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Billie Slyman, 9/10/11 Purpose The purpose of this site is to give information about all types of weather. This site could be used by students, but in my opinion it is better for educators based on the content and design. This site was made by Nick Walker, who is a meteorologist for The Weather Channel and a member of the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association. He has also written weather songs to educate children about weather. There is quite a bit of information on the site and many links to other sites, the majority of which work. My impression of the site is that it is a very knowledgeable and credible source for information about weather, and a good resource for teachers who want to study weather in their classrooms. Content There is a lot of information on this site. It is divided up into different chapters, with each chapter presenting a different type of weather ("Snow", "Air Pressure and Wind", & "Lightning and Thunder", for example). The chapter will give an explanation of what that particular type of weather is, how it is caused and tips for staying safe in that weather. At the end of each chapter there is a section of experiments or activities related to the weather and ideas to discuss. The level of the content is good for the adults the site is more geared towards. It is put in simple language that would be fairly easy to translate for elementary students, but it's in depth enough to give a good understanding. The activities suggested are interesting and relate well whatever weather type is being explained. Design This page's design is functional and easy to use, but it isn't very aesthetically pleasing. The homepage has a grey background and black test, with just a few small graphics by links. It looks pretty boring, not a site a student would want to look at for long. In the articles, there are some nice pictures, but everything still looks plain and not exciting. However, everything is c

Sara Scribner 1/24/10 Overview: This website is kid-friendly and offers a wealth of information about the weather. Included are weather games/activities, encyclopedias, teacher resources, environment conservation ideas, and the daily forecast. Content is applicable in a classroom and is fit for its audience of elementary school students. Content: Audience and content for this site are easily determined. The sponsor of this site is The Weather Channel and a contact is given for the site, but other than that I was unable to find an author, a revision date, or a copyright date. To my knowledge, the information provided on this website is accurate, but I do not think one would be able to find in-depth information on a certain topic. Overall, the content on this site is well organized and easy to understand. It also offers a variety of learning tools from activities to videos to glossaries to encyclopedias which is helpful in a classroom. Design: The Weather Channel for kids has a lot of useful information for students desiring to know more about the weather. This visually appealing site downloads efficiently and one can easily move within the website because of superb organization. It incorporates graphics as well as informational videos with elementary students in mind. Although contact information is available there is not a date with the site's last revision or a copyright date. Also, there are a few advertisements on the sides of the page.

Emily E. Krabbenhoft January 22, 2011 Overview: This website has a lot of fun activities and simulations for students to use to further their knowledge about several science concepts. For example, one particular simulation called Weather allows students to learn about weather patterns by reporting the current weather and also predicting future weather in different areas around the nation. Content: Several different simulations allow the students to have fun and learn a great deal in an interactive way. The site is sponsored by The Ohio State University Medical Center and also National Center for Regenerative Medicine. The site only provides simulations to be used for science like simple machines, the weather, and some extensive medical concepts. Design: This website uses bright colors and is very attractive to the eye. Each simulation takes a couple of seconds to load but once loaded are very smooth during the use of the simulation. 

Sean Wilde January 2011 Weather.com Content The name of this site really makes this site quite known what it contains. This site helps a fairly beginner to novice user of the internet find out what the weather is like for the day. It is a little better then the kids site but not as high tech as its government counterpart. The information is fairly accurate, although sometimes one does wonder about it when they look out their window. But it is the weather it sometimes is a little hard to tell. But this site is for news and is not trying to make a huge impression on anyone. This site isn't going anywhere, its needed and has enough information on it that is accurate enough. It may be hard for one to find a way to contact with authors that are somewhere on the site, but really this site is just a water downed version for the average person to use. Design The homepage is easily navigated and its links work, the graphics work, but sometimes if youa re on an older computer it is hard to get these graphics to work and links to load fast. The compatibility is wide, mostly because again it is a watered down version of weather news. But the information is enough to get one by hour by hour for weather needs. Overview The site is just intended for novice to beginner users or for those who just need a quick basis of what is going out there in the world today with weather. It has the main information that anyone wants so there is no need to add more. It is an easy correct enough weather site that one can varily easily get around and find what they need. Which if someone that is getting on to check real quick for today or to start planning a trip in a few days it's not a bad choice.

