Free Resources

 

 

 

 

At iLoveSchools.com teachers can register to receive free school supplies directly from donors nationwide. More than 26,000 teachers and thousands of donors take part in the program. In addition, a new ClassroomFriend program lets a group of donors rally to support an entire school.
Deadline: Ongoing
Web: http://www.iloveschools.com/

In ten years The Coca-Cola Foundation has contributed more than $124 million in funding to support education. The foundation’s goals are to encourage and motivate young people to stay in school, help with scholarships for aspiring students and further cultural understanding.  The foundation’s board of directors reviews applications at its quarterly meetings; all proposals receive a written response following the review process. Contact: The Coca-Cola Foundation, Grants Administration, PO Box 1734, Atlanta, GA 30301; phone: (404) 676-2568; fax: (404) 676-8804.
Deadline: Ongoing
Web: http://www2.coca-cola.com/citizenship/foundation_coke.html

American Express Foundation grants provide education and career training opportunities for disadvantaged students. Projects in communities where American Express has a significant business or employee presence take priority. A three-page (maximum) letter is the first step. Visit the Web site for further details and instructions on how to apply.
Deadlines: Vary by location; check the site for details
Web: http://home3.americanexpress.com/corp/gb/howto.asp

Over the past 32 years, Campbell’s Labels for Education™ program has delivered more than $105 million in free merchandise to schools and organizations across the country. When you save labels from Campbell products, your school can earn computers, software, physical education equipment, musical instruments and more. There is no cap on the amount of labels you can redeem or the amount of merchandise you can earn.
Deadline: Ongoing
Web: http://www.labelsforeducation.com

The Office Depot® Star Teacher Program puts you at the head of the class. Every time you shop at Office Depot, you’ll receive a 5 percent instant discount on qualifying in-store purchases, plus a 15 percent instant discount on qualifying Design, Print & Ship Depot services. In addition, you can get up to 10 percent back on qualified purchases with Office Depot Advantage Rewards—up to $50 per reward period and $200 per year. Visit your local Office Depot store to enroll in the Star Teacher Program or call (800) 463-3768 for full program details.
Deadline: Ongoing
Web: http://www.community.officedepot.com/local.asp
Web: http://www.officedepot.com/promo.do?file=/promo/pages/od_advantage.jsp

The Barnes & Noble Voucher Bookfair allows supporters the opportunity to contribute to your fundraising efforts simply by shopping in Barnes & Noble (B&N) bookstores. During a designated period, a percentage of your supporters’ purchases will be donated back to your school or organization. B&N will add all the vouchers together and send your organization a check after the bookfair. Plus, if your school provides B&N with a required reading list, the company can help students and parents gain easy access to the books and your school will benefit from every sale. Contact your local B&N store for details on how to sign up.
Deadline: Ongoing
Web: http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/

The CIT Corporate Giving Program provides funding to organizations, institutions or programs within the following categories: Education—programs that provide resources to support individuals who demonstrate ability, drive and ambition but do not have the financial resources to achieve their goals; Arts—programs that support the arts and their accessibility as a means of enhancing personal and social development; Diversity—programs that provide educational and inclusionary resources to support a diverse workforce and community. Proposals must be submitted by mail to: Stacy Papas, AVP-Manager, CIT Community Affairs, 1211 Avenue of the Americas, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10036; email: stacy.papas@cit.com. Visit the Web site for more information.
Deadline: Ongoing review
Web: http://www.cit.com/main/AboutCIT/corpgiving.htm

The Actuarial Foundation’s Advancing Student Achievement mentoring program includes a nationwide network of actuaries who have volunteered to serve locally as mathematics mentors to students. Once you have designed a viable mentoring program, get it funded by the foundation’s cash grants. Afterschool and in-class programs are eligible for consideration.  The foundation encourages all types of projects; of special interest are high school–level programs, which receive priority consideration. Visit the mentoring program’s Web site for details, FAQ page and instructions on how and where to apply. Also find a free downloadable Best Practices Guide, which features a compilation of research on the value of mentoring, combined with 15 case histories of programs funded by the foundation, each of which includes information on program design and results.
Deadline: Ongoing review
Web: http://www.actuarialfoundation.org/grant/index.html

The Mockingbird Foundation, which generates charitable proceeds from Phish fandom, offers grants for programs and projects designed to support and improve music education. Funding focuses on the basic needs of music instruction as well as on projects that foster creative expression.  Grants range from $50 to $5,000. Anyone interested in submitting a grant proposal should first send a brief letter of inquiry.
Deadline: Ongoing
Web: http://www.mockingbirdfoundation.org/funding

For more than 30 years, Disabled Sports USA (DS/USA) has served adults and youth with permanent disabilities in a sports and recreation rehabilitation program. Its newest program, the Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project, provides major outreach and services to men and women who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and who have returned home with severe and permanent disabilities. Through the support of the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation (MEAF), the “If I Can Do This, I Can Do Anything!” project has developed a unique mentoring system that will connect both youth and these young vets with disabilities through a number of sports and recreation venues, all specifically adapted to help people with disabilities train, learn and compete with their nondisabled peers. The first step in applying for a grant from the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation is to submit a short concept paper for review. Concept papers are accepted throughout the year. Contact: Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation, 1560 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1150, Arlington, VA 22209; phone: (703) 276-8240; fax: (703) 276-8260.
Deadline: Ongoing
Web: http://www.meaf.org/grants/national.html

