Science – Page 15 – iLearn Technology

The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That

September 2, 2010Kelly Tenkely3 Comments3965 views

What it is: The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That is a new PBS TV series and website that ignites an excitement about science for primary students. The series is based on the Beginner Book Collection “The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library”. The goal of the series and online resources is to “cultivate positive views about science and scientists among the next generation-the children who will become tomorrow’s citizens and innovators-and help teachers and families build communities of science explorers.” I don’t know about you, but I love the idea of building communities of explorers, science or otherwise! In the TV series, The Cat in the Hat, Sally, and Nick set off on a science adventure. In one episode, the trio flies with birds to discover why they migrate. In another, they are taking a snowcat to the Arctic to explore freezing and melting. As the Cat in the Hat guides them, the children solve problems by engaging in science inquiry. Right now students can watch video clips on The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That website, play related games, find activities and coloring pages to print, and play games with snapshots from the program. Right now adventures on the site include science concepts like bird migration, camouflage, and melting/freezing.

How to integrate The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That into your curriculum: If you are a regular visitor of my blog, you know that I am a big Dr. Seuss fan (see pictures of Dr. Seuss inspired classroom theme here). While this site isn’t strictly Seuss, it does a remarkable job of bringing The Cat in the Hat to life with a focus on scientific inquiry. Use the videos on the site to introduce your students to new science concepts including migration, camouflage, and melting/freezing (my guess is more will be added as the series takes off). Students can engage in the inquiry process along with Sally and Nick and then practice the newly acquired concept in the games section. This would be a fun site to use as a science center that students visit on classroom computers during a coordinating unit. Students can view videos prior to exploring the concept as background knowledge, or watch the videos after engaging in their own inquiry process on the topic and compare the journey of inquiry taken. Did Sally and Nick come to the same conclusions?

The printables on the site include fun mazes, coloring pages, matching vocabulary, and even bookmarks, stickers, and other paper crafts. One of the print outs in the Paper Craft Sections is a Cat in the Hat frame that would be great for framing pictures of students engaging in their own scientific inquiry.

Tips: Be sure to click on the teacher button to find an Explorer’s Guide where you can find tips for engaging young students in scientific inquiry. You will also find tips for using the online video in your classroom, a list of Cat in the Hat science books, and find video enhanced activities.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That in your classroom!

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Kidopo

August 11, 2010Kelly Tenkely5 Comments4548 views

What it is: Kidopo is an online coloring application where kids can color online coloring books. The application simulates a real coloring experience (in other words you can color outside the lines and the more you color over a spot, the darker it gets.). There are a lot of coloring pages to choose from with categories like animals, cars and transportation, cartoons, food, toys, holidays, learning, circus, sports, music, nature, occupation, seasons, and more. Kidopo has fun printables for the classroom including coloring sheets, bookmarks, birthday printables, awards and certificates, mazes, writing paper, connect the dots, room decorations, and stickers. You will find a collection of flash games for kids including brain games, card/board games, math games, memory games, puzzle games, science games, and word games. In the craft section of the website are videos that walk students step by step through a craft.

How to integrate Kidopo into your curriculum: The online coloring book on Kidopo is a great way to help primary students practice mouse manipulation. I like that you can color inside or outside of the lines just like in a real coloring book. If you are in a computer lab setting, the Kidopo coloring book is a fun way for students to practice, and a good way for you to gauge where their fine motor skills are.

The printables on Kidopo are perfect for the classroom. Bookmarks are always fun classroom give aways and the awards and certificates are a good way to recognize your students.

The learning games on Kidopo make a good practice center activity on classroom computers. My favorite are the math games that help students with fact recall through fun arcade-type games. In the word games, you will find a fun game called Word Frenzy that will give your students a place to practice typing. Check out the games, some are better than others but they are definitely worth a look!

Tips: One of the downfalls of Kidopo are the advertisements in the sidebar and introducing the games. I use websites with this type of advertising to teach my students about how to spot ads and discuss with them why ads are placed on websites.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Kidopo in your classroom!

Sharendipity

August 5, 2010August 5, 2010Kelly Tenkely2 Comments3279 views

What it is: Sharendipity is an excellent online tool that lets you easily create your own learning and educational game. You can do this by using one of the Sharendipity ready-made templates, or you can create a game from scratch. There just isn’t always a quality game for students to practice with when you need one. I know I have found myself wishing that I could find a game focusing on the exact phonic skill or a game that used the vocabulary that we were working on in class. Often those tailor-made games just don’t exist. Sharendipity is the answer, making it simple to create your own custom games. Games are a fun way for students to practice a new skill and they make a great quick center activity on classroom computers.

