Good Sites for Kids has education sites for children, students, kids, parents, teachers, homeschool, and schools.

Science & Nature Sites

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Biomes and Ecology Sites

Biomes from Enchanted Learning. Their usual fine site for elementary kids.

Biomes of the World - What's It Like Where You Live? From Missouri Botanical Garden. A great and renowned biome intro for kids.

Biomes of the World - from Marietta College of Ohio.  This one has lots of data in the form of tables, graphs, and great photos.

Biomes Lessons with quizzes from Wahtonka High School.

Flag of Canada Bioweb "Canada's environmental destination for kids"  Organized into six sections: Wildlife, Climate Change, Energy, The North, Waste, and Land Use; then these are cross indexed under Games and Activities and Homework Help.  Under Climate Change/Games and Activities, we've done Chain Reaction (food chains) in the computer lab, under Climate Change/Homework Help we've done Tree Ring Analysis in the lab. Both kept kids engaged and learning. Recommended!

Ecosystems from NatureWorks is a good coverage of the subject for kids and teachers alike. Covers it all in one page, too.

Endangered species: games and how you can help. "Learn how loss of habitat and ecosystems can lead to a decline in biodiversity, and how the Endangered Species Act helps conserve endangered and threatened species."

Endangered Species and Conservation Biology Part of Kids Do Ecology, from UCSB.  Great information and links to other sites. From here, you can learn about condors, bald eagles, endangered sea birds, the Santa Cruz Island Fox, and even pygmy mammoths!

Kids Do Ecology from UC Santa Barbara is a nice, kid-friendly intro to ecology. Well done site, be sure to explore it - and its links!

Ocean Collection for Kids This is a group of ocean sites for kids put together by faculty from Cal State LA. They cover ocean habitats, ocean mammals, and ocean fish. This is for elementary kids and has good simple explanations.

Red List of Threatened Species "Life on Earth is disappearing fast and will continue to do so unless urgent action is taken. There are now 41,415 species on the IUCN Red List and 16,306 of them are threatened with extinction, up from 16,118 last year." Search the Red List for animals, birds, and plants here.

Santa Cruz Island Fox A study of the Santa Cruz Island Fox, this shows how the delicate web of ecology can be shredded, and how it can sometimes be repaired again. From the Nature Conservancy, which deserves your support.

Downloads Wolf Quest from the Minnesota Zoo and EduWeb comes this excellent download wolf simulation game. Players become a wolf and explore Yellowstone Park! Kids from elementary to high school love to play this game, it's hard to get them to stop! We printed out the pdf instructions for players to use. Needs a newer computer with good graphics.

Spinning Gold Star World Biomes  from Blue Planet Biomes is a concise but comprehensive site. Sparely written at an elementary level but does not talk down to kids. Colorful, too.

World Biomes from UC Berkeley is written at a more secondary level, but has good information and pictures.

End Biomes section                  

Earth Day Sites

Earth Day Network Teacher's Corner  "...over 300 standard-based lessons, school greening tips, grants for teachers, and more than 25,000 teachers to share ideas with."

Earth Day from Kaboose.com.  Earth Day crafts, coloring pages, and activities.

Earth Day from Pocantico Hills School site. First graders Earth Day Book and activities. Pocantico Hills never ceases to amaze.

Earth Day Activities from DLTK.  Songs, crafts, coloring pages, online games, more.

Earth Day from EcoKids. Printables and activities from this fine Canadian site, which is listed in our Science - Biomes & Ecology section.

Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program's Education Center  Scary title, but this site has good information about global warming.

Energy Ant: learn all about where we get our energy and how we use it. Loaded with facts, games, and activities. The Glossary explains every enegy term you ever heard of.

Energy Hogbusters: learn how to outsmart the hogs that waste energy.

EPA's Kids' Club: games and activities about environmental issues.  Very attractive home page. Oh, and a hundred or so links to other good, fact-filled environmental sites!

