Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

Forces of Change is a site from the Smithsonian Institution highlighting the impact of global warming on the Arctic.

Its video is particularly accessible to English Language Learners since it has closed-captioning.

I’ve placed the link on my World History page.

Mr. Nussbaum is the number one site on The Best Websites For Teaching & Learning About U.S. History, but it has really exceptional activities covering many subjects, including math, spelling, and science.

Much of it is accessible to English Language Learners.

Go to his home page and you’ll see links to each section, and a list of new activites he’s recently added to the site.

The History Channel has a neat series of timeline puzzles related to its Life After People television series.

In the game, you have to put images from the series in the correct timeline order — what happens when — after humanity disappears from the planet. Each image also has a short and relatively accessible (to high Intermediate English Language Learners) explanation of it.

I’ll be adding it to my Science page when I get a chance.

When We Left Earth is an extensive online collection of materials about NASA space missions.  It’s from the Discovery Network.

The site’s collection of videos would be accessible to English Language Learners. However, most of the other games and resources are either not accessible to ELL’s or aren’t particularly effective educational tools.

I’ve placed the link to videos on my website under Planets and Space.

The Power of Green is an online game from Con Edison that shows users how they can reduce energy costs in their house or apartment.

It’s engaging, the language is accessible, and it has very helpful information.

I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Introduce Environmental Issues Into The Classroom.

I periodically post “most popular” lists of websites that I think educators might find useful. Of course, there are a number of ways to gauge “popularity.” I just view these lists as opportunities to check-out some new sites, and find it interesting to see which ones might be particularly “popular.”

Here’s the latest one:

Top 20 Science Websites | June 2009

The Discovery Channel has come-up with just about the most creative way imaginable to help students remember the names of the planets in our solar system. It’s called the Solar Symphony Game.

I really can’t explain it — you have to check it out for yourself. It also has relatively accessible nuggets of information about each planet, too.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Planets and Space.

Here’s a list of the two hundred most popular museum websites, including links to them. It’s based on the number of visitors to their online sites.

I’ve posted about specific activities on many, but by no means all, of them.

It’s a list to keep one busy — that’s for sure.

Learning about inventors and inventions can be connected to many different subject areas, and offers lots of opportunities for English-language development.  Plus, students often find it pretty engaging.

This “The Best…” list is divided into several sections.

The first focuses on sites that offer straightforward and accessible text or online videos on the history of inventions and biographies of inventors.

Next, comes interactives that students can use to learn a little more about specific inventions.

The third section includes sites that students can actively use to participate in the inventive process and develop some of their own ideas.

The final part shares some sites that are just plain fun (and educational!).

Here are my choices for The Best Sites Where Students Can Learn About Inventions:

INVENTION HISTORY:

The History of Invention comes from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and is very accessible to ELL’s.

Fact Monster also provides information on many types of inventions, though it’s not as accessible as the CBC site.

Zoom Inventions and Inventors has a lot of very accessible information.

Here’s a video about American Inventors.

The Library of Congress has a feature on Thomas Edison.

Learn about Technology in the Year 1900.

Watch this video about the Wright Brothers.

How Stuff Works has quite a few short videos on inventions.

You can learn a lot at Invention Facts And Myths.

Take a look at some Ancient Inventions.

Learn about Benjamin Franklin’s inventions. Audio support is provided for the text.

The History Channel has a number of short video clips on different inventions.

The Voice of America has a report on the history of the Internet, including audio support for the text.

Here’s a relatively accessible description of how television was invented.

You can read a very accessible biography of Leonardo da Vinci here.

Here are Top 10 Ancient Inventions You Think Are Modern and 10 More Ancient Inventions You Think Are Modern.

12 Greatest Low-Tech Inventions

INTERACTIVES:

This interactive from Prentice-Hall focuses on a few early U.S. inventors.

Play a “choose your own adventure” game when you pretend to be Thomas Edison. Click on “Inventing”.

Read about Thomas Edison and answer the questions.

This Brainpop movie on Thomas Edison (it requires a subscription, but offers a free trial) includes quizzes.

Watch these early films made by Edison.

How Edison Are You? is a pretty “non-linear” site about Thomas Edison. There’s a timeline and many images of his inventions.  It’s a bit tricky to navigate, and not super-accessible to English Language Learners because of it, but this resource is a nice complement to all the other Edison sites.

