Science – Page 17 – iLearn Technology

Ideas to Inspire

March 30, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2718 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 Comment3150 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.

Physics Games

March 17, 2009March 17, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2675 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.

AR Sights

March 16, 2009Kelly Tenkely6 Comments3869 views

What it is: Augmented Reality, how cool is that technology? Dialing up the awesome factor a couple of notches is AR Sights. AR Sights is a company who makes it possible to view Google Earth right in a web browser and then zoom into places of interest (Pyramids, Eiffel Tower, etc) and take a look at them augmented reality style. The site brings landmarks to life in four easy steps. Download the browser add-on, download some points of interest, print out the AR Sights marker, and zoom into Google Earth and take a look. I am amazed at what this technology provides for students! Students can zoom right in and manipulate the landmark by moving the paper around. Now for the downfalls, AR Sights only works on PC’s right now, us Mac folks will have to hunt down a PC or wait until it is available for the Mac. The other downfall is the downloads, they require administrative rights (some of you may have to convince your IT to let you download this goody). After you print off the AR Sights marker, you hold it up to your camera and up pops the landmark you have chosen in Google Earth, as you twist, tilt, and move the paper the landmark moves accordingly. This is SO outstanding!

How to integrate AR Sights into the classroom: AR Sights makes virtual field trips so impressive! As your students are studying geography, allow them to travel around Google Earth and take a look at the landmarks. Use AR Sights with a projector or Interactive whiteboard to show your whole class landmarks at the same time. Create a travel center on your computers where students can travel around and learn about the world. AR Sights is a great way to bring geography alive! AR Sights also has a download to use with Google Sketch-up 3-D drawing program (free from Google). Older students can create their own 3-D augmented reality landmarks. Students could draw places of interest, your school, etc. and view them with AR Sights as augmented reality. Talented high-school and college age students (or ambitious teachers) could create Sketch-up models that can be used in education such as the skeletal system, a beating heart, the solar system, historical landmarks, etc. for students to interact with in 3-D augmented reality. The possibilities with this could be endless!!

Tips: I learned about AR Sights from a wonderful blog that my friend Raul writes from Spain called technoTIC, check it out! Thanks Raul!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using AR Sights in your classroom. If you or one of your students creates a Sketch Up model for AR Sights let us know about it!

Switcheroo Zoo

March 3, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2671 views

What it is: Switcheroo Zoo is a site I learned about from Kevin Bibo on his outstanding blog Cal Teacher Blog. Switcheroo Zoo has fun interactive games and activities such as “Make New Animals” where students can create their own animal combinations, “Build an Online Habitat” where students choose animals and match them to the correct environment, “Switch Zoo Puzzles”, “Where do I Live” where students help return rescued animals to their homes, “Sound Match” where students match the animal song to the correct animal, “Meerkat Grab-a-Snack” where students help feed a Meerkat by catching food, and “Catch the Moment” where students take ‘pictures’ of wildlife. Switcheroo Zoo also has short films, sound clips, and photographs about animals for students to watch and listen to. Your students also have the opportunity to become a “Switch Zoo Guide” by completing the Switch Zoo Quest. Students play nine fun animal related games and activities to become a guide. When they finish, they will receive a Switch Zoo certificate of merit, a guide badge, and are added to the list of offical guides.

How to integrate Switcheroo Zoo into the classroom: Switcheroo Zoo is an awesome website for students to explore to learn more about animals and wildlife. This would be a great site to visit when studying animals and their habitats. There are three educational animal-themed games on the site that teach about animal characteristics and habitats. Switcheroo Zoo has an educational section that includes lesson plans for art, science, creative writing, and persuasive writing. In second grade at the school where I teach, students complete animal reports as an introduction to research. Switcheroo Zoo has on-site research with 142 animal profiles, a US endangered species map, and stories about unusual animal feats on a Zookeeper’s blog. This site is packed full of fun, useful activities, lessons, and resources! In a computer lab setting, students can research and play games individual. In the one or two classroom computer setting, students can visit Switcheroo Zoo as a science resource center. With the projector or an interactive whiteboard, complete the activities as a whole class or show the animal videos to your whole class.

Tips: This site does have some Google ads. I use these as an opportunity to teach my students how to spot ads on a website and discuss what the purpose of advertisements is.

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

ARKive

February 25, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3331 views

What it is: ARKive is an incredible website that I learned about from a tweet on Twitter (forgive me I was in the middle of class and didn’t keep track of who- thank you whoever you are!) ARKive tag line is “images of life on Earth”, but ARKive is so much more than just a collection of images, it has thousands of videos, images and facts about the world’s species. This is the digital version of Noah’s Ark! This is the most impressive animal and life website I have seen! I truly can’t say enough about this site, students of all ages will enjoy this one (I’m talking k-12 here!) ARKive has an education section of the site that is a free multi-media educational resources complete with downloadable, ready to use audio/visual modules on a wide range of science, geography, citizenship, and environmental based topics. ARKive also has some great games for students to play that are directly related to the lessons they learn while on the ARKive site. Games range from building a habitat to word searches and digital fridge poetry.

