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Posted by Amber Rittenhouse on 1/24/10 Overview: This site is used primarily for educational reasons. It is intended for high school students and beyond. The site offers help in many areas of math in order to help with the understanding. Links are provided to get more help beyond what is provided in the site. This site accomplishes its purpose of teaching very well through the example problems given and the lessons provided. Content: This site offers help in order to learn many math concepts, including algebra, trigonometry, calculus, differential equations, complex variables, and matrix algebra. Once you select one of these categories, you can then pick a certain area within the subject. It then offers you an example problem and solution. It is very easy to navigate around the web page. The site offers a lot of information and a lot of help to better learn many math concepts. It does list the date that it was last revised, so the viewer can tell how accurate the information is. Links to other sites are provided to get more help. There are very few ads, so you are not distracted from the learning. Design: The site is very well designed. It is not hard at all to get to a certain subject area that you would like further help in. The site is not incredibly colorful, but this does not distract the viewer from their learning. There is a lot of useful information in this site, so it is definitely worth visiting if you need help in math.

Overview SOS Mathematics is a site for high school students and higher for extra practice and review of materials they are learning in class. It is easy to use and has easy access to where students should go for certain subjects. There is easy access to the other links on the website that allow the website to be complete. Content The content of this website is mainly informational about giving review in higher level math classes for at least high school students. The content of the website is complete because there are no broken links or part of the website does not have any incomplete content. The links are all up to date so there are no problems with the other sites it is linked to. The website is well organized and easy to understand. It is worth bookmarking and given to students to use as review. Design The design of this website is appealing to the eye because it is not too crowded or overwhelming because of the content. All the links are working properly and easy to follow. The website is available on all internet browsers. Due to its easy access students can use it not just only at school but as home as well for extra practice and review so it is easy for students to do better in the class material and subject matter. The website is well designed and easy to use.

Chelsey Lynch 1/31/11 * Overview: The purpose of this site is to aid students in higher level math classes with problems they may be having and provide further resources. There is an extremely wide variety of available resources on this site. There is everything from enrichment lessons, games, puzzles, links for graphing paper, and overviews of any math content areas. This website contains a great deal of information, but it is not organized very well. At first glance this site looks like it could be very helpful, but once you spend fifteen minutes trying to find what you are looking for it seems a little useless. * Design: This website is attractive and has an interesting layout upon first glance, but after further examination is clearly not very user friendly. The material on this site is far too broad to all be in one site. There are several topics to select from and once you click on that it takes you to another page where you then have to make another selection to actually get where you want on the page. The copywriter date is current and visible, but there are too many advertisements on this page to focus on anything, much less, mathematics. * Content: The basic content of this site is noticeably math but I find the bullets to select from rather broad. Information about the author cannot be found on the website, though there is a link to e-mail them. This leads me to wonder if this information is relevant or even accurate. The sponsor of this site was also very difficult to locate. This site is meant to be useful for higher level math classes, such as high school classes, but I found the help links difficult to understand. This site does contain links to the right of the page for other math related sites. This links worked, and were much more efficient than this one.

I have used the website www.TheMathWebSite.com in my classroom for the past 6 years. By using the internet technology fully in the math classroom, teachers spend less time in preparation/marking drudgery and more time interacting and helping your students. It is intended to be used to assist math class instructions by providing typical examples and solutions to most high school level math topics. 1)  Begin with Bellwork. Choose some questions from a Quiz or Test Sheet, and give out to the class via paper, blackboard or projector.  Let students mark their own or each others. 2)  Give a Quiz on yesterday's topics for marking.  Students can mark their own, each others, or the teacher can mark.  Everyone can do the same quiz, or a different quiz via paper, blackboard, projector. 3) Present the Class Lesson  using examples from the Quiz or Test Sheets.  Show questions and solution steps on a projector or overhead. Present as many examples as needed. Click on the question and the solution steps appear or disappear. OR Present the Class Lesson  via the Lessonboard using the mouse drag & drop method. The lesson can be created and presented line by line via projector/overhead or blackboard. OR Present the Class Lesson  via the Lesson Sheets. The Lesson Sheets only present one question or example at a time. Click on the question and the solution steps appear or disappear. Present as many different examples as needed. 4)  Give some Practice. Choose examples from the Quiz Sheets which allow immediate student checking of answers from the bottom of the sheets. Tests have answers that can be clicked out. 5)  Present a math Diversion such as a Puzzle, Activity, Game, or Enrichment topic to maintain their interest in math and to put some fun into the class. 6)  Assign the Homework. Show students the source of extra practice sheets on the website if they or their parents wish to get extra

