Science – Page 16 – iLearn Technology

Creaza

June 4, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments4523 views

What it is: Creaza is a suite of web-based creativity tools. There are four tools in the Creaza toolbox that will help your students organize knowledge and tell stories in new creative ways. Mindomo is the mind mapping tool. Students can use this tool to organize thoughts, ideas, links, and other information visually. Mindomo is the perfect tool for exploring new material, looking at connections, and organizing thoughts for further development. The mind map topics can contain media files, links, and text. Cartoonist is a cartooning tool that students can use to create multimedia stories. Cartoonist can be used to create comic strips or more personal digital narratives. The finished product can be viewed online or printed out. (Check out the video demo to learn how to use this tool.) Movie Editor helps students produce their own movies based on Creaza’s thematic universes, video, images, and sound clips. Students can use the Movie Editor to edit a short film, create a news cast, a commercial, a film trailer, etc. Movie Editor can import film clips, sound clips and images to tell a story. Audio Editor is the final tool in Creaza’s creative suite. Audio Editor is a tool that allows your students to produce audio clips. Students can use Audio Editor to splice together their own newscasts, radio commercials, radio interlude, etc.

How to integrate Creaza into the classroom: Creaza is a great suite of online tools that allow students to display learning creatively. The Media and Audio editors follow established conventions for sound and media editing complete with timelines. Using this online software will be a nice introduction to more robust media and audio editors. Mindomo is a great way for students connect new and existing knowledge. It is also a nice place for students to plan out a story. Cartoonist and Movie Editor are great tools that provide students with a creative outlet for telling a story. Allow students to show their understanding of a period in history by creating a cartoon about it. Display a new science concept in Movie Editor complete with voice over. Students could create a short video or radio type commercial for a book that they read in place of a traditional book report. The uses for are limitless, you will think of many ways for your students to use this creative suite to display knowledge.

Tips: Cartoonist is the only tool that has a video demo, this is a great way to teach your students how to teach themselves. Encourage students to learn how to use this tool by watching the video demo first and working with the tool. Movie Editor does take a little bit of playing with to figure out how to use it, give your students a day to play with the tools so that they get a handle on how it all works.

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

The Hobby Shop

May 8, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2510 views

What it is: The Hobby Shop is an amazing interactive site where students can learn about science. Students can learn about a compound microscope, dissecting microscope, catapults, chemistry, and rockets. Each section of the hobby shop is completely interactive and has students discovering learning through virtual experimentation. Students can look through microscopes, each step of the way they are taught how to do things like prepare petri dishes, and clean up properly afterward. In the chemistry lab students can create an ingredient found in chalk, make a chemical used in photography, make liquids change colors, or test chemicals for electrical conductivity. Students are led through each step of an experiment just as they would do it in an actual lab. There is an interactive periodic table of elements that students can use to learn about different elements. Students can create their own rocket in the rocket lab choosing the body, nose cone, and fins of a rocket and then test it out. Students can also test out catapults with water balloons.

How to integrate Hobby Shop into the classroom: Hobby Shop is a wonderful place for students to experiment and interact with science in preparation for doing the experiment in class. It is interactive enough to take the place of experiments where the science budget doesn’t allow for a class set of materials. I am SO impressed with the way that this site leads students through each step of the process to complete an experiment. Use this site with the whole class using an interactive whiteboard, invite students to come up to the board and conduct the experiment. This site is also perfect for use as a science center in the one or two computer classroom or for individual use in a computer lab environment.

Tips: Check out the Teacher Resources for standard alingment, correlating worksheets, and other pdf files.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Hobby Shop in your classroom.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!

May 4, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2496 views

What it is: This week (May 4-8) is teacher appreciation week. To show their appreciation, Learning A-Z is holding an open house to their fantastic collection of learning resources. This means that for one week you can access all online resources for free from Raz-Kids, Reading a-z, Science a-z, Writing a-z, Vocabulary a-z, and Reading Tutors. Raz Kids is a student centered website where students can listen to and read books online independently. Reading a-z is filled with thousands of printable and projectable resources including books, activity sheets, and assessments. Science a-z includes multilevel books, activity sheets, process activities and more. All are categorized by grade and topic. Writing a-z is a collection of resources to help teach basic writing skills. Vocabulary a-z is a website with a word bank of more than 8,000 words. The words are categorized by content area, functional, and resource. With this site teachers can build vocabulary lessons with activities for multiple exposures to words that leads to word mastery. Reading Tutors provides online resource packets for those tutoring kids in reading. It covers key reading areas from phonics to comprehension.

