Last summer, we announced our exciting partnership with Rovio Entertainment to feature the beloved Angry Birds characters in our Learning Universe. This collaboration was facilitated by our licensing representative, Maximum Orbit.

Today we’re thrilled to introduce the second batch of games addressing three different topics:

• Angry Birds: Kinetic Power for Grades 6-8 over Kinetic Energy  
• Angry Birds: Space Tactics for Grades 3-5 over Linear Geometry
• Angry Birds: Solar Smash! for Grades 3-5 over Earth and the Solar System
• Angry Birds: Return Home for Grades 3-8 over Solar System and Gravitational Force  

Read more below for an overview of these games and the adventures your students will experience!

Joining Forces to Create Impactful Learning Experiences

Three new Angry Birds titles are here to fling students into amazing educational experiences!

The fun, physics-based gameplay, and unforgettable characters make learning about forces, gravity, and projectiles a breeze. Students might not even realize they’re absorbing knowledge while launching birds!

Remember our partnership with Rovio announced a year ago? Well, we’re clucking excitedly to unveil four more educational Angry Birds games, ready to supercharge your classroom! Dive in below to meet the feathered scholars!

Angry Birds: Kinetic Power

Game Description:

Play with our Angry Birds friend in this fun game and learn how they use Kinetic Energy knowledge to defeat the piggies!

Learn how energy moves among the different systems and how to exploit it.

Academically, students will learn concepts in Kinetic Energy with an Angry Birds gameplay experience which your students will love. 

Physics-Based Puzzles: In the classic Angry Birds style, Kinetic Power will help students understand the relationship between mass, velocity, and kinetic energy. The game helps illustrate how a bird’s speed and mass affect the amount of kinetic energy it has.

Practical Application: Players can see how kinetic energy is converted into other forms of energy upon impact, such as when a bird collides with a structure and causes it to collapse. This visual representation helps solidify the concept of energy transfer.

Learning Through Play: Our mission. Kinetic Power is designed to be fun and engaging, with colorful graphics, humorous characters, and a variety of levels that keep players entertained.

With your students on our side, the Angry Birds crew will defeat the evil pigs. Plan, aim, and shoot the Angry Birds to trigger the fun in the classroom!

Reviews

Angry Birds: Space Tactics

Game description:

Join the Angry Birds on a space adventure! Angry Birds: Space Tactics, makes learning geometry fun!

In this cosmic journey, players use strategic bird launches to defeat pigs while picking up basic geometric concepts like points, rays, lines, and angles.

In the same way as before, students will learn concepts about Linear Geometry in a fun and engaging way with the Angry Birds crew!

Engaging Gameplay: The game introduces players to fundamental geometry concepts such as points, lines, line segments, rays, and angles.

Problem Solving: Players are challenged to use their understanding of linear geometry to solve problems. They will need to calculate the correct angle of launch or the exact point of intersection to complete a level.

Students will find a lot of humor and relatability in Space Tactics, making the learning process extra enjoyable.

Get ready to travel across the universe and dive into the world of Linear Geometry with the Angry Birds crew! 

Reviews

Angry Birds: Solar Smash!

Game Description:

Help the Angry Birds rid their planetarium of the Pigs by fixing models of the Earth, Moon, and night sky.

Along the way, learn about how the movements of the Sun, Moon, and Earth work to create complex patterns that we experience every day!

Solar Smash brings to the table a full hands-on experience for our students:

Planetary Features: Players discover various features of the Earth, stars, and moon such as rotation angles, rotation time, constellations, and more! This knowledge is integrated into gameplay, as players must navigate these features to complete levels.

Engaging Gameplay: Students will interact with space environments, launching birds to complete missions that involve defeating the piggies and saving the day.

Each level in Solar Smash presents unique challenges that require players to think critically and use their knowledge of Earth and the Solar System to succeed. This keeps the game interesting and intellectually stimulating.

Reviews

Angry Birds Return Home

Game Description:

Help Ice Bird on his mission to return to his home planet Pluto. To accomplish that, defeat the space pigs belonging to other planets.

