Group items tagged

One of the wonders of the Internet is that it can bring the world to you instead of your needing to find the time and money to explore the traditional way. The following virtual tours bring opportunities to explore cities, famous landmarks and buildings, museums, college campuses, and even outer space. You can learn how things are made, explore the human body or that of a life-sized whale, and visit ball parks and theme parks. There is even a section of incredible virtual tours that Google Earth has compiled that shares the world in a whole new way.

In the Kids Interactive-Whales, students board the Discovery where they can explore 5 different rooms including the science lab, the research center, the office, the library, and the bridge. Each room has an "expert" that will help the students as they explore the room. As students explore each room, they can take notes by saving text to a clipboard. In the research center, students learn about whale migration, the effects of whale hunting, watch video footage of whales, take an up close view of whale pictures, learn about whale sounds, and even report a whale sighting. On the bridge, students will learn about the rules for viewing whales from land, listen to sounds that different whales make, learn about sonar, steer the boat, learn about the whales that live in Australian waters, learn the rules about watching whales from a boat, and learn the best time to go whale watching. In the underwater library, students will use the database to look up facts about whales (they can take notes on their clipboard), use a dictionary to look up unfamiliar terms, learn about the history of whaling, see how whale populations have suffered, and see pictures of whales that can be used in a research project. In the office, students can watch whales through a portal, read about Australian whale preservation, read a brochure, and view a timeline of how whaling activities have changed throughout the years. The science lab is the last room on the Discovery. Here, students can learn about what whales eat, take a closer look at the anatomy of whales, play a game to practice identifying whales, find out how whales are important to the ecosystem, learn about the difference between whales and dolphins, learn about the research that scientists do, and take a closer look at whale statistics.

Neat site about whales.

This site has numerous (2,100) carefully selected and annotated resources. You can click on the lobby link on the main page to go to the resources. You can click on the welcome to K12imc.org a t the bottom to go to the instructional media center where there are additional links taking you to specific locations on the site. At the bottom of the IMC page you can click on explore the worlds of K12IMC.org and within the explore page you will be able to link to more resources that are clearly described. Within each of the resource links you will go to a page where there will be a variety of content specific links. This site was interesting. There were lessons for teachers, there was a link on the explor page that will take you to experts in various fields. This is a site worth checking out because a user could, through this one site, find numerous credible and useable resources.

Found this site to be very interesting and loaded with lots of useable resources.

This site was so cool. I created my own comic story. I was able to play brain buster games I read stories and had stories read to me, and watched videos about how to create a comic.. This site was created by Jim Davis, creator of the comic strip Garfield, in conjunction with Ball State University and PAWS, Inc. It give kids the opportunity to explore, create and connect safely with kids around the world. Jim Davis created this site because he felt there was a need to provide a high-quality, free, and engaging web site that could motivate children to achieve their full potential. The approach is kid-centric and tries to close the achievement gap between what kids seek to do on the Internet and standards-based educational activities. The mission of Professor Garfield.org is encourage children to explore academically sound literacy activities and provide them with tools to express themselves through creative writing prorams. It's an Internet destination that is safe, free and fun! The Professor Garfield and Sparktop sites (both found on this link) provide all kids of ways for kids to shine and showcase their talents and abilities! Students can record their own "talent" for Sparkstage (our American Idol-like competition), arrange music with the awesome music mixer tool, create their own comic strip in the Comis Lab, learn to sculpt, or be taught to draw by professional artists in the Art-Bot section. On Sparktop.org kids safely connect with other kids who knwow what they are going through. They find information about how their brain works and get tips on how to succeed in school and life. And they get to showcase their creativity and be recognized for their strengths. Millions of children from around the world visit the web site every month.

AAA Math is a site with a variety of math activities, spelling activities, states of the United States, Nations of the world. Students can learn, practice, play and explore grades K-8.

Bartleby.com looks like a cool site. Has unlimited access to books and information on the web. Feel free to share with anyone who may be able to use it.

This website is connected to National Geographic. It allows students to explore difficult topics such as Ecology and Geology through a game like experience. Students work on "missions" as they learn about our Earth.

I found this site through the RSS feed on Google Reader. The RSS stemmed from TechLearning. This site would probably be most applicable for 4th grade and up if it is to be used independently. I think with scaffolding, working as a whole group, and some frontloading of information, younger students could enjoy the experience as well.

National Geographic has a great collection called Forces of Nature. Here students can explore a natural forces lab where they learn about the extreme nature. Students can learn about tornadoes, volcanoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Students learn what the force of nature is, what causes them, their characteristics, the damage that they do, how they are forecasted, and then have the opportunity to actually create the force of nature virtually. Students can also view an interactive map that shows hot sites where the forces of nature occur, and read case studies of actual events.

Field trips can be amazing learning experiences. They provide students with the opportunity to actively participate in education, offering learning possibilities that aren't readily available in the classroom. Unfortunately, it isn't always practical or possible to take students on field trips. Tight budgets, location, transportation, time, and resource restrictions can keep your students school-bound. Virtual field trips can fill this void. Virtual field trips have come a long way from the page of links they used to be. Now students can explore the world with simulations that are so realistic, they will believe they have left the classroom. Below are five of the best virtual field trips on the web:

"For those of you asking about Educational Android apps to use with students in class the chart below is a great place to start with. This is a work we have published a few months ago and is meant to provide teachers and educators with a handy resource they can fall back on when they need to try out new educational apps in class.  We have categorized these apps into 17 major categories: note taking apps, portfolio creation apps, presentation apps, reference apps,  video editing apps, concept mapping apps, storytelling apps, apps for teaching kids coding, augmented reality apps, audio recording apps, comics creation apps, reading and literacy apps, apps for learning English grammar, apps for doing virtual trips, apps for learning a new language, apps to unleash students creativity."

"For those of you asking about Educational Android apps to use with students in class the chart below is a great place to start with. This is a work we have published a few months ago and is meant to provide teachers and educators with a handy resource they can fall back on when they need to try out new educational apps in class.  We have categorized these apps into 17 major categories: note taking apps, portfolio creation apps, presentation apps, reference apps,  video editing apps, concept mapping apps, storytelling apps, apps for teaching kids coding, augmented reality apps, audio recording apps, comics creation apps, reading and literacy apps, apps for learning English grammar, apps for doing virtual trips, apps for learning a new language, apps to unleash students creativity."

A good break down of easy and free ways to ad images, video, and music to your classroom. It list free sites and software for teachers and students to use to create slideshows with music or videos with music. It also includes a site (Discovery Education streaming) that features videos of student adventures around the world. This article is also accompanied a link to another article that features students exploring story telling of a real life adventure.

Thinking Guides are tools or frameworks for thinking through an issue and considering different aspects or perspectives. They can help to develop thinking skills.

Great templates for problem solving and thinking activities. Lots of diagram templates. Great compliment to LFS.