41 Resources for Science and Technology Educators

In the ever-evolving education landscape, staying updated with the latest science and technology resources is crucial for fostering engaging and effective learning environments. As educators, finding reliable, innovative tools can be a game-changer, helping to bring complex concepts to life and spark curiosity in students. To streamline this process, we’ve gathered a curated list of top-notch resources that teachers themselves recommend. 

From interactive simulations and cutting-edge apps to comprehensive lesson plans and insightful professional development materials, these resources are designed to support and enhance your teaching strategies. Dive in and explore how these educator-approved tools can transform your classroom experience and inspire a new generation of learners.

ACS
It has plans and ideas to explore from elementary to high school, but you need to have a subscription to access most of the resources. (Mahilnancai S, 9-12)

Blooket.com
This educational online platform provides a variety of engaging quizzes in the form of competitive games that are both interactive and fun for my students. This motivates my students to excel in their designated topics or subjects. I can formulate my own questions and choose from a variety of other quizzes as well. (Erum J, 9-12)

Cengage
Not all of Cengage is free to use, however, some of the free resources, connected to most Google accounts, provide helpful interactive worksheets and articles relating to the content you search for. It also helps in searching for presentations and organizing a lesson for specific topics. And creates games for students to learn with and get prizes. (Tarik S, 9-12)

ChemTeam
Provide simplified notes about each unit in chemistry. (Mariam T, 9-12)

Class Dojo
Class Dojo is a platform where teachers can manage the behavior of their classrooms, connect with parents and the school community, as well as access teacher resources to complement their lessons and professionally develop. (Frank C, 6-8)

CodeHS
This is the curriculum platform we use for my computer science classes. While you do of course need to create projects and some other activities to supplement it, I've found it very useful as a basis point for students to dive into learning and applying coding concepts. One of the great benefits is it works on any web browser - you don't need any special setup on a computer for it, so any computer/Chromebook or even tablet is all you need. (Nicholas F, 9-12)

Concord Consortium STEM Resource Finder
Interactive resources for K-12. Some of them are good one-off simulations for lessons, some will take up to a week or more. I highly recommend the agriculture one and the tectonic plate one. (Brett K, 6-8; K-5)

Cyber.org
Detailed curriculum of Cyber-security, networking, security+, IT fundamental with teachers' notes, PPTs, guided instructions. (Mousumi B, 9-12)

Discovery Education
This site provides many, many educational videos. I have used it frequently. The content of the videos is on point and appropriate. You can search by subject matter and find numerous options. (Charles A, 9-12)

Edpuzzle Educates
The site allows students to watch educational videos on a wide range of scientific topics. While watching the video, they will pause at specific times to have students answer a question or write down an important note. (Jonathan R, 6-8)

Facebook Group Shared Resource Google Folder
This is a niche to environmental science, AP environmental science in particular, but the point of sharing is to say that there are so many amazing teachers out there sharing resources, lessons, and ideas for free in all content areas. Facebook, as terrible as it is for other things, is a great place to connect with other teachers in your content area and share resources. (Rachel S, 9-12)

Flocabulary
This site is useful as it provides several different activities to utilize regarding topics of interest. It includes vocabulary cards, reading, responses, short quizzes, and even fun activities for the kids like building beats/songs utilizing important vocabulary terms. It is an easy platform to utilize and also grades each activity for you, so it is very user friendly. (Jonathan R, 6-8)

Generation Genius
There are a wide variety of lesson plans, toolkits, videos, and projects to supplement your lessons. (Kristin C, 6-8;9-12)

Gizmos
Gizmos is a great site for science classes (I use it for my biology classes) because it has many great, interactive lab simulations that can help students to better visualize new content. Since time and resources make certain labs hard to complete in class, simulations are a great alternative. (Joseph Socci, 9-12)

HHMI Biointeractive
Provides free resources in classroom, teaching tools, and professional development tools. (Apeksha P, 9-12)

IXL
I'm sure IXL is not new to many teachers - a lot of districts have it. I just want to point out a useful feature on IXL which is creating a Group Jam. The Group Jam allows you have to the entire class working collectively on the same problem on their personal devices. This is an alternative to generic IXL practice that I really like for practice/review. It also fosters natural collaboration between students and allows opportunities for differentiation since students who finish early can help others or explain the problem to the class, creating a space for student-led learning. (Nicholas F, 9-12)

Kahoot
This site provides competitive, interactive, educational games. There are many premade games from which to choose. If you do not see a premade game to your liking (this has not really happened to me), you can create your own. Most students are already familiar and are ready to participate. (Charles A, 9-12)

Middle School Chemistry
Incredibly detailed lesson plans for middle school chemistry. Many non-chemists struggle with making good lessons. Also contains a supply list, simulations, and other cool stuff. (Brett K, 6-8; K-5)

National Geographic
Beautiful pictures, in-depth articles with a list of vocabulary, and sometimes links to awesome National Geographic Documentaries. Great to use as "case studies." (Trauwaert M, 6-8)

National Science Teaching Association
Provides lesson plans and activities for a variety of science classes. (Erik F, 9-12)

Nearpod
You can combine different functions on the same assignment on this site. For example, you can have a fill-in-the-blanks, match and edpuzzle all together as one assignment and the site will give scores for each that can be uploaded onto Google Classroom for easy processing. (Ana A, 6-8)

