Group items tagged

Sara Hindman January 24, 2010 Overview I evaluated the Discovery Kids website because of my interest of the Discovery channel. The purpose of this website is to advertise the channel and I know this because of all the emphasis on their characters. Although the website's main purpose is to advertise, another purpose is educational. Most of their games have no educational value whatsoever, but I was did manage to find some that were extremely beneficial. One was the Build a Volcano game in which the student controls the viscosity and gas of a volcano and watches to see what happens when different variables are increased or decreased. Another game was Make a Mummy, which the student learns about the different procedures the body must go through in order to become a mummy. I learned many things I did not know before. The intended audience for this website is ages seven through twelve. I did not find any links to other websites. I find this website to be a waste except for the few games I found to be educational. Content The Discovery Kids website clearly stated its purpose of advertising and the intended audience by pasting most of their television characters on the home page. Like the nobelprize.org, kids.discovery.com failed to state who the author of the website is, although I was able to find when the last revision was (2010.) The information quality is great, there is nothing "under construction" or inaccurate. There is no further information for this website. Overall I would say the content is ok, nothing spectacular. Design The design of this website is good because of its eye-catching pages. I completely understand why children would find this website appealing because it has everything to offer children; their favorite characters and fun games. The speed of this website is fast and it is easy to navigate. All of the multimedia is loaded fast and provided perfect quality. I am not sure if this website is compatible was different browser bec

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.

This website is a great FREE resource for teachers, administrators, parents and students looking for ways to incorporate technology into their classrooms. The site not only provides lesson plans for teachers but ways to help students succeed and excel for administrators and parents as well as homework help, step by step math help and games for students! There are a lot of outside links to sites that are all easy to access and navigate which is great! The content of the site is great and has been very well organized. Discovery Education does offer upgrades to gain more access to resources, but the free resources available are enough to last any educator for weeks! All of the lessons are organized by grade and then content area as well which makes it really easy to find exactly what you are looking for. There are also tabs for contact information, privacy details and terms and use which are great resources for teachers to familiarize themselves with. I think older students, probably middle school aged or older could utilize this website a lot easier than younger students because of navigation design, but the site is still great for students. The step-by-step math helper is an awesome tool for students that are having difficulty with math homework and so is the homework helper because it allows students to meet virtually and help each other with their homework with the help of educators and tutors. The design of the site is geared more towards teachers or educators, but it is still highly interactive and is easy to navigate. There are a lot of links to outside sources and they are all current and easy to operate. It is also easy to read and understand all of the lesson plans presented as well as understand the overall goals of the Discovery Communications company. The entire purpose of the site is to acheive excellence in learning and that is obvious by the design of the site. I wouldn't let students just get on the site and try to find their own way aro

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.

Rebecca Gardner Jan. 24, 2010 The content of this website is based on lesson plans for grades kindergarten to 12th grade. This was easy to determine. It was also easy to determine that this website was intended for teachers. The authors and sponsors were easy to identify and they seemed qualified to present information on the topics. I could not find when the website was last revised, but the ads were current. The links to other websites were current and working properly. The purpose of this website was clear and informative. The content was well organized and offers sufficient information for my needs. I didn't see any bias, but I believe that there could be, because the website is presented by Discovery. The website provides interactivity that increases its value. The links provided are worthwhile and appropriate. The design of this website is effective and it down loaded efficiently. The homepage is attractive, but did have a lot of ads. You can tell where you are immediately and the title, description and image captions are clear. The sites sponsors and copyright date were established and easy to determine. The user is able to navigate around the website with ease. The directions are clear and easy to follow. The internal and external links were working properly and there were no dead ends. Each of the graphics, video files, audio files ect.. serve a clear purpose and make a significant contribution to the site. There is sufficient information that makes this website worth visiting. The information is clearly labeled and easy to find. The contact information is provided and easy to find and the links to other websites are provide and some are useful while others are ads. My over view of this website is that it can be useful for grade levels. They provide free lesson plans that could come in handy. This website is associated with the Discovery channel so you may run into a lot of ads and maybe even some biases. I would recommend this

