Teachers Love SMART Boards

SMARTBoards and Physics Education Technology (PhET)

You don't need to be a Middle School or High School Science teacher to appreciate the amazing resources provided by the PhET website. This site contains the most incredible collection of research-based, interactive, Physics simulations anywhere on the Internet. Best of all, these simulations are free to use online or download to your computer.They are a must-have for teachers with Interactive Whiteboards in the classroom.

The simulations can be run one at a time from the web browser (using Java's Web Start) or they can be downloaded and opened directly from your computer. I recommend downloading the simulations and then double-clicking on the simulations when you want to use them. All you need is Java installed on your computer and most computers have it installed already. (You can click here to download and/or check whether Java is already installed).

The site also contains homework files, lab descriptions, and even files containing interactive response questions. This is a great feature for schools who have interactive response systems. PhET makes it easy to browse for resources and even filters activities by grade level.

Here is an example of one of the simulation called the Equation Grapher. You can use this right here!

You can download this directly to your computer or you can run it from your web browser.

Here is the PhET page containing the Equation Grapher.

Please share this resource with the other teachers in your school. It's a winner!

Sharing Is Caring!

SMART Boards and WatchKnow Video Library

In all my workshops, I find that I never miss an opportunity to recommend the WatchKnow website for finding educational videos for the classroom. This is also a great place to locate videos that you may want to download and incorporate into a Notebook lesson file.

This site is maintained by the users and organized in a way that can really help teachers find relevant videos for the classroom. I also like the rating system that is used to help teachers make a educated decision on what videos to review.

You'll want to start searching through the site right away once you see it so please go there right now and take a look. When you're done, make sure you look at all the things you can do with WatchKnow by watching their introductory video.

Here is the video if you want more information now:

If you can't view the video here, you may have YouTube blocked. Click Here to go directly to the YouTube video.

Please don't forget to share this incredible resource with the teachers at your school.

Sharing Is Caring!

SMARTBoards and Sharing Is Caring - Chemistry

Here's is one of the best examples of a teacher sharing SMART Board resources. It's a Wiki called IWBchemistry that was created by Dr. Elizabeth Christophy.

This amazing wiki is focused on sharing High School Science resources with other teachers and students. Dr. Christophy has even put together a page for her AP Chemistry students containing review files created by her students. In my opinion, there is no better way to increase learning than to involve your students in the creation of learning material.

If you let students be responsible for their own learning, you'll see miracles happen.

When I went to the site this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see Dr. Christophy mention Teacher Online Training as a way to learn some simple but effective techniques for creating your own custom Notebook lessons. Thanks Elizabeth and nice use of the Magic Cat's Eye technique!

If you find Dr. Christophy's resources helpful, please comment to this post to let her know that you appreciate all her hard work. Dr. Christophy is such a great example of a teacher who believes...

Sharing Is Caring!

 

 

SMARTBoard Games and Puzzles from Jefferson Lab

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science funds the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility also known as Jefferson Lab. Part of Jefferson Lab's mission is to "serve the nation and its communities through education and public outreach."  In connection to that mission, they have developed a wonderful collection of teacher resources dedicated to Math and Science teachers.

The Online Games and Puzzles section contains so many useful  interactive resources that you'll want to take some time to explore everything that they have to offer. These activities work great on the SMART Board interactive whiteboard.

Your students will get hooked on the "Who Wants to Win $1,000,000?" game as well as SpeedMath Deluxe. SpeedMath Deluxe presents a Math problem without any operators and the students need to select the correct operations to make the equation true.

Science teachers will love the Element Balancing and the Element Hangman activities and the Element Concentration game is really a great way to let your students have some fun at the SMART Board.

Teachers can use the interactive practice tests and select the number of questions, the type of questions, as well as the specific state standard strand (Virginia).

Please share these wonderful interactive resources with your technology department and the other Math and Science teachers in your school.

Sharing Is Caring!

SMARTBoards and Invention at Play

Looking for something fun AND educational for your SMARTBoard? Okay, that's a retorical question but it really sums up the Invention at Play site on the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (maybe the can "invent" a shorter name).  

