Got Ya!

“Getting Students Engaged in Science Literacy

through Technology."
Louisiana Literacy Symposium, Baton Rouge LA
July 21, 2010
D. J. West, National Science Consultant, McGraw-Hill
Company

1. Real Time News Feeds:

www.ScienceNewsforKids.org
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/
http://www.sciencenewsdaily.org/
www.sciencedaily.com

Take the news articles and have students use cooperative

learning and graphic organizers to comment and consider
the information. For great research based cooperative
learning activities try Project CRISS.

2. Setting up RSS Feeds:

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication. It allows you to

subscribe to websites and blogs that have interest to you. To
do this you have to set up an aggregator that gives you one
site where all your feeds go. Blogline.com is a free aggregator
site that you can use. You then look for the RSS feed button
on a website or blog. Copy the RSS url from the web address
window and add it to your RSS feeds on Blogline. This allows
students or a class to track up to date happenings in all area of
science.

3. Online and Audio Textbooks:

Check with your publisher and ask them what they offer in
online and audio support for their textbooks and curriculum.
These can be a huge support for struggling readers.
4. Cooperative Learning:

One of the strengths of online learning is the flexibility it gives

students to interact. There are numerous sites available to help
students collaborate:

For document posting:

www.scribd.com
www.docs.google.com

For video posting and sharing you can use:

www.youtube.com (10 minutes max)

www.teachertube.com
www.vimeo.com (for videos longer than 10 minutes)
All can be set as private.

An overall solution is the district adoption of Google Apps.

Take a tour at:
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/index.html

5. Get Them Talking

Students enjoy interactive discussion which encourages them

to read. To set up your own blog, try:
www.blogspot.com or
http://kidblog.org

For instant interaction you can try www.twitter.com

For more information on mobile learning devices and pilot

schools with Verizon use the following:
http://www.vzwbusinesstools.com/mobilelearning/mobile-
learning-devices-in-the-classroom/, www.theikidsblog.com

6. Get Creative
Try using some of the free software and websites that are
available for students to develop their own videos and slide
shows.
 www.animoto.com Allows students to upload images and
videos to make a 30 second video with music.

Camstudio is freeware that allows you to capture your computer

screen and turn it into still captures or video.
www.camstudio.org

www.MediaConverter.org allows you to change the format of a

video seen on Teachertube or Youtube to a format that will play
on your computer so you can save them and insert into a
PowerPoint.

7. Some Favorite Interactive Websites:

www.scilinks.org – SciLink Activities compiled by NSTA

www.nsta.org – A wealth of resources for members.
www.cellsalive.com – A great websites on cell science
www.teachersdomain.org – A source of lesson plans,
interactives and videos.
www.NSTA.org/ - National Science Teachers Assoc
www.NABT.org/ - National Association of Biology Teachers
www.Chemistry.org/ - American Chemical Society
www.niehs.nih.gov/science-education/ National Institute for
Environment Health Science
www.pbs.org/teachers/sciencetech/ - PBS
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/
www.nsdl.org – National Science Digital Library
www.nsf.gov – National Science Foundation
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/case.html -
National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science
http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en/ for flipcharts made with
prometheium software. This is a great source to see how the
software works. To try some of the fiip charts you need to load
the flip chart viewer from promethean.

8. Course Management:
For free course management software try Moodle at
www.moodle.org

For Further information on these topics, please contact D.J.

West at dj_west @mcgraw-hill.com and visit my blog at
http://science-teachers.blogspot.com.