Kaci Philpot Overview: The intended purpose of this website is to provide elementary level students with fun and engaging games that build different skills and knowledge. Teachers can use some of the games for supplementing lessons such as; "volcano explorer", "chill the spill", and many more. Even games that don't seem like they would be educational are full of facts about various subjects and environmental awareness. Content Summary: For "First Look" I could not highlight the information because it was not in a text format, but the audience and basic content of the site are very clear. There were no specific authors listed for the games or information. The credibility of the authors is evident though because at the bottom near the copyright statement, it states that the company/sponsor is #1 in non-fiction media. It also has a very clear link for any questions about the site that works properly. I found it hard to find the latest revision date, most likely because the website mostly has games, but the content must be updated frequently because it has games that are up-to-date with the environmental issues today. All links to other sites work properly. In the "Information Quality" section of the evaluation, the website received all yeses. There are biases. However, they are clear when glancing through the content of the games. There was not any further information related to my purposes, but I did not really need any because I was only looking for games and activities to supplement lessons. Total yeses: 18 Total no's: 2 Total N/A: 1 Design Summary: The homepage uploaded very quickly and received all yeses. It has very strong eye appeal, it's clear what website you are visiting, and the copyright date is clearly stated at the bottom of the homepage along with the sponsor/provider. The navigation is easy and instructions for games and such are very clear and easy to follow. All internal and external links work properly. And internal links a

Kathryn Slothower September 11, 2011 Overview: The purpose of this website is to help students with math problems that they do not know how to solve. There are different sections available to look through for the correct math subject. The website is easy to navigate through and can be very helpful for students or I could also see it being very helpful for teachers and parents. There are many resources for the students to use and help with math. Overall this website is a good website that could be very helpful.  Content: There is a lot of content found within this website. The main content found is all of the information to help find the answer to the math problems that they need help with. The only purpose of this website would be only to find the answers. There is no lesson on how to master the math skill. However the website does show you how they solved the problem with is very nice because then the viewer can really see how the problem is solved to use on other problems. I could see myself using this website for personal uses when I cannot figure out how to solve a math problem.  Design: The design of this website can be very confusing. Web Math is sponsored by Discovery Education so at first you see Discovery Education and the viewer does not know what to click on to receive help. There is an index at the top of the page that breaks the different levels of math up. This is a huge help for the viewer. Nothing on this website drawers viewers to the website to use it. 

Emily E. KrabbenhoftJanuary 22, 2011Overview: This website, created by Discovery Communications, is an excellent resource for parents, students, and teachers. For parents it provides ways to help motivate their children and ways to help with homework. For students it all gives homework help and other ways for students to further their knowledge or to practice what they already know. For teachers there is interactive projects, lesson plans, and puzzle makers. Content: The content of this website, the information providers, and the quality is well presented to users. While the information is provided by a company to further their products, it offers a lot of free resources for everyone. It also does not push its products on the user, for example no pop-ups or constant nagging to purchase things.Design: This website has a great design. You do not get lost when you are navigating the website because it has great descriptions and titles of the pages. All of the links work properly and direct you to the appropriate websites or links. 

Hannah Clucas. October 10, 2012. Overview: This website is a giant database for schools. It has something for administrators, teachers, students, and even parents. There are a lot of available resources. The website is amazing and helpful for all facets of learning. Content: For administrators, there are curriculum options, helpful assessments of resources schools are currently using, and a host of other useful things. For teachers there are lesson plans, puzzle makers, additional resources, and even information on student travel. For parents there is a section on ways they can motivate their students and give them help in homework. The student section has a homework help section as well as links to contests they can join and clipart. There are also videos that parents, teachers, and administrators can use. The website is probably more helpful to teachers and administrators. Lesson plans are divided into two grade level groups, k-8 and 9-12, making it easy to find lesson plans for intended grade levels. Some of the links on the website are not useful, such as the link to downloading Google Chrome. But none of the links are inappropriate. Design: The design of the website is logical and flows well. There is a section for administrators, teachers, parents, and students at the top and bottom of the home page. It is colorful and fun to get your attention, but not to the point that it is overwhelming. Its use of media is appropriate and helpful.

