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Gleason Sackmann (gleason@rrnet.com)
Tue, 1 Feb 2000 07:05:11 -0600

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From: root@educationplanet.com [mailto:root@educationplanet.com]
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2000 4:15 PM

You have received this newsletter because you have signed up
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Check out the new Curriculum Corner Page - A collection
of resources just in time for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Just scroll down to the bottom of the main Education Planet
page at http://www.educationplanet.com to find the Curriculum
Corner Box to access these subtopics: general sites, biograpy,
chronology, lesson plans, articles, legacy, famous quotes,
speeches, organizations, MLK Holiday, images, video, audio,
children's activities, student web pages and bibliography.

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Top Sites This Week: These sites has been awarded the Education
Planet 'Top Site Award' by our teacher/reviewers for their quality
content and usefulness to educators and students.

1) Science: Mineral Gallery
http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/by-name.htm Interested
in finding out what those minerals are in that rock on your
desk? Check out this site. If you know the mineral by name you
can look it up to find out what its chemical formula is, where it
is found, how it occurs, what its physical characteristics are,
and what specimens of the mineral look like. If you don't know it
by name, then you can look it up by class or do a search based on
one of its properties. There is also considerable information
about the physical properties themselves including taste.
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2) Math: Fun Mathematics Lessons
http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/Lessons/ Time to put on your
thinking cap. Here are a wide variety of fun mathematics
problems to challenge your students. Kids see if you
can beat your parents. Areas convered include patterns,
fractions, geometry, cartography, and algebra. There is
also a "I Love Calculus" page with numerous calculus links.
One of my favorites sections is Pattern Block/Fractions:
"No Matter What Shape Your Fractions are In" which uses
multicolored shapes and patterns for fraction investigations.
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3) Social Science: Emergency Management for Kids
http://www.fema.gov/kids/icons.htm Many kids are interested in
disasters. This site goes beyond disasters to present information
about emergency preparedness as well. Because we cannot
prevent most disasters, the aim is to better prepare families
for disasters. There is information about disaster planning and
preparing your house but there is also post-disaster support for
kids. There are games for kids, FEMA publications for teachers
and parents, disaster pictures and video clips, stories about
the Disaster Twins and a variety of Internet links for further
information. ---------------------------------------------------

4) Language Arts: The Big6 Information Skills http://www.big6.com/
The Big6 Model of Information Problem-Solving is a six step guide
to take a student through all the steps needed for successfully
completing an information-based project. Each step involves
analysis by the student and problem solving so active learning
is fostered. Students are asked to define the problem and then to
find and assess the available resources. Gathering the information
comes next followed by synthesis. The last step involves
evaluating the project and the overall process. These six steps go
a long way towards teaching students how to deal with information
effectively so they do not get lost in our current information
glut. ---------------------------------------------------

5) Online Project: Westward Ho!
http://www.internet-catalyst.org/projects/WWHO/wwho.html Divide
your students up into wagon parties and join other classes
online as they journey along the virtual Oregon Trail for a 4
week journey. Each wagon's journey is affected by travel and
fate cards sent weekly via email. Participants can interact
with other groups via message boards, videoconferences and
official chats. There are detailed lesson plans, teaching
tips, teaching resources, and reference materials to accompany
this unit. Make history come alive to your students as
they assume historial personages and make decisions about
their journey. Leni Donlan donlan@internet-catalyst.org
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6) Lesson Plan: The Academy Curriculum Exchange
http://ofcn.org/cyber.serv/academy/ace/ Over 700 lesson plans
are archived here and arranged into Elementary, Intermediate and
High School levels by subject. Many of these lesson plans were
written during the Columbia Education Center's Summer Workshops
by a consortium of teachers from 14 states and were designed
to especially improve the teaching of math and science in the
rural west. In addition to language arts, science, math and social
studies, there are many art lessonplans listed in the miscellaneous
category. ---------------------------------------------------