Phyllis' Favorites

[NOTE: Site opens with a commercial for their products,
but they also have some free activities. – Phyllis ]

---------Forwarded Message--------

Hi! It's Monday, September 17, 2007 and time for Math at
ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
Math Mastery
http://www.mathmastery.com/
[NOTE: Previously posted. - Phyllis ]

Age Range: 8-13 (Grades 3-8)

This commercial website sells math and science products, but it also
offers a terrific archive of FREE math activities, word problems, and
games -- with an emphasis on family involvement in the learning
process. (We featured this site in 2005, but it's been totally
revamped with lots of new content added.)

When you get to the site use the menu on the left side of your screen
to explore what the site has to offer. Place your cursor over the
menu titles to see additional, descriptive drop-down menus as well.
You can enjoy:

*Check Your Skills: Cyber Challenge -- a fun, fast-paced quiz (in
flash) to test addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
skills.

*Daily Brains Library - a vast archive of not only math activities,
but informative word problems themed around history, geograpy,
language arts, science and health!

*Family Math Activities -- get math acitivities for grades 3-5 and 6-
8 that are designed for parent/child participation.

You'll also find "Parenting Tips" with strategies for improving
learning success.

Diane Flynn Keith
for ClickSchooling
Copyright 2007, All Rights Reserved
http://www.Homefires.com/
http://www.Carschooling.com/
http://www.UniversalPreschool.com/

Note: We make every effort to recommend websites that have content that is appropriate for general audiences. Parents should ALWAYS preview the sites for suitable content.

Click Schooling (Clickschooling) is a Federally Registered Trademark.

Mathwire.com
http://mathwire.com/
From the site:
“Mathwire.com is designed to provide activities and appropriate worksheets for teachers to use in their classrooms…
“These activities are posted online in an effort to share quality activities and routines within the mathematics community.
“Teachers are welcome to download any of the activities for free use in their classrooms.”

Exploring Precalculus
http://www.wmueller.com/precalculus/

*******

Terri Husted's Homepage
http://www.terri.clarityconnect.com/terri.html
Includes pages of:
Great Math Sites, Best Elementary Sites Cool Science Sites, Links for Internet Lessons, and more.

From the site:
“Welcome to Terri Husted's Homepage!
A Homepage for New (And Not So New) Math Teachers”

Sites found in:
=======
The Scout Report
September 21, 2007
Volume 14, Number 36

The Scout Report on the Web:
Current issue: http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/Current/
This issue: http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/2007/scout-070921.php

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C-SPAN Classroom [Real Player, Windows Media Player]
http://www.c-spanclassroom.org/

Over the past several decades, C-SPAN has brought many hours of fascinating
programming to the generally curious. Many teachers have used their
programming to edify their students about various aspects of US government,
and now C-SPAN has created this very nice site to complement those informal
activities. The formal mission of the C-SPAN Classroom site is "to enhance
the teaching of Civics & U.S. Government through C-SPAN's primary source
programming." Visitors can start their journey by viewing the "Clip of the
Week", and then looking through the other thematic sections on the site,
which include "Principles of Government", "Legislative Branch", and
"Political Participation". Along with each clip, users can also view a short
clip description, and take advantage of the discussion questions as well.
Visitors will need to complete a short free registration form to access all
of the clips, and this only takes a few minutes. This site is quite a
delight, and for anyone who teaches civics and related fields, it will most
likely become an essential online resource. [KMG]
[NOTE: Previously posted. - Phyllis ]

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Convergence! [pdf]
http://mathdl.maa.org/convergence/1/

Some math teachers find themselves confronted by students who ask, "Why do
we have to learn this?" or "When am I going to use it?" These are vexing
questions for sure, and one suggestion might be to incorporate the history
and development of the field of mathematics into the formal study of the
subject. That is exactly what a dedicated team of individuals at the
Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and the National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics decided to do when they created the online magazine,
Convergence. The magazine contains a wide range of materials for educators,
including animated mathematical demonstrations that can be downloaded for
classroom use and discussions of particular problems from an historical
context. On the magazine's homepage, visitors can view featured articles,
take a look over the "Critic's Corner", and use the "Show Me" search engine
to look for new and compelling additions. [KMG]