How to integrate ARKive into the classroom: ARKive’s ready made educational resources make it simple to integrate into your science, geography, or general classes. The resources are ready made PowerPoint presentations (which incidentally also open nicely in Keynote which we use). The resources bring learning to life with images, videos, facts, and some interactive pieces. This is what textbooks should be! ARKive’s ready made resources can be downloaded on classroom computers for use by small learning groups as a center, downloaded to a lab of computers for individual student exploration, or used with a projector and an interactive whiteboard for whole class learning and exploration. The ARKive site itself is a wonderful place for students to explore and learn more about animal species and life on Earth. This would be a great place for students to collect information, images, and video to create their own presentations. The games provided on the ARKive site are fun for students and teach them as they play. For example, students who are studying habitat can play the Design a Habitat game and gain an additional opportunity to interact with the concepts they are learning. Older students can dig into the facts provided on ARKive and learn about animal classification and species of the world. ARKive images could be used in the language arts classroom as a story starter or creative writing prompt.

Tips: This is truly an incredible site, I encourage you to take a look at it and use it with your class! (Click on the education link at the bottom of the site for the Resources and Games.)

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

How Toons

February 9, 2009February 9, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2879 views

What it is: How Toons is like an Instructables site for kids. Kids learn through cartoons and videos how things work and how to make things. This is kind of a How It’s Made website for kids. Topics include science, space, nature, events, and a how to section. The cartoons illustrate a concept and accompanying videos expand on the concept.

How to integrate How Toons into the classroom: How Toons is an excellent site to excite your students about science. Share a How Toons with your students and then explore the science behind it together. Use a How Toons as inspiration, after viewing How Toons, students can create their own cartoon on any topic being studied in class. How Toons are great for teaching kids how to follow step by step instructions and would also be useful for teaching them how to create their own instructions.

Tips: How Toons would be a fun RSS feed to subscribe to as a class!

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

Animal Games

January 27, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment4971 views

What it is: Animal Games is part of the Sheppard Software’s Kids corner. The site has games about animals that help them learn animal classification, the difference between herbivores and carnivores, the food chain, endangered animals, producers and consumers, animal diet, and animal characteristics. The games are fun and easy to play and teach some important animal science concepts.

How to integrate Animal Games into the classroom: These games are perfect for the kindergarten through second grade classroom. They teach the basics of the food chain, animal kingdom, and animal classification through an interactive game environment. These games would be appropriate for the one or two computer classroom as a science center, with a projector and whole class instruction, or in the computer lab setting.

Tips: This site does have some advertisements, use this opportunity to discuss ads with your students and help them spot the ads on each page (some advertisements look like a game).

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

The Periodic Table of Videos

January 27, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2831 views

So today is going to be another whirl wind of posts day. I am cleaning out my Google Notebook saved sites, hopefully you will find one of these awesome resources helpful for your classroom!

What it is: If I had access to the Periodic Table of Videos when I was going through chemistry, my understanding would have exponentially increased! This site literally looks like a periodic table, when a student clicks on one of the elements, a video opens up that explains the element. So neat! The site was created by the University of Nottingham, who is continually updating the videos with the latest and greatest experiments and explanations. There is a section with extra videos, a collection of science bloopers that are entertaining.

How to integrate The Periodic Table of Videos into the classroom: The Periodic Table of Videos is a great way to introduce the elements to students. I remember spending hours memorizing the Periodic Table but never really understood the properties of the elements. This site will help your students get a grasp on exactly what the different elements do. This is also a great way to bring those elements into your room that aren’t practical or readily available. Use this with your chemistry classes in the computer lab setting or with a projector.

Tips: The Features section has some extra videos on topics such as experiments and noble gases.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Periodic Table of Videos in your classroom.

Prezi

January 12, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3245 views

What it is: Prezi is a unique online presentation builder that seems to be popping up a lot lately all over the web. It is getting so much attention because of its new approach to online slide shows. Prezi has some unique features like zooming presentations that grab and hold viewers attention. Prezi lets you create a sort of walking path through your presentation. The finished product is engaging and impressive looking. The tools in Prezi are different from other online presentation builders but are easy to use and figure out. The tutorial will have you and your students creating in minutes.

How to integrate Prezi into the classroom: Because of Prezi’s unique zooming feature, it would be a good tool for students to use for vocabulary. Students can type in the word to be defined and then zoom in on the definition. Building vocabulary presentations would be good for review and study. Prezi would also be a neat way to explore and display information from history (display a date, place, or person in history and then zoom into facts and details that are related), timeline information (create paths from different dates in Prezi), literature (create a sort of interactive character map of any literary character), science projects (use Prezi’s path to lead through the scientific method), foreign language (type a word in another language and zoom to translate), geography (zoom into details around a map), math, and much more.

Tips: Be sure to check out the tutorial on Prezi, it will have you up and creating in no time! Check out the inspiration to see the amazing things that others have used Prezi to create.

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