TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of May 17, 2015
Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive
Educator Innovator - MacArthur Foundation
Grades
K to 12tag(s): grants (16), professional development (394)
In the Classroom
Dare to be different and engage your students in learning that is unique and meets their needs, designed by you! Share this site with a colleague and let your imaginations run wild. Do what teachers do best: engage, motivate, and inspire students to love learning.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Dice Roll - S Riley Teacherled
Grades
K to 8tag(s): game based learning (171), mental math (18), operations (72), probability (96)
In the Classroom
Have fun in your classroom with virtual dice on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use this with young students just learning to count. Have students take a guess about what number will "win." Use as an incentive and allow a student to roll the dice to meet a class goal. Set a goal of a large number, and every time a small goal is achieved, roll the dice and keep adding. Keep track until the class achieves the sum given. Practice basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division facts. Have team competitions and choose winners by even/odd, the greatest/least sum, greatest/least product or quotient. Allow students to work in small groups to play the mathematical practice games. For larger digits, roll two die simultaneously and get the greater number. Do the same to get double or triple digit numbers. Encourage your students to practice at home and play against their parents. Any time you need a dice, go to your bookmarked site. In older grades study probability and chance. Use the data and create line plots or graphs in various forms. Be sure to incorporate mean, median, and mode.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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HomeRoom Mom - School Family Media
Grades
K to 8tag(s): classroom management (128), field trips (8), holidays (163), parents (60), preK (255)
In the Classroom
Share Homeroom Moms on your class website as an excellent resource for use by your homeroom mom (or dad), tutors, and other classroom helpers. Bookmark and save for use when planning class parties, finding holiday activities, and much more. Use this site to help YOU get organized!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Eyes on the Earth - NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): antarctica (28), arctic (40), carbon dioxide (10), climate (80), climate change (87), earth (185), glaciers (17), temperature (35), water (102)
In the Classroom
Be sure to share this tool using an interactive whiteboard or projector in the classroom. Provide a link to this tool on your website or bookmark on a class computer. Use this tool to introduce students to questioning and the scientific method. Why collect data on the Earth? Show a tool to the whole class or provide time for groups of students to view the visuals and develop questions and make observations. Challenge students to find answers to some of their questions. Help students figure out what they need to know to answer the questions. For a unit on the environment, begin the unit showing a few of the tools, namely the carbon dioxide and temperature tool. Compare two different tools side by side to note differences in patterns. For example, are the carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide patterns similar? Why or why not? Research the various gases, how they originate, and problems they cause in the atmosphere. Why is the carbon dioxide higher in some areas and not others? Research the carbon footprint of various regions and compare. Are those same areas showing the greatest or least effects of climate change? When discussing technology, view the different missions featured in this tool and the various engineering feats needed to accomplish these missions. Provide time for students to propose a "fantasy" mission for NASA. What should be measured, what would you call the mission? What kind of data would need to be collected? How do you think the Earth image data would look? Draft the proposal and create the possible image for review. Note: Students can focus on biological, chemical, or physical data for their proposal.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Polar Trec - Arctic Research Consortium and National Science Foundation
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): antarctica (28), arctic (40), careers (139), polar (11), scientific method (47), scientists (62), STEM (263)
In the Classroom
Point out that much of science work does not take place in a lab and that many locations are pretty cool! Be sure to investigate the main page to find links to learning resources that include lessons and activities. Read teachers' journals in the "virtual base camp" and learn about their polar expeditions. "Join" the expeditions to find web events you or your students can join in as well as read the teacher journal. Be sure to register for the free events using PolarConnect. Find quick links on the main page to recent journal updates and news. Groups of students can view various journals of an expedition to identify the different jobs that make up the whole of a research team. Use this information to research careers and identify the possible ways that a science education is helpful for many careers. Create mini lab experiences for students based upon some of these research projects. For example, bring in various flowers to discuss plant structures while learning about polar pollinators. Create pretend core samples that students can analyze to simulate the procedure researchers use to analyze polar drill core samples. Identify basic science principles needed for better understanding about these projects. Identify how these projects follow the steps of the scientific method.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Free Tiiu Pix - Tiiu Roiser
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): images (262), photography (126), slides (45)
In the Classroom
Bookmark Free Tiiu Pix to access images for any presentation. Create multimedia presentations for your subject or any presentation for staff or parents using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here. Be sure to share Free Tiiu Pix with other teachers on your campus.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Earth-Picker - The Great Street View Game - earth-picker.com
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): cities (17), context clues (5), continents (32), countries (69), images (262), map skills (56), maps (207)
In the Classroom
Use Earth-Picker as an excellent lesson for using context clues to find information. Share on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) and demonstrate how to scroll in and out as well as how to move around for a 360 degree view of an image. Use on classroom computers as a center and challenge students to post scores after 5 rounds of playing. Share this on your class website for students (and parents) to try at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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edX - Anant Agarwal
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): aeronautics (9), architecture (64), artificial intelligence (101), china (62), circuits (20), civil rights (194), computers (106), electricity (60), engineering (119), environment (240), evolution (85), folktales (34), greeks (31), magnetism (36), medicine (55), nutrition (134), poetry (189), psychology (67), religions (75), shakespeare (93), solar energy (34), speech (66), statistics (114), terrorism (41)
In the Classroom
Share with students on your interactive whiteboard and take the demo course together. This is perfect for use with gifted and advanced students as an option for college level courses and enrichment. Allow gifted students to enroll in courses that interest them or that provide enrichment beyond classroom content. Share with others, in your building, as a resource for professional development. Explore the topics yourself for some new, engaging topics to round out your own expertise. Allow students to enroll in a course that would fit into their career goals as an exploratory opportunity in that field.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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From Wood Cabin to White House: An Abe Lincoln Timeline - National Park Service
Grades
5 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): elections (80), lincoln (60), presidents (121)
In the Classroom
Have students brainstorm ideas to create a book about Lincoln's life. Use and online bulletin board like Dotstorming, reviewed here. With Dotstorming students are allowed to vote and make comments. Then challenge younger students create an online book of images and captions about Lincoln's life using Book Creator, reviewed here,. For older students - challenge cooperative learning groups (or partners) to create a similar story about another president using pictures, themes, and other prompts generated by the site My Storybook, reviewed here. To find Creative Commons images for student projects (with credit, of course), try Vecteezy, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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