From: "Education World Reviews Newsletter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 12:52:25 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Education World Site Reviews Vol. 7 Issue 17
Education World Reviews ---------------------------------- Volume 7, Issue 17 April 24, 2002 ********************************************** Dear Education Professionals, Welcome to the Site Reviews Newsletter, published weekly as a free service by Education World(R)! You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to Education World's Site Reviews Distribution list. If you enjoy this newsletter, please feel free to forward it to other teachers! If this newsletter has been forwarded to you, you may sign up at http://www.educationworld.com/maillist.shtml ********************************************** Education World's newsletter is brought to you by ESPN SportsFigures ESPN SportsFigures is a half-hour weekly program presented commercial-free on ESPN or ESPN2 since 1995 (check your local listings for time and channel). Designed as a teaching tool for high school teachers (grades 9-12), SportsFigures features well-known athletes using sports to teach math and physics concepts to high school students. Top athletes who have appeared on SportsFigures include Derek Jeter, Tiger Woods, Juwan Howard, Julie Foudy, Dan O'Brien, John McEnroe, Chipper Jones, Steve Young, Adam Oates, Jamal Anderson, Napoleon Kaufman, Brad Faxon and many others. The ESPN SportsFigures curriculum guide provides a unique tool for math and physics teachers that helps boost classroom participation. The guides are free of charge and are designed to work hand in hand with the SportsFigures Video Collection, a set of seven videos representing the best episodes from the series. Please click here http://www.educationworld.com/go/base?id=ESP ********************************************** THIS WEEK'S REVIEWS ********************************************** The Napoleonic Guide http://www.educationworld.com/awards/2002/r0402-15.shtml A one-stop resource for the Napoleonic era. WonderNet: Your Science Place in CyberSpace http://www.educationworld.com/awards/2002/r0402-16.shtml Hands-on science activities. Book TV.org http://www.educationworld.com/awards/2002/r0402-17.shtml Watch and listen as authors discuss their books. Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging Tutorial http://www.educationworld.com/awards/2002/r0402-18.shtml Learn about digitizing documents. Serious Lego http://www.educationworld.com/awards/2002/r0402-19.shtml Creative problem solving. ****************************** REVIEWS ****************************** OVERALL GRADE: A The Napoleonic Guide http://www.napoleonguide.com/ GRADE LEVEL: 9-12 CONTENT: A This site offers more than 1,000 pages of information on all aspects of the Napoleonic era. AESTHETICS: A The guide is easy to use and somewhat bland with mostly text and a few graphics. ORGANIZATION: A Content is organized into broad categories and further subdivided by topic. All topics are linked from the main page. To quickly locate information, try the site map and index. REVIEW: A Students, teachers, history buffs, or anyone with an interest in French history from 1796 through 1815 will want to visit the Napoleonic Guide. There is a lot of information covered here, and students will find it a useful resource for report writing. In addition to information about Napoleon himself, his family, and his career, the site offers information on other aspects of the era, such as major powers and coalitions, battles and campaigns, armies and soldiers, and much more. Key images, maps, lyrics to songs and a glossary are also provided. If you want to check your knowledge of the times, give the weekly quiz a try. Each week, ten new questions are offered. The site is continually being added to and updated. RELATED REVIEWS: History: General History http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/history.shtml History: Biographies http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/history.shtml#Biographies History: Wars http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/history.shtml#Wars History: World History http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/history.shtml#World Social Sciences: Political Science http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/soc_sci.shtml#Political%20S cience ------------------------------- OVERALL GRADE: A WonderNet: Your Science Place in CyberSpace http://chemistry.org/portal/Chemistry?PID=wondernetdisplay.html&DOC=wonderne t\index.html GRADE LEVEL: K-6, Parents CONTENT: A WonderNet, part of the larger Chemistry.com site from the American Chemical Society, offers hands-on science activities and explanations for children and adults. AESTHETICS: A The site uses graphics and colors that make it appealing to a younger audience. ORGANIZATION: A The left-side menu makes the site easy to navigate. Content is organized into four main areas: Activities, Grown-Ups, What's Up, and Past Issues. REVIEW: A The WonderNet activities can be used in the classroom and in the home school to supplement the curriculum or as fun learning experiences for parents and their children to do together. The activities cover a variety of topics, from solutions to volcanoes and gases to chemical reactions. The hands-on approach encourages students to use the scientific process. There is a section just for grown-ups that gives the science behind the activity, explains how the activity complements the science curriculum, and offers a downloadable file of science fair ideas. Connections of the science principles to everyday life are explored in the What's Up? area. Included is an archive of topics from the previous months. updated. RELATED REVIEWS: Science: General http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/science.shtml Science: Chemistry http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/science.shtml#Chemistry Parents: Family Fun http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/parents.shtml#Family%20Fun Parents: Home Schooling http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/parents.shtml#Home%20School ing Students: General http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/students.shtml ------------------------------ OVERALL GRADE: A+ Book TV.org http://www.booktv.org