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Overview The purpose of the Birmingham Grid for Learning site about Life Cycles is intended to provide an interactive introduction to the topic of life cycles. Life cycles are a key component in Biology and it is very important that each student understands them. The intended audience for the site is roughly middle school aged science students. My overall impression of the site is that it is very basic, and has a limited amount of information on it. It can be an ok resource at introducing the topic of life cycles, but should not be used in going into great detail of the topic itself. Content The content of this site would be good for younger students in the field of science. It is good for students to use to augment prior learning of life cycles as well as not going into great detail of life cycles. The website is good for younger secondary students due to the fact that it uses interactive lessons on the life cycles of frogs and butterflies. I would personally only use this site on a minimum basis, not more than half of a class period due to the limited information contained within. Design I thought that the design of the website was very useful, as well as easy to navigate. It had clear instructions as well as easy links to follow. It could be used very easily with little to no trouble learning how to navigate it.

National Geographic is a reputable and world-renowned organization with an extremely experienced and knowledgeable staff of explorers and writers. National Geographic has been around for many years. There is a degree of seeking profits for the organization; however, National Geographic provides an extremely significant amount of data and information in science, even Earth Science.

Adrianne Lauman September 02, 2011 Overview The purpose of this free website is to provide knowledge and awareness of North American bird species and their habitat. The site encourages people to make connections to science and nature through bird watching. The information is directed toward people of all ages who have an interest or curiosity to learn more regarding ornithology. Video clips, audio clips, colorful photos, range maps and life histories are available for investigating bird species. The site provides expert knowledge on the subject of birds in a clear and visually pleasing manner. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology developed this website and the National Science Foundation supports it. Content The site appears well organized with a visible heading to initiate a search for information on bird species. The search feature has an automatic fill in based on the first letters typed to allow the user to locate the bird of interest. Interactive selections allow a person to listen to bird sounds, as well as watch video footage of the bird. The site provides opportunities to "ask an expert" about topics concerning ornithology and information on how to participate in bird projects. One project named Feeder Watch allows people to send in their own data based on their bird watching experiences. Design The website has clear headings to locate topics and information. The copyright information and developer of the site are displayed at the bottom of each page. The photos of the birds are eye-catching and appealing. The information provided by the site is abundant and well worth viewing.

Posted by Lyndsey Neelands on 9/18/2009 CELLS alive is an educational website that is designed for teachers and students. The purpose of the website is to use interactive technology to teach students about cell biology subjects. Content: This website has a lot of good content on it. The author of the website is clearly identified and his credentials are enough to author this site. The information seems actuate but a clear updated date is not displayed. The information on this sight would be very helpful for a struggling student and also as a resource for a science teacher looking for a visual way to represent this material. The Cell Cams are especially interesting, providing a real life representation for students to see. Design: This site is very well designed. It is colorful and very easy to understand. This would be able to be used by young students as well as older teachers. The content is well displayed and very easy to see. Navigation of this sight is self explanatory and does not seem confusing. The author's information is also very easy to get to. Contact information for questions and more information is also easy to get to.

Posted by Lyndsey Neelands on 9/19/2009 CELLS alive is an educational website that is designed for teachers and students. The purpose of the website is to use interactive technology to teach students about cell biology subjects. Content: This website has a lot of good content on it. The author of the website is clearly identified and his credentials are enough to author this site. The information seems actuate but a clear updated date is not displayed. The information on this sight would be very helpful for a struggling student and also as a resource for a science teacher looking for a visual way to represent this material. The Cell Cams are especially interesting, providing a real life representation for students to see. Design: This site is very well designed. It is colorful and very easy to understand. This would be able to be used by young students as well as older teachers. The content is well displayed and very easy to see. Navigation of this sight is self explanatory and does not seem confusing. The author's information is also very easy to get to. Contact information for questions and more information is also easy to get to.

Amanda Larsen 1/23/11 Overview: This is a site that provides current articles and tools for people (at least high school age) to be educated in nutrition. There are diet ideas as well as calculators for things like BMI (Body Mass Index). There are shopping and meal planning tools as well as information on the nutritional needs in the different stages of life. Content: The information is current and relevant to the many different ages. This site is sponsored by the government and the authors of the different articles are appropriately referenced. At first glance the site can seem to be a bit intimidating in terms of the vast amount of information, partly due to clutter. But, the different tools are labeled clearly. Design: There are appropriate tabs and navigational tools make use and access easy. There is a vast amount of information all focused on the subject of nutrition that makes the site worth while and interesting to learn from. Links are appropriately organized in to categories and are accessible. The site is also motivational to live a more healthy life style. 

Posted by Kirsten McAlexander on 9/20/2009 Enchanted learning provides a variety of material for teachers of all different grades. It provides printables and information in an easy to understand way. Especially useful for k-6th grades, but has content for every grade. Content: Although this website must be paid for, you can still get many things free. It is very cheap to join only $20.00 a month and well worth it. This site provides information on a variety of languages from everything from English to Dutch. It has every subject matter as well science, math, history, and writing. It has printables, lesson plans, places for students to look things up, activities, and books to print. This website is very helpful for teachers because it has such a wide variety of things. Design: This website is very easy to navigate. The only problem I have run into is on occasion it will not accept the login. The website is very colorful and attracts the attention of young minds easily. It is full of pictures to aid learning. Attribution: Since you must pay for this website, or even the pages you can get without paying for them, you can use everything on this site without citations. A student can get on and take information without plagiarizing. Teachers can print everything on the site. The point of the site is to have information and printables that are easily accessible by teachers and easily usable by teachers.

Amanda Lemaster January 24, 2011 overview: The purpose of this website is to provide materials and ideas for elementary age children. It is intended for teachers or children to use. The resources in the website are almost endless, there are activity worksheets, coloring pages, and craft ideas. I feel that this website could be very useful for a teacher, or even a parent. The content is semi-educational, so I be careful with how I use it. content: There is a lot of content in this website. Almost all the resources that can be used are print-out activities. There are coloring pages, maps, diagrams and basic information about specific subjects. The subjects range from animals, to music to geography. There might almost be too much to this website, just be prepared to weed through a lot of information about the subject used. design: The design of this website is not exactly what most people would call up to date. When a person looks at this website they may think that this is an unreliable source. Just because of the poor quality of how it looks. There is lots of white space and many bold colors that stand out. The layout is very simple. The website is useful but could have a little better layout.

The purpose of this website is to provide information on various topics. LearningEnchanted.com provides information including sciences, literature, arts and crafts, history, and many content areas. The information provided seems to be directed towards an older audience whose life entails interaction with young children. However, it is very possible that grade school children would be able to access the website themselves. There is an "early reader's" section where children can access short chapter books or short stories. My overall impression of this website was fair. It met many of the credentials provided on the criteria sheets for content and design. However, it lacked visual appeal but excelled at providing applicable information for me as a future educator. Content: At first look, this website clearly identified its purpose and content. The founders of this website, Jeananda Col and Mitchell Spector, were clearly credited. Information on both is provided. The authors were both very well qualified to present this information and held degrees in various fields. Contact information was available. This website is updated quite frequently. Last update was on August 25, 2011. I did not find any links to outside websites. They were all connected within the EnchantedLearning site. The purpose was clear. There was commercial use because you can subscribe to the website to get more access. Also, there was basic access to many web pages that made it informational as well. The content does present the information in an effective manner but the site lacks the use of interactive opportunities. Based on my knowledge, all the information provided appeared to be accurate, consistent, and in good grammar. Although a huge fault of this website was the lack of exterior links, the content of this website are very helpful for future educators and parents. Design: The homepage of this website downloaded without any problems in two different browsers. There was no real eye appe

Biology4Kids.com! The web site that teaches the basics of biology and life science to everyone!

Through the process of descent with modification, the common ancestor of life on Earth gave rise to the fantastic diversity that we see documented in the fossil record and around us today. Evolution means that we're all distant cousins: humans and oak trees, hummingbirds and whales.

Kara Mitchell 1 February 2011 This website is intended for a young audience. This is evident thru the colors, animations and links. The purpose of the site is to explore areas of science, math, spelling and history. Following each link is a list of options for what the student wants to study or look into. Further down the page is a list of games the student can choose from to apply the knowledge read prior. It is simple to navigate, however I feel there are too many options for students giving the students opportunities to get off task. Content and Design: Based on content there is a good deal of information for each section. It is essentially an online textbook with pictures on each page. The content is correct as is spelling and grammar. There is a copyright and year easily accessible at the end of each page as well, making documentation very simple. As for the design, the site has a clear title page and an index of options. The site loads efficiently, quickly and is easy to navigate, as it has the same format on each page. In my opinion there are too many ads directly on the content page. Out of four ads only one is about the subject the others have no relation, or a relation that should not be included in a child's website. Overview: Overall, this website could be more interactive and child friendly. It is a bit word intensive and contains ads that should not be made available to children. There is a good bit of information that can prove very useful and if guided, through a web quest could be led to find the right information and learn more about the subject in the process. I would like there to be more videos or maybe music from the time period to help history really come to life.

Webquest website