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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

New Horizons is an educational site that contains strategies for teachers to enhance and expand their educational curriculum. I chose the Arts in Education page for this review. Content: This website has been around since 1980 and although it is currently retired, it has been the launching platform of many new educational sites. In specific the Arts in Education page offers resources pertaining to art's beneficial attributes in brain stimulation and possible scientific processes that can be applied to art. Design: The design of the site is very easily understood and followed. There are no advertisements on any of the pages and links navigate within the newhorizons.org site only. Although it lacks the appearance of similar websites, this is a very simplistic and easily run learning tool. Attribution: This site's purpose is purposeful and educational. Its aims are primarily at benefiting the teacher and helping to incorporate pertinent tools to their educational programs. As a teacher I would very likely use this in constructing different approaches to learning, however I would be weary of how current and valid the information actually is due to the fact that it is retired.

a. Overview: The first thing I noticed about this site is that it is a dot-com site. Even though this is the case there are virtually no advertisements. There is a section on the bottom of the page that you can subscribe to this site through RSS feed, google, my yahoo, my MSN, and my blogline. b. Content: The content of this site is very strait forward that this is a site for educational purposes for all ages and audiences. The "about" section contains the authors/owners of the site and why they built the site. There is contact information included. This site is dedicated to sharing knowledge to other teachers. The menu bar includes kids activities and lesson plans. There are no costs involved in this site so it is accessible and easy to use. The only problem is that the credentials of the authors is not listed anywhere which makes the site slightly untrustworthy. c. Design: I personally enjoyed visiting this site. The content was put together very well with the readings enjoyable. What I liked about this site is the homepage specifies that this is an educational site. The homepage is professional and inviting. Each menu bar is linked well to other resource pages for further explanation on the subjects. This was the first website so far that mentions home schooled students and the teachers.

Casey DeGabain January 24, 2010 Overview This site seems to have a lot of information but does not seem that appealing to very many age groups and would probably not be the best teaching tool. Content There is a lot of information's dealing with Ag in the classroom, Ag career pathways, educator resources, e dag programs. This sight has a lot of good information but does not seem like something that would be very good to use in the classroom because there is only specific things it deals with and does not have a wide variety of things to interest a lot of kids. I would not use this in my classroom. Design This sight does not have very much graphics or things that really stick out. It is pretty plan with just facts and information. I do not think it would appeal to students very well because of this. It isn't really hard to find your way around but it seems poorly designed for an educational tool.

Meghan Snell September 11, 2011 Overview: This website is mainly for kids and for fun learning. There are useful purposes for parents and teachers as well. At the bottom of the website, links are available to other sites more useful for teachers. It is well organized with links to grade levels as well as links to different subjects. There are 100's of different games which are all mostly educational and help improve children's skills. It's an extremely fun appealing looking site to catch kid's attentiong and easy to navigate. Content: The authors and sponsors were a little difficult to find although there was a nice section about the site itself and its purposes. The content of the site is mainly for children but teachers and parents can find uses out of it as well. I was not able to find information on how often or when it was last updated but the copyright of the site itself was clearly given. All of the links work fine and the site does serve its purpose. Design: The graphics of the site are very appealing, fun and contribute to the site. Everything loaded easily and now unecessary downloads had to be made to go through the games and activities. It was easy to find what activities were desired becuase of the headers being organized neatly.

Posted by Amber Rittenhouse on 1/24/10 Overview: This site is intended for anyone who wants to get better at multiplication, primarily students in elementary school. The site offers many different strategies and a lot of help to learn the multiplication tables. The site offers many games to apply their knowledge of multiplication to win the games. This site accomplishes its purpose of teaching. There are many links available through this site to go further and learn more. Content: This site contains many games, as well as techniques, tips, and secrets, that deal with multiplication. There is a way to contact someone in the case of questions or a problem of some sort. The purpose of the site is to help kids with their multiplication problems. The site does this through games, so the kids are entertained. Through the entertainment they are learning. The content is well organized. All of the games you get to choose your level of difficulty, so kids of a variety of ages can use this site. There are further links provided for more practice. There are only a few ads spread around the outside of the web page, so they are not very distracting. Design: This site is well designed. The homepage downloads quickly, and all of the links do so as well. It is very easy to get to the lessons and the games. Strategies to help someone better learn their multiplication tables is also easily found. The whole site is very colorful, and it catches the eye very easily.

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!

A website full of interactive games for math, english, science, etc.