 

Participate in PBS’s Learning.now Weblog and explore how new technology and Internet culture affect the way educators teach and students learn. The blog is designed specifically to help guide teachers at all grades through the ins and outs of new technology—wikis, blogs, RSS, podcasts, social networking sites and more.
Web: http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/learning.now/info/

Journey to this site where you can view free videos of groups of students as they learn reading, viewing and listening strategies. The videos show students learning literary techniques, developing research skills and using their personal experiences and interests in responding to texts. Free resources are offered for four learning levels; how-to tips and student worksheets are also available.
Web: http://www.learnalberta.ca/Launch.aspx?content=/content/elsrvl/html/rvls.html

 

 

Get your students talking in circles—literature circles, that is—with the free activities on this site. The activities help to guide students to deeper understanding of what they read through structured discussion and extended written and artistic response.Web: http://www.litcircles.org/Overview/overview.html

Help your students to engage in rigorous thinking, organize complex ideas and scaffold their interactions with texts, using the free tools for reading, writing and thinking on this site. Among the abundant resources, you’ll find a note-taking page with helpful reminders in the margin that aid students in defining, summarizing, serializing, classifying, comparing and analyzing ideas and concepts.Web: http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/6-12/Tools/Index.htm

Check out S.O.S. for Information Literacy, a multimedia database of lesson plans and teaching tools on information literacy. The database can be searched by keyword, grade level, subject area and lesson-plan author. Free registration is required for access.Web: http://www.informationliteracy.org/default.php

Help teens to choose books that are a good fit for them and their families. Browse the free list of books recommended by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). Find recommendations for reading, listening and viewing, including Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, Great Graphic Novels and Teens’ Top Ten.
Web: http://www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists

 

 

 

 

Get a free trial issue of News for You from New Readers Press, a division of ProLiteracy™ Worldwide. The four easy-to-read pages presents the top news of each week and includes Focus, a free weekly news teaching supplement. It’s easy-to-read format makes News for You an ideal resource for ESL and struggling middle and high school students.Web:http://www.news-for-you.com/index_h.htmlPLUS: Get 14 free sample pages from Getting Along With Others, the first available Teacher’s Resource Guide in the Living in America series from New Readers Press. Other books in the series include Using Official Documents, Fitting Into Your Community, Understanding Key Health Issues, Operating a Motor Vehicle and Knowing Your Rights and Responsibilities.Web: http://www.newreaderspress.com/index_h.html

 

 

 

Get an evaluated list of free WebQuests for all grade levels and subjects at Best WebQuests.com. A Best WebQuest of the Week is featured on the home page.http://bestwebquests.com/
Use this site to find free lessons in economics for students of all ages. EconEdLink is a searchable database of free lessons, current events, macroeconomic data for use in the classroom and links to other Web sites. In one lesson, middle school students investigate logos, imaginary characters, slogans and jingles—tools used by advertisers to develop brand awareness. In another lesson, high school students learn about the inflation rate with current information. Up-to-date federal budget information and current news stories along with lesson plans are easily accessed. Finally, a select number of Web sites are presented with brief annotations.
Web: http://www.econedlink.org/

Browse the free information and materials on Arts for Learning to help enrich your students’ learning in and through the arts. Also register, at no charge, for mya4L to access more content and use mya4L tools to download lesson plans and other resources, join online discussions, email links to friends and personalize your mya4L page with links to your favorite programs and resources.
Web: http://www.arts4learning.org/

Explore the extensive collection of free materials available on the American Museum of Natural History’s Web site. A “browse by topic” option provides easy access to information on anthropology, astronomy, biology, earth science and paleontology. More than 800 options include activities, curriculum materials, articles, evidence and analysis, resources from museum exhibits and reference lists.
Web: http://www.amnh.org/education/resources/index.php

Peruse The Art Institute of Chicago’s Art Access site for a wide variety of free online resources examining objects from various areas of the museum’s permanent collection. Designed for educators, parents and students, the site includes glossaries, lesson plans for the classroom and art projects for the home to enrich understanding of the content, style and historical context of the museum’s collections.
Web: http://www.artic.edu/artaccess/

Inspire your students with posters that tell the stories of six African American mathematicians, scientists and inventors. The full-color, 16-by-20–inch posters were produced in collaboration with the Benjamin Banneker Association, Inc., a national nonprofit organization dedicated to mathematics education advocacy and leadership for African American students. The set of six posters can be ordered online, at low cost, from Key Curriculum Press (select Supplementals) or by calling (800) 995-MATH.
Web: http://www.keypress.com

