Group+3


 * Here are my web evaluations: [|web-rubric.doc]

Shedd Aquarium** Elizabeth Barton [|Shedd Aquarium] The Shedd Aquarium website is a great hands-on learning experience for elementary school children. They learn about different marine life through activities that the website provides. Students learn about different habitats, life styles of different fish, and the diets as well. Along with interactive activities, this website also provides a substantial amount of information about different fish lives. Students are allowed to enter different habitats and explore the creatures that live within them. This website is great for science teachers everywhere who are teaching their students about oceans and marine life. Teachers will be able to use this site to teach students about the water wonders of the world. They will be able to explore different habitats of marine life right from their computers and feel like they are actually at the aquarium. Students are able to experience knowledge through a fun and creative way. From building ones own fish to coloring a picture of a habitat to exploring the habitats themselves, students will be able to learn by having fun. However, like all websites, this website does have its drawbacks. Even though it is a great website for younger children and elementary school children, this website isn't the best for the higher grade levels. It caters to lower grades. Older students would find this website juvenile.

The Shedd Aquarium website is a good website to use for Science lessons. I particularly enjoyed the Fact Sheets on the right hand side. This is good and supportive for teaching and learning because it gives a lot of information to the students about a certain type of marine animal. Also, it gives a picture of the marine animal, which would help the child associate the animal with what it looks like and help them learn. I would use it in my classroom to give extra information about the animals and guide my students in writing a report about an animal. -EG

I really enjoyed this website! I liked how the interactive game let the children explore life under the sea. The site was always easy to navigate, and it wasn't cluttered at all. Like Elizabeth, I too liked the fact sheet on the side of the page. This would be very fun in the classroom and it is very supportive of teaching!-EF

Elizabeth Barton [|Nature Works] Nature Works is a great website for teachers who are teaching students about the environment and nature. This is a very easy to use website that provides a wave of information. Teachers will be able to use this website to show their students clips of different concepts in the environment like adaptation, communication, and much more. Also this website provides information about anything and everything a student would want to know about the environment. It also gives many fun facts about different animals and habitats. Teachers will be able to assign students different aspects of the environment and they will be able to research them on Nature Works. It is a interactive website that allows students to explore different areas of the environment. Students will also be able to test their knowledge on different categories of information about the environment. Even though this website is a great source of information and if very interactive, it lacks color and enthusiasm. This website is very bland aside from a picture here or there. Students might lose attention quickly because of the design of the website. Overall though, this website is great for science teachers.
 * Nature Works**

Here is my web evaluation rubrics. Below are the comments.

Ali Danforth http://frog.edschool.virginia.edu/Frog2/home.html Net Frog is a wonderful website that enables children to participate in the dissection of a frog without harm. It has many different types of tools and interactions to be used for children with different learning types. It includes video footage, pictures, audio, and step by step instructions. Teachers can easily access the site by computer and provide instruction in the dissection to help students understand the inner workings of a frog (seeing how their systems are similar to humans). Also, with this website less frogs will suffer from formaldehyde suffocation and more children will be willing to participate than if using real frogs. However, the major drawback of this website or any simulation is the lack of realism. In other words, the fact that the children are looking at fuzzy pictures and not the organs themselves. It is not a breakthrough technology website, but for a free dissection simulation it most defiantly works very well. Net Frog can be used in the classroom to either be practice before or instead the actual dissection.
 * Net Frog**

This website is a great website for students who don't like the concept of disecting frogs that were once living. It allows them to have the same experience as the other students without killing a frog. This is a great alternative for those who believe strongly in animals rights.-EB

I thought that this website was very cool...especially for those who do not feel comfortable dissecting a real frog! I liked how it included all the steps and video and footage. This would also be helpful for students to prepare before actually dissecting a real frog. Very cool!-EF

Ali Danforth http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/storm-chasers/handbook/handbook.html The Tornado Handbook is a great interactive stimulation of the formation of a tornado. If a teacher was presenting the subject matter of weather, this site could be used as an aid. Instead of the students viewing pictures or illustrations in a text book they could learn from this 3-D interaction. It seems it would be easier to comprehend the formation in the step by step process this website provides. One problem that could occur with the site is the fact that younger students or students with disabilities could have a hard time reading the captions and actually understanding what is occurring in the stimulation. Otherwise this website is very precise and organized in demonstrating all the specific steps that must occur for a tornado to occur. Another thing that can be good for students is the section about the tornado alley. Teachers could use this information for a project or to show students, relative to where they live, where tornados may occur. Overall the site is very inviting and interesting.
 * Storm Chasers: Tornado Handbook**

