Instructional Technology Specialist » science

Virtual Dice

seamanits — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:34:07 +0000

This virtual dice give you options on how many faced you use and what you put on those faces. Yes, you can customise your dice. I can see the possibilities in language arts (figurative language, story elements, vocabulary etc), science/ss (content vocabulary), and of course math.

Image Source: http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks1/maths/dice/

GPS Across the Curriculum

seamanits — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:15:16 +0000

I have caught the GPS bug. GPS hunting (also can be called geocaching) is great fun! I’ve even purchased a unit for my family to use. The traditional geocache is a great way to teach latitude and longitude. Teachers can hide containers with objects for the students to find. Teachers supply the students with coordinates and a GPS unit. Children use the coordinates to find the containers.

There are many ways this technology can be integrated into the various curriculum areas. Here are a few. I welcome more ideas!

Traditional geocache
Treasure Hunt – Each container gives the next set of coordinates to find. The treasure can be a creative writing prompt.
Hide and Seek – one class/group hides a set of math problems. The other group/class find them and answers the problems.
Logic Challenge – children have to find coordinates in order. Each find gives them a clue to a logic problem they have to solve.
Mystery Person – similar to the logic challenge but with clues to the identity of a famous historical figure.
GeoTrooper – Each container has a puzzle piece that when all found and put together create a geographical location the class has been studying such as a region of the US
Figurative Find - The children have the task of finding one example of the various types of figurative languages. Each type of figurative language is in a container at a different location. The examples are on strips of paper. The children collect one strip from each container.
Amazing GPS hunt - take off from the Amazing Race. Children have to find details about the type of habitat/biome they are studying. Each group has cards of a different color. Each container has a card for every group. When the child finds the coordinates they have to do a physical fitness challenge in order to get the card in that container. This is done on the group’s honor. It is just a fun way to incorporate fitness into the activity. When they have all the details the kids take the information inside and create a powerpoint about their habitat/biome.

For details on how to set up your own hunt you can check out this fantastic website. http://www.alicechristie.org/geocaching/steps.html

Nutrition Games

seamanits — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:38:17 +0000

There are some great resources to help kids learn about and reinforce what they are learning about nutrition. I recently did an activity with second graders and included some game time. The game we played is from the Dairy Council of California http://www.dairycouncilofca.org/Tools/MyPyramid/.

Image Source: http://www.dairycouncilofca.org/Tools/MyPyramid/

Some other resources to teach nutrition include:

***http://www.brainpopjr.com/health/food/foodpyramid/spinner/

http://www.mypyramid.gov/kids/index.html

http://www.nutritionexplorations.org/kids/activities-main.asp

http://exhibits.pacsci.org/nutrition/nutrition_cafe.html

http://kidshealth.org/kid/closet/

http://www.agr.state.nc.us/cyber/kidswrld/java/ColorBig3.htm

Great List of resources: http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/web/nutrit.html

Projectors In Education

seamanits — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:56:09 +0000

We have a wikispace that may be just what you are looking for. We have developed a place for educators to go find websites that would lend themselves to use with a projector. The websites are categorized by grade level as well as content. There is also a section for websites that span all grade levels. This wiki has resources for grade levels K-12. If you would like to add resources you may request membership. You can also just go on and find all the resources already there.

This is one worth bookmarking!

Image Source: http://seaman-pie.wikispaces.com/

Science Fair Resource

seamanits — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:06:43 +0000

Many schools have a science fair or similar project based activity in the area of science. I asked my Professional Learning Network (twitter) for any good science fair resources. @djherron sent me the following link full of great ideas. Be sure you check out step 2. There are some wonderful experiment ideas kids can choose from.

Image Source: http://www.ipl.org/div/projectguide/gettingstarted.html

Class Tools

seamanits — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:10:25 +0000

ClassTools.net is a tremendous site with tools that are very easy to use and educationally sound. They are tools that can be integrated into any curriculum area and any topic. Some of the tools are more primary based and some are more for intermediate. If you don’t take a moment to check this one out you will be missing a gold mine!

http://classtools.net/

***If you are a member of my school district and have not already done so will you please take a quick moment to let me know you saw this post? You can either add a comment at the bottom or shoot me a quick email. I would like to identify about how many people are viewing this blog from my district. Thank you!!!

Glogster

seamanits — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:39:12 +0000

There are so many inventive ways students can share what they have learned. This is one of the most creative I have seen for quite some time. The teacher must register, but it is free and up to 200 students can log into a teacher’s account to create a glog (Teachers get an educator account. Look at the bottom right hand side to register for educator account).

A glog is a poster. There are many bubbles and stickers as well as backgrounds to help your students create their page. The process of uploading pictures is easy if that is an option you want your students to do. I created a sample with the topic biomes. Topics this would work for include:

Book Reports
Rules Poster
Animal Poster
Arctic Animal Poster
Nervous System
Biomes
Indian Tribes
Ancient Civilizations
Geographical Locations such as regions of US

Here is a link to directions on how to use glogster. Teachers can create an educational account and request logins for up to 100 students without the need for email addresses.
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfrt3c2h_18f2qn3mdt

Image Source: http://www.glogster.com/
created by Laura Sadler

Newspaper Clipping

seamanits — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:37:26 +0000

This online tool can be a new and interesting way for your students to present what they have learned about a topic. They can write their own newspaper article and print it to look like a real newspaper clipping. Kids love being able to use these kinds of tools to share what they’ve learned!

Image Source:http://www.fodey.com/

Visible Body

seamanits — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:56:02 +0000

One of the ways I learn about great resources is by following fellow educators’ blogs. One of my favorite blogs is http://www.ncs-tech.org/?p=2515

It was on this blog that I learned about this science resource. It is a visual resource for learning about the human body. Please be aware. This is an anotomically correct website. Please preview the resource before viewing in front of your class to make sure you are showing only what you want to show.

Image Source: http://www.visiblebody.com/start

Scholastic Study Jams

seamanits — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:04:29 +0000

Wow, what a great resource for interactive activities for all grade levels and curriculum topics. You can select an activity, a curriculum area for more options, or change the grade band you are searching. The tabs at the top will help you with that.

Image from: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/clf/tguidesitemap.htm