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Discovery Education is a site for teachers, students, and parents to browse for educational resources. Navigational bars located on the page website makes it very easy to browse, and find content that fits the interest of the intended audience whether it be a teacher, student or parent. It even includes ways to make learning fun by having a puzzle maker! I think that this would be a good website for parents to browse along with their children, because of the links for helping with homework and keeping students motivated, but I chose to view this website as if I was a teacher. When you first navigate to the site you have to choose a content area and let the website know the intent of the audience, yourself. After choosing whether you are looking for information pertaining to grades K-5, 6-8, or 9-12 you can then choose what topic you are looking for within these grade levels. There are options to choose from math, science, English, social studies, as well as find resources like lesson plans, puzzle makers, and worksheets. There are also links on the top of the webpage that can change the information displayed due to audience type. I chose to view this website as if I was a teacher, but there are also resources for students and parents that include homework help, games, step-by-step math lessons, and a motivation station. All of the links on this page work, and download very quickly. The only thing that I do not like about this website is that beside the three main navigation bars, as well as below the navigational information on the webpage there are some ads. Other than that I think that this website is very useful and user friendly. This website is published through Discovery Education, and on the bottom of the website there is a link for the terms of use to be easily accessed.

Colter Huhn 1-24-10 The purpose of this site is to be a resource for science, specifically biology, teachers. The site contains quizzes, worksheets, lessons, labs, and information on biology. The intended audience is science teachers across the country. My overall impression is fairly strong with this website. The content is great and could be very helpful for a biology teacher. The design is simple, but well put together and easy to navigate. As far as content goes, there are many strengths, and definitely some weaknesses. Upon first look the basic content and intended audience is clearly stated in the opening paragraph on the home page. Also, the information quality is excellent. It's well organized, easy to understand, seemingly accurate, and most importantly does a flawless job of fulfilling the sites purpose in helping science teachers. The major flaw I did find was the information providers and currency. There were no authors or references sited anywhere. Given, most of the links were to worksheets, labs, etc. but an author or creator should be listed somewhere. The only way of finding out who the author of the site is, was to email him/her. Now to the web design itself which was nearly perfect. The site was fast and usable on at least Firefox and Internet Explorer. The homepage was attractive and well organized. The site itself was very easy to navigate with directions in the opening paragraph. There were clear categories to content and helpful links for further information. Finally the content presentation itself was perfect. It's easy to use, organized, same format throughout, and sufficient information. The flaws seem to be there was no date of last revision, and a copyright and site sponsor were nowhere to be found.

Good resource for lesson plans, labs, worksheets, quizzes, etc.. for Biology and Science teachers.

Justin Sanchez Reviewed 10-21-13 www.biologycorner.com Purpose: The purpose of this website is to provide biology related teaching material. There are quizzes, worksheets, and other teaching material tools. Intended audience: The intended audience is teachers who are looking for education material. Available resources: There are many links to other education material websites. Overview: This is a really good website for teachers. There is a ton of different educational material. This website is also creative commons. The website seems to be well maintained and easy to download. Moving from link to link is very fast and easy. Content: All of the content seems to high school biology related. The content is mostly targeted towards teachers through education material. Design: The website downloads fast. The site is not too busy. The site seems to be well maintained, there is not broken links or under construction pages. All of the links are obvious as to where they will take you.

Overview: At the Smithsonian Education site, there is a very large amount of resources for students, educators, and families. Educators can use this website to find lesson plans on subjects such as history, art, language arts, and science. There are lesson plans for all aged students. For students, there are interactive activities. For families, there is information on learning activities to do together. The purpose of the website is to provide teachers, students, and families with useful information and activities on educating students. Content: The content of this website is very useful for teachers that want to teach their students science, history, art, and language arts. As soon as I got to this webpage I knew where I was and what the purpose of the website was. The site is obviously sponsored by the Smithsonian center for education, however, I was unable to find specific authors of the site and their credentials. I was also unable to find the currency of the information, however, based on my knowledge, it seems pretty up to date. The bottom of the page says 2012 so they must keep up on it. The quality of the information seems very good. The content is easy to understand and is well written and organized. The site provides very useful things such as lesson plans, standards information, and really neat interactive games and activities. Overall, I think this would be a very useful site for students, teachers, and families. Design: As soon as I reached this site it caught my eye with cool graphics and a nice layout. The page downloads very quickly. It is easy to navigate through the site. The links provide useful information for everybody. The site includes an abundance of information so it is useful in many ways. I am unclear about the currency of the information because it is not clearly stated.

