Nassau BOCESDepartment of Curriculum, Instruction and Technology

The Earth at Your Fingertips
You’ve heard about global warming with its subsequent impending ecological disasters, but what’s the real story? By connecting you with scientists in the field, current news and visual representations of data from NOAA and NASA, Earth Live explores climate change and its consequences. The layers that spin across the globe are gathered over the latest 30 days giving you a near-real time glimpse of the state of the earth.

The site includes great data and associated content for use in the classroom.

Find it here: http://dsc.discovery.com/discovery-earth-live/?dcitc=w99-502-ah-1051#

Those of you previously familiar with the “computational knowledge engine” have most likely seen immediate uses and implications for the classroom.  I think we can agree that it serves as an example of the power that can exist with technology and leads us to what perhaps is yet to come.

I was pleased to learn recently that WolframAlpha has started to embrace education and has devoted a section of the site to that effort.  Visit the link below to see video, lesson plans, examples, the WolframAlpha Education Portal and much more.  You can even join the WolframAlpha Education Group.

All of that and much more here: http://www.wolframalpha.com/educators/

Each day, the National Archives posts a new primary source document that relates to that particular day in history.  Alongside the document is a corresponding list of resources, lesson ideas and related materials.

The National Archives continues to provide a treasure trove of resources for the classroom.  They also have a Google Video channel devoted to hundreds of their historical films.

Document of the day here: http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/

NARA Google Video Channel here: http://video.google.com/nara.html

Google Fast Flip is an online news aggregator from Google Inc. that mimics the experience of flicking through a newspaper or magazine, allowing visual search of stories in manner similar to microfiche.

The site presents images of stories from Google’s news partners, which can be clicked on to navigate to the story on the news provider’s own website.

From Google: Google Fast Flip is a web application that lets users discover and share news articles. It combines qualities of print and the Web, with the ability to “flip” through pages online as quickly as flipping through a magazine. It also enables users to follow friends and topics, discover new content and create their own custom magazines around searches.

Check it out here:  http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/

See a list of sources here: http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/sources

The Exploratorium is a museum of science, art, and human perception located in San Francisco, California and has been online since 1993.  Included on the site are more than 18 thousand Web pages and many sound and video files, exploring hundreds of different topics.

Many of the resources on the Web site are examples of very simple uses of information technology, but thoughtfully implemented. For example, the site contains instructions for over 500 simple experiments, all of which may be viewed on any type of Web browser, with even the slowest connection, and easily printed out.

Other types of content have required more creative use of existing or new technologies. In order to demonstrate certain phenomena, for instance, they have created a variety of online exhibits using Shockwave, Flash, QuickTime VR, and other technologies. Many of these online exhibits are patterned after real exhibits on the museum floor, providing equally rich experiences.

They have also started broadcasting live video and/or audio over the web directly from the museum or via satellite from the field.

Find the main site here: http://www.exploratorium.edu/

 Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest. There are nearly 700 maps displaying a variety of data.

Click on the ‘Thumbnail Index’ which gives thumbnail previews of the maps, ‘Map Categories’ which is classified to see the choice, or ‘A-Z Map Index’, and view a map and the associated information.

 The maps and data files cover 200 territories, mainly United Nation Member States plus a few others to include at least 99.95% of the world’s population.

 Enjoy this resource here: http://www.worldmapper.org/

Thanks to Mary O’Meara and James Koster from Massapequa for sharing this resource.

Many of us are familiar with the Cablevision offering, but perhaps not many are aware that DirectTV also offers a free service for schools.

Through the DIRECTV GOES TO SCHOOL program, qualifying state-accredited schools, grades K-12 can receive a DIRECTV System® and educational programming package to enhance their students’ classroom experience. It’s television as an innovative classroom tool, designed to reinforce learning, spark imagination and encourage interactivity.

Details here: http://directvgoestoschool.com/

NASA eClips™ are short, relevant educational video segments. These videos inspire and engage students, helping them see real world connections. New video segments are produced weekly exploring current applications of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, topics. The programs are produced for targeted audiences: K-5, 6-8, 9-12 and the general public.

