Journal 8

Spotlight: Free Sciences Resources Online
By Dave Nagel

This is an excellent article that details three creditable sources designed to be helpful for students in Science education. This article details some free online tools, including lesson plans and curriculum to enhance the learning experience for students. The potential value of these resources is vast, both for teachers and for students.

MIT

MIT is a well-known institution which is on the cutting-edge of technology and research. MIT is developing strategies for bringing OpenCourseWare into the educational field. The focus of this technology is for secondary and high school education. OpenCourseWare provides students with access to a vast pool of resources which include video and audio clips from courses offered at MIT, course syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, and other relevant information. The purpose of this information is to give high school students access to the latest science technology available.

NASA

NASA has a variety of excellent online resources designed to keep students (or anyone who cares to use them) informed on current topics in science. Some resources which are provided by NASA include video and animation, grade-level appropriate resources for teachers, as well as games and virtual tours and tutorials about interesting events going on in the NASA program today.

The Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Education site provides a wealth of resources for educators. Some resources include historical material, which are aligned with State and National standards. Some topics include air and space, Earth science, general science, art, literature, and language arts.



Question 1:

How can I use these websites in my classroom?

These websites provide excellent additional resources for science, history, language arts, and many other disciplines. For example, the NASA website provides excellent visuals and information for students who are learning about space and space exploration. The Smithsonian Institution provides teachers with lesson plan suggestions, historical photos, and other wonderful ancillary material which can be used in concurrence with grade-level appropriate instruction.

Question 2:

What site sounds the most interesting to me and why?

I really love the NASA website. It has a variety of games and tools which help to make its subject matter more appealing to students. Additionally, the information about current NASA projects such as the Mars Rovers, is truly fascinating and has real-world application that is especially appealing. I think that the Solar System Simulator and facts about the latest space missions is simply amazing and I am excited to find opportunities to use this website in my classroom.