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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.

http://science.nasa.gov/kids/ Reviewed by: Rhianna Kipper Overview: The intended purpose of this sight is very clear. It's name is the first clue that the content is meant for kids wanting to learn about the solar system. It lays out the solar system in a way that kids can understand and also offers games and other things to engage them. There is a table of contents that clearly defines all of the pages available which include almost every part of the Universe. This sight is informative and fun at the same time and would be great for older age elementary students to use. Content: The content of this webpage is both informative and fun. Its audience is clearly stated in the name and its purpose is also laid out clearly in the opening paragraph as well as the contents bar to the side. This bar makes it easy to quickly determine what is available on the website. The author is clearly identified and is credible because they are listed as a NASA official. The sponsor is obviously NASA and that is identified. The latest revision date is provided and is recent. I believe that the content is recent and all the links are working properly. All of the content is complete and the purpose is clearly stated. It is all very well organized and free of biased. I would consider this site one worth going back to. Design: The website downloads efficiently and there is immediately appeal to how organized it ia. You can tell where you are and that all the content is related to what you're looking for. The site sponsor is clearly identified. You can move around to each section without clicking too many times or going to unnecessary web pages. There is plenty of information and the same basic format is used throughout the website. The date it was last revised is available and seems to be recent.

Caitlin Pilch 8/31/11 Content: At first look, this website is obvious as to what the content is and who the target audience is. The information providers are clearly shown. The information is current and updated frequently. The information on this site is educational and informative on the subject. The content of the site is clear, easy to use and valuable. Design: This website is organized, quick to load and visually appealing. The provider (NASA) is clearly identified. It is easy to navigate, use, and the directions are clearly stated. The graphics are great and the website works without problems on Internet Explorer. The website and its contents are current. Overview: The purpose of this website is to teach and entertain children about NASA and space. The intended audience is for elementary school aged children. There is a wide array of activities for different skill levels. On this site, users can play games, read about NASA, watch videos, ask real astronauts questions and look at real pictures of space. Based on my summaries, this site appears to be educational easy to use, organized and fun.

Kayla Hyde 10/20/2013 Overview: This website is made by NASA to help children understand and explore the topic of space. They do this with games and challenges to entertain and educator the student. It is a great resource to help add another element to a lesson about space. Content: This Website is very organized and easy for both kids and teachers to use. Just looking at it at first glance, it is obvious who that target audience is, kids of all ages. All the information is current and up to date. Design: This website is easy to use and is organized very well. At a quick glance, it is easy to see what the website has to offer and what you can use to enhance your lesson. The activity links clearly show what the target goal and information displayed in the game.

Overview: This site was very informational. THere was plenty of instructional, educational tools invovledin this website. My overall impression was what one would have of NASA n general; awe. Content: This site was very good at backing up it's information and as far as I could tell, the information was all accurate. The author,sponsor, and contact person were provided. There were no comercial adds and all of the links directly pertained to the information on the site. Design: The page downloads fine. The layout and decorum of the site was very fitting for NASA> There was alot of links and information, but it was not cluttered. Navigatino around the site was clear cut and simple. There was alot of multimedia on the site that added to it's depth.

Tyler Rogers February 4, 2012 Overview: The purpose of this site is to assist educators in finding the best possible space science resources available anywhere on the web. The intended audience is educators, or anybody teaching any level of space science K-12. From this site, viewers can find hundreds of links and files for useful information on space science topics. I feel like this site provides high quality information, but it is not presented well. I would only recommend this site for its content, and not its design. Content: Users will be able to identify the content of the site quickly, but may not realize that it is purely for educators. Information about each of the authors and site creators can be found easily. This site has no visible revision dates, so it cannot be determined if the information is current or updated regularly. The actual content that the directory takes users to (external web sites and PDF files) is high quality work. Most of the sources reviewed by a committee and deemed valid and appropriate. They are generally very factual and unbiased. Some of the many links on this site are broken.  Design: The homepage is not visually appealing. It is bland and boring. The lack of a table of contents, clear title, and copyright date may lead viewers to believe that the site lacks quality.  Pictures only contribute to the background, and no other multimedia is used. Once users find the directory search options, some may be frustrated that their search must be quite narrow. However, the results list is easily readable and gives a thorough description of the resource. It is impossible to tell the currency of some of these sources, and a small handful of the source links are broken. 

