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Adrianne Lauman September 02, 2011 Overview The purpose of this free website is to provide knowledge and awareness of North American bird species and their habitat. The site encourages people to make connections to science and nature through bird watching. The information is directed toward people of all ages who have an interest or curiosity to learn more regarding ornithology. Video clips, audio clips, colorful photos, range maps and life histories are available for investigating bird species. The site provides expert knowledge on the subject of birds in a clear and visually pleasing manner. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology developed this website and the National Science Foundation supports it. Content The site appears well organized with a visible heading to initiate a search for information on bird species. The search feature has an automatic fill in based on the first letters typed to allow the user to locate the bird of interest. Interactive selections allow a person to listen to bird sounds, as well as watch video footage of the bird. The site provides opportunities to "ask an expert" about topics concerning ornithology and information on how to participate in bird projects. One project named Feeder Watch allows people to send in their own data based on their bird watching experiences. Design The website has clear headings to locate topics and information. The copyright information and developer of the site are displayed at the bottom of each page. The photos of the birds are eye-catching and appealing. The information provided by the site is abundant and well worth viewing.

Eileen Andrews: September 9/11/11 Overview: As the title suggests, this site helps students and teachers access history digitally. This site includes links to primary sources, lesson plans and other help tools for teachers, and interactive learning such as timelines. This site would be useful for both teachers and students. Content: This site covers a wide variety of topics in American History from the American Revolution to present day. The site seems to be well kept since the last revised date is 9/11/11. Although some links don't work, many others due, and the ones that don't work can be search in for in other resources. Design: The site is easily navigated and includes a site map and search option to make finding specific content easier. This site provides pictures, videos, and timelines. The site can seem boring at times, but the pictures do help liven it up. The site is organized very well in the sidebar and site map.

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

Katharine Johnson September 19, 2009 Ag in the Classroom Introduction: This website focuses on agriculture in the classroom. It has a variety of information and links for both educators and students. Content Evaluation: First Look: When I first looked at the site honestly I didn't think it would be much but it is easy to navigate and easy to understand. Information Providers: The website has been endorsed by the Americans Association for the Advancement of Sciences. Also it has been sponsored by the USDA Agriculture in the Classroom program and is manages through an agreement with Utah State University. Information Currency: The site is not clear about when it was last updated. But most of the events are current so that leads me to believe it has been update recently. The other site links are updated and in working order. The only one that I had problems with was the questions tab. It said the site was unavailable. Information Quality: This site offers a wide variety of information that I believe could be helpful to new teachers. Also I believe it could help students learn more about agriculture. Design Evaluation: Speed: Most of the pages opened quickly and effectively. Home Page: The homepage is attractive and eye appealing. All the information is clear and organized and easy to find what you are looking for. Ease of Navigation: The site is easy to navigate. All the information is clear and organized and helps you find what you are looking for easily. Having the main points larger and bold helps navigate through the site. Use of multimedia: All the graphics and other media's used are effective. Browser compatibility: Only tested Internet Explorer. Content Presentation: All this information could be really helpful in the classroom for both teacher and students.

Evonne Raymond Evlauation September 16th 2009 Content: This website is clearly defnied as a website to teach chemistry to student.Once again there are several authors, depending on the linky ou decide to employ, but the sponsor is the American Chemical Society. It is updated frequently, and the last date revised was March of this year. It is interactive , well organized, easy to understand as well as easy to access. It would be a great interactive tool for teaching chemistry to studetns of all ages, elementary school and up.The information provided is easy to understand and wold fit the needs opf a classroom teaching setting. Design: The design of the website is clear , and it is easy to direct you to your next area of interest on the website. There is lots of multimedia and links, and all of this links I tested worked efficiently with the overall concept. It is also compatable with several servers and compatable to my mac computer. The website is interesting and visually attractive, but not distracting. There is a clear distinct visual aide to click on any links, and the interactive programs are easy to follolw and run smoothly. Overall this website is really accesible, and really interesting. Attribution: The inteded audience is students and teachers, as well as parents and family memebrs who are looking top help their kids understand chemistry a little bit more. It is a helpful website, you would just need to make sure that you are using the age appropriate programs provided by the website. It is both very interesting and very visually entertaining. This website is great for any chem teacher looking to put some bang in their lab.

