TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Aug 4, 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
STEMbite - Andrew Vanden Heuvel
Grades
4 to 12
Are you looking to experience science and math through a different lens? STEMbite is a YouTube channel with engaging "bite-sized" lessons from a unique first-person perspective through...more
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Are you looking to experience science and math through a different lens? STEMbite is a YouTube channel with engaging "bite-sized" lessons from a unique first-person perspective through Google Glass. This intro page explains the project and gives the link to the actual YouTube channel. Math and science surround us in our everyday life. STEMbite opens your eyes to infinite possibilities. The videos engage you through a short explanation and motivate you to learn more. Examples of videos include math at the pharmacy, washing machine physics, chemistry in your kitchen, probability challenge, the polarization of light, and more! Subscribe to the STEMbite YouTube channel to make your mind hungry to learn about the application of math and science in our everyday life. STEMbite will change your point of view on math and science. If your district blocks YouTube, then STEMbite may not be viewable for students at school.
tag(s): atmosphere (22), energy (133), probability (99), STEM (310), video (267), waves (14)
In the Classroom
Use STEMbite videos as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Discuss the videos in STEMbite and informally assess the prior knowledge as you start a lesson or unit of study. STEMbite is a great find for gifted students (logic, unusual topics, in-depth investigation, and more). Be sure to include this site on your class web page or blog for students to access both in and outside of class. Have your students create their own first-person videos on a math or science topic. Create an online or printed comic similar to a STEMbite video on a science or math concept, First have students create a rough draft of their comic using Printable Comic Strip Templates, reviewed here. Next, use an online tool such as ToonyTool, reviewed here. To share a single video from this site without all the YouTube clutter, use a tool such as Clipchamp, reviewed here, or Watchkin, reviewed here.Tinkercad - Circuits - Autodesk
Grades
4 to 12Create circuit diagrams easily with this tool. Drag and drop elements onto the schematic. Name each of the elements (resistors, etc.) and save schematics once you create an account....more
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Create circuit diagrams easily with this tool. Drag and drop elements onto the schematic. Name each of the elements (resistors, etc.) and save schematics once you create an account. Add layers by clicking on the Settings tab. Use the Help tab to find the most common shortcuts with this tool. This tool has been tested in Chrome which is the recommended browser. Other browsers work, though there may be some issues with how items look or perform.
tag(s): circuits (19), computational thinking (41), creativity (87), electricity (60), engineering (137), makerspace (40)
In the Classroom
This site is a great addition to any classroom lesson or unit on electricity or circuits. Try the activities as a class on your interactive whiteboard or projector, explaining what the symbols mean. Have students complete activities on their own using classroom computers. Take screenshots of the digital schematic students have created. Have students create an online presentation on electricity and circuits using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge. Some tool suggestions are (click on the tool name to access the review):Visme, and Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education.Tools for Educators - Mark Cox
Grades
K to 6Tools for Educators is a great site to build an engaging classroom. Worksheet templates, printables, and game makers enhance your classroom instruction. Customize printable word searches...more
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Tools for Educators is a great site to build an engaging classroom. Worksheet templates, printables, and game makers enhance your classroom instruction. Customize printable word searches with images in seconds. Crossword puzzles can be created as well and even on the same page as a word search. Design your own dice with images or text on the face of the dice. Roll the dice and create dice with text and images! Are your students bored with games? Need activities for centers or stations? The board game maker is a worksheet wizard that allows you to create board games on any theme with pictures. Tools for Educators currently has games for over 20 themes. Build your own BINGO boards, or be amazed by the maze maker. Make your own mazes for the students to explore with questions on content! Don't fall over, but create your own dominoes with text on the left and images on the right. You can't go wrong! Create spelling and reading worksheets as well as handwriting worksheets for students to trace. Tools for Educators is an award winning site itself. Choose from 70 different themes in over a 1,000 styles to create certificates. Picture this...vocabulary words with images. Tools for Educators allows you to create visual vocabulary handouts.
This site includes advertising.