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Visualizing Economics
http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/

Taking a page from Adam Smith, the motto of this delightful site is "Making
the 'Invisible Hand' Visible." Under the guidance of Catherine Mulbrandon,
the site brings together economic data and the powerful techniques of
information visualization. She does this quite effectively through such
thematic maps as "Where do Britain's rich and poor live?" and the "United
States Household Income Map". Visitors can make their way through the maps
here at their leisure, and also post their comments as they see fit.
Additionally, users can look through the "Most Popular Posts" area and sign
up to receive updates about new maps via email. Overall, the site is quite a
find, and could even be used to spark debate and discussion in the classroom
or around the break room. [KMG]

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Southwell Union Workhouse, 1834-1871 [pdf]
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/workhouse.asp

Visitors to the digital archive of the Southwell Union Workhouse with an
interest in British history and the broader concerns of social welfare will
be positively enthralled. Visitors without an interest in this subject may
very well leave with the desire to learn quite a bit more. Recently, The
National Archives in Britain digitized records from 1834 to 1871 that
document the history of this well-known institution. Along with learning
about the history of these places more generally, visitors will find
correspondence between the administrators of the workhouse and the central
authorities, along with details of individual paupers and workhouse staff.
Visitors might wish to start at the "Introduction" area, and then move along
to the search engine. Finally, the "Further Information" area contains
additional links that provide additional context on the subject of
poorhouses. [KMG]

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>From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2007.
http://scout.wisc.edu/

Cosmic Calendar
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/universe/itsawesome/cosmiccalendar/index.html
Shortened URL: http://tinyurl.com/ypr8dj

The Universe in One Year
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/universe/itsawesome/cosmiccalendar/page2.html
Shortened URL: http://tinyurl.com/2a6awy
From the site:
“Imagine that the history of the universe is compressed into one year—with the big bang occurring in the first seconds of New Year’s Day, and all our known history occurring in the final seconds before midnight on December 31. Using this scale of time, each month would equal a little over a billion years. Here’s a closer look at when important events would occur when we imagine the universe in one year… The Universe in One Year was inspired by the late astronomer, Carl Sagan (1934-1996). Sagan was the first person to explain the history of the universe in one year—as a “Cosmic Calendar”—in his television series, Cosmos.”

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See Also:
Cosmic Calendar (From The Dragons of Eden - Carl Sagan, 1977)
http://www.physics.sfsu.edu/~dlamenti/links/cosmiccal.html

Sites found in:
22 September 2007 Earth Science Sites of the Week

LINK GEOLOGY TO THE WORLD, (suggested by Virginia Malone, educational
consultant, Hondo, TX), Link geology to the history of the world. This
allows you to tell a story when you teach. People remember stories. see
http://www.esri.com/industries/k-12/download/docs/geohistorical.pdf
for a starting point. Another is
http://www.eduhound.com/ewarchives/091307ew.html
Information at this site is easily linked to the importance of soil in the development of
civilization.

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NATIONAL ICE CORE LAB (suggested by Cher Cunningham, Science Information
and Education Office, USGS) Discover how the preservation and study of
ice cores contribute to important research on paleoclimate and current
climate change models. The site, located in Denver, CO, contains a good
photo gallery of the collection and storage process and provides
information for arranging a tour of the facility.
http://nicl.usgs.gov/

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TIDE RESOURCES, various sources, (suggested by Martin Schmidt,
McDonogh School, Owings Mills, MD). Overall, I've found tides can be
drastically different from what the theory would say they should be
based on the sun & moon locations. So I use an analogy: We all know
our cars are powered by gasoline (no gas, no go!), but there are also
lots of other things that determine exactly how your car runs on any
given day. Similarly, the sun & moon power the tides, but there are
also lots of other factors that determine exactly how high the tide will
be on a given day & time.

Graphs of tides in 5-day blocks: http://www.tidelinesonline.com/

Various ways to display: http://tbone.biol.sc.edu/tide/tideshow.cgi

And from here: http://www.co-ops.nos.noaa.gov/tide_pred.html , you can
also go to this one: http://tidesonline.nos.noaa.gov/ (not the same as
the first one in this list).

