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Sunday, October 3, 2010

Current, Interesting, Outstanding

I have chosen to find resources that will help me keep my science classroom knowledge in science as current as possible. At first Google, I find thousands upon thousands of potential sites that may or may not be informative. I think I need to modify my search. I may get better at this but right now, I'm going to make some rules for myself:

1) The sources I find will have to be as current as 2009.

2) The source needs to be interesting to me, something I will enjoy checking in on and reading

3) The source must be good enough to be described by me as outstanding.

4) The sources can be good resources about what to teach, or supplemental materials for class, but also should be about how to teach science in the current classroom, how good teachers are achieving success

I'm not sure if this list will be specific enough yet, but hopefully by looking at enough sites, asking enough teachers of all ages and subjects in science, and needling my science geek friends I will be able to find a great list of resources.

Two great websites after searching for a few days now are:

PBS Teachers ( http://www.pbs.org/teachers/ ) This site has lessons for all ages, the lessons are comprehensive, they include national standards, inquiry-based projects, Socratic scripts for teachers and numerous materials and references. I don't usually go straight to television, but I believe PBS tries to be current, accurate and forthright.

Smithsonian Education (http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/index.html ) Another comprehensive site, this one includes a link to your own state's standards. The lessons I looked at had online interactives and visuals that were outstanding. One lesson included beautiful actual-sized printable detailed images of prehistoric leaves, about as close to concrete as a student can get without holding the actual 3-D fossils in their hands. There are hundreds of lessons on here for all levels. Again, I believe the Smithsonian gets an outstanding for factual integrity. The online site is engaging on many levels.

I am off to interview some teachers next...


3 comments:

  1. Hi Susan,
    I really like your idea of researching resources for your science classroom. I was very interested in this focus question as well because I want to be sure that I bring "reputable," accurate, and worthwhile resources into my classroom. I think it's so hard to know what qualifies as a good resource without being an expert in the content area. So...I am interested to see what you uncover, especially after interviewing some teachers.
    I have also turned to the PBS website for some science-integrated lesson ideas in the past. I think there is some good info on that site...plus, I'm a fan of Sid the Science Kid!
    The Smithsonian website also sounds very cool. I like that there are links to state standards, and also that there are lessons appealing to all learners.

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  2. I am excited to read that we have chosen the same topic to research. I have use the PBS website and agree that it is a very interesting and outstanding tool for students and teachers. Your second site is also a great find. If I remember correctly, I used this site last year as a resource to write a lesson on integrating the arts into other content ares. It's a plus that it links you directly to your state standards, which suggests that they try hard to make their site content connect with what teachers are teaching. Check out the sites that I found and let me know what you think.

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  3. Susan-
    I really liked your 4 requirements for the websites that you will use. If you can set expectations like this for yourself, you can set these for your students as well. This is SOO important for students to understand. I don't feel like I was ever properly taught how to research or evaluate a website.
    I really liked these goals that you set. This is also great because new information will allow you to be more informed and accurate.

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