Textbook URLs
General Websites in the text
www.mcrel.org/
The complete NETS-S document is online at http://cnets.iste.org/currstands/cstands-netss.html
ISTE and NCREL developed an achievement rubric for the NETS-S standards. This document
is online at www.ncrel.org/tech/nets/p-12rubric.pdf
Chapter 1 Setting Objectives
• Survey Monkey
www.surveymonkey.com
This survey site enables anyone to create professional online surveys quickly and easily. It has a free basic service that provides most of the features a teacher would need to survey students.
• Pollcat
www.pollcat.com
The free version of Pollcat is called Pollcat Lite. It provides an easy to-learn interface to allow you to get your survey on the Web quickly. You can view/download survey summary reports, receive automatic e-mail notifications with your survey summary reports, and review/ download each of the individual survey responses.
• Web Surveyor
www.websurveyor.com/free-survey-tools.asp
Here, you’ll find a link to RSVME, a free application that integrates with Microsoft Outlook and other e-mail packages to make obtaining feedback from people a snap. You can quickly and easily put together a questionnaire on any subject.
• Profiler Pro
www.profilerpro.com
This comprehensive survey tool was developed to help K–16 educators measure both the effect of integrating new technology into learning environments and the effect of comprehensive staff development programs.
•The Battleship Page
www.battleship.org/html/Articles/History/History.htm
•McREL’s Compendium of Standards: Content Knowledge
www.mcrel.org/standards-benchmarks
This online database of K–12 content standards and other valuable standards tools is used by district and state-level educators across the nation.
• Developing Educational Standards
http://edstandards.org/Standards.html
This site is a comprehensive list of standard sources by subject and region. It also includes many resources related to standards development, law, and professional organizations.
• Council of Chief State School Officers
www.ccsso.org/projects/State_Education_Indicators/Key_State_Education_Policies/3160.cfm
This site links to specific subject area standards by state departments of education.
• Rubrics for Web Lessons
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/rubrics/weblessons.htm
This site has a comprehensive discussion of rubric design for Web lessons and other topics. It also includes a generic rubric template and general guidelines.
• RubiStarhttp://rubistar.4teachers.org/
Landmark Project Rubric Machine www.landmark-project.com/rubric_builder/index.php This “collaborative rubric toolkit” enables teachers to build effective assessment rubrics and to make them available over the Internet. Many teacher-designed rubrics are available.
• TeAchnology Web Portal for Educatorswww.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics
A number of well-designed rubrics are available for free on this site. After generating your rubric, you can select all, copy, and paste everything into a new word-processing document. Membership is not required to generate rubrics.
• Northwest Regional Education Laboratory: Science Inquiry Model
www.nwrel.org/msec/science_inq/guides.html
The rubrics available at this site (here, they are called scoring guides) help teachers assess students’ performance of the essential traits of science inquiry: connecting, designing, investigating, and constructing meaning. The scoring guides define these traits and provide descriptive criteria for student performance, enabling teachers to give students precise and useful feedback as well as to inform their instructional objectives.
• The Web site Teaching Blogs
http://escrapbooking.com/blogging/teaching.htm)
• Ms. C’s Geoblog
http://sculbreth1.edublogs.org
Student comments are encouraged in this high school geometry blog, used to keep students informed about class topics and assignments. Some assignments require students to post their answers to the blog itself.
• Mr. Mackey’s Science Blog
http://mrmackeyscience.blogspot.com
This science class blog is linked to a comprehensive Web site used for all aspects of teaching 8th grade science. The blog is used to post current events, news, commentary, and useful links.
• Room 613 Talk: Mr. Hetherington’s 6th Grade Social Studies Class
http://room613talk05.edublogs.org/about/
This is a class blog and podcast site for a 6th grade social studies class at Horace W. Porter School in Columbia, Connecticut. It is used to provide class information to students and the community. It also allows students to post essays and other assignments to the blog.
• Mr. Wright’s 3rd Grade Class
www.mrwrightsclass.com
This comprehensive 3rd grade class blog from Wyman Elementary School in Rolla, Missouri, is used for all aspects of teaching elementary curriculum.
• Elizabeth Fullerton’s English IV Weblog
www.elizabethfullerton.com/
Chapter 2 Providing Feedback
• David Warlick’s Landmark Project Rubric Builder
http://landmark-project.com/classweb/tools/rubric_builder.php
• Math Playground
www.mathplayground.com/index.html
This action-packed site for K–6 students provides engaging games that encourage students to challenge themselves.