This is a site mostly used by teachers for lesson plans within the art department. It is specific to the high school students but leaves much to be altered and adapted to other grade levels. The content on this page is very "short and to the point" plans for teaching students things like drawing hands, experimenting with other artists processes, and much more. The thing I liked about the content was the way you can adapt, alter, and integrate your own creativity and required learning into these lesson plans but that this gives you the foundation to build on. The design of the page leaves much be be desired though. General outlines of critiria, supplies, and objective with sparse thumbnail photo references of artist work or the process to be done with visual aid. None the less, this is a legitimate site updated regularly and used by teachers, adults, and even students since 1994. The lesson plans are also teacher submitted from working teachers from Florida and elsewhere.

Deneé Chintala October 7, 2012 Overview The purpose of cellsalive.com is for the instructor of a biology class to provide their students with interactive activities online regarding the parts of the cell, phases of mitosis and meiosis as well as more background information of microbiolgoy. The audience includes biology teacher as well as their students. The site is free with many different activities to do including quizzes and puzzles with content about cells.  Content All of the information on the site is incredibly accurate due to the author, Jim Sullivan. The site provides information in at least two ways for each link (interactive video and a summarization of the video below). Interactivity is huge on this website because the student not only gets to interact during the lesson but a review can be given to gage the student's progress at the end of the lesson. The fact that there are simple cartoon graphics which can allow students to depict different organelles help, but there are also real pictures of microorganisms throughout the site.  Design This site has flare to it with the black background and neon text. It's appealing to a middle school age group but I could see high school students finding it alluring as well. It is also easily maneuverable due to the hyperlinks on the left side as the title of the lesson. If I were to give a class of the links to click on to get to the lesson it would be a very simple task with little to no questions.

Overview - This site gives pretty good information and i believe that it is suitable for probably upper middle school and high school to college students. It includes information on the histories of dissection and vivisection in regards to animals and educational purposes. Content - I do believe that this site has good content, but it wasn't exact what I was looking for when I searched dissections. This site talks about how animal dissections are used for educational purposes and not really the history of dissection or vivisection as stated in its title. Design - This site, i believe, had the worst design of the 3 that I evaluated. It is very boring all around the page and doesn't do anything to draw there reader into reading it. There is no helpful images or videos, just dull colors and the article.

Morgan Kuchta September 1, 2010 Sparknotes.com Overview This site is a great resource for students who struggle with reading in school. The website provides book and chapter summaries and plot overviews along with character analysis for all main characters in each book reviewed. The books that Spark Notes provides information on are those that have deep and complex plot lines and character development that are often found in classrooms of all grade levels. Perhaps one of the most useful tools on this website is called "No Fear Shakespeare", which translates the old English of Shakespeare into modern English so that students might have an easier time remembering information and comprehending it. Although the site organization is poor and it throws too much information onto one page, I believe this website could be an extremely valuable resource to teachers who assign reading to their classes. Content At first look it is easy to tell where you are and what is provided, in general, on the site. The audience is pretty clearly defined as students but it is difficult to tell exactly who will benefit most from this sitel There were no listed authors for the site although there were authors listed for each of the book summaries done on each separate page with an email address attached. The revision dates are included on every book review and the links to related sites are all functioning. The information quality was incredible. Although it was not well organized, it is by far the most comprehensive literacy site that I have used in the last few years. The other links posted were pretty good, although most of them were just for the interest of the users rather than usefulness for help with English homework. Design The homepage download was no problem, while it was attractive to the eye, it was a little information heavy and a it was kind of hard to tell exactly where I needed to navigate. There were a LOT of advertisements in the margins and even in other areas of th

