Science Helpdesk

BBC Schools - Bitesize revision on KS3.A very good revision of every topic in the Key Stage 3 curriculum (11 - 14 years old pupils). The link takes you to the Science section, but every other subject is covered too.

BBC Schools - Bitesize revision on GCSE.A very good revision of every topic in the GCSE curriculum (14 - 16 years old pupils). The link takes you to the Science section, but every other subject is covered too. Amongst other sections, the site also contains a great resource: the Core Science audio files and the Additional Science audio files for the GCSE topics.

Skoool.co.uk.A wonderful collection of animations and interactive tests that will guide you to learning almost every topic in the science curriculum. Click on the top menu links in "Key Stage 3" and "Key Stage 4" to access the animations.

Science Inside Out.Anoher great collection of interactive animations to learn and test your knowledge on Living Beings, Human Body, Astronomy, Chemistry, Cells and Energy.

Cassiopeia Project.Fantastic YouTube channel with very high-quality videos. Although some might be quite advanced for you, a fair amount of them should help your understanding of a number of essential topics on Biology, Astronomy, Physics and Chemistry.

ScienceHack.A select collection of scientific videos organised by categories and verified in quality and accuracy by a scientist.

WEHI-TV.An impressive collection of animations focused on Genetics and human infectious diseases.

BBC Wildlife Finder.If watching wildlife and natural world videos is your thing, then make sure to check out Wildlife Finder. It is a web resource form BBC where you can watch online for free high quality natural history videos extracted from BBC's archive.

S-Cool: Biology GCSE.Very easy to understand revisions on a variety of topics from the GCSE syllabus. With photos and interactive animations.

Biology4Kids.Quite good and easy to follow revisions on topics such as cell structure and function, microorganisms, or plants and animals structure and function.

Chem4Kids.Quite good and easy to follow revisions on topics such as matter, Periodic Table, chemical elements, atoms, chemical reactions and biochemistry.

Geography4Kids.Quite good and easy to follow revisions on topics such as Earth energy, Earth structure, Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Biosphere, climates and biogeochemical cycles.

How Stuff Works - Science Channel.A great collection of articles explaining everything you've always wanted to know about Science and never dared to ask.

Science Clarified.Wide, reliable and updated scientific encyclopedia, with special sections devoted to Technology, Chemistry, Geology and controversy in the History of Science.

Encyclopedia of Life.Ambitious project to organize and make available virtually all information about the approximately 1.8 million known biological species.

Windows to the Universe.A good collection of educational information, quite focused on Astronomy, but also covering other major scientific areas: Life, the Earth and Physics. With interesting animations.

Google Directory - Kids and Teens - School Time - Science.If you want to explore the web for scientific educational resources, Google provides a comprehensive list of select websites.

Answers.com.Quite possibly the best resource on the net when you need to find the meaning of a term or even knowing almost everything about it. It yields, in the same page, information collected from several sources, including a variety of dictionaries and the Wikipedia. You can also listen to the pronunciation of most words.

Wikipedia.Not entirely flawless, but yet the most comprehensive and updated encyclopedia online.

Encyclopedia Smithsonian.Amazing collection of educational resources on a wide range of knowledge topics.

Visual dictionary online.A fantastic resource with definitions, images and pronunciation for almost everything in astronomy, the Earth, plants, animals, the human being, energy and more.

Merriam-Webster online dictionary.The place to go when you simply need to know the meaning of a scientific term. Includes the etymology, the inflected forms and, best of all, you can listen to the pronunciation of them all.

Scientific dictionaries online.A comprehensive list of scientific dictionaries online. Some are better than others.

Medical dictionary.The medical argot unveiled. Helpful when studying the human body.

Online etymology dictionary.Many scientific terms have old Latin or Greek roots. The Etymoloogy Dictionary explains many of them.

10 Science experiments that changed the world.10 of the most sublime experiments ever in Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Psychology, that span more than 200 years of inquiry.

13 unsolved scientific puzzles.Learn about some of the most intriguing misteries that scientists seem to be unable to solve.

Famous scientists of the world.Listing of several famous scientists who have made important contributions to the world from their respective fields in Science.

Life's little mysteries.A great collection of over 250 interesting questions briefly explained.

Most popular myths in Science.Surely you thought many of them were true…

The 5 scientific experiments most likely to end the world.If you are one of those who think that Science, in its insatiable curiosity and desire to put knowledge above all things, would never inadvertently set off a chain of events that lead to some sort of disaster that ended the world, then, here are five experiments that may prove you wrong.

9 of the oddest experiments ever.Some of the most bizarre experiments ever conducted in the name of Science.

