This resource guide identifies lesson plans and other materials located on the Web that are useful for students in education and teachers studying and/or actively teaching.  The guide is specifically geared to students who are visiting and observing classrooms in elementary and secondary schools in the St. Louis metro area. See also Education and Pre-Teaching resource guides for additional resources and links.
 

Lesson Plans:  Many Subjects || Lesson Plans:  Subject Specific || Teacher Resources
 

Awesome Library
     http://www.neat-schoolhouse.org/
Useful for teachers, parents, and students, this site organizes approximately 14,000 reviewed Web resources in education by topic.Includes lesson plans, state standards, maps, periodicals, and other resources.

Blue Web'n: A Library of Blue Ribbon Learning Sites on the Web
     http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/
Developed and maintained by AT&T and San Diego State University.  Includes links to Web-based tutorials, activities, and projects; unit and lesson plans; hot lists; and other resources.  Links are annotated.

Busy Teachers' Website K-12
     http://www.ceismc.gatech.edu/busyt/welcome.shtmll
Goal is to help teachers use the Web in classroom activities.  Provides lesson plans and links for Archaeology, Art, Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Computer, Technology, Ecology /Environment, Elementary School, English, Geology, HS Guidance and Counseling, History, Interactive Web Projects, Mathematics, Paleontology, Physics, Recess, Sciences (Other), Social Studies, and a Teachers' Reference Section.

Columbia Education Center Website
     http://www.col-ed.org/
These CEC Lesson Plans, Web Guides - Internet-Based Lessons, and Web-Based Teaching Resources is made available by the Columbia Education Center, a small, not-for-profit, private educational service organization based in Portland, Oregon.  Lesson plans are divided by subject and by level (elementary, intermediate, high school) and were designed by practicing teachers from 1994 to the present.

Discovery Channel School
     http://school.discovery.com/
Contains resources for teachers including The Lesson Plans Library and a Clip Art Gallery; theme weeks on the Discovery Channel; Discovery Channel schedule; and features about current news events in addition to resources for students and parents.

edHelper.com
     http://www.edhelper.com/
Access to samples of the following: over 10,000 lesson plans, over 1,000 webquests, worksheet generators by topic and grade, over 1,500 word and critical thinking problems, exams and puzzles for standardized tests, education news, and more.  Without a paid subscription, only samples are available.

The Educator's Reference Desk Lesson Plans
     http://www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/index.shtml
Formerly AskERIC Lesson Plans. Contains more than 2000 unique lesson plans which were written and submitted by teachers from all over the United States and the world.

The Gateway to Educational Materials
     http://thegateway.org/
This is a National Library of Education and the U.S. Department of Education consortium effort "to create an operational framework to provide America's teachers with "one-stop, any-stop" access to high-quality, Internet-based educational resources" such as "Internet lesson plans, curriculum units and other education resources. " You may "conduct full-text, subject, keyword, or title searches, then select desired grade or education level and submit the search." Records retrieved link directly to the Internet site.

Global Schoolhouse
     http://www.gsn.org/
Aim is to link kids, teachers, and parents around the world.  Free registration may be required and is available to educators.   Includes one or two lesson plans per month, a project section with interactive Web activities, and archives "announcements about free software, contests, conferences, training opportunities, and educational web sites" from the K120opps mailing list.

HomeworkSpot
     http://homeworkspot.com/
Part of the "Spot" network of Web sites, this site focuses on resources students may need for enrichment or homework. Includes links to references sources such as almanacs, encyclopedias, dictionaries, calculators, calendars, quotations, safe search engines, and more.

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators
     http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/
Offers teacher helpers and tips such as evaluation tools, a newsletter, WebQuests, and bulletin board ideas in addition to lesson plans divided by subject, such as Art & Architecture, Education Resources, Holidays & Celebrations, Internet Information, Literature/Language Arts, Mathematics, Special Ed Resources, and Sports.

LearnersOnline Weekly Online Lessons
    http://www.learnersonline.com/weekly/index.htm
A new online lesson is made available each week.  Each one is tied to a current event, cover a wide range of topics, and is written for a specified grade range.

Learning Network:  Grades 3-12
     http://www.nytimes.com/learning/
From the New York Times, this site is subtitled Connections for Students, Teachers, and Parents.  Includes a Daily Lesson Plan as well as a searchable and browsable archive of lesson plans, a weekly news quiz, this day in history, and ask a reporter.

