Elementary and Middle School

About This Product

This Web-based product provides a number of resources to help you decide whether or not to use Web-delivered instructional materials in your classroom or school and to what extent.

You can search the CATALOG of currently available Web-delivered instructional materials for elementary and middle level science. Some of the instructional materials listed in the catalog can also be used at the high school level, but no attempt has been made to include a complete list of high school products. To the best of our understanding, the list does, however, contain all the major products that are available to elementary and middle school educators, as of June 2003, and will continue to be updated.

Information presented here about instructional materials comes principally from the Web sites of the materials’ publishers or developers. From these and other sources we have gathered the following information on each available product.

Grade: Exact grade level(s) recommended by the developer

Primary Domain: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Ecology or General Science

Topics: For example, astronomy, the environment, birds, water cycles, etc.

Time Online: Relative amount of time students using these materials will spend online or on keyboard: high, medium or low.

Scope: Comprehensive, modular, supplemental, or digital library (see definitions below)

Fee: Whether or not there are charges incurred when using this product

Developer: The organization that developed and tested the materials

Publisher/Funder: The parent organization and/or agency that funded the product development

Copyright: The most recent copyright date posted on the site

URL: The Web address of the product.

The catalog is completely SEARCHable, either by Grade Level, Science Domain, or Scope, or through a free-text search.

In addition, there is an EVALUATION tool to help you look at the different available programs, an article on INTERNET USE in the classroom, and a list of RESOURCES that can help you in your endeavor to learn more about how the Internet can affect your students' learning.

The majority of the comprehensive and modular materials included in this site resulted from federal funding to well-established educational institutions (universities, independent curriculum development agencies, etc.) and are available to educators at no cost. Some, though developed with federal funding, are now distributed by commercial publishing companies, who charge fees for their use. A few of these products were wholly developed by commercial publishers and these, therefore, also involve fees to users.

No attempt has been made to list all of the Web sites that could be classed as supplemental, since these are too numerous and often too short-lived to keep track of. In the bibliography attached to this document are links to many Web sites that act as portals to the thousands of science-related sites on the Web. The (supplemental) sites that have been included in this list are, arguably, some of the more substantial and academically focused sites from among the large list of possible candidates. With one exception, these sites were developed by a recognized academic or service organization, and have provided services to educators over a number of years. ExploreScience is included because, although its authorship is unclear, it represents a class of easy-to-use simulation engines that teachers could choose to incorporate into their classroom resources.

Comprehensive, Modular, Supplemental, or Digital Library

This review divides the field of Web-delivered instructional materials into four broad categories according to the scope of content matter addressed.

The term comprehensive is used to describe programs that address a complete segment of the educational syllabus for a particular age and domain. These are programs that attempt to cover all important aspects of the topic in a specific sequence and usually over the course of a complete school semester. Comprehensive materials include background and surround materials for the teacher, including learning goals and objectives and assessment strategies.

Modular programs usually include a cluster of activities or units or a series of "modules," each addressing a particular concept or phenomenon. These units need not be taught in any particular sequence and do not, in total, constitute a complete academic “course.” Generally, such modules occupy several weeks of classroom time and may be accompanied by print or CD-ROM or online materials for teachers and students.

The term supplemental is used to describe programs and Web sites that are stand-alone teaching tools (e.g., lesson plans or computer simulations) relating to specific topics and concepts (e.g., tropical fish, volcanoes, meiosis/mitosis, Newton's laws). These are generally designed to be used individually by teachers or students or to be woven into the fabric of a pre-existing curriculum by a skilled teacher. They do not themselves constitute a curriculum. Some supplemental sites are principally informational—digital versions of reference books or encyclopedias—while others act as gateways to a variety of resources for teachers and students.

Digital libraries are collections of resources and materials that are directly available on the Web to either teachers or students. Links to thousands of science-related Web sites are available through these libraries.