Download the free Discover Babylon video game, which allows players to see the history and culture of ancient Mesopotamia. The game is divided into three periods of Mesopotamian history: The Uruk period (3300–3000 BCE) when writing was first developing; the Ur III period (2100–2000 BCE), a time of great cities and central organization; and the Neo-Assyrian period (1000–600 BCE), a time of empires. The game incorporates artifacts found in the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore and ancient texts in the online datasets of the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. Players interact with fictional characters and real objects from the three historic periods and the present day in order to solve a series of challenges.
Web: http://www.discoverbabylon.org/

Journey to Historic Jamestowne for a wealth of free lesson plans for investigating the first English settlement on North America. Options for elementary through high school are available, including activities with information literacy components. Check out the “Jamestowne in the Media” lesson dealing with newspapers. Other learning opportunities include virtual archaeological digs for both artifacts and buildings.Web: http://historicjamestowne.org/learn/

Consider this Nova site your portal to a wealth of free information about the NASA Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. You’ll find a brief background on Mars, an interview with the lead scientist who designed the rover and details of the rover’s design. There is also an interactive diagram of the parachute used for the rover’s landing. In addition, the one-hour PBS video Mars Dead or Alive is available for viewing at no charge. Finally, follow a link to NASA’s Mars site to see the latest images.Web: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/mars/

Take time to explore the array of free resources on the Smithsonian Education Web site. The site, which includes sections for educators, families and students, provides a single portal to the vast number of individual Web sites under the Smithsonian umbrella. Excellently crafted lesson plans and virtual exhibits specifically designed for students are a true gift to learners.
Web: http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/

Browse the ReadWriteThink site for free interactive tools that help to develop literacy skills. For example, the Comic Creator enables students to create their own comic strip. Hints about Print provides a demo on how to evaluate nonfiction print books as appropriate resources for an assignment.Web: http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/index.asp

 

Sign up for Saddleback Solutions, the online newsletter published monthly by Saddleback Educational Publishing. The newsletter is always chock-full of information on hot topics in education to aid teachers in helping struggling students succeed.Web: http://www.sdlback.com/

 

 

Click around Tool Factory’s Web site to find free lesson plans and worksheets to supplement the teaching units that accompany many of the company’s software products for middle school and high school students. Among the offerings, you’ll find, for example, Cheops’ Pyramid, which will hold students captive with hours of amazing mathematical adventures. Or check out the innovative chemistry tool MoluCAD, which enables students to generate molecular models, view them from any perspective, create reaction animations and save all their data to a disk.
Web: http://www.toolfactory.com/

Take an interactive approach to teaching high school science with Essentials of Cell Biology: Toxicology in Action, a free CD-ROM curriculum from the University of Washington’s Center for Ecogenetics and Environmental Health. Developed by the university’s scientists, the program engages learners in the study of basic science by demonstrating how cell biology relates to the real-world concerns of a working toxicologist.Web: http://depts.washington.edu/ceeh/Outreach/k12.html

Take a journey through Travelocity’s Math Can Take You Places Web site where you'll find free lesson plans, assessment items, educational games and parents’ pages to provide struggling students with the problem-solving and higher-level thinking skills needed to successfully complete algebra in high school. The technology-based curriculum uses travel as a backdrop and five professionals in travel-related positions to show how algebraic thinking is applied during everyday situations in the workplace.Web: http://www.mathcantakeyouplaces.org

Browse the lists of thousands of great stories that revolve around math. From fantasy to romance, Mathematical Fiction has more than 534 works of fiction listed by title, author or chronology.Web: http://math.cofc.edu/faculty/kasman/MATHFICT/

Take advantage of tools, activities, supplemental materials and more— all offered at no charge by The Math Forum@Drexel. The goal of Drexel University’s MathTools project is to create a community digital library that supports the use and development of software for mathematics education.Web: http://mathforum.org/mathtools/index.html

Motivate your students with free lessons on the many subsets of physics from the Atoms Family Museum. For example, in The Mummy’s Tomb lesson, students learn about kinetic and potential energy as well as energy conservation; in Dracula’s Library, they learn about the properties of light, waves and particles; and in Frankenstein’s Lightning Laboratory, they learn about different forms of electricity and electrical safety.Web: http://www.miamisci.org/af/sln/

Find out what’s on the minds of some middle school teachers. Choose from a list of free blogs at the MiddleWeb site. From a math teacher at an American school in the United Arab Emirates to seventh-grade teachers in the heart of Kansas, these bloggers chronicle the challenges and rewards of teaching middle school students.
Web:http://www.middleweb.com/mw/aaDiaries.html

 

GET IT!—a free curriculum-based global education and service-learning program teaches students and teachers about sustainable solutions to world hunger and poverty. Offered through Heifer’s community education outreach, the GET IT! curriculum engages middle school students as investigative journalists to research, write about and act on issues surrounding consumer choices and international trade.
Web: http://www.heifered.org/getit/

Help your students to learn about a number of environmental topics via EcoHealth. The site provides free information on global warming, the hole in the ozone layer, issues with biodiversity and the impact of globalization. A glossary, connections to daily life with health and science topics, a wealth of images and videoclips are available for use as teaching tools or for student project research. Lesson plans, student project ideas and links to news resources round out the site.
Web:http://www.ecohealth101.org/

