Chemical Education Today
Association Report: ACS
Chemistry.org/kids A Great Resource for Elementary School Science Activities by James Kessler
Elementary school children are fascinated by science demonstrations and hands-on science activities. Measuring, pouring, and mixing liquids; dissolving solids; watching color changes; seeing bubbling; and using a thermometer, dropper, and magnifier are all experiences children enjoy. As a parent, teacher, or other facilitator of hands-on science activities, an adult can provide the structure and guidance to make an activity fun for children as well as a valuable learning experience. But finding reliable, safe, and age-appropriate science activities is not as easy as you would think. To help provide such a resource, the Education Division’s Office of K–8 Science, the Membership Division’s Office of Community Activities, and Chemistry.org have teamed up to create a new online collection of hands-on science activities for children in grades 3–6. The new Web site, chemistry.org/ kids (1), offers adults and children many choices of handson activities along with science information, interviews with scientists, games, and practical applications of science to a child’s everyday life. Rationale Over the years, the K–8 Science Office and the Office of Community Activities have created and published a wide variety of science activities and information for adults to use with elementary-age children. During that same time, many inquiries have been received from ACS members and other parents, teachers, and interested adults searching for science activities they can do with young children. There has also been a renewed emphasis on the importance of children learning science by doing science since the publication of the National Science Education Standards (2). The last five to ten years have also seen the growing use of the Internet by elementary school teachers and the general public. With a critical mass of activities, a consistent, if not growing demand, a focus on the value of hands-on activities as a teaching and learning tool, and the increasing comfort and access to Internet technology, the time seemed right to bring together in one easily accessible location all ACS science activities for children. This was the thinking behind the creation of chemistry.org/kids.
products. The left-hand navigation bar provides easy access to the three main areas of the site: Celebrating Chemistry, WonderNet, and a special section for parents and teachers. Celebrating Chemistry contains the complete ACS National Chemistry Week (NCW) publications for the years 2001, 2002, and 2003 in downloadable form. Each year the new ACS NCW publication will be added. Each of these publications contains activities, articles, games, and information dealing with the NCW theme for that year. WonderNet is a resource of hands-on activities in more than 30 physical science topics. Each topic features three activities with extensions and background science information for the student and adult. A new WonderNet topic is added every second month and all previous topics are archived and indexed alphabetically. WonderNet also includes an interactive feature called “What’s Up?” that allows children to explore the connection between a science topic and their everyday experiences. The parents and teachers section features indexes of articles and activities from both Celebrating Chemistry and the Chemists Celebrate Earth Day publications. This content has been reformatted into individual PDF files for easy downloading and use. Many of these activities are available in Spanish. This section also allows users to search the topic index for WonderNet and provides links to science activity books, safety, and other products. All activities in Celebrating Chemistry and WonderNet have been reviewed for safety and use only common, inexpensive materials that can be found in the grocery store. Since the activities correlate closely to topics covered in the elemen-
Features The chemistry.org/kids home page, which changes each month, features links to a highlighted activity, a fun science fact or article, a short interview with a chemist (conducted by an on-site stuffed mole named Meg A. Mole), and selected
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Chemical Education Today
tary school science curriculum, scientists and other adults can use the site to get activity ideas for presenting activities in an elementary school classroom. Activities from chemistry.org can also be used by scientists and other adults for National Chemistry Week or Chemists Celebrate Earth Day events. Readers are encouraged to make local teachers aware of the site as a resource for activities to supplement those they already use from textbooks or science kit programs. If you are looking for science activities and information for children in grades 3–6, the new site, chemistry.org/ kids is a great place to start.
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Literature Cited 1. Web site for Chemistry.org Kids. http://www.chemistry.org/kids (accessed Jul 2004). 2. National Research Council. National Science Education Standards; National Academy Press: Washington, DC, 1996; http:// www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses/html/ (accessed Jul 2004).
James Kessler is in the Education Division of the American Chemical Society, 1155 Sixteenth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036;
[email protected].
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