Science Blogposts on Promethean Planet
Just a quick post to point you in the direction of two blogposts I have written for Promethean Planet recently which will be of interest to Science teachers.
10 (more) Science Websites for Your Interactive Whiteboard – A list of 10 great websites for science resources.
Tour the Universe via Your Interactive Whiteboard – Ideas for different websites that can be used to demonstrate and explore the solar system and beyond from your IWB.
I”ll be writing a few new blog posts each month for Promethean Planet, so keep an eye out. I’ll post the links in the Whiteboard Blog Facebook page, so if you “like” that page you’ll be kept informed of any new updates.
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September 11th – Education Programme and Schools Competition
The 9 11 London Project is a new UK educational charity that has been set up to mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and to ensure that the legacy of those events is one that builds hope from tragedy. Its purpose is to ensure that this and future generations have the opportunity to be taught about the events and to understand the causes and consequences of 9/11, in the US, UK and across the world.
The website contains educational resources for History, PSHE/Citizenship, RE, English/Drama and Art/Design. There’s also an image and film bank and interactive timeline of the events of the 20th century leading up to 9/11. A section of the site offers guidance on teaching controversial issues such as this.
Check out the resources at : http://www.911educationprogramme.co.uk
Competition
In addition, the 9/11 London Project website is currently running a competition offering students the chance to win a trip to New York this September (8-12th), which will include a visit to the 9/11 Memorial. The winner in each category and the two runners-up will all win a trip to New York for the 11th anniversary. In addition each of the two category winners will receive £1000, plus an additional £1000 for the two winners’ schools.
All students have to do is say how they think 9/11 changed the world. The website wants them to use their imagination and send in an original, creative and thoughtful piece of work as either a 5 minute film or a 1200 word essay.
You can get more information here.
The #ASEChat Interactive Science Links Summary
Monday evening saw my first attempt to moderate a twitter chat as I took the reigns of the #asechat hashtag for an hour. For those that don’t know, #asechat is the official hashtag for the Association for Science Education and everyone with an interest in science teaching is invited to take part in the chat.
The topic for Monday’s chat was Interactive resources in Science. Here are some of the many links that were shared during the hour, in no particular order:
Phet Science Simulations : http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/
Freezeray : http://freezeray.com/
Algodoo interactive physics sandbox : http://www.algodoo.com/wiki/Download
Exploriments : http://www.exploriments.com/
Free Interactive resources from Yenka: http://www.yenka.com/freecontent/search.action?r=new
Explore learning : http://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm?method=cResource.dspResourceCatalog
How Big Really: http://howbigreally.com/
Scales and relative sizes : http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/
Explore Learning : http://www.explorelearning.com/
Virtual Field Trips : http://www.takeyouvirtuallyeverywhere.com/
Drugs effect on synapses animations http://www.jellinek.nl/brain/start.htm
AnswerGarden : http://answergarden.ch/
Interactive Food webs at http://www.gould.edu.au/foodwebs/kids_web.htm
Nobel Prize Winners games site recommend Pavlov’s Dogs and EKG http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/
Online water weed simulation http://www.saddleworth.oldham.sch.uk/science/simulations/waterweed.htm
domo.goanimate.com to share ideas on big screen as starters/plenaries
and also some primary links:
iBoard : http://www.iboard.co.uk/curriculum.htm#science-year1sci_yearyear1
Childrens University of Manchester : http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/
Thanks to @brittgow, @Bio_Joe, @57mason, @Mrsdsarah, @NeedhamL56, @agittner, @Activboard_nz @Lethandrel and many more for sharing these links!
