TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Jan 8, 2023
Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive
Ada Lace, Take Me to Your Leader - StoryTime from Space
Grades
1 to 5tag(s): space (320), audio books (48), ebooks (73),
In the Classroom
This ebook could be used as a whole-group activity by sharing the video on your projector. Students could also view the video on individual devices (don't forget the earbuds). This is a great book to use to connect science and language arts. After each part of the story, extend the learning, and have students answer a teacher-directed question or summarize the main events. After parts one or two, you could have students write predictions about what they think will happen next. Challenge your students to create simple blog posts using edublogs, reviewed here. If students are too young for writing, have them create video responses using a tool such as Flip, reviewed here.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Technovation Families - Iridescent
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): design (159), STEM (353), problem solving (407), robotics (43), engineering (199), aeronautics (16), computers (162), oceans (243), gifted (159), makerspace (50), inventors and inventions (147),
In the Classroom
Be sure to take advantage of the free educator units offered with membership. Share project ideas with students as ideas for a school science or engineering fair. Share this site with students interested in exploring careers in science or engineering. Encourage students to enhance their technology use and learning by using a visual blogging tool such as Telegra.ph, reviewed here. With Telegra.ph you just click on an icon to upload images from your computer, add a YouTube or Vimeo, or Twitter links (no registration required), to document their progress while completing projects. Have gifted students choose projects from the site to complete as enrichment within different learning units.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Earliest Voices - Michigan State University
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): biographies (141), inventors and inventions (147), politics (170), sound (135), oral history (20),
In the Classroom
Bringing early voices to life in the classroom can help connect students with these important figures from history. Do their voices sound as you expected? Along with the audio records, you'll find important contextual information about early audio recordings, and about the circumstances surrounding each speech or recording.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Da Vinci - The Genius - The Museum of Science
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): renaissance (62), italy (22), leonardo davinci (10), artists (134), inventors and inventions (147),
In the Classroom
This site is perfect for use on your interactive whiteboard or with a projector. Explore the different portions together during your studies of the Renaissance, inventors, or artists such as Leonardo da Vinci. Share a link to this site on your class webpage for students to explore at home, or to use in your blended class activities. Add a link on classroom computers for use during computer centers. Have students replace paper and pen notes and take digital notes about what they are learnng using a tool like SimpleNote, reviewed here. Enhance students' learning by using Fakebook, reviewed here, to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook about Leonardo da Vinci or other Renaissance artists. Extend student learning by challenging individuals and small groups to take one of the concepts they learned from Leonardo and apply it to something from today's world. Use a bulletin board tool like Lino, reviewed here, to record and save student ideas. With Lino you can create stickies with images, commenting, videos, and more. After individuals and small groups have devoloped their art, invention, etc., have them present their learning and their invention, art, etc. to peers using one of these multimedia tools: Click the tool name to access the review: Genially, Microsoft PowerPoint Online, Animatron, Renderforest, and Canva Inforgraphic Maker.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Do Try This at Home: Invention at Play - Smithsonian Museum of National History
Grades
K to 6tag(s): design (159), problem solving (407), inventors and inventions (147), biographies (141), creativity (186), collaboration (121),
In the Classroom
Create a link to the site on classroom computers for students to explore the games. Share the site with parents on your classroom website or blog as a resource for using play as a learning tool. Share the site at conferences or parent meetings as a resource for developing learning skills through play. Include the inventor biographies as a resource for students when researching inventors.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Great Inventions, Great Inventors - edinformatics.com
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): inventors and inventions (147),
In the Classroom
Find information for science and technology reports on this site. Allow students to view the dates of many of the inventions to determine what scientific principle was just known to push technological thinking. For younger students, create a timeline of inventions to enhance learning and determine the impact of science, economy, and society on inventions. Use a site such as Sutori, reviewed here, that can include images, text, and collaboration. Ask older students to choose an invention and research other forms of that model, alternatives before and after, and what we are using today. Discuss environmental impacts, how the invention changed society, and other impacts.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Inventors and Inventions Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): inventors and inventions (147),
In the Classroom
This collection includes resources for all grades. Each review includes several classroom use ideas. These are excellent tools to use to study science, social studies, and more! Explore the activities suggested. Share sites on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Provide the link on your class website for students to access both in and out of class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Kikki\'s Workshop - Komatsu, Ltd.
