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S.T.E.M. Curriculum Resources

 

Local Organizations

  • Aquarium of the Bay. Classroom activity guides, tips for a successful visit, educator events, information about booking the BayMobile & more.

  • California Academy of Sciences. Summer programs that serve San Francisco residents can apply for free field trips between June 11 and August 16! Open the Youth Group application and input the 2019 promo code (SFSUMMERINVITE). Submit multiple applications if your group would like to visit multiple times.

  • Children’s Creativity Museum. The Children’s Creativity Museum features innovative multi-media art and technology experiences for children ages 2-12. Excellent place for a field trip. 

  • Exploratorium. From mobile apps to classroom activities, from a behind-the-scenes look at ideas we’re tinkering with to the vast riches of our Explore section, our teaching tools support educators and provide hundreds of ways to play and learn. For all ages, in both formal and informal learning settings, these essential tools spark curiosity, exploration, and understanding.

  • Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. The Golden Gate National Parks are extraordinary classrooms for connecting students with our history, culture, and natural environment. In partnership with the National Park Service and other community organizations, the Parks Conservancy offers a variety of resources and programs designed for educators looking for creative ways to expand their curriculum.

  • Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. Bring the enormous appeal of the ocean to your class to teach science, art and language arts. Sanctuary education programs offer science field trips, classroom programs, exhibit discovery experiences, student field monitoring opportunities, teacher workshops and resources.

  • Mission Science Workshop. MSW operates two bilingual community science centers that provide hands-on science enrichment activities to underserved youth from low-income communities, their schools and families. Play, tinker, and learn!

  • Port of San Francisco. The Port of San Francisco's Waterfront Resilience Program has created an excellent page full of activities, live webcams, and videos just for children, youth, and families.

  • RAFT: Resource Area for Teaching. RAFT leverages community donations and bulk purchasing to offer a wide range of low-cost materials, hands-on teaching tools, and school supplies. Online resources include content to help meet the needs for a wide variety of subjects, standards, and curriculum. 

  • Recology. Education programs range from printed signage and sorting guides, to hands-on training. Field trips can be booked at their Environmental Learning Center and at their recycling center facilities.

  • San Francisco Botanical Garden. Field trips and teacher packets with information about the thousands of plant species to be found at the garden.

  • San Francisco Zoo. Designed to enhance lessons in biology, zoology, and ecology, these resources will help connect your learners to wildlife.

  • The Presidio. The Presidio serves as an active outdoor classroom for students and teachers. Drawing on the natural and cultural heritage of the park, the park's school programs offer authentic, real-world learning that support 21st century skills.

  • Tree Frog Treks. Free wild science distance learning content. Bonus: book Mr. Science for a virtual animal visit from Julie the Burmese Python, Abeni the Sulcata tortoise, and Santa the Bearded Dragon!

Websites

  • American Association for the Advancement of Science. Free science lessons and tools for K-12.

  • Bill Nye the Science Guy. Guides to fun science projects and experiments.

  • Calculators.org. Free math and science resource offering hundreds of fun and helpful online calculators and conversion tools.

  • Community Resources for Science. Teaching tools, science activities, personalized planning support & more.

  • Dirtmeister’s Science Lab. Fun experiments and activities related to physical, earth, and life science.

  • eGFI Dream Up the Future. Lesson plans, activities, outreach programs and links to web resources.

  • Family Education. Science and health projects & activities.

  • Girls Who Code. Training, comprehensive resources, 120+ hours of easy-to-use and flexible coding curriculum for 3-12th graders, and even free t-shirts and other swag!

  • Handyman 101: Tinkering and Electrical Projects. Fun, easy, hands-on STEM projects that help students see STEM skills as part of everyday life.

  • Howtosmile. 3,500 free science and math activities from science museums, public television stations, universities, and other educational organizations.

  • Illustrated Mathematics. Free resources to plan, implement, and support students’ mathematics education.

  • KidsHealth. Free health-related lesson plans aligned to National Health Education Standards.

  • Learn With Math Games. Fun math games for pre-K to 8.

  • Make: Learn. Online courses on maker topics, kits, books, and tips on hosting a student Maker Faire.

  • Math is Fun. Easy to learn, enjoyable math activities.

  • Maths Chase. Fun, engaging math-related games.

  • Monterey Bay Aquarium Live Animal Cams. Perfect for any animal lover: check out sharks, penguins, a kelp forest, a coral reef, and live narrated otter feedings!

  • National Wildlife Federation’s Educational Resources. Through programs, curriculum, scientific reports, and more, the National Wildlife Federation is furthering knowledge about nature and wildlife, and inspiring future environmental stewards.

  • NASA STEM Engagement. A digital collection of earth and space science resources for educators of all levels.

  • PBS LearningMedia. KQED and PBS-curated FREE, standards-aligned videos, interactives, lesson plans, and more just for California teachers.

  • Radiolab for Kids. The beloved long-running podcast has curated a collection of their best kid-friendly episodes.

  • Rainforest Alliance. Games, activities, articles for kids, and more. Have fun while learning all about rainforests and the people and wildlife that call them home.

  • SF Department of the Environment’s Food to Flowers Educational Materials. Learn how the leftovers (and packaging!) from your lunch can turn into the flowers in a garden.

  • Smithsonian Distance Learning. Access to millions of digital resources from across the Smithsonian's museums, research centers, libraries, archives, and more. Pre-packaged collections that contain lessons, activities, and recommended resources made by Smithsonian museum educators and thousands of classroom teachers.

  • Steve Spangler Science. Easy science experiments and science fair project ideas.

  • Teach Engineering. Hands-on K-12 curricular units, lessons, activities, and maker challenges.

  • Twig Education. Thousands of videos in English and/or Spanish that include lessons, activities, and visuals.

  • Verizon: App Development Tools and Games for Kids to Learn Programming. Guide for kids to learn app development fundamentals in order to better understand programming, and a list of free tools, games, and tips that can help kids learn coding, programming, and app development.

  • Weather Wiz Kids. Lots of interesting information about weather, created and curated by a meteorologist.

  • Wildlife of the San Francisco Bay. With detailed checklists for mammals, birds and other animals, identification resources and extensive guides to viewing locations, this website provides a unique, comprehensive portal to the world of Bay Area wildlife watching.

  • Worldmapper. A collection of world maps, called cartograms, in which territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest. Warning: major rabbit hole (in the best way)!

  • Zearn Math. Free math curriculum for grades K-5. Includes digital lessons with on-screen teachers and supportive remediation.

Are we missing something? Let us know! Email info@dcyf.org