The Invention Playhouse has four flash-based interactive activities for  your students to use at the SMART Board. The Cloud Dreamer activity lets students create their own cloud image and then see it float across 
the sky. The Puzzle Blocks is a fun activity for manipulating shapes to create an image; Word Play lets students create and change unique stories in a fun and collaborative manner; and the Tinker Ball activity lets students move and manipulate tools to solve a simple gravity problem.

All the activities work great on the SMART Board Interactive Whiteboard. If you're using Internet Explorer, I would recommend "zooming" in on the activity to make it fill the screen. If you're using Firefox browser, you'll want to use the Flash Game Maximizer Add On to have the activities fill the screen.

Sharing Is Caring!

 

SMARTBoards and Edheads Interactive Games and Activities

Here is a nifty site called Edheads that provides various interactive activities for your SMARTBoard interactive whiteboard.

"Edheads brings you high quality, free educational activities for your classroom. Edheads helps students learn through educational games and activities designed to meet state and national standards. We partner with various school systems in the United States, which help us research, design and test our activities every step of the way!"

I really like the Odd Machine activitiy as well as the Weather activity although your Middle School students will probably be drawn to the actual photos contained in the virtual surgery activities.

Be careful of all the ads that surround the activities.

---

These are flash-based resources that are a lot of fun to use on your SMART Board.  When using flash-based resources, I highly recommend that you use the Firefox Internet Browser and download the Flash Game Maximizer Add-On. This handy little add-on allows you to run flash activities in full screen on your computer. This is extremely helpful when viewing the activities on an interactive whiteboard. It may not work for all flash activities but it works for the majority of them.

Sharing Is Caring!

 

 

SMARTBoard and Teacher-Created High School Biology Resources

If you're a High School Science teacher, you'll want to review the amazing resources found on Harvard University's Life Science Outreach Program website. The site contains actual teacher-created resources covering Physiology, Microbiology, Regenerative Biology, Evolution, Neurobiology, Immunology, and the Biology of Cancer.

For each area of study, teachers created Lesson Plans covering a variety of topic areas. Many of these lessons include supporting PowerPoints, Lecture Videos and Scientific Animations.

This is a great site to see what other teachers are creating for their classrooms and to build upon what they've already created. Some of the Scientific Animations are outstanding and include interactive activities that work great on the SMART Board. I also like that a lot of the teacher-created activities were developed as WebQuests. If you've never seen the structure of a WebQuest, this is a great opportunity to experience how a WebQuest can increase engagement and motivation in the classroom.

Sites like this are rare and should be shared with the teachers at your school. Remember, Sharing Is Caring, so please forward this website to the High School Science teachers in your district. They'll thank you for it!

Sharing Is Caring!

---

the most effective, affordable, and fun way to learn how to use the SMART Notebook software

---

SMARTBoards and Science NetLinks Interactive Activities

The Science NetLinks website is an amazing website for Science teachers providing them with lessons covering a wide variety of topics and grade levels. The website is very easy to use and they even provide learning benchmarks for the lessons. The really great thing about these lessons is the interactive resources that are contained in each lesson plan.

I've gone through a number of these lessons and pulled out some of the interactive flash-based activities that work really well on an SMART Board. While I've made it very easy to access these resources, I encourage all teachers to utilize the entire lesson plans found on the Science NetLinks website.

Classify Activity - Classify different types of plants and animals. Simple activity and a lot of fun for earlier grades.

Forces - Try to determine what type of force caused the earth to change and how long it took to change it.

Gravity - Set your own thrust and angles to try to use gravity to land at your destination

Number Cruncher - How many moves will it take you to get to your target number by adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. I love this activity!

Power Play - An activity that lets students figure out the tools necessary to build a machine to harness power. This is really cool.

Systems - Choose the correct organs in the correct systems to put Arnold back together.

Interactive Moon - Great activity to learn the phases of the moon.

Marble Mania - Great way to experiment with different probablity outcomes. You need a keyboard to type in some numbers but it's still an effective tool for the SMART Board

Antibiotic - You're the doctor and you have to figure out how to cure your patients before they go to the hospital.

I think I enjoy the Power Play activity the best. Let me know which one is your favorite!

Sharing Is Caring!

SMARTBoards and Biology Animations

In the last few days, I've been running across a lot of fantastic resources for Biology teachers. Since this strange phenomenon seems to be some undiscovered law of Science, I thought I would share what I have.

