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Historypin - We Are What We Do - Grades 4
to 12
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This is a site created in partnership with Google as a project to help generations share and talk more through social networking. The concept is that young people ask older people to share their photos; these photos are then uploaded through Google maps to show the world as it once was. The older pictures can be compared to today's images through Google street view. In addition to uploading photos, stories can also be shared about the time period and the pictures. Historypin is still in Beta stage; however, there are plans for events throughout the world to launch the site in the near future.
11588
In the Classroom:
Use as an enhancement to research projects of family, historic events, and world cultures by finding and uploading pictures to the map. Use Historypin as a resource to compare and contrast different time periods in the same geographic area. Demonstrate on the interactive whiteboard or projector how different places have changed over time. Have individual students or cooperative learning groups create podcasts using PodOmatic (reviewed here) to go along with the maps. ESL students will appreciate the ability to upload pictures and/or learn about their country of original. |
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| TeachersFirst's Oil Spill Resources - TeachersFirst - Grades 3
to 12
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This collection of reviewed resources from TeachersFirst is selected to help teachers and students learn about oil spills and the short and long term impact on the environment caused by these environmental disasters. As students read and see images of animals, be aware that younger students may have more questions than they can explain.
11443
In the Classroom:
Use these resources together with your class to help students find ways they can contribute to a greater good after such a devastating event spreads across the news. Extend the opportunity to teach about persuasive writing (letters to legislators or the editor), careers in environmental science, and more. |
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| PWSRCAC - PWSRCAC - Grades 0
to 12
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Prince William Sound Regional Citizen's Advisory Council provides a free curriculum that is geared toward teaching about oil and oil spills. While this curriculum is about Alaska's Exxon Valdez oil spill, the information would be very helpful in teaching about other oil spills in recent news. It would be a great place to help develop lessons where students compare and contrast two spills, their magnitude and their effects on the environment.
11343
In the Classroom:
Use the whole curriculum in environmental science classes or pick and choose pieces that you want to incorporate into your curriculum. Have students research and understand about oil spills in general using this tool, and then have students expand by comparing and contrasting the Exxon spill to the BP spill in 2010. Have students create Venn Diagrams using a tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram (reviewed here) to compare these two spills or other oil spills. |
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| Stop Disasters - United Nation/International Strategy for Disaster Reduction - Grades 4
to 12
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Through various scenarios, this interactive teaches students how to build safer villages and cities against disasters. Students will learn how using different building locations and construction materials can make a difference between life and death.
11320
In the Classroom:
This site will fit perfectly into any social studies, history, or current events class. Have students explore this site independently or in small groups. If used independently put the site on a classroom computer and use as a center. Use the information section to discuss important events that are happening right now. Use the videos with an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use the teaching links to improve your knowledge about natural disasters. Have students use the kid friendly links and fact sheets to create a PSA to inform the public how to prepare for a natural disaster. Challenge students to narrate a picture (of a natural disaster) using a tool such as Voicethread reviewed here. This site will work for all learners because they can choose different levels, languages, and map sizes.
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| Innovations That Rocked the World - Newsweek - Grades 4
to 12
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What innovations have truly changed the world? Newsweek has created a slideshow with their top 15 picks. Each picture includes a short description of the innovation including how it changed the world.
11278
In the Classroom:
Challenge students to predict the 15 innovations before sharing the slideshow on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Assign one of the items to students to research for a class project. Have your students create an interactive online poster ("glog") using Glogster EDU, reviewed here. Debate items left off the list and why they should have been included. What do students predict will be the next 15 innovations to change the world? |
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| Oil Spill Lesson Plans and Resources - NOAA - Grades 3
to 12
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Learn about the impact of oil spills. Use these lessons and information to compare the impact of spills past and present. The site provides details about cleaning up oil spills, as well as the science of oil dispersal, how to clean animals, and more.
11230
In the Classroom:
Take advantage of the free lesson plans and classroom activities on this site! Be sure to save this site as a favorite to allow for easy retrieval later on. Students can select different aspects of oil spill cleanup and mitigation and play the role of experts in a mock blog post playing their role. Have students continue their role play by commenting on each other's posts. |
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| Oil Spill Crisis Map - - Grades 3
to 12
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Learn about the impact of oil spills, specifically the BP spill of 2010. Use this information to compare the impact of this spill to others past and present. The site provides details about the land, animals and human health that have been negatively affected by the spill - all in map form.
