There are SO MANY cool earth science websites out there, it was hard to limit myself to five. I mean, I probably could have listed a couple of dozen, but that also would not have been an excellent use of my limited time. There are several plate tectonic websites I did not list here that were easily as good as those I did list, but with fewer opportunities for playing with the interactive bits.
Calculating Geologic Time. This is a metaphor generator! I can see using this with older students who already understand decimals, so late 5th grade to 8th grade. I can see this site as being useful for something to be used within class during a lesson about geologic time (and evolution? Come back in a couple of weeks...) to help students come up with a visual and physical model to share with the class. Student groups could work with different increments to show to the class.
The Utah Education Network Cloud Guide. This is a website that is accessible for children probably from grades k-2 depending on the lesson that is to be used in conjunction with it. There is a sidebar with cloud type names, when the name is clicked, one or more very nice pictures of that type of cloud come up. I can imagine having children go outside to observe and draw the clouds in the sky, and then go explore this website to name what they saw, as part of a greater unit.
Lightning and Atmospheric Electricity Research at GHCC (the Global Hydrology and Climate Center, associated with NASA.) This is a very information-rich site, and would be best used with older students, grades 5-8, probably working in groups. Types of lightening, how and when it occurs, and the instruments used to find these things out are all described in great detail, with beautiful pictures.
A Science Odyssey: You Try It: Plate Tectonics: Mountain Maker, Earth Shaker (PBS affiliated) You will need to install Adobe Shockwave if you do not already have it in order to use the interactive activities on this site, there are very good directions and links about how to do that on the site itself. The Shockwave interactive bit is pretty neat, though. It shows four different ways that a continental plate can move, and what that does to land both above and below the ocean. There is a link at the bottom of the interactive page to get to more information about how and why particular kinds of plate movement do what they do. This website looks like it is aimed at children between the grades of 2nd and 6th, depending on scaffolding, where on the site they are sent, and how much teacher support they require. I spent a while playing with this one, but I think tectonic movement is pretty neat as a concept, and pretty important to have children understand how it works, especially here in the Pacific Northwest, where volcanoes and earth movement are ever-present facts of life. For current events, it may be a good idea to link studies of earthquakes to civic action to raise money or supplies for people in Haiti.
Exploring the Environment “castle museum” has several “floors” that children can visit, each with its own theme. This is a VERY kid friendly site, with good pictures and easy to understand chunks of information with each. It is aimed at children between grades 3-5, and is something that children in those grades could easily navigate unaided. For research and discovery purposes, it is an excellent website that you could provide as an option for independent use.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Physical Science websites
This week's installment: Physical Science!
Newton's Apple website (affiliated with PBS). The site itself is navigable probably for grades 3-4 and up independently, but younger kids I would either walk through with them, or get them started on the link I wanted them to work with. The main page has a streaming video that plays immediately when the link opens; I found that to be a bit annoying, even if the video is neat content. There are several links from the main page along the top of the screen about different kinds of science that kids might be into. For physical science, you can click the “Physics and Sports” link http://www.newtonsapple.tv/TeacherGuides_physicsSports.php which brings you a list of different videos to watch in that category. There's also a glossary-style list linked from the home page of different kinds of experiments children can try at home.
“Einstein's Legacy” page about X-Rays, grade range probably between 4th and 6th grade. There is a small interactive picture of a hand where you can look at the bone structure by moving a small frame around. Linked from this page are explanatory websites about electromagnetic waves (with a slider so one can see more or less relative size of waves and what those waves do,) and about CAT scans. I would be especially interested in having this website as a resource if I were to have another student who underwent neurological surgery. When I worked as a paraprofessional I had a student who had extensive surgery on his brain, and it would have been nice to have this website as a resource for the other students in the class about what he was having done when he spoke about having his scans.
