Science, science, and more science

The focus is on (yes, you guessed it), Science!

A great link for science teachers is the The Periodic Table of Videos. This is a site that displays a Periodic table and when you click on each element, a little YouTube video pops up discussing and demonstrating the properties of that element. Very clever! You can find the link here -http://www.periodicvideos.com/#

The next site is called Wonderville which is done by the Alberta Science Organization. It is an interactive site with lots of games and activities. It can be found at www.wonderville.ca

The last site, which is great for biology, is called Cells Alive. It does a great job with animations demonstrating the biology behind cells including the different parts of cells. Definitely worth checking out if you teach biology.

The Big Picture

This weeks entry deals with a site from the Boston Herald called "The Big Picture". Every couple of days a Boston Herald reporter posts high resolution photos of an event that is signinficant somewhere in the world. These photos are taken by professional photographers and they are often stunning!

This weeks photos include pictures of H1N1 activity from around the world which you see to the left, Remembrance Day services across the globe, and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Not all entries are based on current events - there are thematic entries as well.

The photos are great for creating discussions within y0ur class - you could have them write about what they see, analyze particular photos for specifict deatails or talk about what's signifcant about the picture they are seeing.

New photos are published every other day and you can check the archive at the top of the page for previous posts.

Just a note- when you first go to the site you will see one photo of that event. If you scroll down, you will be able to find a link that will reveal up to 40 photos of that particular event. The photos look amazing when blown up on a big screen - you don't need a smartboard for this application either.

Check it out at www.boston.com/bigpicture/

Glogster

Recently my students have been using a program called Glogster - you can find it at http://www.glogster.com/. It is a way of creating interactive posters using a variety of media. The students quite like them and it makes creating an informative poster much more interesting and fun.
You can sign your class up for a school account at no charge. To do this go to http://www.edu.glogster.com/, register yourself, select how many students you want (you can have up to 200 and I suggest you select that, as you'll have enough for all your students should you want multiple classes to use it.), then they will email you a list of passwords and login names that your students can use.

The great part is you can control the content, who sees it, and be aware of who is creating what.

To see an example watch the video below.

Hippocampus and Ipod Touch

This week's entry focuses on a site that has a little bit of everything. Hippocampus is a site dedicated to providing high-quality multimedia content on a variety of subjects to highschool and college students FREE OF CHARGE.

There are currently 10 subject areas with subtopics to choose from. Although it is an American curriculum, a lot of the subject material overlaps into B.C. curriculum areas. After you choose a subject area, you can browse by topic and select the areas that are most relevant.

Since teachers and students can control the content of the courses using the SMART Board, they are able to quickly pause the course material and take notes at any point during the course. The courses also contain assessments that students can solved on the SMART Board and then put their answers in the space provided to receive feedback.

Even if you don't use this resource in class, the course material is a great way to get ideas to enhance your existing lessons.

Another interesting tidbit that I came across was a school in England who has incorporated Ipod Touches into their classroom. Our district has been considering the idea of providing laptops to students within the next five years. However due to cost and equipment issues this may not be very practical. The Ipod Touch may be an alternative.

If you are not familiar with the Ipod Touch, it is the latest version of the Ipod with a touch sensitive screen. You can download programs called Apps from the Itunes, many for free. A lot of them are designed for educational purposes.

The video clip below shows you what the school in England has experienced since taking on the Ipod touches - this is filmed after about two weeks of using them - and how the students, who are elementary age, have taken to them. Perhaps this may be an alternative to laptops for students. Something to think about.

Science links

Hello everyone,

This week we look at links for the science guys. There are tons of interactive science websites out there. One of the best for science animations is called Freezeray. Here you can download free animations on a whole variety of science topics. Most of them are very good. The site organizes the resources into various categories including Physics, Biology, Technology, and Chemistry. They even have a fun place to practice Science-related literacy. The resources here include a hangman type game and various key-idea interactive resources.

As I mentioned previously, the interactive resources are downloadable and can be used freely for non-commercial purposes. The really good thing about these resources is that they are flash-based and can be imported into your Smart Notebook files.

Pro-d to go

This weeks entry is for those becoming familiar with SMART boards. Two educators, one out of the states and one from Winnipeg, have been creating Podcasts about SMART boards for a couple of years. They have done over 150 podcasts incorporating most school subjects such as science, math, socials, language arts, etc.

Each podcast is about 40 min. during which time they talk about ways to incorporate SMART boards into your classroom. They often invite teachers along who have used the boards and share their ideas. You can download the podcasts free of charge at their website and listen to them when you have the time. You can find their site at pdtogo.com/smart.

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The wonders of youtube

This week we look at the wonderful world of youtube. More than just a place to post your summer vacation videos, Youtube can be a wonderful educational tool if you know what to look for. Fortunately most of the work has been done by someone else.

One page in particular lists the 100 best videos for teachers. They are categorized by subjects and some are quite good. The link is included below

100 Best Youtube videos for teachers