Honeybee
Saturday, September 22, 2007
The Amazing Lyrebird
The Superb Lyrebird, Menura novaehollandiae, is a passerine bird found in Austarlia. The males courtship display consists of song and dance on an open platform of scratched earth. Lyre Birds have an amazing ability to mimic sounds. View clips from David Attenborough's series, The Life if Birds, which is posted as a video side bar on this blog, to learn more about this amazing bird and it's mimic capabilities.
Scratch
I visited Scratch, a free software available online and created at MIT. This program was pretty cool. I see a lot of potential for use of Scratch in any content area and at just about any grade level (3rd-12th). This program offers an elementary programming language that can be used to create games and animations. Scratch would not be applicable for drill and practice or as a tutorial, but it would be great for creating simple simulations and animations to supplement a lecture, or encouraging kids to create their own graphics and animations to reinforce reading and lecture. Uses of this program in science could be to create an animation or game of the food web using Scratch or create an animation on Meiosis using Scratch. A creative teacher may also be able to come up with a way to use this program for kids to practice problem solving through a game or simulation. The way in which Scratch is organized makes it easy for students and teachers to use and creativity is the only limiting factor.
When using Scratch you can search their database of "sprites" & sounds or you can draw or record your own. By piecing together the Scratch "language" you can make sprite 1 turn 90 degrees when it encounters sprite 2 and you can make sprite 1 move 10 spaces when the space bar is pressed. The combinations are endless and applications are many.
The game I started to create is aimed to show the variety of obstacles wildlife face, especially when living amongst humans. The game involves a squirrel who is trying to make it across town to his tree, along the way he encounters a cat, dog, car, curious child, and bird of prey.
Scratch is free and easy to download and can be a fun activity for anyone 8 years old and up.
When using Scratch you can search their database of "sprites" & sounds or you can draw or record your own. By piecing together the Scratch "language" you can make sprite 1 turn 90 degrees when it encounters sprite 2 and you can make sprite 1 move 10 spaces when the space bar is pressed. The combinations are endless and applications are many.
The game I started to create is aimed to show the variety of obstacles wildlife face, especially when living amongst humans. The game involves a squirrel who is trying to make it across town to his tree, along the way he encounters a cat, dog, car, curious child, and bird of prey.
Scratch is free and easy to download and can be a fun activity for anyone 8 years old and up.
Great Online Resources for Educators!
The following web pages provide excellent resources for educators. On these sites you will find lesson plans, online courses for teachers & students, articles, essays, a program for creation of web based lessons, overviews of content specific software, and info. about teaching in Colorado.
Learn NC
This North Carolina focused site has resources for teachers, regardless of location. I found a plethora of great lesson plans on this site including plans for teaching:
- Strato-volcano's
- Chemical Equations
- Archaeological Soils
- Density
These plans not only provide a detailed outline of the activities and objectives, but also provide links to the worksheets, lab sheets, charts and notes used in the lesson.
This site also offers Online Courses on a variety of topics including:
- Adolescent Literacy
- Online Collaboration
- How to Teach Online
This site is also a great resource for new teachers as they offer support for new teachers with a variety of essays and articles to answer questions and address feelings and emotions such as loneliness.
This site has been added to my favorites and will be visited many times I'm sure as I develop as an educator.
T.H.E. Journal
This is an online education magazine that offers their articles for free. This site provides current and archived articles on a variety of education related topics such as:
- Wireless Technology
- Professional Development
- Special Needs Students
The extent of articles offered and topics covered by T.H.E. Journal is impressive and the fact that it is free makes it that more exciting! This is a convenient and inexpensive way to stay up to date on current issues, technologies and innovations in education.
Blue WebN'
This site offers links to "Blue Ribbon" learning sites. It is convenient to use as you can search the library of sites by content area, subject area, or grade level. Once you chose your criteria, for example content, the web links are then broken down into sub-categories such as lesson plans, tools, and tutorials.
I found a really fun link to the Miami Museum of Science "Atom's Family" web site. This site has fun and slightly morbid activities for learning about atoms, energy, and light. These activities would be really fun, and appropriate, as Halloween approaches.
Turner Learning
This web page is part of the Educational Division of CNN & Turner Broadcasting.
This page offers CNN Student News as well as activities for the classroom on topics such as identity theft and the crisis in Darfur. Continental Maps are also provided on this page.
I think this web page could be useful when trying to get students to become more aware of current events. Students could look to this site to find a current article about the environment, politics, or human rights and discuss it in class, write a summary or write a journal entry about it. This site is also useful for keeping teacher up to date and providing creative ways to incorporate current events and issues into classroom curriculum.
