Educational Internet Websites

By Peggy Steffens

Here are some of the best Educational Tools available for teachers and students.  This issue we will share some sites on an Ancient Egyptian Adventure, telling time, interactive science labs, historic video clips and Internet Safety. 

Death in Sakkara - An Egyptian Adventure

Richard Clingaman, teacher at Coronado K-8, discovered an outstanding interactive website by the BBC called "Death in Sakkara - An Egyptian Adventure."   It is like reading an interactive book that requires the student to choose what the main character says and does to help Charles Fox, a British journalist in 1929, find a lost archaeologist in Egypt.  Fox keeps a detailed journal with a diary, notes, and maps. The site provides in-depth information about ancient Egyptian beliefs, customs, and religion. 

There are four episodes and the students receive a "secret password" that allows them to complete episode 1 and come back later to do episode 2.  Each episode takes about 30 minutes depending how good the student is at solving the puzzles.  When the student is successful he/she receives more clues about the missing archaeologist's location.  Richard used this site with his humanities students.  He created questions for each of the four episodes (Contact Peggy Steffens and she will send them to you).  These were developed to slow down students to make them think, reflect on their learning and research facts in the journal.  Students have said that this is "the best homework they have ever had to do."  Another student replied, "It's not homework, its fun."  Richard shared that the class had great discussions about the content they are learning as they go through this adventure too.  Richard says “This is probably one of the best things I have ever found on the web.”  It is an excellent example of 21^st century learning and engaging the Net Generation learner.  The BBC also has a mystery that takes place in ancient Rome where the reader must interview experts to solve a murder. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/launch_gms_death_sakkara.shtml

Teaching Time
 

Cris Cisco from Harelson Elementary school shared this Internet Site that she uses with her students to teach the concept of elapsed time.  The clocks ca be displayed in digital or normal view and the teacher can change the difficulty level. http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/clock3/

In addition, Wilson teacher, Jan Horetski uses the Time for Time website as teaching tool to demonstrate concepts about the clock. http://www.time-for-time.com/swf/myclox.swf

Interactive Science Website

Niki Tillicki from Wilson K-8 school uses the ASPIRE Lab website with her students.  Aspire Lab provides interactive science education websites that are well designed with curriculum content created by teachers for teachers. The site offers inquiry-based content and hands-on labs to provide a powerful visualization tool for students to use. The sites has lessons on lunar phases, tides, scientific method, seismic waves and more.  http://aspire.cosmic-ray.org/

Historic Video Clips from Google

An agreement between the National Archives and Google has created the addition of historic video footage to the search engine.  Students and teachers can view events like the Apollo moon landing and Japan's surrender in World War II free of charge through the Google Video search portal.   Explore the National Archives footage on Google Video
at http://video.google.com/nara.html  or the National Archives at http://www.archives.gov

Wiredsafety.org

We need to help our students stay safe on the Internet and cyberspace.  Wiredsafety.org provides information for teachers, librarians, and parents on topics such as blogs and diary web sites, cell phone safety, scams, child pornography and much more.  Share information on this page with students and parents and keep our children safe. http://www.wiredsafety.org/educators.html