XTALENT image gallery; has hundreds of micrographic images of nearly anything you can imagine wanting to look at that closely. This is a resource that could easily be mined for a unit about germs for younger children, older children could go searching for pictures that related to a science unit they were learning about. I like the notion of having them compare pictures and relative size, discuss why things might need to be that size. There are pictures of things like the difference between a hair cut with a razor blade and one cut with an electric razor, having students discuss the reasons for the hair looking so different might be interesting, too.
Skoool Interactive Training website about magnets and static electricity. This website is very kid-usable, grades 2-4. Each picture/animation is accompanied by a voice reading a description of what is going on in the picture. I can imagine a student using this website to inform a report or experiment. One big advantage to this website is that there are no distracting ads to click on at all, just the activity.
A webquest designed by one “Mrs. McElwee” guiding students through designing their own roller coaster. This website is for students in 6-8th grade, perhaps even older, though I think middle school students could do the activities with only a little support. It is set up to be a guided individual study, and sends the user of the site to other sites for resource material. This looks to be something that could well build students' ability to do real research and work using the internet, I will be on the lookout for more of these.
Newton's Apple website (affiliated with PBS). The site itself is navigable probably for grades 3-4 and up independently, but younger kids I would either walk through with them, or get them started on the link I wanted them to work with. The main page has a streaming video that plays immediately when the link opens; I found that to be a bit annoying, even if the video is neat content. There are several links from the main page along the top of the screen about different kinds of science that kids might be into. For physical science, you can click the “Physics and Sports” link http://www.newtonsapple.tv/TeacherGuides_physicsSports.php which brings you a list of different videos to watch in that category. There's also a glossary-style list linked from the home page of different kinds of experiments children can try at home.
“Einstein's Legacy” page about X-Rays, grade range probably between 4th and 6th grade. There is a small interactive picture of a hand where you can look at the bone structure by moving a small frame around. Linked from this page are explanatory websites about electromagnetic waves (with a slider so one can see more or less relative size of waves and what those waves do,) and about CAT scans. I would be especially interested in having this website as a resource if I were to have another student who underwent neurological surgery. When I worked as a paraprofessional I had a student who had extensive surgery on his brain, and it would have been nice to have this website as a resource for the other students in the class about what he was having done when he spoke about having his scans.
XTALENT image gallery; has hundreds of micrographic images of nearly anything you can imagine wanting to look at that closely. This is a resource that could easily be mined for a unit about germs for younger children, older children could go searching for pictures that related to a science unit they were learning about. I like the notion of having them compare pictures and relative size, discuss why things might need to be that size. There are pictures of things like the difference between a hair cut with a razor blade and one cut with an electric razor, having students discuss the reasons for the hair looking so different might be interesting, too.
Skoool Interactive Training website about magnets and static electricity. This website is very kid-usable, grades 2-4. Each picture/animation is accompanied by a voice reading a description of what is going on in the picture. I can imagine a student using this website to inform a report or experiment. One big advantage to this website is that there are no distracting ads to click on at all, just the activity.
A webquest designed by one “Mrs. McElwee” guiding students through designing their own roller coaster. This website is for students in 6-8th grade, perhaps even older, though I think middle school students could do the activities with only a little support. It is set up to be a guided individual study, and sends the user of the site to other sites for resource material. This looks to be something that could well build students' ability to do real research and work using the internet, I will be on the lookout for more of these.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Life Science Websites
“The Yuckiest Site on the Internet” is aimed at children between 2nd and 5th grade. It is set up in a very kid-friendly manner, with a cartoon worm, “Wendell the worm reporter” as the guide through the website. The website features information about worms and roaches, and human bodily functions. Kids can write in to “ask Wendell” questions about “gross” and “yucky” things, or just things having to do with life sciences. There are also games that have to do with worms and roaches that kids may play; the games themselves are not as educational as the rest of the site, but might be used as a resource for kids to play with in the computer lab if they finish with a project early. This website is a sub-site of http://kids.discovery.com. I would be very comfortable allowing my students to use this website without direct supervision. They'd probably find it hilarious because of the “gross” factor, and they'd be learning a considerable bit about the why and how of those “gross” things.
