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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

American Chemical Society Overview: The website is for all chemists, including members of the American Chemical Society, chemistry teachers, and students as there is chemistry information as well. There is also a 'new and research' scrolling bar that includes scientific news other than chemistry, as well as 'molecule of the week.'  Content: The site's purpose is not clearly defined at first besides that is is chemistry related. A little bit of digging is needed to find what a user is truly looking for, whether it is information on chemistry, chemistry careers, or the section for members of the American Chemical Society. The author and copyright date are easy to find. The education tab is very useful, providing links to science experiments for kids, programs for undergraduate and graduate students, workshops, and funding and awards for chemistry students. There is also funding for researchers and applications for having information published.  Design: The website's design is good, but has some holes. For one, the website does not load effectively in Internet Explorer, and the homepage does not load efficiently. The homepage has strong eye appeal, however it has a lot of information in a small space, and makes it hard to find or even determine what a user is looking for. The homepage's visual appeal and interesting sections such as 'molecule of the week,' 'cool science,' and 'everyday chemistry' make the site eye-catching and cause the user to stay and take a look around. 

Overview: WebMD is a website designed to provide very general and basic information (not necessarily medical advice) for patients about health problems and healthy eating. As far as credibility goes, I do not doubt much of the information provided, but if you are looking for real answers to medical questions, this is not your website. Fortunately all content is free. It would be a good site to look at to find out what a certain disease is, what the symptoms are and how to go about dealing with it (drug names, etc.) and when to call a doctor. I think overall it is a good site for basic medical information but I would not rely on it to solve any medical problem, as its' purpose is not clinical based. Design Summary: From a first look, there is a lot going on in this webpage. Pictures are flashing back and forth, ads are flashing on the sides of the page and there is a lot of different colors and different sizes of texts. It is fairly organized however and is easy to find what you are looking for relatively quickly. I had trouble finding a list of sponsors and all I could find was a statement on the information tab which said, "We allow third parties to provide funding for WebMD to independently create information about certain topics within a specified health category". Also the ads on the site were mostly for drug companies, which cause some bias. The site worked the same in Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Finding contact information was easy enough (at the very bottom of the page in small text) but I could not find any means of contacting them except for email.

Ryan Mikesell ITEC Web Review 1/23/10 Overview: Ageducate.org is a website funded by the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture and is dedicated to educating agricultural educators. It provides information and resources for Ag Ed teachers everywhere to help them in the classroom. From lesson plans to activities the site helps teachers to better educate their students in agriculture. The site is mainly intended for Ag teachers but also has a link to careers available in agriculture. Content: The website is very basic and easily maneuverable. The information presented is clear and understandable as well as very useful to an educator in need of classroom activities and information. All the links are effective and useable, and all copyright information and site revision dates are provided. The website has many useful educational tools including useful book references, downloadable lesson plans and nation wide statistics about agriculture education. It also has a link that provides websites and games intended for the education of younger children and to help get them involved in agriculture. Design: The website is designed mainly as an educational tool. Its links are easily followed and it provides necessary links to other websites. Pictures are used to illustrate and promote agriculture. All provided information is referenced and revision dates provided.

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.

Shelley Limegrover January 22, 2011 OVERALL The third site I evaluated is the Physics 2000 site. The site explains general physics concepts in a dialog format using an imaginary cast of physics professors and students. One or more interactive simulations accompany all dialogs. The site is intended as a resource for high school and non-science college students that presents otherwise abstract material in a more comprehensible format. I found the presentation of material to be very creative, although the site itself seemed visually "busy" and awkward to navigate. CONTENT The authors of the site are clearly identified and include a physics professor, various science advisors as well as a high school physics advisor. The credentials of all authors and advisors are not provided, but the site claims to be funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, giving it some credibility. The dates of copyright and last revision are not readily apparent. However, the main page states that they are looking for sponsors to support continued operation. Recommendations for supported browsers are a few years out of date. The content itself does not seem adversely affected by lack of updates. All content links are functional as are all interactive applets that I tried at random. DESIGN Some pages of the site are designed better than others. The choice of colors and layout do not make information immediately visible. The navigation is not consistent across pages. The relevant content, however, is presented nicely once I get to it. This makes it worth a visit to the page. Interactive applets are provided wherever they are beneficial.

Content:The look of the website is bright and colorful with great animations and graphics. The information for the website and for the activities is in part provided by partnerships with Ohio State University, and from professionals in different fields. The website is completely free, and is funded through corporate and private donations. There is provided information for contacting the website creators and sponsors. The information seems pretty current, but, I did not see a revision date on the site. All the links I clicked seemed to be working properly. The information and entertainment provided by the activities looks to be accurate and the grammar and spelling are correct. There are teacher resources, that are posted by user and shared, but, there are no specific links to more information. Design: Edheads was created in 2000. The website downloads efficiently and is attractive. The activities are clearly labeled, and there is a separate section for teacher resources. The navigation is pretty easy and the links within the site are useful and appropriate. The use of multi-media in the activities is great. I only tried this site with googlechrome but, in order to do the activities you need flash player and sound card. The content is great. Within each activity you will find vocabulary and graphics to describe what you are doing. Each activity is clearly labeled and organized. As I mentioned before, I do not see a revision date, but, it seems reasonably up to date and accurate. Purpose: To provide insightful and accurate activities that help explore and teach different aspects of careers related to math, science, engineering, and technology. Audience: Students up to 12th grade. Resources: There are no additional resources available, that I am aware of. Overall: I like the activities, they are engaging and fun to use. I wish the teacher resources was set up better to use for finding information posted by other users