• ExploreLearning
www.explorelearning.com
This Web resource is for middle and high school students and teachers. ExploreLearning allows students to use “gizmos”—virtual manipulatives—to experiment in science and mathematics. After going through a guided tutorial using the gizmos, the students take a short quiz. Their answers are assessed and they receive detailed feedback. Although ExploreLearning is a subscription site, a free 30- day pass is available upon sign-up. ExploreLearning’s research shows Providing Feedback 51 that computer-based simulations are the ideal medium for conveying information in math and science (Cholmsky, 2003).
• Cut The Knot
www.cut-the-knot.org/games.shtml
This site is for teachers, parents, and students who seek engaging mathematics. It’s a repository of nearly 700 applets that illustrate mathematical concepts. An applet is a software component that runs in the context of another program—a Web browser, for example. An applet usually performs a very narrow function, and it will run on any computer’s browser.
• BrainPOP
www.brainpop.com
This subscription-based resource has short Flash movies on a wide variety of topics in science, social studies, mathematics, English, health, and technology. The movies use clear animation to demonstrate concepts and highlight new vocabulary. After watching a movie, students can take a brief quiz and e-mail the results to their teacher, or they can re-watch the movie and retake the quiz as many times as they need to do so. BrainPOP also features some free movies and a free trial.
• BBC Skillswise
www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise
This Web site provides fact sheets, interactive applets, games, and quizzes in mathematics and language skills for grades K–6. Each quiz is broken into three levels so that students can advance as they learn the skill. This is especially helpful for teachers looking to provide differentiated instruction and assessment.
• High School Online Collaborative Writing
http://schools.wikicities.com
This Web site provides free wiki software that runs through your browser. You can set up a collaborative writing project on almost any subject as long as you do not violate the site’s license agreement.
• Wikispaces
www.wikispaces.com
Wikispaces is a place for people to easily build Web pages together. Anyone can join the site for free, create a space, and begin contributing within a matter of minutes.
• Peanut Butter Wiki
http://pbwiki.com
This is a user-friendly and free wiki service site. Whether you make your wiki public or private, you choose a password that others must enter before they will be permitted to edit an entry
Chapter 3 – Providing Recognition
• Free templates for Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates
Download templates that make designing and printing certificates a snap.
•Photo Gallery Service
www.flickr.com
• Mrs. McGowan’s Student Showcase
www.mrsmcgowan.com/1stgrade/student_showcase.htm
This Web site is an excellent example of an elementary showcase site from H. W. Mountz Elementary School in Spring Lake, New Jersey. It highlights student work, Internet projects, class activities, and online resources for parents, children, and visitors.
• Greeneville Middle School—Celebrations
www.gcschools.net/gms/Recognitions/recognitions.htm
This award-winning Web site features student work and accomplishments at Greeneville Middle School in Greeneville, Tennessee.
• Kids’ Space—Kids’ Gallery
www.kids-space.org/index.html
This is a very large collection of international student work in all elementary school subjects. It’s presented in multiple media: stories, artwork, and musical compositions.
• Kennedy High School Art Gallery
www.kenn.cr.k12.ia.us/ngallery/default.aspx
This fantastic collection of high school student art is from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and includes animations, sculpture, photography, drawings, paintings, and digital art.
• Pleasantdale Elementary Physical Education Picture Gallery
www.pleasantdale.k12.il.us/elementary/pe/pe.htm
• Apple Learning Interchange Student Gallery
http://edcommunity.apple.com/gallery/student/index.php
This digital media gallery allows students to create, post, and promote their work in the form of movies, animations, pictures, music, and presentations. Those with user accounts can choose their favorites for special recognition.
• New Technology High School Student Portfolios
www.nths.nvusd.k12.ca.us/School/Students_parents/portfolios.asp
All students at New Technology High School in Napa, California, are required to post student work portfolios. Follow the Recognition > Students link at the top of the page to find pictures of the “Students of the Month.”
• Microsoft Office Education Resources
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/
This is a large collection of resources free for use with Microsoft Office software.
• Education Oasis
www.educationoasis.com/teacher_tools/Awards/awards_certificates.htm
Education Oasis is an independent, not-for-profit site where teachers can acquire ideas, information, and inspiration. Its stated goal is to provide quality materials that will help teachers take their practice to the next level.
• AAA Certificates
www.printablecertificateawards.com
This site offers many free award certificates printable from your Web browser.
