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Canku
Ota
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(Many
Paths)
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An
Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America
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September
1, 2010 - Volume 8 Number 9
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Favorite
Sites
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collected
by Paul and Vicki
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Science for Girls
In the thirty-five years since I was one of just a handful
of women getting a computer science degree, you'd think the
word would be out about what a great choice science is for
both girls and boys. But apparently there are still plenty
of myths that need busting. Learn more about how to encourage
girls in science, technology and engineering with today's
site roundup.
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Brain
Cake
"If I could change the world, I'd never stop dreaming,
and life would get better every day!" The Girls, Math
& Science Partnership from the Carnegie Science Center
is an inspirational site for girls ages eleven to seventeen
and their mentors. Although in-person events are only available
in Arizona and Pennsylvania , the site has oodles to offer
virtual visitors, including career explorations, scholarship
contests, GirlTalk Radio (and podcasts), scientist bios, and
links to sites that offer help with science homework.
http://www.braincake.org/
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Educational
Equity Center: Science: It's a Girl Thing!
Based on the preschool program Playtime is Science (and with
a grant from the National Science Foundation) this is a complete
curriculum for parents (or caretakers or teachers) to use
with girls ages four to eight. It revolves around ten fun
at-home science activities, such as Creating a Mystery Bottle
(with colored oil and water), Building with Wonderful Junk,
and Making and Using Sieves (playing with water and sand.)
The entire course is available online (for free, of course)
in twelve downloadable, printable PDFs.
http://www.edequity.org/sigt/
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Engineer
Girl!
What do engineers do exactly? Find out what and how at Engineer
Girl! What else can you do at this fabulous site? Ask an engineer
your questions, find out what classes to take in high school,
see profiles of women engineers, and enter the upcoming Engineer
Girl! Essay Contest (which will be posted in October.) "By
becoming an engineer, you can help solve problems that are
important to society. You could be controlling and preventing
pollution, developing new medicines, creating advanced technologies,
even exploring new worlds."
http://engineergirl.org/
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Engineer
Your Life
"In very real and concrete ways, women who become engineers
save lives, prevent disease, reduce poverty, and protect our
planet. Dream Big. Love what you do. Become an engineer."
Yup, it's another engineering site, but this one is specifically
for high school girls. Not sure if engineering is the career
for you? Start your site visit with a look at Ten Great Reasons
Why You'll Love It. Other great clicks include Meet Inspiring
Women, and Find Your Dream Job.
http://www.engineeryourlife.org/
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I
Was Wondering
Inspired by the biography book series "Women's Adventures
in Science, " this website for middle-school girls is supported
by the National Academy of Sciences, and is my pick of the week.
Learn about 10 Cool Scientists that you've probably never heard
of, but are living and working their science dreams everyday
in fields such as robotics, planetary science, forensic anthropology,
and wildlife biology. Play games such as Make a Robot, or view
a clickable timeline showcasing the accomplishments of twenty-five
amazing female scientists.
http://iwaswondering.org/ |
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Reading Activities
Although printed books will probably be center stage for reading
activities with preschoolers and early elementary grades,
the Internet also has a huge stash of online reading activities
and ideas for offline activities such as puppet play and making
bookmarks.
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ED.gov:
Compact for Reading & School-Home Links
The Compact for Reading outlines a partnership between families
and schools to improve reading skills, but it's the School-Home
Links Reading Kits I want you to look at. They are available
in easy-to-print PDF format for four grade levels: K through
3. Weighing in at a hefty hundred pages each, they are chock
full of printable reading activities and worksheets. Great
stuff, but very elementary. You may find your own student
ready to do the grade 3 level work at a much younger age.
http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/index.html
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Education.com:
First Grade Reading Activities
Make a lunch box magnet board, tell a story with sock puppets,
or go on a treasure hunt for the emperor's new clothes. Education.com
has collected eighty illustrated reading activities and projects
for first graders. As with most grade-level activities, your
child may be ready for these in preschool or they may still
be useful in second grade. You can find additional grade levels
in the right-hand menu.
http://www.education.com/activity/first-grade/reading/
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Reading
Rockets: All Activities Articles
With sections for parents, teachers, principals and librarians,
Reading Rockets is on a mission to launch young readers. This
article archive contains more than forty reading activities
for home and classroom, including dozens of literacy bags. What's
a literacy bag? It's Ziploc bag with a printable activity, bookmark,
and parent info sheet designed to be sent home by a teacher
with a book. But the idea is also great for parents looking
for portable reading activities.
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/c71/
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Reading
Planet: RIF Kids
Reading is Fundamental's divides their online activity center
into two age groups: Reading Planet for ages six to fifteen,
and Leading to Reading for zero (zero?) to five years old.
With great graphics, and fun game play, these colorful online
reading activities and interactive books are sure to please.