11232
In the Classroom:
Use this site as a springboard for discussions about the environmental impact of oil spills and, in a broader sense, of human activity in general. Have student groups explore various aspects of the map, and report back to the class how the environment, wildlife, and humans in the area were affected. Have students use a tool such as Woices (beta) (reviewed here). This site allows students to create audio recordings AND choose a location (on a map) where the story takes place.
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| Ifitwasmyhome - Ifitwasmyhome.com - Grades 3
to 12
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This site hosts an interactive map, along with bountiful information about the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill of 2010. The interactive map updates daily during the aftermath of the spill, allowing users to chart the gradual growth of the spill in the Gulf Coast. It also allows users to "move the spill" to their hometown, providing a better perspective of how big the spill actually is. The information on the site is mostly specific to this spill, but there are connections to how wildlife has been affected by this and others like it in the past. Note the links on the bottom that host information about other spills, and the dramatic pictures of the wildlife suffering from the sludge. The images are graphic, so use with caution in an elementary classroom where students are apt to react strongly to images of animals suffering.
11221
In the Classroom:
This site and information it hosts are great at capturing two essential skills in Social Studies. To begin with, it's an excellent map reading source, especially to demonstrate regarding map distortions and how they can change the shape of something like a projected oil spill. It also highlights concerns about deep-sea drilling, a heavily contested topic, particularly after the oil spill of 2010. Both government and earth science classrooms could investigate aspects of drilling as real world topics related to the curriculum.
Introduce the site on the interactive whiteboard before allowing cooperative learning groups to explore, giving the teacher a chance to explain how the map works and what kind of information is on the site. Have cooperative learning groups explore the site and summarize important details, such as how people and wildlife are affected by environmental disasters. This would be a great review activity before a debate on deep-sea drilling. Classes can also chart the growth of the spill for a period of days to trace how much it changes, providing evidence for the debate. Government classes could use this and other references as part of a simulation on how the U.S. government reacts to environmental disasters and discussions of related policy issues. Younger students will need assistance reading some of the text-based material. |
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| Pennies for Peace - Central Asia Institute - Grades 0
to 12
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Inspire students to believe they can make a difference in the world. "Pennies for Peace" is an international service-learning project that does not ask families to contribute large sums of money. Author of the book "Three Cups of Tea,” Greg Mortenson, and his young daughter Amira believe that by donating pennies children can help support education in Afghanistan and Pakistan while simultaneously promoting peace.
The project comes with an extensive toolkit that shows how to implement the campaign, provides background resources and curriculum materials. The toolkit is grouped by the grade levels, K-4, 4-8, and 9-12. The Pennies for Peace Curriculum directly links to grade level standards in social studies, math, and literacy. In order to participate schools need to register on-line. There is a page for "kids" that provides facts about a typical village and school and background information about Pakistan and Afghanistan. The tool kit contains videos and photographs as well as maps from National Geographic that are free for download. The videos will take participants through the steps of implementing the project to interviewing Greg Mortenson, possible classroom applications, and short clips to support sections of their curriculum. Address core subjects such as social studies, math, history, geography, science and language arts while enhancing cultural awareness in your students.
11010
In the Classroom:
Launch this campaign together as a school-wide effort or keep it to your classroom. Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students explore this site independently or in small groups. The toolkit gives very concrete lesson plans to follow fully or just in parts. One example is for younger students to examine a map of the area in which they live and then compare that to where children in Pakistan live. Essential questions such as "How does where we live effect how we live?" and "What are the similarities and differences between these places?" ask students to visit the site and create a multimedia presentation, map booklet, or interactive book about both geographic locations. Use the printable images from this site for your bulletin boards. Older students can participate in a book clubs that read either Greg Mortenson’s original book “Three Cups of Tea” or his new book "Stones to Schools". There is a version of his book for Younger Readers, "Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Journey to Change the World…One Child at a Time" which includes photos and illustrations and a childrens picture book "Listen to the Wind" that may be useful for introducing the project. |
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| Newspaper Blackout Poems - Austin Kleon - Grades 4
to 12
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Newspaper Blackout Poems is a clever way for students to unlock the secrets of finding poetry that is hidden on the page. Teaching poetry no longer needs to be a gray area; this activity makes it black and white! There are no gimmicks, no magic pens, and no camouflage paper, but this is certainly a tricky way to write a poem! All you need are newspapers and black markers. Students hunt for and select a few words from each of the lines as they read a newspaper or magazine article. Remember to start with the title. Instead of the typical bottom-up approach to teaching how to write a poem by starting with a blank page and filling it with words, try this fresh, top down approach by starting with a page already crowded with words. Then use permanent markers to blacken out all the trivial words in each line until the poem appears.