Find a vast number of current maps at National Geographic’s MapMachine site. The conservation and ecology maps make excellent tools for science classes and current event discussions. The historical maps provide information on early explorers, antique world maps and a variety of other eras and viewpoints. Easy-to-use search options and customization features make this an excellent teaching and reference tool—all at no charge.
Web: http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/

Plus: Browse National Geographic’s Xpeditions Atlas of maps made for
free printing and copying.
Web: http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html

Download the USS Constitution Museum’s award-winning curriculum, All Hands on Deck: Learning Adventures Aboard “Old Ironsides,” at no cost. Fourteen lesson plans use the frigate USS Constitution, nicknamed “Old Ironsides” during the War of 1812, as a vehicle to explore a wide range of disciplines, including social studies, language arts, reading, math, science and art. There is also a streaming video for classroom use.
Web: http://www.allhandsondeck.org/

Motivate your students to learn the names of our nation’s states with Exploring the States, a freeware program from PCs in Space, and NASA satellite images. The satellite images are also used to instruct students on the area of estimation. The estimation exercises consist of calculating area and population numbers. A final section teaches students to answer questions using compass positions.
Web: http://pcsinspace.hst.nasa.gov/states.htm

Introduce your students to the universe with Exploring the Universe, another freeware program from PCs in Space. The program is a reading comprehension and math lesson that uses images from the Hubble Space Telescope, ground photos and other NASA probes to explain the universe with pictures.
Web: http://pcsinspace.hst.nasa.gov/universe.htm

Enhance your existing middle school science and math curriculum with the free interactive Extraordinary Earth CD-ROMs. The CD-ROMs cover a wide range of Earth and science topics and have almost 1,000 interactive questions, more than 2,000 sound bites and more than 160 activities.Web: http://www.boxturtlesoftware.com/home.html

Get quick access to a wealth of information on diverse holidays throughout the world. Indexed by month, the KUMC Diversity Calendar provides the name of the holiday and the country and/or religion that celebrates on that date. A link takes the user to a concise explanation, and hyperlinks lead to a myriad of authoritative sites for even more information on the holiday, including cultural information.
Web: http://www3.kumc.edu/diversity/

Take a look at the free information on the Museum of Moving Image. At the online exhibitions link, you’ll find animations explaining the science and technology behind movies and television, which can serve as the beginning for an information literacy unit. Then view material about classic video games, tour the sets of The Last Samurai and view television commercials that relate to the U.S. presidential elections from 1952 to the present.
Web: http://www.movingimage.us/site/site.php

Visit the education section of the Adobe Web site for a treasure trove of free teaching tools and options. The curriculum section contains project-based lesson plans using the newest versions of Adobe software. The training portion provides a number of free online tutorials. And be sure to explore the Digital Kids Club for information on integrating digital images into your teaching activities as well as links to student-oriented Web sites.Web: http://www.adobe.com/education/main.html

Bring history alive! Google has digitized 50 historic films from the National Archives and made them available, at no charge, on the Web. The project includes such gems as newsreels from World Wars I and II, video of the moon landing and Depression-era films about the national parks and public works projects.
Web:http://video.google.com/nara.html

 

Get prepared with Homeland Security’s free national disaster preparedness program aimed at children, complete with a Web site, colorful checklists and a kid-friendly mascot. Ready Kids walks children and their parents through how to make an emergency supply kit and develop emergency plans and offers games to help families practice disaster skills.
Web: http://www.ready.gov/kids/index.html

Explore the Education Podcast Network (EPN), which brings together into one place a wide range of podcast programming that explores issues of teaching and learning in the twenty-first century. Most of the producers of these programs are educators, who have found an avenue through which they can share their knowledge, insights and passions for teaching and learning. Visit the EPN site to read their stories and tell your own.
Web: http://epnweb.org/

Stop Bullying Now! Help students and fellow educators to understand, identify and prevent bullying and to intervene when it happens in school and student life. The 12 free Webisodes—animated scenarios of various types of bullying with thought-provoking questions—are creatively written and illustrated to appeal to students to help them understand and handle bullying actions. Teachers and parents are offered effective tips for bullying prevention and intervention. Free games and information on the youth panel members who assist with the site are also provided.
Web: http://www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/

Browse the National Writing Project’s Web site for professional development resources, including online discussion lists, author-led seminars and a regularly updated “NWP Interactive.”
Web: http://www.writingproject.org/

Plus: Sponsored in part by the National Writing Project, WritingFix features interactive writing activities to engage all types of learners. The site includes
tools, games, lessons on conventions and areas for publishing.
Web: http://www.writingfix.com

Inspire and stimulate students’ interest in science and math through the use of hands-on learning. The TEACHEngineering LivingLaboratories provide free standards-based content that connects math and science learning with real-world experiences.
Web: http://adventureengineering.org/Living/

At Teen Space in the University of Michigan’s Internet Public Library, find free articles written especially to help teens solve problems, links to Web sites students can use for homework help and a place where they can ask questions. There’s much more to explore too, including clubs and organizations, health and sexuality, money and work, technology, reading and writing, and sports, entertainment and the arts.
Web: http://www.ipl.org/div/teen/

