Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Technological Enhancement

One of the sites I found to be helpful in chapter three was: http://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm?method=cResource.dspView&ResourceID=653

The table of content said that it was for grades three and up but I know that my students are capable of figuring out mass versus weight and this simulation will help them to achieve it. Initially I was friustrated because I needed to update adobe and spent my five free minutes doing that. I want to save my thirty day free trial until I have students.

I looked at http://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm?method=cResource.dspView&ResourceID=656 but honestly some of my students are still just learning the order of seasons in the northern hemisphere so I am hesitant to blow their minds with the idea that when we have winter, South America has summer. I may take a look at this gizmos again toward the end of the school year depending on the scientific literacy level of each year’s group. I did like the hands on aspect of manipulating the earth’s axis. I am also certain that my students would argue that it isn’t 80 degrees in June!

http://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm?method=cResource.dspView&ResourceID=636 was an interesting site dealing with planets. I am always looking for help when teaching about objects in space because it is such a vast concept. First graders have trouble with scale and maps and the sheer vastness of space is beyond their grasp.

I have bookmarked the “Explore Learning” site because they have gizmos on practically every topic.

The other site I am pleased with is: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/

I’ve used www.pbskids.org to help me teach computer literacy and the students end up playing all kinds of cool games dealing with math, reading and science. On the PBS try it site, the focus is more on science. The site is easier to manipulate than the “Explore Learning” site. I really liked: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/tech/# because it was very applicable to everyday life. I will encourage science teacher’s in my building to utilize the PBS site. It’s very user friendly and has fun interactive things to do.

My favorite site is still www.pbskids.org. There is so much entertaining science that students think they are playing and they are learning in the meantime. Kids can play with the immune system at http://pbskids.org/fetch/games/germinator/game.html. There are also various other early primary science games. Check it out!!

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