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 12
2 Favorites
0 Comments
Learn the complex workings of the human body with this interactive. This tool uses "Fred" and dangerous situations to identify and understand the complex workings of the major organs...more
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Learn the complex workings of the human body with this interactive. This tool uses "Fred" and dangerous situations to identify and understand the complex workings of the major organs and compounds in the body. As various situations develop, click on organs and molecules that make his body work effectively. To show you just how quickly these interactions occur in our bodies, if you are not quick enough, a dire fate awaits Fred: he "becomes at one with nature"!
tag(s): body systems (57), human body (132), organisms (21), structures (24)
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.
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Bubble Test Form Generator - Answer Sheets - Catpin Productions
Grades
K to 12
2 Favorites
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Do your students have trouble filling in the bubbles? Create free bubble sheets for assessments. Carefully fill in the fields as you scroll down the page. Blank boxes will not ...more
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Do your students have trouble filling in the bubbles? Create free bubble sheets for assessments. Carefully fill in the fields as you scroll down the page. Blank boxes will not appear on the test form. Change font sizes for the text, and provide directions in English or Spanish. Format your bubble columns and styles that best meet your assessment needs. Select a variety of other graphic styles that are not necessarily "normal" looking bubbles. Various styles of math grids are available. Choose from a menu of miscellaneous options to add some creativity to your test form. Include scoring boxes for evaluation and comments. Include registration marks for automated test marking machines. Select the "Test ID" option to reprint your form at a later date. The ID number will appear on your form. All data is saved for future retrieval (1-2 months). Create a test key by printing a bubble sheet on a clear transparency. Use a permanent pen to mark the correct answers on the test key.
This site includes advertising.
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): assessment (116), test prep (97)
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 12
1 Favorites
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Plan It Green is a free tool to create a city and add ecological, "green" improvements. The main task is to construct various buildings in four different categories: residential,...more
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Plan It Green is a free tool to create a city and add ecological, "green" improvements. The main task is to construct various buildings in four different categories: residential, commercial, recreation, and facilities. As the city is built, you must manage happiness, finances, pollution, energy, and employed workers. The residential and commercial buildings provide daily taxes and energy credits. Energy credits can be sold for money that you can use for materials. Upgrades for the buildings and the environment are also included in the game. Use the tutorial to walk through the tools and read accompanying information. Register by naming your city and activating through email. The introduction video is hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, you may want to view the video at home to learn more about this simulation.
tag(s): coal (14), energy (210), environment (322), fossil fuels (18), solar energy (40)
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 12
1 Favorites
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Would you like to use The Hunger Games to provoke your students into thinking about real world issues? Educurious has just the mini unit for you! Download the free PDF ...more
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Would you like to use The Hunger Games to provoke your students into thinking about real world issues? Educurious has just the mini unit for you! Download the free PDF titled "Avoiding the Path to Panem" and be on your way to creating the thinking citizens of tomorrow. In this one-to-two week project based unit, students will use primary sources, contact experts, and write a final informative essay about sustainability, poverty, racism, economics, or war. In the essay students are to recommend specific ways our country can avoid the post-apocalyptic world of The Hunger Games. The essay will be part of a "Glog" or another form of a public post, to represent their findings and recommendations visually. The unit includes three short videos about directing The Hunger Games movie, surviving high school, and writing. Not only does this unit support the Common Core State Standards, but also the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-S).
tag(s): essays (20), expository writing (40), novels (22), persuasive writing (57), politics (98), posters (41), reading strategies (51), social networking (111)
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.
