and Inherited Traits," "Organisms, and Earth and Sky" for students in grades K–4 and 5-8, and "Reproduction and Heredity," "Energy Resources," "Genetics," "Extreme Weather," and "Earth's Structure" for kids in grades 9–12. Upcoming SciGuides will address coral ecosystems, estuary ecosystems, force and motion, the lithosphere, and NASA exploration.