Lesson Plans
     http://educate.si.edu/lp/lp_fs.html
Smithsonian Education provides lesson plans and Resource Guides for Teachers covering the Arts, Language Arts, Science, and Social Sciences.

Lesson Plans Library
     http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/
From Discovery School.com, Browse or search lesson plans by grade and/or subject.  These lesson plans are written by teachers for teachers and cover grades k-12.

The Lesson Plans Page
     http://www.lessonplanspage.com
Collection of over 2,000 lesson plans, mostly elementary.  Originally compiled by Kyle Yamnitz and students and faculty at the College of Education, University of Missouri--Columbia, beginning in October 1996.  This site is now adding lesson plans sent by teachers using the site.

LessonPlanZ.com
     http://lessonplanz.com/
Contains over 2,500 lessons plans for pre-school through high school.  Browse by topic or theme or search by subject and grade level.

MarcoPolo:  Internet Content for the Classroom
     http://www.marcopolo-education.org/
Provides Teacher Resources (including lesson plans aligned to national and state standards), Professional Development, and a State Network of MarcoPolo sites.  See Subject Specific Lesson Plans for links to individual subject areas (The ARTS, Economics, Humanities, Mathematics, Reading/Language Arts, Science, and Geography).

Microsoft Education:  Lesson Plans
     http://www.microsoft.com/education/lessonplans.mspx
Microsoft provides lesson plans on various topics at various levels that integrate at least one of their software programs into each lesson plan.  Search by age or grade level, theme, subject area, and/or Microsoft software program.

New York Times:  College Times
     http://www.nytimes.com/college/
Provides news by subjects of interest to college students and also lesson plans using the New York Times for college faculty.  Some of these could be adapted for advanced high school students.  Free registration is required to use the New York Times site.

PBS TeacherSource
     http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/
Includes over 4,000 lesson plans and activities in addition to a PBS program schedule, online Teacher's Guides, and Copyright and Taping Guidelines.  Teacher's Guides relate to PBS programs.

The SolutionSite.com
     http://www.thesolutionsite.com/
Provides active learning, thematic units that involve K-12 students in their learning.  In addition to Primary Education, English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies this site also includes units on Drivers Education, Fine Arts, Health, Physical Education, and Vocational/Technical Education.  All units were written and designed by teachers participating in the Phase 9 program of the EdVenture Group, a division of the Monongalia County Schools Foundation in West Virigina.

TeacherVision.com:  Lesson Plan Finder
     http://www.teachervision.com/tv/curriculum/lessonplans/index.html
Browse by theme or search by grade level, subject, and/or theme.

Teachers.Net:  Lesson Bank
     http://www.teachers.net/lessons/
Includes links to lesson plans that can be browsed by topic or searched on a wide variety of topics including math, science, government, social studies, and art.

Thursday's Classroom
     http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com/
From NASA, this site provides lesson plans with activity sheets for earth and space science topics currently in the news plus an archive and schedule of upcoming lessons.  Lessons are posted weekly.

USGS:  The Learning Web
     http://www.usgs.gov/education/
The U.S. Geological Survey provides lesson plans for teachers, project ideas for students, and resources for anyone curious about natural science topics.

WWW4 Teachers
     http://www.4teachers.org/
From the University of Kansas, South Central Regional Technology Consortium.  Includes ready-to-use Web lessons and other ideas, activities, and resources from real teachers as well as a Technology Glossary.

Yahoo! Education: K-12: Teaching: Lesson Plans
     http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/K_12/Teaching/Lesson_Plans/
Links to lesson plan sites complied by Yahoo!

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BIOLOGY

Biology Lessons for Prospective and Practicing Teachers
      http://www.biologylessons.sdsu.edu/
Created by students in the Process and Inquiry in the Life Sciences course at San Diego State University, these can be adpated for use in the classroom and cover molecular and cell biology and population biology

General Biology Lesson Plans
     http://biology.arizona.edu/sciconn/lessons2/lessons.html
From the University of Arizona Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics General Biology Program for Secondary Teachers, this site provides lesson plans from middle and high school students on various biological topics.

Iowa State Entomology Index:  K-12 Educators' Recommended Sites
     http://www.ent.iastate.edu/List/k-12_educator_resources.html
Part of the Entomology Index of Internet Resources from Iowa State University, this site includes lesson plans about insects, general insect information, links to other insect sites, and much more.

