2nd Grade Life Science Websites
Websites for 2nd Grade Life Science
Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics / Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
These websites support the NGSS standards at this grade level and are labeled by the type of website that it is (Student or Teacher Background, Student Online Activities, Teacher Activities, Student or Teacher Videos).
Back to our Grade Level Programs & Websites Page
| Resource Link | Abstract | Website Types |
|---|---|---|
| 4-H Virtual Farm: Poultry | Check out the "virtual chick hatch" at this 4H farming website for nice images and facts about chicken life cycles. Link back to main site for more farming info. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Background |
| A House for Hermit Crab | A list of lesson ideas to follow-up Eric Carle's A HOUSE FOR HERMIT CRAB | Teacher Background |
| A replica of the complete John James Audubon's Birds of America | A replica of the complete John James Audubon's Birds of America (1840-1844) Includes the full text, color plates, figures and bird calls | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| American Arachnology Association | Professional Association for the study of spiders. Has links for a North American Spider Identification Manual | Teacher Background |
| Animal Camouflage at pppst.com | Free power point presentation and other resources on camouflage | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Apples & More | A variety of educational activities and projects about apples, including lessons for social studies, science, math, writing | Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Aquarium Set up for Beginners | Commercial site that has some basic guides to setting up aquariums and much, much more. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| Ask A Biologist - Arizona State University | Ask A Biologist began in 1997 in the School of Life Sciences. The site continues to be developed, and maintained by a dedicated group of volunteers. It is designed as an educational resource for students preK-12, and their teachers and parents. Ask A Biologist is visited by over 9,000 people every day and has answered more than 30,000 questions. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background;Teacher Videos;Worksheets |
| Bat Conservation International | Photos, descriptions, $40 Bat Trunk Rental for teachers. You can also look at PDF versions of their magazine. Lots of information about bats | Student Background;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| BatsLive: A Distance Learning Adventure | This site includes videos on various species of bats and the places they live. Find lots of other resources on background information, activity ideas, printable posters and more. | Student Videos;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background;Teacher Videos;Worksheets |
| Binford Spider Lab | Greta Binford is a Spider Biologist at Lewis and Clark College. Her website has lots of infomation on all things spider. | Teacher Background |
| Bird Songs | Click on the pictures of the birds to hear Songs and calls of some New York State birds. Some of the birds (and their families) are also in California. Also has links to other bird song sites. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Background |
| Blue Whale Feeding - Science Friday | Video and science behind Blue Whales doing barrels rolls while diving for krill. | Student Videos |
| Building a Terrarium | Instructions on how to make a simple terrarium in a 2 liter bottle. | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| California Plant Communities | Good resources for what the communities are called, where they are located, what plants and animals live in these different communities. Nice photos to illustrate. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| Chickscope | Using computers in the classroom with access to the Internet, students and teachers are able to access data generated from the latest scientific instruments. The goals include an increased understanding of the process of gathering scientific data and the opportunity to interact with scientists from several disciplines and students in other classrooms The access to unique scientific resources and expertise provides motivation for learning science and mathematics and stimulates interest in the scientific world. | Student Background;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Children of the Earth | Activities, links, blogs on many issues of environmental education. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Draw that Habitat | This online game from PBS and Fetch with Ruff Ruffman lets students draw their own habitats. | Student Online Activities |
| EPA Ecosystems Teaching Resources | links to a wide variety of teaching resources; curriculum and lesson plans; on-line data projects, etc. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| EPA Explorers Club | Natural resources activities and information. Fun and interesting activities, facts, and resources for kids and teachers about plants and animals, garbage and recycling, and the environment. | Student Background |
| Essig Museum of Entomology | Website for the Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Berkeley. Has a section on the insects and spiders of California, including those that are endangered. | Teacher Background |
| Explore.org Live Cams | Explore.org has a collection of live cams from around the world. Some are in museums/nature centers. Others are outdoors. Honey Bee Cam, Penguin Cam, Seal Cam, Wave Cam, kelp forest cam. Lots of options for animals and environments. | Student Videos |