• American Greetings E-Cards
www.americangreetings.com/ecards.pd
A site subscription is necessary before sending an e-card (although a 30-day free trial period is usually offered).
• Yahoo! Greetings
www.yahoo.americangreetings.com
This site has many free e-cards from which to choose.
• Global WRITeS
www.globalwrites.org
This is the official Web site for the Global WRITeS project. Users can find more information about the project, examples of student work, and research data.
• DreamYard
www.dreamyard.com/
DreamYard is an innovative arts-in-education organization that integrates the arts into the curricula of elementary, middle, and high school students. On this Web site, users can find out more information about DreamYard and about lesson plans and student artifacts.
Chapter 4 – Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers
• From Trivial Pursuit to Essential Questions and Standards-Based Learning
www.fno.org/feb01/pl.html
This article by Jamie McKenzie looks at the differences between trivial, meaningless questions and those that truly encourage students to use critical thinking skills.
• Applying Bloom’s Taxonomy
www.teachers.ash.org.au/researchskills/dalton.htm
This Web site goes through each level of Bloom’s taxonomy and gives examples of questions, verbs, and potential activities for each level.
• Bloom’s Taxonomy Model Questions and Key Words
www.utexas.edu/student/utlc/lrnres/handouts/1414.html
This resource from the University of Texas at Austin provides suggested cues and questions to use at each level in Bloom’s taxonomy.
• For the Best Answers, Ask Tough Questions
www.joycevalenza.com/questions.html
This is an outstanding article on the topic of essential questions, written by Joyce Valenza and originally published in the April 2000 issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer. An essential question is one that requires the student to make a decision or create a plan. It requires more than simple research and regurgitation of answers. The article includes
links to other resources addressing the topic of essential questions.
• How Bridges Work
http://science.howstuffworks.com/bridge.htm
This Web site offers detailed explanations of how things work. The articles are broken into chapters, and vocabulary terms are in bold.
• PBS Building Big: Bridges
www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/bridge/index.html
This series of tutorials offers applets and short games to introduce the physics behind bridges, domes, skyscrapers, dams, and tunnels.
• NOVA Online: Super Bridge
www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bridge/
This simulation has students learn about different types of bridges and then apply their skills by deciding which bridge type will work best in various situations.
• BrainPOP
www.brainpop.com/technology/scienceandindustry/bridges/
This short movie introduces basic vocabulary and concepts behind bridges.
• Web Inquiry Project
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/wip/ (broken link)
http://webquest.org/index.php (correction on 9/10/09)
• United Streaming
www.unitedstreaming.com
Use this educational video collection to create an advance organizer at the onset of a learning activity.
• The Internet Archive
www.archive.org
Home to the “Way Back Machine” and Internet archives, this resource also has multiple video clips from the 20th century.
• Google Video
http://video.google.com
This search engine searches specifically for video clips using the keywords that you enter.
• A9
http://a9.com
From Amazon.com, this engine searches images, blogs, and movies in addition to books and Web sites.
• Creative Commons
http://creativecommons.org
Creative commons is a nonprofit organization that offers flexible copyright licenses for creative works. This engine searches for flexible copyright material—graphics, sounds, and publications—that are meant for public use. As students create videos as part of their learning, teachers can save the best of them on a flash drive, CDROM, or the school’s server, and then use those videos as advance organizers with future classes.
•Grass Born To Be Stepped On
http://edcomunity.apple.com/ali/story.php?itemID=166.
•Stellarium
www.stellarium.org
A computer-based planetarium
Chapter 5 Nonlinguistic Representation
•David Warlick
http://davidwarlick.com
•U.S. Geological Survey
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/gis/qed.asc
Seismic activity in the past 30 days
• Jefferson County Schools—PowerPoint Collection
http://jc-schools.net/ppt.html
This is a large collection of K–12 student and teacher PowerPoint presentations in all subjects.
• Project-Based Learning with Multimedia
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA011411961033.aspx
Here, you’ll find free education presentation resources from Microsoft.
• Educational PowerPoint Templates
www.paducah.k12.ky.us/curriculum/PPoint/
This is a collection of presentation templates for elementary topics. These templates are good for students and teachers just learning to create multimedia presentations.
• PowerPoint in the Classroom
www.actden.com/pp
This is a fun, colorful Web site with two cartoon characters to guide you (or your students) through the basics of PowerPoint.