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Vale Middle School - Articles of the Week - Vale Middle School (Oregon)
Grades
6 to 10
4 Favorites
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Are you struggling to find engaging informational text for your students? Work out your Common Core by reading VMS Articles of the Week. The articles were developed using strategies...more
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Are you struggling to find engaging informational text for your students? Work out your Common Core by reading VMS Articles of the Week. The articles were developed using strategies originally created by Kelly Gallagher. They have been modified to meet the needs of Vale Middle School students using both the Oregon Department of Education reading sample guidelines and Common Core State Standards. The content of these articles is constantly evolving to best meet the needs of VMS students. Educators from other school districts are welcome to borrow from these articles so long as credit is given to Kelly Gallagher and VMS for the work/effort put into each week's article. Download articles as a pdf or Word document to edit. There is space provided in the margins for text annotations. Lexile(R) levels are provided to analyze text complexity.
tag(s): book lists (131), news (260), reading comprehension (126)
In the Classroom
WAYT: What Are You Thinking? Use this technique as the students read the articles to mark comments, connections, and questions. Read the passages in guided reading groups to scaffold the instruction. Post an article and the questions in an online forum for students to discuss their answers. Challenge above-level readers to make observations about the writer's strategies. Use the articles' trending topics to meet the students' interests and engage reluctant readers. The questions are great to teach students about Question Answer Relationships (QAR). Model current event literature response techniques with the articles on the website.
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Hungry History - The History Channel
Grades
3 to 12
3 Favorites
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Explore the history of food with this tool from the History Channel. Learn about food as the center of many of our holiday celebrations as well as everyday foods such ...more
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Explore the history of food with this tool from the History Channel. Learn about food as the center of many of our holiday celebrations as well as everyday foods such as spices and basic staples. Articles are listed by most recently added. You can also search by Top Categories. Many articles also include a video.
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This site includes advertising.
tag(s): cooking (33), cross cultural understanding (124), holidays (140), myplate (27), nutrition (158)
In the Classroom
Be sure to include this resource in a unit discussing foods. Students can research and report on a various types of food. Compare the nutritional strengths and weaknesses of different cultures. Have students make a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here. Discuss how various grains are a major underpinning of most holiday celebrations. As you view each of these resources, be sure to note the various grains that are often used. Report on different cultures and celebrations around the world. Students can even create many of these dishes to share with classmates and gain understandings of various cultures. How does the food reflect the natural resources of a region? How does it relate to the culture's religion? World language students can trace historical foods of the culture they are studying and even share them at a world language fair.
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Copyright - New York Online
Grades
5 to 12
9 Favorites
0 Comments
Explore the complex topics of copyright and plagiarism. Find information on identifying plagiarism, ethical concerns, and ways to avoid stealing others' material. Explore essential...more
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Explore the complex topics of copyright and plagiarism. Find information on identifying plagiarism, ethical concerns, and ways to avoid stealing others' material. Explore essential questions such as Why Should I Care?, What Does it Look Like?, and How Can I Use My Own Brain? Student tools offer tips for avoiding plagiarism such as correctly citing sources and learning proper phrasing. Teacher tools include videos and posters to help students explore this topic and understand copyright issues. View several videos in the digital ethics portion of the site that discuss the fine line between plagiarism and mashups, downloading, and music use. Some of the videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.
tag(s): copyright (47), digital citizenship (64), ethics (19), plagiarism (36)
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.
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Freebook Sifter - FreebookSifter
Grades
K to 12
4 Favorites
0 Comments
Explore this useful catalog of all free e-books available for Kindles through Amazon. It is quite extensive with many categories: Advice & How-to, Biographies & Memoirs, Business &...more
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Explore this useful catalog of all free e-books available for Kindles through Amazon. It is quite extensive with many categories: Advice & How-to, Biographies & Memoirs, Business & Investing, Children's eBooks, Fantasy, History, Literary Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers, Politics & Current Events, Reference, Religion & Spirituality, Science, Science Fiction, Sports, Teens, Travel, and many others. At the time of this review, there were over 69,000 free eBooks listed on the site.
tag(s): book lists (131), independent reading (129)
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 12
2 Favorites
0 Comments
Discover interactive and animated representations of historic events and time periods. Choose from American, European, Latin American, or African history. Within each of these choices...more
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Discover interactive and animated representations of historic events and time periods. Choose from American, European, Latin American, or African history. Within each of these choices is a list of modules. Each module provides information and interactive content such as timelines or maps that guide you through the specified time frame. The slider at the bottom of the map allows you to move in time.
tag(s): 1700s (29), 1800s (50), 1900s (38), africa (164), alaska (23), american revolution (85), central america (12), civil war (144), cold war (30), colonial america (108), colonization (15), explorers (68), great depression (27), greece (26), greeks (33), hawaii (8), industrialization (14), italy (15), maps (294), native americans (80), romans (35), slavery (67), south america (40), spain (8), war of 1812 (15), world war 1 (55), world war 2 (139)
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!