Journey North:  A Global Study of Wildlife Migration
     http://www.learner.org/jnorth/index.html
From Annenberg/CPB, this site provides lesson plans, current migration news, and a means to report sightings of signs of Spring as animals move north.  Animals and emerging plants tracked include the bald eagle, monarch butterfly, robin, manatee, and tulip.  Also includes a Journey North archive from Spring 1995.

CHEMISTRY

Chemistry.org:  Educators and Students
     http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/educatorsandstudents.html
From the American Chemical Society, this part of their site provides activities, lesson plans, books (that must be purchased), and other resources for students and teachers for all levels including higher education.

ECONOMICS

EconEdLink
     http://www.econedlink.org/
Provided by the National Council on Economic Education, this site includes classroom-tested, standards-based lessons and activities for K-12 teachers and students. Includes Current Events, WebLinks, DataLinks, CyberTeach (guides to creating lessons), and Find a Lesson which allows browsing all of the EconEdLink lessons online.  Part of the MarcoPolo project.

HUMANITIES (ART, HISTORY, LANGUAGE/LITERATURE)

ARTSEDGE:  Teaching Materials
     http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/teach/
Sponsored by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, this site provides teaching materials including K-12 lesson plans, activities, and Web links to support standards-based teaching of the arts.  Lesson plans integrate the arts into classroom teaching within all disciplines.  Part of the MarcoPolo project.

EDSITEment:  Lesson Plans
     http://edsitement.neh.gov/
From the National Endowment for the Humanities, this site provides lesson plans and Web sites for teaching in four areas:  Arts & Culture, Literature & Language Arts, Foreign Language, and History and Social Studies. Part of the MarcoPolo project.

MATHEMATICS

NCTM Illuminations
    http://illuminations.nctm.org/
From the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, this site provides standards-based and Internet-based Lesson Plans and Selected Web Resources for Pre-K-12 teachers and students.  Part of the MarcoPolo project.

Mrs. Glosser's Math Goodies:  Lesson Library
     http://www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/
Provides lesson plans, worksheets, puzzles, and more primarily for grades 5 through 8.

SCORE Mathematics Lessons
     http://score.kings.k12.ca.us/lessons.html
K-12 mathematics lessons written by teachers attending SCORE mathematics workshops.  Lessons conform to California's Mathematics Standards and the NCTM Standards.

READING/LANGUAGE ARTS

Reading a-z.com
     http://www.readinga-z.com/
A subscription site that provides printable leveled readers along with lesson plans and worksheets to use with each book.  Twenty-eight books with lesson plans and worksheet are available as a preview of the content.

ReadWriteThink
     http://www.readwritethink.org/
A joint project of the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English, this site provides Lessons, Standards, and Web Resources for K-8 teachers.  Part of the MarcoPolo project.

SCIENCE

Learn at Franklin Institute Online
      http://sln.fi.edu/learn.html
Made available by the Franklin Institute in Philadelphis, the contains lesson plans for physics, geology, aviation, and more.  The best way to find lesson plans on the site is to do a site search for "lesson plans".   Also check out the Education Hotlists, Spotlighting, and Pieces of Science sections containing interesting Web sites useful for science education.

Middle School Science Lesson Plans
     http://www.middleschoolscience.com/
Provided by Elizabeth S. Belasic, a teacher at Elisabeth Morrow School in Englewood, New Jersey, the site includes chemistry, physics, earth science, and life science lesson plans and activities.

National Science Teachers (NSTA) Association:  Teacher Resources:  Science Websites
      http://www.nsta.org/recommendedsites/default.asp
List Web sites by science category that may be helpful to teachers.  Each site was recommended by a user of this site.  Includes Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth Science, Environmental Science, Space Science, and Mathematics in addition to Museums/Science Centers, Publications, Lesson Plans, Science Fairs, Software, Distance Learning, and Employment links.

Newton's Apple:  Fifteen Years of Hands-on Science
     http://www.tpt.org/newtons/
Designed to accompany the PBS program, Newton's Apple, this site provides hands-on experiments with lesson plans from seasons 9 through 15.

NSTA Webwatchers' Science Guides
     http://webwatchers.nsta.org/default.asp
A joint project of the National Science Teachers Association and the National Science Foundation, this site provides Web sites to help teach key science subjects such as lesson plans, activities, experiments and real-world examples, which support the National Science Education Standards (NSES).

ScienceNetlinks
     http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/
From the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the MarcoPolo project, the site provides standards-based lesson plans, tools/activities, a Resource Index, and a Benchmark Index, AAAS's K-12 science literacy learning goals.

