Technology Review: Listenwise

LISTENWISE is an educational website focusing on listening comprehension through audio programs.

The website is organized into three sections: Social Studies, Science, and English Language Arts (ELA). Users can search for lessons in their area of interest. Results can be narrows by subject, language challenge, grade level, and type.

A current events section is particularly useful. New news items are added every day. Each entry contains a title, short description, question, and audio. Tags are provided to assist users in locating related topics.

A blog contains up-to-date information about resources and how they might be used in teaching and learning. A research section provides information about listening comprehension.

Librarians will find endless curriculum applications of this website. Mine each section for programs that connect to local standards. Although a premium service is offered, many high-quality resources are available for free.

To visit the website, go to https://listenwise.com/.

Digital Collection: AMNH Science Bulletins

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY SCIENCE BULLETINS

Contents: The American Museum of Natural History maintains a collection of their monthly science bulletins. These may include documentaries, visualizations, and news videos. The bulletins are organization by type and subject including astronomy, earth science, biology, and human science. Fifteen years of bulletins are currently available. Unfortunately there’s not a search tool specifically for the bulletins, so be sure to use “science bulletin” in your search for a topic such as “gravitational waves science bulletin”.

Classroom Connections: This collection would be a useful resource for jumpstarting science units for intermediate through high school students. The videos can be streamed through YouTube or downloaded and placed in PowerPoint presentations.

To visit the collection, http://www.amnh.org/explore/science-bulletins

Technology Review: How Stuff Works

HOWSTUFFWORKS is both a website and app that shares information about how the world works.

Website users can either search the database of articles or go directly to topics of interest such as animals, culture, entertainment, or health. The short articles generally include a photograph along with content. Suggested readings are also provided. Unfortunately, the advertising may be distracting for students.

The app includes articles, videos, podcasts, quizzes and other elements found at the website in an easy-to-use format. With less advertising, students are less likely to get lost in unrelated content.

Librarians will find this resource to be a popular quick reference. The resource provides short overviews of topics that can be woven into the curriculum. Pair the website with books on related topics.

To visit the website, go to http://www.howstuffworks.com/.
To download the app, go tohttps://itunes.apple.com/us/app/howstuffworks/id401986544

Technology Review: DOGOnews

DOGOnews is a website and app resource focusing on current events, news, and nonfiction articles for students and teachers.

The website consists of short articles. Most of these informational stories contain numerous images. Vocabulary words that may be unfamiliar to youth are highlighted and link to pop-up definitions and examples. Each article ends with reading comprehension questions, a critical thinking challenge, and vocabulary. A game helps readers review the vocabulary. While the website contains limited, education related advertising, it’s not distracting to readers.

Tabs lead users to articles about news, books, or movies. Within the news category, students can choose from science, sports, social studies, world, green, entertainment, fun, and other categories. They can also narrow by grade levels including K-3, 3-5, 3-8, and 3-5. This is useful when accessing articles that are appropriate for particular reading and interest levels. Within the book category, students can choose clubs, series, freebies, or seasonal works. Books are also organized by genre and reading level. Within the movie category, children can browse by categories such as mystery or animation.

The website also offers special features for students and teachers. Students can create their own avatar, earn badges, share articles, and write articles. Teachers can set up classroom accounts and make assignments.

The app works much the same way as the website. The easy-to-navigate app contains access to over 3,000 articles across the curriculum. Articles are categorized by grade level. Clicking on highlighted works leads to definitions and places are linked maps. Lesson plans are connected to national standards.

Librarians will find this easy-to-use resource is useful in reading activities. It’s also valuable for informational reading in the subject areas such as social studies and science.

To visit the website, go to http://www.dogonews.com/.

To download the app, go tohttps://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dogonews/id740364862.

Website Review: Scholastic News - Election 2016

SCHOLASTIC NEWS: ELECTION 2016 provides timely, youth-friendly information and resources about the US presidential election.

