Group items tagged

"Google has a new desktop tool called Google Refine to help with cleaning up messy datasets, transforming them, and augmenting them with web-based data services. I could see this tool being used throughout the Lab in many areas: on field data, preparing science datasets for analysis, even run-of-the-mill business data manipulation. If you ever find yourself using a text editor or Excel to manipulate data, you might find this tool useful. Note that it comes in somewhat unusual packaging, because after downloading and installing the tool on your machine, you interact with it via a web browser. The link above has several videos that demonstrate its utility." (Paul Allen)

list of 50 education technology tools -- for leveraging social media, spicing up lessons, lesson planning and student projects, and to help teachers "stay connected, organized, and increase the ease of building multimedia lessons and learning tools." Some, like Grockit, Schoology, and OpenStudy are designed specifically for use in education.

The Land Use Calculator is a tool for rapid scenario analysis of land-use implications, useful for decision-makers to address real-world challenges and for classroom teaching of conservation biology, sustainable development, environmental economics and global change biology. It is a decision-support tool targeted at land-use decision-makers in the tropic, allowing users to evaluate the implications and tradeoffs of pursuing alternative development scenarios by simultaneously accounting for the societal priorities of agricultural production, economic development, carbon conservation and biodiversity protection. Users specify a few environmental and socioeconomic parameters describing a landscape scenario, and the tool determines the implications of that scenario in terms of biodiversity, carbon stocks, greenhouse-gas emissions, financial returns of the land and employment opportunities.

One stop page for links to fun tools you or your students can use

I've used Animoto, Quizlet, Xtranormal and Dropbox. Love Quizlet and Dropbox....don't use Animoto or Xtranormal all that much although they are fun and your students might enjoy "playing".

Drop box is awesome - external storage site! Allows you to access files from any computer and up to 2G free storage. More with pay upgrade. I think I will link the Web Tools Index in my wiki for students to use at their convenience.

"What is the Earth Exploration Toolbook? The Earth Exploration Toolbook is a collection of computer-based Earth science activities. Each activity, or chapter, introduces one or more data sets and an analysis tool that enables users to explore some aspect of the Earth system. Step-by-step instructions in each chapter walk users through an example - a case study in which they access data and use analysis tools to explore issues or concepts in Earth system science. In the course of completing a chapter, users produce and analyze maps, graphs, images, or other data products. The ultimate goal of each activity is to build user's skills and confidence so they can use data to conduct their own investigations of the Earth system."

Environmentalists to use new Google 3D Trees mapping tool to preserve forests

This LiveBinder is dedicated to helping teachers find the right web tool for the task at hand.

"Merlin will be a new kind of bird identification tool-one that combines artificial intelligence with input from real-life bird watchers to produce an online "wizard" that helps people ID birds quickly and connects them to more information. To build Merlin, we need to know how thousands of people remember and describe birds. You can help us by playing games that gather the information to help Merlin understand what bird watchers see. The more you play, the more you'll help Merlin become a true bird ID wizard."

Three cheers go out to Jim Murphy for sharing this great website! It's an amazing resource for Global Climate Change! The NOAA Coastal Services Center would like to acknowledge those organizations that provided direct content used in this tool or feedback, ideas, and reviews over the course of the tool's development. Specifically the Center would like to acknowledge the following groups. The U.S.

An engaging and informative interactive tool that allows students to explore many connected factors in air, land, and oceans systems. There are links to videos, visulas, other web resources, and descriptive information. Concept maps are included for each factor. This is rich and engaging.

tool to map administrative region data stored in Excel spreadsheets without the need for GIS

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) supports research into our world's frozen realms: the snow, ice, glaciers, frozen ground, and climate interactions that make up Earth's cryosphere. NSIDC manages and distributes scientific data, creates tools for data access, supports data users, performs scientific research, and educates the public about the cryosphere.

The EOL collection tool allows you to organize lists of species, information, media, maps, and sounds into a virtual collectionnthat you can annotate and share. Existing collections include "Darwin's Finches" and "Animal Phyla."

"Tour Builder is a cool web tool that allows users to create narrative stories using text, graphics, pictures, videos and Google Maps.Tour Builder lets you pick the locations right on the map, add in photos, text, and video, and then share your creation. "

Web-based tool that provides land owners, managers, and planners with the most current climate change science available * compiles climate change projections, literature-based impacts and management options, and Forest Service land and resource management plans in an online database; * synthesizes these inputs based on user-defined criteria; and * creates an optional customized report to aid forest planning and management. "

"Gulf Coast bird watchers continue to survey beaches and marshes for birds as oil gushes from the Deepwater Horizon oil well.This tool highlights 10 focal species of conservation concern that are being impacted by the current oil spill. For each species, we display hundreds of recent Gulf Coast sightings on a map along with count information.. This information can effectively steer beach protection and clean-up efforts to the sites with the greatest concentrations of birds and most important habitats. "

"Wikis are an exceptionally useful tool for getting students more involved in curriculum. They're often appealing and fun for students to use, while at the same time ideal for encouraging participation, collaboration, and interaction. Read on to see how you can put wikis to work in your classroom."

"Students examine North Atlantic hurricanes from 1851 to 2001 over space and time using GIS tools and methods, analyzing hurricane direction, patterns, specific damaging hurricanes, the characteristics of hurricanes near world and specific cities, hurricanes in specific states in the USA and Mexico, and characteristics of hurricanes that passed near the students' hometown. "

"In this 50-question activity, you will determine the best locations to site a wind energy farm in Colorado. You will use GIS as your primary investigative tool and use spatial analysis techniques to consider the best site. You will consider highways, wind speed, cities, size of polygon, contiguity, elevation, federal land, and will perform a number of geoprocessing functions including dissolve, intersect, erase, join, and more to arrive at your conclusion. "

"This module contains an exercise in which students are asked to examine the frequency and distribution of earthquake epicenters and compare these epicenters to the distribution of plate boundaries and cities. Students download earthquake epicenters for the last several days and for an entire year from the Internet, and map the information using ArcView geographic information system (GIS), and analyze the patterns that become evident. The module presents background information on earthquakes and GIS, and includes step-by-step instructions for using the technological tools. This module can be adapted to a wide range of grade levels and may be presented as an introductory GIS exercise. It may be completed without a GIS by using a paper base map, but requires access to the World Wide Web (see Module Overview and Instructor's Notes)."