I have added all these to my own list at http://www.delicious.com/dannynic/iwb+science
Blog Posts that may be useful
Some blog posts on this site that might also be relevant:
http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2010/02/10-secondary-science-resources-for-your-whiteboard/
http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2010/02/10-primary-science-resources-for-your-whiteboard/
http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2011/05/ase-article-using-a-visualiser-in-primary-science/
http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2011/01/iwbs-8-ideas-to-keep-it-simple/
You can find the archive of all the past #asechat’s here : http://www.ase.org.uk/news/ase-chat/
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Things I’ve Been Reading Recently (Aug 2011)
A short post to collect a few things I’ve read recently and linked via Twitter, but worth reposting to the blog too. Go check them out
Thoughts on writing a social media policy in schools by @simfin
The Myth of the Digital Native by @merlinjohn
Blooms Taxonomy for iPad Apps by @Langwitches
All I need to know about Twitter I learned at kindergarten by @timbuckteeth
A complete guide to web, Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus privacy and security! by @suewaters
CLIS: Progression in Understanding of Science Concepts from Ages 5 to 16
Hurricane Irene photos by The Big Picture.
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10 things that caught my eye last month
Here are a few things that caught my eye on Twitter and the various blogs I’ve been following, that I haven’t had time to write about separately.
- Digital learning tools from Eduweb (via @ourClassroomCDN)
- Cool Graphing Calculator (via @TechRav)
- You Want iPads For Your School … But Is That Enough? – iPads in Education (Via @Langwitches)
- A quick guide to using Twitter for Educators (via @creativeedu)
- Technology Usage Parent Letter and Consent Form
- Dear Photograph : layer old photos ontop of new while taking a new photograph (via @2SimpleAnt)
- Miss USA : should Maths be taught in schools a riff on the scary Evolution video of a few weeks ago (via @jessmcculloch)
- iPad Apps in Education (via @mylesp)
- The Obsolete Technology Website : good for looking at the history of tech
- A guide to different blogging platforms (via @chrisrat)
I do tend to tweet things like this on Twitter so be sure to follow me at @dannynic
Read MoreICT Magic Wiki
Martin Burrett is a primary school teacher who maintains an excellent wiki chock full of links to useful websites. You can find his ICT Magic wiki at : http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/
There are a stack of links, covering a range of different subject areas. I spent ages looking through them. Definitely worth a visit to take a look. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/
You can also follow Martin on Twitter at @ictmagic worth following for more useful website links for teachers.
Read MoreA few of my favourite things
I’m not big on kittens or mittens, or many of the things on the list from the song. So instead, here are a few of *my* favourite things. These are tools and sites that I find myself referring to time and time again on training days as well as tools I use all the time in my day to day job.
Delicious / Diigo
Both sites provide one of the best ways of storing, and sharing, my online bookmarks. As soon as a list of useful websites is printed, you can guarantee it will be out of date as I find a new site. I just point anyone on one of my courses to my Delicious list. Tags allows me to create different reading lists such as IWB, PGCE, Web2.0 etc. Rumours abound that Delicious may be on its way out.. but Diigo does the same thing with added groups.
In fact what I do is have a Diigo toolbar in Firefox that bookmarks items to Diigo, then have it automatically copy the bookmark to Delicious. (Log into Diigo, look for tools, then “more tools”). This means I have two copies of my bookmarks, handy if a massive company buys one of the sites and decides to shut it down. Always a problem with Web 2.0 tools (see Etherpad.)
DropBox
A simple way of keeping files synchronised between several computers. Also online backup of important files. Starter amount of space 2.5Gig isn’t too shabby, but this can be increased by referring friends. For someone with a laptop for work, a home PC and other devices (iPad/iPhone) it means I always have access to some of my important training files and documents.
Google Documents
Online documents that you can share with other people. Easily work with others on a spreadsheet or presentation. Is a great way of getting students to collaborate on work.
I’ve used this to collaborate on presentations and documents with teachers all over the world. Some of the best collaborative presentations are the “Ideas to Inspire” ones, which were produced using Google docs.
I’ve also used a Google Spreadsheet with a public form to do data collection and surveys, with the results going straight into a spreadsheet which I can then analyse. Also good for collecting class data for science or maths investigations.
Etherpad
With an Etherpad it’s possible to have a class of students all on the same page – all updating the same document in real time. It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but there are many ways you could use this kind of technology. Create a shared pad for notes, brainstorming, collaborative writing, questions etc. More ideas here.