NIEHS' Kids' Pages Games, songs, riddles, stories, coloring, facts, plenty of links. A good place to go.

Nature Watch  US Forest Service site. Facts, resources, photo library, web cams, videos.

Roofus the Dog's Solar and Efficient Neighborhood: make your home energy smart. "My home is energy smart! Find out what makes it run!"   Fact-filled site, and we're always partial to dogs named Roofus wearing baseball caps.

S.K.Worm answers your questions about soil 'n' stuff! "It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it--S.K.Worm, the official annelid, or worm, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service answers students questions about soil. Even their teachers can’t wiggle their way out of this one! Slither your way through these soiled questions and earn a very special diploma. You might even get hooked on Soil!"  Well, it is EARTH Day!

End Earth Day section                  

Living Things Sites

Biology, The Study of Life On Earth from KidsKnowIt is big with lots of explanations of terms.

Biology4Kids! is a fine welcome to biology for elementary and up. Good information and links. Worth checking out for lesson plans, as is its companion chemistry site below.

Biology Games from KidsKnowIt OK, where else will you find Biology Hangman?

Biology of Plants from Missouri Botanical Garden is a good elementary introduction to the subject.

Biomedia (commercial site) Check out the menu bar. Explore the BioGalleries and Teacher Resources sections. The BioGalleries have wonderful pages about all sorts of microscopic life, including plankton! (even water bears!) Includes a What Phyla Am I ? quiz with rollover answers. WONDERFUL PHOTOS!

CELLS Alive!  Wonderful teaching site for introductory cell biology and microbiology.  Used by elementary and secondary schools alike. Engaging visuals and interactive activities keep kids interested.

Cyberchase This site deserves more attention. The Science section has activities plus an outstanding, ongoing series of Cyberchase Quest games.

DNA Interactive Amazing! Stupendous! Colossal! And other wow-type adjectives! This site for secondary and up students and teachers covers everything about DNA. Many videos, animations, and interactive games to play. There are 15 lesson plans ready for download, too. Really, this site could be used to help teach classes in genetics and human origins. Then there's the opportunity for educators to join the site community and create their own lessons and web pages for teaching the material.

Dendrochronology from the NPS. This interactive presentation of tree ring dating is quite good. Like Tree Ring Analysis, this is a fine lesson on tree ring dating. Part of a larger site.

EEK! Environmental Education for Kids. This electronic magazine is for kids in grades 4-8. Surf around and learn more about the great outdoors. Teacher Resource section with lesson plans, too. From Wisconsin DNR.

The Eyes Have It from the San Diego Natural History Museum. Facts about vision, eyes and eye anatomy, also covers animal vision.

Gardening - Classroom Projects from Kids Gardening. Here are 26 gardening projects for school kids, with lesson layouts and notes. Nice for cross-curriculum springtime activities.

Gardening - Thematic Explorations Library from Kids Gardening. Here are 26 thematic units, most with Lessons & Activities and Resources sections. There is a lot of good resources and planning material in here.

The Heart: An Online Exploration from The Franklin Institute. "Explore the heart. Discover the complexities of its development and structure. Follow the blood through the blood vessels. Wander through the weblike body systems. Learn how to have a healthy heart and how to monitor your heart's health. Look back at the history of heart science." Links to excellent explorations of all the above areas, with an exceptional section on blood. For upper elementary through high school.

History of life on Earth - The Online Exhibits  from UC Berkeley.  The portal, the jumping off point for outstanding sources of biology education. From here one can go to:  History of Life Through Time "This enormous collection catalogs life on Earth, focusing on the ancestor/descendant relationships which connect all organisms, past and present."  Tour of geologic time "Journey through geologic time to see how the Earth has changed since its debut 4.5 billion years ago."  Understanding Evolution "...includes discussion of evolutionary theory, evidence for evolution, the relevance of evolution to our daily lives, and the history of evolutionary thought."  Paleontology Portal "The Paleontology Portal focuses on the fossil record of North America, including state-by-state U.S. paleontology, fossil photo galleries, and resources." K-12 education resources  "Activities and lessons specifically for K-12 teachers and their students." Also features The World's Biomes, and more.

