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

Get to know the new $100 bill through this resource provided by the Department of Treasury. There is an interactive video quiz and an applet to design your own bill. The video quiz can also be seen with captions. In addition, there is a link to materials that can be downloaded for classroom use.
11308

There are plenty of helpful sites to learn content. What makes this so special? Created by an uncle wanting to help his nieces learn material, Khan Academy has grown into a Creative Commons attributed site for helping all students. What information is available? Maybe one should ask: What are you looking for? View a vast array of videos on many topics: SAT prep, Algebra, Geometry, Chemistry, Biology, History, Trigonometry, Calculus, Economics, Brain Teasers, Banking and Money, Statistics, Finance, Physics, and more....Whew! The only problem? The videos are hosted on You Tube. If your district blocks You Tube, then they may not be viewable. You could always view that at home and bring them to class “on a stick” to share. Use a tool such as Vixy reviewed hereto download the videos from YouTube.
11142

Massachusetts Institute of Technology has provided a search-able, online video lecture database. Looking for up to date, current topics that would benefit older students? This is the site for you. Videos are categorized by content and the site is easy to navigate. The content is definitely usable with seniors in high school, and with preparation and proper questioning, could be used with slightly younger high school students. Gifted students can also find content at an advanced level through this site. See “real world” experts such as Bill Gates or noted thinkers such as Thomas Friedman on video -- sometimes more accessible to understand than reading text.
11135

Escape from Knab is an educational simulation where students learn how to make financial decisions. This site lacks academic rigor, but provides a fun way to help students identify with real life financial situations and decisions. The site says that every visit to Knab is completely different from the last. Check out the monthly lesson section. Click on Educational Stuff to find objectives, classroom presentation, activity sheets, and more. The simulation covers financial topics like investing, needs versus wants, and taxation.
10676

This online interactive personal finance game has students work their way through 15 personal finance missions. Within each 30-minute mission, students are asked to help someone solve a personal finance situation. Students create, choose teams and use online tools like the mission brief and geo-locator to help solve the mission.
10905

This site offers teachers and students the opportunity to explore documents of a 100 milestones in American history. The documents chronicle United States history from 1776 to 1965: Lee Resolution, Treaty of Paris, Federalist Papers Bill of Rights, Missouri Compromise, Monroe Doctrine, Plessy v. Ferguson, Surrender of Japan, Marshall Plan, Brown v. Board of Education, and many more. The neat part about all the documents is that it shows the entire original document (it can be enlarged and zoomed in on) and then offers information about the document below. Now your students can experience primary sources with explanations.

There is a link called “Tools for Educators” that has a downloadable teacher sourcebook. (Although it’s the 2004 edition, only the first part of the sourcebook is about a competition for the year 2005.) The book has resources, how to use the documents, lesson plans, follow up activities, printouts, etc. Although the site is slightly dated, it includes some real gems. The site also offers ideas for librarians, classroom integration tips, and photos and downloadable posters.
4711

Looking for zee facts and nothing but zee facts? Check this site for constant updates on national debt, energy issues, and even health care issues. Created by a PhD economist, this site boasts balanced and unbiased figures and explanations about many social and environmental matters. Read descriptions of the science, history, and reasons for much of the reporting going on today. View video clips of recent news. Find information about Green Energy, Hurricanes, Global Warming, Gas prices, National Debt, and more.
10873

This census site is huge! It will help you teach your students what they count and why! Developed by Scholastic, this site is for grades K-12. "Census in Schools" has so many resources they can't all be given justice here. There are four tabs at the top for teachers, kids, teens, and materials. There are other tabs that have word games, memory games, and quizzes. There are a plethora of links to other sources on each page.

While exploring, our reviewer visited the “Teacher” tab and clicked on "lesson plans" and found lesson for mapping, the history of the census, and relating the census to the student's classroom. There were two sets of lessons here for K-2 and 3-4. Standards/benchmarks for language arts, math, social studies, and geography for K-2 and 3-4 were included. There were worksheets to download for both levels, a story to read, “Who Counts,” with comprehension questions to answer, and mapping activities. The site also had links for additional resources and a letter for the parents about the unit....and that was only ONE link on the "Teacher" tab. Whew! The rest of the site is just as thoroughly and professionally done as the lessons for K-4 lessons.
10813

This site provides tools for financial literacy including an introduction to basic financial ideas and vocabulary, budget decision practices, and ideas for including students in conversations about money. Although the page looks very text-heavy the linked activities are more interactive. Activities may be introduced at school but are well-suited for parents and students to do together at home.
10805

