Category: Websites

Reliable internet sources are the same as those you would search for in the library. You want:

• primary sources
• unbiased sources
• sources with the background and training to understand the topic

Young students have difficulty understanding these rules. They have barely learned about ‘primary sources’ and have no idea how to select unbiased ones. As for the final point, the ability to select sources with relevant background–that usually comes with age and experience, not something students get for most of their academic career.

With that in mind, there is one guideline that will help even novice researchers find reliable sources: the extension. Here are the most popular extensions in order of reliability, dependability, and trustworthiness:

(more…)

It sounds easy, but to a five or six year old, holding the mouse, clicking that left button, dragging and dropping while holding a finger down is darn difficult. Here’s a list (click for updates):

(more…)

Here are the most-read posts for the month of July:

1. Step-by-Step Guide to Edit a Video
2. 3 Fun Tech Classroom Projects for Summer
3. The Influence of Literature on the Formation of the Personalities of Students
4. How to Become a Citizen Scientist
5. Tech Tip #108: Three-click Rule
6. We Landed on the Moon July 20 1969
7. 27 Online Resources About Civics and Government
8. #75: Tessellations in Excel

(more…)

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Some websites/blogs are confusing. I have to click through from one site to the next to get the information I wanted until I’m nowhere near where I started. That’s annoying!

A: I agree! It’s called the 3-click rule made popular by Web designer Jeffrey Zeldman in his book, “Taking Your Talent to the Web.”. Oft-debunked-but-just-as-oft-followed, this  apocryphal rule claims ‘that no product or piece of content should ever be more than three clicks away from your Web site’s main page’.

This is true with not just programming a website, but teaching tech to students. During my one-score-and-seven-years of teaching, I’ve discovered if I keep the geeky stuff to a max of 2-3 steps, students remember it, embrace it, and use it. More than three steps, I hear the sound of eyes glazing over.

What you want to remember from this rule: Make information easy to access, quick to find. Readers and students have a short attention span.

(more…)

The popularity of bridge building as a school activity has fluctuated over the years, once a right of passage for 8th graders and then avoided. Recent years have seen a resurgence for some great reasons:

• Problem-solving skills: Bridge building requires you to identify and solve problems, such as how to make a bridge strong enough to support a certain weight or how to make a bridge that is aesthetically pleasing.
• Critical thinking skills: Bridge building requires you to think critically about the different factors that affect the design and construction of a bridge, such as the materials used, the forces acting on the bridge, and the environment in which the bridge will be built.
• Teamwork skills: Bridge building is a team sport, and you will need to work effectively with others to design, build, and test a bridge.
• Communication skills: Bridge building requires you to communicate effectively with others, both verbally and in writing. You will need to be able to explain your ideas to others, listen to their feedback, and work together to solve problems.
• Creativity: Bridge building requires you to be creative and come up with new ideas. You will need to be able to think outside the box and come up with innovative solutions to problems.

If you’re having a bridge building lesson at your school, here are great links to support that:

Bridge Building (hands-on)

1. Bridge Constructor (app)
2. Bridge Designer by SourceForge
3. Open Bridge Modeler (software download)
4. Structural Bridge Design by Autodesk (free)

Basics (resources, info)

1. Bridge basics
2. Bridge building contest
3. Building Bridges
4. How to Build a Bridge (an infographic and more)
5. Model bridge Design
6. World’s Strangest Bridges!!