A resource from the Academy of American Poets with thousands of poems, essays, biographies, weekly features, and poems for love and every occasion

Brief Timeline of early Wyoming settlers, and explorers!

Overview: The purpose of the Founding Father's website is for information and business/commercial purposes. The website is geared towards students, or even anyone wanting to learn more on the founding basises for America. The site provided outside links, but it was complicated and many did not work. Overall, this website was also completely impressive. Much of the informational tabs were good to provide an instructional basis, but the design of the site was very poor. Content: Informational-wise, the information on the site, though very basic, was excellent in creating a start for consuming information. The information was unbiased and appeared to be quote excellent. A problem with the site, though, was the lack of authors or easily accessible contact information for the articles and the site as a whole. The site also offered many links to sponsored gift shops outside the realm of the founding fathers. Design: The design of the site was ultimately okay. A basic format was used throughout the site, even though it was basic with few graphics. The homepage has okay eye appeal, but it is not easy to maneuver through the links on the homepage. The site also offered plenty of outside links and sources, but they were confusing, disorganized, and many of them were broken or did not exist anymore.

TeacherTube is an educational resource found at teachertube.com. It is a filtered, child-safe video website based off of the popular video site called YouTube. The site, geared towards teachers and students, was initiated by a superintendent from Texas named Jason Smith and is maintained through uploaded user content. TeacherTube is a fantastic source of videos to supplement lessons of all subjects in an elementary classroom. All content on this educational website is current, and its copyright has been updated as of 2015. All video links are informational and relevant, and some information about the people who uploaded each of the videos is available; however, no contact information is provided for the website. Also, the audience and subject matter of the videos are easily determined. The site's credibility is improved by its associations with the American Institute for History Education, Glogster EDU, NASA Ares, and other highly esteemed educational online resources. Over all, TeacherTube provides reliable, audience-appropriate, educational content to students and teachers alike, making it an excellent tool to use in a flipped-design classroom or to supplement any lesson in an elementary classroom. The website's design allows users to easily navigate TeacherTube's videos. The homepage displays a sample of educational videos and organizes them into rows by audience and then by subject matter: teachers, parents, students, and then math, science, and history. Each video shows appropriate content according to the subject and audience it is labeled. Additionally, users can search video channels or specific usernames of people who upload videos. This simplistic format of the homepage is consistent with all other pages, making navigation easy for users of many ages and ensuring efficient loading on any web browser. Clearly, TeacherTube is a well-designed, user-friendly, educational resource for teachers, parents, and students to find credible and informational

A free community for sharing instructional videos and content for teachers and students. We are an education focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners.

The aim of the website www.poets.org is to provide resources for teachers, from elementary to university level, that wish to teach poetry in their classes. The website's mainpage contains man clickable lesson plans and resources that link to various poetry books that can all be used in a classroom or modified for whatever level the teacher wants to teach. Each lesson plan is clearly labeled with an author as well, which could help a teacher locate lesson plans by the same person if they really liked another one they wrote. The point of the webpage is evident in their opening paragraph at the top. The design of the page is lacking in a few respects; for example, the address, credits, and contact links are at the bottom of a white page in white colored font - I only found it because I highlighted them.  The website's goal is obvious from the first look at their introduction paragraph, which contains a little history about the website and what their main goals are where poetry in the classroom is concerned. There is no place on the main page that indicates when the site was last updated, but the page is currently advocating for teachers to participate in National Poetry Month, which is April, so either this site is very up to date or is years behind in some other poetry month. 

