Recommendations
| |
Item (linked) |
Rationale |
Listservs or
Forums
|
Weather
notebook |
This sends email with daily information about weather
events that have occurred for that particular day. It can be useful
as a daily "fact" to be posted for classes as beginning daily topic for
discussion. I have a daily trivia question which I post in my class
for the students to answer when they arrive. This would be useful
for that activity. The daily email gives several facts each day about
a variety of places (not just the US). |
| Chemfan |
The listserv seemed appealing when I was searching
for ones related to the topic I teach. However, there was no email
received during the course, except for an ad for a new computer probe product.
Upon checking the archive for previous messages, there was only one listed
related to food. It was very disappointing, in light of the expectations
I had for this listserv |
| Mineralist |
The listserv, also, seemed appealing when I was searching
for ones related to the topic I teach. Yet, this one sent no messages
during the course. Upon checking the archive for previous messages,
there were none; the listserv has been active since last August.
Although the topic seemed interesting, apparently no one is discussing
it through this communication site. |
Telecollaborative
Projects
|
Water on the Web |
This web site has lesson plans concerning water and various
topics concerning water quality. There are animation which demonstrate
concepts such as the effect of temperature on the amount of dissolved oxygen.
There is an animation which takes the actual data from a lake in the area
and plots a linear graph for various water quality measurements at regular
intervals; there is a manipulator to move back the date to that comparisons
of these parameters can made for certain times of the year. There
are worksheets to support the topics that the lessons cover and lab activities
that can be done to add to understanding of the topics covered in the lessons.
There is a place to write back comments, email, etc. I plan to use
this in my hydrology and oceanography units for Earth Science. This would
seem to be for High school students, perhaps middle school students.
There are links to other places on the web to get additional resources
and online video clip demonstrations. This is a really good site. |
| Woman
of NASA |
This is a site in which women involved with the space
program in the United States are profiled. There are on line video
clips of individuals along with biographies about them. There is
a variety of careers in which these women are involved. I found
a link to lesson plans for a unit called Female Frontiers that had anything
one needed to do that unit with an integration of math activities and space
concepts. In addition, there are times when various NASA women will
be on line to chat and answer questions about what who they are and what
they do. I found a tool to convert time zones and a time zone map
at the site. This is part of a bigger site that has other units related
to space. There is also a Spanish link in which the chats will
be in Spanish and Hispanic women are featured during the online regular
schedule. Their biographies are in Spanish, too. In addition,
African American women are featured during Black History Month in February.
These chats are similar to regular chartrooms, except there is a
moderator to screen the questions. There are guides for teachers
to help students to get the most out of these chats. I was
so impressed with this site that I want to use it for my Earth Science
Classes for next year. This is just a wonderful site! |
| Lab's
alive |
This site has activities across several science curriculums:
chemistry (a pH project for indicators originating from Ghana); Biology
and animal science (interactive zoo classroom); biology (one project with
wasps and another with worms); physical science (Solar Cooker design project).
This site is based in Australia: I can imagine that the questions my students
would pose them about their culture before they even would think about
the science would be so interesting to watch. This is truly
a global site. I saw entries from Japan, Russia, Estonia, France,
Taiwan. There are links to videoconferencing and there are specifications
as to what is needed to accomplish that task. When I checked a few
other global sites as I was completing this assignment, I stopped when
I began to curriculum textbooks and money to be spent. This doesn't
seem to be that kind of site. Apparently, there is a site to email
with your name, school, address and what you want to do. I am very
interested in the Solar Cooker
project and the pH. There are activities for Elementary, as well,
so they can get in on the fun early in their education. The lesson
plans that accompany this are somewhat general, but that may be to give
teachers across continents the flexibility they need to teach what they
teach in support of this web site project. I would recommend this,
if there is a willingness to commit, to truly get in there and participate. |
|
Search Tools
|
ScienceMaster |
I wanted to investigate this site, since it was also recommended
in "NSTA Reports". This web site is geared for searching the web
for science topics. I found links to various web pages for all age
levels. In addition, this is a page which is part of a larger web
site for science education. Although it had an adequate list of topics,
I found it somewhat confining in terms of choice. There is a "Hall
of Fame" awards list that can be easily found on the site, but I
could not find specific names of individuals or their background on the
site. There was a place to email them about problems. I would
use it in classes. |
| Homework.com |
I wanted to investigate this site, since it was recommended
in "NSTA Reports". This is an excellent web site for a variety of
uses. It is set up with links for any age level, parents, and teachers.