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): back to school (55), handwriting (15), images (263), printables (36), puzzles (149), resources (83), worksheets (71)
In the Classroom
Easily integrate this site into your content to customize the tools available. Create word searches and crossword puzzles with your vocabulary words for any subject. Make your own board games to review or to spice up your stations or centers. Encourage students to join in the game-making to show what they know or to review and challenge their friends. Integrate your own content and questions to customize the games. The domino and dice tools allow you to customize them with your own words with images. Create engaging games to review sight words, vocabulary words, spelling words and more! The dice and dominoes provide great hands-on, minds-on activities to review world languages and other words in the classroom. Create your own BINGO games to review math concepts or any subject material. The maze maker is an amazing tool to engage students. Create squares with questions or content information. Students can answer math questions or other questions in content squares. The maze maker provides great activities for review or centers. Students tired of tracing disconnected material for handwriting practice? Use the tracing paper to enter your own content to make the activity meaningful. Students can also type their own work to print to practice typing and handwriting. All of the text is customizable in the certificate tool with tons of options. Create awards to recognize student accomplishments throughout the year.World Digital Library - Unesco
Grades
4 to 12The World Digital Library makes it possible to discover, study, and enjoy digitized cultural treasures from around the world. Resources include manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical...more
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The World Digital Library makes it possible to discover, study, and enjoy digitized cultural treasures from around the world. Resources include manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings. Browse by place, time, topic, type of item, and contributing institution, or use the open-ended search available in many languages. Information included with items includes a description, place of event or item, date, location of the item, and tags for viewing items similar in nature or topic. Move the timeline to view items for specific time periods.
tag(s): 1600s (20), 1700s (36), 1800s (75), 1900s (72), 20th century (62), africa (170), asia (136), australia (29), china (83), cross cultural understanding (178), europe (84), images (263), north america (15), south america (77)
In the Classroom
Use this site as a resource for viewing and learning about the many cultural treasures around the world. Display the site on your interactive whiteboard or projector to view images and documents from American and World History. Have students choose an item of interest to research further and then share using a tool like Slides, reviewed here. World language teachers can underscore culture lessons using these resources or have students explore and share their findings.Famous Inboxes - Mark Brownlow
Grades
6 to 12If famous people from long ago had inboxes, what would be in them? Famous Inboxes takes that concept and creates inboxes for characters in literature, entertainment, and history....more
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If famous people from long ago had inboxes, what would be in them? Famous Inboxes takes that concept and creates inboxes for characters in literature, entertainment, and history. Choose from artists, musicians, great leaders, authors, and many more categories. Each inbox contains a screenshot of the person's email (mythical) inbox including the subject of the email and the sender. This is an entertaining and provocative site sure to inspire lots of ideas for your own use! Be sure to preview before you share as some of the topics (or "texting" language) may not be appropriate for the classroom.
tag(s): creative writing (126), digital storytelling (155), gamification (86), social networking (61)
In the Classroom
Share Famous Inboxes with your students on your interactive whiteboard or projector using a character or author studied in class. Assign students to each of the inbox titles and have them write the actual email sent. Don't see anyone to use in class? Create your own or have students use the site as a model to create their own. Most likely, working in groups will get the creative juices flowing. This would be a great model to use for introducing a history or science unit or for looking at the relationships between characters in literature. Have students write the emails as an end of unit review. Subscribe to the RSS feed of this site to receive updated contents. Use the option to create an inbox as a differentiated challenge for your gifted students. For example: Summarize World War II by showing Winston Churchill's inbox, then write two of the key emails. As a "hook" for new books in the media center, have students create inboxes for one of the characters and post them with the book jackets. Instead of a "report" on a scientist, have students create their inbox documenting their research and accomplishments.Doorway Online Learning Activities - Philip Whittaker and Thomas Lee
Grades
K to 3Doorway Online provides several early elementary level learning activities in the areas of literacy, math, typing, and memory games. Choose one of the categories to view game titles,...more
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Doorway Online provides several early elementary level learning activities in the areas of literacy, math, typing, and memory games. Choose one of the categories to view game titles, then click to play. Some games offer learning or testing modes as an option for play while others provide several options for differentiating activities. Created in Scotland, this site uses British spellings and currencies.
tag(s): addition (127), alphabet (52), counting (61), keyboarding (28), Online Learning (36), phonics (52), preK (289), sounds (43), spelling (98), subtraction (108), time (91)
In the Classroom
If you have computer stations, you may want to set up different areas of this program to allow students practice time after instruction. Use the program with the entire class by putting an area of the program up on your projector or interactive whiteboard and having small groups of students decide what the answer should be. Post the link to this program on your website for students to practice at home.Project Noah - Networked Organisms
Grades
3 to 12This down to Earth site encourages you to view and appreciate nature (even on your smartphone!). Become an active part in the quest to understand nature. Share your experiences through...more
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This down to Earth site encourages you to view and appreciate nature (even on your smartphone!). Become an active part in the quest to understand nature. Share your experiences through photos, called Spottings, and tag your location. Act as a "citizen scientist" to discover organisms and share findings. Document living things (natural creatures, plants and other living things) discovered by using a camera or mobile phone. Upload the contribution to Project Noah for further studies and projects by the community. Use the search tool to look for specific organisms by name. Sightings are recorded using Google Maps.
tag(s): amphibians (17), animals (293), birds (46), insects (68), plants (148), qr codes (19), spiders (10)