Website: DLESE

The Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) is a free resource for earth science teachers.

This website supports teaching and learning about the Earth system for all grade levels. Resources include lesson plans, scientific data, visualizations, interactive computer models, and virtual field trips. Resources can be accessed by key word, education level, subject, or resource type. Or, users can browse nearly 16,000 resources.

The Earth Science Literacy Maps provide an easy way to explore Earth science concepts by topic such as changes in the earth’s surface, flow of matter in ecosystems, and plate tectonics. Users are presented with clickable maps to explore concepts and connected science benchmarks.

Librarians will find the resources at this website useful in addressing science standards. Work with teachers to mine the site for useful curriculum materials.

To visit the website, go to http://www.dlese.org.

Website: Earsketch

EARSKETCH is a modular curriculum designed for high school computing courses.

Earsketch is a curriculum to teaches core concepts in computer science, music, and music technology. Students learn Python or JavaSript while manipulating sound loops, composing beats, and creating effects using a multi-track digital audio workstation.

The free learning materials are used along with the web-based application. The website contains a section with resources about the curriculum, a national competition, and information about the TuneTable application.

The Get Started option takes students directly to the online application where students can jump right into the learning materials and online application.

Librarians will find this website to be a fun way to promote coding while connecting to both computer science and music.

To visit the website, go to http://earsketch.gatech.edu.

Website Review: Share My Lesson

SHARE MY LESSON is a free lesson sharing site from the American Federation of Teachers.

Containing hundreds of thousands of lessons, this website is intended to provide high-quality teaching materials for free. Users can access lessons by grade level or by subject area. In addition, standards connections and professional teaching resources are also available. A “top resources” area provides access to popular documents. Educators can also contribute content and share their lessons and ideas.

Librarians will find this website contains a wealth of resources across grade levels and subject areas. Of particular note are the sections focusing on social emotional learning and special needs students.

To visit the resource, go to https://sharemylesson.com.

Digital Collection: Calisphere

CALISPHERE

Contents: Calisphere provides a gateway to digital collections across the state of California from libraries, universities, and museums. Designed with educators in mind, it accesses over 400,000 images, texts, and recordings. Users can explore the collections or exhibitions. Or, use the search tool to conduct a keyword search.

Classroom Connections: The project includes a page specifically for educators with teaching resources. Many of the collections are geared to the K-12 curriculum such as Gold Rush Life.

Featured Digital Objects:
Dr. Suess Artwork - https://goo.gl/BtLok3
Gold Rush Life - https://goo.gl/RfuloU
San Francisco Earthquake and Fire - https://goo.gl/j8n0cd

To visit the collection at https://calisphere.org/.

To explore the educator section, go to https://calisphere.org/for-educators

Digital Collection: Teach Engineering

TEACH ENGINEERING

Contents: This website contains engineering curriculum materials for K-12 educators. Users can browse by unit, lesson, or activities. In addition, “sprinkles” are short, hands-on activities that can be explored. Teachers can also find the most popular choices, examine by grade level, explore by subject areas, or try living lab activities.

Classroom Connections: It can be difficult to find quality engineering lessons to address the STEM curriculum. This collection of teaching resources addresses this need.

Featured Digital Objects:
Sprinkles - https://goo.gl/3EBCqf
Living Labs - https://goo.gl/KRkefa

To visit the collection, https://www.teachengineering.org/

Website Review: Social Explorer

SOCIAL EXPLORER is a website and app that provides access to current and historical data in a visual way.

The easiest way to get started is by choosing the Maps option. Users can explore 220 years of data from 1790 to the present. For instance, students can see how the population centers in the United States have shifted over time. Powerful tools allow users to see maps side-by-side, swipe maps, and annotate maps. The storytelling features allows users to create multi-map presentations that incorporate text, images, video, audio, and annotations.

Users can also explore the Table option to display and download tables of data. The professional version provides access to many more data sets.

The Help section includes excellent instructions for using the website to generate maps and tables.

Although not specifically designed for K-12 students, Social Explorer has lots of potential for teaching and learning across the curriculum. Use the website’s blog to gather lots of ideas for integrating this interactive tool across the curriculum.

American Migrations at http://americanmigrations.uic.edu/ is a project that uses Social Explorer to study African American and Latino migrations through American history.

Census Explorer at http://www.census.gov/censusexplorer/ uses Social Explorer to bring U.S. Census Bureau data alive for learners.

Students can use either the website or app to explore the resources. For access to some features, users need to get an account. Additional resources are available with a subscription to the professional edition.