Watch this video about the Wright Brothers and answer the questions.

Pretend that you’re flying in the first airplane made by the Wright Brothers.

See how many questions you can answer correctly in the Wright Brothers Game.

Read about Alexander Graham Bell and answer the questions.

Here’s an interactive about James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine.

Print-out and complete this cloze (fill-in-the-gap) about the Wright Brothers.

Here’s a downloadable worksheet on strange inventions from ESL Printables. They have a second one, too.

Here’s a U.S. Invention Timeline.

And here’s yet another Invention Timeline.

Here’s an animation of the first printing press.

Check-out Devices Of Wonder from the Getty Museum.

Play this Library of Congress game and guess which inventions are which…

Inventive Kids offers a number of informative games for students to play.

Learn about a cardboard box solar cooker that won an invention contest. Audio support is provided for the text.

Universal Leonardo has a bunch of great online interactive experiences students can have with Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings and experiments.

CREATE:

Rube Goldberg made complex machines for performing simple tasks. You can see a video of one of a Rube Goldberg machine here and create your own online version of one here.

Invent your own “gadget” at Kids.com.

Invent something at the Invention Factory.

FUN:

Take a look at 30 Of The World’s Strangest Inventions.

Play invention games at the Invention Playhouse.

You can do a lot of fun stuff at the Cyberchase Inventors’ Workshop. You have to register, but it’s quick and easy to do so.

This one doesn’t necessarily fit in any of my four categories, but here’s a bunch of PowerPoint presentations on inventors and inventions.

Feel free to share additional suggestions.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

Science World Games from the World of Science in British Columbia includes several simple interactive games to teach science concepts.

They’re accessible to Early Intermediate English Language Learners.

I’ve placed the link on the Science page of my website.

Having students perform simple classroom science experiments are a great way for English Language Learners to develop language skills — through the speaking with a partner that’s necessary to do the experiment, through the listening needed to understand directions, through the writing done to record results and to afterward describe what they did, and through the reading that occurs if use the Language Experience Approach and as a class write a chronology of events together on a whiteboard.

Plus, of course, students learn science content knowledge and gain an understanding of the scientific method that is useful in all subjects.

On top of all of those benefits, students love doing it, too!

I’ve only found one drawback — I know next to nothing about science.

Happily, though, there are plenty of online resources that offer ideas on how to do science experiments with little preparation necessary.

You can find the sites I’ve included in this “The Best…” list, and many more, on the Teacher’s Page of my website under Science Ideas.

Here are my picks for The Best Sources Of Ideas For Simple Classroom Experiments:

Try Science

ZOOM — Activities

Funology Laboratory

Newton’s Apple Teacher Guides

Hands-On Technology Program

Reeko’s Mad Scientist Lab — Experiments

Middle School Science Mania

Joey Green’s Mad Scientist Experiments

Beakman’s Experiments

Hunkin’s Experiments

Steve Spangler’s Science Experiments

The Naked Scientists — Kitchen Science Experiments

Science Bob Experiments

Chem Shorts For Kids

As always, feedback is welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

The PBS’ Online News Hour site has a nice collection of interactive exercises. Some of them are accessible to English Language Learners, like this one comparing Olympic cities.

The same site also has a number of audio slideshows. Here’s one, for example, on NASA’s probes to Mars.

I’ve placed the link to these resources on my website under Multimedia Resources From News Outlets.

The Water Calculator is an interactive tool designed to help you determine the amount of water you use and gives ideas on how you can use less.

It’s probably accessible to high Intermediate English Language Learners.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Challenges In Today’s World.

How Does Your Car Stack-Up is a simple interactive from the PBS Online News Hour. You choose the make, model, and year of your car, and you can then compare the annual cost of owning it and its emissions to similar cars that run on alternative fuels.

I’ve placed the link on my Science page.

Here are two final additions to The Best Sites To Learn About The Hubble Telescope:

Hubble’s Final Services Mission comes from The Boston Globe’s Big Picture.

The Final Human Touch To Hubble is a series of photos from The Sacramento Bee.