Human Biology section of KidsKnowIt. Good and simple explanations.

Infection Detection Protection from the American Museum of Natural History.  Meet the Microbes, Bacteria in the Cafeteria game, Infection ("The Game where YOU Are the Germ!"),  and How Lou Got the Flu. A fun way for kids to learn some disease vector basics.

Invertebrate Notes is a good intro to the major invertebrate phyla (but no water bears!) with a lot of clear and readable information.

Kids' Habitat from the San Diego Natural History Museum.  Currently covers canines, eyes and vision, minerals, dinosaurs, bioluminescence, sharks, and Ms. Frizzle! Worth exploring. Thanks, Ginne.

Lights Alive! from the San Diego Natural History Museum.  Explore living creatures that light up! Facts and activities about animals with bioluminescence.

Microbeworld covers everything microbial. Keeps you current with the latest microbe news; FAQs on microbes, viruses, bacteria, and prions; microbiology as a profession, resources for educators (a hotlist of links); and a great section called ASM Articles which today features 24 articles that make good teaching springboards.  Thanks, "Miss Sharon."

Microscopy-UK is an excellent British site. The Micropolitan Museum is your gateway to "the finest microscopic masterpieces nature has ever produced ." Sections on freshwater life, saltwater life, insects, and plants - all under the microscope. Also has videos. The Pond Life Identification Kit has valuable information.  Articles from their online magazine pop up all over Google. Examples are the water bear with its great video, and the visually stunning section on rotifers which begins here. This site makes heavy use of JAVA and avi videos.

Monterey Bay Aquarium's Kid's Corner and Teacher's Place Wow! Six live webcams, activities, games, lesson plans, printable teacher guides, learning activities, teaching units, songs with audio files, pdf files, video libraries. 168 pages of activities in the free, downloadable Sea Searcher's Handbook (PDF) alone!

Neuroscience for Kids  "The smell of a flower - The memory of a walk in the park - The pain of stepping on a nail. These experiences are made possible by the 3 pounds of tissue in our heads...the BRAIN!! Neuroscience for Kids has been created for all students and teachers who would like to learn about the nervous system."  Looks like this site is for Middle School and up.

Ocean Collection for Kids This is a group of ocean sites for kids put together by faculty from Cal State LA. They cover ocean habitats, ocean mammals, and ocean fish. This is for elementary kids and has good simple explnations.

New SiteOlogy from the American Museum of Natural History. We love this site! It covers "Ologies" such as Archaeology, Astronomy, Biodiversity, Earth, Einstein, Genetics, Marine Biology, Paleontology, and Water. The bottom half of the page has links to around 20 activities, experiments, and interviews. Then there's the Highlights section, Ask a Scientist, an Advanced section, and At the Museum. Click on the blue buttons in the At the Museum box. Only part of this great site is shown at a time. Be sure to use the Search box and enter a term like "horse" to find a ton of other information.

Origin of MRSA. Simply explained by this UC Berkeley site. How did S. aureus morph from a minor skin infection to a terror?

Sci4Kids: stories about bugs. "Stories! Stories! Stories!" Tons of fun facts about "bugs!"

Sci4Kids: stories about plants.  "Stories! Stories! Stories!"  Tons of fun facts about plants!

Shedd Educational Adventures (SEA) from the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Lesson Plans, Interactives, and the Explorer's Guide! Interactives are the online learning games, indexed by grade level. We tried Build a Fish and it was fun!

Taxonomy - the science of classifying. Site is at an upper elementary level. Shows kids the six kingdoms with examples, explains the classification structure from kingdom down to species, explains origins of genus and species names. From Granite City High School in Illinois. This is part of the Biology Corner resource site for science teachers.