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Increase your repertoire of practical teaching strategies with the free online professional development courses offered by Curriculum Associates. Newly added topics include Differentiated Instruction: Success for Every Student; Test Preparation Strategies; Classroom Discipline; Motivating Students to Learn; and Classroom Strategies for English Language Learners. New programs are added frequently, so check the site often.Web: http://www.Catraining.com

 

 

Download free posters, stickers and bookmarks provided by YouthRules! partners to help teens who work in part-time jobs to have a safe and rewarding work experience. The resources will help students understand what hours they can work, what jobs they can work and how they can help prevent workplace injuries. The site is accessible in English and Spanish.
Web: http://youthrules.dol.gov/teens/default.htm

Help middle school students learn how to manage their money, stay out of debt and save for retirement with Money Math: Lessons for Life, a free downloadable guide developed by the Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Education at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. Lesson plans, reproducible activity pages and teaching tips are included in the guide, which draws on real-life examples from personal finance.
Web: http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/mar/marmoneymath.htm

 

 

Sign up for Incentive Publications’ IP Online to receive free middle school resources and teaching strategies. You’ll also find out about special Web: http://www.incentivepublications.com

 

 

English Language Arts

Through a project sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild Foundation, students can enjoy exciting works of literature read aloud by actors, such as Haylie Duff, Sean Astin, Tia and Tamera Mowery and Lou Diamond Phillips. BookPALS Storyline is an online series of streaming videos where youth of all ages can find and appreciate wonderful stories. Each book-reading includes accompanying activities and lesson ideas.
Web: http://www.storylineonline.net/

 

Join Pearson Longman’s Azar Grammar Exchange, a global community of ESL teachers that provides a forum where educators can share ideas, questions and grammar-teaching materials for the benefit of students around the world. The Grammar Exchange has two parts: Grammar Questions & Answers forum and For the Classroom.Web: http://www.longman.com/ae/azar/grammar_ex/index.html

Plus: Visit My Longman Advisor for answers to your questions about teaching methods, pedagogy or any other topic related to teaching English to ESL students.
Web: http://www.mylongmanadvisor.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EnTechneVision’s Animated Tall Tales presents the heroes of American folklore and folktales from around the United States. In fully narrated online storybooks and Flash cartoons, students meet the classic characters of tall tales, from Paul Bunyan to Pecos Bill. They can also play a game, send an e-card and enjoy other “fun stuff.”Web: http://www.animatedtalltales.com/

Shakespeare: Subject to Change, a whimsical yet educational site, provides students with the opportunity to explore the literary world of the bard through a critical look at changes in a number of Shakespeare’s writings. Students can begin with a look at two film versions of Hamlet. They can also travel through the changes in Shakespeare’s works from pen to paper. Examples of new phrases and insults, an animated timeline, a comparison of various scenes from Hamlet and a look at text alterations done by the printer are included. The use of film clips, audio narration and other multimedia tools make the site accessible for a vast range of learners.Web: http://www.ciconline.com/bdp1/

Anne Frank, The Writer—An Unfinished Story accompanies an exhibition at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. In this online exhibit, students can learn about Anne Frank’s great ambition to be a writer through the complete digitized texts of her original writings that survived the war, as well as through interviews with her cousin and the exhibit curator. Numerous additional Web links and the option to post responses to the exhibit round out the experience.
Web: http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/af/htmlsite/
Developed by the Bellingham Public Schools in the state of Washington, The Biography Maker provides tools to guide students in writing a biography. The online tools help students follow four steps in writing: questioning, learning, synthesizing information and story-telling. An additional link provides information on the six traits of effective writing.Web: http://www.bham.wednet.edu/bio/biomaker.htm

Book Raps, based in Australia, is a do-not-miss site for students looking to participate in online book discussions conducted via email. Individual or groups of students from around the world can discuss the scheduled books. Teachers or teacher librarians can nominate a book for discussion by becoming a Book Rap Coordinator. Titles for discussion are listed on the Book Rap Calendar. Some Book Raps may include special events, such as author involvement, illustrators online, access to content-area experts and live chat sessions.
Web: http://rite.ed.qut.edu.au/old_oz-teachernet/projects/book-rap/index1.html

At Braille Bug students can learn about the braille system of writing through games, secret messages, a reading club and information about Louis Braille and Helen Keller.
Web: http://www.afb.org/braillebug/

Geography, History and Culture

Through Telling Their Stories, presented by The Urban School of San Francisco, students can read, watch and listen to interviews of Holocaust survivors and refugees, World War II liberators and Japanese Americans deported to internment camps during World War II. All of the interviews are conducted by high school students.Web: http://tellingstories.org/index.html

 

 

 Imagine your students being able to click on any word in any program on their screen and getting a definition or short explanation of what that word means. Answers.com offers just that capability. After downloading the free 1-Click Answers™ 2.0 software for Windows, students can Alt-Click on any word in any program on their screen for a pop-up window with a concise AnswerTip. This new feature won’t interrupt students’ work, and if the concise answer isn’t enough, the full collection of sources on that topic is just a click away under the More button.
Web: http://www.answers.com/main/download_answers_win.jsp

PLUS: Attend the premier of Mission Possible, Answers.com’s first free  downloadable instructional movie that will help you to promote Internet research skills in your classroom. Sit back and relax for a short while as a virtual guest lecturer battles the challenges of the Internet with your students. The humorous movie presents a brief history of the Internet and explores a variety of crucial topics related to successful online research, including how to check reliability and which information to trust; how to tell what sort of reference a search engine link has led to; how to use the Internet for writing assignments; how to summarize information without plagiarizing; and how to cite sources correctly. A free downloadable lesson plan and student worksheet are also available for review and follow-up.