The “Tornado Handbook” website is from a reliable source, Discovery Channel. The first downfall I noticed was that the Handbook took a while to load. I enjoyed the simulations and thought that it would be wonderful to be used as a Science lesson. I like how the Tornado Power part of the Handbook allowed you to choose different levels of tornados. There was good usage of pictures and color. It supports teaching and learning by appealing to visual learners and allowing them to watch different things relating to tornados. This can be used in the classroom when doing a Science lesson and letting students see how tornados form, different levels of tornados, and who would be most likely to be caught in a tornado. -EG



Emily Fischer http://pbskids.org/lions/games/ This site will be very useful in a first grade classroom. The site offers different games to offer the children with spelling. The site supports teaching and learning because it is a hands-on interactive way that students can learn their spelling. They can also get on the site outside of the classroom and practice their spelling. This website can be used in the classroom as an extra activity; students can get on the site, play the game, and learn all at the same time. It can be a fun learning experience for the children. Although the site is good for spelling, it only offers so much. The games can get repetitive and old after a while, and it may only be useful for students who need extra help. Even though the site may be limiting, it was very straightforward, uncluttered, and easy to follow.
 * Between the Lions**

I really enjoy this website. I feel it would be a great interactive game for younger children to understand the different suffixes of words. Not only are they having fun, but they are learning (at least hopefully). Plus, the site is very well designed with little distractions other than the game. Great! -AD

Emily Fischer http://www.abc.net.au/countusin/games/game8.htm This website is a site that has a lot of different math games that help with basic math skills. The site offers 15 different games, each game progressively getting harder. This is good for learning and teaching, because it is hands on and the student can teach themselves while going at a pace that helps them. Students will be able to easily pick up on different math concepts by playing the games and watching the interactive videos that go along with the games. This can be used in a classroom as an extra fun activity that students will get to do. This site is organized fairly well and there is not a lot of clutter. There really are no limitations to this site.
 * Count Us In**

This is a great website for students who are just beginning math or those who have advance math skills. It is a great interactive website that is a fun way to learn math. -EB

//Elizabeth Gill// Here are my web evaluations

By Elizabeth Gill [] The “I’m Reading!” website is a wonderful website to use in my classroom when I’m teaching Reading. I haven’t quite figured out what subject I want to teach, but I know as an elementary teacher I will teach reading at some point. This website supports teaching and learning because it allows the student to go at their own pace. They can read each word in the interactive books slowly, sound them out, and then click on the word to see if they read the word right. Also, it supports teaching and learning because it is interactive. The limitations of this site are that when you are at the main page of the website, it is kind of hard (from a young child’s perspective) to navigate to a certain page you want to learn from. There are big labels for the different web pages, but if I was a younger child, I would probably get distracted by all the information on one page. Otherwise, there were not many other limitations. I can use this website in my classroom by letting individual students have computer time, and during a Reading lesson, they can come to the computer and work on their reading skills. It will help them to be able to sound out words from a book and check to see if they are right, and then have the satisfaction of reading a short book all by themselves.
 * I’m Reading!**

I thought that this site would be very helpful for young learners. I really liked the way that the reading selections were divided by genre, because it made the page a lot more organized and easy to navigate. I also liked how in some sections more than one student can participate in the readings. I think that this would be very useful for students who need help with reading and that it is a great site!-EF

By Elizabeth Gill [] The “Reading” website is another site that can be very useful for Reading and English lessons. It supports teaching and learning because this site can be more of a collaborative effort to read a book with your classmates. You can go at your own pace, be creative with the Mad Libs, and also learn some parts of speech through the Mad Libs (i.e. nouns, adjectives, etc.). The limitations with this site are that there is more extra material that I do not feel is appropriate for elementary students to become distracted by, especially if you have not viewed it yourself. It is not anything bad, but if you want your student to stay focused, there are many other links that could distract them from completing your assigned task. Also, like “I’m Reading!” when you are at the main page, it is kind of hard to navigate to the particular web page you want to be at. It does have big icons that stand out and are the main subjects of the website, but I just felt it was harder for students to navigate. I can use this website in my classroom by letting my students join with a few of their classmates and having them read a book together. Also, they can join together and be creative by completing a Mad Lib. They can then share it with the class so we all can join in on the fun.
 * Reading**

Here is our Choice #2 Video Project:

This video is a demonstration of how to do a oral history report. It show the students a proper introduction, background information, and conclusion.

media type="youtube" key="JuE0Ha3M4ss" height="295" width="480"

These are the links to our sources: [|National Geographic] (summary of pages 1-22)

[|Sacagawea]