Timeline of Life's Evolution Wonderful interactive resource! A sliding time bar lets students go over 4.5 billion years in a few minutes. Click on the red button and pull it across from 4.5 to zero. Good reliable information and great graphics. The rest of the site, Understanding the RNA World and Building a Protocell, are for upper high school and college level, not really "kids."

Tree Ring Analysis  Part of Bioweb, excellent Canadian site listed in the Biomes section.  Like Dendrochronology, this is a fine lesson on tree ring dating.

Understanding Evolution "Your One-Stop Source for information on evolution." Evolution simply explained. This big group of web pages is subdivided into these areas: What is evolution and how does it work? How does evolution impact my life? What is the evidence for evolution? What is the history of evolutionary theory? From UC Berkeley.

Virtual Electron Microscope from the Discovery Channel is a sort of matching game. Given 10 slides, look at the images and description to sort them into the correct Name heading. Prety cool to use, good for grade school microbiology class.

Downloads Wolf Quest from the Minnesota Zoo and EduWeb comes this excellent download wolf simulation game. Players become a wolf and explore Yellowstone Park! Kids from elementary to high school love to play this game, it's hard to get them to stop! We printed out the pdf instructions for players to use. Needs a newer computer with good graphics.

Earth Science Sites

Atmospheric Optics covers rainbows and lots of other atmospheric phenomena. Astonishing photos and explanations with plenty of facts. "Light playing on water drops, dust or ice crystals in the atmosphere produces a host of visual spectacles - rainbows, halos, glories, coronas and many more. " Absolutely amazing.

Chem4Kids! is a good solid introduction to chemistry for elementary and up. Keeps kids' interest and full of facts.

Cyberchase This site deserves more attention. The Science section has activities plus an outstanding, ongoing series of Cyberchase Quest games.

New SiteDive and Discover This is student oceanography at its finest! Kids can check out a dozen ocean expedition with plenty to find out at each one. The Deeper Discovery section has facts on everything from deep ocean currents to ice ages to plate tectonics. To top it off they have a good section for teachers with suggested lessons and more! Brought to you by the world-famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Geography4Kids! Yet another from the 4Kids! people. More Earth Science and Physical Geography than social science, that's why it's in the Science and Nature section.

Geography For Kids from KidsKnowIt. Nine sections explain elementary physical geography. This is an earth science geography site, not a political geography site.

Geology.com A site devoted to everything geological. The World Maps section alone is too cool for words. The US state map section has different kinds of maps for every state. Satellite maps of everything. A large geology dictionary. Superlative site!

Geology For Kids from KidsKnowIt.  Elementary geology in five well laid out chapters, with games.

New SiteLightning Who else but WGBH would have a great nine minute video about lightning, with links and teacher help, too?

Living Colour from The Australian Museum Online. This is a good explanation of colors and how we see them, with interactive activities online for kids.

Mineral Galleries is a commercial site with lots of mineral pictures and facts, arranged alphabetically and by type. (This is all on the left side of their site.)

Mineral Matters from the San Diego Natural History Museum. Covers mineral properties, how to identify minerals, how to build a mineral collection, more.

Molecularium We're showing off the Kids portion of the larger site, the Molecularium Project. This site teaches about molecules.  We really like the Nanolab (the big green button in the upper right corner.)  The Zoom in from space to the atomic level will grab kids' interest. Build lets kids assemble ever more complex molecules from Carbon, Oxygen, and Hydrogen.  Transform shows what happens when heat changes solid to liquid to gas. Thanks to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the NSF for this site.

NOAA Tracks storms, hurricanes, typhoons, earthquakes - a huge site with many links. Track hurricanes by clicking on the NOAA Storm Tracker on the left of the page. The Storm Tracker has a popup with various maps and data.