Newsela
Articles on any topic can be found on this site that also include a quiz and answers. Articles can be metered to the reading level of the grade that you teach or the different learners you might have in class. It also facilitates differentiated learning by exempting certain students from certain assignments within an article. (Ana A, 6-8)

NOVA Labs
Offers virtual labs for students to partake in well-crafted and meaningful scientific inquiry for several different disciplines. While there aren't too many labs on offer for each discipline, they have ones for some key concepts in those fields. (Waleed K, 9-12)

OLabs
This site has some great simulations that can either supplement or substitute several science activities and labs. My school often lacks the scientific and other supplies necessary to run labs/activities, so a consistent source of simulations has been quite useful. (Dennis L, 9-12)

Openscied.org
New Jersey is transitioning to the site's curriculum as the standard for teaching science. The program is discussion and observation-based, and helps students develop science skills alongside gaining content knowledge. (Mathew R, 6-8)

Our World in Data
I use this site for two reasons: #1 this is a great, free source of real-world data, whether it's climate, population, and many other data sets. #2 I find that a major deficit in my students is that they do not know how to read and interpret graphs, charts, and tables. This is a great place to start when it comes to making an intervention activity about this skill. (Mathew R, 6-8)

PBL works
Full of real-life project-based learning videos. Set a connection between bookish knowledge and real-life application. (Mousumi B, 9-12)

Pear Deck
I love Pear Deck. The ability to formatively assess the students while I am giving the few "lectures" I give is so helpful. Especially when it comes to seeing if they understand new graph types or working through math equations. The students can answer multiple-choice questions, write on the slides, or manipulate the slides on their own screen to interact with the content. You can then see individual answers and/or show anonymous class answers or examples of great work to the class. Really helps to see who is engaged and where everyone stands with a lesson. (Rachel S, 9-12)

PHET
The best part of the website is that it can help model phenomena, which are difficult to be carried in physical labs. It has interactive demonstrations/animated illustrations to help students visualize the concepts. Sometimes more effective than live demos. Students can work independently at their own pace to understand the concepts. (Himani R, 9-12)

Physics Classroom
The physics classroom is an amazing resource for physics education. There are tons of simulators and lessons. However, the best part of the website are the concept checkers and concept builders, which are randomized and auto-graded assignments that tie into the lessons to build student understanding. They work great as homework or exit tickets following labs or lessons. (Timothy W, 9-12)

Physics Union Mathematics (PUM)
PUM is a Rutgers-developed framework to teaching physics that emphasizes the mathematical relationships in the subject. The lessons are also inquiry/phenomena-centric and are a great starting point for units or labs, especially the math-heavy topics. (Timothy W, 9-12)

Pigeonetics
(Takes forever to load... it's not broken) This game is a robust and fun simulation of inheritance (works well while teaching basic Punnett squares). The game allows students to move through more than 20 levels of breeding different traits through cartoon pigeons while learning about multi-generational inheritance and dominant and recessive genes. Make sure to look at the instructions, there are many hidden options that become necessary later in the game. (Ben B, 6-8)

POGIL
This website provides teacher-led lesson plans followed by breaks for students to practice the concept. The lesson plan that I used for POGIL involved the concept of isotopes and atomic mass versus mass number. It showed students how to decipher the two and how to calculate the average atomic mass for a particular element. There were sections where the teacher would lecture and then break for students to apply what is learned. Then the class would resume the lecture followed by a second and third break to practice. (Beth K, 9-12) 

QUZILET
The reason I love using Quizlet in my class is that it provides my students with flashcards that help them memorize biological concepts. I usually assign these flashcards before a quiz. This platform provides students with facts, terms, and definitions. Flashcards also include text, images, and audio. This platform also provides resources for other subjects. (Erum J, 9-12)

Savvas Realize
It provides comprehensive explanations of the concepts of chemistry including the visuals, presentations, lab activities, virtual labs, etc., to students as well as teachers (includes teacher support). It introduces the concepts as real-life phenomena followed by an inquiry launch. Students can plan and investigate the inquiry followed by data analysis and interpretation to find answers to their questions. The best part about the website is that it helps students develop scientific thinking. (Himani R, 9-12)

Science Journal for Kids and Teens
Offers level scientific articles, often based on an actual research paper, for students to analyze, critique, and explore. Articles are mostly for biology, but there are many articles from other related/allied fields as well. (Waleed K, 9-12)

ScienceGreek.net
Provide many practice resources with many thinking levels. (Mariam T, 9-12)

Teachers Pay Teachers
A large number of resources span a diverse set of content areas and needs. (Frank C, 6-8)

The Biology Corner
The site breaks up biology material by units. Provides free resources such as worksheets, power points, labs, and projects. (Apeksha P, 9-12)

Tinkercad
I teach middle school STEM as well and Tinkercad allows you to draw and build many things. The specific site I linked to here is their circuit building site which lets you build and test many circuit configurations including attaching controllers, such as an Arduino. There is block coding available as well to show the students how to program functions within their circuit builds. These can be copied into an app such as the Arduino app and uploaded onto real devices. Also, look at Pictoblox or Scratch if you're interested in programming things, it's easier to learn than you think and teaches great STEM skills. (Ben B, 6-8)

TpT
Teachers Pay Teachers, resources made by teachers, has offered me ideas for more hands-on -away from the computer screen- lessons and projects, or the extra activities to finish a unit. They offer a good counterbalance against the interactive tools offered by your suggested sites. (Trauwaert M, 6-8)

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