How to integrate Sharendipity into your curriculum: Create games that are tailored to your students learning needs. Sharendipity makes it easy enough to create fun games, you can create one in the time it would take you to make copies of worksheets. Use one of the ready-made templates for the easiest game creation, or if you are feeling brave, start from scratch and make your own. You can upload all of your own images to Sharendipity making customization really easy. Consider using pictures of your class, school, or students as the background of a game. Your students are sure to love seeing familiar faces or landmarks as part of the game. These games are great for fact practice and recall in math, vocabulary, spelling, phonics, or geography where quick recall of the basics is key. Sharendipity will walk you through each step of the game making process and when you are finished, you can share the url or embed the game in a class website. If your students are a little older, they can make their own Sharendipity games to practice with. Students can create games for their classmates to play as a way to study. I have students who were constantly creating games and practice activities for my classroom; they got really good at it! If you are teaching in a computer lab, Sharendipity is a fun way for students to create “original” content for their wiki, blog, or website. At my school, we buddy up older grade level students with younger grade level students. It was fun for the older kids to create special games for their buddies after learning about their buddies favorite things. For example, one student found out that their buddy loved basketball and created a basketball themed spelling activity for them.

If you collaborate with another class or another school, it would be neat to swap customized games with them.

Tips: If you are braving creating your own game, be sure to check out Sherendipity’s learning center for a great guide on how to use the tools.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Sharendipity in your classroom!

Answer Garden

July 26, 2010Kelly Tenkely9 Comments5545 views

What it is: I learned about Answer Garden from an interactive post on Suzanne Whitlow’s excellent blog, Suzanne’s Blog. Answer Garden is a “new minimalistic feedback tool.” It can be used as an online answer collection tool or embedded on a website or blog. An Answer Garden is created as easily as entering a question and clicking create, no registration needed. Embed the Answer Garden on any blog, website, or social network page using the embed code provided. You can also give students a direct link to the Answer Garden. Students can post answers to your questions by entering their own answers or by clicking on and submitting existing answers. All of the answers are represented in the form of a word cloud. 25 answers are visible per garden but as students submit the same answer, that word will grow bigger. Creating an Answer Garden is SO simple. Just type in your question or brainstorm statement and click create.

How to integrate Answer Garden into the classroom: Answer Garden is a fun way for students to brainstorm, plan, and work together. Pose open-ended thinking questions on your classroom blog or website for students to answers. Use Answer Garden to host a classroom poll. Create a geography Answer Garden that gives students a place that they can describe a state or country they are learning about. Use Answer Garden during reading as a place for students to reflect on different characters, plots, settings, and themes. In history, give students a date range, event, or historical figure and let them add words to the Answer Garden that describe. In the primary classroom, type in a phoneme combination and have students submit words that fit the phoneme rule. Create an answer garden to recognize VIP students in your classroom where each child can answer with a character quality that they appreciate about that student. The possibilities are endless! This tool is SO easy to use, try it out in the Answer Garden below.

Where will use Answer Garden?… at AnswerGarden.ch .

Tips: The default settings on Answer Garden only allows students to submit one answer. You can check the optional “Unlimited Answering” to give students multiple opportunities to submit answers.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Answer Garden in your classroom.

Energyville

July 23, 2010Kelly Tenkely11 Comments4178 views

What it is: Energyville is a game sponsored by Chevron. In the game, students have to provide enough power to meet the energy demands of a city with a 5.9 million person population. As they play, they must keep the city prosperous, secure, and clean. The energy decisions that students make for the city in 2015 are based on current lifestyles and the projected energy demands and costs for developed countries in North America, Europe, and Asia. The Energyville game environment is a lot like SimCity in the way that students build and maintain the city. Students begin by dragging energy sources to the city to bring it to life. Students can choose from biomass, coal, hydro, natural gas, nuclear, petroleum, solar, and wind. As they add energy sources to the city, they can observe the impacts on the economy, environment, and security of the city. The goal is to keep the impact low. There is a comparison chart where students can view the impact of the different energy sources on the environment, economy, and security to aid them in their decision-making. As students move their mouse over the different energy sources, they can read about that energy source in the Energy Advisor panel.

