Smartboards in the Classroom

Our friends at Teachers Love Smartboards have found a wonderful website that you absolutely MUST try. 

 

http://www.freezeray.com/index.html

 

To quote FreezerRay - "This site offers a growing bank of imaginative, highly visual teaching-aids developed for use with interactive whiteboards in 11-18 Schools.

 

The resources are designed to be used as rich sources of visually stimulating material, making use of both animations and drag and drop interactivity. The appropriate Key Stage is indicated for each resource.

 

It is hoped that the resources will help students to make sense of some of the more challenging concepts they encounter.

 

Many of the resources can be used to support starter or plenary activities."

 

 Be sure to look at the Physics section.  

 

Just wonderful!

 

 

 

We are always looking for interesting ideas that will trigger critical thinking, stimulate creativity and strengthen communication in our students (See Standards - NYS ELA 1,2,3,  ISTE 1,2,3,4 and NETS Students 1,2,3,4).  So, today's New York Times article (see attached) on the impact of melting arctic ice on northern shipping lanes proved very interesting. Tying this development in global warming back to curriculum, we've come up with an interesting idea that fits in middle school (seventh grade) Social Studies (see pacing calendar: October on Explorers).

WHAT IF Magellan had been able to sail NORTH instead of SOUTH when his crew circumnavigated the earth? 

Consider this map from today's NYTimes article by ANDREW E. KRAMER and ANDREW C. REVKIN, published: September 10, 2009:

 

Insert this map on a page in your SmartBoard Notebook lesson.  Use the dual screen tool.  On the second page, insert the world map outline you'll find in "Essentials for Educators" -  "Geography" - "Maps" - "World" - "Continents" and then "Notebook Files and Pages" - "World - Outline Map". Be sure to save.

 

Now pose the query:  "Based on our examination of Magellan's journal around the earth, (1) contrast his path to that of the ship in today's NY Times article, (2) Redraw Magellan's path IF he had been able to use the Northeast Passage by sailing NORTH from Spain instead of SOUTH.  What impact would this have had?    

 

Now stand back and watch the intellectual fireworks!  The first rule of education is "First get their attention by giving them something stimulating to think about!"  If you are able to use this lesson with your students, please come back and share your students' reactions with our global learning community.  Can't wait to read your comments!

_______________________________________________________________

Technorati Tags: SmartBoard, Magellan, Northeast Passage, European Explorers, Global Warming, Arctic Shipping Lanes, Social Studies, Middle School

_______________________________________________________________

Attachment(s): http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/09/11/science/earth/11passage.map.ready.html

Here's a great resource for physics:

 

http://www.upscale.utoronto.ca/GeneralInterest/Harrison/Flash

 

Technorati Tags: physics

.

 

Technorati Tags: SmartBoard, Science, Science Lab Make-Over, Discovery Channel

Attachment(s):

Here's a wonderful Astronomy site that's specifically for elementary students.  Dr. Lamb's Eduscapes site (http://eduscapes.com) is full of great resources.  I highly recommend "42Explore".  Once there, you'll find this great Astronomy site - Earth Rise.  It's wonderful, especially when projected on your SmartBoard.

 

Attachment(s): http://library.thinkquest.org/25401/data/tour/index.html

Today, CNN has an exceptional slideshow of images taken by the Hubble telescope.  These are stunningly beautiful.  Do check them out.

 

See link attached. 

Attachment(s): http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/05/15/slideshow.hubble.galaxies/index.html

Ben Hazzard on Twitter and then Jim Hollis on Teachers Love SMART Boards brought the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society interactive website to us.  It's just fabulous.  Thank you both for finding it!

Come swim with the largest mammal on earth!

 

Thank you, Jim, for reminding me to cite my sources!  

Attachment(s): http://www.wdcs.co.uk/media/flash/whalebanner/content_pub_en.html

 

One of the most important roles we have as educators is to stimulate our students' curiosity and get them talking/writing about interesting ideas.  The challenge, of course, is to interject these ideas at key points in the curriculum pacing calendar! 

 

Here's a very interesting video I found on the History Channel that would fit in the seventh grade pacing calendar (around October) when the investigation of European Explorers begins.  

 

The video asks "Did Christopher Columbus actually see a USO - an Unidentified Submerged Object?" 

• Use your SmartBoard to present the video. 
• Embed it into your six slide lesson.
• Preview the video for vocabulary and introduce the new language before you show the video (ELL/ESL Standard #1). 
• Use a chat to capture the conversation as the video progresses. 
• Divide into teams using a google.doc to develop their ideas.  
• Have them create a podcast of that they learned.
  

Let's use Web 2.0 tools to reach our 21st Century learners...and have fun along with them!

Enjoy!

 

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&vid=92a97840-9672-44c6-8e8b-93aaddf502fc

 

 

Technorati Tags: Social Studies; European Explorers; Christopher Columbus; USOs; UFOs

Our friends at the Whiteboard Blog have passed along an amazing Science resource on Evolution.  It traces the earth's development from the Big Bang through present day.  It's interactive and absolutely fascinating. 

  Technorati Tags: Science; Evolution

Attachment(s): http://www.johnkyrk.com/evolution.swf

 

Molecular Workbench offers interactive, visual simulations and activities that have been widely used in science teaching for students of all ages.  The database is designed to provide teachers and students with easy access to model-based activities. The activities are derived largely, but not entirely, from projects of the Concord Consortium sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The models are primarily of interactions of atoms and molecules, or rule-based genetics.

 

This website is discussed in Andrew Zucker's book "Transforming Schools through Technology".

Attachment(s): http://workbench.concord.org/

Here's a new Ocean Exploration website you will enjoy using with your SmartBoard.  
Attachment(s): http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/gallery/gallery.html

Here's a new Science resource from the UK on Space Exploration.

 

http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/learningzone.aspx?nid=3261