70 top web sites - web-based resources for teachers
Instructor, March, 2002 by Emily Beck
After teaching sixth grade, Emily Beck spent the last four years writing about Web-based resources for teachers. The sites reviewed here first appeared in her columns A+ Web Gallery, Beyond the Web, and Lesson Plan Goldmines (Classroom Connect Newsletter, 1998 to 2002). Visit www.classroom.com for more great resources.
LANUAGE ARTS
DAVE'S ESL CAFE
www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/eslcafe.html
Professor Dave Sperling claims his collection of ESL links is the best around, and we agree! This comprehensive site also includes a chat room, discussion boards, mailings lists, links, and more.
CAROL HURST'S CHILDREN'S LITERATURE NEWSLETTER
Master Teacher Carol Hurst and Webmaster Rebecca Otis have done a masterful job of creating this amazing children's literature Web site. Search for children's literature by subject, theme, curriculum, series, and more.
ONLINE WRITING LAB
The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL), receives a staggering 1,000,000 hits a week with good reason. Most of the excellent resources, including handouts, tutorials, workshops, and links, are free for all.
SOCIAL STUDIES
THE HISTORY PLACE
www.historyplace.com/index.html
The History Place is a must-book-mark site for all history and social studies teachers. There are a variety of featured exhibits on topics ranging from Abraham Lincoln to the Irish Potato Famine.
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY
This massive biographical dictionary contains entries for more than 27,000 people and is searchable by name, birth or death year, position or profession, literary or artistic works, miscellaneous achievements, or other keywords. Entries are clear, concise, and well written.
HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES WES RESOURCES
www.execpc.com/~dboals/boals.html
This exhaustive site contains thousands of links in 32 categories for K-12 history teachers. One distinction between this site and others with similar missions is the range and variety of materials available. In addition to lesson plans and curricula, there are links to topical lecture notes, magazines, radio programs, and more.
AMERICAN CULTURAL HISTORY: THE 20TH CENTURY
www.nhmccd.edu/contracts/irc/kc/decades.html
This site is both educational and extremely entertaining. For each decade, there is information about art, books, fashion, historical events, music, theater, and more, along with a fascinating assortment of basic facts.
GEOGRAPHY
THE GREATEST PLACES ONLINE
The Greatest Places Online is the companion Web site to the OmniMax film of the same name. For this breathtaking movie the crew visited the Amazon, Greenland, Iguazu, Madagascar, Namib, Okavango, and Tibet. Each locale has its own page containing photos, maps, trivia, recipes, audio and video clips of local wildlife, quotes from scientists, and more.
TERRAQUEST
Terraquest was nominated in 1999 for a Webby Award in the Best Travel Site on the Web category. After participating in one of their virtual online exhibits you'll understand why. Experience Terraquest's award-winning travelogues as you visit Antarctica, the Galapagos, or a history-making climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
The National Geographic site contains outstanding and constantly-changing interactive exhibits. Each section of the site includes educational components such as lesson plans and teacher resources. For kids, there's also the World magazine site and award-winning interactive Xpedition Hall.
SCIENCE
PARTICLE ADVENTURE
The Particle Adventure is a super-cool award-winning site which allows even the most scientifically challenged to explore the world of particle physics through interactive tours of quarks, neutrinos, antimatter, and other intriguing particles.
ROBERT KRAMPF'S EXPERIMENT OF THE WEEK
Scientist Robert Krampf has spent his career sharing his love of science with young people, crisscrossing the country with his traveling show. Join 80,000 subscribers worldwide and experience Mr. Krampf's safe, dramatic, cheap, and fun experiments.
ENATURE
What's the difference between the Yellow Mud Turtle and its cousin the Common Mud Turtle? Find the answer at Enature, your online guide to more than 4,800 North American plants and animals.
WINDOWS TO THE UNIVERSE
Sponsored by NASA and operated by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, this site covers absolutely everything you could possibly want to know about the earth and space sciences.
BRIDGE
This truly amazing Web site has collected the best online resources for marine science. Materials are organized into the following categories: ocean science topics, resources, data port, elementary grades, and communications. Each section has tons of information.
HOW STUFF WORKS
Most Recent Reference Articles
Most Recent Reference Publications
Most Popular Reference Articles
Most Popular Reference Publications
Content provided in partnership with http://findarticles.com/source//
Sponsored by Merrill Lynch