It has links for virtual trips, on line tools (this is how I found the
online tools for this assignment), references for reports, just so many
items too numerous to write about in this space. I would recommend
this as a bookmark page for the classroom since it has so many features,
not just a directory with web pages. The web page is apparently part
of a large network of web sites that have other purposes. The Start
Spot network is the company and they seem to have a lot of individuals
with suitable background; I saw a list of awards on the main index page
for the network. There is a place to email easily seen. |
| Scirus |
This site is geared for science and math researching
in general, not specifically for education. This seems to be a good
site to look for a large group of web sites as an initial search into a
topic. There is information as to their practices for finding web
sites (what they keep links to and what they don't). According to
that statement, the search using their "engine" is not giving web sites
that can be a waste of time to go to. Although I couldn't find any
credentials or awards for the individuals who make these judgments about
web sites, there was a place to easily email them. I would recommend
this site for high school, and to middle school with a little caution (it
may give them too much to absorb). I don't think this would be good
for elementary grades for the same reason there is a caution for middle
school. |
Lesson Plan
Sources
|
The
pH factor |
This is a web site designed to support lessons involving
investigation of acids and bases. There is a teacher guide and links
within the site to lessons as prior background information (such as powers
of ten, exponents, etc.). There are activities which use materials
that are relatively non hazardous and readily available in most classrooms
(vinegar, baking soda, pennies, etc.), so these would easily done in the
classroom safely. It would seem that this is geared towards middle
school children. There is a pH meter scale which when certain buttons depicting
various substances are pushed the needle moves toward the acid or base
side of scale itself. This could be used in class in place of an actual
pH meter; it is limited though in the variety of materials on that link.
The site is supported by the Miami Museum of Science with an easily found
email address. The only concern I had was with the activity that
involved tasting substances (acids are sour; bases are bitter). I
do not believe that would be an appropriate activity to do in a school
lab setting or even as a home experiment for extra credit.
There are outside links (many for acid rain) to
sites which are related to the lab activities and topics.
Some classroom management procedures are included. There is a list
of expected learning outcomes from these lessons with what the teacher
should be doing to address those learning outcomes. In addition,
there is an exchange link in which suggestions for other lesson plans,
web sites, problems that you believe there are with the web site. |
| Amazing
Space |
This site appears to be supported by the Space telescope
Science
Institute. There are eight different activities, some with internet
activities associated with them concerning different topics in Astronomy.
They seemed geared to elementary school age, but some parts of these lessons
could be augmented for use in higher grades. There are standards
listed to which the lessons seem to be tied to. There are additional
sources and links available to support the topics listed on the site.
An email address is available for additional upcoming sites, if you give
your email. There are interactive tools about light, which I teach,
that I would like to use as an mini lab activity for my students.
I noticed that NASA seems to be involved with building some of these tools
which these lessons use. Each lesson plan has the following:
background information, computer needs, teaching tips, links to related
information on the web. The graphics would attract interest for younger
learners. The main web page for the organization which supports this
web page
will show links to other areas on that site for movies, other educational
resources, education projects, grants (links were
available to sites for grant proposals information). |
Data Sets or
Online Tools
|
Puzzles
& Fun - Nature Web page |
This is a web site that has various puzzles designed for
learning. There was one in which students put together of animals.
Upon successful completion a fact appears about the animal pictured.
Another one has KoKo the Gorilla doing sign language and matching the sign
demonstrated to the word. I would recommend this web page
for elementary science, but in the Koko game, I could see some possibilities
for language arts, reading skills reinforcement. There are other
games/puzzles on this web page which is part of the PBS web site for Nature.
Since it is PBS, I felt that was adequate expertise in terms of content. |
| Interactive
Mathematics and Miscellany Puzzles |
This is a web page that has a directory of many math
interactive math puzzles. All levels of students could be addressed
with this site in terms of reinforcement of certain math skills.
In addition, there are pages which address graphing concepts of certain
math functions; these would be most appropriate for high school.
This could be used to demonstrate in the classroom during instruction or
for additional practice for remediation in student learning. I found
some puzzles activities that presented math problems but had visual activitiesto
assist visual learners "see" the process to solve them. This web
site that this comes from has many other areas that could be explored for
math puzzlers to use in class. I checked the "references" and there
are several (National Mathematics Teachers caught my attention, giving
this site credibility). In addition, there is a place to email them
with comments. There were a lot of choices in terms of with what
a student could interact or a teacher could use. |
| Electrical
Safety World |
This is an interactive site that offers quizzes with
respect to safety issues for electricity for children. This would
be most appropriate for elementary age students. There is a "Safety
certificate" that can be downloaded for the students. In addition,
the site has other links to related sites, a teacher guide and informational
web sites. There are pictures and situations which are culturally
diverse and seem to be usual things that children would encounter in their
daily lives. The web page is part of a web site that is supported
by Florida Power and Light; that was enough to certify the site as a valid
site as to expertise, in my opinion. |
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