10931
In the Classroom:
This poetry activity opens the doors to so many learning objectives. In a social studies or history classroom, you could direct your students to search for newspaper or magazine articles on topics that you have been studying, or current events. Suddenly you have social studies poetry! In an English language arts lesson, you might instruct students to blacken out all the words that are not nouns or verbs, or select other parts of speech. You could change the task to eliminate any word that is not part of the simple subject or predicate, and simultaneously teach or reinforce main idea. For classrooms with individual computers, students could access articles online. Instead of blackening out words with markers, they could get the same effect by highlighting over them with black, or changing the font color of the text to white, and then printing them. Another option is for students to email their Newspaper Blackout Poemsto the teacher. Each poem could then be put into a Power Point slide show for the class to see on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Use this site to offer your students a new twist on Poetry Month (April). Take your new poetry collection to the world by uploading the PowerPoint to Voicethread (reviewed here) and having each student record a reading in his/her own voice. Make poetry a participatory experience, no matter what the subject. |
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| Virtual Visit to a School Garden - TeachersFirst/Meriwether Lewis Elementary - Grades 3
to 8
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Watch the archived version of a live webcast from Meriwether Lewis Elementary School garden on Earth Day 2009, a cooperative project with TeachersFirst. See students explain concepts of organic vegetable gardening, natural building with cob, composting, rainwater collection, planting their new bioswale, Pacific Northwest native plants, and more. TeachersFirst's complete how-to information for making your own video field trips is linked from this page, as well.
10826
In the Classroom:
Scroll down to a list of suggestions for using this archived webcast in your classroom. Talk about local sites where you might be able to take a team of students to create a local student created "video field trip" to share with other classes both in and outside of your school. See TeachersFirst's complete how-to information to try one of your own.
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| Census in Schools - US Census Bureau - Grades 0
to 12
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The US Census Bureau site provides a collection of materials, lessons, and information designed to teach the nation's students about the importance of the census and focusing on encouraging students to help ensure every child and every household member is counted in 2010. The site includes a copy of the census form, dozens of lesson plans/ideas for various grade levels and subjects, and a few simple interactive activities for both kids and teens.
10818
In the Classroom:
Because of the volume of materials and activities, introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students explore this site independently or in small groups to put together a Public Service Announcement on participating in the Census 2010. Have students create video advertisements or infomercials. Share the videos using a tool such as Teachers.TV reviewed here. Try using the historical census data or the predicted population data for math projects related to statistics. |
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| Let's Be Counted - Steven J. Logwood - Grades 2
to 12
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Wow! What a creative way to introduce a census unit, or to just make your students aware of the importance of the census. This is a four minute video, "Music-Based Messaging Prototype encouraging young Hispanics and African Americans to participate in the census." It is a YouTube video with a catchy tune and photos of every ethnic group one can think of. The information in the song is also printed on the screen. The video is available in Spanish and English. As they say in their pitch: “It’s fun, motivating, digital, downloadable, overcomes literacy issues, and is environmentally friendly.” After viewing the video, scroll down the screen and you'll find the time line for the music and facts presented in the video. Keep scrolling and you'll find the number of iterations for certain message phrases, and information about other applications and services. If YouTube is blocked in your school, you CAN download the videos at home and bring them in “on a stick” using a tool such as Vixy, reviewed here.
10814
In the Classroom:
Share this video and song on your projector and screen, or whiteboard, as students come into the classroom. Use it as a lead-in to a discussion about the importance of the census. You can post some of the information from Scholastic's “Census in Schools” reviewed here. From this same site you can go to “It’s About Us,” and find a "Reference Page" with "Census Facts" that you can use in elementary, middle school, and high school classrooms. One last suggestion: Once you’ve completed your census unit, discussion, etc. You might want to have your class participate in the “100 People: A World Portrait” reviewed here. Don't forget about the possibility of using the census in math class to understand data and graphing, as well. |
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| Year by Year - Infoplease - Grades 3
to 12
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Build students’ sense of historical context year by year. Help them to realize that Gershwin did not write during the Vietnam War and that World War II preceded the Beatles. This site gives an overview of any year students click on from 1900 to the present, including cultural events, national and world news, politics, sports, prize winners, movie releases, deaths, and --for more recent years -- links to news focusing on other topics such as science and people. It provides an interesting summary of any particular year; most students find it interesting to check the year of their birth and those of their family members. Many highlighted keywords link to the Infoplease encyclopedia and other reference sources.