Mandy Schumacher 1-24-10 Overview: Internet 4 Classrooms is a website with many components. The purpose of this website is to help teachers use the Internet effectively. On the "Home" menu the user can choose to visit any of the seven links posted. Those include: Grade Level Help, Links for K-12, Technology Tutorials, Assessment Assistance, Daily Dose of the Web, On-Site Training, or About Us. This is a free website that is designed to help teachers find free Internet Sources to use in the classroom setting. Content: This site is full of information and consists of many separate components. This site is mainly visited by teachers who are hoping to find a way to integrate the Internet into their classrooms. From the site the user can choose a specific grade level and subject. Once the user has selected a grade level and subject a list of sites that can be used for classroom instruction appear on the screen. For example, if the user chose Language Arts for Elementary Students, sites such as "American Literary Classics" or "Brain Food" would appear and the user would then choose one of those links to instruct their students. These links can take you to anything from a list of good books to read in the classroom, word puzzles to challenge your students, or anything else related to Language Arts for Elementary students. Design: The website is somewhat organized, however, it can be a little confusing to navigate since there are so many separate links on the Home page. There are also several ads which can become distracting. Overall this site provides good information for teacher and students about using the internet as a learning tool.

Trevor Santy Sept 14 2011 Overview: This site is mostly a teaching resource with activities for grades from preschool to 12th grade. With many different activities ranging through different class levels. The activities also cover a large variety of topics from science to math to English making it a good learning tool as well as a good place to practice the skills associated with that subject. It even says the grade level the activity was meant for making it a must have for a teacher's resources. Content: This site contains different activities for different subject matters such as history, math, science, and a few others. It also has a games tab that contains learning activities for all ages ranging from the easy to some that are very challenging. Also the activities make great lessons for aspiring teachers and the site has help sections in case you get lost or don't know what grade to do an activity for. Design: This websites design is extremely simple and straightforward. With tabs to take you to individual class levels and activities. On top of that it has a handy on site teacher training for using the activities that is pretty easily designed using a mix of videos and text.

Randi McInerney September 15, 2011 Overview: Internet4Classrooms is an educational website primarily for teacher usage, but could be used by students. There is a good amount of information available on a variety of topics, but the site is not as organized or appealing as it could be. Helpful links, educational games for k-12, assistance and information for teachers, technology tutorials, and SAT/ ACT prep are available. Content: There is a lot of information available, but the SAT/ACT prep is only accessible if you become a member. Interactive games, tutorials, and information are available. The content could be easier to find and access. There is email information to contact the website developers. Design: The site does download, but is not that visually appealing or organized. The site provides tabs to find information, but then will just list a large amount of information that you are expected to look through in order to find what you need.

Overview: The purpose of this website is for teachers to join the community of teachers that teach Spanish or Portuguese. There are a number of important links for all people to see that are not members of the AATSP. The overall layout and design of this site is Professional and has a sense of prestige. Content: The content of this site is up to date. The contact information and date of copyright is listed at the bottom of the page. Content is organized, helpful, and accurate. The calendar shows upcoming events and there is a link to the monthly Journal. Design: The layout is professional and makes it seem that if a teacher joins, they will be part of an important group of people that will provide great resources. The table of contents is in alphabetical order and the scrolling photos make the website seem relevant to the information it provides. All links work properly and provide very useful information. Due to the amount of links, there seems to be a great resource of information available to people with the AATSP.

Gary Allen Jan 23, 2011. Overview: As the title suggests, this is a website designed to help kids learn about American history. The site is authored by a man with much experience in presenting history for kids and includes a link to his biography. Content: This site contains many easy to follow links, a glossary, interesting facts, a search box and even some educational games to help present the content. Also included are links to other sites of similar content and a weekly newsletter. There is no date for the last revision of the site, but there is a link to contact the author and ask questions.  Design: The site is fairly simple in design with the main navigation across the top, another menu of links down the left side, and ads on the right side. The lack of flashy elements helps the site load extremely fast however. Navigation is very straightforward and clearly labelled.

Overview: This website's purpose within in a classroom could be for research papers and projects. Each student could choose their own topic and then navigate the links easily to learn more information with concise bullet points, pictures, correlations to current events, and related games. This website included topics in several areas but primarily history, geography, economics, and government. Content: This website has a wide variety of upper elementary social studies information including even broader topics of history, geography, government and economics. The home page had a general toolbar that provided information about the site and the creator. On the left side was a huge bar that linked to many specific history topics such as current events, teaching resources, timelines, and maps. Once you have clicked on a topic from the side bar there are even more links to even narrower research areas. This would be a good site to use for students to create a research project about a topic that they are interested in. There was only one link found that was not up-to-date. Design: The design is not very appealing especially for young children it initially looks a bit bland. Once you have picked a side link and narrowed your topic there are visually appealing pictures and games to go along with the information being taught. The home page took a while to download and had an ad that was generated more towards adults pop-up. The site is easy to navigate following all working links. The website did not work well in Internet explorer but did work well in Google Chrome.