Caleb Huber 10/13/14 The URL article is a news story about a teen suicide. I chose this website as an example of a potentially biased source of the effects of cyber bullying. Although it has some pertinent facts, I would want to use it with caution. The web page is intended to convince parents that cyber bullying can lead to teen suicide. Its intended audience is parents. I would rate the design of the webpage as good but the content as limited. I would rate the content of the overall website as limited and the design as exceptional. The webpage was last updated November 19, 2007. There is no available link to contact the website. At first look, the content of the page looks informative. The web page is an extensive new article, but it is a little outdated. Since it is a new site there are links, but they are mostly unrelated top stories. The article has quotes and facts from credible sources. The article itself doesn't seem biased, but it is always important to realize news articles rely on sensationalism. The individual author of the article is not posted, but it is clear he works for ABC news since it is posted on abcnews.com. The website doesn't have a lot of interactivity, but it is a well written article. As an example of cyber bullying, this article has good content. However, one article is limited in scope. A paper on the effects of cyber bullying would need more references. A large label on the top of the page shows that the article is funded by ABC News. The article is clearly labeled and easy to navigate. The design follows a typical news format and is not eye catching. As a news site, it is designed to put the hottest and latest news first. This makes finding older or more specific articles somewhat challenging. The homepage can be easily found, and the website loads quickly. The index for the website can be easily found, and there is a variety of media available. However, very little of this media pertains to cyb

Caleb Huber 10/12/14 The article provides a summary of research done on the occurrence of cyber bullying. I chose this site as a reference for known data about cyber bullying and the frequency of its occurrence. The webpage contains data on the last seven years of cyber bullying research. The website itself is intended for educators, students, and teachers. Its purpose is to spread cyber bullying awareness and teach prevention. I would rate the content of the webpage as somewhat helpful and the content of the website as extremely helpful. I would rate the design of this webpage as good and the design of the overall website as exceptional. The web page was last updated on April 9, 2014. A link to contact the site can easily be found on the top of the page. At first look, the content of the individual summary page is a bit bare, but it compensates by having links of detailed, related posts in the center of the page. Several of the posts are helpful to my purpose. One example is the link titled "Cyber bullying: Neither an Epidemic nor a Rarity". No official author of the articles is posted. This link also shows the website's lack of bias. Cyber bullying is either portrayed as not a big deal or an epidemic depending on who is making the case. Because this site is ran by a research center, it focuses on finding and presenting real data. Often a weakness of research is that it only uses one method to perform research. The website makes sure to use multiple methods including convenient and stratified samples. A large label at the top of the page shows that the website is funded and ran by the Cyber Bullying Research Center. The webpage is clearly labeled and easy to navigate. The pages follow a consistent format and all the links load quickly. The homepage can easily be found. The purpose of the website can be easily seen through a welcome index. The site index is clearly designed as well. Every page is loaded with helpful links.

Scott Chanthongthip January 25, 2009 Overview: The site offered interesting facts about sea turtles, but the majority of the organizational site purpose was to raise sea turtle awareness for conservation efforts. As a teacher, it may be useful to refer to the site for simple informational tidbits, but it is not a primary source for all turtle research. The site offers species only secluded to the Caribbean eco-system. Information on efforts to support the conservation of sea turtles helps website viewers get involved. People can volunteer, adopt a turtle, or donate money to sea turtle conservation. Content: Information offered on this site can be useful to teachers and their students. Easy to navigate the site has many interactive tools like the turtle tracking map, where one can pick a turtle and see where s/he has traveled. Tracking gives Information about the migration of the turtles often and updates site viewers about sea turtle behaviors. CCC is the longest .org website of its kind that lends its attention to turtle conservation. Dr. Archie Carr was the founder of the CCC and research efforts have accumulated almost 50 years of experience. Many of the people that edit this site and review it are turtle researchers giving it a credible source for information, but it also leans towards conservation efforts as its premise. Conservation may be the sites main priority, but lesson plans for teachers with available turtle modules for students to learn are helpful. I do not know if the website charges for the downloadable PDF files for teachers, but one must register to gain access to the teaching modules. The sites message is clear, so it provides multiple ways to contribute to the funds for seas turtle conservation. The site gave me the necessary tidbits that help me learn more about turtles, yet not a good place to start to teach about turtles. I would recommend this site more for making learning about turtles more interesting and possibly integrat

Morgan Carlson 5-18-2011 Overview: The purpose of this site is to help teachers create positive lessons about the Holocaust. The website is intended for teachers, and for students from kindergarten through college. Some of the resources available on this website are learning about the founding organization of the website, personal stories from Holocaust survivors, book reviews on the issue, and causes such as the Global Relief fund and Darfur. The content of this site is useful to my needs, and explains in detail the purpose of its postings, and also of the related links on the website. There are several other useful links from this page, and the design of the website is easy to use, and is appealing to the audience. Content: In the opening paragraph of the website, the purpose and intended audiences are clearly listed, along with information about the founder of the site and contact information. The purpose of the site is informational/educational, and the founder of the site is qualified. There are a variety of links, videos, reviews, etc. pertaining to the purpose of the website, and information is cohesive with one another. The website provides a link to the corporate sponsors, and it appears to be free of biased attitudes. However, there are one or two broken links on the page, and the date of last revisions is not stated. It is then difficult to assess how frequently the material is updated. The website's main purpose of providing a variety of instructional tools to help students and teachers is fulfilled, and easy to find using search tools. Design: The homepage is fast to load, and you can easily see the title, name of the sponsor, and contact information upon first viewing the website. There is a table of contents and a search bar that makes it easy to navigate the website. Graphics and videos are placed accordingly, and are relevant to the material being discussed. There are directions that explain how to click on certain links, and a dis