Join Red on this awesome trip and help your students learn about the solar system and the concept of gravity.

Return Home brings fun to our elementary and middle schoolers in a way you’ll only find in Legends of Learning!

Understanding Gravity: The game introduces the concept of gravity, explaining it as the force that attracts objects towards one another, particularly towards the center of the Earth or other celestial bodies.

Creative Challenges: Levels include creative puzzles that require players to use their understanding of gravitational force and the unique Angry Birds’ skills.

Return Home illustrates how Gravitational Force varies for different planets and celestial bodies, helping players understand its concept through their challenging and engaging levels.

Reviews

Other titles from the Rovio & Legends of Learning Collection

Angry Birds Eggstraction

In this Angry Birds adventure, players delve into the world of forces and collisions. They’ll strategically guide Red the Bird using the Sproing-O-Matic, a device that controls his launch angle, direction, and force.

Analyzing each level is crucial as players aim to reclaim stolen eggs from the villainous pigs. By carefully adjusting these elements, players must ensure Red avoids obstacles and reaches his target without getting stuck or falling.

This physics-based gameplay serves as a fun and engaging way to learn key scientific concepts.

Angry Birds and the Multiplication Portal

In this game a new twist is thrown into the classic battle between birds and pigs. This time, the pigs have constructed barriers to protect their ill-gotten gains: the birds’ eggs!

Players strategize by launching the birds through special “multiplication portals” that alter their properties. Solving multiplication problems becomes the key to taking down the pigs’ defenses and reclaiming the eggs.

This innovative approach transforms multiplication practice into an engaging and rewarding adventure.

Stay tuned for more Angry Birds games coming to Legends of Learning in topics such as Gravitational Force, the Coordinate Plane, Arithmetic with Decimals, and more! We’ll see you soon in the Learning Universe with Kinetic Power, Space Tactics, and Solar Smash in your queue! 

Are you new to Legends of Learning and want to try out these games? Sign Up Now!

Teacher Reviews: Don’t forget that you earn Rewards Points for every game review you write! So be sure to leave your feedback. By doing so, you are helping other teachers pick the right games and students get the best content available. Talk about saving the day!

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Read more articles and news!

• 7 Advantages of Game-Based Learning Strategies
• Introducing Angry Birds: Kinetic Power, Space Tactics, Return Home, and Solar Smash Games!
• Jumpstart Summer Learning: New Science Games in June 2024
• Jumpstart Summer Learning: New Math Games in June 2024
• Raise School Test Scores with Legends of Learning

With the first month of 2018 wrapping up, let’s check out the top 10 most popular science topics on the Legends of Learning site in January:

1. Effects of Temperature and Pressure on State

 

Summary of concepts covered (8 games): A substance’s state of matter is an extrinsic property, meaning it can be changed by its environment. Physical conditions like temperature and pressure affect state of matter. Both temperature and pressure can be measured, and state changes can be observed.

2. Atoms and Elements

 

Summary of concepts covered (10 games + 1 PhET simulation): Everything in the universe is made up of atoms. Atoms are the smallest units of matter, and the different types of atoms make up different elements. They can exist on their own, or bonded together in molecules.

3. Parts of the Cell

 

Summary of concepts covered (9 games): Cells contain specialized structures, called organelles, that perform specific functions. Prokaryotic cells, like bacteria, do not have many organelles, while eukaryotic cells have defined organelles. All cells have a semi-permeable cell membrane that lets them absorb nutrients and get rid of waste. Nuclei, mitochondria, ribosomes, rough and smooth ER, the Golgi apparatus, and lysosomes are all covered!

4. The Sun, Moon, and Stars: Patterns of Apparent Motion

 

Summary of concepts covered (8 games): From day to day, the sun and stars will not appear in the exact same part of the sky due to the Earth’s revolution around the sun. These patterns of apparent motion allow us to predict where the Sun, Moon, and stars are at any given time, using drawings, 3D models, and computer models.