University of California Museum of Palaeontology has resources aimed at grade 6 to adult. This website has internal links to information about: the history of life through time, an interactive tour of geologic time, understanding evolution, “the Paleontology Portal” (the fossil record of North America), educational resources for K-12 students and teachers, field notes from “faculty curators, staff, and students” about their experiences in the field, research profiles of scientists at UCMP, a thorough exploration of the world's biomes, a frequently changed “mystery fossil” that invites the reader to guess and then provides information about the fossil depicted, and descriptions of the special exhibitions at the UCMP museum proper. As this is geared toward older people and has few exterior links, I would be comfortable allowing my students to use this website without direct supervision.
Rader's BIOLOGY4KIDS! This site is part of a series of “4kids” science sites aimed at children in grades 4-8. This particular site has links to different groups of life science: cells, microorganisms, plants, invertebrates, vertebrates, and animal systems. Each link goes to another section of the website and contains easy to understand and comprehensive information about the subject in the link. Graphics are clear and well labeled, and each subsection of the website is broken down into manageable chunks with a link for the next “page” at the bottom of the screen. Each section has the option to self-assess using a quiz link. The quiz I looked at was a fairly simple multiple choice, but it may be worthwhile if your students are trying to commit the facts to memory. If they are not, the site is fun and easy to explore and full of neat pictures and good information. I would keep an eye on a student using this website as there are extraneous links to other websites that may or may not be child-friendly.
CELLS alive! This website looks to be aimed at children between grades 4-8, possibly younger with assistance. There are many interactive images of different kinds of cells and cell processes, as well as short flash animations of several different kinds of cell processes. The website is divided into 4 main sections, each has many subsections that are navigable in several different ways, all easy to locate. The 4 sections are: Cell Biology, Microbiology, Immunology, and Microscopy. The information is pretty wide-reaching, from the size of different kinds of cells/bacteria/viruses compared to the head of a pin, to how a bacteriophage destroys e. coli, to how human skin and circulatory cells deal with an invasive object like a splinter. As with Rader's websites, this one has ads and so I would want to keep an eye on a child using the website. The only other drawback in my adult point of view is that the interactive features make obnoxious repetitive noises, which a lot of kids I know would actually find entertaining.
Sea World's website. Any child who has fairly independent reading skills would be able to use this site. The links are not as easily navigable as those on the CELLS alive site, and many of the links in the “animal bytes” section were broken when I was trying to click through them. However, the links that are not broken show decent short information about a prodigious number of species, so if your class is doing a project on animals, it may be of use. There is a lot of information about the Sea World parks themselves, and a “Fun Zone” with coloring pages, a matching animals to continent game, a “Simon”-like memory game, and promotional materials for the Sea World affiliated parks. It's not terribly surprising that Sea World's website would promote their organization, however, I found the site to be a little disappointing in the glossing-over nature of many of its bits of information. There is more trivia here than real info, and I would expect a child doing a research project to use something more than this site if they were to use it. It would be a good beginning point.
University of California Museum of Palaeontology has resources aimed at grade 6 to adult. This website has internal links to information about: the history of life through time, an interactive tour of geologic time, understanding evolution, “the Paleontology Portal” (the fossil record of North America), educational resources for K-12 students and teachers, field notes from “faculty curators, staff, and students” about their experiences in the field, research profiles of scientists at UCMP, a thorough exploration of the world's biomes, a frequently changed “mystery fossil” that invites the reader to guess and then provides information about the fossil depicted, and descriptions of the special exhibitions at the UCMP museum proper. As this is geared toward older people and has few exterior links, I would be comfortable allowing my students to use this website without direct supervision.
