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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Food and Recipes, Toys and Games

Offline Minecraft Activities

minecraft activities

What to do When Your Parent Says ‘No More Minecraft Today!’

You could wail, ‘That is UNFAIR! You are horrible to me, you are so MEAN!’… or you could talk to them about WHY they are banning Minecraft for the day. Is it perhaps because you’ve been playing for hours and hours, and they think that you should get off the computer/iPod/Playstation?
We are willing to bet that is the reason, not because they want to annoy you. We parents worry that you are online too much, that you are ruining your eyes, that you are going to turn into a big square person who looks just like Steve!
So instead of complaining, how about you and your parents have a look at these fab OFFLINE Minecraft activities that are all to do with Minecraft, so that both you and your parents are happy? (Remember our article about negotiation? That is what this is!)

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Written By You

Life… in Reverse

We love to publish contributions from our young readers. This was written by 8 year old Janvi, from Cardiff.

If there were to be a parallel universe I think there would be people who lived their lives, like us, only in reverse!

You would start off old with white hair, pains almost everywhere and maybe even glasses and/or a walking stick. You would live in a retirement home with lots of old people, like you. You would spend your time sitting in your favourite chair snuggled up with a quilt and would take medical pills daily. But one day when you would get up to have your daily walk you could get up much easier and you could walk around faster and more swiftly.

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Home, Health & Style

Be a Good Communicator

Have you ever said something that was misunderstood by the person you were talking to? Do you know anyone who sometimes says things in a way that seems rude and abrupt? It is not always the words used, but the way in which they are used.
Good communication is very important. Carolyn Ward explains what it is and how to be a better communicator.

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