Community reviews for Science News for Students

I particularly liked the different options for articles - tech, health science, planetary science, etc., etc.. There is a helpful tool that is labeled "Classroom Questions" that I really enjoyed for a class opener. The articles are interesting and engaging for many middle school topics!

Whoever wrote the initial description of the site erred. It is NOT for elementary school students. It's clearly aimed at those 12 and above. The lexile scores fall smack in the middle of the 6th to 8th grade level. Also keep in mind, this is not an "educational" site, but a news magazine. So it provides information, not curricular material. The description said people might like to search by standards--which is precisely why the site offers NGSS codes for its stories. And they are searchable. There are also glossary terms with every story to reinforce reading comprehension. "Further Readings" accompany the stories too--pointing to many other age-appropriate materials. For the past 3-4 years, cites to original sources of the news (ie journal papers or meeting abstracts) accompany the stories so that classrooms can compare the story to the raw data as presented by the researchers. Questions to catalyze classroom discussions accompany feature stories (and are now identified with a pencil icon in the upper right of a story's opening image). These, too, are searchable. Collections of topical stories exist to allow students to delve into an issue in great depth. A blog series called "Scientists Say" offers a term of the week--to build vocabularies. It includes a definition of the term, uses the term in a sentence and offers an audio file so that students can hear how the term is pronounced. Another new blog, "Analyze This!" offers data (graphs, charts, tables or other collections) from which students can scout for trends. This blog builds data literacy, something that teachers have begged for. The "Eureka! Lab" blog and video series show students how to do research--and do it right (from hypothesis generation and experimental design through statistical analysis of data and its publication). All in all, the site offers timely, award-winning journalism, interspersed with auxiliary materials that can aid in classroom discussions. AND it's free to everyone the world over. Yes, I'm a booster. I'm also the editor. We've worked hard to offer something available nowhere else. And for the past five years, teachers have been telling us we are succeeding, and ever stronger. But please, do NOT describe this as a site for elementary school kids. We cover quantum physics, cognitive neuroscience, plate tectonics, epigenetics and more--without dumbing these down. But we assume our target reader is at least 12-13 years old. That said, high school teachers (even in math/science magnet programs) have raved about the accessibility of the stories on our site. It encourages students to struggle with wrapping their heads around the emerging science, not the vocabulary used to describe it.

This is a good site for teachers to utilize in their classrooms. It gives up to date science information and allows teachers to search and explore for extra info and added support for their lessons. It's a huge database of information that all science teachers need to use in their classroom.

Science News for Kids is a great tool to use in the classroom. Like other websites, many students can also access it at home or at libraries, etc. Many times, my students will come to class excited to share something they've read or done the night before on their own. I definitely recommend this site!

As we work across our curriculum to support reading, I can find a variety of articles of high interest that students become engaged in as they read and discuss with other students. It is sometimes difficult to locate articles of various reading levels but this site has great variety.

Science News for Kids is a database filled with science articles. While some of the articles are not current news, there are a numerous articles that cover many different fields that provide students with additional perspective and context on material covered in the textbook. Students are engaged and relate to the articles as they are written for kids, mostly for grades 5 to 8; younger grades may have trouble understanding the vocabulary or science concepts. Some of the articles have key vocabulary words listed as “Power Words” that can lead to classroom discussions.

I like this website because it gives exposure to nonfiction science reading. My only concern was that it was rated at grades 3-8 and I found the vocabulary too hard for most third graders.

Science News for Kids has a lot of articles in many different fields. You can search by category and age. There are a collection of archives that aren't exactly "news" but are still well-written articles that you can read with students or they can read independently. There are many interesting topics that keep kids interest and are written on a level they can understand. They will usually have a few good vocabulary words you can highlight and discuss.

Science News for Kids is a database of current science and math-related news articles. The articles are generally short and can include a list of vocabulary terms notated as "Power Words." The articles cover a wide variety of topics. Users may browse topics or search for specific terms.