How to integrate Learning a-z into the classroom: The collection of resources accessible in Learning a-z is incredible. Take advantage of this teacher appreciation week freebie and start using Learning a-z materials in your classroom.

Tips: Sign up for a free pass during this open house week. Enjoy!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Learning a-z in your classroom.

The Children’s University of Manchester

April 30, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2018 views

What it is: The Children’s University of Manchester is a site created by the University of Manchester that has some excellent mini-lessons and interactive lessons for students on a variety of science, history, literacy, and art topics. Topics include the body and medicines, energy and the environment, ancient Egypt, the earth and beyond, teeth and eating, micro organisms, the brain and senses, talking textiles, and words. Each lesson is like an interactive text book where students are engaged in and discover learning. Each lesson includes an interactive lesson, downloadable resources, educational games, and videos. The level of interaction is outstanding for helping students to learn about each topic.

How to integrate The Children’s University of Manchester into the classroom: The interactive lessons on this site are perfect for instructing whole class using an interactive whiteboard. During the interactive lesson, students can be called on to interact with the material. Most lessons will have enough opportunities to involve the whole class. The site is also ideal for individual instruction in the computer lab setting. Introduce students to a new topic with these mini lessons, videos, and educational games that can be expanded on as part of a larger unit. These mini-lessons begin with a bio of a scientist, historian, etc. in the field of the topic. Read these bio’s together as a class and discuss these real-world applications to the topic being studied.

Tips: Computers will need Flash installed to display The Children’s University of Manchester lessons, games, and interactive activities.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Children’s University of Manchester in your classroom.

Educational Videos

April 24, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments3564 views

What it is: Educational videos can be expensive, out of date, or hard to find. Happily there are a few sites working to make it easier to access educational videos for free. PBS has always been known for their great educational material. They have hosted videos on their site for some time but they were not located in one place where they could be easily sorted through. Now PBS has PBS video, all the great PBS material in one easy-to-search place. You can browse these videos by program, topic, or keyword search. All videos are on demand, I have been impressed with the quality! Another great website for on demand free videos is American History in Video by History Education. American History in Video has more than 5,000 titles in its collection! The videos allow students to analyze historical events, and look at the events over time through commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries. Students and teachers can search videos by year, historical event, people, places, subjects, and by keyword. This is an outstanding collection of free on demand history video!

How to integrate Educational Videos into the classroom: Video is an amazing medium for teaching. It brings textbooks to life and helps students to relate to history and science in new ways. Kids often find history boring and I believe one of the reasons is that they haven’t had enough life experiences to relate what they are learning to prior knowledge. Video helps them make connections that reading a textbook can’t do. Use these videos as an introduction to learning, as a reinforcement during learning, or embedded in lessons.

Tips: Always make sure you watch a video in its entirety before showing it to a class. Sometimes content may not be age appropriate or as on topic as you would have guessed.

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

DoInk

April 22, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments4892 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.

Tar Heel Reader

April 17, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3550 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.

Teacher Led Interactive Whiteboard

April 15, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2828 views

What it is: Teacher Led IWB is a collection of resources for use with an interactive whiteboard. This is an outstanding collection of 46 math tools and games, 3 geography maps and map makers, 6 English tools and games, and two multipurpose games. The collection is visually appealing and helps teach key concepts visually in each content area. There are too many great resources to go in depth here, I recommend heading over to Teacher Led IWB and taking a look right now!

How to integrate Teacher Led IWB into the classroom: This collection is VERY impressive. The tools and games are perfect for whole class instruction and practice in math, geography, language arts, and creating custom activities for other subjects. Most of the tools are designed for the elementary classroom but there are some that can be used in middle school as well.

Tips: If you have an interactive whiteboard, go to Teacher Led now and check out these awesome resources!

Leave a comment and tell us which of the Teacher Led resources you have used in your classroom.

Selenia Science Comics

April 14, 2009April 14, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3204 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.

Scotch: Science Fair Central

March 31, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3248 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.