John Giannini's collection of Biology movies and animations.  Th is is a great  collection that should be shared with every Science teacher. A big thanks to Anne Marie for posting this resource on her blog.

Sumanas Animated Tuorials:  Sumanas Animated Tutorials: General Biology. Another wonderful resource that containing flash-based animations that include both step-though and narrated options for many of the resources.

No collection of sites would be complete without including the Freezeray.com. I've blogged about this wonderful site in the past. It contains a lot more than just Biology activities and the interactive nature of the activities are perfect for the SMART Board interactive whiteboard.

I hope you'll share these resources with the other teachers in your school.

Sharing Is Caring!

SMARTBoards and e-Learning for Kids

One of my very first blog posts talked about the non-profit e-learning site called e-Learning for Kids. That was over two years ago! I'm happy to say that this amazing website is still around and is only getting better.

I didn't really say too much about this site on that initial blog post...I didn't need to. It doesn't take long to realize what an amazing resource this is for the SMART Board classroom. The site contains over 100 courses covering Math, Science, Computer Skills, Language Arts, and English.

In addition, the site contains over 50 courses in Health and Life Skills. The courses in this area range from understanding how the body works to understanding things like depression, bullying, and preventing diseases. It is by far the most comprehensive collection of activities for learning and understanding about the human condition. 

The age-level for the courses ranges from 4 to 12 years old and the design of almost all the courses was done with Interactive Whiteboards in mind. It is truly a pleasure to see such wonderful educational content on the Internet free of advertising.

Firefox users should look into using the Flash Game Maximizer add-on to help enlarge the flash activities so they fill your entire SMART Board.

Sharing Is Caring!

SMARTBoards and Viewing Our Solar System

I found a fabulous interactive website that lets students explore our solar system to get a much clearer understanding about planet orbits, size, and relative position to one another.

The site is simply called Planets and it's a fantastic resource for the SMART Board interactive whiteboard.

The site allows the teacher or student to control how they are viewing the solar system. Users can touch and drag to move things around and they have a complete set of controls to change scale, speed of orbits (passing of time), or planetary object to follow. For example, if you follow the Sun, the Sun is stationary and it shows the other planets orbiting the Sun. If you  follow the Earth, then it shows the other planetary objects with a stationary Earth.

For you Pluto lovers, this resource shows Pluto as being the farthest "planet" away from the Sun. :o)

I hope you enjoy this incredible resource for the SMART Board. Please share it with your fellow teachers.

Sharing Is Caring!

SMARTBoards and Downloadable Science Animations

While the content of interactive educational resources is growing on the Internet, very rarely do you find websites that allow you (and provide assistance) for downloading the content to your own computer.

Freezeray is a one of those few places where teachers can find and download interactive resources for Science investigations. In fact, these resources were developed specifically for Interactive Whiteboards.

The site organizes the resources into various categories including Physics, Biology, Technology, and Chemistry. They even have a fun place to practice  Science-related literacy. The resources here include a hangman type game and various key-idea interactive resources.

As I mentioned previously, the interactive resources are downloadable and can be used freely for non-commercial purposes. The really good thing about these resources is that they are flash-based and can be imported into your Smart Notebook files. 

While the site has instructions for downloading the resources by searching your Temporary Files folder, there is an easier way, especially if you have the Firefox web browser.

Here's a short video that shows how to save the flash-based (swf) version of these activities to your computer using the Firefox browser and import the file into Notebook. (This video is iPhone compatible.)

Sharing Is Caring!

SMARTBoards and the Relativity of Size

Here's a captivating interactive website from Nikon called Universcale.

Here's the premise of the website...

We are able to view all entities, from the microworld to the universe, from a single perspective. By setting them up against a scale, we are able to compare and understand things which cannot be physically compared. Today, using the electron microscope and astronomical telescope, we can see the objects which we have not been aware of its existence before. Are you able to fathom, or even roughly grasp, these sizes? See our Universcale and experience the sizes of various objects.

I became absolutely absorbed with this website as a learning tool and was even more amazed when I displayed it on my SMART Board. What a great way to help students grasp the enormity of flea when compared to an amoeba or the relative smallness of a jumbo jet when compared to the Great Pyramid of King Khufu.