Rader's BIOLOGY4KIDS! This site is part of a series of “4kids” science sites aimed at children in grades 4-8. This particular site has links to different groups of life science: cells, microorganisms, plants, invertebrates, vertebrates, and animal systems. Each link goes to another section of the website and contains easy to understand and comprehensive information about the subject in the link. Graphics are clear and well labeled, and each subsection of the website is broken down into manageable chunks with a link for the next “page” at the bottom of the screen. Each section has the option to self-assess using a quiz link. The quiz I looked at was a fairly simple multiple choice, but it may be worthwhile if your students are trying to commit the facts to memory. If they are not, the site is fun and easy to explore and full of neat pictures and good information. I would keep an eye on a student using this website as there are extraneous links to other websites that may or may not be child-friendly.
CELLS alive! This website looks to be aimed at children between grades 4-8, possibly younger with assistance. There are many interactive images of different kinds of cells and cell processes, as well as short flash animations of several different kinds of cell processes. The website is divided into 4 main sections, each has many subsections that are navigable in several different ways, all easy to locate. The 4 sections are: Cell Biology, Microbiology, Immunology, and Microscopy. The information is pretty wide-reaching, from the size of different kinds of cells/bacteria/viruses compared to the head of a pin, to how a bacteriophage destroys e. coli, to how human skin and circulatory cells deal with an invasive object like a splinter. As with Rader's websites, this one has ads and so I would want to keep an eye on a child using the website. The only other drawback in my adult point of view is that the interactive features make obnoxious repetitive noises, which a lot of kids I know would actually find entertaining.
Sea World's website. Any child who has fairly independent reading skills would be able to use this site. The links are not as easily navigable as those on the CELLS alive site, and many of the links in the “animal bytes” section were broken when I was trying to click through them. However, the links that are not broken show decent short information about a prodigious number of species, so if your class is doing a project on animals, it may be of use. There is a lot of information about the Sea World parks themselves, and a “Fun Zone” with coloring pages, a matching animals to continent game, a “Simon”-like memory game, and promotional materials for the Sea World affiliated parks. It's not terribly surprising that Sea World's website would promote their organization, however, I found the site to be a little disappointing in the glossing-over nature of many of its bits of information. There is more trivia here than real info, and I would expect a child doing a research project to use something more than this site if they were to use it. It would be a good beginning point.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
The end is in sight, but this here is a beginning.
Dear intrepid internet explorer,
This 'blog has been created to keep track of useful resources for preservice and current teachers in elementary school. Though its initial purpose is to be something I can point at for my Master's program to say, "see! Lookit all the stuff I found this week!"
Eventually this will morph into my 'blog I'll use when I'm teaching, see the clever naming practice? That's right. I go by Ms. Chaney, so I called this 'blog by that name, partially because that will make it easy for my future students to find, and partially because there were no iterations of my first name available for use that I was willing to use.
The first things you'll find on this site are links to science websites, and probably musings about pedagogical practices.
A little about me; I am a preservice teacher in my last year of my Master in Teaching program at The Evergreen State College. I love the Puget Sound area. I ride my bike a lot, and generally enjoy things like gardening, cooking and eating the results of both. I have chickens, and a cat. I greatly enjoy teaching, and I hope to teach somewhere between 3rd and 5th grade once I'm honest to goodness working as a teacher instead of just practicing.
Jen Chaney
This 'blog has been created to keep track of useful resources for preservice and current teachers in elementary school. Though its initial purpose is to be something I can point at for my Master's program to say, "see! Lookit all the stuff I found this week!"
Eventually this will morph into my 'blog I'll use when I'm teaching, see the clever naming practice? That's right. I go by Ms. Chaney, so I called this 'blog by that name, partially because that will make it easy for my future students to find, and partially because there were no iterations of my first name available for use that I was willing to use.
The first things you'll find on this site are links to science websites, and probably musings about pedagogical practices.
A little about me; I am a preservice teacher in my last year of my Master in Teaching program at The Evergreen State College. I love the Puget Sound area. I ride my bike a lot, and generally enjoy things like gardening, cooking and eating the results of both. I have chickens, and a cat. I greatly enjoy teaching, and I hope to teach somewhere between 3rd and 5th grade once I'm honest to goodness working as a teacher instead of just practicing.
Jen Chaney
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