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astronomy

Alien Autopsy Anyone?
http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s1406162.htm
Just time for a quick mention of a recent offering from , Dr Karl . Well, any time’s a good time for a spot of extra-terrestrial speculation, right?
The scene is Roswell, USA, 1947. And the subject of Dr Karl Kruszelnicki's (one of Australia’s favourite science gurus) ‘Great Moment in Science’ is the alleged autopsy of an alien being that had, unlucky for him/her, crashed to Earth. The ‘autopsy’, it is said, was carried out in conditions of supreme secrecy, but was filmed for posterity, the results being eventually broadcast in 1995.
But does it provide proof of alien life? Or proof that actors can’t even hold scissors properly? Dr Karl has his opinion.

Amazing Space
http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/
Amazing Space allows you to play with the building blocks of galaxies and explore our solar system. This is a site which will give you a great insight into all things celestial.

Arty Astro
http://www.artyastro.com/
Take part in an exciting adventure as you journey through space, learning as you go.

Astronomy GCSE
http://www.astronomygcse.co.uk/AstroGCSE/index.htm
This is a neat resource for those doing the GCSE in astronomy, but of wider interest to anyone who has to study the 'Earth and Beyond' topic in either single or double award science at GCSE.  There's more breadth and depth than you need for the science GCSE, but do check out features such as : the life cycle of stars, the expanding universe, the electromagnetic spectrum and hazards of manned space flight.

Bad Astronomy
http://www.badastronomy.com/
Fed up with not being sure just what information is correct and what isn't on the Internet? Bad Astronomy is the website for you! Read movie reviews where bad astronomy is exposed or look at the flawed science behind the conspiracy theories.

BBC Space
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/
This site is just out of this world! It is packed with pictures, interactivity, a 3-D virtual tour of the solar system plus you can even play games!

Cool Cosmos
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/
This is a great educational site courtesy of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. Its idea is to show how the Universe can be explored using infrared and other light sources invisible to the human eye.

Earth and Moon Viewer
http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/vplanet.html
Map it out! View different parts of the Earth and the Moon. But be warned, this is a very popular site so can be slow at times, but it is well worth the wait.

Exploratorium: YOUR WEIGHT ON OTHER WORLDS
http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/weight/
A simple but nifty site from the Exploratorium which allows you to find out, with no fuss at all, how much you and your love handles would weigh elsewhere in the solar system...

Sea and Sky
http://www.seasky.org/sky.html
Choose to investigate the last two great frontiers — the sea or the sky. Take a trip aboard the Starship Sagan for an exciting voyage through the Universe or join the Seasub Cousteau for a journey to the depths of the sea.

Secret Worlds: The Universe Within
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/
Move through space without leaving your chair! This site allows you to travel across the Milky Way, through space and finally back to Earth, each picture smaller to the power of 10 — interesting for mathematicians too.

Solar System — Images
http://samadhi.jpl.nasa.gov/
Examine maps and surface features of planets or satellites in this superb resource of Solar System-related material from NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Solar System in Action
http://www.harmsy.freeuk.com/orrery.html
If it’s information you need on the planets in the Solar System then this is the website for you!

Space
http://www.space.com
There’s something amazing here every day with space science news and news about space missions and launches.

Space activities for Girlguiding UK
http://www.girlguiding.org.uk/uploads/
The new 'Go For It! Space' (pdf) materials are a new set of science resources for Girlguiding UK members. They can also be downloaded for free from the Guides section of the Girlguiding UK website.

Space Day
http://www.spaceday.org/index.html
Lots of interactive puzzles and arcade-style games to be found here as you learn about the planets and star constellations.

Spaced Out
http://www.spacedout-uk.com/resources/index.asp
The Spaced Out project is a superb idea; it’s a scale model of the solar system! But if you have ever tried to explain how vast the solar system is using analogies of peas, oranges and watermelons you’ll know that you soon run out of space (and fruit).

Starchild
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Do you wonder about space and the Universe? Well, look no further because this site from NASA is where you’ll find all the answers!