Please pass this along to the entire staff at your school so it can be shared with as many students as possible.

Sharing is Caring!

SMART Boards and Swimming with a Blue Whale

Today I had the pleasure of seeing what it feels like to swim with a life size blue whale. No, I'm not out sailing the ocean blue, I'm still sitting in front of my computer as usual.

You too can watch the largest animal in the world float by on your Smartboard interactive whiteboard by going to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society's interactive website that let's you see what it feels like to swim with a life size blue whale.

Students can touch and drag the whale to move it or they can move the small viewfinder in the top-right of the screen to move directly to different parts of the whale.

A big thank you to my good friend Ben Hazzard for sharing this with everyone on Twitter. Ben is the creator of the Teachers Connecting Podcast along with his brilliant co-host, Joan Badger. It's definitely worth checking out!

Thanks for sharing Ben!

Sharing is Caring!

SMARTBoards and Spring Time in Pollen Park

My goal for today's blog post was to find a fun and educational interactive activity related to Spring that students could use on the SMART Board. My search led me straight to Pollen Park.

This is an engaging interactive activity that help kids aged 7 - 11 learn about plant reproduction by using various learning methodologies that kids and teachers can explore in a non-linear manner.

Here's the information from the Teacher's Section:

Pollen Park endeavors to explain the complex process of plant reproduction in a straight forward manner; information is presented clearly and logically separated into obvious sections, enabling users to navigate freely, making their own relaxed decisions and discoveries.

1. The names of the different parts of the flower and understand the function of each in the reproduction process.
2. The process of pollination and the varied methods of pollen transfer.
3. The process of fertilization and how this differs from pollination
4. The different methods of seed dispersal and why this needs to occur.
5. The process of seed germination and the necessary conditions for it to occur.

I loved the idea of collecting pollen to show the progress through the activities. The graphics that explain the various processes are very well done and the explanations are extremely to understand.

I hope you'll enjoy Pollen Park as much as I did!

Sharing is Caring!

SMART Boards and Interactive Science and Engineering for Kids

Engineering Interact is a fantastic resource created by the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering.

 

Here's the description from their website:

Engineering Interact is a new and exciting free educational resource for primary school children aged 9 to 11. The resource provides fully interactive, engaging game environments and high-quality learning material tailored to the National Curriculum. Information about real world applications and cutting edge research motivates children and introduces them to the exciting subject of engineering.

The site contains interactive learning activities covering: light, sound, forces and motion, earth and beyond, and electricity.

Each area is broken down into multiple modules and each module contains an interactive learning activity, an interactive review activity, and a slide-show containing information about how the science is applied in the real world.

Teachers should check out the Teacher Information page that will help them utilize the resources more effectively.

This is one of those sites that really makes learning and teaching science a lot more fun and exciting, especially if you have an SMART Board in your classroom. Pass the word!

Sharing is Caring!

SMART Boards and PEEP and the Big Wide World

Do I have a new favorite website? I think that maybe I do!

The website is called PEEP and the Big Wide World and it contains an amazing collection of educational games for the Primary grades.

The graphics, audio, and characters are spectacular and all the games I've played with work great on a Smart Board Interactive Whiteboard. The website is a extension of the TV show that is narrated by one of my favorite people, Joan Cusack.

Here's a brief description of the show:

The animated series PEEP and the Big Wide World gives wings to the innovative idea of teaching science to preschoolers. Wry and distinctive visual humor, charming plotlines, and lovable characters combine with a comprehensive science program to attract and engage kids three to five years old. 

This site is a good example of how interactive educational material should be exposed to students. The site does not contain any advertising and the interactive games can be zoomed to fill the screen. This is extremely important when using a SMART Board with your younger students.

I like using the sitemap for PEEP and the Big Wide World since it organizes all the resources on one page.

I won't spend time any more time telling you about the site since that would take time away from you playing around with the games. If you have some time, why not send a comment and let everyone know what your favorite game is and why. I'll send in my comment after I finish playing around with all the games!

Have fun and get ready to smile! 

Thank you Paul Hamilton for recommending this site on your Free Resources on the Net for (Special) Education blog. Paul's description of the site is much better than mine so if you want some more information, why not check out Paul's blog post about PEEP!

Sharing is Caring!

