Group items tagged

Samantha Snethen- Feb. 5, 2012 Overview: This site has resources all about science and technology for teachers and students (grades k-12). It provides experiments, videos, quizzes, games, lesson plans and much more for a variety of scientific subjects such as biology, chemistry, physics and weather. The site is generally appealing, provides a sufficient amount of subject appropriate resources and is very well organized. Content: The author of the site was clearly listed, and there was plenty of information about him available as well as an easy way to contact him. The site was incredibly well organized and easy to navigate. There was enough information given for each subject and the information is revised frequently and accurate. The only missing were links to other related sites. Design: The site was generally appealing, although there are not many graphics or extras that might make it more appealing to younger children. The site did provide sufficient information that was very well organized and easy to navigate. However no directions for the use of the site were provided as well as links to other related websites.

Monique Koller Jan. 24 2010 Cool math games is a website that has games, lessons and interactive ways to learn to enjoy Math. Content: The site has some fun games that I can see the educational value in, but not all of them, nor do I see where Math is a part of all of them. For the most part it seems like a worthwhile site I would allow my kids and maybe students to play on. Design: It looks like a fun site from the get go and I enjoyed exploring it. It is pretty easy to navigate around. There are some good lessons and the games are pretty amusing. I could easily find most of the stuff I needed. Overview: The purpose of this site is to be an aid while a student is learning math. This site is definitely directed towards kids. The authors are also hoping that there is adult supervision so that the kids can interact and get help. The games are good most of the time and have good content I think this could be a valuable site to visit.

Purpose The purpose of Cool Math Games is to help integrate math into a more fun environment. This site is geared for young grade school kids. There are different games that are aimed at tackling different types of skills that are needed in math. There are also different lessons that specialize on other skills. These are targeted at a much higher audience, with lessons like algebra and pre-calculus. This site has a lot of good information that could be used, I am just not sure if it is very helpful to students. Content This site contains a ton of materials. It has games and activities for such a wide range of math skills. The entire site seems to be working, however, it doesn't seem like it all is up to date as it could or should be. The games have good skills to be learned, but they are not up to date with as good of programming as possible. It is also not always apparent who the game or activity is accredited to. It is also not too accessible to contact them with as much ease as I would like. Design The design of the page seems to be a little crammed. They have a lot of link and titles, however, it is not done so in a way that is too pleasing. The color scheme is also very scattered and does not seem to blend well together. The pictures also do not seem to add as much to the page as needed. There also seems to be little order to how the games and activities are put up. This site has a great plan, I do not however feel like they completely got it all correct.

This site is used for elementary students to learn and expand their understanding of math in a more fun way than just the textbook. The intended audience is upper elementary students because a teacher can pick a game that will enforce what they have learned, but it will challenge them to think a little bit harder than they might have doing a word problem. The children also don't see this as boring learning; they see it as a fun game. There are various math games that are specifically targeted for a certain math levels throughout the website. For example, there are games for the upper elementary to work on multiplication, fractions, percentages, and negative numbers. Based on the first two questions that the evaluation for content asks, the answers are: yes, I can identify the purpose of the site, and no, the age group is not explicitly stated, but the intention and vernacular leads us to believe that age of the intended audience. At the bottom of the page it is easy to identify who the creators of this website are and how you can be in contact with them. If the sponsors are the advertisers, then they have clear demonstration of their sponsorship in four distinct locations. We can know that his site was last updated in 2015. We don't know how often it is updated, but we know that everything works according to plan. We know that the intentions of this site is to be a fun learning experience that is organized in a way that children can easily locate anything that they may possibly need. Everything on this site looks professional, but it still appeals to a younger audience. This website provides great opportunities for children to grow in their learning of math as well as play fun games. Everything in terms of logistics measures up to what it should be. The design of the overall lay out is kid friendly, and functions properly as long as the updated version of the flash drive is installed. They have specific animations and sounds that correspond with certain games

Learning math while having fun

classic game of lemonade stand

Charlene Asay: 1/23/2010 *Overview: I think that the first promotion of this site is to learning, and to get students to think that learning math is cool and fun. In the end this site becomes more of a distracting site because of all the advertisements. I wouldn't use this site in my classroom without having me there to walk my students through it so it would be easier to get to the lessons I wanted them to do. *Content: This website has a lot of different things that you can use it for. It has different math and thinking games, puzzles, for every age. There are different links for certain subjects such as arithmetic, prealgebra, algebra, and all different math lessons. There is also a link for parents and teachers. This is more of a game site than an educational site, but if you look closely at the certain games, you could be learning from them. There are a few advertisements on the webpage. Such as Walgreens, and Triaminic ad that has a coupon to click on. This webpage has many advertisements that will distract the visitors into clicking on them instead of playing the math games. *Design: The design of this webpage is quite confusing. If I were a young student and my teacher as me to get to a certain lesson in prealgebra, I would get lost with all the different advertisements and other links there are to look at. I would also want to go to the games instead of the lesson my teacher as me to do.

coffee shop -- like lemonade stand

Overview: This website provides the templates needed to recreate popular games such as The Price is Right, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and Wheel of Fortune, are only a few of the examples. This games are intended to be used in an educational setting to help students better understand a certain concpet. Content: The purpose of this site is to use games in the classroom to entertain and to teach the students. These games could be utilized at different times during the year to help students review concepts they have learned. With some of the games, the game show themes are included to add more to the game. There are also links for other games to be used to teach different subjects and also puzzles and other educational games. Design: The sponsor or the author(s) of this website are not listed, nor is the copyright shown. The page is displayed very plainly with not many graphics or colors. However, this is not a large site so extra ornamentations would make the page seem too busy and distracting.

WebQuest website

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

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!

