Educational Resources – Science and Math
What’s on this list?
- Science and math-related websites, activity guides, and other resources for parents
- Field trips
- Offline activities are flagged
The All-Important Disclaimer: I have not personally vetted all of these resources. There just isn’t enough time right now to do that. So if something looks interesting to you, be sure to check it out first to make sure it will work for you and your child.
Science
How to raise a future scientist (Fancy Scientist)
(Mix of on- and offline activities)
A blog post with tips for how parents can use the world around them and their own child’s natural curiosity to foster a lifelong love of science. Specific tips provided for kids in grades K-8 and 9-12.
Highlights Kids
Website for kids packed with activities, jokes, games, and videos. Some of the activities, stories, and articles are about sciences. Some of course, are just for fun.
- Visit Highlights Kids
National Geographic Kids
National Geographic’s website for kids features plenty of articles, videos, and activities about science, geography, and of course, animals. There’s even a page devoted to explaining coronavirus to your curious scientist.
- Visit National Geographic Kids
Scholastic Learn at Home
A sampling of day-to-day projects for kids in grades PreK – 8 to keep them active and engaged with learning while their regular school education is suspended. Sorted by grade level.
- Visit Scholastic Learn at Home
Switch Zoo
A virtual zoo for younger kids where they can watch animal videos, play animal-related games, and solve animal-themed puzzles.
- Visit Switch Zoo.
All About Birds
Bird watching can be a wonderful, low-key way to ease a little kid-friendly science into your day. It pairs well with physical distancing friendly exercises like walking, hiking, and biking. The All About Birds website features bird cams, bird ID guides, and a host of other tools to set your family up for a bout of bird-watching.
Ten Great Nonfiction Books for Middle Schoolers (Caterpickles)
(Offline Resource)
Remember when I made that list of non-fiction books for middle schoolers? Turns out books like like Plagues: The Microscopic Battlefield and Mr. Shaha’s Recipes For Wonder have even more to offer us right now than I had originally anticipated. Obviously, this isn’t an exhaustive list, but I’ve included it as a reminder to us to scour our own collection of nonfiction books to see what unexpected goodies we might have lying around.
Basher Science Comic Book Series
(Offline Resource)
Basher Science has released a truckload of engaging books for kids on scientific topics in chemistry, physics, environmental science, engineering, and earth science.
- Find a list of Basher Science books on IndieBound.org
Math
Fun Brain
Web site for kids grades K – 8, filled with games, videos, and other activities designed to improve math (and reading) skills. Activities are categorized by grade.
- Visit Fun Brain
16 Card Games That Will Turn Your Students into Math Aces
(Instructions are online, but the games themselves are played offline)
Via reader and veteran teacher Betty K., comes this list of 16 card games parents and their kids can play to practice their math skills. All you need for these games is a deck of regular playing cards, and in some cases a pad of paper and something to write with.
- Check out the card games
60+ Awesome Websites for Teaching and Learning Math
Via reader and veteran teacher Betty K., comes this list of the 60 best websites for teaching and learning math. This collection of teacher-approved sites includes comprehensive math programs, interactive tools to aid instruction, games and activities for students, and other resources for teachers.
- Review the list for yourself.
10 Family Card Games That Support Early Math Skills
Stanford University’s DREME (Development and Research in Early Math Education) project recently posted a list of 10 card games you can use to help children ages 4-7 gain proficiency in basic math skills such as identifying which numbers are larger and smaller, addition, and subtraction. The games are organized by the specific skill they are intended to teach, and designed to be fun for the older players in the group as well.
- Check out DREME’s curated set of math-based card games for families
Yes, you can still have field trips!
Museums around the world have started to highlight the digital archives, virtual tours, and at-home activities available on their websites. Visit the website of your favorite science museum or use my partial list to get started.
Find a resource I’ve missed?
I’ll add more resources as I find them, but this list will be much better with your input too. You’re inevitably going to come across things I’d miss. If you do, please let me know about them, either by dropping a comment below or finding me on Twitter (@shalahowell).
Also, although I hope this won’t happen, I could easily add something to this list that either doesn’t exist anymore or really shouldn’t be on here. If you see something like that, please let me know.
Thank you and good luck!
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One Response to “Educational Resources – Science and Math”
[…] the Education Resources has been a bit slower than hoped, however, I did post a preliminary list of Science and Math Resources this week. The Reading page is taking forever, because libraries, YA, MG, and picture book authors […]
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