SMARTBoards and the Crickweb Flash Resources

I was searching through my past blog posts and I'm quite surprised that I have not written a post about the amazing flash-based resources found on Crickweb. This site contains hundreds of quality interactive resources for children aged 4 to 11.

For my U.S. readers, the activities are organized into three age groups: The Early  Years (age 4 to 5), Key Stage 1 (age 6 to 7), and Key Stage 2 (age 8 to 11). Within  each age group the activities are organized by subject area.

The basic subject areas include Math, Science, History, and Literacy. However, there are also activites for Geography, Religion Education, French, Spanish, and even Design & Technology. (Please note that since this site is from the UK, the money activities use British Currency. However, teachers from other areas should still explore these activities.) 

The resources contained on this site are all interactive and very few of them require keyboard input. Best of all, all of the activities work great on the SMART Board Interactive Whiteboard since most of the activities only  require students to touch or drag objects. (If you would like to download and use the Promethean Flipchart files that are available, you can import these using Notebook. Just open Notebook, select "import" from the file menu, change the file type to "All Promethean Files.") 

I've included a few screen shots but the best way to find what your looking for is to browse around and play with the activities. I can promise you that you'll find something fun and exciting for your classroom!

Sharing is Caring!

SMARTBoards and my 2008 Top Five List - Science

Here's my Top Five List for best SMART Board Science Resource for 2008

#5 - The Periodic Table of Videos from The University of Nottingham




#4 - Fantastic Contraption - Fun Online Physics Game




#3 - Science Up Close (Grade 1 - 6) from Harcourt, Inc.




#2 - Animals Creature Features from National Geographic Kids




#1 - Science Lab - Experiments and Projects to do at Home or in the Classroom from Schlumberger

Sharing is Caring!

SMARTBoards and Science Up Close

Science teachers will love the interactive Science lessons found on Harcourt's Science Up Close site. The site has interactive explanations and demonstrations covering a variety of topics in Science for grades 1 through 6. The graphics are amazing and the explanations are very clear and easy to follow.

The site is organized by grade level and contains multiple topics for each grade. For example, Grade 3 contains 16 interactive resources covering a wide-variety of topics including photosynthesis, fossils, water cycle, lunar eclipse and even how a door knob works.

Teachers and students can easily control all aspects of the demonstrations including turning on and off audio explanations and starting and stopping videos. Another great thing about the these activities is that you can zoom them to fit your entire screen which is extremely useful for using them with your SMART Board.

Sharing is Caring!

SMARTBoards and the Fantastic Contraption

 

Here's an amazing educational game called the The Fantastic Contraption.

It promotes itself as a "fun online Physics puzzle game" which it most certainly is; however, you don't need to teach science to enjoy it. Students (and teachers) will get hooked very quickly trying to go through the levels.

The objective is to use wheels and rods to create a contraption that will move an object to a target area. You can also take a look at other people's contraptions to see how they succeeded. This application works great on the SMARTBoard and will keep your students (or you) occupied for a very long time.

Enjoy!

Sharing is Caring!

SMARTBoards and the Journey to the Cosmic Frontier

Yesterday, my daughter Jasmine (age 7) and I went searching for information about the moon and why it looks different each night. It took me just a few minutes to find the incredible simulations located on the supporting website for Astronomy: Journey to the Cosmic Frontier by John D. Fix.

The website has a lot of cool simulations that work great on your SMARTBoard interactive whiteboard. To help my daughter understand the different phases of the moon, we played around with the Lunar Phases simulation. Another thing that makes this site really outstanding is that each simulation has teacher guides and supporting material to help teachers create an effective experience. (If you use Firefox, you can zoom the page (View/Zoom/Zoom In) to make the simulations fill the screen.) 

Please pass this link to the Science teachers in your school.

Sharing is Caring!

SMARTBoards and Interactive Websites for Math & Science

I really like this idea of putting website resources in a fun little slideshow to share with other people. Here Karen Brooks puts together a slideshow that has a whole bunch of cool websites with interactive activities for Math and Science.

Please comment back on which one you like the best. I really like the Science website Alliant Energy Kids that has some great learning resources and good interactive review activities that are perfect for the SMART Board.

| View | Upload your own

Thanks for sharing Karen!

Sharing is Caring!