Web: http://www.teachers.answers.com/main/mp.jsp

 

 

 The Nuestra Gente/Hispanic Heritage site, sponsored by Target Corp. introduces students to the culture and accomplishments of Hispanic Americans. As they explore the site, students will find educational content, Latin music and playable music instruments. Also available on the site are free downloadable teachers’ resources, famous Latino/Latina quizzes and a recommended reading list.
Web: http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/page.jsp?title=hispanic_heritage_main

 

 

At the CyberNewseum, students can explore the Berlin Wall via news views, see the space race from the media’s point of view and discover the history of the newspaper. The exhibits in this virtual museum provide multiple learning options for writing, discussing point of view and exploring numerous historic events. Students can look through published editorial cartoons and play a news game that tests their knowledge of current events. Extensive primary source materials and superb photojournalism exhibits make this a valuable site for many curriculum areas.
Web: http://www.newseum.org/cybernewseum/

The Renaissance comes alive for students as they explore the many modern-day connections with that time period through Flash animations and digitized works of art. The Renaissance Connection looks at travel and exploration, the arts, science and technology, and ideas from that period. The site also includes free lesson plans and links to additional resources.Web: http://www.renaissanceconnection.org/

Smithsonian Source: Colonial America offers primary sources and tools for using them in the classroom. For example, students can watch an anthropologist examine skeletons for clues to daily life in Jamestown. The site includes lessons on the Boston Massacre, Stamp Act, patriot women, Pocahontas and money. Questions—built around primary documents— explore the clashing views of revolutionary colonists and loyalist colonists. As they explore the site, students can examine the political, religious, economic and social reasons for the Revolution. Encourage them also to check out the other historical topics: Civil Rights, Invention, Native American History, Transportation and Westward Expansion.
Web: http://www.smithsoniansource.org/display/topic/viewdetailshis.aspx?TopicId=1004

The Library of Congress’ America Dreams site investigates what the American Dream has meant over the years to poets, comedians, musicians, photographers, lawyers, reporters and others. Students may contribute to the Student Gallery and post their dreams on a Wall of Dreams.Web: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/97/dream/

At The British Museum’s interactive Ancient Civilizations site, students can explore objects from around the world. The collection covers more than 6,000 years of history. The objects help students learn about the similarities and differences between cultures, both across time and across the world. Students choose a theme—Buildings, Cities, Religion, Technology, Trade or Writing—to begin their journey back in time.Web: http://www.ancientcivilizations.co.uk/home_set.html

The Big Picture Learning Page includes twelve puzzle sets, each of which challenges students with four or five jigsaw puzzles made from images found in The Library of Congress’ American Memory collections. As each puzzle in the set is completed, a new puzzle appears until all of the puzzles in that set are completed. Students will then have a chance to use what they have learned to discover the Big Picture—the theme the images in the set have in common.
Web: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/learn/features/puzzle/puzintro.html

At the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum, students can find out what they know about their freedoms by taking the online Freedom Quiz. The museum has worked closely with the Bill of Rights Institute to develop curricula, which is available to download, free of charge.
Web: http://www.freedommuseum.us

Law for Kids is a teen-oriented Web site that helps guide students’ understanding of the role of laws, how they are created and why they are important. There is also a Web forum for students to post questions to the experts and receive answers.
Web:http://www.lawforkids.org/This site opens the door to George Washington’s world. Students can take a virtual tour of George and Martha Washington’s Mount Vernon mansion, showcasing three floors of panoramic rooms (including the cupola) and more than 40 pop-up objects. They can also tour Mount Vernon’s grounds, which extended over 8,000 acres and was divided into five farms, each a complete unit with its own overseers, enslaved workers, livestock, equipment and buildings. Then they can play the Dig into George archaeology concentration game to test their knowledge and learn more about George Washington and his home.
Web: http://www.mountvernon.org/

In the Classroom section of The White House Historical Association’s Web site, students can view The People’s President: Man, Myth, and the Media, a film that explores how television and film have influenced perceptions of the American presidency. They also can go on the White House Bird Watching Expedition, an award-winning animated tour of the White House. The site also offers online shows, timelines, facts and trivia, and historical photographs as well as free downloadable teacher’s and student’s guides.Web: http://www.whitehousehistory.org/index.html

The interactive challenges on this BBC site will surely test your students’ knowledge of ancient history. Do they have what it takes to build a pyramid in ancient Egypt? Can they choose the weapons and armor that will make the difference between victory and death for a Roman gladiator? Can they change history by beating the Norman invaders at Hastings? Encourage students to take the challenge and find out.Web: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/games/

