I
visited eduTecher to find some new resources for my classroom. I chose
these three sites that sounded, based on their short descriptions, like
they might be useful in the classroom. http://edutecher.com/
Edheads:
Edheads
is a website that allows students to carry out complex authentic
learning experiences using animated simulations. All the simulations
are science based. Most are biology, however there are a few physics
and chemistry options. To begin, you do not need to sign up for an
account to use the site. This is great as it cut down on the set up
time and is one less name and password you have to remember. As a
biology teacher, I am always looking for interactive labs that allow
students to have meaningful learning experiences that we cannot create
in the classroom.
The
first lab I explored was the Prosthetic Surgery lab, since my sister
does this as a profession. We sat together, listened to the
explanations and they read through the chart and choose appropriate
surgeries and prosthetics for each patient. The work was far more
complex than I thought it would be. It was really exciting to find a
high school science simulation that was really at a high enough level.
After
the Prosthetic lab, I tried out the Sickle Cell DNA lab, as this is a
topic I talk about in my bio courses. It was great. It showed pedigree
charts, talked about carriers vs expression, discussed the specific
structure of DNA and how the protein produced caused the change in the
cell shape. along the way, student are asked questions and have to
perform tasks like determining if the couple is a t risk and coding DNA.
Here are some screenshots of the DNA lab.
I could definitely see this being used in my classroom. When I get to
the DNA and Protein synthesis unit, I am definitely going to use the
Sickle Cell lab. The content is on a perfect level for challenging the
high school student without over facing them. It is a meaningful and
real world experience. The only thing about this site that makes it
difficult for education is that there are not a lot of topics in the
virtual labs. I am emailing the creators to urge them to include some
more topics. I am specifically going to choose topics that are aligned
with the PA Keystone standards/exam. If the site would be willing to
design some virtual labs that covered the specific topics in Keystones, I
am sure that even more teachers would love to use it.
Cramberry:
Cramberry is an online flashcard and study tool site. To begin, you
must set up an account. You can choose between a free standard account
or a $9 pro account which has other added features. When you sign up
for a free account you get a 14 day trial of the pro version. Once
logged in, you have the option to create your own cards or browse the
library of cards already made.
I chose to begin by seeing the cards that are already made. If there
are already good cards out there, why spend the time to recreate them.
I found a set of cards for cell parts. This is a section of the bio
course that involves a lot of memorization of new terms and functions.
Once I chose the set I was able to start studying with them. As
answered each question, I checked off whether I got the question right
or wrong. The site kept tally in the corner so I could watch my
progress. Any cards that I marked as incorrect in the first try were
cycled back into the set until I had marked all correctly.
Next I tried to make my own cards. When you create your set you have
the option to let other view or edit the set. I could easily and
quickly create text based cards. However, I could not figure out how to
put images in the cards like I saw in the set I tried out. I looked
for a help section and found that you have to email in questions. I
found this very frustrating. I felt like there should be more, clear
directions on how to create the cards. I got frustrated with my cards
and ended up not making very many. Of course, if I had a test to study
for, I may not have gotten frustrated with it so quickly and probably
would have just only made text based cards.
I definitely see this being a tool for students. The site has the web
version as well as a versions for iPods, iPhones, and iPads. This would
make the content very accessible for students as well as mobile. My
only concern is that they might get frustrated with the lack of
direction like I did. There is a forum for suggestions and ideas. I
accessed this site and found that many people had the same ideas and
concerns that I had. I was able to add my vote to suggestions other
have already made. Overall, the site has pros but I have seen better
flashcard sites than this one.
Kitzu:
Kitzu is a site created by the Orange County Dept of Education. The
site contains “kits” that contain copyright free media resources on a
topic. Areas range from science, math, and english to theatre and
dance. There is no signing up for an account which is always a nice way
to start. Once you access the site, you can choose a topic from the
lists or try a search. I tried searching some of my content vocab and
was sad to find that none of my biology words were coming up as sets.
As a result, I decided to just pick a topic out of the science section.
I realized that most the topics were very low level. This is
discouraging for a high school teacher. Often it seems that resources
designed for education are really only focused for the lower levels.
Once I chose a topic, I could see a preview of the resources available.
If I liked what was there, I was able to download the resources to my
computer. Kits supposedly can contain animations, audio clips,
documents, illustrations, photos, and/or video clips. In my
exploration, I was only able to find photos and some text.
Overall, I was less than impressed with this resource. It seemed like
it would be a perfect tool for research projects, posters, and other
media projects for my students. Unfortunately the content level is much
too low level for my 10-11th graders. I think this could be an
incredibly valuable tool for elementary and middle school teachers.
They could very easily use this site knowing that the content is
copyright free and safe for their students to view. I emailed the
contact person to request that more high school material be added to the
kits.
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