Group items tagged

Content Summary: The content for this site was decent and the user would be able to determine the basic content of the site right away. The sponsor and the latest revision date are posted on the bottom of the page. All of the links to other sites were currently working properly and were useful extra information that was helpful for the topic. The purpose of the site was clear right when you first looked at it that it has to do with the solar system. There is no grammar or spelling errors throughout all the information on the site. The content appears to be complete and organized. Design Summary: The site is full of information that was organized and easy to navigate around within the site. The home page had a lot of moving objects in the pictures and was a lot to take in when you first get to the site. The moving displays are very useful for the site because it helped show how the planets and other things in space move. The site and the links on the page downloaded efficiently. They had great graphics that fit the idea of the page and topic. There are available working sites for further information on each page if someone wanted to further their knowledge. Overview: This site that provides information about astronomy. The site contained great visual aids for the kids and was entertaining. It also is designed for the audience to be young students. The site was very well designed, easy to use, and contained useful information. The site had the basic important information about astronomy. It also presents its information in a way students can understand.

Content: The content of this website is clearly displayed at the top of the page. The ages of audience is not displayed, I would estimate the information useful for grades 5-8. The author is displayed and some background information is given, but, there is no way to contact him. I did not see a date of latest revision. The information is pretty timeless and so does not need revised much. The site does have advertisements that are not related to education, which may be bothersome. There are some links to other science related websites by the same author. Design: The homepage is quick to load and easy to navigate. There are a few graphics and images that support the information, but, not so many that it becomes a hindrance. The site seems compatible with different browsers. Included at the end of the lesson there are additional links to more topics. Purpose: To give information in regards to Astronomy and the Universe. It is well laid out and gives information in a logical order. Audience: Based on the content I would assume that the grades that would make the most use of this website would be 5th-8th. Resources: At the end of the lesson there are 11 links to related materials. The links work and are to reliable sources of scientific information. Impression: I like the website, it presents information that may be daunting in a relate able way, and even gives real world examples. The quizzes at the end help students to solidify the information they have gathered

Caroline Wittman (Virginia) January 31, 2011 Overview Ology is a fun website that allows children to collect virtual trading cards and use them to make online projects as they learn about different science topics. The list of topics is varied, including anthropology, archeology, astronomy, biodiversity, the brain, climate change, earth science, genetics, marine biology, paleontology, water, and zoology. Each area presents a plethora of interactive applications for children to explore: games, animations, quizzes, and suggestions and guidance for completing simple offline science investigations and experiments. There are also book lists and other helpful internet sources that can be consulted for further information. Content Ology is sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History. Accordingly, information was accurate and up-to-date. It was also well organized and communicated on a level that elementary school age children can understand and relate to. Information is also in line with what is covered in the typical elementary school science curriculum. Although specific authors of articles are not usually listed, it is easy to find contact information for the sponsoring organization. Links to other internet resources were relevant and informative. Overall, the content of the site serves to ignite children's curiosity about the natural world. Design The Ology homepage, as well as its interactive applications, downloaded quickly. The overall design is appealing to elementary school children, incorporating lots bright colors and bold shapes. Navigation is simple, even for young children. The major areas of the site are located in an obvious place on the homepage. Information is easy to locate within each of these areas. Directions for games and other interactive content are very straightforward and explained clearly. Close inspection reveals that each detail of the site's design works toward enhancing children's learning.

Tyler Rogers February 4, 2012 Overview:  The purpose of this site is to provide users with concise and easy-to-read space science materials, and to help educators guide their lessons involving space science. This site is geared towards educators looking to solidify understanding, or develop new ideas for lessons. Though the site does not specifically provide lesson plans, it does provide the knowledge from which teachers could derive their own. There are links to other educational space science sites, as well a handful of interactive activities. I feel that this site is a valuable resource, contains high quality content, and could be well utilized by educators seeking to teach space science. Content: This site's overall content is clear from the homepage, though no specific authors are listed. All of the site's content is well organized in categories. Once a reader finds their desired section of the site, the content is coherent. The material is strictly factual and contains no bias, and none of the links are broken.  It is important to note that this site fails to provide any revision dates, rendering the currency of the site unknown.  Design: Amazing Space is easy to navigate and is compatible with many web browsers. There are two viewing options a user can pick from. Not both options present the same information, but it is all organized the same. A sidebar to the left of the screen organizes all of the site's content. Users can easily find lists of clearly labeled fact sheets and activities.  The site makes use of multimedia, especially photos and pictures. The pictures contribute to the visual appeal of the site, but do not serve a greater purpose. The site's organizational downfall is that users often have to click through many links to find the desired material.