10 scientific frauds that rocked the world.While most of them were considered significant breakthroughs in their time, they were just the result of the eagerness for personal recognition, or the will to mock a contender.

50 things we know now that we didn't know this time last year.A list of discoveries made during 2009 that may have come as a surprise.

Let's say you've gone back in time.And the question goes: how can you build all the amenities of tomorrow when you are stuck in the past. No problemo. This poster has you covered. And don't forget to hang it up in your time machine.

35 Years of the world's best microscope photography.Stunning set of microscopic images that comprises the Nikon Small World prize winners of the past 35 years.

Peering into the micro world.Set of electron microscope photos of 32 microwonders.

The joys of microscope photography.Amazing microscopic images from the Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition.

The importance of stupidity in scientific research.Learn how success in scientific research relies in getting used to one's ignorance.

Fundamental scientific and technological English vocabulary.Scientific language frequently makes use of a specific set of adjectives, nouns, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions and prepositions. Many of them are listed in this page.

Maths for Science.This course studies the particular types of math used in scientific study with an emphasis on measurement, probability, and descriptive statistics.

Writing numbers.How to properly write numbers in English language.

Mathematical symbols.Learn the meaning, the way of reading in English, and how to use a great number of mathematical symbols.

Google Docs.Create text documents, presentations and spreadsheets in a similar way to what you'd do with MS Office. Store them on-line, access them from any computer, share them with your friends to work collaboratively from different places and publish them for everyone to see. All for free: you only have to sign up for a Google/Gmail account. Learn more with the "Getting Started Guides" for spreadsheets, documents and presentations, or with the videos at YouTube Google Docs Community.

SlideShare.But if all you want to do is creating an online presentation, this is the place to go. You create your presentations with PowerPoint (not 2007 version, as of the moment of writing this), OpenOffice, or in pdf format, upload them to SlideShare and they'll be accessible to everyone with an internet connection. Once uploaded, you can do some basic editting and embed it in any of your blogs or web pages. To see how it works, watch a presentation on SlideShare or read the F.A.Q.

VoiceThread.This is a bit more than just one step beyond. VoiceThreads are presentations, but with a very special feature: thay can be commented by anyone by using the keyboard, a webcam, a microphone, a telephone or even by making drawings on the slides. This makes them ideal for creating discussion groups on a particular topic. Once you sign up (the free acount lets you create a maximum of three VoiceThreads), just click on "Create" in the nifty interface and you can start creating your first VoiceThread by uploading images from your computer or web addresses. Learn more by watching a VoiceThread on VoiceThreads.

Flowgram.Think of an online presentation made up of slides a la Google Docs presentations or SlideShare. Then add you voice, or a note, or a video to the slides; or substitute a conventional slide for a web page that you can annotate, or highlight, or scroll, or… just as if you were there. You can learn more by watching a Flowgram on Flowgrams. Flowgram will host your creations at no cost, to be viewed on Flowgram's website or embedded in your own web pages.

Mind42.Great collaborative (or solo) online mindmapping tool where you can add links, attached documents, notes, icons and images to every node of your map. The maps can be published on-line for everyone to view, embedded on a webpage, and exported to pdf, jpeg, png and several mind map formats. It is easier to use and faster to learn than the previous tool; and don't forget to use the keyboard shortcuts ("tab" and "shift+tab") to create child and sibling nodes.

Bubbl.us.Create colourful mind maps that you can share, email, print, save as an image or embed in your web pages.

ExploraTree.Create mind maps ("thinking guides") from scratch or from a wide number of pre-made templates with a rich variety of shapes and arrangements. They can be printed but not saved as images. They are specially meant to be used as online presentations where you can set the sequence by which you want the thinking guide to be revealed. Registration (free) is needed to save your projects and thus, share them, email them, and present them online.

How to build a mind map in Microsoft Word.When you need to create a mind map but don't have access to the Internet, you can still produce rich and colourful ones with MS Word. This great tutorial walks you through the steps to take.

ProProfs Flashcards.Create flashcards for online study that you can download, print or embed into your webpages. You can also view thousands of flashcard sets created by others. Registration is free and recommended, although not strictly necessary.

Useful online calculators for almost every educational and life need.This list guides you to online calculators that will help you calculate everything from algebra equations and mortgage interest to fuel costs and body fat.

eCalc.Quite possibly, the best online calculator.

Web 2.0 Calc.Another good and easy to use online calculator.

Online advanced scientific calculator.Yet another one, with a friendly interface and a knack for fractions.

Print free graph paper.Choose between a variety of graph types, paper sizes, units and grids to render a free graph paper ready for printing.