10759
In the Classroom:
Ask your students to visit the site and create a multimedia presentation from the information about any specific year they see there. Or have them compare life in two different decades. Have students create online books using a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here. Or challenge students to create an online poster using Wallwisher, (reviewed here).
When studying literature, point out this site as a source authors might use for cultural background information in their writing. Pick out the details while reading a novel, for example, that might be found at this site. Or before studying a historical period, use this site as an anticipatory set or “activator” on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Have students collect information tidbits and predict what might be put into the site for the current year.
Ask your ESL/ELL students to share similar information about the years they were born and the events that occurred in their home cultures. Use the site when preparing a unit on summarizing or informational paragraphs, showing the students how to select and condense relevant information from the site into a few sentences. |
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| WWF Footprint Calculator - World Wildlife Federation - Grades 3
to 12
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Determine ecological footprints with this site. Click start and answer questions about food, travel, home, and stuff. Amounts and questions use British units so students may need help in understanding them. At the end, the ecological footprint is displayed as well as strategies for reducing footprints.
10429
In the Classroom:
Use this site to determine how each of us affects the environment. Bring math into the classroom by converting British units to American units. Students can research how each of these categories affects the environment and create action plans for reducing their footprint. Follow the action plans and retake the quiz after to see the change in footprint. Create Public Service Announcements in the form of posters or videos to share information. Have students create online posters on paper or do it together as a class using a tool such as Project Poster (reviewed here or PicLits (reviewed here. |
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| Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games - Associated Press - Grades 0
to 12
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Follow the latest Vancouver Olympics news from AP. The site includes profiles of legendary athletes from other Olympic years side by side with the latest results and highlight videos. The interactive Venues section provides map skill practice as you gain a much better sense of the "layout" of the Vancouver games.
10698
In the Classroom:
Use this site side by side with other coverage to see varied reporting on the games. As students follow a specific sport in connection with curriculum or for current events, consider using your class wiki to make your own "Olympic News" features with a curricular angle, such as articles analyzing the physics of bobsledding or the physiology of elite athletes. Use the Olympics as writing prompts for more athletically-minded students: Ex. "The most important preparation any athlete can have is..." or "If I were in the Olympics..." or "The most important lesson of the Olympics is..." Have student reporters select and share daily 30 second "Olympic moments" to practice speaking skills. |
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| Visual Thesaurus Vocab Grabber - Thinkmap,Inc. - Grades 3
to 12
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The Visual Thesaurus VocabGrabber is a captivating interactive resource which can be used from elementary school to the college level for improving vocabulary in the context of your selected content. The on line VocabGrabber tool quickly extracts vocabulary from a text within seconds to help teachers and students generate a list of the key vocabulary and see how those words are used in context. Additionally, by clicking on a word, the part of speech is revealed and students can listen to the correct pronunciation. The format is easy to use: simply copy text from any document or online source, (such as passages of literature found on the Gutenberg Project free website), paste the copied text into the box, and click the Grab Vocabulary button! In just seconds, an interactive concept map of vocabulary words and phrases appears. Can’t find an online version of the text? No worries...type the text directly into the text box and voila! The words are "grabbed" or organized in comparison to the frequency of these words in standard written English. VocabGrabber can be used with any type of text: a newspaper article, a book chapter, a speech, or a historical document.
There are additional features if you choose to subscribe, particularly the Visual Thesaurus interactive word maps, which can be saved and printed, and an online edition in multiple languages for English-speaking students learning other languages and ESL/ELL students.
Caution! Before purchasing a subscription, see if the free portion of the website satisfies your needs or take advantage of the 14-day risk-free trial to see all the features in action. When a school subscription is purchased, student workbooks and Teachers' Guide with lesson plans are included.
