Science and Technology Office of Naval Research

What it is: The Office of Naval Research has a great interactive site filled with science and technology exploration for students.  On the site, students can explore oceanography, space, and blow the ballast.  Each section of the site has sub categories that let students narrow down their focus.  The majority of the site is purely informational with accompanying images and short quizzes.  My favorite portion of the site is the seasonal constellations.  It really is the star of the site (no pun intended).  The constellation interactive focuses on the constellations that can be viewed during each season.  When students click on a season, they will see the constellations and options to show/hide the pictures, lines and names of the stars.  The explanation of constellations and the seasonal impact on what students will see in the night sky is fantastic.  In the Teacher’s Corner, you will find great animations for each topic (space, oceanography, and submarines).  These are fantastic visualizations of complex concepts made simple for students.

How to integrate Science and Technology Office of Naval Research into the classroom: The Science and Technology Office of Naval Research isn’t the flashiest site I’ve seen.  In fact, it looks a whole lot like a site that was created in 1995.  I recommend it, in spite of the aged design, because of the wealth of information that it offers students and the student-friendly language and explanations it uses.  This is a great site for students to conduct a research project in the early years.  The information is concise, easy to understand, and offered in bite-size chunks.  Students can approach the topic of oceanography, submarines and space independently.
As I said above, the constellations based on season is pretty neat. It shows students the constellation and allows them to overlay the image with additional information as they want it.  If your students are studying seasons or constellations, this is a nice visual and description.  Students could explore the constellations on classroom computers, or better yet, together as a class on a projector-connected computer or interactive whiteboard.  Google Sky is amazing, but sometimes it can be overwhelming with detail before students understand the basics of what they are looking for in the night sky.  The images on this site are a great first step that can lead to a next level of detail in sites like Google Sky.  I love that technology lets us bring the whole universe into our classrooms as a smaller scale planetarium.  As a side note, if you have an iPad…go download Go Skywatch now. You will thank me!
Be sure to check out the animation section, these are wonderful for introducing students to complex concepts.  The animations would be great on classroom computers as part of a science center rotation.  They are perfect for sharing with the whole class on an interactive whiteboard! At Anastasis, students keep a running vocabulary collection where they create a “glossary” that they can refer back to. They do this in Evernote, these animations are perfect for linking to within the glossaries so that they can refer back to an illustration of the word.
Tips: The Science and Technology Office of Naval Research includes a teacher resource section.  This is where you will find the Animation Gallery I mentioned above.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Science and Technology Office of Naval Research in  your classroom!

Google Sky


What it is:
Google comes out with some really incredible tools and Google Sky is definitely one of them. Think Google Earth for the Sky and you will get a pretty accurate picture of what Google Sky entails. Students can get up close and personal with the Solar System, Constellations, the Hubble Telescope Showcase, Backyard Astronomy, Chandra X-Ray Showcase, GALEX Ultraviolet Showcase, and the Spitzer Infared Showcase. Google Sky also provides students with podcasts about the Earth and Sky. How cool is that? Like Google Earth, students can “zoom in” to a location and pan around. They can also view the sky in different views which include infared, microwave, and historical. Unlike Google Earth, Google Sky can be viewed right from your web browser without a download which makes it very handy for the classroom.

How to integrate Google Sky into the classroom: I think you would be hard pressed to find a school who didn’t have space units woven through curriculum at nearly every grade level. Google Sky is the perfect way to bring that curriculum to life for your students. You can take a virtual field trip to space right from your web browser! The different views and options in Google Sky make it appropriate for kindergarten through college age groups. Your students will enjoy exploring the solar system and learning about galixies with this up close and personal look. This site is perfect for use with an interactive whiteboard or projector for whole class instruction, but would be equally enjoyable on individual student computers where they can explore the universe at their own pace. When students zoom in on an object, they can “hover” over the object with their mouse for some stats. So neat!

Tips: As a side note this would be a great site to couple with the Discovery Series “When We Left Earth.” If you haven’t had a chance to catch the series, they are wonderful!

Leave a comment and share how you are using Google Sky in your classroom.