| Frogs and Toads in Color and Sound | Frog and Toad photographs and calls. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| Fruits, Seeds and their Dispersal | Plants have a variety of ways in which they disperse their seeds, or the fruits containing the seeds. Four main groups of dispersal mechanisms can be recognized: animal, wind, water and self-dispersal. The size, shape and color of the fruit and seed, together with other features, reflect the method of dispersal. | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Geography Action! Habitats: Home Sweet Home | This National Geographic site has an amazing variety of habitats on the planet, so does this Web site have an amazing variety of features including habitat-specific lesson plans (grades K-12), photos; Web links; and several interactive multimedia adventures, such as piloting a mini-sub through a virtual kelp forest or taking an animated trek through the Arctic. The site also provides numerous ideas for exploring and protecting your own habitat. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Green Schoolyard Resource Directory | Green Schoolyard Resource Directory for the San Francisco Bay Area For schools, parents, teachers, students, designers, and community members in San Francisco and around the Bay Area. | Teacher Background |
| Growing Minds - Farm to School | This site has a nice selection of activities and resources about how to create and use a school garden and its bounty | Student Background;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Kids Gardening Website | Great ideas for teaching from the garden – check out the unit on creating dyes from plants! A teacher resource website with information on grants, classroom stories, and ideas for getting gardening into the classroom. | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| KidZone - Penguins | This website on Penguins (and much more) has activities for kids and teachers, good backround information and photos. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Missouri Botanical Garden Rainforest Pages | General site that has pictures and background information about the plants and animals of the rainforest, both temperate and tropical. Includes a page of rainforest links. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Background |
| Monarch Watch | Provides background information and lesson plans for teachers as well as fun educational pages for kids. Information for how to start a butterfly garden, the life cycle of the monarch butterfly, its habitat, what they eat, and where they migrate to. Includes photographs, essays, and different multimedia about Monarch butterflies. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| MonarchWatch Butterfly Gardening | A comprehensive web site dedicated to the cultivation of butterfly gardens with links to purchase plants, larvae, and other needs. | Student Background;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Monterey Bay Aquarium Activities Page | This site has both printable and on-line acitivities for kids about the animals that live at and around the Monterey Bay. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| National Geographic - Emperor Penguin Page | videos, slide shows, coloring pages and more. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| National Wildlife Federation | Links to all kinds of wildlife activities and information, wetlands, habitat, endangered species. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Background |
| National Zoo Reptiles and Amphibians | Good site for background information on a wide variety of reptiles and amphibians. Limited kids page. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| Nature Lab | Nature Lab is The Nature Conservancy's youth curriculum platform. Nature is the fantastic factory that makes the building blocks of all our lives—food, drinking water, the stuff we own, and the air we breathe. That’s why The Nature Conservancy and its 550 scientists have created Nature Lab: to help students learn the science behind how nature works for us and how we can help keep it running strong. | Student Background;Student Videos;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| NOAA Artic Them Page | This page from NOAA has lots of links to technical information but also has great stuff like a north pole web cam and links to whale and seal sounds. and more... | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Oakland on the Move: The Ohlone | This site has background information on the Ohlone living in the Oakand Area. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| Oakland Zoo | This website lets you look at all the animals at the zoo in pictures and descriptions. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| Ology: A Website for Kids from the American Museum of Natural History | Join the Ologists at the american Museum of Natural History as the ask and answer some questions about paleontology. | Student Background;Student Online Activities |
| Paso Partners Bilingual Instruction | The resource is designed to help elementary school teachers organize their classrooms and instructional activities in order to increase achievement of Hispanic primary-grade children whose first language is not English. The guides offer a curriculum plan, instructional strategies and activities, suggested teacher and student materials, and assessment procedures. Bilingual lessons on Five Senses, Spiders, Dinosaurs, Plants & Seeds, Human Body, Health, Oceans, Weather, Matter, Sun & Stars, Sound, Simple Machines. | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Penguins - Scientific Informaton | From the education department of Sea World, this site contains detailed scientific background but is very accessible to non-scientists. | Teacher Background |
| Pete & Barb's Penguin Pages | This page provides a large range of background information on all types of penguins. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| Pinterest: Ecosystems Activities | Pinterest Explore page on Ecosystem activities. | Teacher Activities |
| Plants and Animals: Partners in Pollination | These lessons are adapted from Smithsonian in Your Classroom. Ultimately, all life on Earth depends on plants to provide food, shelter, and oxygen for other living things. Consequently, plant reproduction is crucial to all other life on this planet. The first step in plant reproduction is the intricate process called pollination, which occurs when pollen grains, the male germ cell of a plant, reach the stigma, the female reproductive part of the same species of plant. Depending on the plant species, a flower can produce male, female, or both structures. Pollination can also occur within the same flower. | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Project Feeder Watch | FeederWatch helps scientists track broad scale movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance. Groups put up a feeder, count the birds that visit, and send their data to scientists. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Background |