How to integrate Energyville into the classroom: Energyville is an excellent simulation game that helps students to experiment with energy sources. They are able to see the way that their decisions directly affect people and the environment. Students can see how some energy sources may have a low impact on the environment but are high in cost or impact security. This is a great way for students to weigh decisions and defend their choices. Set students up in a computer lab setting where each student has their own computer. Give students a set amount of time and see which students can get the highest score (lowest impact) on their city in that time. Afterward, discuss the best and worst energy sources, and have the highest score walk the class through their strategy. If you don’t have access to a lab, you can send students to Energyville in small groups as a center activity on the classroom computers. You could also play as a whole class with an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer.

Tips: There are two levels of game play. In the first level, students make decisions to meet the city’s energy demands in 2015. In the second level, they must make additional decisions to prepare for the energy demands of 2030.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Energyville in your classroom.

JASON Science: Eco Defenders

July 21, 2010Kelly Tenkely1 Comment6639 views

What it is: Eco Defenders is another excellent Filament Games simulation/interactive. In this game, students design “alien” invasive species and set it loose on an imaginary ecosystem. Students must use their knowledge of ecosystems, adaptations, and competition to design a simulation of an invasive species. Students find out that when an invading species occupies the same ecological niche as native species, they can cause problems for the ecosystem. The game allows for a lot of customization and decisions for students as they choose one of three ecosystems and then design their own alien. As students go through the simulation, JASON host researcher, Russell Cuhel, will ask questions about how invasive species invade an ecosystem giving students the chance to be the expert. Before students play the game, ask them to click on the “Learn More” link where they will receive a tutorial for the game and some background information about invasive species. Students can learn about different kinds of invasive species that exist in our world.

How to integrate Eco Defenders into the classroom: In the Eco Defenders game/simulation, your students will: design their own invasive creature, watch their creature as it interacts in the ecosystem and competes over resources with native creatures, and analyze the interactions among the organisms in the ecosystem. Students will select a creature to target in the ecosystem they have chosen and then design a species that will compete in the same ecological niche. Students will design and then run a simulation to test their invader. Afterward, they will discuss what happened with the virtual host scientist, go over the results, and analyze the data. The great thing about this game/simulation is that no two students will have the exact same results. Eco Defenders is best in a computer lab setting where each student can play individually. After students have experimented and run through the simulation, come together as a class and discuss what students observed. What made their invader successful? What would they change for the next time? As students learn more about ecosystems, eco niches, and invaders throughout the unit, have them run through the simulation again and see if they come up with different results. If you can’t manage access to a 1 to 1 computer setting, play the game as a class using an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer. The class should discuss each decision, weighing the pros and cons, before making a move. As the students work through the simulation, talk about what they are observing and what tweaks might change the outcome of their simulation.

Tips: JASON Science is worth a look. The tag-line of JASON Science is “Education through Exploration”. I couldn’t agree more!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Eco Defenders in your classroom.

Landform Detectives

July 19, 2010Kelly Tenkely1 Comment4713 views

What it is: Today I was searching for websites and games that would enhance and enrich the Treasures curriculum. MacMillan Mcgraw Hill’s reading curriculum is lacking (in my opinion) in the activities that it uses to help students learn grammar, vocabulary, spelling, etc. Most of the suggested activities are not those that require any deep thinking (or in some cases any thinking at all) and usually involve some sort of copying out of the dictionary or filling out a worksheet type undertaking. These don’t impress me at all. So, last year I went through all of the Treasures curriculum, pulled out all of the essential learning and skills that needed to be gained. I have since been on the hunt for engaging activities and games that will help students learn, practice, and create with the essential learning at the core. Therein lies the rub. As I scour the Internet for games and activities what I usually come up with is more worksheets. The problem is, they aren’t labeled worksheet. They are labeled “game” or “interactive”. They aren’t really games or interactive (any child would tell you that!), they are multiple choice online worksheets. I refuse to subject students to them. Today I made the following comment on Twitter: “Dear educational game makers, an online multiple choice quiz is not a game, it is a worksheet. Please stop pretending it’s a game. Thank you.” I was delighted to get the following message back from Filament Games: “Dear @ktenkely. We know, and in fact couldn’t agree more. And thank YOU.”

