Interactive Whiteboard – Page 14

Meet Me at Midnight

June 24, 2010June 25, 2010Kelly Tenkely5 Comments1474 views

What it is: As I said yesterday, the Smithsonian is a wealth of outstanding online activities and interactives. Meet Me at Midnight is an interactive adventure/comic book that takes place in the Smithsonian Art Museum. Through this fun mystery adventure, students are introduced to American art and Artists from the Smithsonian collection. Students are taken on adventures as they explore each item in the Root Monster’s treasure chest. The coyote teaches about sculpture, the headless horseman about landscape, and the ballerina about light. As students go through the adventures they will pick up art terminology. Each story takes place in five galleries: media, technique, design, purpose, and culture. Students will play art games and puzzles to find clues about where the artwork in the treasure chest should be returned to.

How to integrate Meet Me at Midnight into the classroom: Meet Me at Midnight is a fantastic interactive game for third to fifth grade students. The reading throughout the interactive is appropriate for 8-11 year old readers. To me, Meet Me at Midnight feels like a fun graphic novel/comic book adventure that students can interact in. The interactive takes time to get all the way through, once students get to certain points in the interactive, they can stop and get a code that they can plug in the next time they visit the site. They will pick up right where they left off. Meet Me at Midnight is a good way to pique students interest in art. There is a lot of good learning embedded in the games and puzzles. Because there is so much reading on this site, it would make a good reading center/thinking activity on classroom computers. Meet Me at Midnight is really best played individually in a computer lab setting, but I think students would also enjoy playing together in a whole class setting using a projector-connected computer or interactive whiteboard.

If your class takes a field trip to your local art museum, this site is a must visit prior to the field trip. It will give students common language about what they see at the museum and students can complete the accompanying Kids Activity guide. If a field trip to the art museum is out of the question, use this site as part of a virtual field trip experience for your students.

Tips: Are you taking your family on a trip to the art museum this summer; start your art adventure by visiting Meet Me at Midnight!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Meet Me at Midnight in your classroom.

A Walk in the Forest

June 23, 2010Kelly Tenkely4 Comments15178 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 Comments2057 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.

Robot Obstacle Course

June 17, 2010Kelly Tenkely7 Comments4247 views

What it is: Robot Obstacle Course is an excellent introduction into programming for young kids. Students are presented with an obstacle course made up of colored blocks and keys. Students must program the robot to jump over the obstacles and pick up the keys to complete the course. Through the obstacle course, students are introduced to basic programming language and learn how to think like a programmer. The obstacles get progressively more difficult and more variables are added.

How to integrate Robot Obstacle Course into the classroom: Robot Obstacle Course is a fun way for students to get an introduction to programming skills. The Obstacle Course includes a lot of logical/mathematical thinking as they decide which variables to adjust to get the robot through the course. For students younger than third grade, consider completing the courses as a class using a projector connected computer or interactive whiteboard. Talk through each problem and ask students to offer possible solutions before you test out your robot. For older students (third through fifth grade) the courses can be completed independently on classroom computers or in a computer lab setting. As students test solutions, discuss why the solution works, or how the solution should be adjusted for the robot to preform successfully.

Tips: This game will put students observational skills to the test! If you don’t have time for a full game, this is a great thinking activity for those few extra transition minutes in the classroom, project the activity on the board and if they are ready for the transition (for example lining up) they can come up to the board and test their solution on the way to the line.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Robot Obstacle Course in your classroom.

Mystery of the Poison Dart Frog

June 11, 2010Kelly Tenkely5 Comments16265 views

What it is: The Mystery of the Poison Dart Frog comes from the North Carolina Museum of Art. Students are introduced to three characters in an online picture book. Zoey and Zeke are visiting their cousin Camilla who works as a curator at an art museum in Costa Rica. Soon students are swept away in a mystery and adventure as they must use clues and match up the Costa Rica art pieces with the notecards that were written by the donors of the art. Along the way students learn to read for information, and learn about art, science, history, and culture of Costa Rica.

How to integrate the Mystery of the Poison Dart Frog into the classroom: The Mystery of the Poison Dart Frog is a fun way for students to practice reading for information and practicing the inferring reading strategy. As students work through the mystery, they will also be learning about art, science, history, and the culture of Costa Rica. This is a great activity for students to complete independently in a computer lab or 1-to-1 setting, it is a little long to be completed as a center activity. If you teach younger students, or students who may not be able to read the story independently, read the story as a class or small group using a projector connected computer or interactive whiteboard. Students can work together to solve the mystery using the available clues in the story. Before students begin reading the story, they can build background knowledge by using the built in research guide. Students can learn more about Costa Rica with an interactive map, learn about the works of art they will see in the story, and the different animals represented in the works of art.