TERC:  Science and Math Learning
     http://www.terc.edu/
Provides curriculum plans and other resources for teachers in science and math such as the Astrobiology Curriculum:  An9 Integrated, Inquiry-based Curriculum.

SOCIAL STUDIES/GEOGRAPHY

Library of Congress:  Learning Page:  Lesson Plans
     http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/index.html
Tied to the Library of Congress and its American Memory project, these focus primarily on social studies and history with some literature and poetry.  Browse the index by Theme, Topic, Discipline or Era or alphabetically.

Population Reference Bureau:  Educators Forum
     http://www.prb.org/
Includes lesson plans, resource guides, teaching standards for social studies and geography, and data & statistics sections.  Many of the guides use Population Reference Bureau publications.

Social Studies Lesson Plans and Resources
     http://www.csun.edu/~hcedu013/
Compiled by Dr. Marty Levine, Professor Emeritus of Secondary Education, California State University, Northridge (CSUN), this site links to a large number of lesson plans for K-12 social studies teachers as well as the National Council for Social Studies and the Developing Education Standards Web site.

Xpedition Hall
     http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/hall/
From the Smithsonian, this site offers an "interactive museum that takes you on geography journeys" (text from site 2/8/02).  Also includes lesson plans, activities, and standards.  Part of the MarcoPolo project.

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Access Excellence
    http://www.accessexcellence.org/
This site funded by GeneTech provides news about scientific developments, links to resources, and a method of communication for teachers of high school biology.

Apple Learning Interchange:  K-12 Education
     http://ali.apple.com/ali/
From the Apple Corporation, this site provides "Learning Resources", " Units of Practice", "Professional Development", "News Headlines" in addition to lesson plan units that contain state and national standards.

AskAsia
     http://www.askasia.org/
Contains Information/News, an Adult-Free Zone, a For Educators section with Instructional Resources and School-to-School Connections, and a Gateway to Asia providing links to other sites with information about Asia.

The Big6:  Information Literacy for the Information Age
     http://big6.com/index.php
Developed by Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz, this approach to teaching information literacy is also called a metacognitive scaffold, or an information problem solving strategy.  It "is the most widely-known and widely-used approach to teaching information and technology skills in the world."  (text from site 8/04/05)   The six components are 1) task definition, 2) information seeking strategies, 3) location and access, 4) use of information, 5) synthesis, and 6) evaluation.  Includes lesson plans illustrating its use.

Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project:  Project-Based Learning with Multimedia
     http://pblmm.k12.ca.us/index.html
Project includes Curriculum Activities, a list of projects being used by teachers this year, and technology resources.  Sponsored by Joint Venture:  Silicon Valley Network and the San Mateo County Office of Education in California, this is one of the U.S. Department of Education Technology Innovation Challenge Grants.

The Children's Literature Web Guide
     http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/
Provides "Internet Resources Related to Books for Children and Young Adults" (text from site).  Includes lists of links to children's book awards, authors on the web, stories on the web, recommended books, book reviews, teacher resources, and resources for writers and illustrators of children's books.

Classroom Connect
     http://www.classroom.com/
Part of Harcourt Education, this site provides professional development services for K-12 teachers and administrators via face-to-face and electronic professional development programs for a fee.  Subscription is required to access content.

Education Index
     http://www.educationindex.com/
Site is provided by CollegeView Partners, a publisher of guides for students making career and course of study decisions.  Claims to be "an annotated guide to the best education-related sites on the Web".  (text from site) It is arranged by Subject and Life Stage and offers News and a discussion group.

Education Place
     http://www.eduplace.com/
"The K-8 Site for Teachers" is provided by Houghton Mifflin.  It includes resources for Mathematics, Reading/Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science in addition to an activity search, links to recommended Web sites, and information about Houghton Mifflin textbooks.

Education World:  Where Educators Go to Learn
     http://www.education-world.com/
Supplies a database of Web links by subject such as Continuing Education, Distance Education, Universities, Special Education, Vocational, K-12 Schools, etc., in addition to original content about classroom management, lesson planning, curriculum, etc.

EdWeb:  Exploring Technology and School Reform
     http://edwebproject.org
Explores uses of technology in education and includes listserv discussion groups and electronic journals.