I had to explore just who this Filament Games was. From their Twitter bio: “Filament Games is a game production studio dedicated to creating next generation learning games that combine best practices in commercial game development.” I am delighted to say, they make incredible educational games that in no way resemble a worksheet! Bravo!
Landform Detectives is just one of the offerings from Filament Games (I’ll explore the others in separate posts). In Landform Detectives, “a violent volcanic explosion immediately and forever alters the landscape. Elsewhere, raindrops gradually pick patterns out of the rock over the course of thousands of years. Can you recreate some of Earth’s most amazing geological features by uncovering the natural processes that shaped them?” Now that is what I am talking about! An engaging game that asks students to use what they know about natural disasters, weather, and the creation of landforms to discover and recreate how they were formed.

How to integrate Landform Detectives into the classroom: Your students will travel the world to unlock the secrets of the Earth’s strangest and most awe-inspiring landforms as they play Landform Detectives. Students will gain a new appreciation for mountains, valleys, and rivers as they solve the mystery of how they got to be that way and think about how long it takes for those processes to happen. Your students will transform into geologists as they discover the suspects like ice, water, wind, and sand in the story of our Earth. As your students travel the globe, they will encounter animated simulations, virtual scientist (Dr. Bob) who can give them more information, and an opportunity to recreate the formation of the landform. This is an incredible way for students to “see” first hand just how landforms are created. The site would be best in a computer lab 1 to 1 setting where each student can explore and discover at their own pace. If you don’t have access to a computer lab, you could also use a projector connected computer or interactive whiteboard to travel the globe together. If this is the case, allow students to take turns leading and guiding the exploration. Hypothesize together about how the landforms came to be and how you might recreate them. Then put those hypotheses to the test and try them out. Discuss the outcome, did it look like the students expected? Why or why not?

This really is an incredible way to learn about the Earth sciences. There is just no way that a static text-book can compare to the rich game and media experience that Landform Detectives offers.

Tips: Students can watch a briefing from scientists who share their understanding of weathering and erosion to monitor changes in soils that are used to grow plants for food and fuel.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Landform Detectives in your classroom.

National Geographic Kids Animal Jam Virtual World

July 16, 2010July 19, 2010Kelly Tenkely6 Comments3724 views

What it is: National Geographic Kids is a constant source of excellent activities but their new Animal Jam virtual world is above and beyond my favorite. My students love virtual worlds, they enjoy being immersed in a story, sent on a mission, and interacting with each other to complete adventures and learn. Animal Jam lets them do all of these things while providing a virtual world where they can discover real-world plant and animal information and follow a rich storyline that has National Geographic’s multi-media content built in. Cool huh?! Animal Jam does something else, it excites students to learn more about the real world around them, so when they aren’t playing in the virtual world, they will be excited to learn more about the world they live in. The virtual world is an easy one for students to pick up on and learn, it is perfect for young students and caters to their specific levels of play and developmental stages. Animal Jams will be one of those environments that is as appealing to fourth grade students as it is to first grade students. The online environment is safe and monitored so you can feel comfortable introducing it in your classroom. Each portion of the sign up process is narrated so it is easy for even young students to sign up. The site requires a parent’s email address to sign up, the email is required but does not have to be verified before play can begin. In a classroom setting, a teacher or classroom email address could be used for sign-up. The email address allows an adult to monitor and adjust settings in a child’s game.

How to integrate National Geographic Kids Animal Jam into the classroom: After students sign up, they are entered into the magical world of Jamma where they are introduced to the world. Each portion of the game is narrated making it accessible to early readers, struggling readers, and English language learners. As students explore the world of Jamma, they will find embedded learning about different kinds of plants and animals along with incredible National Geographic images. Animal Jam is a nice environment to let your young students practice what they are learning about online safety and netiquette. As students explore Jamma, they will learn about links, navigation with mouse and arrow keys, and learn fun facts in the process.

Every primary curriculum that I have seen carves out time for students to learn about plants and animals. Animal Jam is a fun place for them to discover this learning within the virtual world. Send your students on expeditions and adventures to find these learning opportunities. As they play in Animal Jam, students can keep an observation journal where they record the plants and animals they are discovering like a scientist would. Ask your students how many of the plants and animals they can find in real life around their homes. If you are learning about ecosystems and environments, ask students to count and name the different ecosystems they can spot in Animal Jam. This site is ideal for the computer lab setting, make sure to at least begin the game in the computer lab where each student has a computer. After the kids are signed up and familiar with the world, it could become a center activity for your classroom computers throughout the year.

