My Science Box

The guiding mission behind MyScienceBox is that teachers should have free access to the best hands-on, classroom tested, science lessons. At MyScienceBox you will curriculum units that I have developed and tested in my own middle school classroom as well as teaching boxes and individual lessons created by other teachers. A flyer describing MyScienceBox in more detail can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.

Absolutely! Just go to the summary page of the lesson you are interested in. You should find a Microsoft Word (.doc) attachment at the bottom of the page. Click on that and the entire lesson plan should download to your computer. Please respect the copyright. Tell others that the idea came from Irene Salter and don't sell the lesson.

Attachments are found at the bottom of the top-most summary/overview page for that lesson. There you will find a Microsoft Word copy of the lesson as well as student handouts, teacher overheads, etc.

This website was developed by Jason Salter, web developer extraordinaire. A billion thanks for all the hard work, creative ideas, and loving support in the creation of My Science Box.

This work was funded through a generous grant from the Rose Foundation. The concept of the "teaching box" was inspired by the Exploratorium's Teacher Institute and their amazing staff. A special thanks to Linda Shore, Eric Muller, Tory Brady, Modesto Tomez and Margaret Fauchier for their kind support and generous encouragement. The organization of the lessons at MyScienceBox was inspired by the Lawrence Hall of Science GEMS and FOSS guides. Their publications have been the role models for my curriculum. Because the GEMs guides layout and descriptions are so clear and helpful, I have modeled my lesson plans after their materials.

Adding lessons to My Science Box (in 7 easy steps):

1. Make sure you are logged into your account then click the "create content" button on the left side of the page below your username.
2. Select "book page".
3. Enter a title for your page.
4. The "Parent" pull down menu files your lesson in a hierarchical menu system. For instance, Irene's lessons are organized with a larger "box" with lessons inside. Each lesson is in turn broken down into subsections: an overview, logistics, background, lesson plan, etc. Initially, you will want to put your teaching box under the Drop Box. After that, you can file additional pages within your own section of the Drop Box.
5. Use the "Categories" pull down menus to categorize your lessons so other teachers can find them.
6. In the "Body" section, enter any text you wish or cut and paste from another application. The icons at the bottom of the window allow you to format your text just like a word processor. Mouse over them to learn what each icon allows you to do.
7. When you are done, click "submit" and your lesson is LIVE ON THE WEB! Congratulations