Science, Nature and Tech

Awesome Science Resources for Kids

STEM resources
Where else can you find great Science Resources for Kids? You can browse our archives here on Jump! Mag or you can check out the following sites.
We will update this list in the coming months, and will concentrate on resources you can access online – lectures, TV Shows, YouTube channels, online archives, websites and blogs with science tutorials so that you can roll up your sleeves and get stuck into science. 
We will update this list regularly, so if you have something cool to add, let us know.

SPARXX 

Sparxx is an initiative bought to you by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES).
Their aim is to bring you all the latest news, views, events, opportunities, careers, interesting stuff, fun stuff and freebies to help girls find inspiration for future careers. Sign up for their newsletter here.

The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures

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The CHRISTMAS LECTURES® are entertaining and informative science events for young people, broadcast on UK television every year. You can watch them online here. Prepare to be amazed

UPDATE 

The Royal Institution have just launched Experimental, a series of YouTube videos with great and simple experiments for parents and children to try at home. Find their YouTube Channel here.

 

 

 

Zooniverse

 

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Real science, online – The Zooniverse is home to the internet’s largest, most popular and most successful citizen science projects. You can choose to help researchers characterize bat calls, or explore Mars, without leaving your house.

Crash Course

 

Six awesome courses in one awesome channel: John Green teaches you US History and Hank Green teaches you Chemistry. Check out the playlists for past courses in World HistoryBiologyLiterature, and Ecology

Bill Nye the Science Guy

Bill Nye is a scientist, engineer, comedian, author and inventor. His mission is to make science fun, and help people understand the science that makes our world work. Here are the Home Demos, the experiments you should try at home sometime. Keep clicking around and you’ll find the Episode Guides.

 

EdHeads

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Edheads is an online educational resource that provides free science and math games and activities that promote critical thinking. You can design a mobile (cell) phone, repair a weakened aorta or learn about simple machines, and much more.

Science Projects for Kids

 

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This is a site that links to lots of other sites – we loved the Amusement Park Physics – design your own roller-coaster but be careful because if you get the science wrong… DISASTER!

Silvia’s Show

 

Silvia is a young girl from California, USA and she’s been making Super-Awesome webshows on making cool stuff since 2010. She demonstrates science experiments, and great craft projects. You’ll never be bored, when Silvia is around!

NASA

The kids pages on Nasa are awesome, and that is before we get to the videos of ELMO at NASA. Science and Sesame Street. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Veritaseum

Veritasium is a science video blog featuring experiments, expert interviews, cool demos, and discussions with the public about everything science – these are at times more advanced, but well worth a look.

SciShow

We love the short and snappy servings of science from the SciShow team.

Minute Physics 

We just had to include this one, as the solar system explanation is so brilliant even our science dunce editor understood it!

Engineering is Elementary

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Engineering is Elementary is a project of the National Center for Technological Literacy at the Museum of Science, Boston (MOS). They have fantastic resources for teachers and home-ed families, on a range of topics. Some of the content is free to use, and the teaching guides and stories can be purchased on the site

Further resources

The National Science Teachers Association has a great list of books about science 

National Geographic is a great website with a huge range of articles and fun stuff

Cool music and science from They May Be Giants and the Here Comes Science CD

Woodlands Resources Science for educational and fun activities

How Stuff Works – well, just that really

This is a bit of a niche Science subject, but really cool – Skateboarding Science

The same site (of the Exploratorium in San Francisco) has a great list of ‘snacks’ – little experiments to try at home

If you like computers and want to learn how to make your own programmes, BBC had this cool game toolkit so that you can make your own games and Code.org can teach you to code, as can Scratch

If your parents are on Twitter, get them to follow @realscientists – a rotational twitter account featuring real scientists, science writers, communicators and policy makers talking about their lives and their work. Tweeters from different fields of science and science-related fields.

How To Grow Your Own Geek is a podcast created to share a love of geeking and parenting, and to provide advice on how to combine the two.  Check out their Science and History Podcasts for Kids 

Coding Resources by DeVry Bootcamp has plenty of interesting resources for older or more advanced students.

 

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Written By You

The Adventures of Cha Cha the Dragon – Part 2

Following on from Iona’s wonderful story of Cha Cha the Dragon, here is Part 2

 

Once upon a time, in deepest China, there lived a man named Li-Wang. Li- Wang was getting on in years. His wife and son had both died in childbirth, and he had only his beautiful daughter to comfort him and to keep him company. It was widely said that the daughter of Li-Wang could be no mortal being, but was an angel, sent straight from the Gods as a token of their grace and kindness. However, Li-Wang, poor man rarely ever got to see his beautiful daughter, for Li-Wang was a builder, and his latest line of employment was on The Great Wall of China Teapots.

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Science, Nature and Tech

Things that make you go poo….

After talking about bones in my last article, I thought I’d go on to talk about poo, or at least how it’s made.
I like eating. I think a lot of people do. Biscuits are a particular favourite…chocolate Bourbons especially. But how do we get from biscuit, or apple, or stick of celery to the brown stuff we call poo.
Well, it’s thanks to the digestive system, which starts at the mouth, and runs all the way to our bottoms. So let me take you on a guided tour.

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Science, Nature and Tech

Who On Earth Invented … The Pedal Bin?!

Continuing our series on enterprising inventors of everyday things we take for granted, Sally Anne asks …

Who on Earth invented…the Pedal Bin?!

You’re carrying something to the bin, your hands are full and you don’t want to spill it. Thank goodness for the pedal bin! Read on to find out about the inventor who tried to make life easier.

Ergonomics is the science of making equipment which fits and works with the human body. This basically means making things work as easily and as conveniently as possible. Dr Lillian Gilbreth was a keen inventor who believed in finding the easiest way of getting things done. As such, she invented a range of gadgets to make jobs easier, including the pedal bin in the 1920s. Now we have to admit, pedal bins aren’t very exciting, but Lillian’s life definitely was.

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News & Politics, Popular

How to Jump into Politics

Are you interested in politics? Are you not sure?
Recently, we posted an interview with MP Hilary Alexander. where she talked about how she was inspired to get involved in politics and do positive things for people. She also said that if we don’t like the way things are, we have the power to change them. Sometimes, though, as a younger person, it can be a little bit hard to know where to start – especially if you’re under 16 and can’t vote yet. Here are a few things to think about if you want to ‘be the change you want to see’!

 

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