New SiteOlogy from the American Museum of Natural History. We love this site! It covers "Ologies" such as Archaeology, Astronomy, Biodiversity, Earth, Einstein, Genetics, Marine Biology, Paleontology, and Water. The bottom half of the page has links to around 20 activities, experiments, and interviews. Then there's the Highlights section, Ask a Scientist, an Advanced section, and At the Museum. Click on the blue buttons in the At the Museum box. Only part of this great site is shown at a time. Be sure to use the Search box and enter a term like "horse" to find a ton of other information.

Periodic Table of Elements from Corrosion Source. This site may not look "busy" at first glance, but it gives good information, lets you move around within the table in a unique way, and has sections for each element covering history, properties, sources, and uses. This is part of a large group of sites about the atomic elements. Related links can be found on the right side of the page.

Periodic Table of Elements from dyah.com. Very colorful and informative! Click on an element and see its Wikipedia entry, or click another tab and learn about its properties, orbitals, and isotopes. Lots of information well arranged.

Physics 4 Kids! offers good basic information on physics principles. Well organized and well worth checking out.

Rocks for Kids An introduction to rocks and minerals for elementary and middle school levels.

Savage Earth from PBS covers Earth's crust, volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis. Good writing with plenty of Flash animation.

Strange Matter uses Flash animations to explore Materials Science. "Experience the structure of materials in Zoom. Encounter the properties of various materials in Materials Smackdown. Enjoy processing materials to create something new in The Transformer. Explore the performance of various materials in The Change the World Challenge." Includes Stuff For Teachers and Stuff For Families.

String Wave Simulation   A Flash file from the Physics Dep't, University of Colorado. Play with the oscillations and learn about wave amplitude, frequency, and more!  Fun for all, most educational for Middle School and up.

Volcano Online game from Natural History Museum.  "Build a volcano, let it erupt, then build another."

Volcano World is a great, kid friendly site. The Kid's Door section on the right side is specifically for kids, but they'll like the whole site!

Web Weather for Kids  Old and respected kids weather site covers clouds, blizzards, hurricanes, tornados, thunderstorms with games, activities, lots of good information and many links to more "stuff."

Weather Wiz Kids  A site from a working television meteorologist. "I designed this website especially for kids to allow them to learn more about the fascinating world of weather. It’s also a wonderful educational website for teachers and parents that gives them the right tools they need to explain the different types of weather to children. " Huge menu on the left side of the home page has tons of weather and geology-related links.

Combined Sciences

Sites with both Earth & Life Science sections

Athropolis  Facts and stories about the Arctic in a very colorful format!  The Arctic Library has hundreds of facts about the Arctic. ICEBERG is a kid text adventure set on an iceberg with people living on it who don't get along. Plenty more on this site, too.

BBC Schools Science Ages 4-11.  Useful anywhere, even at home. Coordinated with British elementary curriculum.  We've been using Science Clips the most but it is all great.  There are literally dozens of activities covering elementary physics, health, life science, nutrition, food chains, biology, chemistry, and links to the very good BBC maths and literacy sites.

New Site BrainCake Welcome to the Girls' Math & Science Partnership, a program of Carnegie Science Center. Based in Pittsburgh, "BrainCake is an online sisterhood for girls 11 – 17 and stakeholders focused on girls’ inclusion in the areas of math, science, technology, and engineering. BrainCake.org features forums, programs, scholarships, virtual mentoring, girl blogs, podcasts, homework help, research and resources in a framework that integrates pop culture, science, and learning."

BrainPOP - Health, Science, Technology Educational Site Very well done subscription site with reading and animations, covering a good part of the K-8 curriculum, such as cell structure and function, microorganisms, plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, organ systems, and the Scientific Method. Uses Flash extensively.

Cool Cosmos Amazing site - Ask an Astronomer videos, games, infared animals and tours, just a ton of amazing graphics. Use the up and down arrow buttons on the left of the screen to select different areas. (Infared Zoo is our fave!)

