It's Friday! Which means another installment of my weekly Fresh Look Fridays blog post, where I review an interactive website that I think is great for use in the classroom.

Today's site is brought to you by the BBC. For those that are loyal followers of this Fresh Look Fridays series, you'll recall that I often can't say enough about interactive content put out by the BBC...those folks just seem to "get" it.  I've featured some of their activities in numerous blog posts before including here, here and here.

The BBC Science Clips is another one of these fantastic sites, although the title is a bit misleading.  "Clips" sounds like they're referring to videos, and that is definitely NOT the main focus of their website...instead, the main area is filled with a HUGE variety of interactive learning opportunities for your students to explore.

Initially broken down into age appropriate categories, each section contains 6 awesome activities.  My favourite part? They're designed for students to explore certain topics, and contain guiding questions at the top to challenge students' thinking.

Take, for example, the "life cycles" module under Ages 9-10:

It has an immediate feedback structure for the first part, where if students drag the parts of the flower into the correct (or incorrect) box, the program either accepts the answer, or spits it back out.  Students can click on the magnifying glass in each box for a mini tutorial on that flower part.

Under ages 7-8, check out the Light and Shadows activity.  It's a little less structured, in terms of getting a right or wrong answer, and has some thought provoking questions at the top of the screen to guide students' thinking.  Not sure if your students will be able to read all the directions? Have them click on the speaker to hear the questions read to them.

I especially love this website, because I see it as easily becoming a learning station on a SMART Board for a small group to work on together. 

Happy Friday!!

Vanessa