A Magical Homeschool

The National Institute of Health has some phenomenal science resources available to the public for free, through the mail or online. These include lessons on science and medical topics such as scientific inquiry, genetics, sleep disorders, chemicals, the brain, the mouth, evolution, cell biology and more.

The NIH says:

The NIH curriculum supplements are teacher’s guides to two weeks of lessons on the science behind selected health topics. They combine cutting-edge biomedical discoveries with state-of-the-art instructional practices.

HTML and PDF versions of each supplement are online and accessible to all. Print versions are FREE upon request to educators in the U.S.

The bulk of the materials are for middle school and high school students, though there is one set of lesson plans available for elementary students. Each set of lessons is called a module and teaches a different set of health and science concepts. Each module contains two weeks’ worth of lessons, including web-based activities, teachers’ guides, printouts and more. They are excellent resources with a wide range of activities, discussions and information.

The resources available are:

High School

Evolution and Medicine
Exploring Bioethics
Cell Biology and Cancer
Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases
Human Genetic Variation
The Brain: Understanding Neurobiology Through the Study of Addiction
Sleep, Sleep Disorders and Biological Rhythms
Using Technology to Understand Cellular and Molecular Biology

Middle School

Rare Diseases and Scientific Inquiry
The Science of Healthy Behavior
Doing Science: The Process of Scientific Inquiry
Looking Good, Feeling Good: From the Inside Out
Chemicals, the Environment and You
How Your Brain Understands What Your Ear Hears
The Brain: Our Sense of Self

Elementary School

Open Wide and Trek Inside

To order the materials, click here and then click on the title you’d like to order. You can order as many curricula as you like from there. Note that a few of these are out of print and can only be accessed online. Also note that print versions can only be ordered by U.S. residents. However, those in other countries can easily access all of the materials online.