5. Role of Sunlight and Gravity in the Water Cycle

 

Summary of concepts covered (8 games): On Earth, water can exist as a liquid, a solid (ice), or a gas (water vapor). It changes between these states of matter when it gains or loses energy. In the water cycle, this energy comes from sunlight. While sunlight is the energy source, the greatest force propelling the water cycle is gravity. Gravity is the force of attraction between two objects, and Earth’s gravity pulls matter downward, toward its center. It pulls precipitation down from clouds and pulls water downhill.

6. Conservation of Matter in Chemical Reactions

 

Summary of concepts covered (10 games): During a chemical reaction, atoms are rearranged, but they are not created or destroyed. The substances entering the reaction are called reactants, and the resulting substances, with new chemical formulas, are called products.

7. Temperature, Thermal Energy, and Particle Motion

 

Summary of concepts covered (9 games): Temperature measures the average kinetic energy of the particles in a substance. Thermal energy measures the total kinetic energy of the particles in a substance. The greater the motion of particles, the higher a substance’s temperature and thermal energy.

8. Weathering and Erosion

 

Summary of concepts covered (9 games): Aside from plate tectonics, moving water (including ice) causes the most significant change to the earth’s surface. Weathering (including physical and chemical) is the process of breaking down rock that is not moving. Erosion is when water actually transports rock and sediment from one place to another.

9. Sound Waves

 

Summary of concepts covered (10 games): Waves are disturbances that transfer energy from one place to another. Sound waves are a type of mechanical, longitudinal wave. Longitudinal waves cause matter to contract and expand, known as compression and rarefaction. Matter vibrates as sound passes through it.

10. Gene Mutations

 

Summary of concepts covered (10 games): DNA contains the genetic blueprint of all living things. It comes in double helix-shaped strands, which look like twisted ladders. The ladders’ rungs are made up of two kinds of nucleotide pairs: adenine and thymine, and cytosine and guanine. During cell division, DNA replicates itself, but it sometimes makes errors. Most of these errors are fixed during the process, but the ones that aren’t may become gene mutations.

What will be the top 10 in February? Sign in and play to have your say!

After launching 800 science games for grades 6-8, we heard from numerous educators requesting games for younger grade levels. Ten months later, elementary school teachers can now sign up for first access to Legends of Learning’s new grades 3-5 offering!

Here are the details:

* More than 300 titles
* 56 lessons covered
* Topics span Earth and Space, Life, and Physical Science, including the scientific method
* Based on the NGSS curriculum
* Select state standards coming, including GSE, SOL, and TEKS
* Designed for grades 3-5 with accessibility for select 2nd graders
* Works in tandem with existing suite for grades 6-8

Early Access to Grades 3-5 Games

As with grades 6-8, an elementary teacher’s Legends of Learning account is free with no financial obligations. Just sign up to be notified when the product goes live, then create your account and go.

Be one of the first teachers to access Legends of Learning’s elementary school suite, and help shape the future of science game-based learning for grades 3-5.

Sign up here.

Are you looking for content review tips? As the world of standardized testing increases its focus on math and science (hello ACTs), teachers invest more class time on test preparation. Review can be one of the most mundane tasks your class engages in, boring both your students and you, the educator.

That’s why many teachers are looking for content review tips that make test prep fun and meaningful. In fact, many teachers use Legends of Learning’s thousands of games and assessment items for test prep. However, students often need more than one tool to help them lock in and review content day after day.

To help you in your efforts, check out these seven articles filled with tips and tools to strengthen your test prep/content review. Links are in the headlines:

1) Reviving Reviews: Refreshing Ideas Students Can’t Resist – Education World

Looking to end indifference this article asks? Then build a game for your classroom, which of course makes this article our favorite! Education World then links to five resources for teachers to download and use for in class content review.

2) Build Confidence – Edutopia

Did you know that teachers spend as much as 20-50 percent of their class time on test preparation? This article focuses on how to mix up your content review to make that time more useful. Our favorite tip is the last one: Using test preparation to build student confidence.