• Keynote User Tips
www.keynoteuser.com/tips/index.html
This site has themes, tips, links, troubleshooting, and other cool stuff for Apple’s Keynote presentation software.
• Keynote Theme Park
www.keynotethemepark.com/index.html
This is an ideal Web site for finding free theme downloads, recommended links, news, and tips.
• HyperStudio Tutorial
www.k12.hi.us/~tethree/01-02/tutorials/hs/home1.html
HyperStudio is an alternative multimedia-authoring software application. This site provides “how to’s” and examples for HyperStudio.
• Webmonkey for Kids
http://webmonkey.com/webmonkey/kids
This site has in-depth tutorials in GIF animation, dHTML, and Flash.
• Animation Factory
www.animationfactory.com/help/tutorial_gif.html
This site has tutorials from Animation Factory by Jupiter images and a collection of royalty-free animated clip art on the Internet. It features more than 400,000 animations, video backgrounds, PowerPoint templates, backdrops, and Web graphics.
• Animation Inspirations
www.apple.com/uk/education/animation
This is a stop-motion animation tutorial from Apple Education.
• Daydreaming to David Bowie
www.vh1.com/artists/az/schilling_peter/artist.jhtm
http://video.google.com (search: Daydreaming to David Bowie).
• Duke University Libraries
www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm
• National Library of Virtual Manipulatives
http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html
• Knowitall.org
www.knowitall.org
Knowitall.org is South Carolina ETV’s educational Web portal, a collection of fun, interactive Web sites for K–12 students. The site is searchable by both subject and grade level and has support resources for teachers and parents.
• Surviving Everest
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/highspeed/everest
This interactive site by National Geographic allows students to explore the conditions that climbers must endure while scaling Mount Everest. Streaming video from each stage in the climb gives students eyewitness views of the climb.
• Interactive Mathematics Activities
www.cut-the-knot.org/Curriculum/index.shtml
Java-based mathematics games are categorized by discipline. This site is very appropriate for high school and even college students. In addition to algebra and geometry, there are games for logic, calculus, probability, and more.
• Clay Animation in PowerPoint
www.pendergast.k12.az.us/edservices/as/wow/claytutorial.pdf
Combining claymation and PowerPoint is an engaging and powerful way for students to create meaningful electronic presentations. This online multimedia presentation provides a step-by-step tutorial for creating stop-motion clay animations and bringing them to life in PowerPoint.
• DigiTales: The Art of Telling Digital Stories
www.digitales.us
Bernajean Porter’s DigiTalesWeb site provides tools and examples to help teachers and students begin the process of digital storytelling. A section on evaluating student projects includes rubrics and scoring guides.
• Our TimeLines
www.ourtimelines.com
This free Web resource allows students to create a timeline of a person within the context of events that happened during his or her lifetime. Categories of events include historical events, technological advances, and disasters.
• iCan Film Festival
www.sfett.com
The San Fernando Education Technology Team’s iCan Film Festival page is possibly the best online collection of student-created movies, produced under the guidance of Marco Torres, an Apple Distinguished Educator and 2005 California Teacher of the Year.
Chapter 6 -Summarizing and Note Taking
• NoteStar
http://notestar.4teachers.org
NoteStar allows students to take information from the Web, organize it, and automatically create citations in either MLA or APA style. Teachers can also establish projects and assign individual students sections of the project to complete. This site is designed for students in grades 4–12.
• Google Docs and Spreadsheets
http://docs.google.com
This free resource is an online word processor and spreadsheet editor that can be shared by multiple users. It provides a way for students to work on papers and notes together.
• ThinkFree
www.thinkfree.com
Similar to Google Docs and Spreadsheets, ThinkFree is a free office suite available online. Users can collaborate to prepare documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
• ThinkTank
http://thinktank.4teachers.org
Designed for grades 3–8, ThinkTank allows students to use online tools to zero in on a project topic. The site is organized as a kind of narrative frame in that it uses a series of questions to prompt users as they develop the project. This site also allows integration with NoteStar as students begin work on their project.
• Cornell Notes
http://cssdesigns.com/learningtoolbox/cornell.html
Many schools use Cornell Notes as a school or district-wide strategy. This site, from the Learning Toolbox, provides a good tutorial on making Cornell Notes.
• Rochester Institute of Technology
www.rit.edu/%7E369www/college_programs/lng_pwr/lecture_notetaking_main_page.htm
The Rochester Institute of Technology has a very strong resource page designed to help students, especially at the high school level, with summarizing and note-taking strategies. The section on “Verbal Cues to Organization” would be especially helpful to students in thinking about nonlinguistic representation in combination notes.