Nice monthly calendar, but just for a specific place:
http://www.sanfelipe.com.mx/weather/tide_calendars.html

Good info on tides in general:
http://w3.salemstate.edu/~lhanson/gls214/gls214_tides.html

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THE EXTRASOLAR PLANETS ENCYCLOPEDIA, from the Paris, France
Observatory. (suggested by Cheryl Dodes, Weber Middle School , Port
Washington, NY,) The site has an interactive database of extrasolar
planets discovered so far. Also, a tutorial on the search for
extrasolar planets, the search for life, masses and orbital distances
for many known exoplanets, etc. The graphs, data charts, etc. are
interesting sources for eccentricity, etc.

http://exoplanet.eu/

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ANIMATIONS: Ocean wave simulator, PBS, (suggested by Mike Smith).
Manipulate how fetch, wind speed, and duration impact wave height.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageseas/multimedia/wavemachine.html
[NOTE: Home page http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageseas/index.html previously posted. - Phyllis ]

and a related animation:

http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/visualizations/es1604/es1604page01.cfm?chapter_no=visualization
Shortened URL: http://tinyurl.com/5vawv

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Mark Francek
Professor of Geography
Central Michigan University
http://webs.cmich.edu/resgi/

--------Forwarded Message--------
Site of the Day for Wednesday, September 19, 2007

WWF's Polar Bear Tracker
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/arctic/polar_bear/index.cfm
Shortened URL: http://tinyurl.com/2k7d2h

Today's site, from the World Wildlife Federation in conjunction with the
Norwegian Polar Institute, offers a look at some of the polar bears of the
European arctic region, whose lives are being tracked and recorded. Gentle
Subscribers will discover information about this threatened species from
the unique perspective of their movements across the frigid northern
region.

"For the last 4 years, the WWF-Canon Polar Bear Tracker has followed polar
bears in the Arctic. Their positions are beamed from collars on the bears'
necks, via satellite to scientists, and then to this website. It allows us
to get regular updates about how the polar bears behave in their arctic
environment and how they may be affected by climate change." - from the
website

At one time the WWF was tracking two polar bears in North America's Arctic
region but they lost the bears. The present initiative has been watching
over the movements of four polar bears in Northern Europe and the Beaufort
Sea area of Alaska. Visitors can locate each bear's current position on the
site map by mousing over the polar bear listing, and catch up on their
summer activities through the field reports. In addition, information about
polar bear diet, family, characteristics and habitat is available, along
with material on how their existence is under threat from various sources.

Roam over to the site for a special look at these splendid polar bears at:

http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/arctic/polar_bear/index.cfm
Shortened URL: http://tinyurl.com/2k7d2h

[NOTE: Other pages from http://www.panda.org/previously posted. - Phyllis ]

A.M. Holm
view the List archives on the web at:
http://www.freelists.org/archives/sotd

Sites found in:
******************************************
PBS Teachers Newsletter: January 6- 12, 2008
******************************************

Media Infusion: Bringing Jane Austen into the 21st Century Classroom
Online
Grades: 9-12

Education Technology expert Carla Beard writes about why Jane Austen's 18th century
novels are important to today's 21st century students. Beard offers tips for how to teach
Jane Austen to tech-savvy students with activities such as blogging from an Austen
character's point of view or creating a Facebook page for their favorite character.

http://www.pbs.org/teachers/mediainfusion/
Starting in January 2008, Masterpiece will be airing films of all six Jane Austen novels.
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Masterpiece Theater
Literary History Timeline
Interactive/Online Activity
9-12

Explore a broad overview of the concurrent lifetimes of major
authors during the two-hundred-year period between 1800 and
2000. Examine information about authors and their major works.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/learningresources/literary_timeline.html
Shortened URL: http://tinyurl.com/3xkafj
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Nature
The Desert Lions
On-Air & Online
6-8 / 9-12
Sunday, January 6, 2008
The world's most extraordinary population of lions lives in the
Namib Desert on Africa's wild and forbidding Skeleton Coast.
Philip Stander, a Namibian carnivore specialist, first spotted
these desert lions in the mid-1980s, watching in disbelief as a
lioness killed a fur seal in the waves and dragged it five
miles inland to feed her cubs. Twenty years later, the lions
reappeared, giving him a second chance to unravel their
secrets. (CC, Stereo, HD, 1 year)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/desertlions/