Posted by Riley Kallhoff on 1/25/2010 Overview: The purpose of this website is to be a place for both teachers and students. It is a place where educators can prepare, plan, and teach. It is a place where students can read up on some current events or play some educational games. The audience of this site is both teachers and students. The nice thing about this site is that it is very well organized with very little advertisements and unnecessary things. It is very easy to navigate and it has a purpose behind every heading. Content: As soon as you come to the homepage you are able to determine that it is an educational site. You can't tell right away that it has games and reading, but you know it is for education right off the bat. You can also tell that it is for both educators as well as students. The authors of the site are not given right off the bat, but you can tell right away that it is part of the Smithsonian. The content is fairly well up kept you can tell from the copyright date. The purpose of the site is for entertainment in the form of games and it is also educational information. The site is very easy to navigate and has titles to links that work very fast. The site is laid out in a very easy to navigate setting. I would say that this site has educational value and is one that I would recommend. Design: I really like the design of the homepage and the whole website. The site moves at a fast pace and doesn't lead you to things that you don't want. The homepage is set up in a very clear cut manor and sets up the website in a very good way. You can tell right away what the website has to offer and all of the titles lay this out. There is a copyright date at the bottom of the page. There is no table of contents, but you know what the site has to offer from the links and titles on the homepage. Another great thing about this site is that it is very easy to navigate, and it takes you exactly where you want to go right away. The gr

Amy Andreen ITEC 2360 (TR) Overview: While searching for websites that would aid in teaching History to High School students, I found many great sources. It is no surprise that the Smithsonian has amazing resources to use. The site I found was entitled smithsonianeducation.org. Not only does it have great information for history teachers but for Art, Science, and Language Arts as well. Once narrowed down to the link entitled "History and Culture", I found that I could also choose between "Educators", "Families", and "Students". It has lesson plan ideas and information that can be used for many different areas throughout history. Content: The content included in this site is all up to date as far as I can tell. The last revisions were made in 2010. There are resources for different age groups that include different activities to utilize within the classroom. Also, the content ranges from Japanese interment in the United States to African History. The areas I found were very complete and useful, however, I found that the list of content is not as large as it probably could be or that I hoped it to be. Design: The Smithsonian site is really easy to navigate and very well laid out. I had no problems with searching for different eras, materials, or even different content areas. Everything downloads quickly and the attachments were very easy to find and download as well.

This website provides many different ideas for a teacher to use. There are lesson plans, gives you a place to search other topics and gives you a standards search as well. I feel the content is good. There are many resources to choose from. The design drew me in to keep looking at the website for interesting lessons-not even related to to my subject area.

Erin Kirby January 23, 2011 Overview: The sight http://www.brainpop.com/is a good sight for older elementary students, and middle school students. The homepage offers different subjects that a student would learn everyday in school. Each time you click on a link it keeps breaking down into certain subject. This makes it simple for students to use, each link is filled with helpful information. The site is very 21st century based and there are many different things to do such as read, play games, watch movies, and more. The content on this site would be helpful to use in a classroom and would get more students interested and involved in certain subjects. Content: Everything on this site seems simple to use, easy to follow, and has very reliable information. There is a link that allows parents, students, or teachers to see what brain pop is all about. It tells you that there are other brain pop sights that are for younger children and even some for teachers that will help them create lesson plans and other activities. It is an educational website that contains a lot of material that all seems accurate and easy for children to understand. One thing that could be a problem is that on some things on the site you need to subscribe to get the full information, but they do have tutorials and lots of other helpful information. I think that most students would enjoy looking through the subjects on the sight and finding something that they are interested in to learn about. This sight is easy to get involved in and enjoy it at the same time. There is so much information that some kids might stay on for hours! Design: The websites speed is fast and works smoothly link to link. All the videos and games that I tried ran great and I had no problems. The graphics are clear and entertaining for students. When starting at the homepage, it is simple to follow and not distracting at all. There are no pop up that get in the way or take away from learning. This sight is great for

Overview: This website was very visual and very organized. This website was good for educational purposes at the high school level. There were many different subjects with interactive games involved. Content: Each subject that this website offered had alot of information in it. There was a wide range of topics under each subject which helped the viewer get a better understanding. THe content of the site was clear and obvious. All of the information for the providers of the website was easy to find. I couldn't find the lates revision date, but other than that, the information quality was accurate based off of my knowledge. There were few links to other sites. Design:Everything downloaded efficiently. The hompage was very organized. The copyright date was obvious. Navigation was easy and clear cut, it was easy to move around the site. There was alot of interactive games that consituted as multimedia. This website had plenty of useful info. that made the site worth visiting