Randi McInerney September 15, 2011 Overview: The website "Sparknotes" is an educational and entertainment website with various study resources available. The information is most relevant to high school aged students, but late middle school and college students, as well as teachers, could also benefit from this site. College video tours, book summaries, analysis, and quizzes, and ACT/SAT/AP/GRE test preparation material, and news articles are also available. The content and design are effective and organized, but the advertisements can be distracting and seem overwhelming. This site can be abused by students wishing to plagiarize or to avoid reading a book, but has so many great things to offer if it is used appropriately. Content: There is a lot of educational material available on this site. Video clips, interactive tours, blogs, cartoons, and more can all be found on this site. There are various links in order to contact them, but no direct contact information like an address is provided. Besides educational material, there is lifestyle, entertainment, and dating information. I think that this may be distracting from the educational aspects of the site, but it makes sense because of the audience the website is intended for. Design: The site downloads efficiently and is visually interesting, especially for the intended audience of young adults. The site is easy to navigate, especially if you know what you are looking for from the start. In this case, the search bar will help you easily locate what you are looking for if it is indeed on the site.

Sparknotes is a resource aimed at high school and college students. It offers summaries of literary works as well as test prep. The main purpose of the site is to simplify in-depth texts down to a modern English level. Unfortunately, these summaries are not all that is available. The site largely consist of entertainment news. This aspect dominates the site, making it hard to find the reviews and study resources. Because of this my overall impression is that the site includes a good about of information for those looking for it, but is also a place where one can very easily get side tracked, rendering its information useless. It is worth a bookmark, but is not the most useful thing. The content of this site is very diverse. As for the literary summaries, there are over 100 on some of the best known works in many different subject areas. The site is up to date and loads easily. Most of the summaries are based off of the most recent publications of texts. The site is confused about its purpose. The summaries and text prep sections are hard to find while entertainment news is profusely advertised and easy to find. The educational sections are labeled in small black index style links, while the entertainment section has large magazine like spreads. Although the site has relevant information that is consistent and helpful, it is congested with much needless gossip that has potential for abuse. The websites speed is quite good. It loads very fast comparatively. The homepage is attractive, but is attractive for the wrong reasons. It is hard to find relevant information on the site (although there is a lot of it). This makes navigation of the site difficult and can easily suck the user into a "twilight zone." The site is strong on most platforms, even having apps available. Content presentation is mores streamlined on the app, but is congested on a web version. An administrator is available to answer any questions and provide further information.

Jacqueline Twiford Web Site Review September 20, 2009 http://atozteacherstuff.com/ This website contains a lot of information for educators from Science, Math and reading and all the way from pre-school to high school. This is a great website to find a variety of information including lesson plan ideas. On this website you can also retrieve worksheets to help you in teaching the subject in your classroom. CONTENT When opening this website you can see an organized list of every subject that you will teach to your students. You can also get information for many different age groups from pre-school to high school. This "A-Z Teacher Stuff" is a site that provides you with tips for different activities as well as resources that you can use. You can discuss ideas on this site with other teachers as well as find articles related to the topic of your choice. "A-Z Teacher Stuff", is a great way to search all the topics you are looking for through one site. You can also retrieve lesson plans and activities as well as worksheets. The content provided on this site is in abundance and every teacher could find something on this site to utilize in their classroom. This site will help you find what you are looking for. "A-Z Teacher Stuff", provides a lot of helpful things for a teacher that needs new worksheets or even a lesson plan idea to change up the classroom for the students. DESIGN When I first opened "A-Z Teacher Stuff", the amount of links was a little defeating. After looking through the site a little more thoroughly I realized that it is very organized and loads quickly. This is a great way to search for information provided by teachers as well as the age group that you need. By using this broad search, you will save a lot of time by choosing the subject as well as the age level you plan on teaching it to. As a teacher time is very critical and you do not have much extra time to search through sites in detail to find what you need. By