What’s in a name? The answer is on this site where students can write their own name in hieroglyphics and then send a glyph e-card to their family or friends.
Web:http://www.discoveringegypt.com/hiero1.htmWeb: http://www.discoveringegypt.co.uk/ecards/

In the Conquistadors Online Learning Adventure, students learn about the sixteenth-century Spanish explorers Pizarro, Cabeza de Vaca, Orellana and Cortés, and the Native American empires they encountered and ultimately destroyed. Extensive lesson plans for teachers and in-depth online content for students are available.
Web: http://www.pbs.org/opb/conquistadors/home.htm

The Arts

In Art as Experiment, Art as Experience, an interactive multimedia feature on the site of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, students can explore 15 masterpieces from the museum’s Anderson Collection through streaming audioclips and videoclips as well as a zoom function for up-close-and-personal viewing. Featured artists include Jackson Pollock, Frank Stella and Willem de Kooning.
Web: http://www.sfmoma.org/anderson/index.html

Artopia is an online treasure trove of materials for incorporating the fine arts into the core curriculum areas. This colorful, vivid site is filled with creative activities for middle school students for examining styles, principles and processes of art forms, such as sculpture, dance, music, media arts, theatre and painting. Students can watch videos of practicing artists and one-minute overviews of each art form. Teacher resources and student activity options are included.Web: http://cfmedia.scetv.org/artopia/index.html

ARTscape is a powerful new intellectual tool that uses the Peabody Essex Museum’s objects as a launching point for a self-guided journey through art and culture. Data in ARTscape include photos and descriptions of objects in the museum’s collection, definitions, book excerpts, quotations, videoclips and audioclips.Web: http://www.pem.org/exhibitions/media.php

In this interactive from the Musée de la Civilisation in Quebec, students can explore in detail John James Audubon’s famous paintings of birds in the Americas through Flash movies with original music. The site also has a catalog of more than 400 paintings by Audubon.
Web: http://www.mcq.org/audubon/menu.html

From the National Endowment for the Arts, NEA Jazz in the Schools traces the history of jazz from its birth in New Orleans to the swing era, bebop and new frontiers. Five Web-based lessons include essays, videos, photos and nearly 100 music clips. Lessons include social and political context and are designed for history and/or music classes.
Web: http://media.jalc.org/nea/home.php

What does a bassoon sound like? What instrument was found in Tutankhamen’s tomb? Students can find out in the Explore the Orchestra interactive on the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s (BSO) site. And in Recipe for a Concert, students can explore a sample of the “ingredients” that make up a BSO performance and see how the final “meal” turns out.
Web: http://www.bso.org/genC/genCone.jhtml?id=cat20282&area=edu

Mathematics

On NCTM’s Illuminations Web site, middle school and high school students will find a plethora of interactive math learning opportunities. For example, high school students can explore rational functions with the Light It Up! game, while students in middle school can use a code machine to investigate how mathematics is used in developing data encryption codes. The site also provides graphing tools for bar charts, histograms and other graph options.
Web: http://illuminations.nctm.org/Activities.aspx?grade=3&grade=4

Did your students know that 10 defenders of a square castle can be positioned so that on every side there will be 5 men? They don’t have to be math whizzes to appreciate this site of more than 66 amazing facts about math. Each amazing fact is linked to an example or explanation.Web: http://cut-the-knot.org/do_you_know/index.shtml

Ian’s Shoelace Site brings together the fun, fashion and science of shoelaces, as students use math to figure out the best possible lengths of shoelaces needed for different patterns of lacing. The site presents a Web-Based Calculator along with the underlying Shoelace Length Formulas to allow manual calculation.
Web: http://fieggen.com/shoelace/shoelacelengths.htm

Patterns, Shapes, Symmetry! Students will find these themes everywhere in the Geometry Center, where they can browse through an exhibit or jump right in and start experimenting. Interactive graphics explain how triangle tilings and symmetry combine to produce polyhedra. Online simulations and interactive exhibits offer students opportunities to create their own fractal posters, kaleidoscopic patterns and fun wallpaper designs.
Web: http://www.scienceu.com/geometry

More than 60 virtual manipulatives and activities function as a concept tutorial on this interactive site. The virtual manipulatives, mostly in the form of Java applets, are designed to facilitate mathematics learning at grades 6–8 and 9–12.Web: http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html

Calculus on the Web offers an interactive environment for learning, practicing and experimenting with the ideas and techniques of calculus. The site is organized in seven parts: Precalculus; Calculus I, II and III; Linear Algebra; Number Theory; and Abstract Algebra.Web: http://www.math.temple.edu/%7Ecow/

Explore Your Knowledge invites students to try their skill at eighth-grade math and science questions taken from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).
Web: http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/eyk/index.asp?flash=true