Lauren Peterson 10-21-13 http://www.brainpop.com/ Overview: This website is a multifaceted educational website that contains numerous subject matter. The site provides educational tools that can be utilized within classroom activities; furthering understandings of various subjects. In order to simplify and further education in particular areas of study, this website makes use of games and videos. Overall, this site seems to be a rather useful tool for a classroom, as it is easy to navigate with content that is clearly understandable. Content: The content seems to be geared towards Jr. High students, although there are other websites from BrainPOP that offer similar content more appropriate for younger ages. This site makes the various subjects within Math, Science, English, etc. very clear through explanation and visuals in videos, as well as interaction through educational games. Design: The use of color and animation throughout this website seem to be rather appealing to the eye. Not only does this sites appearance have the potential to intrigue a viewer, it is also easy to navigate. The links and activities function successfully with very few issues.

The Dynamic Earth Overview: This website is set up in a very operative way. The purpose is to inform its viewers about the earth and its components, the solar system, and how the earth came to be here today. The intended audience seems to be teachers for grades 4th through 12th; the teacher could design a lesson plan and incorporate this site into a class activity. Outside of the classroom this site could be targeting anyone interested in earth sciences. My impression of this site was positive; it has tons of information about the earth, solar system, gems/minerals and plate tectonics. Overall this is a well put together site for teachers to incorporate it into a lesson. Content: The overall layout of this website is adequate for any teacher to obtain information or use the site as a teaching tool. Right off the bat it gives you an option of multimedia or printable version, which could please a variety of people. When going through multimedia it provides four opportunities to discover what you want to know about the earth. The quality and abundance of information is set up in an organized fashion. From my knowledge the information is all up to date, but it can't really be outdated when it's about how the earth developed, the solar system etc. The only flaw about this site would be that nowhere to be found directly on the site is an author; it only refers to a National Museum that put the site together. There is also no revision dates. Design: Right from the start, the site loads up and provides the viewer with two options, one being multimedia. At every new screen there is a ton of information regarding earth sciences. The content is designed with a lot of pictures that look very real, allowing it to be interesting and engaging. The way the site is laid out makes it easy to navigate and find what you want, everything is just a click away. At the bottom it has the sponsor and creator, the creator being a National Museum, the link goes to the museum website

Courtney Lovell February 2, 2012 Overview: The purpose of this site is to provide lesson plans to elementary educators. It covers all of the basic subjects in elementary school and could be useful to future elementary teachers. Content: This site is lacking some important qualities, such as there is no information about the author on the site. Also the site does not have revision dates. The information quality of this site is superb. The site is well organized and easy to get around. The information appears to be accurate on this site and similar to information on other sites. This could be good tool to use as a future elementary educator. Design: The homepage of this site has a strong eye appeal. As the audience you can easily tell where you are and there is a table of contents available on the homepage. The homepage is lacking information about the provider and the copyright date. This site is easy to navigate and downloads efficiently. It also has useful information that can help elementary educators.

a. Overview: The first thing to notice when is the title: "Teacher Planet, teaching resource for all". The next thing to catch your eye is all of the ads; they range from google to watchdog, the University of Pheonix to become a teacher online, with many, many more. At first glance I'm not too sure what this website is about. b. Content: This site is directed towards the teaching community. It offers lesson plans, the latest educational news, and financial education links along with links to specific teaching websites. This site has two main headers that contain all links to other resources with the bulk of the page being advertisements. The basic content of this site is a little sketchy for adults whom are not teachers. The articles are all up to date and posted in a reader/user friendly way. One nice thing about this site is the links to articles on how to teach in other languages and in the sciences. Although there does not seem to be many links to interactive media or graphics of any type. c. Design: The main design flaw to this site, or flaw altogether is the bulk of the page is filled with advertisements. The idea behind this website is obscured by all of the ads. It was slightly unclear what the purpose of this website is.

Brienna Gregor 10/11/12 Overview: This website is very useful for students, teachers, and other educators that want to learn more about volcanoes. This website is meant to stimulate the mind through comic book graphics that simplifies the learning objectives as indicated in earth sciences. Available resources include: plate tectonics, volcanoes, volcanic database, games, comics, teach, top sites, and more. This website is great for students and teachers in that it is exciting and easy to go through while serving as a helpful tool concerning lesson plans. This site would work best for students from late elementary to high school levels (5-12). In my opinion, the content and design of this website is well done. Content: At first look, this website looks to be professionally done. The content of this website appears to be current and correct however, the designers are apart of a ThinkQuest team called, "Team 17457". These teenagers did a very good job however; it may not be the most reliable source due to their age, inexperience, and living situations (all three are from different continents). Despite this, this website's information quality is very well done. Design: The design of this website is very well done in that it is very fast, it is easy to navigate, has many different sources of media, and the presentation of the content contributes to the website's purpose. Its design draws you in and makes you want to explore and learn the information provided.

