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Wow, blogging is totally new to me and boy am I learning a lot already.  Once I got to looking around I found the RSS feeds and now I have found how handy that is.  Of course, I am still trying to figure all of that out.  


Naps Improve Test Scores
My 7th and 8th graders are always talking about how when they were in Kindergarten they hated taking naps, but now that they are older they would love to have nap time, especially in the afternoon!  The first site I found discusses how naps can improve test scores.  The reason I found this was useful to me is that my AR project deals with improving my students Ohio Achievement Test (OAT) Scores.  This site,  Naps Improve Test Scores  has lots of information including how the brain works and processes with more sleep and less sleep.  Being a teacher, this site has helped me to understand why my students, especially by the end of the day, do not seem to process information as well as if they are well rested.  


Brain Pop
Brain Pop is a great site which presents information to students in a way they can understand and is entertaining to them.  It even includes quizzes and worksheets along with videos to explain many concepts including science and language arts.  This site is extremely useful in a classroom dealing with children as it helps kids to relate to what they are learning.  


Scientific Inquiry
Edutopia and Science Education is a wonderful site for me because with my AR project one area of the OAT is the Scientific Inquiry.  This article explains the five main components of Scientific Inquiry.  It emphasizes evidence and explanations and how those are important in any aspect of science. 


Touching Helps Memory
The Connection Between Touch and Learning is a great article dealing with doing hands-on activities and how that helps students to learn.  It emphasizes how if students are able to do things instead of just hearing about them or reading about them, it helps them to understand.  All students learn differently and hand-on activities allow students to have another way to learn.  


Science Concepts
This Scientific American article deals with everything from evolution to robots.  This link allows a person access to these topics and many others which a teacher would find very helpful.  It also compares each of these areas and brings them all back to earth science education.


All of these RSS feeds are very informative and helpful especially to me being a 7th and 8th grade Science teacher.