Sun Beams
http://westudent.tripod.com/page1.htm
If you’re aged between 7 and 11 and you’re a bright star (like the Sun!) then this is the website for you! So get your shades at the ready for this brilliant website about the Sun and you adults could also learn a thing or two!

The Nine Planets
http://www.ex.ac.uk/Mirrors/nineplanets/
This site has lots of information and interlinks on every page. You can take the long tour of the site for an overview (100 pages) or the short tour. You’ll also find some good ideas about making a scale model of the Solar System.

The Size of Our World
http://www.rense.com/general72/size.htm
However big you might sometimes worry your behind and/or bald patch is, this will truly put it into perspective for you. In fact we are clearly so tiny and insignificant it may not be worth worrying about anything ever again….

The Solar System in Pictures
http://www.the-solar-system.net
As the name suggests, this is full of astronomy Web-quests and images of all the planets in the Solar System.

Views of the Solar System
http://www.solarviews.com/eng/homepage.htm
You won’t see this by looking out of your window; you need to look at this site instead for pictures of planets and the Sun.

Virtual Solar System
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/solarsystem/
Take a 3-D tour of the Solar System, fly past the Sun and observe each planet up close and personal. It needs a download, which could take around 20 minutes so make sure you have plenty of patience!

Welcome to the Planets
http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/
Get to know the planets in great detail with this fabulous selection of images from NASA.

Windows to the Universe
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/
This is a wide ranging site from the USA, encompassing astronomy, geology and physics, history and people, basically it should be called "life, the universe and everything"! It's got a lot of pages and you could roam around learning this and that for hours. It's beautifully presented, (if a little disorientating given the amount of content) and full of imaginative ways to explore science, and it even has a section for teachers with loads of classroom activities that link into the American Curriculum, but could be adapted for use here. Definitely worth a look.


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botany

Classification of Plants and Animals
http://www.fi.edu/tfi/units/life/classify/classify.html
Find out about classification or even invent your own families of animals or plants.

Education World
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson259.shtml
If you are looking for some hands-on botany have a look at this site. With more activities than you can shake a stick at (pardon the pun). This website will keep you occupied for hours just looking at it. The website also has links to other great resources.

Fun Plant Page
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/kinder/funpage.html
Read the information and then try out the exciting plant experiments if you’re of the green-fingered sort!

Kinder Garden
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/kindergarden/kinder.htm
When spring has sprung, it’s time to get your green fingers out! This is a colourful site with lots of ideas for creating children’s gardens, activities for kids and tips for getting young people interested in the green world.

Sci4kids
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/kids/plants/plantsintro.htm
This is a lovely site with great stories from the world of plants - particularly amusing are the tank-tough plants!

The Great Plant Escape
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/gpe/case4/c4facts1a.html
Become a plant detective and get on the case to find out how and why plants do what they do!

The Oxford University Museum of Natural History
http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/educate/index.htm
The Oxford University Museum of Natural History have been developing their online science learning resources for the past few years. They’ve recently re-launched their website with two meaty learning sections - the Learning Zone, and Learning More. It’s well worth a look, dinos, bugs, fossils and fun stuff...
For Early Years to CCSE level
http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/thezone/
For AS, A2 and lifelong learning
http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning/
There’s also a Schools and Teachers section
http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/educate/teachers.htm  just for you to see the big picture of what the museum can offer.

Tomato Zone
http://www.thetomatozone.co.uk
For a totally different experience, why not ‘ketch-up’ with a new site from the British Tomato Growers Association? It’s the Tomato Zone - a kid-friendly, and very interactive website wholeheartedly devoted to our juicy red friends.


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chemistry

A-level Chemistry Revision
http://www.mp-docker.demon.co.uk/home.html
Check the e-tree for your exam board and follow links to the information you need to revise.

All About Atoms
http://education.jlab.org/atomtour/index.html
Here's a very simple, but easy to understand guide to the secret world of atoms. It is featured on the site of the US physics research organisation, the Jefferson Lab.

A Look Inside the Atom
http://www.aip.org/history/electron/jjhome.htm
This is a very readable, attractive account of the discovery of atomic structure. A site for students interested in how ideas in science develop.