Overview Code Academy is a website that is used to promote the proper teaching of different computer languages to people of all ages. It is mostly aimed at people who are in computer science classes from middle school through college. The site has a number of corporate sponsors as well as many 'teachers' that donate their time to creating lesson plans for this site. They really advocate the teaching and learning of these computer languages. For being programmers, the site is actually fairly simple and had some glitches on my computer. I will attribute that as much to the computer as much as their programming.

kids.discovery.com Reviewed by Kristie Neises on 8/30/2010 Overview This site is a branch off of the discovery channel main site. It features the television series that are on the discovery channel for their younger viewers. It also has games and activities and some television episodes meant to teach that are themed with the popular shows. This site is overall good for its content and design but it can be a little overwhelming for the audience it is intended for. The site has great graphics and would capture the attention of any child visiting the site, it is worth the bookmark to come back to because of how well it integrates teaching with its activities. The useful information that adults might need is a little hard to find. The main down side I can find is that younger kids might need an adult to find games and activities that they can do on their own since the site takes in such a wide spectrum of age categories. Content The content of this site would not be rated very high by adults. Sponsors are not credited, there are no specific things like author information or reviews. Even finding the contact information is a little tricky. Copyright is not posted since each part of the site has a different one based on the show the game or activity is themed after. There are no links to other sites since it is made to go with a very specific set of content to match the television channel. It is very clear on what the purpose of the site is, it is to entertain and even have a little bit of marketing to advertise for shows and the television channel itself. The website has its obvious upsides in that it is something that has accurate information as an educational program and it is made easy to understand for the age group it is intended for. Design The design of this site is well done. It stays true to its roots and copies the same theme colors and graphics that the television channel itself uses such as the chomping teeth and themed background of the month

Brienna Gregor 10/11/12 Overview: This website is very useful for students, teachers, and other educators in that it fulfills a plethora of scientific inquiries. This website is targeted for children from all grades and ages. Its purpose is to instill scientific exploration in children so as they grow older, they continue to be curious in the science world. This website provides many opportunities for both teachers and students to learn through interaction of available resources that include: Games, Puzzles, Activities, Quizzes, Tell Me More (further analysis for many different scientific interests), and more. I believe the design and content of this website is very, very well done. Content: The information currency and quality is superb due to the fact that it is sponsored and created by Discovery Channel. Contact information can be located at the bottom of the page through the link "viewer relations". This website is professionally done and very credible. Design: It is very easy to navigate and provides a huge amount of information. It is very fast, functional, and uses many different modes of media to stimulate children in their learning. Teachers can definitely bring their students to this website and build a lesson plan on one of its many subjects with ease and gratitude from the children. It is very appealing to the eye while stimulating little minds with information.

Shelley Limegrover January 22, 2011 OVERALL The fourth site I evaluated was the Physics Front. This site is intended as a resource for high school physics teachers. It contains links to sites containing lesson plans, activities, and labs searchable by topic and grade level. The site was very nicely organized and contained a lot useful information. CONTENT This site is made available by the American Association of Physics Teachers and is funded by the National Science Foundation. A list of contacts is provided. The site claims that the content is frequently reviewed and updated for accuracy. The bulk of the content on this page is links to other websites. However, the Physics Front is much more than a list of useful physics resources. All links are summarized in detail as to their subject matter, application, intended grade level, etc. Rather than having to fish through a never-ending list of links, the advanced search options make finding relevant material very easy. All links that I tested at random were functioning properly. DESIGN This site is very well designed. The layout and formatting is consistent on all pages. Navigation is simple with a menu bar accessible from all pages. There are no irrelevant graphics or advertisements. It is easy to scan the pages for pertinent information. The copyright date is clearly presented at the bottom of the all pages.

Overview This site is for grade levels kindergarten through high school. It has so many different subjects that you can access from Reading and Writing, Math, Social Studies, Science, Language, and Foreign Languages. To help the students prepare for these subjects for tests, quizzes, or even homework, this website has test prep for all grades and subjects. This website has puzzles, printable activities, and critical thinking exercises for students to engage in and have more fun on the website. This website also includes information for teachers. Teachers are able find lesson plans and worksheets for their classrooms. This website is very well layed out and easy to navigate for teachers and students. My observation of this website is good. Content There are so many different subjects you can learn about, and every subject has different content that contains important information that you can learn about. You can learn about anything! This website mandates that you be a member in order to be able to make use of all the activities and information. Design This website design is very easy to maneuver and navigate through. The subjects are surrounded by many different games, puzzles, and critical thinking activities that students can access. It is very well organized and has great pictures and themes. This website clearly shows that it is very informative and promotes interaction by the student or teacher.