Billie Slyman, 9/11/11 Purpose The Kidstorm site is actually a section of a larger site dedicated to storm chasing. The rest of the site is fine, but the kids section has, in my opinion, the best resources and information. However, the information, while good, is pretty basic and could easily be found on other sites. So my overall impression is that while this site is okay for information about severe weather, its real value is in the photographs and resources that can be found there. There are tons of links to other sites, some on the main kids' page for general weather, and then more on each page about a specific weather. These links lead to good sites and would be a valuable resource for a teacher or student looking for information. Content The content on this site is appropriate for students in 4-6 grades and for adults as well. It is set out clearly, but the vocabulary would be difficult for younger students. Again, the information is basic, although the extensive safety tips are nice, but the pictures are great. There are high quality photos of every type of weather covered and more. These can be viewed online, and it is stated on the website that students can use them for paper reports in class as long as credit is given. The external links given are useful and would also be a good resource for student research. Design The site is easy to navigate and nice to look at, interesting while not being overwhelming. There is a lot of text on each page, but there are also a lot of relevant photos, so it is interesting to read. It is easy to go from one section to the other without having to go back to the homepage, and the external links are always at the bottom of the page. It's a well put together site.

Billie Slyman, 9/11/11 Purpose The purpose of this site is to provide resources for teachers for teaching weather. It's part of a larger site that has resources about all kinds of topics. There are websites, print-out activity sheet and Power Points. Although there are a lot of links, about half of them don't work, and there isn't any information on the site about how the sites are found and who runs the site. My overall impression is that this site has some good resources that could be helpful to teachers, but the link you want might not work, and there's no guarantee it is a good site. Content There really isn't any information (that I could find, anyway) about who develops or maintains this site, or any indication of when it was made. Although there are a lot of links to other sites, there is nothing about this site. There is a link to "Contact Us", but who is "Us"? However, it is nice that the links are divided into separate themes, like Weather, so it is easy to find the topic you are interested in. Design The site looks pretty plain. It's really just a list of links. However, this does serves the purpose of the site. It doesn't really have much reason to look nice because most people won't be spending a lot of time there; they'll be on the other sites. Although, even though the site is plain, it still manages to feel cluttered. With the links in the middle, navigation menu on the left and ads on the right it can be a little hard to stay focused. But the site is functional, and it can be helpful to have a large amount of sites about the topic all put together.

Overview: This site is clearly for students K-8 as well as teachers and parents. It is a site about the weather that is benefical to students, teachers, and parents. Students can explore the weather, teachers can find lessons and experiments, and parents can help teach their kids at home. Content: It provides alot of information about the weather such as hurricanes, tornadoes, winter storms, clouds, rain and floods, thunderstorms, lightening, wind, etc. There are lesson plans, experiments, and science fair projects ideas for students and teachers. It provides a lot of useful and helpful information by the author. She is a meterologist. She also provides games, flashcards, and facts about weather safety for students to help them learn. Design: This web site looks like it was designed mainly for students. It's got lots of graphics and I think it would be appealing to them. Since it's for kids, it's easy to use and navigate through. It seems like a fun site that I think kids would enjoy.

Billie Slyman, 9/11/11 Purpose The purpose of this site is to give students a resource to learn about weather and how it affects people. There is enough information to be useful, but it's not overwhelming. There aren't any links to outside sites, which is a drawback. However, I still think this is a valuable site because it has good information, interactive content, and is well designed for students to navigate. Content This site does a good job of achieving its purpose of providing information for students. While there is a good amount of information, it is put in simple language and organized in a way to make it easy for students to understand. Many of the sections have interactive multiple choice questions, where students can click on a button and a text box will pop up and tell them if they are correct. The content seems accurate to me, and the developers (the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, for example) seem qualified to present this information. Design This website has a very nice design. Everything looks interesting for students but is still well organized and not cluttered. It is easy to find the information you want and navigate around the site. Also, the information on each page is split up into sections and has lots of pictures interspersed, so it isn't a huge block of text that could be intimidating to students. The pictures and charts are all relevant and aid in understanding the information given.

Kacy BaileyDate reviewed: October 8th, 2012All Weather, all the time web questContent: The content of this website was very helpful, and useful for teachers. It was clear that the content was meant for 2nd grade students trying to learn more about precipitation. It is clear who the author is. Even though it is not clear who the sponsor is, I do not believe that there actually is a sponsor. The website is providing second graders with information that is required to learn. It also has a teachers page making it easy for teachers to have their students complete a web quest like this one.  Design: The design of this web quest makes it stand out from a regular website, but it is not super interesting to look at. I do think that it will get most kids' attention though It could use some more designing. This website is also very easy to navigate. Each link is up to date and useful. The homepage clearly states everything that is needed (title, author, what the website is about, etc.) The only downside to the design of this website is that it may be kind of difficult for second graders to navigate. This is kind of hard to assume though due to the fact that children become more technological every day.  Overall: Overall this website is another great web quest to use for students. Instead of learning on the usual white board and projector, this gives students a more hands on way of learning. And of course students love using technology so a web quest is always a good idea to get them working with it. The website had great information for students to learn, and many links to look up the things that the website may have missed. Overall the website seemed to be a great teaching tool. 

