Network Montana Project Instructional Materials
http://www.math.montana.edu/~nmp/
Montana State University maintains the Network Montana Project Instructional Materials Web site. The four subject areas covered include the atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and mountain environments. Each of these contain "Information Rich Problem Solving Activities" categorized by expertise level ranging from novice to expert. In the geosphere novice level, for example, the Exploding Mountain exercise lets students compare before and after volcano images, learn about lava, and explore locations of currently erupting volcanoes. The online lessons have interactive graphics, well-written text, and a fun overall feel that should encourage kids to keep learning. [JAB]
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WorldAtlas.com
http://www.graphicmaps.com/aatlas/world.htm
WorldAtlas.com was created by the maps company Graphic Maps in an "effort to aid students, teachers, travelers and parents with their geography and map questions." The information-rich site lets users explore countries of the world through a wide array of maps, descriptions, current times, flags, populations, land size, and links to other relevant sites. Other items of interest include geography quizzes; a very neat list of the highest, lowest, biggest, smallest, tallest, deepest, oldest, youngest, richest, and poorest places on earth; a geography message board; and more. Although the site employs the use of an annoyingly large amount of pop-up ads, the quality of the material within definitely makes exploring worthwhile. [JAB]
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TEACH Great Lakes
http://www.great-lakes.net/teach/
The TEACH Great Lakes Web site is provided by the Great Lakes Information Network (last mentioned in the September 15, 1995 Scout Report). The site features online lessons specific to Great Lakes subjects such as the environment, geography, and pollution. Students can begin with the Introduction to the Great Lakes module and then move on to learn about water levels, shoreline geology, water pollution, and even explore the history and culture or careers and business areas as well. Geared for elementary through high school students, the activities present easily read material along with good photographs and other interesting graphics. Overall, the site provides good information on interesting topics with which students will enjoy becoming familiar as part of their science related curriculum. [JAB]
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Playtime Wizard
http://interactive2.usgs.gov/learningweb/fun/bingo.htm
More fun activities from the US Geological Survey's Learning Web Site (last mentioned in the January 25, 2002 Scout Report) can be found on the Playtime Wizard page. The site has a couple of featured links along with a collection of other USGS and non-USGS sites. The two items of interest include the Learning Web Trivia Game and Topo Bingo. The Trivia Game contains interactive quizzes on earthquakes, amphibians, mapping, and water. Each quiz asks a series of questions and links to pages that contain the correct information. The Topo Bingo page lets students or educators download various maps for the activity, which teaches kids about topographic maps and the symbols used on them. Nearly any aged student learning about the world around them will find these activities enjoyable. [JAB]
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Funology
http://www.funology.com/laboratory/index.cfm
The Funology Web site hopes to teach kids how to make things, explore the world, and discover skills they never knew they had. The site contains pages of science facts, quizzes, games, experiments, and more. In particular, the laboratory page contains links to simple experiments kids can attempt at home on physics, chemistry, biology, and weather topics. The activities -- such as water bending light, making a rainbow, and ringing fork -- are clearly described on each page. Although each individual piece of the site is not extremely in-depth, younger students especially should enjoy the colorful pages and informative activities. [JAB]
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Weather One
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/weather/
From the University of Illinois Extension comes the Weather One instructional Web site for kids. The lesson consists of six pages that cover various weather related topics including seasons, clouds, the atmosphere, wind, global warming, and storms. Each page describes the particular subject, provides related photographs, and contains several activities that reinforce the learning. For example, the clouds page shows how kids can make a cloud and create a collage out of simple material found around the house. The effective organization and clean look of the site will surely make it easy for students to follow and enjoy. [JAB]
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Fun Activities: Science and Nature [RealPlayer]
http://pbskids.org/jayjay/care.sciencenature.html
Another great site from PBSkids.org, the Jay Jay the Jet Plane Science and Nature activities page offers ten great lessons. Each is geared toward very young children and demonstrate scientific principles that relate to their everyday world, such as day and night, water, air, weather, rocks, gravity, and more. The topics begin with a page worth of text that describe the particular principle, and then each provides a related movie clip that stars Jay Jay the Jet Plane. The exercise of reading or being read the easy-to-understand concepts and then watching a fun and attention grabbing clip that reinforces the learning should prove meaningful. [JAB]
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