Lorena Garcia Evaluation date: 10/13/14 The site I chose to evaluate was Discovery Education located at www.dicoveryeducation.com. The purpose of this site is to provide free education resources. The intended audience of this site is teachers, students, and Parents. This site provides some downloadable lessons. It offers lessons plans for the various school grades. I feel this site could be a great resource for new and veteran educators. I found that this page is quickly to determine the content because there are links about who they are, what they offer, also they have links for students, parents, and Teachers who are the intended audience. In fact there is contact information for anybody who has questions or verify information about it. Anybody can contact them by phone, (1 800 ), Twetter, and Face book, and e-mail. It is clear that this page is to provide Educational information with the different options of downloadable lesson plans. It is worth visiting this page, specially Educators. They can find a lot information and great ideas for lessons. The information is clearly labeled and organized school year. These links are very well organized and easy to find. I did have some trouble finding my way back to the original page. However, overall I would most definitely recommend and use this website.

Website: http://science.discovery.com/ Content The science channel website has some good information in it. The audience of this website is obvious in the title and the material. It is for those people looking for science related material for basically any age. There are games for the kids and articles for the older crowd. There are a few N's on my evaluation, but there are no perfect websites. They keep the website current. Design The homepage is very appealing. There is very good contrast and images. The text is easy to read. The website cleary states what its intent is, is easily accessible and navigatable. The videos load and are connected to the websites material. I was able to open the website in safari, firefox and Internet explorer. There is a lot of material from articles to videos to games and even a tv manual to what is on the science channel. The website is logical and orderly. The website is current and there is no out dated material that I could find. There are links to other websites that are related to the science channel such as animal planet and military channel. Overview I found that the Science channel website was very resourceful. It is a science website so there is some bias because there are theories and not all material has been proven. I found that I was current and easy to use. The audience is very obvious and there are things to do for fun and learn at the same time. I really enjoyed looking at this website for its purpose and not just scanning over it not noticing how effect it really is. Joey Skalsky Itech 2360 Sec 4

Charlene Asay: 1/23/2010 Overview: Puzzle maker on discovery education is a free teaching tool or resource. This website is used to make different puzzles on your own with your own information to put in them. This could be used for teachers to use as teaching resources in their classroom. Or a student could use them for assignments. All the different links seem to work just fine. You can buy different teaching resources software on this site. This site seems to be pretty user friendly, besides that there is so many different links that are distracting. Content: Besides all the different links and advertisements that can be clicked on this site, this could be a great site to use for an educational purpose. You can make different puzzles such as word searches, math squares, number blocks, and mazes on this site. There are also different links for brain boosters, science sites, and links to buying software. Design: The site is well designed. There is a lot of links, ads, and other distractions to look at on this site. There is a copyright date, which means that it was published, instead of just some plain old person getting on here and putting scam free puzzle makers online. There are difference chances of learning links that can be clicked on.

Purpose: This website is a section of the Discovery website designed for children. It is used to help kids learn about the world they live in. In this section, it is a lab area and children can follow instructions to many science experiments. Content: The website is easy to use and looks fun. The labs are fun and educational and provide explanations at the end of each one describing why these phenomena occur in science. However, though all of the science experiments are interesting, not all of them would be useful in a science lesson.

Bradley Sharpski 2/6/12 Overview: This site is very interesting to look at since it has so many links to what parents can do, teachers and even students. It has a statement upfront to why they have lesson plans and how they will be helpful and who wrote them. This site offers plans for all subjects and all grade levels which is very helpful. Looking through the lesson plans, it's easy to see that there easy to follow and gives you everything a teacher could need. Content: This site contains information on every subject and very easy to follow. The website has the information of who created it and providers. If there is any question it gives you links to follow and can ask questions there if needed. The quality of the information is good. This is a Discovery site and from what I know, they always keep their sites up to date and have correct information. The site is very well organized and consistent. I found there to be no grammar errors or really any mistakes. The site also provides links to other sites which could be helpful for more lesson plans. Design: The homepage of this site is easy to locate and navigate in. The multimedia of this page is very good and has interesting videos. The content of this site is presented very well and gave me no troubles at all. This site seems to be up to date and revised thoroughly. It even gives links to other sites that may have similar lesson plans that could be helpful.

Free elementary, middle and high school teacher resources, including puzzlemaker, student games and activities and lesson plans.