The story can be read in either English or Spanish. For older students learning Spanish as a foreign language, the activity could be completed in Spanish. This would be a fun activity to test their skills of reading for understanding in the Spanish language.

Tips: For more great related links, click on the “more” drop down from the home page. Happy solving!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Mystery of the Poison Dart Frog in your classroom.

The Road to the Capitol

June 10, 2010Kelly Tenkely4 Comments3106 views

What it is: The Road to the Capitol has to be one of the coolest sites I have seen to help kids understand government and the campaign and election process. Students are immediately greeted by a newspaper headline “Congressman Retires: who will represent the US on Capitol Hill?”. Students are then taken to a TV ad of one of the candidates running for congress, Roberta Glass. Roberta thinks that kids have too much freedom and should be banned from freely accessing media like movies, TV, video games, and the computer. Students are offered the opportunity to run against Roberta Glass in the election. Students must register as a candidate in the election and are then introduced to their campaign manager. Students make 5 campaign stops in their local congressional district. At each stop, it is their job to help citizens understand the importance of protecting freedom. Students can stop at campaign headquarters at any time to get briefed for each campaign event. At the Campaign Headquarters, students click on important topics to get briefed on such as: Justice and Equality, Rights to Privacy, Freedom of Assembly, Freedom of Expression, and Freedom of Religion. When students choose a topic, they are taken to subtopics that lead them to rich resources where they can delve deeper into the topic and learning. Along the campaign trail, students have to make their own commercial, give a speech, talk to students about the freedom of expression, answer questions in a press conference, and debate Roberta Glass head to head. I can’t stress enough what an awesome interactive site this is. Every webquest should involve kids in the story and process the way this one does!

How to integrate The Road to the Capitol into the classroom: This is an incredible self-guided learning experience. Students will learn about our democratic system in depth by completing this activity. The Road to the Capitol is really best experienced by individual students in a computer lab setting where they have plenty of time to research and complete each stop along the campaign trail. If you don’t have access to a computer lab, the activity could be completed as a whole class using an interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer. To make The Road to the Capitol a more in-depth project, have students take campaign notes along the way in a word processing program. They can later sum up what they learned and recorded in their notes by copying the notes and pasting them into a word cloud program like Wordle. Students could create short campaign commercials based on the commercial they created in the game. These can be recorded with PhotoBooth on a Mac or with a video camera. Students could also create a campaign poster using a word processing or publishing program.

At the beginning of this interactive, you will see the campaign commercial of Roberta Glass. The commercial talks about taking away kids freedoms, I imagine that some passionate discussion about the commercial could follow.

Tips: Really, go check out this website. You won’t be disappointed! Press the “Stop” button on the game to get the teacher/parent pdf guide.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using The Road to the Capitol in your classroom.

Eco Kids: Build a Food Chain

June 9, 2010Kelly Tenkely5 Comments23816 views

What it is: Eco Kids is a website with a great collection of ecologically focused games and activities. Students can complete interactives on wildlife, climate change, energy, the North, water, waste, land use, and more. I was hunting down a good interactive for students to learn and practice the food chain. Build a Food Chain has students order the elements of a food chain. Along the way, students learn why each animal within a food chain is so important. In addition to learning the basics of a food chain, students will learn about bioaccumulation.

How to integrate Eco Kids: Build a Food Chain into the classroom: Build a Food Chain is a fun way for students to learn about and practice building a food chain in an interactive environment. First students are led through the process of a food chain. The interactive helps students to understand the job of each animal or element in the chain. Students can then put their understanding to the test by putting together a food chain of their own and testing it. Students receive immediate feedback on the chain. If the food chain is broken or won’t work, students are given an additional clue and opportunity to try again. Build a Food Chain could be used as a whole class with a projector connected computer or interactive whiteboard. Choose students to be guides at the board as they navigate through the parts of a food chain. Then, call up a student to put the first element or animal of the food chain in place and pass on play to another student until a working food chain has been constructed. Build a Food Chain can also be used as an independent learning activity on classroom computers as a center or in a lab setting. Because the site provides students with feedback as they construct the food chain, students can navigate the activity easily on their own.