The beauty is that there’s no need for a password or messing about with logins and sharing to user accounts- you can quickly set up a pad and use it. That’s also it’s weakness. For more permanent and secure documents, then Google Docs is the way to go.
Etherpad itself is sadly no more after being bought up and incorporated into Google Docs, but sites like iEtherpad and Primary Pad live on and keep the idea alive.
Wallwisher
Wallwisher is an online pinboard – a quick way to allow brainstorming and collection of ideas. Visitors click on the wall and add their own sticky notes. They can add images and videos too, or just text and links. You can choose to have a private or public wall, and can moderate all posts if you wish. As an alternative, try Stixy, which does pretty much the same thing.
WordPress
I am a massive fan of WordPress. I use a self-hosted WordPress install to run this blog, and a few other blogs such as Teaching Science. It”s a really simple way of getting your own website up and running. I’ve used other blogging platforms such as Blogger, but found that very frustrating at times.
The wordpress-hosted version is very good too, with a few more limitations on some of the things you can do with it. It does give you your very own website in a matter of minutes. If you’ve always wanted to try your hand at blogging, it’s one of the best places to start.
Classtools.net
I find I am always showing this site to teachers on training days. In particular the Countdown Timer is excellent for keeping track of time when students are carrying out task. The Random Name Picker has also been used many times, and if any of you have seen a Teachmeet then you’ll have seen this in action.
FlickrCC
I’m always on the lookout for good images to use in blogposts and presentations. I’m trying to be more aware of copyright and so will always use creative commons images where I can. Flickr CC is the main tool I use to trawl through the milions of photos on Flickr that are covered under a Creative Commons licence.
Twitter
I’ve found Twitter invaluable. It gives me educational experts on tap as well as a constant feed of good ideas and links. If you haven’t quite got the hang of Twitter yet, then this blog post might help.
There are a stack of other websites and tools I use, I’ll share some more another time. But the ones above are the most frequently visited (apart from Google Mail and Facebook!).
Photo credit: UK Love by Doug88888
Read MoreA few of my favourite things
On my whiteboard training courses, I find that there are several websites that I am always sharing, and they are always well received by the trainees. I’ve shared most of them on this blog before, but as a way of distilling down a few of my favourite things, here’s the list again.
Classtools.Net: I love this website – there are two tools in particular that are very handy
- Countdown Timer - a firm favourite. Choose your music to countdown an activity.
- Random Name Picker – as seen on Teachmeets. Pick a student/group at random from a list.
The Big Picture – simply one of the best photojournalism sites I’ve seen. Every few days another set of stunning images is uploaded. Jawdropping.
FlickrCC Creative Commons Image Search – much better to use than Google Image Search as you know that all the images returned have a creative commons license.
Wallwisher - great little site for building your own online noticeboard. Any user can stick post its on here. Great for using with a group.
Etherpad – well Etherpad itself may be dead but the tech lives on. Check out iEtherPad or PrimaryPad as alternatives. Google Docs has the same facility, but if you don’t want to mess with logins and sharing, then Etherpad is for you.
SlideShare - a very useful resource for obtaining presentations on a multitude of topics. Many useful in education. Do a search before you have to produce a presentation and you’ll probably find someone has already uploaded a presentation on a similar topic. Can save you having to reinvent the wheel. If you want you can also share your own presentations here – just upload a powerpoint file. Here are my presentations.
What are your must-share websites? Add them to the comments below!
Read MoreReview of the year – top posts
I’ve been looking over the site stats, and here are 10 of the most visited pages over the last year. There might be some things you’ve missed. Most of the page titles are self-explanatory:
11 Ideas for Music Lessons on your Interactive Whiteboard
13 sites for MFL teaching with your Interactive Whiteboard
10 avatar generators for profile pictures
10 More Cool Teaching Resources for Your Whiteboard
Powerful Images to Give Lessons Punch
Lesson Starter Ideas for your Whiteboard
How to embed a YouTube video into Smart Notebook
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