Overview: The site focused primarily on science information that focused on an elementary school audience. The site contained a lot of information on a large amount of different topics that would make it easy for a student to find information on just about any topic related to science. Different tabs included for the student are experiments, games, facts, quizzes, projects, videos and images. Students can use much of this information on their studies regarding science. Since there is a .nz at the end of the web address, the teacher can see the website was created in New Zealand. The site can also take you to other subjects like English and math although they seem to be done by same creator of this site. Content: There are a large amount of different topics that would make it easy for a student to find information. Topics include earth science, animals, chemistry, scientists, water, and weather. Each includes information on the topic and also in the site they can do activities and games. A lot of the information appears to be correct but the only problem is it is hard to tell where a lot of the information was retrieved from. It also shows that last updated date being January 9th, 2013 so all the information is fairly recent. Design: The main thing I noticed about the website's design was the color that popped out. The different sections of the site were listed with red, blue, orange, brown and other colors for the different topics. Many pictures were included on the site that makes it more interesting and entertaining for the students to look at while they are learning.

Content- This site covers just about every topic a child could think of from animals, to weather, volcanoes, to teeth. This site has everything. The home page of this site gives the different pages that information and activities can be found based on what sort of information is being looked for. There are pages for facts, science topics, experiments, lessons, videos, quizzes, pictures, and then other sorts of fun random science things. This site can be used for all age levels because there are so many different things to learn about and use on here. All the information is up to date and recent as well and the author is highly qualified to do so and updates the page frequently. The content is written in simplistic terms so that all ages can find and understand it. The site doesn't have any links to different websites but much of the information needed is all in one place. Design- When you come to the homepage of this site it is very well put together and students will know that this site will give them information about all sorts of science topics. The site is not too overwhelming because it does not have large words written across the screen, but words that students can easily read and know exactly what is being taught. The site is appealing to the eye and all pages are set up in the same manner. Pictures and videos are all relevant to the topics as are the games. The games and videos also add an interactive aspect which is important for small children to have because it helps them retain the information better Overview: Overall I really enjoyed this site. It is really easy to read and understand and students don't need a very high level of reading to do so. It is colorful which makes it appealing, especially for younger students. It also has a lot of interactive aspects such as the games, the quizzes, and the videos to help the students learn more about the topic. It is easy to get around and that will make it more enjoyable for the students as well. Also, I

Enjoy learning about science with a wide range of fun experiments, facts, games, activities, quizzes, videos and projects that are perfect for kids.

Overview: The overall purpose for this website is to have lessons and activity examples that teachers can use for different grades in science. As a teacher this is a great website to seek activities to use in your classroom for different science terms and lessons. This website has activities for science grades varying from kindergarten to 12th grade. This website also has workbooks that teachers can order to give their students to work out of. Overall, this website is very helpful.  Content:  The content of this website is for teachers and there are many activities to do with students that explain science terms and lessons such as science biology of animals, weather, and volcanoes. There are many more lessons available to teachers on this website as well. There is also a way to find certain standards for science that teachers need to meet, which is nice to have so that they can teach the appropriate material. The content on this website is a helpful and fun way for teachers to teach.  Design:The design of this website is pretty simple to navigate through. There are tabs on the top to click on to lead to the other pages. There are quite a few advertisements on this page for different businesses. The color scheme is pretty simple just white and some greens and blues. There are no obnoxious links all over the page or spelling errors either. The design of this website is professional and accurate. 

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.

Overview: Science for Kids is a website that covers a wide variety of subjects that relate to Earth Science; everything from weather and climate to things that deal with soil and water. This website gears towards agriculture research for kids as well and investigates topics about air, animals, minerals, and what is in the air that we breathe. Content: This website contains a lot of information regarding science that is applicable to anyone that is interested in Agriculture. On the homepage you are able to navigate to other links that allow you to travel to links that offer information regarding topics that are in the spotlight and also offers links to science projects and information for teachers to access. I also find it very cool that one of the websites main links offers you to cool Science careers. Design: I find this website to be very interesting and filled with information that children would love. The interactive home screen allows users to be part of its experience; there are sounds as well as animated images that capture your attention. I can see myself using this website in my classroom because it offers daily information that seems interesting to a young audience I definitely see myself as this being a great website for my future students to use in my classroom. The information is relevant and very well organized and the user interface was very easy to use; perfect for kids. Plus it was filled with information that anyone can learn.