Overview Paragraph: The purpose of this site is to provide different lesson plans and different activities for different subject areas in different age groups. The audience is teachers because it mostly contains tools for teachers. There are all kinds of different tools such as lesson plans and games along with worksheets and assignments to go with a lesson plan. Overall this site looks like a very good resource for teaching and creating lesson plans. Content Paragraph: The content on this site is mostly run by the public. It's very up to date and there are even forums that you can go and read and post on that is updated every few hours. The site is current according to its' copyright as well. The authors aren't displayed right out in the open because it is run mostly by the public. The sponsors are educational and displayed openly. All of the links are working and operational. The content is easy to use but could be organized a little better. Design Paragraph: The front page is very clear as to what is being displayed but the background is very shocking at first. There aren't very many pictures which hinders the usability of the website. The information is all very viable and easy to understand. The graphics make it kind of hard to focus on the content itself, but still isn't terrible to deal with. There is a link that is available for any further questions that you may have about the website. 

Morgan Kuchta September 1, 2010 Blackboard.com Overview Blackboard (Bb) is a company with a website (Blackboard.com) that is similar to eCompanion used here on the UW campus. It provides an online domain for teachers to post assignments, announcements, proctor tests, host chats and discussions, and post grades. It is an interactive site for teachers and students to communicate and use as a resource. Bb is obviously aimed at the education audience and has different tools for everything from kindergarten to college. I have used Bb in the past in high school and it was always a very effective tool. It was dependable and very user friendly. I would highly recommend this site to all educators wishing to use an online forum. Content Summary At first look, Blackboard is an extremely well organized website, it gives its purpose on the home page and all major pages for the site have tabs clearly labeled at the top. The author information is not available, however blackboard is a company that provides an online forum for teachers and schools to use as a means of communicating with their students and promoting online learning, so it more than likely has more than one author. There is an email address for any support that you need and they also have a frequently asked questions section, broken down by the type of client you might be, i.e. teacher, student, designer, or administrator so you are likely to get your question answered right then and there. The site is very up to date and claims to be adding new features about once every few months so it stays current. The Information quality of this site is great, it is obviously a business and their purpose is clearly stated and easy to understand. It has links to all their concurrent sites that have other tools you can use to make Blackboard more accessible to you and your students i.e. Bb Mobile. Design I had no trouble downloading the home page. Although it is not full of bright colors its appeal states its purpose: efficie

Posted by Erika Jeffs on 1/24/2010 Overview: Math Apprentice is designed to show kids that math is used in the real world, and not just the obvious careers like an accountant, but other developing areas such as graphic design. The students get to pick from 8 different careers, and explore the features of the line of work they choose and do some hands on math related activities. These activities make the website very interactive. The site is designed to use in the classroom for middle school students, but could also be useful for high school students as well. Content: The website clearly states the purpose of the website and the audience, in fact, it has a tab specifically for this information. The "About" tab gives and overview of the entire website. Sponsor and contact information is easy to find, however the authors of the website are unclear. The site was copyrighted in 2009 and is fairly new, so it should be up to date. The links are relevant to math and are in working order. This site is very interactive and gives many examples of math in the real world that would come as surprise to many students. There is also a tab that gives teachers a detailed description on how to use the site in the classroom. Math Apprentice's sole purpose seems to be to educate and not to sell anything. The website is easy to navigate and well organized because there is only four tabs. Everything seems to be accurate, up to date, and correct as far as my knowledge. Design: Math Apprentice loads very quickly, especially considering all of the interactive features the site provides. The home page is attractive, easy to navigate, and the format is held constant throughout the entire site. Copyright and contact information are easy to find. Directions for using the site are easy to find and very helpful. All links are working properly and quick to load. The site specifically states that the site works best with Safari or Firefox, and that there may be some bugs th

Rebekah Asay January 23, 2011 Overview: This website is an online game that quizzes students on geographical information. It includes quizzes on locations, climates, industries, physical systems, population, culture, environment, and society. Content: The website is fun and educational. It has many categories to choose from and tests students on their knowledge of the world using fun, educational questions based on those categories. The content is mostly for older middle school or high school students. Design: The design is fun and interesting. It is easy to navigate and is engaging.