Content: The first look at the website does a great job of displaying the content of the article but it is more difficult to really pin down an audience. It seems like it is aimed at people who want a quick overview of the topic. The author of the article is not identified so it is hard to judge the qualifications of the author. The sponsor on the other hand is clearly identified. Idaho National Laboratory and Department of Energy sponsored the article. There are also two specific contact people identified. The user is given both a phone number and the ability to e-mail the two contact people. The site lacks any information about when it was last updated. This shows that the information may not be updated frequently and it is difficult to know if the user should use this information because there is potential that it is outdated. The only date I can find is actually on another page. Although there is no way to know how often the website is updated, the links all appear to be working appropriately. The information on this site seems to be of a pretty high quality. The purpose is very clear. It is an informational page and effectively achieves its purpose. The content is complete and well organized. The information is easy to understand for the most part. Some of the terms are a little confusing but otherwise it is very clear. I don't know very much about this topic, but from what I know this information seems accurate. The bias in this article is easy to identify because it is pro Xylanase. It really preaches the benefits of this substance. There are a lot of links to further information as well as links that take the user to other science related sites.

EARLY THEORIES OF EVOLUTION: 17th-19th Century Discoveries that Led to the Acceptance of Biological Evolution

Scott Chanthongthip on January 23, 2010 Overview: The National Science Foundation (NSF) website offers diverse areas of science studies. Many of the research articles are conducted by educational institutions, which the NSF provides grants or funding to. The homepage offers an update on the most recent research released in the press. NSF website can be useful for students that may want to look into topics of interests. I would recommend this more for teachers to grasp a subject matter better, so teachers may choose age-appropriate science knowledge for students. Content: The website was last updated on November 5th, 2009, but it has updated press releases related to science from the past few days. The NSF funded research studies posted on the web site. The search tool bar at the top right of the home page offers an easy way to look for a scientific topic of interest. Each search renders multiple links that relate to the search query, and none of the links is broken. The pages on the website have a lot of content and to many people that use it, the conglomeration of links and words can be overwhelming. The purpose of this site is clear, because it states it at the bottom, "Celebrating 60 Years of Discovery." The NSF research posts are credible because most of the information is tested through research from higher educational institutions. Teachers for K-12 can click on the link "classroom resources", under "site features" on the right side of the home page. I found this part to be helpful in finding interesting ways to teach science in the classroom. When teachers choose "classroom resources" links, site re-direction may proceed to help teach subjects of interest. There are also educational grants and science funding for teachers for K-12 and for classrooms from K-12. Design: The design of the website has so much information and links that it may be intimidating to try to navigate. Once one spends a little time at the site they

Sara Hindman January 24, 2010 Overview Coolmath4kids.com is website designed for those who are frustrated with math and are tired of the way it has been taught. The purpose of this website is solely to educate students about the different areas of math. This website provides lessons, practice worksheets, and games on things as simple as addition and subtraction to pre-algebra. The content of this website is good and accurate while the website has too much design. The intended audience is for all grade levels. I think this website is a great resource for those who are having trouble on their math homework, but I do not think I would use this website in the classroom. Content At a first look, it is easy to see that the purpose behind coolmath4kids.com is to educate anyone and everyone about some of the different areas of math. Unlike nobelprize.org and kids.discovery.com, coolmath4kids.com has an author and provides a lot of information about them. The author's name is Karen and claims to have a B.A. and a M.S. in mathematics and have 14 years of experience teaching math at the community college level. I find "Karen's" introduction of herself unprofessional, although this is a website for students, not adults. The latest revision of this website was in 2009, the content is frequent, and all the information quality is great. Also unlike the previous websites, coolmath4kids.com has links to other websites; such as, coolmath-games.com, financeFREAK.com, and sciencemonster.com. These websites were created by Karen, but there are no other additional websites outside of Karen's websites. Design Coolmath4kids.com design is bright and colorful and instantly gives headaches. There are many neon colors, flashy multimedia, and different size font on every page. The speed is a little slow, but that may be my computer or all the animated stuff on the website. The homepage has a clear table of content and you can easily navigate to wherever area of math n