In the Activity Lab for early elementary students, projects
include Illustrate a Story, Printable Bookplates, and an interactive
coloring book.
http://www.rif.org/kids.htm
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Starfall
Starfall offers four levels of interactive reading resources
for pre-k through second-grade from ABC's and phonics to read-along
plays and short stories. "Every word on the site is clickable
and will read aloud. In this way, your child's speaking, reading,
and writing vocabulary can grow alongside his curiosity."
Although the interactive stories are the star of the show
at Starfall, don't overlook the printable downloads which
include a Reading and Writing Journal, Reading Awards, Phonics
Puzzles, and printouts to accompany many of the stories. They
can be accessed from the Download Center link at the very
bottom of the home page.
http://www.starfall.com/
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Cool Science Experiments
Who else wants to join us in the kitchen for some cool science
experiments? These sites explain hundreds of experiments you
can do at home or in a classroom with simple materials you
probably already have, or can easily get at the grocery store.
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The
Naked Scientists: Kitchen Science Experiments
In addition to the usual instructions, these fab kitchen experiments
include material lists, and both video and audio explanations.
And for those experiments that are just too messy or too big
for the kitchen, the Naked Scientists have a Garage Experiments
category. These include making a cloud chamber from a fish
tank, building a flame tornado using a turntable, and exploding
eggs. Do I need to remind you to never do any of these without
your parents' supervision? Consider yourself reminded.
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/kitchenscience/
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Reeko's
Mad Scientist: Experiments
"Here's a popular experiment that's been around for years
and has left many kitchens in ruin (just kidding of course)."
Reeko is a mad scientist with a sassy attitude and an engaging
writing style. Best reasons to love Reeko, though, are his
experiment rating system (Easy, Intermediate and Advanced),
so we have some idea of what we are getting ourselves into,
and the interesting science tidbits he includes in Parent's
Notes at the bottom of most experiment pages. His mad experiments
are divided into twelve categories, including a few you won't
find elsewhere such as Cohesion and Flotation.
http://www.reekoscience.com/Experiments/
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Science
Bob: Experiments You Can Do at Home or School
"Science Bob" Pflugfelder is a science evangelist
who's garnered some media attention for teaching science to
young actors at TV and movie studios. "He also encourages
parents and teachers to practice 'Random Acts of Science'
by providing instructions and videos for interactive science
experiments on his web site, as well as public presentations
and workshops that help make science come alive." In
addition to the experiments section, Science Bob also has
a section of science fair ideas, and a separate video section
in which he demonstrates some of his experiments.
http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/
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Science
Kids: Fun Science Experiments
"Can you control a ping pong ball as it floats above
a hair dryer? Try it out and learn the important role that
forces such as gravity and air pressure play in this simple
experiment." In addition to the thirty-seven experiments
in this section, the Science Kids site houses science games,
quizzes, fun science facts, an image gallery, and videos.
In fact, you'll find more experiments by clicking on over
to Videos, and then choosing Experiments.
http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments.html
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Steve
Spangler Science: Experiments
After twelve years in the classroom, Steve Spangler is now
a science teacher's teacher, and a media personality,. "This
hands-on science library represents Steve's most requested
science experiments from his weekly television appearances
and live presentations throughout the country." Start
with the Top Ten list on the front page, where you'll find
Mentos Geyser - Diet Coke Eruption (be sure to read How Does
It Work), along with the classic Egg in the Bottle trick.
Alternatively, if you scroll past the Top Ten list, you can
navigate the experiments via the category links.
http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiments/
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Colonial America
The colonial period of American history starts with the arrival
of the first European settlers in the early seventeenth century,
and continues until independence was declared in 1776. During
this time, the settlers formed thirteen colonies along the
Atlantic coast as they built a new way of life and laid the
groundwork for a new nation.
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Colonial
Williamsburg: Kids Zone
Kids Zone games such as Colonial Gardener, 18th Century Paper
Doll, Drum Corps Tryout and Revolutionary Fireworks Frenzy,
are designed to give you a virtual taste of colonial life. Parents
and teachers will find links to additional educational resources
on the site, such as Meet the People and Experience the Life.
Wandering back into the main site, under the Multimedia tab
on the main horizontal menu, you'll find more games and interactive
quizzes on the Interactive Features page.
http://www.history.org/kids/ |
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Have
Fun with History: Colonial America
Have Fun with History is a collection of history videos, some
produced by Have Fun with History, and others from the public
domain (i.e. so old that their copyright protection has expired!)
Why watch videos made in the 1950's? HFwH answers the question
this way. "Any form of recorded history reflects the time
it was written or filmed as much as it does the time period
it attempts to capture. But that's OK, because we get more bang
for our history buck we can learn about both time periods."
http://havefunwithhistory.com/HistorySubjects/colonialAmerica.html |
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Mr.
Nussbaum: Interactive 13 Colonies
Mr. Nussbaum's Interactive 13 Colonies is my multimedia pick-of-the-day.