• Summary Frames
www.d214.org/shard/depts./staffsupport/SchoolImprovement/docs/sumframespower.pdf
Township High School in Arlington Heights, Illinois, has a very complete resource for understanding and using summary frames.
• Education Reform
http://classroominstruction.edreform.net/portal/classroominstruction/summarizingandnotetaking
This site provides a number of good examples and resources for note taking, reciprocal teaching, and summarizing strategies.
• Peanut Butter Wiki
http://pbwiki.com
• Caesar Wiki
http://caesar.pbwiki.com
Chapter 7 – Cooperative Learning
• JASON Project
www.jasonproject.org
•National Science Digital Library
http://nsdl.org/asknsdl
• National Wind Technology Center
www.nrel.gov/wind/nwtc.html
• ePALS
www.epals.com/
This is the Internet’s largest community of collaborative classrooms engaged in cross-cultural exchanges, project sharing, and language learning.
• Keypals Club International
www.worldkids.net/clubs/kci
A free place for young people, teachers, and students to locate and correspond with other youth and students, the service provides an easy-to-use interface and database to quickly locate and contact a student or a class from around the world.
• Intercultural E-mail Classroom Connections (IECC)
www.iecc.org
IECC is dedicated to helping teachers connect with other teachers to arrange intercultural e-mail connections between their students. Also, IECC-INTERGEN helps teachers and their classrooms create intergenerational partnerships with volunteers over age 50.
• San Diego State University’s WebQuest
http://webquest.org
This is the original WebQuest site. It is still among the best resources for learning about WebQuests, finding exemplary models, and creating WebQuests.
• WebQuest Taskonomy
http://webquest.sdsu.edu/taskonomy.html
Here, you’ll find a taxonomy of the 12 most common types of Web-Quest tasks.
• A WebQuest About WebQuests
http://webquest.sdsu.edu/materials.htm
This URL links to an exercise that’s a useful introduction to the WebQuest concept. Designed for educators working in teams, it prompts you to examine five WebQuests from four different points of view. There are several versions of the exercise tailored to teachers in different grade levels and subjects.
• Teacher WebQuest Generator
http://teacherweb.com/TWQuest.htm
This is an interactive WebQuest wizard that allows you to select from a variety of themed pages and fill in the form with your information. The WebQuest is stored on the TeacherWeb site and can be edited using your password. Students can view the page using the direct URL.
• Instant Projects
http://instantprojects.org
This is a great site for creating WebQuests, portfolios, and teacher Web sites, and it’s all free.
• Tom March’s Searching for China
www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/China/ChinaQuest.html
• Rubric for the project
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/triton/tidepoolunit/Rubrics/collrubric.html.
• London Chamber of Commerce student team leaders
www.freewebs.com/classcox
• iWeb
www.apple.com/ilife/iweb
Designed for Macintosh operating systems, iWeb provides a way to create Web sites and blogs—complete with podcasts, photos, and movies—and get them online fast. An array of Web templates makes design a simple matter of dragging and dropping.
• Microsoft Office Publisher
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher
Publisher helps you create professional-looking Web sites that are customized for your needs. Publisher provides enhanced features for creating, editing, publishing, and updating Web sites.
• TOWeb
www.lauyan.com/en/tw-home
This is easy-to-use software that enables individuals without preexisting Web designing skills to quickly create a Web site or a blog.
• SiteSpinner
www.virtualmechanics.com
This is another simple-to-use yet powerful drag-and-drop editor for quickly creating sophisticated Web sites without the need to know HTML or another programming language. Use one of the included templates to get started, or begin with your own design.
• Cool Page
www.coolpage.com
Designed for Windows operating systems, this Web page design tool allows you to create a page simply by dragging and dropping objects into a layout. By pushing a publish button, you can automatically upload your site to the Internet.
• Yahoo! Calendar
http://calendar.yahoo.com
With a free Yahoo! account, you can set up a group calendar with many useful features.
• Google Calendar
www.google.com/googlecalendar/tour.html
With a free Google account, you can set up a group calendar with lots of user-friendly features.
• Calendars Net
www.calendars.net
This is a free, interactive Web calendar-hosting service, where you and anyone you choose can post events that will be visible and printable by whomever you choose, or everyone.