Students will enjoy comparing their knowledge with students around the country and the world through the interactive quizzes on this site. Six subject categories are offered (math, civics, history, geography, science, and economics)at 3 different grade levels (4th, 8th, and 12th). You can also choose 5, 10, 15, or 20 questions. Upon completion of quizzes, scores are shown along with all correct answers. Questions are provided from Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Civic Education Study (CivEd) and National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) - all are institutes which are involved in assessing student achievement and performance. The questions are higher level, and many include diagrams and other visual aids.
10639

Looking for an online shared whiteboard to teach students or allow them to teach each other from ay computer anywhere? Use Edoboard to create tutorials and use math tools that create equations, graphs, and other functions. This site can easily be used in nearly all subject areas. An accompanying wiki includes video tutorials showing how to use the tools. Note that the videos “live” on YouTube so may not be accessible at school!

Use a webcam to collaborate and work with others, mark assignments, share files and images, tutor students, and integrate with a webcam. Registration is required to use, and a free version will continue to be available. Registration requires a valid email address. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. Use a class account that is shared by all instead of using individual accounts.
10784

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

The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute web cartoon that illustrates how all the "stuff" we use affects our lives and our planet. While the cartoon clearly has a liberal-leaning political agenda, that should not deter you from using it. In fact, asking students to point out its biases would be an important lesson in sorting out perspective in a persuasive argument. The site has recently added another cartoon dealing with the "cap and trade" energy issue, and promises future efforts focused on bottled water and electronics. The "downloads" tab offers PDF versions of the script, posters and other promotional material, and short teaser video clips of the film.
10682

Help teens understand practical money skills using the interactive game of Financial Football. Teaching Modules include Fundamentals of Investment, Strength Training (Savings and Interest), Defensive Spending, and The Game Plan (budgeting). Complete pdf teaching information is available for each module. Launch the game and get fired up for financial well-being, complete with theme music!
10670

This site has a number of current magazines available online including Forbes, Scientific American, Men's Health, and countless others, organized by category. Many could be used for educational purposes (see the Science & Learning section, for example). Other general topics include Arts, Business, Computers, News, Sports, and more. Besides regular magazines, there are a number of columns and blogs by famous people. A few magazines, such as Forbes and Scientific American, display feature article titles when you click on their names, but most open to the magazine home page in a new window.
10618

Use this database to find teacher created sheets that follow movies shown in the classroom. Provide a change of pace for your students by using different questioning to challenge them. Be sure to preview, as this collection is only as good as the materials submitted. Check with your administration on rules for using "home videos" as they can be a violation of licensing or deemed inappropriate. Even though videos appear here, they may not be educationally appropriate. Be sure to check out the notices at the start of any "entertainment" video to be sure of legality. Keep in mind that these worksheets should not replace good interactive and thought provoking activities. Be sure to use other means to involve students in thought and action beyond the worksheets themselves. Find worksheets in either PDF or Word formats.
10603

This site challenges students to engineer cell phones to market to senior citizens based on research about their needs. It is a very interactive, five part activity that explains the objective of the activity, the research on the market, includes a design lab to create the new cell phone, and test survey results with "individual senior interviews." There is some humor to the site, and the interviews, though with cartoon seniors, are entertaining and informative. The site is dynamic with the interviewee's responses after the design is altered. Students learn to research and design for a real world task.
10527

Looking for information on cities or want to make comparisons between different cities? Use iCityData to find information such as "Average Family Size," "Mean travel time to work," and many other categories. Choose "City Search" above the search box to find information about a specific city. To make comparisons, choose "Compare cities" to compare up to three cities located by city, state, zip code, or area code. Being specific with the information yields a better search. Advertisements are included on the "clarify choices” page. Students should be cautioned to ignore these. Of course, the data used is only as current as the recent census. See the notes at the bottom for the source of data.
10110

Teachers First Edge review: for ANY user able to COPY and PASTE a URL. Add annotations to ANY image and share the combined image and notes by URL using this simple online tool. Imagine being able to comment on an advertisement image, critique a work of art, or even explain propaganda techniques found in online images or sales sites. You can upload an image (such as a shot from a digital camera) or use one already on the web. Help develop students' critical eye by using this tool and sharing the annotated images by email or by URL. Here is a sample annotated web image created by the TeachersFirst editors. Recipients of shared images can reply and add comments of their own. Students can also use this on their own to make comments or reminders on images, useful for studying on their own!
10415