ICT resources for science teachers

1. Exploring web resources for science

As you find your way around the Internet and the world wide web you will soon realise that there are many educational web pages and websites offering different products and services. As a practising science teacher it may be of interest to you to organise the sites you will be visiting according to what they can offer. There are many web sites like the ones listed in this activity offering lesson plans for science and other learning areas.

Follow these steps to complete these activities. Look for contexts that are meaningful to you in your classroom.

1

Work in pairs. 60 min

• Visit at least two science teaching websites. For each one use the table provided to summarise what science resources can be found on the website.
• You may visit any site of your choice, but for your convenience, some major science teaching sites are linked in the resources column.

Click here for summary table

Click here for a list of science teaching websites

Click here to see how to search for web sites.

2

Join with another pair to form a group of 4.
30 min

• Share your web site summaries and make a note of useful sites that you could explore at a later stage.
• Make a list of which learning outcomes or assessment standards these resources are most likely to support.

Refer to the curriculum statements:

• GET Natural Science
• FET Physical Science

3

Whole class. 30 min

Reflect on (think about) and discuss the sites that you have seen today.

• How can the resources support or enhance your teaching of science?
• Which curriculum outcomes do these resources help you to achieve?

4

Work on your own (between workshops)

• Identify which learning outcomes or assessment standards you would like to target during future activities in this course

5

You have the option of using the South African National Portal (Thutong) to enhance this workshop activity.