TrackStar
This resource is super cool! TrackStar provides a simple template for creating interactive web-based lesson for your students. You can create a "Track" simply by entering in the various sites you wish to use and adding annotations. You can also search the TrackStar database and utilize Tracks that other educators have created. I found a great Track about meiosis and mitosis that provides links to animations and quizzes. It is free to create a TrackStar account and the program is simple. This sort of lesson plan template makes integration of technology in the classroom painless and fun.
Tom Snyder Productions
This web page offers overviews of a variety of software packages for purchase and use in the classroom. This page allows you to view software what is applicable to your content area and provides a great overview that tells you the system requirements, ideas for activities to do with the software, and the California Learning Resource Network (CLRN) review.
This is a great resource to check out if you are looking for software to use within your content area.
Software Express
This site also offers a great resource for searching software on a particular content area. It provides nice organization and you can easily look through content specific software and see system compatibility and appropriate grade level. This site does offer nice descriptions of the software, but does not provide reviews of the software. Under customer resources you can find links to grant information and demo downloads.
While reviews are not provided on this site, they do offer a plethora of software descriptions and their organization makes use of the site a breeze.
Colorado Department of Education
In a nutshell everything you could ever want to know about teaching in Colorado. This is a must use resource for any educator in the state of Colorado. Information about law and policy, standards, school statistics, licensing, grants and educational technology can all be found on this comprehensive page. You can also view the CDE Calendar to stay current on trainings and conferences.
Learn NC
This North Carolina focused site has resources for teachers, regardless of location. I found a plethora of great lesson plans on this site including plans for teaching:
- Strato-volcano's
- Chemical Equations
- Archaeological Soils
- Density
These plans not only provide a detailed outline of the activities and objectives, but also provide links to the worksheets, lab sheets, charts and notes used in the lesson.
This site also offers Online Courses on a variety of topics including:
- Adolescent Literacy
- Online Collaboration
- How to Teach Online
This site is also a great resource for new teachers as they offer support for new teachers with a variety of essays and articles to answer questions and address feelings and emotions such as loneliness.
This site has been added to my favorites and will be visited many times I'm sure as I develop as an educator.
T.H.E. Journal
This is an online education magazine that offers their articles for free. This site provides current and archived articles on a variety of education related topics such as:
- Wireless Technology
- Professional Development
- Special Needs Students
The extent of articles offered and topics covered by T.H.E. Journal is impressive and the fact that it is free makes it that more exciting! This is a convenient and inexpensive way to stay up to date on current issues, technologies and innovations in education.
Blue WebN'
This site offers links to "Blue Ribbon" learning sites. It is convenient to use as you can search the library of sites by content area, subject area, or grade level. Once you chose your criteria, for example content, the web links are then broken down into sub-categories such as lesson plans, tools, and tutorials.
I found a really fun link to the Miami Museum of Science "Atom's Family" web site. This site has fun and slightly morbid activities for learning about atoms, energy, and light. These activities would be really fun, and appropriate, as Halloween approaches.
Turner Learning
This web page is part of the Educational Division of CNN & Turner Broadcasting.
This page offers CNN Student News as well as activities for the classroom on topics such as identity theft and the crisis in Darfur. Continental Maps are also provided on this page.
I think this web page could be useful when trying to get students to become more aware of current events. Students could look to this site to find a current article about the environment, politics, or human rights and discuss it in class, write a summary or write a journal entry about it. This site is also useful for keeping teacher up to date and providing creative ways to incorporate current events and issues into classroom curriculum.
TrackStar
This resource is super cool! TrackStar provides a simple template for creating interactive web-based lesson for your students. You can create a "Track" simply by entering in the various sites you wish to use and adding annotations. You can also search the TrackStar database and utilize Tracks that other educators have created. I found a great Track about meiosis and mitosis that provides links to animations and quizzes. It is free to create a TrackStar account and the program is simple. This sort of lesson plan template makes integration of technology in the classroom painless and fun.
Tom Snyder Productions
This web page offers overviews of a variety of software packages for purchase and use in the classroom. This page allows you to view software what is applicable to your content area and provides a great overview that tells you the system requirements, ideas for activities to do with the software, and the California Learning Resource Network (CLRN) review.
This is a great resource to check out if you are looking for software to use within your content area.
Software Express
This site also offers a great resource for searching software on a particular content area. It provides nice organization and you can easily look through content specific software and see system compatibility and appropriate grade level. This site does offer nice descriptions of the software, but does not provide reviews of the software. Under customer resources you can find links to grant information and demo downloads.
While reviews are not provided on this site, they do offer a plethora of software descriptions and their organization makes use of the site a breeze.
Colorado Department of Education
In a nutshell everything you could ever want to know about teaching in Colorado. This is a must use resource for any educator in the state of Colorado. Information about law and policy, standards, school statistics, licensing, grants and educational technology can all be found on this comprehensive page. You can also view the CDE Calendar to stay current on trainings and conferences.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