Ask Dr. Math is a question-and-answer service for math students and their teachers. The searchable archive, compiled by The Math Forum@ Drexel, is available by level and topic. It also includes summaries of Frequently Asked Questions (Dr. Math FAQ). Students submit questions to Dr. Math by filling out a Web form. Answers are sent back by email. Then the best questions and answers are gathered into a searchable archive organized by grade level.
Web: http://mathforum.org/dr.math/index.html

Science and Health

Discovery Communications’ The Yuckiest Site on the Internet is … well … just plain yucky! Students can learn about “gross” body parts, explore the “dirty” world of worms and take a “slimy” quiz. If they want to get “messy,” the Yucky site will give them the opportunity!Web: http://yucky.kids.discovery.com/

At Cool Cosmos, students can enter the Cosmic Classroom to learn about infrared light through interactive lessons and videos, such as “More Than the Eye Can See” and “Ask an Astronomer.” They can also visit the image gallery and play cosmic games.
Web: http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/index.html

Students know chocolate tastes good, but do they know how it’s made? How Everyday Things Are Made, created by the Alliance for Innovative Manufacturing at Stanford University, uses 4- to 6-minute videos to delve into the manufacturing and engineering behind everyday items, such as airplanes, jelly beans, glass bottles, denim and, of course, chocolate.Web: http://manufacturing.stanford.edu/

Way to Go, Einstein is a fun introduction to the thinking of a man who influenced all modern scientists. On this site, sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History, students can learn about Einstein’s revolutionary conceptions of space and time, light, matter and energy, and find out about everyday applications of his work. Then they can try their skill at answering brain-bending questions about how the world works.
Web: http://ology.amnh.org/einstein/index.html

A freak cold front colliding with a 100º heat wave would spawn a super tornado in Dallas. Arid air gusting at 60 mph across drought-stricken Sydney could set it ablaze. A burst of plasma hitting Earth’s magnetic field is enough to shut down New York City for a year. The full power of nature was unleashed in the Perfect Disaster, a six-part series on the Discovery Channel. Visit the Discovery Channel’s Web site to watch a video of a super tornado, find out how a worldwide blackout is possible—and much more.
Web:http://www.discovery.com/perfectdisasterExploring Ocean World, students learn about fisheries, weather, icebergs, coral reefs, waves and a number of other ocean-related science topics. Written for middle school through college students, the site also provides real-time data on El Niño. Students will find the “Ask Dr. Bob” option fun and helpful. In addition, two oceanography textbooks are available for downloading, at no charge, from the site.
Web: http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/

Think of ARKive as a digital ark striving to save information on a vast number of rare species. From the Species link, find information about globally endangered species and a pilot project on corals and their identification. Each species catalogued features videos, still images, sound recordings, if appropriate, and a profile of the animal’s habitat, characteristics and behaviors. An abundance of free lesson plans
complement the online learning experiences.Web: http://www.arkive.org/

At The Field Museum’s Underground Adventure, students can take a virtual tour to see what life is like for the tiniest underground ecosystems. They will also find ways to design and conduct their own soil experiments along with 10 tips of what they can do with their families to improve soil quality.
Web: http://www.fieldmuseum.org/undergroundadventure/

Rich in artifacts, interactives and compelling human stories, The Computing Revolution re-creates milestones of computing, using past examples to ask questions that are relevant today: How do new technologies affect our world? Can we predict their impact? From a handful of costly electronic giants in the 1940s to the millions of laptops and microprocessors in use today, this online exhibit, created by the Boston Museum of Science, brings to life generations of computers.
Web: http://www.mos.org/exhibits/ComputingRevolution

From the Center for Educational Technologies, Exploring the Environment puts students in problem-based learning scenarios. In one module, students predict the impact of increased carbon dioxide on the wheat yield in Kansas. In another, they predict weather 48 hours in advance. Topics include coral reefs, climate change, the Everglades, mountain gorillas, rainforests, volcanoes, water quality and ozone depletion.Web: http://www.cotf.edu/ete/

BAM! Body and Mind is designed to answer students’ questions on health and science topics and recommend ways to make their bodies and minds healthier, stronger and safer. Fun activities teach about issues ranging from stress, physical activity and asthma to epidemiology and a West Nile virus investigation. Sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the site includes a Teacher’s Corner with middle school classroom activities based on national education standards for science and health.
Web: http://www.bam.gov/

Sponsored by the Lemelson-MIT Program, Invention Dimension is a fun-filled and at times wacky approach to making learning about invention exciting for students of all ages. Students can have some fun with the invention games and explore the wealth of inventor and invention resources, including inventor profiles and patent guidelines.
Web: http://web.mit.edu/invent/invent-main.html

 

 

 

 

Discover Earth's Living Species

Many of the world’s leading scientific institutions have launched the Encyclopedia of Life, a massive, free Web site that compiles data on Earth’s 1.8 million known species of animals, plants and other forms of life on Earth. For the first time in the history of the planet, scientists, students and citizens have access—anywhere, anytime—to all known living species, even those that have just been discovered. The multimedia site includes descriptions, pictures, maps, videos and links to entire genomes and scientific journal papers. The Field Museum of Natural History, Harvard University, Marine Biological Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, and Biodiversity Heritage Library joined together to initiate the project.

Click Here to Visit Web Site