Competitions

1. DiscoverE Bridge Building Links
2. Mississippi Department of Transportation Bridge Building Competition
3. National Society of Professional Engineers

–images from Deposit Photo

Quick, safe spots to send your students for research (click here for updates):

1. BrainPop–with the BrainPop characters, a launchpad to curiosity
2. CoolKidFacts–kid-friendly videos, pictures, info, and quizzes–all 100% suitable for children
3. Dimensions–academic research geared for college-level
4. Fact Monster–help with homework and facts
5. Google Earth Timelapse–what changes to the planet over time
6. Google Trends–what’s trending in searches
7. History Channel–great speeches
8. How Stuff Works–the gold standard in explaining stuff to kids
9. Info Please–events cataloged year-by-year
10. National Geographic for Kids
11. Ngram Viewer–analyzes all words in all books on Google Books
12. TagGalaxy–search using a cloud
13. Wild Wordsmyth–picture dictionary for kids
14. World Book–requires membership

Citing Resources

1. BibMe
2. Citation Machine
3. EasyBib

Kids Search Engines

1. Kiddle–visual search engine for kids
2. Kid Rex
3. Kidtopia

How to Research

1. A Google A Day
2. How to Search on Google
3. Power Searching (with Google)
4. Teaching students to search/research
5. Internet Search and Research–a lesson plan for K-8

Lesson Plans

1. Image Copyright Do’s and Don’ts
2. Internet Search and Research

Resources/Research

1. BrainPOP–Bring learning to your fingertips™ with the BrainPOP® Featured Movie app
2. Kids Picture Dictionary
3. Primary Source Documents
4. SparkVue–collect and display live data from iPhone etc to the iPad
5. Talk to Books–research your topic based on books
6. TED app–TED’s official app presents talks from some of the world’s most fascinating people

(more…)

In my school, 2nd grade and 5th grade have units on the human body. To satisfy their different maturities, I’ve developed two lists of websites to complement this inquiry. I put them on the class internet start page so when students have free time, they can visit (check here for updates):

2nd-3rd Grade

1. Blood Flow
2. Body Systems
3. Build a Skeleton
4. Can you place these parts in the correct place?
5. Choose the systems you want to see.
6. Find My Body Parts
7. How the Body Works
8. Human Body Games
9. Human Body websites
10. Human Body—by a 2^nd grade class—video
11. Human Body—videos on how body parts work
12. Inside the Human Body: Grades 1-3
13. Kids’ Health-My Body
14. Matching Senses
15. Muscles Game
16. Nutrition Music and Games from Dole (more…)

Here are the most-read posts for the month of March:

1. 11 Online Resources About Puzzles
2. Software vs. Online Tools
3. 19 Tech Problems Every Student Can Fix
4. 25 Sites to Add Rigor and Authenticity to Word Study
5. How to Compare and Contrast Authentically
6. 6 Ways to Make Classroom Typing Fun
7. AI and ChatGPT in Education
8. Use the SAMR Model to Energize Class Tech
9. Beginning Graphs in MS Excel
10. Invention Convention 2023 is coming

(more…)

Spring websites, lesson plans, printables, activities:

1. 7 Science Experiments that Teach About Spring
2. Books from Scholastic about Spring
3. Life cycle of a snake
4. Life Cycle Lesson Plans
5. Life Cycle resources
6. Life Cycles
7. Life Cycle Symbaloo
8. Plant life cycle
9. Spring Puzzle
10. Spring Garden–click to find flowers
11. Spring Games
12. Spring Vocabulary (video)
13. Spring Word Scramble
14. Spring Word Search
15. What Happens in Spring (video)
16. What Happens in Spring–PS (video)

Ideas from TeacherVision:

Printables

1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Activities Booklet
2. Butterfly Life Cycle Worksheet
3. Baseball Fun
4. May Day
5. Butterfly Facts and Questions
6. Butterfly Life Cycle Quiz
7. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Poster & Activities
8. More Spring Printables

Lesson Plans

(more…)

Here are popular resources teachers are using to share stories:

1. Aesop Fables—no ads
2. Aesop’s Fables
3. Audio stories
4. Childhood Stories
5. Classic Fairy Tales
6. Fairy Tales and Fables
7. Listen/read–Free non-fic audio books
8. Owl Eyes (classics)
9. Starfall
10. Stories read by actors
11. Stories to read for youngsters
12. Storyline
13. Unite for Literacy

Click for more online story resources (or to update this list)

(more…)