• del.icio.us
http://del.icio.us
With del.icio.us, you can keep your favorite Web sites, music, books, and more in a place where you can always find them; share your favorites with students and colleagues; and discover new and interesting things by browsing popular and related items. 150 Which Strategies Will Help Students Acquire and Integrate Learning?
• Blinklist
www.blinklist.com
Blinklist lets students import and manage bookmarks, create watch lists to see what others in their group are discovering online, and follow the wisdom of the group member’s most selected resources.
• Kaboodle
www.kaboodle.com
With Kaboodle, users can “collect” anything found on the Web, from photos to blogs, with one click; compare and share everything on one page; and discover interesting things on pages of like-minded users.
• Moodle
http://moodle.org/
This is a free CMS—an open source software package designed to help educators create effective online learning communities.
• The Global Schoolhouse
www.globalschoolnet.org/GSH/
The Global Schoolhouse is the original virtual meeting place where educators, students, parents, and community members can collaborate, interact, develop, publish, and discover learning resources.
• Blackboard
www.blackboard.com
The Blackboard Academic Suite enables institutions to access any learning resource at any time from any place.
• Revolution
http://educationarcade.org/revolution
• Girls Inc. Team Up
www.girlsinc.org/gc/page.php?id=6.2
This is an elementary problem-solving game in which a team of girls, each of whom has a unique ability, needs to solve spatial puzzles.
• Civilization III
www.civ3.com/ptw_features.cfm
Sid Meier’s Civilization is one of the most successful strategy game series ever created. This game lets multiple players match wits against history’s greatest leaders as they employ exploration, construction, diplomacy, and conquest to build and rule an empire to stand the test of time.
• Building Homes of Our Own
www.homesofourown.org
This is an interactive teaching tool for middle and high school. The simulation presents a macro view of the entire home-building process, from site selection to final sale. Students collect information, solve problems, and make choices as they build a 3D home.
• Jigsaw Classroom
www.jigsaw.org
This is the official Web site of the jigsaw classroom, a cooperative learning technique that reduces conflict among schoolchildren, promotes better learning, improves student motivation, and increases enjoyment of the learning experience.
• The University of Wisconsin, Stout
www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/rubrics.shtml
Several rubrics related to cooperative learning are available here.
• NASA Cooperative Learning Rubric
http://whyfiles.larc.nasa.gov/text/educators/tools/eval/coop_rubric.html
This is an excellent, ready-to-use rubric on cooperative learning.
Chapter 8 Reinforcing Effort
• Rubric Machine
www.landmark-project.com/rubric_builder/index.php ( search: effort)
• RubiStar
http://rubistar.4teachers.org
• Survey Monkey
www.surveymonkey.com
Chapter 9 -Identifying Similarities and Differences• She begins her planning by researching how to calculate one’s weight on the various planets. (Two such resources that address this are www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0875450.html and www.teachervision.fen.com/astronomy/lesson-plan/353.html
• Museum Victoria in Australia
www.museum.vic.gov.au/bugs/catcher/index.aspx
Game of Bug Catcher
Chapter 10 – Homework and Practice
• EDDIE Awards
www.computedgazette.com/page3.html
Sponsored by ComputED, the Education Software Review Award (“the EDDIEs”) recognizes innovating software for education. Categories include Early Learning, Early Elementary, Upper Elementary, Middle School, High School/Post-Secondary, Internet Tools, Educational Websites, and Teacher Productivity Tools.
• BESSIE Awards
www.computedgazette.com/page11.html
Similar to the EDDIEs, the BESSIEs recognize the Best Educational Software. Categories include Early Elementary and Upper Elementary. These awards are sponsored by ComputED.
• Technology & Learning’s Awards of Excellence/Readers’ Choice Awards
www.techlearning.com
In every December issue, the magazine Technology & Learning identifies the best software and hardware in the categories of Curriculum and Data Management; Language Arts; Math/Science; Multidisciplinary; Presentation/Productivity; Social Sciences and Life Skills; Teacher Resources/Professional Development; Tools for Communication; Collaboration, and System Management; Curriculum Software;
and Educator Tools. In addition, T&L recognizes “tried and true” software used by professionals.
• eSchoolNews Readers’ Choice Awards
www.eschoolnews.com/resources/surveys/editorial/rca/
This award is decided upon by nominations from readers of eSchool-News. Categories include Multimedia Creation Tools, Math Software, Projectors and Interactive Whiteboards, School Science Software, and School Reading Software, among many others.