Agriculture.com is an extremely useful resource for an ag instructor. This sight combines the markets agricultural news and forums that we can use to build curriculum for our classrooms. We can use this sight for talking points or to allow the students to use to find research for their desired topics. This web page was used very often when I was in high school learning from my teachers. They were able to use this information to help mold me into the advocate for the industry I am today, also this allows ag teachers to instill a knowledge in their students so that they can educate the public in the importance of the industry.

Mitch Sexton January 20th 2009 The page provided by BBC about German culture and language seems to be a very interesting and educational tool to be used by anyone looking to learn about Germany. With so many different links and fun games it is impossible to search this site without learning at least a little bit about Germany and its culture. I feel that this would be a useful tool as a teacher because not only does it provide the site in German but it also gives you news updates, live television feeds, weather and even quizzes about cultural events. The intended audience is obviously any person that is looking to learn about Germany. But it also provides a more in-depth look with the television feeds and translation into German. I think that this is a wonderful site for anyone but a particularly great site for students that will be in my classroom.

National Geographic is a reputable and world-renowned organization with an extremely experienced and knowledgeable staff of explorers and writers. National Geographic has been around for many years. There is a degree of seeking profits for the organization; however, National Geographic provides an extremely significant amount of data and information in science, even Earth Science.

The purpose of this site is to inform people about science. The audience of this site is students and teachers of grades 1 to 6. Overall this was a very fun website. Although for being a more child geared website it should have been a little more interactive. There was a little quiz at the top of the home page but that was all. The content of this site was over scientific facts. There are multiple scientific categories that a person can choose from. The content was pretty simple. It was more science facts for younger kids. Though it was simple facts the facts were accurate. There was also no date of last revision. There was an email and an address so that you could contact the author in case you had a question about anything. The design for this website was highly eye catching. It is a website that was engineered for younger kids so it is very fun. It wasn't too overpowering in the design though. It was also a very easily understood design. A young kid would easily be able to navigate his or her way around the site. Although there were no directions given as to how to use the website.

Overview: The website MathisFun.com is a math website for elementary and middle school aged children. The purpose of this website is to help children understand math in a fun way. In this website there are many different fun learning tools to help the students understand geometry, algebra numbers and measurement better. This website gives links to other helpful websites that have games using base ten blocks adding and subtracting games, and much, much more. Content: The content of the website MathisFun.com is very clear and organized in a very interesting way. This website is fully completed and is used effectively with a well organized and interesting home screen that is easy to understand and helps the child or the teacher find different types math subject areas without any problems. There are other games that have been listed for the higher grades such as 5th grade to help challenge the students in a fun way. The website offers many different types of games and puzzles, along with games to further the education of elementary and middle school aged children. Weather the teacher had the games pulled up on the smart board and then the students could interact with other students and work as a class to figure out the answers. This is a great interactive website for students and for the teachers. Design: The website MathisFun.com is a well designed website that looks like a road with many math stops. This website is full of different colors that grab your attention. The website does not have any ads which is a good thing so the children can focus on just the math subject areas. This website also offers worksheets and a dictionary that the teachers section that offers many different tools like print zone of different activities and work explains different math terms.

Whitney Mills; Website Reviewed: January 24th 2010 Overview: Mathisfun.com immediately draws a person's eye in with a fun, exciting homepage. Anyone can see clearly that the purpose of this website is to help teachers teach their students math. Content: This website has a clear and definite purpose, and that is to help teach children math in a fun and exciting way. The site is very well organized and very well made. I feel like there was much work put into making this site effective for children. The author is very clearly identified, and the links to other websites do work effectively. This website also covers many different areas of math such as; algebra, geometry, data, etc. It is stated on the actual website that the content is updated frequently, which is a huge plus for using this site in a classroom. A person can also check out all the different additions added to the website which could be helpful. Design: The website is very well designed. It is exciting to a child's eye. He/she would be more than happy to learn math using this website. For adults/teachers the website is very organized and clear throughout the entire page. The design is the same throughout the whole site and it seems like a very fun and exciting site to use anytime, anywhere!!

A website for students to learn about current events.

This website also includes an activity to help students get a better understanding of reading graphs and problem solving. It also helps students see mathematics in a real-world context.