3) Spaced Learning – Harvard Magazine

You know it’s serious when Harvard is touting a technique. This article details how repeating content over an extended period of time significantly improves learning over the traditional “cram and test” model. Studies show an increase in knowledge by up to 50 percent, and strengthen retention for up to two years. It does take planning your test prep over a period of months instead of a week, but you would improve students’ subject mastery.

4) Turn Review into Play – Edutopia

Want to stop boring the snot out of kids with your test prep? Make it fun and turn exercises into play. We might have a few games for that (Sorry, we couldn’t resist).

5) Five Ways to Make Test Prep Meaningful and Fun – Kathleen Kryza

Don’t miss this article. Besides the usual fun exercises, Kathleen has one very unique tip: Examine your own feelings about the test. If you’re not thrilled about the exam or your class’s potential performance, then you are probably broadcasting negative vibes.

6) Fun In-Class Activities – Apperson

This edtech vendor blog has some great ideas to get students interacting in class during content review. From Jeopardy to a friendly game of Jenga, find fun ways to switch up your test prep.

7) Top 12 Ways to Rev Up Classroom Review Strategies – TeachHub

This is another list article filled with fun ways to mix up content review in class. What caught our eye was letting students serve as teachers and graders. How about a little role reversal to get students engaged?

8) Make Test Prep Meaningful! – Corkboard

This blog post has a singular focus: Have students create their own quizzes. This student-centered activity helps kids master their content while engaging in an authentic, meaningful exercise that has real purpose.

Do you have additional content review tips you would suggest? If so, please add them in the comments section.

Teachers are constantly searching for new science resources and content to diversify their lessons and engage students. Surfing the Internet is a great way to find what you’re looking for, but the Internet is a big place. That’s why some teachers spend as much as five to seven hours a week browsing for content.

If you are looking for more than games, jumpstart your search here. These seven sites can help make it a little narrower.

1) Share My Lesson

Share My Lesson is a fantastic database of science resources, featuring lessons from early childhood through high school. As the name implies, teachers log on and share their own lessons and resources. To date, those total more than 420,000, including more than 11,000 for middle school science alone! They’re all free, and searchable by grade and standards.

2) Teachers Pay Teachers

You’ve probably heard of Teachers Pay Teachers by now. Much like Share My Lesson, TpT hosts lessons crowdsourced from educators. Boasting an even bigger library of more than 2.8m resources, some free and some paid, it’s a fantastic tool for bringing together the genius of teachers everywhere. When you’re searching, you can sort by grade, subject, resource type, and price, or check out the trending topics on their homepage.

3) University of Cincinnati Libraries

The UC Libraries STEM Education page links to a bunch of juicy STEM content across the web. These include science websites, lesson plan libraries, student research databases, educational videos, curriculum resources, and much more. Dig in to this wealth of material, vetted by a major research university.

4) Getting Smart “Smart Lists”

If you don’t know Getting Smart, you should. They publish articles about every education topic from policy to personalized learning. Their “Smart Lists” blog series features resource lists with different themes every month. Find lists of education blogs & newsletters, parent resources & homework help, music & art, and more. Start by checking out this STEM & Maker Resources list from September.

5) Teaching Ideas

Teaching Ideas is a British site that lists an eye-popping amount of resources for teachers. Along with science, teachers can find inspiration for English, “maths” 😉 , computing, art, music, history, PE, you name it — so go ahead and share it with your non-science colleagues! If you’re looking for lesson plans, projects, videos, games, it’s all here, with a search functionality and many levels of filtering.

6) Tes

Tes is an education giant, claiming “the world’s largest online community of teachers” with almost 8 million registered users. Like Share My Lesson and TpT, Tes hosts a marketplace where teachers can share all kinds of resources, free and paid, from pre-K through high school. Their marketplace also features a bunch of discussion forums, as well as resources for exploring the teacher job market (focused on the UK). They also publish a magazine, and publish tons of education-related news. Talk about a go-to education site!

7) Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative

Out of the University of British Columbia, CWSEI mainly focuses on research related to science pedagogy in higher education. However, their site lists a wide variety of resources, including tools that can be used in the classroom, but also a plethora of reference books and articles for everything you want to learn about education. The Initiative’s stated goal is to build “a more scientifically literate populace… able to make wise decisions, informed by scientific understanding, about other complex issues” — a mission we can all get behind!

If you’re looking for new science resources, this list is a good place to start. These websites complement the depth and breadth of the thousands of science games and assessment items teachers find on the Legends of Learning platform.

On November 29, STEM Certified leader Richard White delivered a Legends of Learning test prep webinar. Richard is a teacher leader at Griffin Middle School in Cobb County, Georgia, where he has worked for the past 6 years.

With December quickly approaching, many teachers will enter a review period for end-of-year testing. Richard’s webinar provides helpful tips for Legends of Learning teachers to use games for test prep as well as for enrichment, and offers tactics to deploy science games as an engagement technique for distracted students.

View Richard’s test prep webinar and associated PowerPoint presentation below:

Test Prep Webinar Video

Test Prep PowerPoint Presentation

About Richard White

Richard is passionate about teaching and learning, and believes that there is some way to reach every student that he encounters. He has presented professionally at several local conferences, and is responsible for helping to train new teachers at Griffin. Richard joined the Legends of Learning platform in November of last year as an ambassador, and began testing games with his students as soon as they were rolled out. He has also presented on LoL at local conferences.

This November’s STEM Visions Contest featured submissions from teachers across the country, from California to Oklahoma to Massachusetts. All of the entries demonstrated how much these legendary science teachers inspire their students on a daily basis.

The contest was an overarching STEM activity for students. Teachers launched playlists of Legends of Learning science games in class, then asked how students could see themselves pursuing a career in STEM fields. Entries were posted on Facebook (and some on Google Docs).

Students wowed us with their visions for the future. The most popular ideas for future STEM careers were in the fields of veterinary science, astronomy, marine biology, and engineering.

The Winners

With so many thoughtful, creative entries, it was difficult to select the winners. Ultimately, after much deliberation, we had a winning submission: Kimberly King from Green Fields School (Tucson, AZ)! Kimberly submitted 21 students’ STEM visions, showcasing an impressive array of ideas they have for how to impact the world in their future careers. View her entire album of submissions here.

 

For winning the contest, Kimberly will receive a $1000 grant on DonorsChoose.org, along with a full-year license for her school to use Legends of Learning!

Four more of the most impressive submissions were selected as runners-up. View their submissions by clicking the links below:

Veronica Hennessey, Simonds Elementary (San José, CA)
Joy Johnson, Lewis and Clarke Middle School (Jefferson City, MO)
Denise Galiano, Cedar Hill Preparatory School (Somerset,NJ)
Scott Beiter, Rensselaer Middle School (Rensselaer, NY)

Congratulations to our winner, Kimberly, our runners-up, Veronica, Joy, Denise, and Scott, and all of the amazing educators who entered the contest! More importantly, thank you to all of these teachers for investing in the future by inspiring their students every single day.

Many of our ambassadors and friends in the education community have followed Legends of Learning on Facebook and Twitter over the past year, but complained about our lack of presence on Instagram and Pinterest. Well, those days are over!!!

You can now follow us on Instagram and Pinterest, too!

Our Instagram page will feature photo spotlights of our ambassadors, LoL staff, industry events, and case studies, as well as highlighting each of our 90 middle school science learning objectives and updates about our gaming platform.

We will also “regram” legendary posts from our followers, and may even give some teacher ambassadors the opportunity to temporarily take over the page!

On Pinterest, we have boards for Earth and Space Science, Physical Science, Life Science, as well as special topics like NGSS, last month’s total solar eclipse, and awesome inspiration from teachers.

Teachers are some of the best users on Pinterest, “pinning” everything from science labs to art projects to actual bulletin boards. The site provides an easy way to bookmark and spread bright ideas, improving classrooms everywhere.