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NOVA
Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold
On-Air & Online
6-8 / 9-12
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
This two-part special presents the epic story of humanity's
struggle to master extreme cold. This NOVA special re-creates
groundbreaking discoveries across four centuries that expanded
our knowledge of low temperatures and led ultimately to today's
cutting-edge "cold technologies." Its memorable characters
range from a 17th-century court magician who rigged a primitive
form of air conditioning in Westminster Abbey to the original
Captain Birdseye, who invented frozen food. Part one of two.
(CC, Stereo, HD, 1 year)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/zero/

[NOTE: See teaching guide pasted below. – Phyllis ]

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Slavery and the Making of America
The Downward Spiral
On-Air & Online
9-12
Friday, January 11, 2008
This groundbreaking series chronicles the institution of
American slavery from its origins in 1619 through the arrival
of the first 11 slaves in the northern colonies, the American
Revolution, the Civil War, the adoption of the 13th Amendment
and Reconstruction. The first hour covers the period from 1619
through 1739 and spotlights the origins of slavery in America.
(CC, Stereo, 1 year)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/
[NOTE: Previously posted. - Phyllis ]

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Copyright 2008 PBS Online

******
--------Forwarded Message--------
Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:21:41 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [NOVA Teachers] Absolute Zero airs January 8, 2008

In next week's airing of "Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold," NOVA
brings the history of cold to life with historical recreations of
great moments in low-temperature research and interviews with
historians and scientists to reveal how civilization has been
profoundly affected by the mastery of cold. The second part of the
two-hour program will air the following week. (Subjects covered:
chemistry, physics, properties of matter)

Regards,
Karen Hartley
Teachers Editor
NOVA Web Site
http://www.pbs.org/nova/teachers/
E-mail: NOVA_Teachers@wgbh.org

* * * * * * * *

NOVA presents "Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold"
Broadcast: Tuesday, January 8, 2008
http://www.pbs.org/nova/zero
(NOVA airs on PBS at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Check your local listings as
broadcast dates and times may vary. This program can be used up to
one year after it is recorded off the air.)

Watch the Program
http://www.pbs.org/nova/zero/program.html
Watch the entire program online after the broadcast date.
(Quicktime or Windows Media required.) (Grades 6-8, 9-12)

Absolute Hot
http://www.pbs.org/nova/zero/hot.html
Learn in this article why whether there is a corresponding
hottest hot to the coldest cold is not the easiest question to
answer. (Grades 9-12)

The Conquest of Cold
http://www.pbs.org/nova/zero/conquest.html
Read about the impact of refrigerated railway cars on native
cultures in this excerpt from Tom Shachtman's Absolute Zero and
the Conquest of Cold, the book on which the NOVA program was
based. (Grades 9-12)

A Sense of Scale
http://www.pbs.org/nova/zero/scale.html
Explore in this interactive the range between absolute zero to
what the theoretical highest possible temperature. (Flash plug-in
required.) (Grades 6-8, 9-12)

Ultracold Atoms
http://www.pbs.org/nova/zero/atoms.html
Learn the ins and outs of a new form of matter called a
Bose-Einstein condensate in this interview with researcher and
physics professor Luis Orozco. (Grades 9-12)

Teacher's Guide
http://www.pbs.org/nova/teachers/programs/3501_zero.html
In this classroom activity, students build and calibrate their
own bulb thermometers. (Grades 6-8)

Program Transcript
http://www.pbs.org/nova/transcripts/3501_zero.html
The site includes a complete narration for this program.

Additional Interactives
Learn your way around a refrigerator, design a thermometer
online, conduct your own experiment in cold research, play an ice
trade game, and more in the additional interactives that will be
available on this site.

Plus Watch a Preview and Links & Books.

