Professional and Curricular Resources

• The East Kentucky Science Center is dedicated to enhancing science education in eastern Kentucky. The center is located in Prestonsburg, Ky.  
  

• At Kentucky Down Under visitors stroll through an open field where kangaroos, emus, and other Australian natives roam freely. Interpreters discuss the animals' habits and habitat. It is located in Horse Cave, Ky. Included as a part of Kentucky Down Under, Kentucky Caverns (formerly Mammoth Onyx Cave) is one of the gems of Kentucky's "Cave Country." It is located in Horse Cave, Ky. At Kentucky Caverns visitors will marvel at the beautiful onyx formations found in the underground chambers of Kentucky Caverns.  
  

• The Kentucky Science Center aims to educate and inspire you, while keeping you entertained and engaged with one of the most unique experiences you will ever have.  
  

• The Hummel Planetarium is located on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University, the Hummel Planetarium is one of the largest and most sophisticated planetariums in the United States, especially on a university campus. The Hummel Planetarium has seating for 164 people in very comfortable and generously sized seats. 
  

• The Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium is located on the campus of the University of Louisville provides a friendly, comfortable, hi-tech, multi-media, learning venue for the presentation of educational and entertaining programs supporting astronomy and space science education, the arts, humanities, and sciences. 
  

• Morehead State University Space Science Center 
  

• The Newport Aquarium, a state-of-the art facility, brings to the banks of the Ohio River some of the world's most advanced, creative technology -- not to mention amazing animals -- all designed to take you around the globe, visiting each continent, every ocean and hundreds of waterways in between. 
  

• The Louisville Zoo offers field trips and teacher resources (grades 3 and 4) using the biodiversity the zoo. 

• Understanding Science is a site that provides fun, accessible, and free resources that accurately communicates what science is and how it really works.

• Understanding Evolution is a site that provides resources for teaching the science and history of evolutionary biology. 

• Global Climate Change, managed by NASA, is a reviewed listing of the best available student and educator resources related to global climate change. 

• Ambitious Science Teaching provides sample lessons, videos and support materials  

• Phenomenal GRC Lessons contains sample lessons for all grade levels as well as tools for developing your own three-dimensional lessons using a phenomenon. 

• Next Generation Science Storylines contains sample storylines demonstrating sense-making of a phenomenon. The tools used in the development of storylines are provided so that teachers may begin developing their own units following a storyline. 

• Concord Consortium contains simulations that could be included within designed lessons/units. 

• PhET is a free science and math simulations site for teaching STEM topics, including physics, chemistry, biology and math, from the University of Colorado Boulder. 

• NASA for Educators  provides aeronautics and space resource for education.  

• Science at NASA  is a current online magazine of scientific research, events, and information for students and teachers.  

• Powers of Ten is a video that provides a view the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth and then moves through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude. 

• The Kentucky Virtual Library (KYVL) provides access to two of the largest periodical database providers, EBSCO and ProQuest, both of which have Lexile® measures for articles. EBSCO’s NoveList (accessed through KYVL) assists fiction readers in finding new authors and titles and provides Lexile measures as a guide. Contact your child’s school library media specialist for login and password information to KYVL.
  

Next Generation Science Standards Resources 

• Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) provides information on the Next Generation Science Standards. Within the site is the Next Generation Science Resource Library which includes information for districts and parents, tools to evaluate lesson and instructional materials, and sample bundles for unit design. 

• Phenomena for NGSS provides sample phenomena that teachers could use to create student engagement in the sciences. 

• NGSS@NSTA is a dedicated NSTA site for resources specifically related to the NGSS. Educators may find vetted sample lessons, tools for planning curriculum and professional learning opportunities. 
  

• STEM Teaching Tools are 2-page resource tools, with embedded links to further information, on all things NGSS related.  Also available on this site are PD Modules that are self-paced.