We are excited to grow our engagement with the education community! The internet is an incredible asset, with the power to not only host resources like Legends of Learning games, but also to share valuable insights and ideas so teachers and students can reap the benefits. Join us in our mission to spread the best of education.

Follow Legends of Learning:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LegendsofLearning/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/legendlearning
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/legendsoflearning/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/legendsoflearning/

Since states began deploying Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) standards seven years ago, 18 states and the District of Columbia adopted the standards in full. Now many schools and teachers are just beginning their NGSS journey. Finding actual curriculum and content challenges implementation.

NGSS Standards & Content

The NGSS standards seek to create engagement in the classroom. With the NGSS teachers make science learning an active exercise, but finding engaging NGSS content and exercises to achieve that? Now that’s a challenge.

Many teachers visit Legends of Learning for its NGSS content. There are few wide ranging series of content and lesson items for the entire NGSS suite, much less the entire middle school suite (Earth and Space, Life, and Physical sciences). Others are looking for more depth to help students get a grasp of the content.

“For me, the hardest part of implementing NGSS has been that at times I feel like the standards ‘gloss over’ certain topics, then dive straight into others in a lot of detail,” said April T., a Legends of Learning Ambassador. “Sometimes when I feel like if I follow the standards as they are written (with the instructional boundaries/limits), that my students might not have the background they need to learn new material later in the year or in the next grade level.”

Implementation Requires Science, Engineering & Crosscutting Techniques

While there is great content built off of the NGSS DCI content system available, there is still a wide range of activities that teachers need to take on. Successful implementation requires a multidimensional approach to teaching to be the norm in every science classroom. This requires extending beyond the traditional content first approach. Now teachers must focus on science and engineering practices (SEP) and crosscutting concepts (CCC) requires different ways of thinking, lesson planning, and daily instruction.

In the case of SEP, teachers need to implement exercises that help students embrace the principles of scientific inquiry. On the engineering side, teachers challenge students to define a problem and resolve it via a solution. Other principles involved in NGSS’s view of SEP, include:

• Developing and Using Models
• Analyzing and Interpreting Data
• Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
• Engaging in Argument from Evidence
• Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

About Those Cross-Cutting Concepts

Though more intuitive, CCC teaching challenges educators in different ways. Traditionally, teachers give lessons in an isolated, linear fashion. NGSS assumes that various aspects of science and its topics cut across lessons.

For example, one might learn that seeds germinate and produce plants (Life Science), but weather and climate changes may create new challenges that prevent the plant from successfully growing.

NGSS recommends teachers make sure that students understand the following crosscutting concepts:

• Patterns
• Cause and Effect
• Scale, Proportion, and Quantity
• Systems and System Models
• Energy and Matter
• structure and Function
• Stability and Change

“There is a big push to make sure that our students are becoming comfortable identifying and explaining the SEPs and CCC’s that are being presented in our different units and activities,” added April T. “We were given 1/2 day PD time this year to plan with our grade level cohort (or as a department, schools go to determine how they wanted to use their time). We came up with an activity or a system (it was pretty open ended) to make sure the SEPs and CCCs are being embedded into our instruction.”

Learn More From An Experienced Online Educational Game Company

NGSS challenges teachers to create lessons that address all three principles; DCI, SEP, and CCC. Many teachers actively seek out the resources and getting the training to succeed. To help, our next blog in our series will offer a series of content and lesson plan resources to help teachers bring the new standards to the classroom.

For more information call Legends of Learning at 888.585.1317 or by contacting them online.

On August 21, 2017, we’ll see something the country has not seen in 38 years: a total solar eclipse. The day will excite students and science teachers alike. The below resources introduce students to eclipses, both lunar and solar, and prepare them for the solar eclipse.

These 16 resources compliment the Legends of Learning series of eclipse games and lesson plan that can be found in the Eclipses and Seasons Learning Objective.  Legends of Learning published a lesson plan for this Learning Objective, too, and on July 10 will offer two of its games — “Walter’s Travels” and “Bubble Eclipse” — publicly on its Alpha Games page as a public service.