NASA eClips™ offer unlimited flexibility in the classroom for timing, sequencing and pacing instruction to meet the needs of students and classroom instructors. Educational material for this program is selected based on national curriculum standards identified by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, or NCTM, the National Science Teachers Association, or NSTA, and the International Society for Technology in Education, or ISTE.

Find them here: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/nasaeclips/index.html

Dive into the ocean and discover who lives there — from a deep sea octopus to humpback whales. Explore lost shipwrecks, dive and surf spots, the ocean’s deepest trench, and the latest discoveries of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).

National Geographic ocean explorer, Sylvia Earle, narrates a highlight tour through some of the best photos and videos in the ‘Explore the Ocean’ layer in Google Earth.

Find it here: http://earth.google.com/ocean/showcase/

SAS Curriculum Pathways is an online resource for students and teachers that adds new tools and interactive content to the classroom.  Available at no cost and used by thousands of educators in all 50 states, SAS Curriculum Pathways provides standards-based content in the core academic disciplines of English, mathematics, social studies, science and Spanish for grades 8-12.

Though SAS offers SAS Curriculum Pathways at no cost, the company’s investment in innovation continues. For example, new social studies materials include an interactive atlas. In math, a new interactive tool helps students develop basic algebra skills. Enhancements to the award-winning Writing Reviser in the English module help students master sentence fundamentals. SAS Curriculum Pathways earned a Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) CODiE Award this year for Best Reading/English Instructional Solution. New Spanish materials help students develop reading and listening skills in real-world situations.

This great resource can be found here: http://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/

VocabAhead provides an extensive free collection of unique videos and flash cards to learn vocabulary for daily usage or for standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT.  It is also a great resource for students learning English.  The site is both colorful and filled with some fun-filled cartoons to better assist learners. The site sections include a Study Room, videos, a Word List, a forum, and a place for teachers to better engage their students in learning words with widgets that can be embedded. One of the highlights on the site is the “Vocabulary Video of the Day,” which can be delivered directly to you via email.

You can find the site here: http://www.vocabahead.com/

Google recently announced two new enhancement to Google Books. You can now browse through many of the Google Books categories using a horizontally scrolling interface. This same horizontally scrolling interface is also applied to the collections of books that you build within your Google Books account. Now you can create your own public and private “bookshelves” in your Google Books account. Users of Shelfari will probably note some similarities in the two interfaces.

Those of you not familiar with Google Books may find it to be a great resource.  You can find it here: http://books.google.com/

This site aims to collect vintage ads from a variety of sources, including comic books, CD-Roms, websites, APIs, your submissions, book, magazine & comic book scans, and more.  At the moment, this site contains 123,311 ads.

This site will prove to be a great resource for discussions of history and culture.  You can find it here:  http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/

Here are some fantastic digital content resources.  They were shared by Paula Pisano.

NASA Images: The site contains everything from classic photos to educational programming and HD video, and is growing all the time as they continue to gain both new and archived media from all of NASA’s centers.

NSF Science Nation: The National Science Foundation’s Science Nation online magazine,  examines the breakthroughs, and the possibilities for new discoveries about our planet, our universe and ourselves.

WatchKnow: Imagine hundreds of thousands of great short videos, and other media, explaining every topic taught toschool kids. Imagine them rated and sorted into a giant Directory, making them simple to find. WatchKnow–as in, “You watch, you know”–is a non-profit online community devoted to this goal.

Learn about the 1930s through eight exhibitions: The Depression, The New Deal, The Country, Industry, Labor, The City, Leisure, and American People. Artworks from the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection are supplemented with other primary source materials such as photographs, newsreels, and artists’ memorabilia.

Users can explore this virtual space and find information by clicking on people and objects. Visitors can gather artworks and place them in their bin for later documentary production.

Fantastic Interactive Resource: http://americanart.si.edu/education/picturing_the_1930s/

Other Smithsonian American Art Museum Resources here: http://americanart.si.edu/education/classroom/results/

Open Culture brings together high-quality cultural & educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community.  Free audio books, free university courses, free movies, free language lessons and other enriching content — it’s all here.

Free eBooks here: http://www.openculture.com/free_ebooks

Free Audio Books here: http://www.openculture.com/2006/10/audio_book_podc.html