LibGuides: Briarwood Elementary Science Resources: Science Projects

General Science and Projects

Science Projects and General Science are in the Dewey Decimal 500-509 categories. We check out a lot of science books, so have a look at these websites.

These websites are a great place to start learning about science or to learn about science you can do at home or school. These sites help what we learn in school meet more Next Generation Science Standards. They are also listed as Great Websites for Kids by the American Library Association's Association for Library Service to Children, so we know they have been check out and are safe websites with true information.

From the DK publishing company that brings so many books to our shelves, DK Find Out! is a great place to learn.

The PBS Kids Design Squad has videos and ideas. There are safe places to share your creations and where you can help design projects for other students. The videos are free, but check with a teacher or parent before creating an account and signing in to share.

Khan Academy teaches science and more. Videos are free but saving your learning progress and quizes require logging in. Always talk to a teacher or parent before creating an account online.

The Old Farmer's Almanac for Kids offers facts and activities. There are webcams and daily information about weather, sunrise, and sunset, too.

Get Involved

Citizen science is sweeping the globe. Scientists in universities and labs all over the world are looking for information or computer processing time. Join scientists and add your information to citizen science projects around the world. These links can ask for many family and classroom-style activities. Maybe send in a culture sample from your shower head, find galaxies in a Hubble image, measure the rainfall in your micro biome, or count the cicadas you see this summer. Be sure to talk to your teacher or parents before contacting anyone on the internet.

California Academy of Science
Talk to teachers and parents about joining forces with the scientists at the California Academy of Science.
Citizen Science Alliance
A place where high quality citizen science projects are evaluated and available to join. Talk to a parent or teacher about the project before joining, but learn more about them here.

Books

These books are great resources to support your 500s exploration. These books will tell you more about general science and science projects.

A Bee in a Cathedral by Joel Levy
ISBN: 9781554079599
Publication Date: 2011-06-16
100 basic scientific truths with the power of analogy, understandable terms. The analogy goes that if an atom were expanded to the size of a cathedral, the nucleus would be only about the size of a bee. Each analogy is explained in direct terms and clearly illustrated. The analogies include: If an atomic nucleus expanded to the size of a marble, it would weigh about 100 million tons, or roughly the equivalent of 16 Great Pyramids of Egypt. It would take a human heart less than 18 days to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The volcanic blast of Mount St. Helens released thermal energy 1,600 times the size of Hiroshima. Krakatoa's 1883 eruption was roughly 13,000 times as powerful as that same bomb.
Thing Explainer by Randall Munroe
ISBN: 9780544668256
Publication Date: 2015-11-24
Have you ever tried to learn more about some incredible thing, only to be frustrated by jargon? Thing Explainer uses line drawings and only the thousand (or, rather, "ten hundred") most common words to provide simple explanations: How do things work? Where do they come from? What would life be like without them? And what would happen if we opened them up, heated them up, cooled them down, pointed them in a different direction, or pressed this button? In Thing Explainer, Munroe gives us the answers to these questions and so many more. Funny, interesting, and always understandable, this book is for anyone--age 5 to 105--who has ever wondered how things work, and why.
Designing a Winning Science Fair Project by Sandy Buczynski
ISBN: 9781631377907
Publication Date: 2014-08-01
Learn how to design, carry out, and present the results of a science project. Use prior knowledge of scientific experiments to present their ideas in a new way. The domain-specific vocabulary helps students grow deeper in their understanding of how to carry out experiments effectively.