Science – Page 24 – iLearn Technology

DoInk

April 22, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments5646 views

What it is: DoInk is an outstanding free illustration and animation creator. The site has tools that are similar in feel and function to Adobe’s flash. DoInk creates custom animations right inside your Internet browser. There is an explore section where you and your students can get some inspiration for animations. DoInk provides tutorials for illustrating and animating making it easy to get started.

How to integrate DoInk into the classroom: Adobe products not in the budget? DoInk is a fantastic alternative to Flash. DoInk would be a great way to familiarize students with the basics of animation that will lead nicely into using more robust programs like Flash. Allow students to create mini animations to demonstrate science concepts (think life cycles, rock cycles, water cycle, etc.). Students can also create short animations to display an understanding of verbs. Since verbs are action words, an animation is a great way to show the action.

Tips: DoInk requires registration with a username and password. For elementary students, I find it helpful to create one class account where students can create. This keeps you from having to keep track of a class full of login information. It also makes it simple to keep track of student work.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using DoInk in your classroom.

Simple Science

April 21, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment11557 views

What it is: Simple Science is a collection of informative science music videos for use in the elementary classroom. The videos can be used to reinforce science learning objective and science concepts. The videos can be watched from the website for free or purchased on DVD. Simple Science video topics include: adapting, micro organisms, forces, changes, dissolving, how we see, changing circuits, keeping healthy, life cycles (flowers), gasses, water cycle, sun, earth, moon, changing sounds, moving and growing, habitats, keeping warm, solids vs. liquids, plants, friction, teeth, circuits and conductors, materials, rocks and soil, magnets and springs, light and shadows, air, atoms, DNA, Earth, electricity, insects, and magnetism. The format reminds me of School House Rock. Lyrics for all songs can be downloaded for students to follow along.

How to integrate Simple Science into the classroom: Simple Science videos are perfect for introducing or reinforcing science concepts. The songs and videos break down science concepts so they are easy to understand. Use Simple Science with a projector for whole class instruction or set up a science center on classroom computers where students can stop by and watch the videos.

Tips: The Simple Science website did not work for me using the Opera browser. I was successful with the links using Firefox.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Simple Science in your classroom.

Tar Heel Reader

April 17, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment4207 views

What it is: Tar Heel Reader is an excellent website that is “a collection of free, easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics. Each book can be speech enabled and accessed using multiple interfaces (i.e. switches, alternative keyboards, touch screens, and dedicated AAC devices). The books may be downloaded as slide shows in PowerPoint, Impress, or Flash format.” There are hundreds of books on a variety of topics. In addition to the ready-made books, you and your students can create your own Tar Heel Readers. Students can add pictures to their readers from Flickr or by uploading their own images. Each of the stories can be read silently, or read to students with a child, male, or female voice (computer).

How to integrate Tar Heel Reader into the classroom: Tar Heel Reader is a great place for beginning or struggling readers and English language learners. Each of the stories has the option to be read silently or read aloud. Use Tar Heel Reader to create custom stories to motivate your struggling readers. You can include pictures of people they know, subjects they love, and make them a character in the story. The stories can be read online or downloaded in multiple formats. Because the stories can be downloaded as PowerPoint presentations, they can be opened in Apple’s Keynote and put on an iPod (Nano, Classic, or Touch) for mobile reading. Students will love searching the Flickr collection and creating their own stories on Tar Heel Reader. Older students can create books for younger grades describing science concepts (think weather, food chain, plant cycle, etc.). This is also a great site for students to use during National Poetry month (April) to create poetry. Use Tar Heel Readers as a ‘big book’ that your class can read together using an interactive whiteboard or a projector. Set up a reading listening center during silent reading time with Tar Heel Reader on your classroom computers.

Tips: Create a favorites page for your students. Although the site has been created for beginning readers, some books may be inappropriate for your students. There is a section of books for teens that are beginning readers. Note: to create a book of your own you will need to register for free. You will need an invitation code. I requested a code in the comment section and got a response within 10 minutes of my comment. You can send me a request Tweet http://twitter.com/ktenkely and I will send you an invitation code.

I learned about this site from Larry Ferazzlo’s excellent blog. Thanks for highlighting this great site Larry!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Tar Heel Reader in your classroom.

Selenia Science Comics

April 14, 2009April 14, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment4005 views

What it is: Selenia Science Comics is a fun way for students to learn about science concepts through investigations linked to comics. The comics and investigations focus on science inquiry and materials and their properties. Downloadable resources are provided with information on learning outcomes, background to support scientific inquiry, scientific principles behind the experiments, guidance on the investigation, and an equipment list. Each of the investigations is linked to a online comic that poses a problem which the student is invited to solve. There are six comics with investigations including investigating dissolving, cooling, glue, leaks, air resistance, and hardness. The site also features online games for students to play including wordsearches, quizzes, picture Sudoku, and spot the difference (like hidden pictures).