Overview: This site is all about interactive and fun games to help enhance learning for elementary school-aged children. You can sing songs, play games in math, language arts and vocab. It is child friendly so you can easily find what it is you want to play. Content: The author is not very clear but at the bottom lest side of the page shows the sponsor which is Time4Learning, a online home educational program for homeschooling, afterschool and summer learning. There are links to all the different activities the site has to offer from fun interactive learning games to free worksheets to online learning. The content is mainly the focus for elementary aged kids. It provides the needs to teach and help children learn new concepts and refresh old ones. The information is consistent and updated frequently. Design: The design is fun and appealing for kids. There are pictures to go along with the links which make it easy to navigate and know exactly were to go. Everything loaded fine and had extra places to visit for extra help.

Overview: This website provides games for young learners to explore even before they reach classroom age and throughout the early elementary years. The website covers several subject areas including but not limited to Health, Spelling, Animals, Science, Math, Art, Geography, and Literature. The games are fun and challenging. Content: There are games for young learners that are both challenging and entertaining in a wide variety of topics. Each topic has sub topics and then a multitude of game options for that sub topic. There are illustrations of cartoons throughout the site. The author is not clearly identified but the sponsor is. The website links to other young children's websites and cartoon television shows. Design: The amount of subjects and then sub-subjects is outstanding. The entire website is geared towards young children which is not only seen through the illustrations but also through the advertisements. The games are easy to get into the first time but after you have gone into one of them it is difficult to get back out to the website's main menu. While it has links for the subjects it doesn't have links such as home, about, contacts that may be helpful additions. A copyright is not readily available. The directions for the games are clear and concise.

Overview: This website is very colorful, and has many eye catching links. It has different links for each one of the planets and gives a visual along with a description on the planets. It gives fun facts and has games to better understand the solar system. This is aimed toward younger students, most likely 3-4th graders. There are some tough words that younger students might not comprehend but all in all I really like this website. Design: The design of the website is very easy to access and has many links to get wherever you need to go. It's very colorful and fun and has animations of the planets that makes the website eye catching and grabs the user. Content: The website was very helpful with content. It shows many things about the planets as in how many days it takes to orbit the sun, the mass, volumes and temperatures each planet expierences. There is also a brief paragraph over what each planet means.

Sean Wilde January 2011 Flotrack.org Content This site right off the bat expresses exactly what it represents. And it is for those that are researching or wanted to be in the circle of what is going on in the Track & field world. The sites author is not on the main page but can be found almost in any page particularly the home page. Information about the authors, is also readily available, in the interviews that they do, as well as in their bio pages. Content is updated on a daily basis, and a easy contact email is also available. Since some of the information is received from another site links to other webpages are used and work. This site is for news, but since it does have the type of designers it has, it can have some entertainment. Flotrack has opened the eyes for those who thought they knew the world of Track and Field and brought it into the 21st century. The quickness of the information it gives lets others know that the broadcasting ability for this sport is growing and demanded. Design This site has a great opening and it is very appearant where you are at and how well the site is managed. The site runs smoothly and is updated daily. Seeing as there is data added on a daily basis. It works effectively on all three browsers I use (Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome). The videos are of good quality and it really has any glitches with sound or videos not working. Although recently when they did a mass update to the site it no longer looked as clean on my phone and Playstation 3. Overview This site is great for the student who is trying to find what they really want to do. Because, the site shows you that even though you may be an athlete, someone who is great with computers, or is just great at asking questions anyone can survive in the new age of the world. Also the fact that it is a .org site and not a .com shows it actually has a lot more legitamacy then most other sites.

Erin Kirby January 23, 2011 Overview: The sight http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/gw.html is a good sight for young children and older children. The purpose of the sight is to teach kids about global warming, allow them to play games, and tell them what they can do to help. On the website it allows you to pick a topic and learn a lot of things about it. The sight is simple to work because there are simple links and there is not a lot of distracting stuff going on. The sight could also be good for teachers, it could allow teachers to learn about this topic and find ways to teach it to their students. The sight seems simple to use and there are not a lot of things in the way. Content: This website is pretty simple and seems easy for most age groups. It is easy to see what the sight is about, it allows children to learn interesting facts. The site may be hard for very young children who cannot read because the sight does have a lot of words. There are not a lot of pictures so kids may become bored. The games are fun for children to play and they test the knowledge of what they have been reading. The author of the site, and words from the author were not available but it does say who the sponsor of the sight is. The content of the sight should all be educational and correct because the sight is a government website. The last time this sight was updated however was in 2006, so some stuff on the site may be old. The links on the site are helpful because they are picture and all of them work and don't take very long. The grammar and spelling is fine and there does not seem to be anything that is bias. Overall the sight seems simple and fun for children to learn. Design: The website comes up very quickly and the site run very quickly. The homepage is simple and the links are easy to follow and use. The graphics of the sight are clear and keep it more interesting for kids. Every game on the site seems like it has accurate information and all the information overall