GRADE LEVEL: K-12 CONTENT: A+ Book TV.org is the companion site to the weekend program Book TV that C-SPAN2 runs regularly on nonfiction books. The site contains archives of the popular programs that can be viewed right from your desktop. AESTHETICS: A+ The site uses a simple table, adequate spacing, and few graphics to keep the pages neat. Visitors will need RealPlayer to view the video. ORGANIZATION: A+ Navigating is made easy with index bars at the top and bottom of each page for the entire site. A left-side navigation menu allows visitors to explore the different programs aired on Book TV. Users can search the site by category, book title, author, or keyword. REVIEW: A+ Students, teachers, and parents will find Book TV.org to be a valuable resource for the study of nonfiction literature. Students can watch and listen as the authors themselves discuss their books. Visitors to the site can access the TV program archives by clicking on the Watch Online button on the top menu bar or by clicking on the program categories: History on BookTV, Public Lives, Encore Booknotes, Featured Program, and Children's Books. The site has a two-month archive of each program, and the featured books have a description, a brief author's bio, and a link to watch the video online. Included at the site are bestseller lists, programming information, and reviews of books featured in upcoming shows, as well as a list of national and international book events. RELATED REVIEWS: Literature: General Literature http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/lit.shtml Literature: American Literature http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/lit.shtml#American Literature: Children's Literature http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/lit.shtml#Children's Literature: World Literature http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/lit.shtml#World ------------------------------- OVERALL GRADE: A Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging Tutorial http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/tutorial/ GRADE LEVEL: Professional CONTENT: A Created by the Cornell University Library Department of Preservation and Conservation and funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, this tutorial provides institutions a comprehensive overview of the issues in converting documents to digital format. AESTHETICS: A The professional layout is appealing and easy to follow. The tutorial is available in English and Spanish and can be downloaded in PDF format. Acrobat Reader is required to view or print it. ORGANIZATION: A The tutorial is divided into chapters and is easily navigated by using the "navigation wheel" in the upper right-hand corner or the navigation bar and subtitles on the left side of the page. REVIEW: A Although this tutorial is provided for the purpose of transforming historical and cultural documents to digitized form, much of the content is relevant for anyone interested in digital imaging. The tutorial explains the various steps in creating digital images and the technology needed. Such technical topics as resolution/threshold, color and tone, and file formats are discussed as well as presentation techniques. Included is information on how scanners work, scanner types, and image processing. Each chapter has links to additional reading and checks for understanding along the way. For those involved in digital publication, there is information on selection and file management. RELATED REVIEWS: Educational Technology: Digital: Images, Video, & Animation http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/ed_tech.shtml#Digital:%20Im ages,%20Video,%20&%20Animation Internet: Tutorials http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/internet.shtml#Tutorials Reference: Library Resources http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/ref.shtml#Library%20Resourc es ------------------------------- OVERALL GRADE: A Serious Lego http://www.jpbrown.i8.com/ GRADE LEVEL: 6-12, Advanced CONTENT: A The creator of this site, hobbyist J. P. Brown, shows how Lego building blocks can be used for creative problem solving. AESTHETICS: A The site uses pictures and animations in a user-friendly format. Some of the instructions are in a downloadable DAT file (the standard format for exchanging LDraw-compatible building instruction files). ORGANIZATION: A The various creations are linked on the main page, and each internal page has a link back to the home page. REVIEW: A The thought of Legos conjures up the image of children snapping blocks together to create simple structures. But this site is not child's play! As the site's name indicates, "serious Lego" users create these devices. For each device, a picture accompanies notes that explain the design process and an animation shows how the device works. All the devices were created using Lego's MindStorm series of robot components that include plastic blocks, microprocessors, motors, and digital cameras. For instance, the Cube Solver was created to solve the Rubik's Cube using video color recognition software and a digital camera. This Web site would be a great tool to use in the classroom to spark creativity, curiosity, and initiative. RELATED REVIEWS: Students: General http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/students.shtml Math & Finance: General Math http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/math.shtml Science: General http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/science.shtml ********************************************** Sincerely, Lisa Gryskiewicz =================================== Education World (R) http://www.educationworld.com/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] =================================== ******************************************* For digest instead of individual postings, send the message: set k12newsletters digest to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe, click and send (no body or subject: required) mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] K12 Newsletters mailing list is a service of Classroom Connect - http://www.classroom.com Archives for K12 Newsletters can be found at: http://www.classroom.com/community/email/archives.jhtml?A0=K12NEWSLETTERS **********************************************************