How to integrate Selenia Science Comics into the classroom: These Science Comics are an excellent way to get your students interested in science and thinking like a scientist. Through fun comics, investigations, and experiments students learn about key science concepts in a way that will grab their attention and make science exciting. Students can read the comics individually, in groups, or as a whole class with a projector or an interacitve whiteboard. Following the comics, discuss what the problem to be solved is, gather ideas for solving, and perform an investigation as a whole class or in groups to solve the problems. This solve the mystery approach to science is perfect for students inquisitive minds! Wordsearches and Quizzes on the Science Comics site are fun for students to complete in a computer lab setting or as a center on classroom computers. Students can play the picture Sudoku or Spot the Difference individually or broken into teams as a class with an interactive whiteboard. After students have seen the Selenia Science Comics and performed a few investigations, they can visit a site like Kerpoof or Animoto and create their own science comics about other concepts they are learning.

Tips: Be sure to visit the teacher page for great ideas and downloads of Investigations.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Selenia Science Concepts in your classroom.

eyePlorer

March 31, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3379 views

What it is: eyePlorer is a really cool site that allows students “explore and process knowledge.” Student type in a word or words to research. eyePlorer pulls information from Wikipedia and puts it into a color wheel of information. When students hover over the different areas of the color wheel, they get a sentence or two about their subject. There is a notebook where students can drag and drop facts that they want to remember. Students can drag facts to the notebook and rearrange them as they need to. Students can click the “i” button under the search box to get a quick summary of their topic, click on the “+” button to add search parameters, and click on the paper button to go to a Google search. The idea behind eyePlorer is to improve the way “users interact with knowledge and information online.” The goal is to provide innovative, interactive, visual methods for working with and discovering facts and information. I think the result is pretty amazing and perfect for the educational setting!

How to integrate eyePlorer into the classroom: This is a truly unique way for students to research and explore new information. Students quickly get a visual guide to their inquiry and can drag and drop what they are learning into a notebook. This is a fantastic tool for research projects but would also be amazing for use with an interactive whiteboard. As students are learning about a new concept, they can type the subject into the search and as a class decide which information they want to save in the notebook for later. What a great introduction to any new material. This site will definitely help wet students appetite for learning! Make sure to bookmark this site on the classroom computers as a classroom research center.

Tips: eyePlorer was created in Germany so the home page information is all in German, once you start a search you can choose to search in German or English. When I searched “shiba inu” it automatically searched in English for me.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using eyePlorer in your classroom.

Scotch: Science Fair Central

March 31, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3954 views

What it is: Scotch Science Fair Central is a website collaboration between Scotch brand products from 3M and Discovery Education. The site is a wealth of free resources for creating innovative science fair projects. The site leads students step by step through creating a science fair project starting with choosing a project idea. Students can search through multiple science topics in life sciences, earth science, or physical science. Within each of these topics is several subcategories and then ideas based on a testable question, what is tested, and what data is collected. This site is very comprehensive and will have your students thinking like a scientist in no time! The site then leads students through the steps of differentiating their project between investigations and inventions so they can choose the appropriate project type. Step two actually leads them through the investigation or invention process depending on which project type was chosen. Step three takes students through the process of creating the actual presentation portion of the science fair project. There is a great section of parent resources as well as a section for science fair coordinators.

How to integrate Scotch: Science Fair Central into the classroom: Science fair projects have the potential to teach students a lot. They learn organization, responsibility, the scientific process, observation, testing, inquiry, problem solving, and critical thinking. Science fair projects are extremelly worthwhile when they are accompanied by a quality process that students can follow. I remember years when the science fair meant quickly pulling something ‘scientific’ together (two cans with a string in between to show sound travel) with very little gained from the project. This was due in part to being assigned a science fair project without understanding the basis of how scientists work and think. Scotch: Science Fair Central solves this dilemma because students are led step-by-step through the scientific process and along the way learn how a scientist thinks. Before you assign a science fair project, spend a day in the computer lab with students and let them go through this site and begin to plan their science fair project. I love how this site is organized into different types of science because it gives every student the opportunity to find a project that they are interested in and motivated by. If you don’t have access to the lab, set up a science fair planning center on your classroom computers or guide your students through the site with a computer and projector. If you are a science teacher, take a look at this great resource and use the planning guide to plan a school science fair.

Tips: Be sure to send this site home to parents, they will appreciate the parent section as they help their child at home.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Scotch: Science Fair Central in your classroom.