I found this to be a high quality educational website for elementary school students. It has online educational games as well as informations for hands on activities.  It provides many activities for students to do on their own or for teachers to do in the classroom. It also provides areas so you can submit the results of your experiments to you can compare to other groups of students.  Content: "The Lawrence Hall of Science: 24/7 Science" website  is up to date, and activities are current and appealing to today's students. Although the "Educator Information" link is not yet available, it provides many activities that would be appropriate to use in a classroom. It also explores a wide variety of scientific subjects that are explored in the classroom today.  Design: This website is very easy to navigate to find certain pages. It is very colorful and appealing to children in elementary school. The displays help to easily determine which games are online and which are activity guides provide for hands on science experiments. 

Overview: This site is informative. It covers a lot of subjects mostly dealing with the subject of English and including grammar and writing. The author is clearly identified and, after searching online about the author, I've determined that the author is exclusive to this site. The site is sort of in a blog format, but organized well enough to maneuver freely without hesitation. The sponsor is clearly displayed on the site and thought the contact information is not readily available, there is access to a contact by email. Content: The content is highly informational and accurate. The author updates the site every day, with new posts and updates for his existing revisions and writings. The material is appropriate for high school students and college level students as well. There are few to no external links displayed, for the reason of exclusivity. The site is well organized which makes it easy to find something specific you are looking for. The information is consistent with similar information in other sources and the grammar and spelling are correct. Design: the page downloads efficiently. Although the author has not made the site flashy or outright colorful, he makes up for it in content. Directions to the site are easy and clear to understand. The categories are visible on the home page and can be easily maneuvered. There are few graphics displayed on the website, but then this site is not geared towards elementary schools. The design is basic and useful. The same basic format is consistent through the full site which makes the information easier to find.

9/13/11 This is a good starting point for a history project. The website has many links to other credible sites including government site. The target audience is late middle school to high school. The main page is easy to navigate and links open easily.

Chemistry Professor Overview: Chemistry professor is a website that sells DVD's and chemistry notes intended to help a chemistry student. The website was recommended to me by my chemistry teacher from high school if I ever need good, extra material. I used his DVD's to study for the AP exam, and they were extremely valuable. They presented content in a unique way, however free general chemistry information can be just as good, such as the other website evaluation I submitted, General Chemistry Online. Content: The site's purpose is easy to determine, and it's also easy to determine the site is not free. The information is cited in the DVD's themselves, but not on the website. The courses offered by the site are well-organized and it's easy to determine what information will be covered in each course. The information quality is very good, and more in-depth than free informational websites. Somebody could learn enough chemistry to be almost as proficient as through college courses. Design: The site's design is minimal, and uses a simple color palette that makes information easy to see, and the site easy to navigate. Checkout directions are easy to follow, and are secured through PayPal. Information is current and well-presented, and the authors are available for contact through phone or e-mail.

Sarah KautzkyJanuary 31, 2011 Overview: The purpose of this website is to provide a small amount of information relevant to statistics courses and students and then redirect the user to other sites that deal with statistics help. This site is intended for students who are enrolled in a statistics course, high school or college. This website would be helpful to teachers teaching a statistics course, but using takes time and willingness to navigate from page to page until an answer may or may not be found. This appears to be a branch site of an online encyclopedia. My overall impression is fairly poor. Content: The creator of this website is not listed and there is no way to contact the people who run the site. There is no recent revision date or copyright date listed. Links to other sites and sources are in working condition but they are not categorized by content. There is no organization of information because the site itself provides very little information. This website does not achieve its purpose in providing help to statistics students and there is not way to know if all of the information is correct or relevant without visiting every link, and there are many of them.  Design: The design of this website is not to my liking. There are no download errors or broken links, but the entire site lacks any sense of organization. It is a hodgepodge of links and the disorganization distracts and even discourages learning. It is obvious what the title of the webpage is, but that is the only clear introduction to the site. The graphics limited and helpful. They are not excessive or annoying. Overall the site is designed not well for its intended audience. This is not a source that I would endorse or use in my classroom.

