TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Apr 14, 2013
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
Code Fred - Museum of Science and Industry Chicago
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): body systems (45), human body (104), organisms (21), structures (20)
In the Classroom
Demonstrate this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Allow students time to explore the activity and report back on the various systems, organs, tissues, and molecules necessary in our daily lives. Use this tool as an introduction to various units on tissues, organs, or body systems. This tool can also be used to put various chapters and units of study together for a better perspective on the functioning of the human body.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Bubble Test Form Generator - Answer Sheets - Catpin Productions
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): assessment (117), test prep (75)
In the Classroom
Are your students in trouble with the bubble? Provide them with a daily double bubble form. Introduce your students to the many different styles of testing early in the school year. Create forms that mirror graphics, a feelings chart, fact/opinion, music staffs, and many other options. Go beyond the bubble and have students analyze assessment results. Tired of grading? Use the registration marks to create forms for automated testing machines. Students can self-correct using test keys. Get instant results for faster analysis. Give your younger students regular practice with bubbles by creating a "lunch count" bubble sheet students fill in "packing" or "buying" or a daily attendance check in sheet.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Plan It Green - National Geographic Society
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): coal (11), energy (169), environment (256), fossil fuels (16), game based learning (158), solar energy (34)
In the Classroom
Use this activity to show how certain buildings can change aspects of happiness, health, and other factors. Brainstorm ways to improve aspects of a city prior to playing the game. Groups of students can even collaborate on a specific city. Students can report on various ways they improved their city including starting with smaller homes, green houses, or by improving large, older homes. Enter screenshots and specific information about the game play on a wiki or other site and research various communities that have achieved those changes. To take a screenshot simply Shift+ Command +4 on a Mac (saves to your Downloads) or Prtscrn key and PASTE on Windows. Propose similar changes in your own community at the end of the play and research. This would be an ideal activity leading up to Earth Day or during an environmental unit. Teachers of gifted could build an entire long term unit around it.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Hunger Games Challenge - Educurious - Educurious
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): essays (20), expository writing (32), novels (23), persuasive writing (51), politics (101), posters (43), reading strategies (53), social networking (85)
In the Classroom
You could use this unit with the entire class reading The Hunger Games, or, with some fine tuning of ideas and materials, possibly use it with other dystopian novels in literature circles. A couple that come to mind are The Giver and The Maze Runner. This unit suggests Glogster, but you can also use a program like Webnode, reviewed here, or Sway, reviewed here. They will do just about everything Glogster will do, and they have more free features.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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PleaseDon'tCheat - Copyright - New York Online
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): copyright (43), digital citizenship (72), ethics (21), plagiarism (31)
In the Classroom
This site is a must-have in the toolbox for all secondary teachers. Bookmark and save this site to use for discussion questions and factual information on plagiarism. Share the videos on your projector or interactive whiteboard. View a video each week and discuss contents. View specific videos addressing concerns that arise in your classroom. Share this site with parents at meet the teacher (Back to School) night for their use at home. Share a link to the site on a prominent place on your class website or blog for student reference at any time.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Freebook Sifter - FreebookSifter
Grades
K to 12tag(s): book lists (121), independent reading (103)
In the Classroom
This site is a helpful classroom reference tool. Save this link on your classroom computers. Find books to use at learning stations, especially if you are a BYOD (Bring your own Device) school. Be sure to provide this link on your class website for students to use at home. The books available include all those in the public domain and titles whose authors have granted permission for free dispersal.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Mapping History - University of Oregon
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): 1700s (33), 1800s (55), 1900s (48), africa (143), alaska (24), american revolution (73), central america (13), civil war (126), cold war (24), colonial america (94), colonization (16), explorers (63), great depression (23), greece (25), greeks (29), hawaii (8), industrialization (10), italy (14), maps (229), native americans (77), romans (32), slavery (52), south america (36), spain (11), war of 1812 (14), world war 1 (52), world war 2 (133)
In the Classroom
View modules together as a class on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Provide links to selected modules on your class webpage or blog. Use as one source for students to create their own maps. Using a mapping tool such as Click2Map, reviewed here, to create a map of any specific time period or event. With Clck2Map students can include display markers featuring text, photos, and videos!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Energy Kids - US Energy Information Administration
Grades
K to 8tag(s): conservation (102), energy (169), natural resources (46)
In the Classroom
Share the resources found here on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Use this site as part of your wiki on energy, renewable resources, and conservation. Add to a center to improve reading skills as well as new literacies in technology. Find excellent information to include for your Prezi, Powerpoint, or Live Binders on energy. Enhance your ESL/ELL students understanding of your energy unit using the visuals and reinforcement of basic concepts.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Awesome Stories - AwesomeStories
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): art history (75), artists (73), biographies (87), black history (81), civil rights (141), civil war (126), cross cultural understanding (140), disasters (37), earthquakes (47), inventors and inventions (75), korea (18), lincoln (59), mars (34), movies (55), natural disasters (17), presidents (115), primary sources (99), racism (59), resources (91), south africa (11), vocabulary (247), weather (182), womens suffrage (31)
In the Classroom
Use this rich site to support your social studies, history, science, language arts classroom, and many others! There is a lot here to explore and many diverse topics. Use the Visual Vocabulary Builder to introduce your students to new vocabulary in a different way. Middle and high schoolers could use movies to teach about character development and themes. The site includes several lesson plans that help you teach using current movies. Have your students use the site to find historical images to use in presentations. Include activities found on this site as part of lessons on racism, bias, and civil rights. (Be sure to check the licensing on any image you use and cite it properly.) Project the video clips using an interactive whiteboard or projector to introduce students to a unit of study. Challenge small groups of students to explore one of the topics presented at this site and share their "story" with the rest of the class. Have students create an annotated image including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Thinglink, reviewed here. Many texts on this site are also useful examples of informational texts for the practice of Common Core standards.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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