Ideas to Inspire

March 30, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3526 views

What it is: Ideas to Inspire is a truly wonderful site and wealth of resources for teachers. On this site you will find a collection of Google Doc presentations that include a number of ideas for engaging lesson activities in a variety of curriculum areas. The collection comes from inspiring teachers from around the world. You can find Ideas to Inspire on Writing, Interactive Math, Incredible Science, Amazing Art, Marvelous Music, and learn interesting ways to use Google Docs, Pocket Video Cameras, Interactive Whiteboards, Google Earth, Twitter, Netbooks, Webcams, and Visualizers. Ideas to Inspire also has great tips for non-techy teachers (I remember being one of those once-upon-a-time). Ideas to Inspire is very easy to navigate and each presentation is jam packed with truly inspiring ideas.

How to integrate Ideas to Inspire into the classroom: It happens to the best of us, we get settled in our ways and fall into a teaching slump where we can’t come up with a creative lesson idea to save our lives. Sound familiar? Ideas to Inspire is the place to go, here you will find inspiration, helpful tips, and get those creative juices flowing again! Take a few minutes and look through some of the presentations, you will be happy you did. 🙂

Tips: This is my last post for the day, head over to Ideas to Inspire and be inspired today!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Ideas to Inspire in your classroom.

Send Your Name to Mars

March 30, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3781 views

What it is: This is your chance to send your students to Mars! Okay, maybe not literally but you can send their names to Mars. NASA has done this before, you may have sent your names to the moon in the past. Now you and your students have the opportunity to send their names to Mars by way of a microchip on the Mars Science Laboratory rover heading to Mars in 2011.

How to integrate Send Your Name to Mars into the classroom: This is a great way to get your students excited about a space unit! Students can start the space unit by sending their name in to be put on the microchip going to Mars and print out the “official” certificate. Follow up this activity by exploring the NASA website or NASA Kids to learn more about the Mars Science Laboratory rover and the mission. If you don’t have access to a computer for each student, you could send your class name to Mars and explore the NASA site as a class using a projector. As an extension activity, you can have students write about what they think it would be like to go to Mars.

Tips: Take a look at the participation map, it is interesting to see who is going to Mars!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Send Your Name to Mars in your classroom.

Shahi

March 25, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment4939 views

What it is: Shahi is a mashup of Wiktionary (a Wikipedia type dictionary) and Flickr. This visual dictionary is a great way for students to look up definitions and get a visual representation of the word. Students can choose for the images to come from Flickr, Google, or Yahoo. I find the most reliable image results come from Flickr.

How to integrate Shahi into the classroom: Shahi is a neat mashup of two tools. Having a visual dictionary is great for every student but especially useful for your visual learners. Beyond using Shahi as a dictionary, this is a perfect site for teaching your students the parts of speech. Because pictures acompany the definitions, students can “see” that a verb is an action word. Use Shahi as the base for a part of speech game with the whole class and a projector. Choose a word from reading, spelling, etc. and have students ‘guess’ the part of speech based on the pictures. This is a great way for students to learn the parts of speech through inquiry and problem solving. Shahi would also be a useful tool for ESL or ELL students. Bookmark Shahi on your classroom computers as a resource during reading/writing time. Look up a spelling word on Shahi and have students journal about one of the accompanying pictures. This site could be very useful for writing prompts. Shahi would also be wonderful in the science classroom, students can look up difficult words or concepts and immediately have a good visual representation to aid in understanding. In the geography classroom, students could search places and get a collection of images that will provide them with additional insight into the place. Cool!

Tips: I learned about this site from activeducator on Twitter. If you haven’t yet, sign up for Twitter today, it is a great way to network and learn about education (or anything you are interested in). Don’t forget to add me as a friend, ktenkely! A word of warning with this site: sometimes images will be inappropriate on this site because of the tags people put on their pictures in Flickr. For example “berry” brings pictures of fruit berries but also scantily dressed women named “Berry”. For elementary students, pre-search words you will be using with the class for appropriateness.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Shahi in your classroom.

Physics Games

March 17, 2009March 17, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments3174 views

What it is: Physics Games is a collection of fun online physics based games. There are 57 physics inspired games in the collection that can be played on the website or embedded on a classroom website, blog, or wiki. These games are great for any age, younger students will learn through exploration, trial, and error while older students will be able to understand the physics concepts behind the games.

How to integrate Physics Games into the classroom: Physics Games is a great interactive site to use in the science classroom. It encourages students to start exploring concepts such as energy, force, velocity, gravity, etc. Younger students can interact with the games successfully even without the background knowledge. Each of the games encourages trial and error learning. Older students can play games and write about the physics concepts that the game introduces and explore the ‘accuracy’ of the game to display the physics concept. If you have a class website, blog, or wiki, these games would be fun to embed in your site for easy access.

Tips: I learned about Physics Games from a Tweet and blog post by Mr. Byrne who writes Free Technology for Teachers.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Physics Games in your classroom.