Erin Kirby January 23, 2011 Overview: The sight http://www.fema.gov/kids/ is a good sight for young children to participate in fun games and learn emergency information that is important to know. The age groups include any age. The purpose of the sight to teach what to do in emergency situations, and play fun games that connect to these emergencies. The site allows you to click different links that tell about a different things involving disasters and emergencies. The seems simple and entertaining to use for kids of all ages. It is helpful for them to know the information on the site as well. This is a good site for teachers to tell elementary students about so they have the information they need and can apply it to their lives. Content: This website not confusing and very simple to use no matter what you click on. There are no advertisements that become a problem and get in the way when you click on the links. The games are fun and very educational for the children. It would be helpful if a parent was with the child to help them out, but the children can also do it on there own. There are links at the bottom that explain things that a parent or teacher might want to know about the information on the site. One link at the bottom tells you all about FEMA and gives you facts and stats about them. The website is credible and has reliable information, most government sites are very educational and correct. The content of the sight is educational and fun. The links on the site are very helpful because they are simple to use and there is not a lot going on. Overall the sight seems like it could be a helpful way to learn about emergencies and how to handle them. It can also help kids get involved. I feel like it would be smart for an elementary teacher to show their students this website. Design: The websites speed is extremely fast and there are not a lot of things that become distracting or get in your way. The homepage is simple and even when you are off the ho

Overview: The purpose of this site is unclear at first, though this could be due to the fact that the site is UK based. The site is a "national grid learning" that gives various learning sites for various age groups. Because it is not US based, it does not follow the same dialect which makes it more difficult to navigate through. The home page is clearly indented for parents/teachers/adults. It lacks any sort of eye appeal and seems fairly boring. There is an abundant amount of resources for different age groups including many different languages. But again, these are difficult to follow. Content: Overall, I assume the site works well for its intended purpose. There are many different options for people, but the information is difficult to follow. For my specific purposes, the site is usable but I would not refer to this site again in the future. Design: The design of this site bores me. Even as a parent or teacher, the site doesn't give much of a reason to continue browsing when starting at the home page. The games themselves seen to be entertaining enough but could still use work on gaining the interest of a child.

Overview- The site itself does not have much content regarding information at all, but it still is a great research tool. Rather than having information on the site, it acts as a home base in finding relevant and credible sites and tools for kids. It is easy to find other sites regarding the content you are interested in. Everything it suggests for you can become a great tool in either research or studying. Content- This website overall is pretty good. It is very credible for the fact that it is created by and maintained by Kent State University to help provide information to students. The site itself gives you links to information and research about any subject relevant to a student in grades K-8. It is like any other database used in libraries around the country, but is centered on helping kids. It allows them to search for information without worrying about if the site is credible or now. Design- The design is very kid friendly. Everything is easy to find and visually appealing. There was a lot of work done to this site to make sure that kids would be both interested and able to use the software. Every link was usable and always came up with a credible source.

Overview- This site overall is a great resource for teachers looking for a lesson plan about the United States Presidency. There is not much question in its credibility, due to the fact that it comes directly from the US Mint. It can help any social studies teacher, no matter the grade level because it offers a variety of lesson plans. Though, it fails to offer anything interactive for the student to partake in. The only thing it gives is factual information, with very little interaction. Content- Within the site they make it very easy for a teacher to identify where they can access lesson planes. It also gives lesson plans for all ages. So no matter what grade you teach you are able to find the lesson plan that fits your age range. The sponsor is clearly labeled, but I was unable to find an author for both the site and lesson plans. Other than that, the website content is very helpful if you are looking for a lesson on the US presidency. Design- The design is easy to use, but it is not very eye catching. It uses basic graphics that get the job done, but overall not too great. Its main focus is to deliver content and help with information. All links work well. Not much time spent on trying to make it look good.

Overview- This site is another great find. Overall it is a great research tool for both teachers and students in a closed encyclopedia format. It is a credible source and allows you to see the credentials of all contributors to the site. When you look up content it shows you the information and links to other credible sites with similar content. The only draw back about the content is the fact that it provides little information on mathematics and science. Other than that, it is a great tool for researching information. Content- This site is a great research tool. Every search made brings up relevant information. When you do find what you are looking for, the information is clearly organized, and easy to get main topics. Also, all information is usually backed up by some source, and even gives links to those sites that help contribute information. The site even has a dictionary link that can be used right on the spot. It is an amazing research tool for any teacher and/or student looking for information related to the social sciences. Design- This is a site that has put a lot of work into making searching for information easy. Everything is easy to find, and clearly labeled. It is pretty eye catching. They put a lot of effort in this site and it really does show in its easy to use, functional design.