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Book Adventure - Book Adventure
Grades
K to 12
1 Favorites
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Book Adventure will be closing down June 30, 2018. Find ways to encourage and get your students to splash in the world of reading. Designed for grades K-12, ...more
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Book Adventure will be closing down June 30, 2018. Find ways to encourage and get your students to splash in the world of reading. Designed for grades K-12, the site offers a search engine to find new literature to read, short quizzes to check your comprehension of over 8,000 books in the database, a Kid's Zone (mainly for elementary students), plus links for both teachers and parents! They also offer prizes. Build your own booklists. You can search by grade level, difficulty, and even subject (MANY to choose from). Request a free teacher kit for detailed and engaging ways to motivate your students. Find resources for successful parent involvement. Watch the introductory video on the homepage to learn more. Contests through the site offer additional reading incentives. While this site does offer a book search and quizzes for all grade levels K-12, it has an "elementary" look. Registration is FREE, but required for several of the activities. Registration requires an email address (for teachers, students, or parents).
tag(s): book lists (131), independent reading (129), literature (270)
In the Classroom
Find detailed ways to help parents support the wonderful world of reading with their students. Have each student create individual reading lists and work towards prizes. Students can use this site as a search tool to find new reading suggestions. Motivate students by setting individual goals. Use quizzes for books as part of literature studies, or examine the type of questions given. Challenge your students to create their own quizzes about a book they recently read. Have students create their own quizzes (and more) using ClassTools (reviewed here).
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Energy Kids - US Energy Information Administration
Grades
K to 8
1 Favorites
0 Comments
Find a great source for all your energy information at Energy Kids! Discover energy sources, forms of energy (renewable and non-renewable), electricity, hydrogen, and recent statistics...more
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Find a great source for all your energy information at Energy Kids! Discover energy sources, forms of energy (renewable and non-renewable), electricity, hydrogen, and recent statistics on energy use. There are games and activities to help reinforce the concepts presented. Detailed lesson plans, science fair experiments, field trip information, and more help you provide a more comprehensive unit. Don't miss the history of energy timeline with all the famous people. There is even a link "For Teachers" where you can find lesson plans from K to secondary.
tag(s): conservation (127), energy (210), natural resources (57)
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.
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Awesome Stories - AwesomeStories
Grades
4 to 12
10 Favorites
0 Comments
AwesomeStories is a one stop shop of primary source materials. It is a gathering place of sources located at national archives, libraries, universities, museums, historical societies...more
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AwesomeStories is a one stop shop of primary source materials. It is a gathering place of sources located at national archives, libraries, universities, museums, historical societies and government-created websites. The site includes documents, videos, audio clips and narrations. Topics range from the Women's Movement to Emperor Penguins to Abraham Lincoln to the Easter Story (through medieval/renaissance art) and much more. Search by biography, disaster, trials, flicks, history, philosophy, sports, or the arts. You can also search by lesson plans, narrations, slide shows, videos, images, audio clips, documentaries, and more! You can also take advantage of the Visual Vocabulary to learn vocabulary related to many of the stories and video clips available at this site.
tag(s): art history (81), artists (81), biographies (92), black history (58), civil rights (120), civil war (144), cross cultural understanding (124), disasters (40), earthquakes (50), inventors and inventions (90), korea (18), lincoln (84), mars (39), movies (71), natural disasters (20), presidents (123), primary sources (93), resources (106), south africa (12), vocabulary (319), weather (200), womens suffrage (25)
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 the movies to teach about character development and themes. The site includes several lesson plans that help you teach with current movies. Have your students use the site to find historical images to use in presentations. (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 practice of Common Core standards.
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