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. 

Tyler Rogers February 4, 2012 Overview: The purpose of this website is to provide educators with activities and lessons for space science. This website is geared towards educators. Viewers will find classroom activities, a list of standards that the site address, and links to other educational space science sites. The site is very easy to navigate, and the lessons and activities provided are of high quality. I would recommend this site to educators because of the excellent lessons, and because of the simple, yet effective layout of the entire site.  Content:  From the first click, the content is clear. Information about the author, including contact information, can be difficult to find. Revision dates are found at the bottom of the home page. By picking one of the listed topics, users will find activities and experiments created by the author. These activities can be effective for many grade levels. They are free of bias, and all the links function properly. Most of the activities contain printer-friendly pages for both the educator and the students. Design: This site has a simple design. The home page is clean, and the table of contents is clear. Copyright information and recent revision dates are available near the bottom of the screen. The site is remarkably easy to navigate: any link in the table of contents will take users to a list of every activity or classroom experiment available for that topic. Selecting an activity will then take users straight to the printable lesson. The actual lessons are all in black and white so that they can be printed easily.  This website uses very little media, as pictures only contribute to the home page, and title the banner of any other page. This site is compatible with multiple web browsers. 

Website for Webquest

Overview: This website is somewhat boring, though there is a lot of good information the site just doesn't keep a reader interested. It is a lot of paragraph like information that I don't think student will enjoy learning from. On the other side there is good information, and many different types of things to do. Design: The design is very traditional, and though they have colors, they are very dull and do not catch the readers attention. There are so many links that it is hard to get around the site and even go back to the homepage. Content: There is a lot of good content on the website and has many different things to do. There is color pages, games and information about our space system!

Overview: This website is very colorful, and has many eye catching links. It has different links for each one of the planets and gives a visual along with a description on the planets. It gives fun facts and has games to better understand the solar system. This is aimed toward younger students, most likely 3-4th graders. There are some tough words that younger students might not comprehend but all in all I really like this website. Design: The design of the website is very easy to access and has many links to get wherever you need to go. It's very colorful and fun and has animations of the planets that makes the website eye catching and grabs the user. Content: The website was very helpful with content. It shows many things about the planets as in how many days it takes to orbit the sun, the mass, volumes and temperatures each planet expierences. There is also a brief paragraph over what each planet means.

Allison Lindgren September 21, 2009 Website Review http://www.bestedsites.com/ "Best Educational Sites" is a collection of educational games for all areas of learning. Its fun layout with bright colors and bouncing graphics make it most appealing to young children. I think it would be very useful for teachers looking to integrate learning games into their curriculum. There is also basic information on everything from astronomy to engineering. Content Summary: This website has a lot of information in it, but there are no citations. Most of the links work well, but a few are dead ends. The website tells when it was last updated, which was recently, and who it was updated by. The purpose of the site is clear, though. The fun graphics and bright colors would appeal to children, and all the links are geared towards elementary to middle school aged children. There are no obvious spelling or grammatical errors. Design Summary: There are no problems downloading the pages except for the few broken links. The homepage is attractive to young children but the bright colors could be an eyesore if looked at for an extended period of time. The person who last updated the site gives a contact email. The information is well organized into several links provided on the home page and every page has a link to the home page, which makes this site very easy to navigate. The graphics and animations make the site fun and appealing for children, and each page displays a theme common to the information being presented.

Shea Mangold August 31, 2010 This website is used to connect you to different websites like a map or navigation page and it's great for that. This is also aimed for more of a elementary teacher audience it seems like. The owner is Janice Berthiaume, MEd and she has a MEd so I would guess she is qualified and the information is good, but she doesn't have any background information except there is a place with her email to contact her. There are also a bunch of different sponsors and even a place to make donations. It is very well updated, it was last updated August 26, 2010. All of the links worked pretty well except it took forever to load and some led me to a internet is not working page, and took along time loading after that. But when I got to the pages I was very pleased, there's so much information and lessons to choose from. The content was great but in saying that, the design is awful. On the hope page it looks as though someone just threw it together in a hurry, tried to be cute, and then added some cheesy clip art pictures and then threw in some very annoying bouncing books to distract you the entire time. Also, at the bottom of the page all of the sponsors, donations, author information is very bunched together; it does not look very professional. The other pages it links too are pretty simple, bright colored background with links in a different bright color. Everything is on it that needs to be just not great looking. I would have to give this an A for content but a C or D for design