http://www.indianchild.com/know_the_solar_system.htm Revised by: Rhianna Kipper Overview: The intended purpose of this site can be assumed but it isn't clearly laid out exactly what it's meant to do. The audience isn't clearly laid out at all. The resources of the sight are limited to what is written and the author isn't clearly identified so there's no way to tell how credible it is. I didn't get a very good result from visiting this website and I wouldn't suggest it for anyone else. Content: The audience of this webpage isn't clearly identified at all and the basic content is partly outlined but not in a very effective way. The author is not clearly identified and no information about an author of any kind is available. The sponsor isn't available and a contact person or address isn't listed. There is not revision date. The links to other websites are working properly but they appear to be advertisements connected to random words. The purpose is clear and the content is somewhat organized but it isn't laid out in a productive way. It is free of bias but I wouldn't consider this a website to come back to. Design: This page seems to download fairly effectively. It doesn't have much eye appeal and seems very homemade with little effort. You can't really tell where you are and the content is somewhat clear but not as much as the NASA website. There is not site sponsor identified and there are no dates to show any upgrades or revisions. It's fairly easy to move around so directions wouldn't really be needed. Links to other pages are only advertisements which in most cases probably wouldn't be helpful in most cases. There is some sufficient information but it is very short.

Website for Webquest

Michael Gonzales September 14, 2011 Overview: The kid friendly website covers a wide range of topics from earthquakes, geology, rocks and minerals, and even fossil fuels. The information provided is supplied by government agencies that supply information that benefit many young scholars about information regarding science. Content: This website's homepage consists of a variety of links that offer a child to go and explore information regarding Earth Science. This site allows children to explore ideas of how things work like how earthquakes form as well information about NASA. This is a Government owned site that has material suitable for children as well as adults. The child base website is broken into two main groupings which has material that is suitable for each age group. The site is straight forward with its information and does not offer many things to sidetrack your learning. Design: The design of the website takes on a professional appeal, the layout and colors are eye catching and are simple and welcoming. The links that are provided allow the users to navigate through and find information with ease. The website provides information that is relevant to its topic and does not confuse or throw off the user. I can see this being beneficial in my classroom when I ask my students to seek a professional website that offers great information regarding science.

Posted by Craig Shepherd on 9/16/09 Overview: Wikipedia is an open-authoring encyclopedia. The purpose of the website is to provide information about any topic to the general public. Content is generated and reviewed for accuracy by the public. Although public documents can include inaccurate information--particularly on hot topics, much of the content is stable. Links to other pages generally function properly, and content is easy to understand. Content: Although maligned by many individuals as a site that promotes inaccurate information, Wikipedia has much educational merit. However, based on the Wiki style of web design, anyone can make changes to articles and can do so anonymously. This means the learned as well as the ignorant have equal access to contribute. Although references at the end of articles may support the credibility of a work, they do not guarantee it and require additional time to peruse. Because authors can post anonymously, it is difficult to tell whether the article is accurate, timely, relevant, authoritative, and so forth. Yet, recent news events highlight the work of this organization to increase credibility of their content. Additionally, one of the purposes of a wiki is to foster collaboration and group authorship. Although individual contributors may not be listed, inaccurate information can be quickly corrected--though it takes some understanding of wiki syntax which may be difficult for beginners to learn. Despite potential inaccuracies, Wikipedia is a good place to begin your research if you realize that contents may contain biases, inaccuracies, and unsupported claims. Design: The site is well designed. A common look and feel permeate web pages, ads and other distractions are not posted, graphics and other visual elements often highlight important points, and links to related articles are prevalent. Several languages are also supported. Modification and revision dates are clearly displayed and the wiki allows you to

Trevor Lenell The first website I am going to evaluate is Wikipedia.org. The educational site that we have been told to never use for a paper because it is editable by anyone. The intended audience for Wikipedia is someone who just wants a quick overview of the subject they are looking for. It does not cover in-depth content or have large amounts of research in the articles. Everything is available on Wikipedia. All you have to do is search anything in google and Wikipedia article will almost always be in the top three links to show up. The design of Wikipedia is actually fairly good. It loads quickly there's a table of contents for each page and it is easy to find the information you are looking for. The content of Wikipedia is where things get a little shaky when it comes to looking for quality information. Since anyone can edit any page aside from a few that have been locked the information of Wikipedia is not necessarily the best way to find information. We do not know who has edited the site or what their credentials are and we have no way of knowing whether it is a great set of information or a joke put on by someone with an internet connection. There is however a bright side. At the bottom of each Wikipedia article there is the references. These are a great tool to find what was used and what is available to use outside of Wikipedia with the same information. These references are a great way to find academic information from good quality sites and can be used when searching through Wikipedia to find actual research. The design of Wikipedia is pretty good. It works equally well on my internet explorer, Firefox, and google chrome. It loads easily, is easy to navigate, and easy to read. Each graphic and audio file on the site serves a purpose to support the material being read. Overall Wikipedia is a great site to navigate and its shortcomings stem from it being able to be edited by anyone. The next website I will evaluate is NationalGeographic.com. An ed