10640
In the Classroom:
Teachers and students can use the VocabGrabber on an interactive whiteboard, projector, or individual computers to highlight vocabulary specific to a literary work or curricular subject area, to improve reading comprehension by choosing key concepts and literary terms, and to build background knowledge for a given text. As an added benefit, have students click on the VocabGrabber when typing their own assignments such as a poem or an essay, to avoid repeating the same word. They simply type in a word and generate a list of synonyms and more descriptive words. VocabGrabber enables students to see how words are used in context, instead of memorizing word lists. Additionally, VocabGrabber is extremely helpful for students preparing for standardized tests. Be sure to include this site on your class web page for students to access both in and outside of class for further practice. |
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| Path of the Athlete - Canadian Olymphic Committee - Grades 1
to 5
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This interactive game follows the "path" of an athlete to the Olympics. It first allows students to drag the flags of Olympic participants to the matching country, select healthy foods for an athlete, and more. Only when a correct match is made does the game offer up the next screen.
10611
In the Classroom:
Introduce a unit on the Winter Olympics with this activity displayed on a projector or interactive whiteboard or have students try this activity with a partner. As students learn more about the countries and history of the Olympics, have the class create their own Olympic matching games on paper or using an online flashcard tool such as Brain Flips, reviewed here. |
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| Gail Skroback Hennessey's Winter Olympics 2010 - Gail Skroback Hennessey - Grades 3
to 6
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This site offers a 10 question fact quiz all related to the 2010 Winter Olympics. Links are provided to research the answers to each question. Most of the questions include multiple blanks to fill in (and research). Learn about the mascots of the games, history of the games, geography skills, locations of past games, information about Vancouver, the Olympic flag, and more.
10593
In the Classroom:
Have cooperative learning groups complete this activity together. If you don't have time for each group (or individual) to research all 10 questions, why not assign groups 2-3 questions each. Move beyond just the facts by challenging the groups to create a multimedia presentation about some aspect of the Olympics to share with the rest of the class. Use measurement connections in math, geography connections in social studies, etc. to determine the topics. Have groups create an Olympic podcast using PodOmatic (reviewed here). |
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| TubeChop - TubeChop.com - Grades 0
to 12
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Teachers First Edge Review: For adventurous technology users. Chop pieces of You Tube videos easily and effortlessly in as little as a few steps. Quickly share your chopped video by providing a URL link or using the embed code in a wiki, blog, or other site. View easy instructions and examples of chopped videos on the front page of the site. Advise students that ads do appear on this site and they are to be ignored.
10560
In the Classroom:
Skills required: No registration is needed to use this free, web based application. Users need to be able to find an appropriate You Tube video and know where the start and end times of the portion they wish to cut. If more than one portion is wanted from the video (i.e. remove the whole middle), users will have to create two chopped segments which can be posted separately.
To use TubeChop: First, select the video you want to use. If the URL is not known, no problem. Search for the video within TubeChop itself. Once the video is selected, click the "Chop" button. Select the part you want by dragging the two black sliders that appear under the video to choose the desired start and end times of your chopped piece. It is helpful to note the time markers when you are previewing the original video and then move the markers to those points.
Once your chopped piece has been chosen, simply click "Chop it." The chopped video appears with its own Tubechop link. Copy the embed code to share the video on your blog or website. The embed code is easily entered on a wiki as well.
Safety/Security: If YouTube is blocked in your district, Tubechop videos will not show, either, since they are "pulled" from YouTube. Check school access before you plan to use TubeChop! (When tested in a district that blocks You Tube, the actual Tube Chop video did not play.) Be sure to check District policy about use of You Tube videos. Even if YouTube is not filtered, as with all resources used in the classroom, be sure to preview the appropriateness of the video before using in the classroom. TubeChop removes unwanted material whether inappropriate or not needed for that particular lesson.
In the classroom: Choose only portions needed for use in that particular lesson or remove unwanted portions that are inappropriate (or boring!) Create little clips to use as a webquest. Though it is time consuming, it would be easier for younger students to focus on smaller pieces of video to locate information. Chop small pieces of video for use as writing prompts for essays, creative writing, or blog posts. Chop portions of videos showing different viewpoints or arguments to any scientific, political, economic, or historical event. Use in the Arts to showcase music, dance, art, or other creative pursuits. Use chopped portions of video footage captured by the public to compare with news accounts to uncover bias and discuss perspective.
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