Seth Orndorff February 1, 2011 Bad site review Overview This site claims to have cool math, but fails to offer anything that can be considered as beneficial to students working on math. This site did more distracting than helping. The cool math games that are a part of the site do not teach any applicable math skills to kids. This site should not be used in an educational setting. There is no separation of skills and grade levels which means that it is difficult to assign certain activities to certain aged kids. The site is also very limited. Once a game is beat, it is beat and that is it. There are no further applications of what the student was supposed to learn. The site also lacks encouragement. Kids cannot see past results and compare them with new scores to see their improvement. The site is also extremely slow and has advertisements all along the side which do not help students with math. Content Evaluation The content of this website is very poor. When the page is first opened, it looks like a typical game page that is not educational. The name of the site, "cool math" is very deceiving. This site also lacks sufficient information on who created the site and whether or not they have any credentials. The date that the site was last revised is unknown to me. I could not find a date that it had been revised last. The information that it does have has very poor quality. Although it claims to be a math site, it is more of a game site where the games teach more problem solving skills than actual math. This may seem beneficial at first, but each game only has about ten levels. This means that after just a little while, the games are beat on memory rather than figuring out new ways to solve the problem. There is no further information that would lead a student to get more help on math. Design Evaluation The design of this site is just as poor as the content. The page takes a long time to load, and once it is loaded, there is no appeal to the h

Interactive site for math, vocab, memory, and geography and puzzles.

Ryan Pinkston January 22, 2011 1) Overview- This is a web site that parents and kids can use to learn basic skills while having fun. This goal is to provide a safe place to learn computer skills, math skills, reading skills and problem solving skills in a context that is fun to use. 2) Content Credibility- It is easy to determine the basic content and intended audience. The author was not clearly identified however, the contact information was readily available and easy to locate. The latest revision date was not given and it's not stated how frequently the page is updated. The purpose of the site is effective for the intended use and is well organized with information that is easy to understand. 3) Design Evaluation- The page downloads efficiently and it is somewhat attractive and appears to have strong eye appeal to children. There is an index, the information for contacting the provider is available, and the copyright date is at the bottom of the page. The same basic format is used throughout the whole site, the information is easy to find, and everything is clearly labeled. 4) This is a site that I would use. It has a variety of games for children to use to learn about math and English or science.

Webquest Website

Overview: The Teaching Treasures website is a site created mainly for teachers. If you really wanted to, you could direct your students to this website and have them find an activity to do but the way the website is set up, I think it is targeting the teachers instead of the students. Content: On this website, you can find things such as educational games, broken up into age groups, teaching tools, as well as resources for teachers. They do provide a lot of information and activities for your classroom and seem to know the facts. There are several categories for activities, each broken up into age groups. There seems to be an activity for just about any subject and age group combination you can think of. Design: While this website provides tons of information, the way it is organized and laid out, it can prove to be quite tedious to navigate. There is so much information and categories to browse through; it seems pretty overwhelming at times. While it is difficult to navigate, I think that the layout is pretty basic and typical of a website, which isn't necessarily a good thing. I think that this website could do with a more welcoming and enticing layout to draw it's visitors in.

Overall: The website I used for my bad example was called Kindergarten Games. The game for this website is unclear on what teachers or students are supposed to learn. It shows some requirement for multitasking but is not complex enough to really take something from this. Where to go for help is not clear and only the sponsor is listed. The author was not listed; only the game is "information" on this website. Content: The basic content is unclear for whether this game is for teachers or for students. The author is not stated nor links for help. The sponsor is listed as a game site for teachers' and children. Since the author was not listed I cannot determine if he or she is qualified to give information. The website also failed to give dates to validate currency; the purpose is not clear for who/what is going on. The game is not complicated enough for teachers and too much is going on to explain to kindergarteners. Overall too much is missing from this website for it to be a decent, valid place to seek help/information. Design: The website downloaded efficiently and has strong eye appeal; the sponsor was identified and there was a space to leave comments but no information to contact. The copyright date was not established nor was the most recent update. There is a tutorial telling directions how to play the game but not who it is directed towards or the objection of the game. The only links were leading to different games by the sponsors; the music went along with the game as did the graphics. It was not a big enough site and did not contain enough information to navigate through it.

The content of this site is has Spanish, grammar, math and science. You are able to choose which section that you would like to work on and learn by playing games. The games are based for elementary students but the Spanish versions could help high school students learn as well as have fun playing games.The design is very user friendly. They have toolbars on the top and left had side of the page so that you can easily navigate to where you want to go. There are also pictures that go with the game and a description of what the game entails underneath. There are also bright colors to make the website very aesthetically pleasing. I think that this is a good site because it could easily be utilized by a variety of teacher of different age groups not just elementary as it is intended. If I wanted high school students to use this site they could work on cleaning up their Spanish grammar by picking that certain picture. If one game wasn't working out for one student they could always pick from the others that are available. 

Michelle Jacobsen 9/14/11 Overview- The purpose of this site is more for teachers rather than students. The teacher can get onto this website and type in the spelling words that the children are going to be tested over and can decide if they want to make it into a game, writing practice, or just for spelling practice. The teacher can either have the students get online and type in all of the spelling words or they can print out copies of the game or worksheet with the spelling words on it. There is also an option to become a "premium" member that allows you to have more options; you just need to make an account. Content- The content of this website is very helpful for an educator; my mom is a 5th grade teacher and uses this website quite often to help her students be able to have fun while learning how to become better spellers. The teacher can make a free online account and put in their spelling lists and the students can also log on and have access to the words. Design-The website design is definitely lacking in creativity, however it is extremely easy to navigate and figure out. It even has a video tutorial to help you figure out the site if you get confused. There are tabs for parents, students, and teachers. Overall I find this a really helpful website for elementary educators at any level!