• CodIE Awards
www.siia.net/codies
This annual award, sponsored by the Software & Information Industry Association, recognizes software in various industries, education included. One of the categories is “Education Newcomer Award,” for which users can nominate new outstanding educational software.
• Discovery Education’s The Parent Channel
http://school.discovery.com/parents/reviewcorner/software/
Discovery Education compiles its educational software review by testing software with children and parents. The products selected for the list are well designed and encourage students as they learn. Each review provides a detailed synopsis of appropriate age, content, and caveats.
• BattleGraph
http://sarah.lodick.com/edit/powerpoint_game/battlegraph/battlegraph.ppt.
• BBC Skillswise
www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise
This resource from the BBC includes a Numbers section and a Words section. Within these sections are concept areas containing skill sharpening worksheets, games, and quizzes appropriate for grades 3–8. Among the concepts covered are punctuation, fractions, suffixes, and multiplication.
• National Library of Virtual Manipulatives
http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html
This resource from Utah State University contains many virtual manipulatives to help students in grades preK–12 better understand mathematics concepts. Some of the manipulatives include base blocks, geoboards, algebra tiles, algebra balance scales, and various puzzles.
• ExploreLearning
www.explorelearning.com
ExploreLearning contains gizmos—virtual learning apparatuses—for secondary-level mathematics and science concepts. Among the gizmos available are ones that address how tides work, the multiplication of mixed numbers, and photosynthesis. Although Explore-Learning is a subscription-based site, a free five-minute trial period
allows a site visitor to explore the resource. Each gizmo is followed by assessment questions to check for understanding.
• BrainPOP
http://www.brainpop.com
BrainPOP contains hundreds of short, Flash-based movies on nearly every curricular area: English, social studies, mathematics, science, health, and technology. Each movie is followed by a 10-question quiz that can be printed out or e-mailed to a teacher. This is a subscription-based site, but many movies are available for free.
• IKnowthat.com
www.iknowthat.com
This resource contains skill-building games for students in elementary and middle school. Some skills addressed include using correct punctuation, building speed with mathematics facts, and labeling maps of continents and the United States.
• Wizards & Pigs
www.cogcon.org/gamegoo/games/wiznpigs/wiznpigs.html
This is a game designed to help young students practice identifying alliteration, rhyming, and free verse.
• Flashcard Exchange
www.flashcardexchange.com
This resource allows teachers and students to generate custom virtual flashcards and access flashcards others have created. Teachers can create study guides for students or allow students to create their own. Students can play “memory” with the card stack, and they can also play a game designed to help build their knowledge of vowel sounds.
• Mousercise
www.3street.org/mouse
This resource helps students to learn and practice mouse control. Included are activities to introduce pull-down menus, radio buttons, scroll bars, checkboxes, and copying/ pasting.
• Lever Tutorial
www.elizrosshubbell.com/levertutorial
This tutorial takes students through the parts of the lever and the three types of levers. Each mini lesson is followed by a brief quiz.
• Kitchen Chemistry
http://pbskids.org/zoom/games/kitchenchemistry/virtual-start.html
This activity teaches students basic facts about acids and bases, then allows them to conduct virtual experiments by “mixing” substances to test for acidity and carbonation.
• Hurricane Strike!
http://meted.ucar.edu/hurrican/strike/index.htm
This simulation from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, takes students through tutorials about hurricanes and helps them apply what they’ve learned to make decisions as a hurricane approaches.
• Stellarium
www.stellarium.org
This free planetarium for your PC allows students to see the night sky from any location at any date specified. Students can watch constellations move across the sky in fast speed to get an idea of how the night sky changes with the seasons. Students can also “zoom” to planets and other celestial bodies.
• Instant Projects
http://instantprojects.org
This resource includes a template to help teachers easily create class Web sites. Teachers can post homework assignments that are accessible at any time.
• Writeboard
http://writeboard.com
Services that allow multiple users to edit a document via the Web in a manner similar to a wiki.
• Backpack
www.backpackit.com
Allows students to make individual or shared pages to organize notes, Web sites, to-do lists, and more. There is even a calendar feature to help with project planning.
• Campfire Chatroom.
www.campfirenow.com
Online group chat tool.
• Google Docs
http://docs.google.com
Google Docs works much like Writeboard but has a Microsoft Word–like interface that will be familiar to users.