For the website version, go to http://www.socialexplorer.com.
For the website blog, go to http://www.socialexplorer.com/blog/post.
For the Apple iTunes version, go tohttps://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id731993525.
For the Android version, go to https://play.google.com/store/apps/details….

App Review: Hopscotch

HOPSCOTCH is one of a growing number of apps build to teach programming to children.

The app is a visual programming language designed to help children develop a sense of computational thinking. Youth apply skills in logic and critical thinking to design simple games, animations, and stories.

Inspired by MIT’s Scratch, HOPSCOTCH is the first program designed for mobile devices such as the iPad. Students drag and drop colorful blocks of code to build simply programs. Recommended for children 8 and up, it’s particularly useful for young children who lack advanced reading and typing skills needed for traditional programming.

The free version has limited characters and options. A School Edition of the program is available with these features unlocked.

To learn more about the program, check out the FAQs at http://gethopscotch.com/faq.

To download the free app, go to https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/hopscotch-coding-for-kids/id617098629.

To download the school version, go to https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/hopscotch-school-edition/id901455276

Website Review: Gooru

GOORU is a web-based resource that contains over 70,000 collections of free, K-12 web resources. 

The mission of GOORU is to provide personalized learning for teachers and students. The website allows users to FIND standards-based learning materials, REMIX the resources to create custom collections, SHARE collections, and MONITOR student use of online materials.

Built-in, online tools make this a unique environment for librarians to collaborate with classroom teachers. Educators can create pathfinders and even design questions for students to address.

A dedicated webpage can be created for classes that can be used to build and manage assignments. Images, handouts, and slides can be added to enhance the learning environment.

Begin with a search for a topic such as “erosion” or “American Civil War”. It’s possible to narrow a search by resource format, subject, grade level, standard, publisher and mode. The search returns interactives, lessons, and other web-based resources. Each resource also indicates whether it’s “mobile friendly.” Users can then examine any Gooru collections that contain the resource. In many cases these collections contain a gold mine of ideas and additional resources.

The Gooru iPad app is easy to download and use for school with iPads.

To learn more, go to http://www.goorulearning.org/

Website Review: Digital Literacy

DIGITALLITERACY.GOV is a U.S. government initiative providing resources to assist practitioners including librarians in delivering digital literacy training. This interagency project is intended for all age groups and stages of learning.

The “Find Educator Tools” area provides a quick way to search for resources by skill, topic, or keyword. The “Learn the Basics” section contains an overview of basic technology skills. The section on Child Online Protection links to dozens of quality, online resources on topics including cyberbullying, privacy, and other topics related to child safety. The “Learn Job Skills” provides practical resources related to finding a job, career exploration, creating a resume, and other valuable information.

To learn more, go to http://www.digitalliteracy.gov/

Website & App Review: PBS

PBS has recently updated their web and app presence. Let’s explore some of the options.

PBS LearningMedia at http://pbslearningmedia.org/ provides standards-based lesson ideas organized by grade and subject. A suite of productivity tools can be used to create customized lessons, quizzes, and interactive web pages featuring PBS web content. A search for INTERACTIVE yields more than 1500 interactive tutorials and games for youth across the curriculum. Search for topics related to Standards for the 21st Century Learner. For instance, a search for COPYRIGHT yields videos, interactive, and lessons related to copyright law and youth.

PBS LearningMedia for Students at http://pbslearningmedia.org/student/ is a place where youth can access the materials developed by teachers. They can also used the online tools for creating their own online projects known as “storyboards”.

PBSKids at http://pbskids.org/ continues to provide access to videos, games, and other activities for youth.

PBSVideo at http://video.pbs.org/ provides short excerpts as well as full programs from a wide range of PBS programs.

PBS for iPad can be downloaded from iTunes. This app provides easy access to thousands of full-length videos programs.

For access to all of these websites, go to PBS at http://www.pbs.org/.

Website Review: Stem and the Common Core

STEM AND THE COMMON CORE is a project of Science NetLinks. This website provides lessons that connect nonfiction science trade books with hands-on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activities. Many of the books featured are winners of the AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books and other literary awards.

Dozens of lessons connect books like AN EGG IS QUIET by Dianna Aston, SISTERS & BROTHERS by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page, WHERE IN THE WILD? by David Schwartz and Yael Schy, LOOK UP! BIRD WATCHING IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD by Annette LeBlanc Cate, and THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS by Rebecca Skloot with STEM activities.

To learn more about these K-12 activities connecting STEM with English language arts, go to STEM AND THE COMMON CORE at http://sciencenetlinks.com/collections/stem-and-common-core/