The Scale of Life
What it is: The Scale of Life is a neat website that I learned about from a parent in @michellek107‘s class today. The Scale of Life is flash based, and shows the size of objects relative to other objects. Along the bottom of the site is a slider that lets students zoom in or out in size to see things relative to each other. Students can get as small as 0.0000000001 yoctometers to as large as size of the known universe.
How to integrate The Scale of Life into the classroom: The Scale of Life is a neat way for students to explore size, science and math. Students can examine the scale of objects compared to other objects and make observations about size and purpose of the object in the universe. This would be a fun site to explore as a class using a projector-connected computer or interactive whiteboard. As a class, students could adjust the scale and discuss size and purpose of the objects. Split students into teams to choose a different scale to learn about. Students can learn more about the items that are in the size range to share back with the class.
The Scale of Life could be a fantastic site for students learning about exponents and scientific notation. Visual students will appreciate that they can see what these big (and small) numbers are representing.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using The Scale of Life in your classroom!