Here are the latest additions to The Best Sites To Learn About The Hubble Telescope:

The Boston Globe has a video of the first space walk done to make repairs to the Hubble.

The Wall Street Journal has a video and a slideshow on that same spacewalk.

The Washington Post has a slideshow on the mission to repair the telescope.

Repair Mission To Hubble Space Telescope is a series of photos from the Sacramento Bee.

This “The Best…” list is a companion to The Best Sites For Learning About Planets & Space and The Best Sites To Learn About The Hubble Telescope.

I’ve put it together pretty quickly because I wanted to connect it to the Hubble Telescope that my students learned about earlier this week, and we’re going to the computer lab today.  Because of that, I’m sure I’ll be adding to it.

I’m including some collections of images taken by the Hubble, but you can go to that “The Best…” list to find more.

Here are my picks for The Best Images Taken In Space:

The Air and Space Smithsonian has a slideshow of what they consider the 50 Best Images Taken From Space.

Milestones In Space Photography comes from National Geographic.

National Geographic also offers the Top Ten Space Photos of 2008.

Here are Wired’s choices for The Best NASA Photos Ever.

Discover has The Best NASA Satellite Photos From The Last 50 Years.

The Discovery Channel has the Phoenix Mars Lander’s Best Photos.

The Boston Globe’s The Big Picture shares the Best Examples of Astronaut Photography.

View From Above: The Earth From Space is a series of photos from The Denver Post.

Mercury and Messenger are a series of images from The Big Picture.

Suggestions and feedback, as always, are welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

I’ve just added a nice slideshow from the Wall Street Journal called Shuttle Atlantis Captures Hubble Space Telescope to  The Best Sites To Learn About The Hubble Telescope:

Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites To Learn About The Hubble Telescope:

Images From The Hubble Telescope is a slideshow from The Wall Street Journal.

Hubble Repair Mission Underway is a video from The Washington Post.

The Associated Press has an interactive feature on the Hubble.

USA Today also has an interactive feature.

With the Space Shuttle taking off to make repairs to the Hubble Telescope, I thought I’d put together a quick “The Best…” list related to it.

You might also be interested in The Best Sites For Learning About Planets & Space.

Here are The Best Sites To Learn About The Hubble Telescope (and are accessible to English Language Learners):

TIME Magazine has a slideshow giving A Brief History of The Hubble Space Telescope.

NASA has an interactive showing the repairs that will be made to the telescope by Shuttle astronauts.

Here’s a presentation by the St. Petersburg Times on the repairs.

The New York Times also has a similar feature.

Here is a collection of amazing photos taken by the Hubble Telescope.

Hubble’s Greatest Hits is a slideshow from MSNBC.

Snapshots From Hubble is a slideshow from The New York Times.

A View of the Edge of The Universe is a CNN slideshow of images taken by the Hubble.

Preparing to Rescue Hubble is from the Boston Globe’s Big Picture.

Hubble’s Highs and Lows is a slideshow from MSNBC.

2009: A Hubble Space Odyssey is a video from CBS News.

The CBBC Newsround has an accessible explanation of The Mission to Fix Telescope.

The Guardian has an audio slideshow on the mission to repair the Hubble.

Images From The Hubble Telescope is a slideshow from The Wall Street Journal.

Hubble Repair Mission Underway is a video from The Washington Post.

The Associated Press has an interactive feature on the Hubble.

USA Today also has an interactive feature.

I’ve just added a nice slideshow from the Wall Street Journal called Shuttle Atlantis Captures Hubble Space Telescope

The Boston Globe has a video of the first space walk done to make repairs to the Hubble.

The Wall Street Journal has a video and a slideshow on that same spacewalk.

The Washington Post has a slideshow on the mission to repair the telescope.

Repair Mission To Hubble Space Telescope is a series of photos at the Sacramento Bee.

Here’s a video from The Associated Press and another one from The Sydney Morning Herald showing the second spacewalk to make Hubble repairs.

The Wall Street Journal has a video of the fourth spacewalk done to repair the telescope.

Hubble’s Final Services Mission comes from The Boston Globe’s Big Picture.

The Final Human Touch To Hubble is a series of photos from The Sacramento Bee.

The Washington Post has a slideshow on the spacewalks.

Suggestions and feedback, as always, are welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.