Brianna Gillespie 9/14/11 OVERVIEW: This website is to teach students about the many different subjects related to social studies. Students can use this website to answer almost any questions they could have about social studies. This website is mainly for older children because it has a lot of reading that may be a little difficult for younger children to comprehend. CONTENT: The content includes current events, games, economics, geography, presidents, states, and many more. Within each subject are a variety of links to choose from. Each link is focused on a main point of the subject. There is also a section on the main page titled "This Week in History" with some facts about a certain event that happened in the past. DESIGN: The design has some color, but is a little bland. However, each page has a piece of clipart on it, so it is not completely boring. Children would be able to navigate around this website fairly easily too.

Nathan Wonnacott 9/9/11 Overview: The Smithsonian Institution web page is a way to allow people to access the galleries without visiting the museum and provides insightful ways to teach students as well. The target audience is parents, teachers, and even students. Some of its topics are history, science, art, and technology. I believe this site to be a very useful tool in educating. Content: The first impression of the Smithsonian webpage is a sense of variety. There are pictures of exhibits and links to others not depicted. It doesn't appear childish, but more for anyone interested in American history. Once I explored, I found that the links work successfully and are full of up to date information. The website does leave out links to other sites, which limits resources to the site alone. It also doesn't specify an author, leaving only the sponsor to be contacted. Design: The setup is both fast and easy with organized pull-down menus. The pictures and references to their exhibit are detailed, useful, and attention grabbing. Activities are also available, and help to locate new information. The pages are current, last revised on July 6, 2011. The site is effective and worth visiting.

An online text book for teachers

Ffa.org is one of the MOST important tools for when you are an ag educator. We use this sight to sign up for various national events and it is used for a resource for the various activities that take place in our program. It holds guidelines for the national competitions that take place and outlines for speeches that our students give. This website is what allows us to keep up to date also with the various changes that Ag Education are undergoing. As we learn and grow so does agriculture it is starting to focus more and more on the services that agriculturalist can provide since production agriculture is only ran by 3% of the American population. It offers us an opportunity to get more members in our chapter and allows us to help us offer those students a broader range of Supervised Agricultural Education Programs. Ag ed used a series of 3 rings to help us better our educational process; FFA, SAE and Agricultural Education, this sight is where all 3 are combined for us for easier access and information to help provide the public with in the future to help continue support for years to come.

Cassie Nelson February 3, 2012 Overview The purpose of this site is for FFA advisers, members, and alumni to get current information. The intended audience is advisers, members, and alumni. This site is very useful in getting members started in FFA and to learn what FFA is about. Overall, I like this website and will use it when I teach. Content At first glance the user is able to determine the content and audience of this site. The site has all of the information about the authors and who to contact for questions. The material is clearly identified. The site seems to be updated frequently. The downfall is there is no revision date provided. The information is accurate, organized and appropriate for the audience. The site itself worked properly, along with the links within the site. Design This website downloads efficiently and has strong eye appeal. This site is easy to navigate and you can tell where you are within the site. A downfall is that the site doesn't have a copyright date or date site was established. There is sufficient information and is clearly labeled and organized.

Mary Magnuson, The Website http://www.amnh.org/education/resources/rfl.php?set=b&topic_id=4&subtopic_id=60&intro=false is great. It is organized really well. The downloads are really fast, and all of the ones I tried worked. It is geared towards both the student and the teacher. They are resources that can be used in the classroom, or you can assign students to go there, and there are specific directions with pictures that the students could follow. It is also organized based on grade levels. The content is also good, and from the museum of natural history, so it is reliable. It helps organize deep concepts into easy to understand models.