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I was kind of disappointed to see that the sci-guides are just a bunch of links to other websites. I was expecting a lot more I guess. I thought that they would be more specific and more detailed lessons that we could use to teach these concepts that we just learned. I didn't search through all of the websites yet so may be I am speaking too soon but I did not find anything that was going to be useful to me yet.

Hi Reid, I understand what you are saying but some of them actually have lessons included with additional information. Im not sure what grade you teach but many of the ones I have looked through are geared more toward middle and high school. However I think one of the confusions may be trying to navigate through the sciguides. I sometimes get confused and it feels like i'm just being sent to a new site everytime. If anything I think the scipacks have sections at the end to help with the different levels of education. I think those are helpful too. Which sciguides have you looked through so far? Eve

Hi Reid, I had the same reaction when I first viewed a SciGuide and then I realized that on the right hand column, there are vignettes and lesson plans to use. I agree that there aren't extensive lesson plans listed, and I was a bit disappointed, too. What I did find helpful through the SciGuides are the SciLinks interactive activities that correlated with the SciGuide topic. Finding the SciPacks that went with the SciGuides helped me understand the difference between a SciGuide being a guide to navigate through while the SciPack is where to find the "meat" of the content area. I hope that helps. But I get what you're saying. Joy Agard

Hi Reid. I'd like to echo some of the comments of others on this thread, and say I understand what you are saying, but I also look at a lot of those links as a way to expand beyond the central points of the SciPack. The SciGuides also provide a little structure and suggestions for presenting the content to students, and may provide resources to help your students learn, all without having to sift and winnow through lots of materials that are not as well vetted. Last summer, we did a summer camp themed around space exploration. I used a couple of the SciGuides as starting points, and built a fun learning experience for about 180 kids. Did I use the SciGuides as is - certainly not, because I had slightly different objectives, and they got me thinking about a lot of things I could do to link the activities to each other, and new perspectives I could take. There were also good ideas for differentiation, important because I teach a group that ranges from 4th to 8th grade. To me, the SciGuides serve a very useful purpose.

Thank you everyone. I was able to better explore the sci-guide and found some useful lessons in the links sections. The main concept that I need to teach is the rotation of the earth around its axis and how the tilt of the earths axis actually causes the seasons. I found a couple of links with great ideas and activities for me and my students. Just to mention a few... http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/9_10/earth_sun_moon.shtml is a link that has an interactive model for the students to use to see how the earth rotates and revolves around the sun. It even has a quiz for them to do. http://hea-www.harvard.edu/ECT/the_book/Chap2/Chapter2.html has some great activities that I think that I will try with my students. It has some great hands on activities that help explain why the sun appears lower during the winter and higher in the sky during the summer. Also some activities that I forgot that I used to do with my students on using a shadow stick to show how the sun's path changes. http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/activity/the-reason-for-the-seasons/?ar_a=1&ar_r=999 This website had two great ideas using a foam ball to demonstrate describe how the tilt and position of the Earth affects the seasons I look forward to getting more great ideas from the sci-guides. Thank you for helping me navigate this sometimes confusing website. I have to learn to be more patient and be willing to explore more to find the gold at the end of the rainbow so to speak.

Awesome resources. I have also used a number of the National Geographic education resources. Very understandable, well-designed, and professional for the most.

I just wanted to mention the sci-guide that I am reviewing. I am reviewing Sci-guide Earth and Sky, Grades K-4, 5-8.