For my Science methods class, I chose to do an assignment which asked me to look at and review 5 science websites. It was a worthwhile assignment and I learned a lot. I have included my findings and the exploration I completed about the websites below.
Description:
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Discovery Education Techbook
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Targeted to teachers, parents
and students
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A very comprehensive website
that includes interactive online “techbooks” for science K - 8, Science highschool,
Math and Social Studies. As far as I can
tell, playing around for a while, every topic covered in the BC IRP is included
in this resource, although it is a US site.
There are videos, lesson plans and tons of information for
teachers. Also pretty great support for
students and parents.
Authority:
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Discovery Education is part of
“Discovery Communications” that also produces the Discovery Channel.
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It has a curriculum team of
about 10 very qualified and experienced educators and a similarly competent leadership
team.
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There isn’t a place to directly
send feedback per se but there is a way to contact the creators and everything
seems to be very well backed up and current in nature.
Content:
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It would be impossible to look
at all the content on this site but what I have looked at is great.
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References are always provided,
mostly other online resources
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There is so much content. A teacher/parent/student can find ANYTHING!
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The language is great. The material is up to date.
Accessibility:
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Safari/Firefox/Chrome support
this site.
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It works well universally.
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I created a (free) login identity,
which limited my access. Without the
identity, I had access to everything.
I’m unclear what the benefit of a membership is. Seems like it makes it less worthwhile.
General Overview:
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This is a very comprehensive
site that I will use to find resources as a new teacher. User friendly, helpful, good. I give it a thumbs up.
Description
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BrainPOP is targeted at K - 12. There is a K - 3 option for purchase, as well
as an ESL and an Espanol option (because it is also a US site).
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It is a comprehensive site of animated
movies that include Science, Socials, English, Math, Art, Music, Health and
Engineering & Technology. I will
look specifically at the Science portion.
Authority:
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There is a section called
“Research” that highlights
research and white papers related to the integration and design of BrainPOP
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It is funded through many sources including National Science grants and
there is a subscription cost of $1695 per school annually for access (I borrowed
an educator friend’s login to peruse the site)
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BrainPOP has a large educational advisory board overseeing content.
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It was founded in 1999, so it has a 16-year history.
Content:
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The content seems excellent and
up to date and also oriented to the target age group.
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What I really like is that I
can select BC and a target grade and it will provide me a list of topics
related to the BC IRP. So, even though
this is a US site, it is also appropriate for BC.
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There are not specific
references for each individual movie that I could find, however there is a
resources section on the site that provides that information.
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There are also several lesson
plans for every topic.
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This is a very comprehensive
website.
Accessibility:
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This site is totally accessible
on any device once you have paid your $1695.
It would be great if the school purchased this for use of all teachers
but it is a tad bit expensive for a teacher to purchase individually.
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It is online only.
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There are extension activities
but not a lot of adapted activities for additional learning needs.
General Overview
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Again, this is a comprehensive
site that could be extremely useful for a new teacher. I would not always introduce a subject with a
video but the videos are well done.
Simple, understandable and accurate.
The lesson plans are the part I might be more likely to refer to. Why reinvent?
But . . . the cost is prohibitive.
Description:
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The Khan Academy
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Another amazing resource that
covers Science education and more and can be used in or out of the
classroom. It is free so it is
accessible for all, from K - rocket scientist.
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Their mission is “to provide
free, world-class education to everyone everywhere”
Authority
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I’m a bit blown away by this
one. Their team of 80 includes
educators, developers, designers and dreamers.
They are young and cool and I kind of want to work for them.
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The founder is Sal Khan and his
credentials are impressive. He has 3
degrees from MIT, an MBA from Harvard and was formerly a hedge fund
manager. And he looks all of 35 years
old.
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They take on 60 interns every
year. Another group of cool youth who
are involved with design, innovation, development etc.
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Additionally, there are over
100 content specialists, mostly named Ben, with impressive credentials that
oversee everything that goes onto the site.
