Promethean Science and Technology User Group

Posted on Feb 10, 2012 in Interactive Whiteboards, Science Resources | 0 comments

Thanks to Promethean for making me a “SuperUser” of their Promethean Planet website. What this means is that I’ll hopefully be putting up a few blog posts on their website once or twice a month, making and sharing some whiteboard resources and generally hanging about a bit more on the Promethean Planet forums.

What this also means is that I’ve set up a special User Group on the Promethean Planet website which will discuss the use of technology in science education. I’m hoping that some of you will join!

The purpose of this group is to enhance the teaching and learning of Science through the use of digital technologies such as whiteboards, but also datalogging, visualisers, Learner Response devices, interactive websites, science videos, science software and more.

You don’t have to own a Promethean product to join Promethean Planet and take part in any of the user groups. To visit the Science user group, and also see some of the other user groups on the website, click here. There are user groups on lots of other topics.

Don’t forget that the Promethean Planet website is home to thousands of lesson resources – not just Promethean flipchart files, there are powerpoints, worksheets, lesson plans and more. It’s well worth a look, and it’s free to join!

New and Updated Scale of the Universe Tool

Posted on Feb 9, 2012 in Digital Media, Interactive Whiteboards, Science Resources | 2 comments

There’s a great new Scale of the Universe tool from the people who brought you the original Scale of the Universe tool that I wrote about last year.

This one is clickable – and tells you a litle more about the different planets and objects you can see as you drag the slider to view bigger or smaller objects.

I loved the original version, but this one is even better. Will work really well on an IWB in a science lesson.

Take a look at http://www.htwins.net/scale2/

Selenia – Science Investigation Comics for KS3

Posted on Feb 8, 2012 in Digital Media, Games and interactives, Science Resources | 0 comments

Here’s a great little comic book resource for science that I’d blogged about ages ago and then completely forgotten about. Selenia is a school girl from another planet. Her adventures have been turned into a comic book, and can be used to teach about Science Investigations and Materials.

There are now 10 comics on the site which can be viewed on an IWB, or printed off for individual use.

There are also games such as word searches and quizzes. Throughout the comics are questions posed by the characters which would be useful as discussion starters.

The teachers section provides guidance on how to use the cartoons as a way of introducing practical science investigations such as dissolving and air resistance. PDF worksheets are available which are ready to use with your class.

Maybe students could then use a comic creation tool to explain their results?

Produced by The University of the West of England, these resources are suitable for  KS3 Science (11 – 14 year olds)

Visit Selenia here, and see what you think!

Thanks to Ian (@teachingofsci) for reminding me of this resource via Twitter.

Go Figure 2 – Online Safety Video

Posted on Feb 7, 2012 in Digital Media | 0 comments

As it’s Safer Internet Day today, here’s an interesting video about online safety.

Thanks to Mary Rebelo for the link.

Futurecade – online games from the Science Museum

Posted on Feb 7, 2012 in Interactive Whiteboards, Science Resources | 0 comments

The Science Museum has launched a suite of online games designed to raise questions about the future of medicine, robotics and technology. Their ‘Futurecade‘ features four titles exploring topics such as geo-engineering and synthetic biology.

Futurecade‘s four games – Bacto-Lab, Robo-Lobster, Cloud Control and Space Junker – are based on scientific research happening today. Use them as a stimulus to engage your students in a fun, interactive way, and get them thinking about how technology might impact on their future.

For example, in Batco-Lab, players must engineer their own E.coli bacteria to make useful products, while making sure that no harmful mutant bacteria are accidentally unleashed on the world. Cloud Control, allows students to guide Flettner ships which brighten clouds so they reflect sunlight and lower the Earth’s temperature.

Futurecade can support the teaching of How Science Works and help your students consider the applications and implications of science.

Teaching resources are also available, and can be found here, including science background notes and teacher briefing notes.

Take a look at http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/futurecade to play the games. And if you haven’t seen the other great resources on the Science Museum site, visit their teacher resource area and take a look!

Safer Internet Day 2012 Esafety Resources

Posted on Feb 5, 2012 in Activity Ideas, Promethean, Tutorials and Guides, Useful Links | 0 comments

Safer Internet Day (SID) aims to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially amongst children and young people across the world. Safer Internet Day 2012 will take place on Tuesday 7 February 2012, centred on the theme “Connecting generations and educating each other”, where they encourage users young and old to “discover the digital world together…safely!”

The Safer Internet Day website contains teaching ideas, posters and lesson resources for teachers who want to cover internet safety with their classes, for both primary and secondary schools.

You can also find some very useful resources to help teach SID on Promethean Planet website: These include some exclusive e-safety quizzes from Millionaire for Schools, fun flipcharts for use with 2–9 year olds from Hector’s World, and advice for educators from the Teachers TV archives. You can find out more at the Promethean Planet Safer Internet Day page.

For more information about Safer Internet Day, visit the SID website : http://www.saferinternetday.org and also the Insafe website: http://www.saferinternet.eu

Also check out this post from last year with some very good esafety videos and this post about internet safety and social networking for trainee teachers.

You can also find some great resources, and links, on the TES Safer Internet Day page.

Explania – instructional animations

Posted on Feb 3, 2012 in Digital Media, Tutorials and Guides, Useful Links | 4 comments

Explania is a website which contains loads of animated explanations, interactive tutorials and instructional videos.

The site covers a wide range of topics from “What is Twitter?” to “The Human Heart” as well as software guides for MS Office and more. For example How to apply conditinal formatting in Excel 2007

It even tries to explain the offside rule in football:

What is offside in football? – Explania

It’s rather a strange mix of videos, some will be useful for teachers, whilst others might want to be avoided. But it is worth a look and you might find a few gems in there that you will find useful. Videos are pulled in from YouTube so if you school blocks YouTube you won’t be able to access the videos.

Thanks to Richard Byrne at Free Tech for Teachers for the link

Take a look at Explania and let me know what you think in the comments.