Websites

• Educational Materials and Videos from the American Astronomical Society (AAS). When you ask for standards-based materials about eclipses, you get them from the AAS. The organization’s website contains all sorts of supplementary content, including an NGSS storytelling approach to classroom instruction.
• Total Solar Eclipse 2017. Besides the AAS, start your search for solar eclipse resources with a sure bet—NASA. The site offers classroom activities, downloadables, and information about becoming a Citizen Explorer. Take a look at the events drop-down, too; it includes NASA’s livestream and information about hosting a total solar eclipse event in your community.

 

Interactive Media

• Eclipse2017.org App. Go mobile with the Eclipse2017 app. With it, students will learn about eclipses and how to find the best location to watch “totality” occur. (Available on iOS and Android)
• Eclipses and Seasons. Encourage engagement and solidify learning objectives with Legends of Learning’s seven games about eclipses and seasons. If wishing to cross into other science subjects, look at the “The Sun, Moon, and Stars: Patterns of Apparent Motion” games, as well as “Our Solar System.”
• JavaScript Solar Eclipse Explorer. Eclipses are historical events, and this web-based calculator provides data not only on past eclipses but also future ones.
• NASA’s Extremely Accurate Map for August’s Total Solar Eclipse. Use this tool to combine geography and science. Students can use the tool to identify the best states for solar-eclipse watching on August 21, 2017.
• SpaceMath. Show students how mathematics applies to real-world scientific studies with this in-depth resource from NASA. The page features numerous math activities designed to present eclipses and astronomy in a “different light.”
• THE GREAT AMERICAN ECLIPSE. With this resource, your classroom can watch the total solar eclipse in real time. Discover’s Science Channel will cover the eclipse as it happens, then follow up with a one-hour special during primetime.
• Total Solar Eclipse Animation. Prepare students for the eclipse launch date with PBS NOVA’s animation. For additional classroom resources, check out PBS’ toolkit, webinar, and videos.

Classroom Activities

• Build a Sun Funnel. Spend the first few weeks of August with a collaborative science project, the Sun Funnel. While inexpensive, the funnel takes some time and expertise to build, so you may want to practice building one at home before introducing the project to the classroom. For simpler versions of the concept, consider using the Exploratorium’s instructions for building a pinhole camera from a UPS shipping container or SPACE’s shoebox concept.
• Create an Eclipse in the Classroom. Styrofoam and cardboard possess magical properties, becoming anything from molecules and atoms to planetary systems. Follow the guide to help students create Earth-Moon-Sun systems and explore how solar and lunar eclipses work.
• Exploring the Solar System: Solar Eclipse. This instructional tool uses an inflatable Earth to teach students three curriculum-based learning objectives. Provided by the National Informal STEM Education (NISE) Network, the tool includes resources for English- and Spanish-speaking students.
• How to Film or Photograph the 2017 Solar Eclipse Like a Pro. Unite the arts and sciences with SPACE’s instructions on how to film or photograph the solar eclipse. Warning: This resource features some advanced photography and film techniques, so you’ll either want to use it with advanced photography students or adapt the methods to your particular classroom.
• Yardstick Eclipse Activity. This classroom activity from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) caters to the older crowd that may be less than pleased with cardboard and Styrofoam projects. You can create the activity from scratch or purchase a pre-made kit for $35.00.

Other Resources

• Eclipse Bulletin: Total Solar Eclipse of 2017. Two leading experts on eclipses, Fred Espenak and Jay Anderson, spill the proverbial beans on everything students could possibly want to know about the upcoming total solar eclipse. (Price: $19.99, black and white; $34.99, color)
• Eclipse Kit from NASA. With NASA’s kit, you’ll be amply prepared with activities and answers for curious students. NASA also provides a more expansive activity guide for the August 21 total solar eclipse and general eclipse lesson plans.

 

Have you taught about lunar and solar eclipses before? What are your favorite lesson plans, activities, or resources? Share your thoughts in the comments or start a thread in the community forum.