SIGgroup810

Spreaker is one of several free podcast websites that exist that allow you to record a podcast and share it with viewers, like your students. The great thing that Spreaker offers is the ability to present your podcast in several formats. For instance, people who subscribe could listen to your podcast live, download it, or search your channel for past podcasts. Also, the creator of the podcast can upload their pods to facebook or share a link to their blog or personal website.

A free blog website that is useful because it is easy to access and allows you to upload images, video, graphs, and maps. It can be linked in to your google account allowing you access to all the other apps that google provides free of charge like mail, docs, maps, etc.

This is a fun mix of treasure hunting and forensics. In this simulation you are trying to track down potentially stolen gold. To solve the mystery students need intuition, logic through forensic science and the internet.

"Capture video files on your Mac or PC with this easy video recorder software. Debut is designed to be very easy and intuitive to use, giving you the ability to record essentially anything from capturing video from a webcam, your screen, or video input devices such as a VHS recorder within minutes of downloading."

An alphabetical listing of the the PhET project sponsored by The University of Colorado. This contains numerous fun, research-based, interactive website simulations for many common topics in science and mathematics,

This PhET Interactive simulation allows students to investigate the index of reflection and refraction of light. This concept it difficult to illustrate due to the immense speed of light and this simulation slows it down nicely. Furthermore, this simulation gives students the ability to measure the light intensity, angle of reflection and refraction and analyze how light waves bend through lenses- all things that are both costly and difficult to measure in a lab setting.

This PhET Interactive simulations creates a fun game out of electric fields. The objective is to get the positive particle to go into a goal using only charged particles. Each particle either attracts or repels the objective particle and every particle modifies the existing field. This is a great trial and error method to introduce how field forces affect the area around them.

This web site gives students a chance to be a detective. Students are often excited by all of the forensic science programs that are on the television. This gives them an opportunity to solve a theft by reading through witness interviews and examining a crime scene through point and click interaction.

Projectile motion is a standard that all physics classrooms work on and many students struggle with. This simulation is actually a two-for-one. The first set allows students to manipulate some basic variables that affect the range of a motorcyclist based on his velocity and angle of ramp. The second allows students to manipulate a few variables in the hopes of getting an archer to shoot a falling coconut. It is a great illustration on how all objects, no matter their horizontal velocity, will fall at the same rate. Once the students finish shooting the monkey who drops the coconut, they can investigate the relationship and draw some impressive conclusions.

This simulation not only illustrates how a lab technician extracts DNA from a sample but it also shows a few different tissue samples that a technician can extract DNA from and walks the students through a click and move simulation. I like how it walks students through the steps of extracting DNA and discusses why the technician does the steps they do.

One of the best free programs out there for creating podcasts

Audacity is a free program that allows users to record and edit things from their computer. It is simple to use and files can be saved in a number of formats. I did find that I had to add a plugin in order to save in the Mp3 format, but the program walked me through it and I had no problems. It is a great, user friendly program for beginner podcasters.

This is a student created video on how to create a screencast using a Mac and with free, pre-installed software.

This website is a great information source for beginner podcasters. It provides links to sites that allow podcasters to start podcasting without any knowledge of coding or, in some cases, access to server space.

This link takes you to a Library of Congress site that explains to teachers how they can use primary sources to enhance their lessons. It also provides a guide on teaching about and with primary sources. I think it would be helpful on the wiki because teachers could access it in order to learn how to use primary sources to enhance their teaching.

This site provides a plethora of primary and secondary sources. Specifically, there are manuscripts of inauguration speeches that provide insights to a president's party platform. Again, this will be helpful for students researching party platforms and give students a chance to sift through primary sources and determine their importance

This is a link to a video of the first Kennedy/Nixon debate in the presidential campaign of 1960. Although the video is split into four parts I still like it because outlines both party's platforms, which goes well with a project my students will be doing concerning party platforms throughout history.

Our SIG Presentation Document

A basic runthrough of how to create a podcast using Audacity.

This is a very basic video on how to use Garageband to make a Podcast. It is for Garageband '08 but it is pretty comparable to any of the newer Garageband software to date.

Attention Mac Users: Garageband has a dedicated function for Podcasts! Here's a nice guide to creating a podcast using Garageband!