Tips: Before you begin the game, you will notice a box labeled “More About This Topic”, here you will find additional resources, printables, and games that are related to food chains.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Eco Kids: Build a Food Chain in your classroom.

Branches of Government Interactive

June 7, 2010Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2746 views

What it is: The Branches of Government and their roles can be tricky to learn. Branches of Government interactive is a good way for students to familiarize themselves with the branches of government. The activity is a simple one, students are given a leaf and must decide which branch of government it best describes. Students receive immediate feedback about their answer. If students dragged the leaf to the correct branch, it will stick. If not, the leaf returns to its original location at the base of the tree.

How to integrate Branches of Government Interactive into the classroom: The Branches of Government Interactive is a great one for interactive whiteboards. As your students are learning about the different branches of government, they can practice what they are learning with this interactive. I like to make everything into a game, students are more engaged in the activity and must work together to solve problems. Split your students into 3 teams (one for each branch of the government). When a new leaf comes up, teams discuss if they believe that the leaf is describing their branch of government. If they believe it is, the team sends one team member to the board if they are correct, the team earns a point. If teams send up a member incorrectly, they lose a point. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Branches of Government Interactive could also be set up for students to play as a center activity on classroom computers. The activity is self directed and provides students with enough feedback to navigate it quickly and independently.

Tips: This would be a good way for students to study for a test on the branches of government. Be sure to send a link home with students, parents always appreciate help in the studying/homework department!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Branches of Government in your classroom.

BBC Science Clips

June 3, 2010Kelly Tenkely6 Comments3451 views

What it is: The BBC has excellent educational games, activities, and resources. The BBC Science Clips are a collection of science related activities and games for students who are 5 to 11 years old. Students can grow virtual plants, experiment with pushes and pulls, hearing and sound, forces and movement, electricity, rocks and soils, simple machines, light, solids and liquids, friction, habitats, life cycles, changing states of matter, reversible and irreversible changes, forces, and much more. The site is organized well, by age group, and has several activities at each level.

How to integrate BBC Science Clips into the classroom: BBC Science Clips has a little of everything science. It is sure to have some great interactives that correspond to your science curriculum. Each of the interactives is high quality and lets students experiment with new concepts that they are learning. The activities are short enough to be used as a science center on classroom computers where a few students complete the interactive as part of a rotation. The activities can also be used for whole class demonstration and experimentation using an interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer. If you use the interactives with the whole class, have the scientists who are observing take down some observational notes in a special science journal. Often, real life experiments can be too quick moving for young students to write or draw observations as they are happening. This site lets them work on those observational skills at their own pace. This is also great for those experiments that may take too long to observe in a classroom setting. Each activity includes a short online quiz that students can go through to check understanding. The quiz can be read independently or students can click on the speakers to have the quiz read to them. This is a great feature for struggling or non-independent readers. A “what’s next” button at the bottom of each activity encourages students to keep exploring. Students can self level by choosing an activity that is a little easier, harder, or the same.

Tips: Check out the resources for teachers page. Here you will find online and offline lesson plans related to the activities, an accompanying worksheet, activity and quiz.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using BBC Science Clips in your classroom.

Think U Know Cyber Cafe

June 2, 2010Kelly Tenkely7 Comments7857 views

What it is: Think U Know Cyber Cafe is a virtual environment where students can practice their online safety smarts. In the cafe, students will help virtual kids make good choices when using email, texting, instant messaging, web browsing, creating an online personal space, and chatting in a chat room. Students are guided through a variety of scenarios where they must help the virtual kids make the right decisions about using the Internet.

How to integrate Think U Know Cyber Cafe into the classroom: Kids spend an enormous amount of their time online. Just because they use the Internet a lot, doesn’t mean that they are good users of the Internet. Many students haven’t had adequate practice with protecting their online identity, keeping track of their digital footprints, or using proper netiquette. Students need to learn the appropriate way to use online spaces. The Think U Know Cyber Cafe is a great place for students to practice and learn how to stay safe online. Use the Cyber Cafe scenarios to guide a whole class discussion with a projector or interactive whiteboard. Discuss the different options that are presented and why one answer is better than the others. Students can also complete a tour of the Cyber Cafe on their own in a computer lab setting. Internet safety should be an ongoing discussion, we can’t assume that students will get it all the first time. Visit the cafe throughout the year for a refresher.

Tips: Check out the rest of the Think U Know website for fantastic activities and information for kids from 5-16.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Think U Know Cyber Cafe in your classroom.