Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 6/16/2023

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

See a Salamander Grow - “Witness the ‘making of’ a salamander from fertilization to hatching in this six minute time-lapse.” (L:G; SA:S)

The Money Multiplier and the Gigantic $100,000 Bill - “The money multiplier is the mathematical relationship between the monetary base and money supply of an economy. It explains the increase in the amount of circulated money that is created when a bank makes loans using funds previously deposited by customers.” (L:H; SA:SS, M)

Taxes Tic Tac Toe - “In this game, students can play tic tac toe while answering questions about progressive, regressive, and proportional taxes.” (L:H; SA:SS, M)

The True Size of… - “It is hard to represent our spherical world on flat piece of paper. Cartographers use something called a "projection" to morph the globe into 2D map. The most popular of these is the Mercator projection. Every map projection introduces distortion, and each has its own set of problems. One of the most common criticisms of the Mercator map is that it exaggerates the size of countries nearer the poles (US, Russia, Europe), while downplaying the size of those near the equator (the African Continent). On the Mercator projection Greenland appears to be roughly the same size as Africa. In reality, Greenland is 0.8 million sq. miles and Africa is 11.6 million sq. miles, nearly 14 and a half times larger. This app was created by James Talmage and Damon Maneice. It was inspired by an episode of The West Wing and an infographic by Kai Krause entitled "The True Size of Africa". We hope teachers will use it to show their students just how big the world actually is.”(L:G; SA:SS)

How Do Honeybees Get Their Job? - “Every honeybee has a job to do. Some are nurses who take care of the brood; some are janitors who clean the hive; others are foragers who gather pollen to make honey. Collectively, honeybees are able to achieve an incredible level of sophistication, especially considering their brains are only the size of sesame seeds. But how are these jobs divvied up, and where do bees learn the skills to execute them?” (L:G; SA:SS)

Original photo by Pat Hensley