• YourDraft
www.yourdraft.com
YourDraft has a very simple interface, sometimes referred to as “WYSIWYG” (pronounced “wizee wig”), which stands for “What You See Is What You Get.” Windows Microsoft Word users will instantly recognize the interface. You can insert a picture or even a Flash component. There is no sign-in; you are simply given two versions of a Web address that contains your document. The first is a read-only version, and the second can be edited by you or anyone with whom you share the URL. Currently, YourDraft does not include a Track Changes feature.
• JotSpot
www.jot.com
JotSpot allows users to simultaneously edit documents. The interface is clean and easy to use. Invited users can drag paragraphs to different areas of the document and edit text. Formatting options are very basic, and currently there is no method for keeping track of changes, although this might change given the site’s recent acquisition by Google. This resource is ideal for live, collaborative note taking.
Chapter 11 Generating and Testing Hypotheses
• Microsoft
http://office.microsoft.com
Follow the site’s Help and How-to links
• the Global Schoolhouse
www.globalschoolnet.org
• Collaboratory Project
http://collaboratory.nunet.net
• Mr. McDivitt’s experiences Serious Gamers Source
http://seriousgamessource.com/features/feature_051606.php
• blog
http://davidmcdivitt.wordpress.com
• Muzzy Lane’s
www.muzzylane.com/news/detail.php?id=79 (May 9, 2006, press release)
• Smog City
www.smogcity.com
This resource engages students in a systems analysis by allowing them to set parameters for weather, population, and emissions, and then showing them the variable effects on a city’s ozone levels.
• NASA SCIence Files Problem Board
http://whyfiles.larc.nasa.gov/treehouse.html
This resource from NASA has a rich infrastructure to guide teachers and students through problem-solving activities. Older problem boards are text-based, while newer ones have Flash components, but both have excellent activities. Students solve “cases” while learning critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Included are resources to help teachers directly instruct the problem-solving process as students solve the mystery.
• NOVA Building Big
www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig
This resource helps students learn about bridges, domes, skyscrapers, dams, and tunnels. In each activity, students apply what they have learned to solve problems related to a fictional city’s needs by deciding which structure is best for each situation.
• Plimoth Plantation’s You Are the Historian
www.plimoth.org/education/olc/index_js2.html
This very in-depth historical investigation helps students use primary sources in order to distinguish fact from lore about the first Thanksgiving. Students actively investigate remaining sources that exist from 1621 in order to make hypotheses about what actually happened.
• PrimaryAccess
www.primaryaccess.org
You can incorporate this resource into a historical inquiry to help students use primary-source images to create movies about a historical event. Similar to other movie-editing software, PrimaryAccess scaffolds the storytelling process for students.
• By Kids for Kids: How to Invent
www.bkfk.com/howtoinvent
This Web site introduces children to the invention process, including thinking about how to solve problems and finding out if someone else has already had the same idea.
• Invention Web Resources
www.pendergast.k12.az.us/schools/cbreeze/pepclass/inventions/inventions.html
This site is a vast collection of invention resources including Web-Quests and various historical links about inventions.
• Darwin Pond
www.ventrella.com/Darwin/darwin.html
Darwin Pond is an experimental inquiry game that allows students to create and evolve “swimmers” by tweaking such characteristics as their color, speed of swimming, and number of joints in legs. Once the swimmers are created, the student can watch to see what happens or continue to modify the environment and make predictions about the effect the changes will have.
• Practicing with the Catapult
www.lcse.umn.edu/specs/labs/catapult/practice.html
This experimental inquiry game allows students to adjust a catapult’s height, projectile velocity, launch angle, and other factors. The student must predict how the variables will affect the catapult’s ability to land a hit on a building.
• Zoo Matchmaker
www.minnesotazoo.org/education/games/matchmaker
This resource from the Minnesota Zoo helps students learn about the decisions that zookeepers need to make in order to control diseases while keeping the genetic pool diverse.
• Windward!
www.ciconline.org/windward
This game helps students learn about weather and wind patterns across the world’s oceans and then asks them to use that knowledge to navigate a ship around the world.
• Hurricane Strike!
http://meted.ucar.edu/hurrican/strike/index.htm
This simulation from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, takes students through tutorials about hurricanes and helps them apply what they’ve learned to make decisions as a hurricane approaches.
• ExploreLearning
www.explorelearning.com
Using the interactive manipulatives known as gizmos, students can generate and test hypotheses on a number of subjects: the genetic makeup of mice, balancing chemical equations, comparing and ordering fractions, and estimating population sizes, to name just a few.
You must log in to post a comment.