Overview: This website is aimed for elementary students who want to work on multiple math concepts. The website's last update or copyright was in 2009. I feel that this website is too busy with color and somewhat hard to navigate because there are too many steps to take to get there. There's also unnecessary advertisements and the cursor is a bit annoying when trying to click on places. I do like the fact the the author has a page about her so that people know who they are working with and she gives background information as to why she has this website. Content: I feel that there are too many steps and questioning examples for the students to do on their own. Even when you go into a game it only does the right answer sometimes. What it does have it going for it is that there are multiple different categories that the students can pick and work on. Design: I feel that the website has the right idea to help appeal students to go into their website but I also feel that it takes too long to get where they want to go. They do have helpful hints and the student can choose whether or not they would like to go faster or slower with the problems. I think that if it didnt have as many colors or different things coming at you then this website would be a lot more effective.

Awesome math website for elementary school!

Ryan Magrum Sept 15th, 2011 Overview: The purpose of this site is to provide information and updates in science in the form of news articles to the general educated public. There are links to scientific news magazines as well as links to other scientific web sites. My overall impression of this site is that it is easy to read and navigate and there is a plethora of knowledge available within the contents. It's great for students studying specific topics in science to read. Content: PhysOrg, at first glance, is not flashy and aimed at consumers. The main goal of the site is general knowledge and entertainment in the form of scientific reading. The articles, with topics ranging from nano-science to medicine, are written with very few technical terms making the content easy to comprehend by the average educated individual including high school students with background instruction in the topic of interest. The articles are news updates on the emergence of new things in science sometimes with a brief explanation of the mechanism behind the new discovery complete with figures. Such articles would be a great starting point for a research paper. The articles also include hyperlinked citations to the primary sources. There are many links to other scientific news sites. Design: This site is not aimed at attracting a passerby web surfer. The target audience is attracted to the content within and already has a general idea of what they want to get out of PhysOrg. Therefore, the site is made easy to navigate and less flashy with few advertisements and the ads on the site are related to the scientific topics and links on the site. For example: an ad for paper that is really white for printing off the articles to read as a hard copy while making the articles easier to read. The links to the articles are strait forward not to bias clicking on any specific article if in the "spotlight stories" area. All the articles are arranged for the navigator to find specific arti

Michael Gonzales September 13, 2011 Overview: This website is perfect for any educators who are considering teaching Spanish as a foreign language in their classroom. This site focuses on information regarding Spanish vocabulary and grammar. It's filled with activities that you can easily incorporate into your classroom that will stimulate students to have fun and learn. It also provides additional information of projects that you can use in your classroom. Content: This site is filled with files that you can print off and give to students within your classroom to help them comprehend more Spanish words and grammar. Many of the worksheets allow you to color in the words and also provide excellent visual aids to help comprehend more information. The web page is very easy to navigate; this particular page revolves around Spanish themes. There are also several links to games and items that you can print off to test your students in the classroom. This site also offers you to explore more fully and see what else the company has to offer such as templates for holiday decorations and as well over 100 themes that apply to kindergarten through 3rd grade. Design: The design of the website is very simple and straight forward; the links and texts boxes do not look complex and are very easy to access. The webpage itself is a little boring, only supplying the viewers with pictures of images of what it has to offer. I have taken a few HTML coding classes and I can see that this is something that I can easily duplicate. The site is not complex but the information that is provided is perfect for teachers and students alike.

Content: This website was designed for math homework help. It has the four distinct categories; addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and levels each visitor might need help in. Visually this website isn't very appealing, but the games look interesting for teaching students and help the promotion of a fun learning environment. Clicking on different tabs takes you to the different perspectives of the classroom i.e. the teachers, the learners, and the parents. There are also numerous links to other homework help websites as well. Design: Overall I think the design of the website is good and user friendly. There are a lot of links and tabs, but become useful when it is designed for not only students, but parents and teachers as well. The only downfall to the design of this website is their selling of products gets mixed in with some of the learning material too, so it becomes a little overwhelming. Attribution: I would encourage my students to check out the games on this website because they are a fun way to learn math. I would also encourage parents to play along with their students because it would also familiarize them with the material their students are learning too. The visual aspects of this site promote a fun learning environment and nothing vulgar or inappropriate is presented, making it a safe site to encourage students to visit.