Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 3/2/12

Here are some interesting sites that I’ve found this week, thanks to my PLN. As a teacher, I feel we have to keep up to date concerning research in our field and current issues in the education system. I hope some of these inspire you, inform you, and even have you asking questions. Thank you for coming by and visiting!

Note: Each resource is labeled with a level and subject area to make it easier to use.

Levels: E: Elementary; M: Middle; H: High; G: General, all levels; SN: Special Needs; T: Teachers

Subject Areas: LA: Language Arts, English, Reading, Writing; M: Math; S: Science; Health; SS: Social Studies, Current Events; FA: Fine Arts; Music, Art, Drama; FL: Foreign Language; PE: Physical Ed; C: Career; A: All

Doodle4Google - “…K-12 students in the U.S. to participate in our fifth annual U.S. Doodle 4 Google contest. Draw your rendition of the Google logo and you may see it on the ultimate gallery: the Google homepage. The winning doodler will also take home a $30,000 college scholarship and a $50,000 technology grant for his or her school. The theme for this year’s contest is “If I could travel in time, I’d visit...”. That could mean visiting a past, present or future setting—whether it’s traveling back in time to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, to the future to witness everyday space travel, or to just a few moments ago to relive a poignant experience.” (L:G; SA: A)

Google Science Fair - “The Google Science Fair is an online science competition seeking curious minds from the four corners of the globe. Anybody and everybody between 13 and 18 can enter. All you need is an idea.” Deadline is April 1. (L:M, H; SA:S)

iTV Wild - Learn about the animals in the wild (L: G; SA: S)

Seterra - “free map quiz for windows; Seterra 4.0 is a challenging educational geography game with more than 100 different exercises. Learn about countries, capitals, oceans, flags and cities in Africa, Europe, South America, North America, Asia and Australia, using outline map exercises!” (L: M, H; SA: SS)

Calkoo - “On this site you will find superb calculators for practically any purpose. Whether you are preparing a business plan for your start-up company and need to calculate the NPV for an investment, or if you play free roulette and want to invest your possible winnings in stock market, or perhaps you're trying to compare fuel efficiency of several cars you are considering buying - we have everything you need right here!”

Original Image: Tools by Pat Hensley