First must-see activity is the interactive thirteen colonies
map. Click on any of the colonies or cities to view the annotation.
For quizzes, crosswords, scavenger hunts, and fill-in-the-blank
cloze exercises, look in the left-hand menu under Integration.
"The thirteen colonies were British colonies ______ between
1607 and 1732." Related topics, such as biographies of
the founding fathers, can also be found in the left-hand menu.
http://www.mrnussbaum.com/13.htm |
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PBS:
Colonial House
It's reality TV meets Colonial America when two dozen "modern-day
time travelers find out the hard way what early American colonial
life was really like when they take up residence" in
Colonial House for public television's history series of the
same name. Best clicks are the ten interactive activities
(filed under Interactive History), such as Dress Me Up and
'Tis a Very Dirty Manner of Life. For lesson plans and classroom
activities, follow the For Teachers link at the bottom of
the page.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/colonialhouse/
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Scholastic
Teachers: Our America: Colonial Period
"In the early days of the colonial period, the settlers
did not know how to live in the wilderness, and they faced
many hardships. In Massachusetts, for example, the Plymouth
settlers, spent most of their first winter (1620-21) on board
the Mayflower." Colonial American is one of seven periods
of American history covered in Scholastic's Our America for
grades three to eight. It includes excepts from diaries written
by Mayflower Puritan Patience Whipple (from 1621), and Pennsylvania
Quaker Catherine Carey Logan (from 1763) as well as a journal
writing exercise, and an online Thanksgiving activity.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/our_america/colonial/
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Dairy
Foods
Dairy is an important food group because of the role that
calcium and vitamin D play in building bones and strong teeth.
Although the daily minimum calcium requirements vary by age,
it is important throughout all of life's stages. Sit down
with a tall glass of milk (or a yummy fruit latte) and learn
more about the importance of dairy at these sites.
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Nutrition
Explorations
"How many servings of Milk Group foods do you think you
need every day? Three or more." Explore the world of
nutrition with the National Dairy Council. Play games, learn
about the food guide pyramid, and get recipes for healthy
snacks like a Carrot Cake Smoothie. Games include Arianna's
Food Force One ("Go on a global adventure to find ingredients
for combination foods"), Quintricious (match foods from
five food groups as they fall arcade-style), and Nutrition
Mixer (use your knowledge of serving quantities to "mix"
a song for a rock band.)
http://www.nutritionexplorations.org/
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got
milk?
With a playful, fanciful design, the California Milk Processor
Board explains the myriad health benefits of milk. Click on
the treadmill-running horse for a multimedia game designed
to teach how milk rebuilds muscle. Or visit the X-Ray 9000
to play Help Mr. Osseous Rescue Cartoons and learn how milk
fights osteoporosis. The site also includes dairy recipes,
a news archive, links to related resources, and a Spanish
sister site: Toma Leche.
http://www.gotmilk.com/
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MooMilk
"Welcome to MooMilk.com, a fun and educational website
about cows and milk with facts, contests, games and recipes."
Published by the Circle H Dairy of Turlock, California, MooMilk
combines interesting, educational videos (about topics such
as Cattle Rustlers) with a bit of fun and games. For classroom
usage, look through the Teacher's Resources sections. Kids
should head directly to the Fun Menu for the Milk the Cow
game, and the MooMilk Quiz (to test your "cowledge".)
Do you know how many pounds of milk a cow produces in a month?
You'll find the answer at MooMilk.
http://www.moomilk.com/
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Oregon
Dairy Council: Calcium Check Up
"Everyone needs calcium. Even you!" My favorite
click here at the Oregon Dairy Council is the multimedia Calcium
Quick Check: Are You Getting Enough? Based on your age, this
interactive calculator will tell you how many milligrams of
calcium you should be getting every day. Then, by choosing
how many servings you usually eat from a list of calcium-rich
foods, it shows you whether or not you are getting enough.
This page also includes off-site links to lesson plans for
teachers, and calcium games for kids.
http://www.oregondairycouncil.org/calcium_checkup/
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Dairy
Council of California: Kids Games
These online games for kids and teens are produced by the
Dairy Council of California. They also provide printable K-12
materials for teachers at a small cost (but free if you are
in California!) The online materials include a MyPyramid Match
Game ("Discover how many food servings and physical activity
you need every day."), a virtual pizza maker, an interactive
dairy farm, and a calcium calculator.
http://www.dairycouncilofca.org/Tools/KidsLearningTools.aspx
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STAR
Students And Teachers Against Racism
announces their new website that offers insight into the Native
American perspective to teachers and educators.
http://www.racismagainstindians.org/
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Changing
Winds Advocacy Center
Through presentations, classroom sessions, curriculum, fund
raising, charitable works, and multi-media efforts, we seek
to raise public awareness of the stereotyping, discrimination,
racism and other unique situations facing Native Americans.
http://changingwinds.org/
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