APBI — British Pharmaceutical Industry
http://www.abpi-careers.org.uk/
You know the expression, 'it's not a cure for cancer'. Well, this potentially is! This site explores some careers in the pharmaceutical industry in good detail, for anyone with a liking for chemistry / biology. Definitely worth a look.

Chemcomics
http://www.uky.edu/Projects/Chemcomics/
If you like chemistry but you also have a passion for all things superhero then this site combines the two. Each element in the periodic table is linked to a comic book hero so click on each element and a series of images from adventure stories will load.

Chemistry and Industry
http://www.chemind.org
This online magazine covers the industrial applications of science and how they affect business now and in the future. They cover stories from renewable energy reviews to the most obscure business news back to the fat burning pill, so there is a wide range.

Chemistry Society
http://www.rsc.org/chemsoc/
Enter the Chembytes Infozone and you may never get out again for there are loads to read up on for all you budding chemists out there!

Chemistry Week
http://www.rsc.org/Chemsoc/Activities/ChemistryWeek/index.asp
If you’ve been inspired to do something with Chemistry then have a look at the Royal Society of Chemistry’s web page for Chemistry Week.  Check out the events happening near you and get involved.  There are loads of activities wherever you are in the country and there is enough variety to suit all tastes and age groups!

Chirality Game
http://nobelprize.org/chemistry/educational/chiral/
Its aim is to explain, in very simple terms, chemical ‘chirality’. This is the existence of certain molecules in both a right-handed and left-handed form.

Creative Chemistry
http://www.creative-chemistry.org.uk
The Creative Chemistry website is recommended for secondary school science teachers and anyone else with an interest in chemistry - particularly if you're facing GCSEs or A Levels...

Doc Brown's Chemistry
http://www.wpbschoolhouse.btinternet.co.uk/page10/page10.htm
The Doc has a lifetime of chemistry teaching to his name and the site's clearly a labour of love.  Revision is made interactive with structured questions, crosswords, 'jumblies' and quizzes, as well as the expected revision notes. The site's well worth a look for students doing the Key Stage 3 science national tests and chemistry A levels too, just look for the relevant links from the homepage.

EepyBird.com
http://eepybird.com/dcm1.html
What happens you combine 200 litres of Diet Coke, over 500 Mentos mints, and two crazy Americans?  Find out by watching this video.  What you're seeing is a magnificent demonstration of nucleation. Dig a little deeper at the site and you'll see that the perpetrators undertook a detailed study of drink and confectionary combinations, and of the effect of different sizes of hole in the bottle tops.  Excellent science; brilliant choreography; hysterical film.

Fireworks
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/fireworks/
Have a look at Fireworks for the science behind, well, fireworks!  It’s an American PBS site that comes with teachers’ notes.  Name that shell (Coconut, Poinsettia, Palm…) and the anatomy of a firework are great resources, but the best bit is On Fire, their virtual fire lab, where you can rearrange some molecules and find out the temperature of a striking match.

FunBrain Periodic Table
http://www.funbrain.com/periodic/index.html
Test your knowledge of the Periodic Table in this activity from an American Education site called FUNBRAIN.

GCSE Chemistry
http://www.gcsechemistry.com/
Around 400 pages dedicated to GCSE chemistry, covering all of the UK syllabuses. The best way to navigate the site is via the index, which is useful for finding key points for homework.

Gondar Design Science

http://www.purchon.com/

Gondar Design Science has been around for ages and is still a nice site with useful revision sections for biology, ecology, health, chemistry and some physics (look under ‘subject index’).  Although primarily for GCSE pupils the good work of Sambal The Cat (honest) carries on for key stage 3 scientists at http://www.sambal.co.uk/

In Their Element
http://www.krysstal.com/elements.html
Facts and stories about various chemical elements — a simple page but the information is clear.

Lipstick and much, much more
http://www.catie.org.uk/barefacts/default.htm
What’s the science behind all the soaps, creams and cosmetics we pour over ourselves? Barefacts is an amazing website that gives great explanations of many products from lipstick to deodorant, from both a science and a design viewpoint. There are quizzes and external links if you want or need more info. The site is aimed at KS3 students and the teacher’s notes let you know where it all fits into the curriculum. There are even worksheets and activities with instructions to actually make some of the products.

