Website: Kaggle

KAGGLE is a website focusing on data science projects.

Watch the “see how it works” video to get started. Users can then search for information or choose from sections of the website. A login option allows users to organize datasets and participate in activities.

The Competitions section shows projects currently seeking participants. While some projects involve real-money, others simply provide kudos. This project provides wonderful examples of real-world applications of data. Several of the projects are appropriate for K-12 students and citizen scientists. Teachers can even host free competitions for students to apply machine language to real problems.

The Datasets search lists thousands of tagged datasets and provides the option to organize datasets for personal use. Users can sort by project size, file type, license, and tags.

The Kernels area awards money to authors of high quality kernels on datasets each week.

The Discussions section provide access to information for beginners, technical information, requests for data, and learning resources.

The Learn section provides practical data skills including Python, machine language, visualization, SQL, and more.

Other sections of the website provide additional resources such as a jobs area, blog, and documentation.

Librarians will find this website useful in teaching data literacy. Use the website to locate projects and encourage teachers across the curriculum to think about ways to integrate data projects into the classroom.

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

Book Review: Scrapkins: Re-Thunk

SCRAPKINS: RE-THUNK by Brian Yanish provides engaging activities and easy to follow directions for creating fun projects from common household materials.

This visually appealing book contains dozens of activities that involve using materials that people often throw away such as empty milk cartons, cereal boxes, and bottle caps. In addition to providing detailed instructions for creating instruments, puppets, and toys, the book also contains lots of other activities to maintain interest and spark creativity.

Librarians will find this nonfiction book to be popular with children who enjoy arts and crafts. Place the book in a maker space containing the raw materials necessary to create some of the projects. Display the results in the library to highlight the arts and crafts section of the library.

Go to the Scrapkins website at http://www.thescrapkins.com/ for lots more ideas.

Published by Henry Holt, an imprint of Macmillan on March 29, 2016. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

Tech Review: Kinetic City: Active Explorer

KINETIC CITY: ACTIVE EXPLORER is a website and app used by educators to create Quests for their students.

Sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, educators use the website to build Quests using an easy-to-use web-based template. These activities may ask students to conduct experiments, observe their environment, or create a product. The Quest lists specific activities and lists of tasks for students to accomplish. Youth can share their notes, images, audio, video, and other communications using the App. They can also answer questions or create a chart.

Students create accounts and log in using the app to create their projects using a tool called SmartWorks. Youth can create comic strips, posters, ebooks and other projects.

The website also includes both a SmartWork Gallery of student projects and a Quest Gallery showing teacher-generated activities for grades K-12.

Librarians will find this easy-to-use website and app useful across the curriculum. It only takes a few minutes to create a Quest for students. Learners of all ages can use the app to record data and build projects that can be shared.

To learn more, go to http://www.active-explorer.com/.

Website Review: Zooniverse

ZOONIVERSE is a website that provides users the chance to participate in real discoveries through citizen science projects.

This collaborative volunteer project lets users contribute to real-world, cutting edge research across content areas including the sciences and humanities.

Participants can jump into dozens of current projects including transcribing historical documents, recording the life of chimpanzees, and characterizing bat calls.

Daily Zooniverse provides engaging, quick resources and activities that would make great lesson starters.

The Talk area provides a place where users can ask questions. The Blog shares the latest project news.

The companion website, ZOOTEACH contains high-quality lessons and resources that connect with the citizen science projects in the areas of sciences, mathematics, humanities, and arts. Resources are available for K-12 and higher education.

Librarians will find the many authentic projects a great catalyst for inquiry and learning. Use one of the projects to jumpstart an investigation in your library.

Visit the website at https://www.zooniverse.org/.

Visit the lessons at http://www.zooteach.org/.

Website Review: Author Jan Brett

JAN BRETT’s author website has been providing quality activities related to her books for nearly 20 years.

The Books section contains a complete booklist with high quality cover art. It also links to activities associated with each book.

The Activities area contains dozens of fun projects including bulletin board materials, bookmarks, certificates, alphabet resources, recipes, flashcards, and links to interactive games.

The Games pages including both computer games that can be played online and board games that can be created on paper.

The Coloring Pages provide thematic links to coloring pages that can be printed online or downloaded as PDF files.

The Murals section provides ideas and images that can be used to create murals for the library or classroom.

The videos page contains videos of Jan Brett drawing as well as her appearances and visits.

Users can use the email and printable cards pages to create communications. Or, listen to Jan Brett’s Hedge-a-Gram to hear directly from the author.

Keep up-to-date on what’s happening with Jan Brett on her blog. Participate in contests to win books and author visits. The Media and About pages provide information about the author.

This website contains endless ideas for library and classroom author and picture book activities.

Go to the website at http://www.janbrett.com/.

Website Review: Build with Chrome

The BUILD WITH CHROME website provides users skills and tools for building exciting digital LEGO projects.

The LEGO Master Builder Academy section takes users through a series of challenges to help develop LEGO construction skills. Users are provided with tools and directions for creating basic projects. Completion of projects leads to new levels.

The WORLD OF BUILD area provides a map showing LEGO projects that have been created around the world. Users can pick a spot and add their own work.

The LEGO Build section displays a plate and bricks. Users can build their own projects. Users can share their work with others by copying the URLs provided.

Librarians can use this website as part of a display featuring LEGO books, bricks, and other materials related to the LEGO theme.

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