Category: Websites

Lesson Plan: Online Art Sites

Lots of kids think technology is technical, another word for complicated/difficult/math-like. Here are six art-oriented websites students can visit that will change their minds. I’ve also included a link to a long list of education-appropriate art websites

Note: Mr. Picasso Head is no longer available

Click  image to enlarge if it’s blurry.

–from 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom

Here are more online art websites:

(more…)

17 Websites for Chemistry

 

Here are a few of the popular resources teachers are using to reinforce chemistry in MS and HS:

  1. Beaker–a digital beaker app
  2. Chemistry collection from Carnegie
  3. ChemCapers
  4. Chemistry instructional videos
  5. ChemmyBear–resources for Chemistry and AP Chemistry classes
  6. CK12 Chemistry simulations
  7. Concord Consortium–chemistry, earth science, engineering, life science, physics
  8. Crash Course: Chemistry (videos)
  9. EMD PTE — periodic table
  10. Interactive Periodic Table
  11. Molecules–Molecules is an application for viewing three-dimensional renderings of molecules and manipulating them using your fingers.
  12. NanoSpace Molecularium–virtual amusement park about atoms and molecules; from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  13. Periodic Table of Elements–interactive
  14. Periodic Table videos 
  15. PhET Simulations for chemistry and physics
  16. Reactions–short videos on chemistry topics
  17. Slow Motion Chemistry — videos on chemistry

Click here for updates to this list.

(more…)

Internet Safety Month–Rules to Live By

June is National Internet Safety Month, thanks to a resolution passed in 2005 by the U.S. Senate. The goal is to raise awareness about online safety for all, with a special focus on kids ranging from tots to teens. Children are just as connected to the Internet as adults. This is a great list of internet cautions I got from an online efriend a few years ago. It covers all the basics, avoids boring details, and gives kids (and adults) rules to live by:

Not everything you read online is true

It used to be anything we read in print was true. We could trust newspapers, magazines and books as reliable sources of information. It’s not the same with the web. Since anyone can become published, some of the stuff you’re reading online isn’t true. Even worse, some people are just rewriting stuff they read from other people online, so you might be reading the same false information over and over again. Even Wikipedia isn’t necessarily a reliable source. If you’re researching something online, consider the source. Some poorly written, ramdom web page, isn’t necessarily a good source. However, if you find a .gov or .org site, the information has a better chance of being true. Always look at who owns the website and whether or not they have an agenda before considering whether or not certain information is true.

Not everyone you meet online are who they say they are

This is the hard part because we want to trust our friends, even our online friends. The truth is, some of the people you meet online are lying about who they really are. Sometimes adults pretend to be kids and kids pretend to be someone else. They do this for a variety of reasons; grownups might want to try and have sex with kids or frenemies might want to act like friends to get information on someone they want to bully at school or online. Unless you know someone very well and can verify their identity, don’t trust that everyone who you speak to online are who they say they are.

Some people who are pretending to be kids really aren’t. There are grownups who pretend to be kids so teens and kids won’t get creeped out talking with them. This is never a good thing. Most of the grownups who are looking to talk to kids are looking for sex. Parents need to monitor their kids’ friends list and ask questions about the friends they don’t know. It’s more prevalent than you think and it COULD happen to you.

(more…)