Deep Sea Images has thousands of undersea photos. Coral, sharks, wrecks, turtles, crabs, squid, anything you can think of, they probably have a photo of it!

New SiteDive and Discover This is student oceanography at its finest! Kids can check out a dozen ocean expedition with plenty to find out at each one. The Deeper Discovery section has facts on everything from deep ocean currents to ice ages to plate tectonics. To top it off they have a good section for teachers with suggested lessons and more! Brought to you by the world-famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Exploratorium "The museum of science, art and human perception." A real museum in San Francisco with a Great! Big! Cool! Site! Family friendly online activities and pages that cover most everything in the curriculum. Something for everybody. Teachers can find some good ideas here. Look around carefully and find hidden treasures like the Institute for Inquiry.

Extreme Science “Here you'll find world records in natural science, including earth science and the plant and animal kingdom. Not only will you find out who holds the records, but also key science concepts used to explain the story behind the record." Covers the Animal Kingdom, Earth Science, Space Science, and Technology. Dozens of areas are covered. Look past the hoopla, it's really a pretty good site!

From Sea to Shining Sea  Awesome oceanography site!  Explore 19 American underwater wonders from the Marianas Trench to the Puerto Rico Trench.  Some coastal, others are deep sea. Explore by theme or by region. Many links to other sites for even more information.

Fun 'n' games from the Natural History Museum.  Be a dinosaur, collect specimens, be a detective, build a volcano, be a head lice racer (wait, what?)

JASON Project National Geographic's Jason Project - Education through Exploration.  "Have you ever imagined flying directly into a hurricane? Or submerging into the darkest depths of Earth's oceans? Have you ever wanted to join a real science mission, or create your own video for a global online science fair? Welcome to The JASON Project, your gateway to adventure."

Journey Into Amazonia from PBS. Excellent site that covers the Amazon basin.  Includes everything elementary and middle school would want to know.  The Amazon Explorer game is great.

Kids' Habitat from the San Diego Natural History Museum.  Covers canines, eyes and vision, minerals, dinosaurs, bioluminescence, sharks, and Ms. Frizzle! Worth exploring. Thanks, Ginne.

Middle School Science is a good site with lesson plans and links to other science sites for middle schoolers. Covers chemistry, physics, earth science, and life science. Has a Lesson of the Week section and more.

NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries Educational Activities is a collection of wonderful fun things for kids and classes to do. The virtual dive into the kelp forest treats it like a rain forest!  Tour a real shipwreck, learn about sea otters and harbor seals, check out elephant seals, learn a LOT of cool facts about coral and reefs, it's all here. Fun, real oceanography!

Natural History Museum Located in London, UK, the Natural History Museum has a fine web site for teachers and kids. If you cannot go there in person, the site is the next best thing.

Nature Online is a section of the Natural History Museum site.  Covering everything from Jamaican plants to biodiversity to global warming to evolution to Antarctica to space... it gore on and on. Certainly worth your time to explore.

Optical Illusions  from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.  Very good introduction to optical illusions for kids.  Close to 50 of them with links to more! Part of a larger kid site.

SEA This is the "sea" portion of Sea and Sky's site. This is a wonderful resource and study site - (with the exception of "Sea News" which we do not think is appropriate for your students.) However, the rest of this site is worth an extended stay by teachers and students. The Ocean Realm is the best single section, but Ocean Exploration, Links (big list), the photo gallery, and the games are all good. Someone did a lot of work to gather and organize all this information.

Sheppard's Science Resources Science resources by subject, web quests, science links, calculator and converter, more.

Surfing Scientist Classroom or homeschool science ideas. From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

Waterford Games & Activities "Download hundreds of free games, activities, and quizzes from our website! Subject areas include animals, plants, weather, astronomy, geology, and miscellany... Simply copy materials to your desktop and print out as needed. It's that easy!"

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