Tips: Right now Animal Jam is in Beta. The world is free to join and play in but premium accounts are also available to students.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Animal Jam in your classroom.

A Walk in the Forest

June 23, 2010Kelly Tenkely4 Comments15139 views

What it is: The Smithsonian site is a wealth of outstanding activities and interactives. In the Walk in the Forest interactives, students are guided through a virtual forest where they do field research using the same scientific methods and tools that Smithsonian scientists use to monitor forest biodiversity. Students can act as dirt detectives, predicting which trees will thrive in each type of soil; learn about forest layers and the plants and animals that take up residence in each; identify a tree; observe seasonal changes; map the forest; and use amphibians as an indicator of the forest. Each of the interactives has the option of narration (audio) or non-narrated (students read through the interactive).

How to integrate A Walk in the Forest into the classroom: The interactive activities on A Walk in the Forest are very well made. They will have your students working and thinking like a scientist. The activities are meant to be completed by individual students, but if you don’t have access to a computer lab, they would also be excellent as a center on classroom computers or on the interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer. For whole class participation, send a team of scientists (your students) into the forest to investigate and collect data. Give each student a job to do on the forest adventure. For the students not at the board, create a field guide that they can fill out while they observe. As an extension activity, students can create an Animoto or Prezi about what they learned in the forest. They could also create a comic book style field guide about walking through a forest.

A Walk in the Forest is well suited to all elementary students. Independent readers can complete the activities without narration while emerging or struggling readers could have the interactive narrated.

Every year, we have an outdoor education program for our 5th graders. They spend a week in the mountains, in a forest, learning outside. If you do something similar, A Walk in the Forest is a great preparation activity for students. They can learn about the processes of collecting and analyzing data virtually before they do it in real life.

Tips: If you and your family are visiting national parks this summer, these are fun activities to do before hand that will transform your kids into scientists when they are exploring outdoors.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using A Walk in the Forest in your classroom.

Stop Disasters

June 22, 2010Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2038 views

What it is: Stop Disasters is a collection of disaster simulation games created by the ISDR (International Strategy for Disaster Reduction). As students play the games, they learn about natural disasters and actions that people can take to help protect themselves and others. The student’s job is to plan and construct a safer environment for their population. Students must assess the disaster risk and try to limit damage when natural disasters strike. Some advice that students are given within the game will be good and some of it will be bad, it is up to them to discern which is which. Students can choose from 5 different scenarios, Tsunami, Earthquake, Hurricane, Wild Fire, and Flood. Each scenario has 3 levels: easy, medium, and hard. When students enter the simulation, they are greeted by a local who briefs them on the situation. Students are given a budget and time limit to complete the necessary precautions. After 20 min., the natural disaster occurs and tests their solutions. Students develop the land and learn about their choices each step of the way. During the game students can keep track of their budget, the population they are working to keep safe, a map and risk management map, and their remaining time. The game is very engaging, it reminds me of the SIM City games that I played as a kid. This game will put those critical thinking muscles to the test!

How to integrate Stop Disasters into the classroom: Stop Disasters is an excellent game for teaching students about natural disasters through an engaging simulated environment. It is up to each student to create solutions for their environment before the natural disaster occurs. Students get immediate feedback during each development period and get to test their work when the natural disaster strikes. This game is best played in a computer lab setting where each student has the opportunity to interact with the simulation individually. A simulation game takes about 20-30 minutes to complete so make sure that your students have ample time to complete the game. After students complete the simulation, bring them back together as a class and discuss choices that were made, why those choices were made, and what outcomes students observed. Students can also write a reflection piece on what they might do differently next time. Stop Disasters has quite a bit of reading embedded in game play, it is best for 4th-5th grade students and older. If you are teaching younger students who won’t be able to read the site independently (or you don’t have access to a computer lab) the simulation can be run as a whole class using an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer.

I found Stop Disasters while working on a unit in our Treasures curriculum that had the theme of natural disasters. As an extension activity, students can create public service announcements about safety using a tool like Animoto or create safety posters for their population.

Tips: Students can learn more about the ISDR on this site, when we are talking disasters with kids, it is always nice to have a place where they can learn about organizations that are working to help keep them safe. This makes the topic less stressful and overwhelming for students.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Stop Disasters in your classroom.