More Periodic Table
http://periodic.lanl.gov/default.htm
An interactive and colourful periodic table can be found here — a good chemistry resource if you are a high school pupil or KS3 teacher.

My Chemist
http://www.mychemistgame.co.uk/
Take a look at a computer simulation game called ‘My Chemist’ in which teams of girls run a retail pharmacy, making all of the required marketing, financial and scientific decisions that this kind of enterprise requires. The Women’s Business Development Agency in Coventry has launched the project, which is funded by NESTA.

Practical Chemistry
http://www.practicalchemistry.org/
The Nuffield Curriculum Centre, with the Royal Society of Chemistry, have just launched 'Practical Chemistry' Keep watching because this site will continue to grow!

Prof Shakhashiri’s Chemical of the Week
http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/chemweek/chemweek.html
This site gives bucketfuls of info on not only individual chemicals, but hi-tech materials such as liquid crystals.  Great for explaining the science behind common objects like LCD monitors.

Royal Society of Chemists
http://www.rsc.org
The Royal Society of Chemists is more for professional chemists to find out about the society and how to join, but it does have information about their library.

Science Pages
http://www.sciencepages.co.uk/keystage4/keystage4.php
Despite the name, this site has mostly chemistry on offer to the revising masses at GCSE, (although there's also a little stuff for the key stage 3 National Tests as well as A level). There are a good selection of quizzes plus a smattering of revision notes, crosswords, a few PowerPoints, a checklist to see what mark you're likely to get for your coursework, and a small links list pointing you to some of the weirder websites out there.

Silly Molecules
http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/sillymolecules/sillymols.htm
How's your Apatite for some Traumatic acid, or Draculane - perhaps washed down with a pint of Lagerine? 
Here's a site that brings together a huge range of chemical structures that have been blessed with names that may be amusing to those of an immature disposition. It's not recommended for young or sensitive readers - but we enjoyed it!

Sizzling Organic Chemistry Dramas! – KS4/5
http://www.heptune.com/chemtale.html
If you are partial to a bit of drama then how about four short organic chemistry plays that illustrate reaction mechanisms? Here’s a short extract from ‘Becoming an Alcohol (A Sad Tale of a Good Oxygen Gone Bad)’ Hyd: Oh! (Sighs again.)
Ox: Wow! (Staring at Sulfuric Acid) Would you get a load of those protons! Hubba, hubba! (Oxygen lunges at Sulfuric Acid.)
Hyd: Hey!

Sodium Party
http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Stories/011.2/
This site details one man’s intrepid investigation into the exothermic reaction between water and sodium metal. The use of a patented Sodium Release-o-tron sounds like something straight out of Wallace and Gromit! Come on now Gromit lad, a little exothermic reaction never hurt anyone now did it?  Where did I put my Wensleydale…

Squashed Frogs
http://www.squashedfrogs.co.uk
This site has lots of resources for lessons (filed according to Key Stage and then topic) including powerpoints, worksheets, games etc. It covers KS3-5 in all areas. It also lists lots of links to useful websites and has a variety of downloadable materials. There really is a treasure trove of good stuff on this site.

The Chemical Industry
http://www.cia.org.uk/newsite/
This is a great site for anyone considering entering the chemical industries at any stage, with useful careers advice and interesting information on chemicals in the home.

Visual Elements
http://www.chemsoc.org/viselements/pages/page3.html
This site takes you on a spectacular journey through the periodic table, as you absorb a wealth of information on individual elements, groups and patterns in the table.

Web Elements
http://www.webelements.com
Gives the periodic table and information about it. You can click on individual elements and get more details. Also CHEMPUTER interactive on-line chemical calculators to be found here.

Why not Chemical Engineering?
http://www.whynotchemeng.com
The Institute of Chemical Engineers has come up with a great little site full of info on a career in Chemical Engineering. They claim that Cindy Crawford has studied ChemEng, amongst other celebs, which is so unlikely it must be true!


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