Content:
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See previous paragraph. This all seems very legitimate to me.
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I looked at the “discoveries”
section for grade 6 science in some detail, and was really impressed. There are a series of very short videos on a
number of topics that progress (e.g. Magnetism, magnetic fields,
electromagnetism); space under each videos to ask questions; a place to report
a mistake and report abuse.
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There are learning
opportunities for students of all ages and content for a wide range of
curricular areas.
Accessibility:
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This is an easy to access site,
although it does involve setting up a username and i.d.
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It is free to use and easy to
navigate.
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Online only.
General Overview:
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Maybe the best one so far. Free, easy to use, comprehensive. I think I will use this in the classroom and
also recommend it to my students. It
could even be a fun station available for those looking for enrichment or
wanting to extend their knowledge of a particular area.
Description:
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Global Dimension: the world in your classroom
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This is a UK-based resource
website; basically a database.
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For teachers in the UK, there
is a resource lending system called Development Education Centers. Great if you live there. Useless for Canadian teachers.
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The goal of this website is to
look at a wide range of topics from a global perspective.
Authority:
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There are a very large number
of contributors to this site. Each
topic has several lessons/resources for it and each of those comes from a named
source.
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Each topic includes a
publisher, website, contact info etc. It
is very transparent.
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There is a place to rate each
resource and leave a comment.
Content:
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As with the other websites that
I have reviewed, the content on this one is enormous and not limited to
Science. There are about 40 different
subject areas: from music to math to politics to the Welsh language.
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Again, from what I perused, the
contributors are legitimate educational entities.
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You can search by key word,
subject area, topic, age range, publication date and many other
parameters. I tried “Science”
“magnetism” and age “11 - 14” and came up with nothing. I tried several other topics including
“evolution” which yielded many results about various “revolutions”. When I browsed through Science, I found a lot
of great lessons on a variety of subjects very much along global citizenship
themes “lessons from Africa”, “Guide to Climate Change”, “Eco Tales; Project
Gloop”. Not necessarily related to the
current Science curriculum but possibly quite great to use in a classroom
somehow!
Accessibility:
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As with all previous sites,
this works well online and with any browser.
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The navigation was easy.
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I didn’t find any resources for
students with special learning needs.
General Overview:
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This is a good website
(database) for lessons; however not a site that I will go to very often, as it
doesn’t easily tie in with BC curriculum.
Description:
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National Geographic’s YouTube channel
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This YouTube channel is
targeted to any curious person
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It contains hundreds of
beautiful, professionally produced videos on a wide range of scientific, social
science, global etc. topics.
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There is also a National
Geographic Kids.
Authority:
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It’s National Geographic. I think that is fairly authoritative.
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It has 4.5 million subscribers
and countless browsers
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It is a commercial site - there
are advertisements at the beginning of each video as well as ads along the side
of the site. The upside to this is that
it is free to consumers (educators, students)
Content:
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As with all of the other sites
I have looked at, there is an overwhelming amount of content and, try as I
might, I could not stump National Geographic.
I searched for magnetism, plate tectonics, circulatory system, plant
adaptations and several other topics and National Geographic had something for
me.
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It is not specifically designed
for the BC curriculum but contains a lot of applicable material.
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There do not appear to be
references and citations on each video, although most do give credit to their
producer.
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I extended my learning and went
to the nationalgeographic.com and they provide more comprehensive citations and
references. (it is also a wonderful
resource for teachers)
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Many videos are archived on the
youTube channel. New videos are posted
daily, making them totally current but there are also thousands of older videos
available for perusal.
Accessibility:
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I found a few videos on the
“kids” page that I was not able to watch from Canada, but otherwise
accessibility is not an issue.
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Online only.
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Navigation was really easy with
a great search tool and, as mentioned, tons of cool videos.
General Overview:
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I will likely use this site as
well as nationalgeographic.com in my classroom.
Some of the videography is really stunning and the videos are
beautifully produced. The only negative
is that some of the videos are blocked in Canada.