The Home page provides links to the project’s key elements.

The Latest News page includes short articles about current events related to the presidential campaign, an interactive timeline of events, and a map showing state elections.

The Kid Reports area features youth reports including questions and answers, behind-the-scenes, and other topics of interest.

The Election Central section provides useful vocabulary associated with the election, a fun infographic showing the election process, and a Meet the Candidates page featuring the candidates.

Librarians will find this to be an age-appropriate way to introduce children to the key concepts associated with the presidential election. The user-friendly format will draw student interest. Use the short articles for informational reading activities.

Use the timeline, map, and infographics to discuss different ways that information can be presented. Invite youth to create their own visuals to share their understandings.

To visit the website, go to http://election.scholastic.com/.

App Review: NASA's Visualization Explorer

NASA’s VISUALIZATION EXPLORER app provides up-to-date information about NASA’s exploration of the Earth, sun, moon, planets, and universe.

The app features Story Lists by topic including Earth, Planet and Moons, Sun, and Universe. Stories can be saved or bookmarked for later use. Stories include visualizations, animations, and images along with short informational texts.

A sharing tool allows users to copy articles and take notes using the standard tablet features.

Librarians will find this app to be useful for classes working on current events related to science. It would also be an effective tool to jumpstart research projects. The highly visual stories would be particularly useful for students with special needs or reluctant readers.

To download the app, go to https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/nasaviz/.

Website Review: Science News for Students

SCIENCE NEWS FOR STUDENTS is an engaging, informational website produced by the Society for Science & the Public.

The student science news is divided into five themes: atoms & forces, earth & sky, humans & health, life, and tech & math. Within each theme, subtopics are available. A search tool allows users to search by date, topic, source, readability and sort by date.

The short articles include high quality graphics including photographs and sometimes diagrams. “Power words” provide definitions of key words associated with the story and a readability score helps teachers assign articles. Each article ends citations and links to future readings. A variety of social media options are available for article sharing including Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and Google+ along with email and printing.

An educator section provides resources for educators including articles organized by subject, article tools, STEM career resources, and resources for teaching science.

A blogs and resources section includes a “doing science” blog, “Eureka! Lab” blog, science project resources, and competitions.

Along with the student science section, the website also contains information about the society, student science programs, and an adult version of the science news that would also be of interest to older students.

In addition to the free website, a subscription-based service is available for both paper and iPad.

To visit the website, go to https://student.societyforscience.org/sciencenews-students.

Website Review: The Why? Files

THE WHY? FILES: THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE NEW is an outstanding science website exploring the science connected with interesting and important news stories.

Sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison with support from the National Institute for Science Education and National Science Foundation, the website features its newest stories on the entry page. Each story contains background information about the news story, a connection to the scientific topic of interest, related stories, and a bibliography. In addition, the stories incorporate interesting photographs, video clips, charts, diagrams, and other compelling images. A print-friendly version of each page is provided making these articles perfect for informational reading activities in the classroom.

The website includes the following key areas:

The Archives section provides a chronological list of articles by subject area including Arts & Humanities, Biology, Earth & Space, Environment, Health, Physical Science, Social Science, and Technology.

The Weather Guys section addresses questions related to weather science.

The Interactives section provides engaging games and other interactive experiences for youth.

The WHY-TV page displays short video clips on science topics.

The Book Review section focuses on book of interest to high school students and adults.

The Cool Science Images page provides a compelling image along with the back-story related to the visual. These would be wonderful images for scientific investigations or story starters.

The Teaching section is divided into Grades 5-8 and Grades 9-12. Educators can find stories that support the National Science Education standards. The classroom activities page provides discussion questions, activities, and quizzes related to science topics.

The built-in search engine can be used to locate articles by key word.

The website also connects to social media including Facebook and Twitter. The RSS feed makes it easy to incorporate into your library or school website.

To explore the website, go to http://whyfiles.org/.