Famous Poets and Poems!
http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/
Includes Poet of the Month, Poem of the Month, Famous Quotes from Poems, and more.
Search alphabetically by name or by century of birth.
See also: Poets by Nationality Contemporary Poets Women Poets
African American Poets Nobel Prize Poets

AdLit.org
http://www.adlit.org/
From the site:
“AdLit.org is a national multimedia project offering information and resources to the parents and educators of struggling adolescent readers and writers.”

The MashUp
http://www.adlit.org/mashup/
A Blog About Books for Teens

Short video clips about Sherlock Holmes from Biography Channel.
Click on the first one and the others will follow. NOTE: an occasional commercial.

bio.video: Sherlock Holmes: CSI
http://www.biography.com/broadband/main.do?video=bio-top250-sherlockholmes-csi
Shortened URL: http://tinyurl.com/33goa5
Video clip explores how Sherlock Holmes used modern forensic methods to solve crimes.

bio.video: Sherlock Holmes: Holmes Dispels a Myth
http://www.biography.com/broadband/main.do?video=bio-top250-sherlockholmes-myth
Shortened URL: http://tinyurl.com/2mdtyq
Video clip explains how Holmes showed that crimes were not committed solely by the lower class, but by the wealthy as well.

bio.video: Sherlock Holmes: The Agent of Doom
http://www.biography.com/broadband/main.do?video=bio-top250-sherlockholmes-agentofdoom
Shortened URL: http://tinyurl.com/2tne5k
Streaming video clip depicts the final scene from the last Holmes adventure and includes an interview with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

bio.video: Sherlock Holmes: The Original Holmes
http://www.biography.com/broadband/main.do?video=bio-top250-sherlockholmes-original
Shortened URL: http://tinyurl.com/2jaow6
Streaming video clip includes an interview with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle explaining the real-life inspiration for Sherlock Holmes.

Sites found in:
Connect-Eng
The newsletter of Web English Teacher
September 23, 2007


What’s new at Web English Teacher?

Ambrose Bierce
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/bierce.html
Lesson ideas for “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” more

Robinson Jeffers
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/jeffers.html
Lesson ideas, criticism, and links to poems

Jack Prelutsky
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/prelutsky.html
Lesson ideas for Scranimals and other poems.

Oscar Wilde
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/wilde.html
Lesson plans for The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Sites to Check Out:

The Dickens Project
http://dickens.ucsc.edu/
Do you teach a Dickens novel? You may find helpful resources at this site.
[NOTE: Previously posted. URL updated. - Phyllis ]

Grammar Grater
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/podcasts/grammar_grater/
This weekly podcast from Minnesota Public Radio explores punctuation, easily confused words, and more. Read it, listen online, or save it to your iPod.

Carla Beard
Web English Teacher
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/
This newsletter is copyright 2007, Web English Teacher.

PlantFacts
http://plantfacts.osu.edu/
“PlantFacts has merged several digital collections developed at Ohio State University to become an international knowledge bank and multimedia learning center.”
[NOTE: Previously posted. URL updated. – Phyllis ]

Henriette's Herbal Homepage
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/index.html
Includes: Herb FAQs, Articles, Classic Texts, Plant Names, Photos, and more

Plants Database
http://plants.usda.gov/
From the site:
“The PLANTS Database provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories.”
[NOTE: Previously posted. - Phyllis ]

Plants Gallery
http://plants.usda.gov/gallery.html
From the site:
“The PLANTS Gallery emphasizes photos and line drawings of U.S. plants”
[NOTE: Previously posted. - Phyllis ]

Bessie Chin Library, Redwood High School
http://rhsweb.org/library/siteindex.htm
Index to subject pages of internet links

Interesting browsing. Some pages:

Plants & Gardening
http://rhsweb.org/library/botany.htm
[Dewey numbers: 580; 635]
A directory of internet sites dealing with botany.

Life Sciences and Zoology Links
http://rhsweb.org/library/lifescience.htm
[Dewey numbers: 570-599]
From the site:
“This page has links mostly to sites about biology in general and sites about animals (zoology).”

Environmental Science
http://rhsweb.org/library/ecology.htm
[Dewey numbers: 333.7-9; 340s; 363.7-9; 577; 616.9]

Libraries and Library Studies
http://rhsweb.org/library/library_resources.htm
[Dewey numbers: 020s]