Posted by Allie Parrott 09/17/09: Homework spot is a site that simplifies the search for popular homework topics assigned to students K-12. It can also be used by parents and teachers. Content: This site covers a variety of topics. There are even virtual field trips. Other benefits this site provides are SAT tips, current events, and how to write a great book report. Students can find almost anything they need here. The site was last updated today. The incoming information is always fresh and relevant to what students are learning today. There are not only articles from their own authors, but also links to articles that may provide better information for the student. Information is presented in a clear manner. The sight is sponsored by a bigger company StartSpot Media Works Incorporated. HomeworkSpot would help any child navigate their way around the internet. It is also beneficial because the sites that are recommended are credible well researched sites. Design: The most helpful part of the design is that is separates the topics in to age groups. There are a number of links under the heading "Elementary" and the same goes for the headings "Middle" and "High School". This way there is no time wasted, looking but information that is above a child's head, or below their level. The only flaw in the design is that the user has to click at least links to find what they are looking for. However, once they find it the information is most likely exactly what they are looking for. There are Google ads, however advertising is only on the homepage and is kept to a minimum. Attributions: The most helpful link for this is the "About this Site" link. It gives the user all the necessary information about what the site is about and who is running it. It makes the purpose very clear. This would be another site I would recommend due to its fairly obvious credibility. \n

Mike Wilson Site review September 18, 2009 NASA Education Grades 9-12 Introduction As this is a NASA site, it is an awesome resource. While my selection is for Grades 9-12, the site covers K-12 + higher education. The purpose is to give all students direct access to NASA space and aeronautics content through educational programs including high school internships. The A-Z Index for Students contains links to hundreds of NASA programs. The main NASA Education home page has a Google rank of 8/10, the Grades 9-12 has a Google rank of 6/10. Content Evaluation First Look First look is a bit busy and boxy. There are 7 + information boxes above the fold along with a top left menu. Information Providers It is NASA! Information Currency Last updated September 15,2009 by Shelly Canright. Extensive and updated future, current and past NASA program information. Information Quality The quality of the information is exceptional and seemingly endless, presented in a wide variety of formats. Images, video, podcasts, NASA TV, Interactive, 3D, RSS, Blogs. Design Evaluation Speed As with most NASA sites, a bit slow on the load. Considering the information presented, on each page, the speed is acceptable. Home Page If you are a space science student, this is the page for you. Geared to the 9-12 viewer with the exciting science you are looking for. Ease of Navigation Due to the depth of the information, there is some digging to be done to get what you want. Use of multimedia Comprehensive use of all multimedia formats. Browser compatibility Viewed only on IE7 Content Presentation From NASA Facebook, Career Profiles, MyNasa for homework help, Missions, if it's Space Science you will find it here presented world class.

Overview Paragraph: The purpose of this site is to provide different kinds of activities to use when teaching math. The audience is mostly teachers but parents would benefit as well. There is all kinds of math worksheets and games and such that are available for grades preschool through high school. Overall this site looks very useful and helpful if you're in a pinch for an activity for a lesson plan. Content Paragraph: The content of this webpage is up to date and current according to the copyright. Also, the authors of the site are all listed and described and have degrees in the content that they are discussing. The sponsors are clearly displayed. All of the links that are displayed are working and fully functional. The content is well organized and easy to use. Design Paragraph: It was very clear as to where I was when I clicked on the link as to where I was on the internet and what the content of the website was. There is a decent amount of viable information to make this site worth visiting. The graphics are very useful and aid in the navigation of the website. There is a link that is available to click on to contact a person for more information and other websites are available to for use.

Overview Paragraph: The purpose of this site is to provide different kinds of activities to use when teaching math. The audience is mostly teachers but parents would benefit as well. There is all kinds of math worksheets and games and such that are available for grades preschool through high school. Overall this site looks very useful and helpful if you're in a pinch for an activity for a lesson plan. Content Paragraph: The content of this webpage is up to date and current according to the copyright. Also, the authors of the site are all listed and described and have degrees in the content that they are discussing. The sponsors are clearly displayed. All of the links that are displayed are working and fully functional. The content is well organized and easy to use. Design Paragraph: It was very clear as to where I was when I clicked on the link as to where I was on the internet and what the content of the website was. There is a decent amount of viable information to make this site worth visiting. The graphics are very useful and aid in the navigation of the website. There is a link that is available to click on to contact a person for more information and other websites are available to for use.