Grades
K to 5tag(s): engineering (199), machines (48), simple machines (58), inventors and inventions (147),
In the Classroom
During a physics unit on simple machines, have students look at the various components of the heavy equipment and analyze which simple machines they see as PART of these huge machines. Doing a unit on inventions? Discuss how the inventions of these machines were designed specifically to meet a need. Use this site during a unit on engineering as you learn about how these machines are designed to accomplish a specific task. With older students, discuss the uses of the anti-mine equipment. Create a class "Construction Wiki" where all students contribute after researching specific equipment. Not comfortable with wikis? Have no wiki worries - check out the TeachersFirst's Wiki Walk-Through. A wiki tool suggestion is PBWorks, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Design Squad Global - PBS Kids GO!
Grades
4 to 9tag(s): engineering (199), sound (135), inventors and inventions (147),
In the Classroom
The possibilities at this site are "inventive." Visit the games site to learn about sound and play an interactive "string thing." Have students work in cooperative learning groups to recreate the building activities. Share the video clips (or interactives) on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Have your class complete one of the "real life" challenges together. If you can't do it during the competition months, go back and try one of the past competitions. Document it on a class wiki, then invite next year's class to do it even better by learning from "experience." Before you know it, kids will walk in the first day of school and ask when they get to try the challenge.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Inventor of the Week - MIT Lemelson Center
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): scientists (93), inventors and inventions (147),
In the Classroom
Use the Inventor Archive as an activator at the beginning of every week in a science or Physics classroom. This could be used as an activator over the interactive whiteboard, a projector, or as a learning center or station. This could be used every week or before inventive projects, serving as a motivator!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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USPTO - United States Patent and Trademark Office - United States Patent and Trademark Office
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): video (456), inventors and inventions (147), STEM (353), crafts (80), sound (135), sports (157), digital citizenship (139),
In the Classroom
Whether an elementary, middle, or high school teacher you'll find ideas for building model rockets and more. Use an interactive whiteboard or projector and start by viewing the video on the home page titled Extraordinary Innovations. Or, in your blended or flipped class have students watch the video at home and enhance their learning by using playposit, reviewed here, to take notes, make comments, or ask questions to document what they learned from the video. Be sure to have a small or whole group discussion about what they learned from the video using their notes & comments the next day! At the end of your lesson or unit on patents and trademarks, transform learning by challenging students to create a timeline for the invention of the snowboard, or motorcycles, or another topic of interest. Why not modify classroom technology and make this an interactive timeline with music, photos, videos, and more using Timeline JS, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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How Stuff Works - Howstuffworks, Inc.
Grades
4 to 10tag(s): trivia (30), questioning (51), independent reading (155),
In the Classroom
Use this site as an "activator" to introduce a new science unit or lesson on a projector. It could also be a great way to introduce informational speeches/videos and how to write them. The videos on earth and life science topics provide a great launchpad for further class discussions. Participate in the poll of the day. Use the trivia and facts section for interesting ways to get kids thinking in class. Use this site for students to "show and tell" something they have learned. Use the information presented here to understand better how science is applied in our everyday lives. This activity would work well for individual or pairs of students in a lab or on laptops. Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students explore this site independently or in small groups. Ask students to visit the site and give them a choice for how to share the information they learned by creating a multimedia presentation using Canva Edu, reviewed here, a video using Adobe Express Video Maker, reviewed here, a podcast using Podcast Generator, reviewed here, or a blog post using edublogs, reviewed here. Use this site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Be sure to include this site on your class web page for students to access both in and outside of class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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