Paul Warren
Hantsport School
Science Webliography
Enhancing Literacy through Technology
This Webliography was designed to support teachers as they help to develop the literacy skills of their students in the junior high science classroom. I have compiled educational learning websites that are at the junior high reading level. These web pages use technology integration to support the learning that occurs within the classroom. Students can develop their literacy skills as they learn through reading digital and hypertext documents, view animations and videos, take online quizzes and play interactive games. Some of the websites also include excellent scientific literacy lesson plans and teaching suggestions for science teachers. I would like to encourage science teachers who are uncomfortable or inexperienced with integrating technology into their science teaching and learning to visit some of these sites. You will discover how user friendly they are designed and how they can help enhance student literacy while challenging students to build upon existing scientific understanding and create new knowledge.
BBC – KS3 Bitesize
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks3bitesize/
This website is an excellent science source for students studying junior high science. Biology, chemistry and physics lessons are available within the website and are designed so that students can work through the material at their own pace. The readings are supplemented with great diagrams, pictures, and animations to help each student understand the concepts has they work through the lesson. Upon completion of each reading, there is an online quiz for the students to take covering the material that they have read. There are also electronic lesson plans and worksheets available for the teacher to use within their classroom.
ScienceDaily
http://www.sciencedaily.com
ScienceDaily is an online science and technology website full of all the latest news and discoveries. Science is changing rapidly as new facts are revealed everyday. It is a great resource to keep both teachers and students informed on the latest research as the site is updated every fifteen minutes. To complement the news articles, there are also excellent science videos that can be shown within the classroom.
Scirus
http://www.scirus.com
Scirus is the one of the best search engines for students to use when researching for scientific information. It is designed solely for the purpose of finding science-specific Web pages and filters out all non-scientific websites. This makes it much easier for students to sort through information and read quality information. Scirus also has rights to thousands of full-text scientific journals now available with other search engines. It is also a great tool for use by the teacher within the classroom as great visuals are available that can be shown on a LCD projector.
WebQuest
http://www.webquest.org
This website is a great source for teachers who like to take a constructivist-based approach to learning within their classroom. Teachers can access webquests related to their science subject area and use them for students learning within their classroom. The webquests allow students to work at their own pace and many have enrichment and modified links to aid the diverse abilities of students within the learning environment. As well, the site allows teachers who are interested in creating and/or publishing their own webquests to do so.
PBS Teachers
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/sciencetech/
PBS Teachers is an excellent website for teachers to find resources that will help them become better prepared to teach their students. There are a variety of scientific lesson plans, videos, interactive games, and teaching activities available. The site is user friendly as you can search for resources by selecting a specific topic and/or grade range.
Enchanted Learning
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/categories/science/
I really enjoy using this website as a learning resource. It was originally designed for the K-3 classrooms, but it has branched off to include activities and lessons for the higher grade levels. There are several great science lessons available, designed so that students take advantage of learning using the hypertext literacy approach. In addition, the site has available an extensive amount of readings and worksheets teachers can use to assist learning within their classroom. There is a $20.00/year subscription fee for access to the whole website. However, there is an abundance of material and lessons available for free.
Cells Alive
http://www.cellsalive.com/cells/animcell.htm
This site is very interactive as it allows students to work through several lessons related to the cell. The animations and real life examples provided are intriguing and make difficult topics much easier to understand. Cell biology, microbiology, immunology, and microscopy are explored in a hypertext environment that is designed so that students can work through the lessons at their own pace and practice their learning games, puzzles, and quizzes.
Blue Web’n
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/
This site is a library of learning sites on the Web that allows you to search for education resources, lesson plans, tutorials, activities, and projects. The teacher can refine their search to focus in on learning sites for a specific application or grade level. Each site is star-rater and the most popular ones are listed first, to assist the teacher in selecting.
Science Learning Network
http://www.sln.org/
The Science Learning Network is designed for teaching through the use of scientific inquiry. There are three main content areas: check out news and links, explore our resources, and visit our museums. The resources links are full of up-to-date information. The museum link is extremely useful as it gives students an opportunity to explore famous science museums from all over the world within a virtual environment. However, some of the information available on this Webpage is too advanced for students at the junior high level. I would recommend the teacher carefully selecting which sites the students should use in their learning process.
Rader’s – 4Kids
http://www.chem4kids.com/; http://www.biology4kids.com/; http://www.geography4kids.com/; http://www.physics4kids.com/; http://www.cosmos4kids.com/
Rader’s – 4Kids is one of my favorite websites to use for student learning within the classroom. The lessons available are designed specifically for students and are full of easy to understand diagrams and explanations. The website teaches students the concepts through hypertext lessons. A great feature on this site is the related links section located near the bottom of each lesson. It also encourages cross-science stream learning by provide links to related topics from other branches of science. Each lesson also has a quiz provided at the end to help the students evaluate their understanding of the scientific concepts studied.