Jun
22
W.O.W!
June 22, 2009 | | Leave a Comment
site: Astronaut Photography
This is a really interesting site. What they’ve done is taken pictures from space missions and put them all together so you can get an up-close picture from space of almost any spot on Earth. I like this for just raw material…there is so much you can do with the images found here-from talking about technology used by astronauts to comparing different areas of the Earth-even as writing prompts. I’m sure I haven’t even scratched the surface of what can be done here, but I’m working on it.
Learn well!
Jun
9
W.o.W!
June 9, 2009 | Tagged biomes, ecology, endangered species, environment, science | Leave a Comment
site: MBGnet
One of the main content areas I cover with my seventh graders has to do with biomes and the elements of different biomes. This little site from the Missouri Botanical Gardens provided some great resources for working with students in understanding the different features of different biomes. Background information, maps, plant & animal images & descriptions…all the basics to get into the biomes. With my students this year we did a little bit looking at endangered species within different biomes and explored why there were endangered species in all the different areas. Great for student research or support materials.
Learn well!
Jun
3
Ahh…summer!
June 3, 2009 | Tagged blogging, digital presentations, goals, googleEarth, integration, voicethread | Leave a Comment
Whew! What a year! There were certainly ups and downs in my first year back after my Master’s and a lot of great learning experiences. I’m looking forward to the summer as a chance to implement all the things I learned through the school year-specifically I’ll be writing about here my ideas and hopes for integrating technology more effectively with my students next year. A couple of the primary goals I’ll be working to build on this summer (at least as I see them now)
- blogging with students (and/or Voicethread)
- further integration of the Smartboard
- use of googleEarth
- digital presentations
I know these are pretty broad, but these are things I feel we can really do with the available technology at the school. Along with more websites I’ll be posting my ideas on those goals through the summer.
May
3
site: Barwon Bluff Marine Sanctuary
Yes, I have been busy collecting lots more great sites, which I’ll be sharing through the rest of the spring and into the summer. The site this week is a great reference and resource for teaching students about tides. Living in Arizona most of my students have very little experience with tides. I used this site to demonstrate the relationships between the Earth, moon and sun during different tides for my students and it helped answer a lot of questions. Click on the home page link for ideas and resources. I found the most valuable bits to be the two animations and the slide show of high & low tides. Lots of good ocean-related resources!
Oct
19
W.o.W!
October 19, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
Site: Interactives: Rock Cycle
Ok, I said I’d get beyond the science stuff, but I just can’t help it. This week’s site is a great interactive one centered around the rock cycle. Using lots of flash animation, the site has an interactive rock cycle, explanations for each type of rock and the processes that act to change rocks. Not only can students view photos and animations relating to rocks and the rock cycle, but there are quizes built in as well which use the same pictures and animations. If you are studying the rock cycle, you don’t want to miss this site!
Learn well!
Sep
18
Our Class Blog!
September 18, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
I’m finally getting there! After much monkeying around with different blog services, I settled on edublogs as my class blog and we’re just now getting it underway. I wanted to provide a link to the blog for you to look at-please feel free to leave comments for myself or my students. We’ll greatly enjoy them!
And yes, there will be more content coming in the following weeks. It’s a little empty now, but more is on the way (I promise!).
Learn well!
Mr. Hunt’s SciBlog
Sep
7
Site: Earth & Sky: A Clear Voice for Science
I promise I’ll move on to some non-science sites in the coming weeks, but as I try and build things for this year I’ve just got a bunch of science resources that are really, really cool. This week’s site is Earth/Sky Kids, a site for current, science related material. The site is divided by subject areas (space, animals, plants, bizarre, etc…) and each area has a number of current articles relating to that area of science. In addition, there are a number of podcasts included and blogs for discussion on topics. All in all, a wealth of info on what’s happening right now in science. The articles themselves can be used by students in fifth grade and up (most likely), but the ideas can certainly be posed to younger students and used as a reference by all teachers. Personally, I’ve been using the articles with my seventh graders for their weekly science article reviews, which I hope to have up on our class blog soon (still working out some technical issues on it-but look for the link soon!)
Learn well!
Aug
28
W.O.W!
August 28, 2008 | Tagged science websites classroom exploratorium education | Leave a Comment
Yes, the W.O.W!’s are back! Now that things are starting to settle down just a little bit, I’ve been able to explore a little more on-line and find some good resources. I’ve also been looking throughout the summer, so I’ll be adding a few I found over the last couple months in upcoming weeks as well. If you want a sneak peek, look at a few of the sites in my del.ici.ous section (I bookmarked some of them since they were so awesome!).
However, on to this week’s site. It’s called the Exploratorium, and is one of the most diverse, thorough, and thoroughly fascinating science sites I’ve ever come across. Currently there is an interactive section on scientific process and evolution that includes artifacts, interviews with experts, and lots of great questions. I also watched a video they made from a recent solar eclipse that could be seen in China (yes, they actually filmed in China). Not only do they explain how and why eclipses happen, they show it to through their telescope. Just great, great stuff packaged with a super design and layout. I would say almost any grade level could find appropriate science content here with the large volume of multi-media content available. Check it out today!
Learn well!
Aug
11
Day 1
August 11, 2008 | Tagged blogging, first day | Leave a Comment
Whew! After having been away from the classroom for two years, I’d forgotten how much a school day can do in your brain…I have a mish-mash of names, faces, things to do, things I forgot to do, and things I want to do all running around my brain at once. After finally overcoming an incredibly slow laptop and a TV missing some channels (namely the one with announcement on it) things finally started rolling a little bit. I did get a mini-lesson on the value of covering less material in depth…in many ways it felt like my first day teaching as opposed to my eighth first day. However, I am excited about the possibilities. I have a great group of students and can’t wait to get them blogging, filming, and talking about their experiences and ideas. There is a huge amount of potential and I hope I can tap into it.
I am still looking for others to communicate with, and any suggestions for blog services (I have over 120 7th graders) are welcome…
Learn well!
Aug
4
Blogging With 100’s
August 4, 2008 | Tagged blogging, middle school, science | Leave a Comment
Ok, now that I’ve got the job comes the real work. One of the things I’m trying to sort out right now is just how to set up blogging (which I want my students doing) for over a 100 students-actually about 150. I want them blogging about the investigations we do in class as a way of reflecting and communicating as well as responding to various questions, articles, and so on. My biggest question is this: individual blogs or a big blog that all can write to? I’m also contemplating middle ground solutions, i.e. setting up a blog for each class that they can write to or creating blog groups so they are only sharing the blog with 3 or 4 other students. While ideally I’d like them each to have their own I haven’t found a good way of managing that as yet (or even offering it). 21classes has come the closest, offering 50 student blogs with my account, but I would need 3 or 4 of those to cover all my students. And while one blog would be easier to manage, one blog for 150 authors doesn’t seem sufficient. There are a variety of options for the middle ground, but if anyone has any ideas/feedback on how blogging has worked best for them with their students-feel free to chime in!
Learn well!