| San Francisco Bay Lesson Guides | These guides provide a valuable resource for teaching about the San Francisco Bay and its watershed in your classroom. Discover new ideas for teaching students about everything from salmon to climate change to the Farallon Islands. Each guide contains multiple lesson plans focused on local animals and ecosystems and is aligned to state standards, including the Common Core and the Next Generation Science Standards.With twelve guides spanning multiple grade levels and a variety topics, you can be sure to find lesson ideas to support your classroom curriculum. | Teacher Activities |
| Save the Redwoods League | The website has many valuable resources about redwood trees and their habitats. Older students will enjoy the Redwoods Transect Lessons. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Sea World: Teacher's Guides | This site has downloadable teacher guides on many topics and grade levels having to do with Marine life. Examples are "Orcas,"Sea Lions and Seals," and "Penguins." | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Seeing through Camouflage | from NOVA online. Because of their coloring, many animals blend seamlessly into their environment, making it difficult for predators to see them. This strategy is called camouflage, and helps many animals avoid being eaten. There are four basic types of camouflage. Play this Shockwave game and see if you can tell them apart. | Student Online Activities |
| Shedd Educational Adventures | Shedd Educational Adventures (SEA) contains a treasure trove of aquatic science resources for K-12 teachers and students. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Background |
| Skulls | Learn about skull structure and function, skull diversity, the living tissue associated with bones, and the role of the academy's skull collection in scientific research. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| Talk About Trees | You will find seven complete lesson plans with objectives, skill area, vocabulary, and focus items. The curriculum is designed for grades 4-6, but is easily adaptable for other grade levels. Each lesson includes activities, many of which can be found in the "interactive games" and "forest activities" sections of the web page. Feel free to print the lesson plans and activities to use in your classrooms. Other parts of the website are geared towards student learning. | Student Background;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Teacher Resource Guide to Agriculture issues | Search the guide on-line or order your free copy. Has resources on all sorts of things related to agriculture. How to grow plants and animals and how farming is related to nutrition and habitat health | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| The Chick Hatchery | This site from the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago features a Quicktime video of chicks hatching. | Student Background |
| The Crab Street Journal | This page offers teaching ideas, background info and a kidzone all on hermit crabs. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| The Forest Foundation | This website has lots of free resources for teachers and students when studying the forest habitats of California. Geared for grade 3+ but lots of good content for teachers of the younger grades. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Background |
| The Greatest Places | Features seven different and very distinct types of ecosystem, including great explorations of types of landforms, habitat, indigenous species, weather, etc. River Basin (Amazon), Icecap (Greenland), Waterfall (Iguazu Falls), Island (Madagascar), Desert (Namib), River Delta (Okavango Delta), and Plateau (Tibet). | Student Background;Student Online Activities |
| The Insects Homepage | Wonderful world of insects has interesting facts and links to insects with amazing adaptations, insect habitats, sexual characteristics, anatomy and insect orders. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| UC Museum of Paleontology | Good resource for finding more information on fossils and the geological time frames. | Teacher Background |
| Underground Adventure | The world of soil is a rich and tiny habitat for amazing creatures. Take a virtual tour of the exhibit, and see what life would be like if you were a half-inch tall. This program was developed as a fifth-grade environmental science curriculum. However, the activities are interdisciplinary and can be modified for other grade levels. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Background |
| USGS - Patuxent--Tools for Learning About Birds | This is a great site about birds. It has photos, songs, life histories, seasonal bird maps and a bird quiz | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Video: The Coralax | This film was created by students in Maui Huliau Foundation's Huliau Environmental Filmmaking Club. Inspired by Dr. Suess's The Lorax, this claymation by our new middle school students uses 667 images to show how irresponsible shoreline development can impact our precious reef ecosystem. | Student Videos;Teacher Videos |
| WatchKnowLearn.org | This website has free educational videos on all topics (including science) for all age levels. There is specifically a section for younger learners. | Student Background;Student Videos;Teacher Background;Teacher Videos |
| When Greenville Turned Brown | A small town called Greenville was a nice place to live, with forests and ponds, it had lots to give. The people were happy in this little town, until something happened and Greenville turned brown. A poem with accompanying illustrations that recounts a tale of how important clean natural resources are. | Student Background |
| Wyland Ocean Challenge | An interdisciplinary art-science curriculum promoting conservation and stewardship through understanding adaptation and water cycle concepts. Downloadable activities and other interesting background information. Lesson resources are found in the right hand column of the main page. | Student Background;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |