Free science resources for Educators from the National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health has a great science education resource site with free resources for educators.

The site has research, links, resources, lesson plans, images, standards based curriculum and much more. Resources are organized by type, grade level, and subject area. There is also information on science careers and grants for educators.



The curriculum section has units on cell biology and cancer, bio-ethics, cellular and molecular biology and more. A new addition to the high school curriculum is "Evolution and Medicine" which is a guide for teachers designed to help students use scientific inquiry to understand evolutionary principles through medical research. The middle school curriculum also has a new addition: "Rare Diseases and Scientific Inquiry." In this unit, students use inquiry to explore rare diseases and their treatments as they gain a better understanding of the human body.

All of the resources are free online  and some can be ordered as hard copies for free.

The NIH is also sponsoring a Lab Challenge. The NIH K-12 LAB Challenge is a call for teachers to submit K-12 best practice labs. The labs should be safe and inexpensive and take 90 minutes or less with clear objects. The submissions will be shared with everyone on the NIH site. It is open to anyone in the US or a US Territory or DoD facility overseas. Winners will be recognized and get an electronic badge to share on their site. The entry deadline is 12/15/2011.

This is a great resource for biology and health teachers, as well as a resource for other teachers looking to incorporate these topics in their classroom. The resources are well written and can help get students excited and engaged about science.