Instructify

“So how about this weather, huh?”

For your average citizen, that question is at best a clichéd icebreaker. If you’re an earth science or biology teacher, however, it’s often a jump ramp to thrilling topics like hurricanes, ocean levels, and adiabatic heating and cooling. To help you out, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (or NOAA, because I am not typing that again) has some great educational resources for all grade levels. These tools will let your students do everything from learning about the biological importance of coral reefs to checking out how the National Weather Service alerts people to approaching storms.

My one gripe is that NOAA equates “for kids” with the Comic Sans font, the most obnoxious of all type faces. Their “Primarily for Students” page is also pretty text-heavy, especially for their resources geared toward younger learners. That said, the content itself more than makes up for any graphical deficiencies. And after you check out the materials on the NOAA website, you’ll be able to overcome the conversational deficiencies of folks who lead with, “So how about this weather?” -BILL FERRIS

NOAA Education