Internet children's sites
Joan Schneider (jschneid@connix.com)
Tue, 7 Oct 1997 19:55:10 -0400
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 1997 19:55:10 -0400
Message-Id: <343ADBA1.24A3@comet.connix.com>
From: Joan Schneider <jschneid@connix.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <conntech>
Subject: Internet children's sites
A little of while ago, conntechers were asking about how children were
using the Internet.
Niantic Center School is a active user of the Internet, and I invite you
all to visit the Niantic Center School home page at:
http://www.connix.com/~jschneid/ncs.html
What I've been doing the past year is identifying resources that would
be applicable for students in elementary school. In short, whenever
there is student research, I identify resources that I feel would extend
the resources within the school and the library.
The time consuming part is to identify resources that are at an
appropriate reading level for the children.
Usually I tell on the page what classes are studying what topics and the
reason behind the studies. Sometimes it will be a science or math
project, and sometimes as background info for language arts. For
example, the 5th graders last year visited art museums online during
their reading of "From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler."
I keep search engines right on the main page so our slower machines do
not need to go to another page to do the initial searches. One site I
love for animal reports is the Birmingham Zoo Animal Search engine,
becuase someone in the school is always studying some animal.
To really qet a feel of what's happening, at the bottom of the home page
click on "Past projects and resources". It will be a slow load because
it is last years sites. But you will get an idea of the breadth and
depth of what we do.
When we studied the Maya in grades 4 and 5 - - - the students made their
own stela online for their birthday, as well as studied hieroglyphics.
When we studied whales in grade 3, we would visit the camcorder on Free
Willy's (Keiko) tank to see how he has rehabilitated. Or at Busch
Gardens/Sea World we can watch JJ the Gray Whale through his camcorder.
One of our email projects was Flat Matt, and the project has been cited
in a new book by Classroom Connect called "Successful Internet Projects"
We have counted and emailed Roadkill counts for EnvironNet out of
Simmons College, a project funded by the National Science Foundation.
We scoured the local beaches and collated the trash and reported the
results to Save the Beaches project.
In math, we counted M&Ms and emailed our percentages of colors in each
package which was collated nationally then compared to M&Ms percentages.
We did get into some publishing on the web, but nothing is up right
now. Last year one class built a geodesic dome in the classroom, and we
took pictures of its construction, and the kids wrote how it was done.
Right now that class is building a teepee . . . and they are taking
pictures.
Anyway, check us out.
Sorry that I'm so wordy tonight.
Joan Schneider
Niantic Center School, Niantic, CT 06357
jschneid@connix.com