TeacherTube is an educational resource found at teachertube.com. It is a filtered, child-safe video website based off of the popular video site called YouTube. The site, geared towards teachers and students, was initiated by a superintendent from Texas named Jason Smith and is maintained through uploaded user content. TeacherTube is a fantastic source of videos to supplement lessons of all subjects in an elementary classroom. All content on this educational website is current, and its copyright has been updated as of 2015. All video links are informational and relevant, and some information about the people who uploaded each of the videos is available; however, no contact information is provided for the website. Also, the audience and subject matter of the videos are easily determined. The site's credibility is improved by its associations with the American Institute for History Education, Glogster EDU, NASA Ares, and other highly esteemed educational online resources. Over all, TeacherTube provides reliable, audience-appropriate, educational content to students and teachers alike, making it an excellent tool to use in a flipped-design classroom or to supplement any lesson in an elementary classroom. The website's design allows users to easily navigate TeacherTube's videos. The homepage displays a sample of educational videos and organizes them into rows by audience and then by subject matter: teachers, parents, students, and then math, science, and history. Each video shows appropriate content according to the subject and audience it is labeled. Additionally, users can search video channels or specific usernames of people who upload videos. This simplistic format of the homepage is consistent with all other pages, making navigation easy for users of many ages and ensuring efficient loading on any web browser. Clearly, TeacherTube is a well-designed, user-friendly, educational resource for teachers, parents, and students to find credible and informational

A free community for sharing instructional videos and content for teachers and students. We are an education focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners.

Website for Webquest

Evonne Raymond September 16th 2009 Content: This website is made to show new things happening in the science world. The audience is definitely for Elementary school students. The authors are dependent upon the article that you access and choose to read, and the site is Society for Science and the PUblic, its a great interactive community that believes in utilizing educational tools to teach more efficiently. It is revised daily as new events are happening in society everyday.Grammar and spelling is appropriate and suprisingly there is a lack of bias in the articles, as many of the new discoveries are not controversial subjects. The site is appropriate for kids. There are several links to other sites, as many articles are located on other sites, the site is current and has great content for teaching science in todays exciting society. Design:The webpage downloads quickly. It is easy to immediatley understand what the website is for as well as to see what link will direct you to what new scientific findeing. There are tons of grpahics and multimedia that do not deter from the web pages but make the links a little more user freindly and interactive.It is compatable with several different servers, so i would definitely utilize this website in my classroom. It is updated daily for new content, and there are some articles that are from years ago, but most are relevant to a recent scientific finding. This website is excellent for kids and adults to use inorder to teach science. Attribution: The purpose of this site is to educate kids about scientific events going on in the world today, real live science in action. This website is interesting in design as wella s in content and I think it is a great way to create some enthusiasm in kids who would be otherwise uninterested in science.

c. Overview: This site was interesting but I felt that for an elementary setting it wasn't the best. It would probably be usable in a fourth grade classroom and up just because there is a lot of reading and if I wanted to read all the article to my second or third grade classroom, it could be fun for them to see the different types of sciences that are out there. There are some really interesting experiments and videos recorded on this site so it could be really useful for students working on projects.

Content: The content for this site consists of science related articles found in magazines as well as made specifically for this site. I chose to look at this site because it could be very useful for students to see that science is not just something that we see in a lab but something that happens all around us. The content is all recent and updated frequently. The authors are those found in the field of science and give detailed accounts of experiments and what scientists are doing in a way that a child could understand. There are a lot of links to sites such as that of NASA and other recognizable science corporations. Some of these links take a longer time to download but there were few that I found that didn't work. The content of this site is also designed for an older audience so about 3rd grade and up. Large words are used and there is a lot of reading for each page. Design: This site was much different in design than that of the other two that I looked at. This sited has a lot more actual photos compared to drawings and all of them were very intriguing. Each picture brought forth curiosity about what the article might be about and a majority of the articles also had videos to go along with them. The site was also fairly easy to move around on. It did require some prior knowledge about what each main topic category was about, but even if I didn't understand them, I could figure it out from the pictures that went along with it. Everything in each category was related to the other as well and so were the links to other pages. This site is set up more for an older classroom setting though due to the large words as well as some of the photos being of complex experiments. When entering the site it looks a lot like that of a website for a newspaper or magazine, which it more or less is.