Elementary and Secondary Education:  An International Perspective
     http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2000033
"This report presents information on the U.S. elementary and secondary education system in an international context.  Major sections of the report include:  teacher, student, and classroom characteristics; student achievement; educational resources and expenditures; and labor market and other outcomes." (text from site 4/6/00)

Explorations in Learning & Instruction:  The Theory Into Practice Database
     http://www.gwu.edu/~tip/
Developed by Greg Kearsley, a professor in the Instructional Technology & Distance Education program at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, FL.  This site provides summaries of 50 major theories of learning and instruction.  It is intended to make these theories more accessible to educators.

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE)
     http://www.ed.gov/free/
Provides access to hundreds of federally supported education resources available on the Internet from more than 30 Federal agencies.  The agencies formed a working group to make this web site available.  Search by keywords or browse by topics such as science, arts, educational technology, foreign languages, social studies, etc.

Knowledge Loom: What Works in Teaching & Learning
     http://knowledgeloom.org/
This site from The Northeast & Islands Regional Educational Laboratory at Brown University allows educators worldwide to "Review research that identifies best practices related to various themes; View stories about the practices in real schools/districts; Learn to replicate the success of these practices in [their] own organization; Add [their] own stories, knowledge, questions to the collections; Participate in online events and discussions; and Discover supporting organizations and resources."  (text from site 4/6/00) So far resources exist for one topic:  Professional Development.  More are coming soon.

Media Literacy Review
     http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/mlr/home/index.html
From the Center for Advanced Technology in Education at the University of Oregon's College of Education, this site aims "to make available to educators, producers, students, and parents, information and resources related to the influence of media in the lives of children, youth, and adults."  (text from site 7/5/03)  Each bi-annual "issue" focuses on a topic such as "Learning from Pictures", "Children and the Internet", and "Radio".  Links include lesson plans, curriculum frameworks, educational research, and online, educational journals.  Previous issues are archived but links within them are not maintained.

National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) Education Program
     http://education.nasa.gov/index.html
Provides resources for educators, students, and others in addition to information about NASA's education programs, education news, and a calendar of NASA education events.

PollingReport.com: Education
     http://www.pollingreport.com/educatio.htm
Gathers together results of polls of the U.S. public on topics of interest.  One division contains polls associated with education.  Current ones include Alternative schools, Bilingual education, Charter schools, Curriculum, Funding priorities, Grading public schools, Paying for private schools, Paying for public schools, Prayer in public schools, Priorities for schools, Problems facing schools, Social promotion, Standards, Students grade their schools, Teachers, U.S. vs. foreign schools, and Violence.

Power of the Internet for Learning: Final Report of Web-Based Education Commission
     http://www.ed.gov/offices/AC/WBEC/FinalReport/
"The final report of the Web-Based Education Commission (WBEC) was published on 19 December 2000.  Senator Bob Kerrey (D. Neb.), Chairman, and Representative Johnny Isakson (R. Ga.), Vice-Chairman of the Web-Based Education Commission urge the new Administration and 107th Congress to make E-learning a centerpiece of the nation's education policy."

SOSIG: Social Science Information Gateway: Education
     http://sosig.ac.uk/education/
Search or browse the following topics in education:  Adult Education, Educational Policy, Educational Psychology, Educational Theory, Elementary Education, Further Education, Higher Education, Primary Education, Secondary Education, Special Education, Teaching Methods, Training of Teachers and Educators, Vocational Education, Related Sections.  Has an European focus.

Teachers.Net
     http://www.teachers.net/
Includes a newspaper (Gazette), chat in a Teacher Network, a job search in addition to links to lesson plans and other curriculum resources.

U. S. Department of Education: Topics from A to Z
     http://www.ed.gov/topics/srchTopics.jsp
An index from A to Z of topics discussed on the Department of Education Web site and related pages.  Topics range from Accreditation to Writing Skills.  Browse by beginning letter or perform a search.

WebExhibits
     http://webexhibits.org/
Although not a lesson-plan page per se, this site offers links to many Web sites containing material that could be used in lesson plans.  Search for a specific topic such as calendars or browse by broad topics:  Creative arts, Ancient world, Discovery & expedition, Society & culture, Health & medicine, Environment, Science & technology, Academic subjects.

What to Expect Your First Year of Teaching
     http://www.ed.gov/pubs/FirstYear/index.html
A publication from the U.S. Department of Education, dated September 1998, for teacher educators, first-year teachers, and their administrators.

WWW Virtual Library (Education)
     http://www.csu.edu.au/education/library.html

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