Overview: This site is clearly for students K-8 as well as teachers and parents. It is a site about the weather that is benefical to students, teachers, and parents. Students can explore the weather, teachers can find lessons and experiments, and parents can help teach their kids at home. Content: It provides alot of information about the weather such as hurricanes, tornadoes, winter storms, clouds, rain and floods, thunderstorms, lightening, wind, etc. There are lesson plans, experiments, and science fair projects ideas for students and teachers. It provides a lot of useful and helpful information by the author. She is a meterologist. She also provides games, flashcards, and facts about weather safety for students to help them learn. Design: This web site looks like it was designed mainly for students. It's got lots of graphics and I think it would be appealing to them. Since it's for kids, it's easy to use and navigate through. It seems like a fun site that I think kids would enjoy.

This website, found at education.nationalgeographic.com, is geared at teachers, families, and student audiences. The encyclopedia resources on the site can be altered to better fit each of these audiences depending on the user's selected audience. In addition to encyclopedia resources, videos, photographs, lessons, and educational activities can also be found on the website. The website developer, National Geographic Society, does a wonderful job of providing external links and updated information on a variety of scientific and social topics which could be helpful in elementary classroom research activities. National Geographic's website content is relevant and correct, since it's most recent update took place in 2015. Although the site identifies its sponsor as the Verizon Foundation, no biases in the texts can be detected. On every educational page, whether it is an encyclopedia entry for K-2nd grade audiences or a suggested lesson plan for teachers, National Geographic provides a multitude of working links to back up the site's information and facts. At the bottom of every page, the website provides contact information in the forms of email addresses, mailing addresses, and telephone numbers for users to use in case of any questions or concerns. Clearly, the National Geographic Education website's content is accurate and very useful for science and social studies education. The design of this site is compatible with all web browsers and downloads efficiently. The Education home page offers an attractive, organized display of the website's resources and choice of audiences. This easy-to-follow format also flows onto every page on the website for easy navigation, and all links are integrated into the website's text for convenient learning and fact-checking. Over all, the presentation of National Geographic's content is attractive, organized, and current.

Casey KarchOctober 6, 2012 Overview:  The purpose of this site is to inform the reader on current news happening in, on, or around the ocean. It is set up so all ages can use it, but the home page is more for a literate patron due to the scholarly articles. Children can use all kinds of programs throughout the site, such as ocean portal, to learn about the ocean and it's inhabitants. Educators are benefited with an entire link to help with lesson plans. Resources are abundant and vary in type. There are articles, media videos/pictures, and social networking connections to name a few. Overall, a user could not go wrong with this site for an educational purpose. The Smithsonian sponsors Ocean Portal and all content can be trusted as a viable source. Content: At first look, the content is exceptional. Content of the site is easily determined. Information on the author is not available because many people compose this site. Authors for individual articles can be found though. The information is current to date, new articles are always added and old ones kept on the site to reference. Information quality cannot be rivaled; all information is acceptable for education. Design: The design of this page is extremely well done. The home page is eye catching and informational as well as all the subpages. When the user wants to navigate, links are clearly labeled and it is easy to maneuver. Multimedia is everywhere; a form of multimedia backs almost all articles. The revision times for Ocean Portal cannot be found, but the site is well kept. 

This website is called The Biology Corner. It's a website that is edited by a high school biology teacher who has a bachelor's in Biology and a Masters degree in Educational Technology. The Biology Corner is basically a compilation of useful links for studying, as well as links for worksheets, videos, and resources a teacher would find useful in writing lesson plans. The audience of The Biology Corner includes high school teachers of biology, and high school biology students. I think that this website would be very useful, and it's design is fairly appealing. On the homepage, it's easy to see what the purpose of the website is, with minimal reading. It is mentioned that the website is meant to be a resource for students as well as teachers. The author is clearly identified and there is even a link for more information on her qualifications. All of the content is easy to access and every link works. The website is catered to a single textbook (the one the teacher uses at her school) which causes it to be a bit less useful, but altogether, the website has very good content. The design of this website is okay, but not really appealing. It's very plain and there aren't that many photos or videos that are actually imbedded into the site. None of the important information (table of contents, links, revision dates, author) is missing from the site but it isn't presented to the user in the most attractive way. 

This website is very useful for obtaining lesson plans and understanding how to transfer the knowledge to the students.