Weekly Core Subjects Resources

Another week, another serving of resources for English, Math, Science, and Social Studies.  I included an extra one this time for Music Teachers as well.  It still amazes me how much is out there for teachers to use with students in their classroom.

English

WordCounter is a site for students to copy and paste the words from a paper and get detailed information about the words and types of words contained in their piece of writing.  Students can also use it for research to find a particular subject in a paper they are looking for.  WordCounter can limit the search to 25 words, or as many as 200.  You can choose to remove common English words if you want as well.  It is currently only available to copy and paste.  Uploading will be available in the future.

Mathematics
DeadLine is a freeware download that provides software to help you with math and engineering problems.  You get a calculator and tool to help plot graphs.  It recognizes the most common mathematics functions and uses those to solve equations. 

Calculation Nation is a site where visitors can create an account and then participate in several math style games and then compete against other users online or against themselves.  There are 9 games available and I tried several of them.  I could see these being used in middle school math classes.  You can learn about the games by visiting the Educators/Parents Page.

Social Studies
The Flow of History is a site created by a teacher that examines how historical events impact each other through the years.  You can find several resources as well as flow charts that help explain how history flows.  You can find the resources broken down by the units of study which can be helpful when studying a specific time period. 

The Library of Congress has a great website.  What is even better is that they have a great website for Teachers.  The For Teachers section of the Library of Congress has several lesson plans and activities to use with their site.  You will find classroom materials and primary source documents as well as several presentations that you can use in the classroom. 

Science
Microscope Measurement is a site to virtually learn how to use a microscope.  There are several other interactive tutorials that you might want to look at.  This seems like a very practical resource for the classroom.  There are even learning goals that go with each tutorial.

Wikispecies is a partner site for Wikipedia that focuses on Species.  There are over 240,000 entries that you can search through.  You can search through plants, animals, insects, etc.  Very promising, but like all Wikipedia sites, students should use with caution and carefully examine the sources for the information. 

The Chemical Education Digital Library is a site with resources available for teaching chemistry.  I will avoid reinventing the wheel and point you to Free Technology for Teachers to get a good description of the site, since that is where I learned about the site. 

3M Science of Everyday Life is a website from Discovery Education aimed at assisting visitors to understand how science plays a role in our everyday life.  There is a section for teachers (Resources and Lesson Plans), students (Games, Activities, and Virtual Labs), and parents (Activities and Resources).  There is also a section titled Innovation HQ which examines how innovation is helping with progress.

ToxTown is a site dedicated to sharing how toxic chemicals can impact our daily lives at work, home, and in play.  There is an index to disasters and terminology for different chemicals.  There is a special area for teachers as well. 

Biological Animations is a site that provides several animations for several topics and processes in Biology.  There are animations for Enzymes, Cell Structures, Membrane Transports, etc.

Science Review Games is a site to help students study for science exams across the curriculum.  Games are broken down by subject matter and then students can find games for the unit that they are studying. 


Music

KISSTUNES is a site that uses your computer keyboard to play the piano.  You can just play around on the piano, or you can actually record what you are playing.  Learning the keys on the keyboard takes some getting used to, but it is still kind of neat.  You can choose from three different instruments - Electric Piano, Grand Piano, and Vibraphone.  If you create an account you can save your recordings.