GO HERE FIRST:

SCIENCE NEWS FOR KIDS
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/

On the menu bar “EXPLORE”, click on

• Earth & Sky
• Humans & Health
• Life

This site is awesome — very visual and engaging. Once you browse to an article, they are all TAGGED and you can explore tags.

NEXT, GO HERE:

DISCOVER MAGAZINE BLOG POSTS
http://discovermagazine.com/
From the home page, use the menu bar to browse blog posts on biology topics:

• Health & Medicine: biotechnology, genes & health, stem cell research
• Mind & Brain: memory/emotions/decisions, drugs & addictions
• Technology: biotechnology
• Living World: human evolution, genetic engineering, primates, unusual organisms
• Environment: ocean, global warming

Blog posts are short and engaging and always have a photo.
If you find a blog post you like, click on the tags that interest you to browse more!
TO LEARN MORE: Write down keywords from your blog post and then put them in the search bars of the science news sites below.

THIRD STOP:

PBS INTERACTIVE ONLINE ACTIVITIES 
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/classroom/9-12/science-tech/resources/

These look VERY cool! In search bar, enter your topic (ecology, evolution, genetics, human biology, microbiology, animals, zoology) and then enter in the “Media Type” search bar “interactive/online activity.” If you need help choosing a topic or browsing the results, just ask!
TO LEARN MORE: Write down keywords from your website / activity and then put them in the search bars of the science news sites below.

STRAIGHT-UP SCIENCE NEWS SITES:

(1) EUREKALERT
Science News by AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science)
For biology news, put a search term in the “Search this subject” box on the right.

(2) SCIENCE DAILY
Massive compilation of breaking science news “about the latest scientific discoveries.”

Click menu bar items as follows to get to biology content:

• Plants & Animals > biology, biotechnology, cell biology, developmental biology, marine biology
• Matter & Energy > biochemistry, biometric
• Earth & Climate > environmental issues, environmental science or just type a topic into the search bar: genetics, human biology, etc.

(3) NEW YORK TIMES: BIOLOGY NEWS

On the left sidebar, click on “Science”
In the “Browse Topics” bar on the right side of the page, halfway down, choose “Biology & Biochemistry”
Browse the articles — I love the NYTimes because their headlines are eye-catching.

Or just go here for biology articles only.

DATABASE: SCIENCE IN CONTEXT

Go to http://www.hellolibrary.org/databases/
Click on “Science in Context.” No password needed in MA.

TO BROWSE FROM THE HOME PAGE:
Below the big photos on the home page, there is a heading that says “Biology.” Next to it, click “View All.”
Then pick any topic from the list that interests you.

IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A KEYWORD: put it in the search bar and press “search.” When the results show up, click on the left sidebar to look at ‘Newspapers” and “Magazines” for current news.

A Map of Home pages 124-135 from Susanna Hall on Vimeo.

Beginning of chapter 8.
Read by Ms. Scott.

A Map of Home pages 135-143 from Susanna Hall on Vimeo.

End of Chapter Eight
Read by Ms. Scott

A Map of Home Chapter 9 from Susanna Hall on Vimeo.

pages 147-158
Read by Ms. Scott

A Map of Home Chapter 10 from Susanna Hall on Vimeo.

read by Ms. Scott
pages 159-180

Here are resources we used to learn more:

• Family Watchdog: Enter any address and a map will pop up with  dots showing level 2 and 3 sex offenders in your area.
• A Thin Line: MTV website to help teens understand sexting, digital safety, and cyberbullying.
• Cynthia Logan’s Today Show video interview about daughter Jessica’s suicide as a result of sexting (2009).
• Massachusetts law regarding the classifications of sex offenders
• U.S. Department of Justice’s National Sex Offender Public Website:  ”The only government system that exists to link public state, territory, and tribal sex offender registries from one national search site.”

Here are some great websites to use:

FOR GENERAL INFO:

Library of Congress guide to Harlem Renaissance materials Online resources from the Library of Congress as well as links t0 other web sites.

Harlem History (Columbia University) History of the neighborhood, arts, culture, and politics of Harlem

Drop Me Off in Harlem  In Harlem, black painters, photographers, film directors, illustrators, and sculptors found new opportunities to exhibit and publish their work.

ARTISTS: ArtCyclopedia: The Harlem Renaissance Includes a chronological listing of Harlem Renaissance artists, with links to museums, galleries, image archives, and more.

MUSICIANS: Jazz artist biographies from PBS

WRITERS: PAL: Perspectives in American Literature An introduction and list of topics for research & study on the Harlem Renaissance as a whole, as well as similar information on many individuals from the period.

POETS: Brief Guide to the Harlem Renaissance
The Academy of American Poets website offers a variety of biographies
and essays on the poets and poetry of the Harlem Renaissance.

• A Blog Around The Clock by Bora Zivkovic (@BoraZ) covers ”circadian rhythms, sleep, animal physiology and behavior, and evolution – and more ‘meta’ topics, like science communication and education, the world of media, and the World Wide Web.”

• Crude Matter by Michelle Clement (@physilology) ”is about all the gunk and goo that makes the bodies of humans and other animals work, all the solids, liquids and gasses that exist in our bodies and are sometimes ejected out of them. In one word: physiology!”

• Science With Moxie: Princess Ojiaku (@artfulaction) “is studying neuroscience at North Carolina Central University, and plays bass in an an awesome band. So it is not surprising that her blog often connects these two aspects of her life, from discussing neuroscience (and other science, like physics) of music perception, to interviewing scientists who are also musicians. Obviously, this blog will rock!”

• The Urban Scientist: Danielle N. Lee (@DNLee5) “did her PhD research in animal behavior and she sometimes blogs about it, as well as about evolution, ecology (often urban ecology) and mammals. But her main strengths are in blogging about science education and outreach, especially to women and minorities.”

For summaries & links to each blog, go here and scroll down (excerpts above from this page). Go here for the blog network’s home page.

All blogs have RSS feeds, and all bloggers have twitter handles. If you prefer, you can follow all the bloggers at once by reading this list (no Twitter account necessary): http://twitter.com/#!/sciamblogs/sciambloggers.

• what are people saying about your favorite person or topic?
• what conversation topics are trending in Boston or worldwide?
• what is happening in the news right now?
• what is your friend, local politician, or favorite celebrity tweeting about?

You do not need a Twitter account to find the answers to these questions! Here are three ways to search Twitter to find what you need:

(1) Twitter search

• Go to search.twitter.com, which allows you to search just like any search engine. It also lists trending topics.
• Search for a name, a person, a keyword, or a hashtag (#) and see all the tweets from the past 3 days by/about that person or topic.
• Search results will scroll as new tweets are posted. Results will also show images and videos people post via Twitter (a new feature).

PROS: you can scroll through as many tweets as you want
CONS: only the last 36 hours of tweets are available for searching

(2) Twitter advanced search

• Go to search.twitter.com/advanced, where you can search for tweets
  • with multiple keywords (i.e. “Michelle Obama” and Mandela)
  • written about or by a specific person
  • written in a specific language
  • posted near you (say, within 1 mile of Boston)
  • posted on a specific day (in the past three days)
  • with a positive or negative attitude
  • containing links

(3) Google realtime search

• Go to google.com/realtime or just run a search at google.com and click on the “realtime” tab in the left column.
• Search for a name, a person, a keyword, an exact phrase, a mention of a specific person, or a hashtag (#).
• Search results will scroll as new tweets are posted. (the feed can be paused if it is going too fast for you to read).

PROS: Search tweets all the way back to Jan 1st of the current year; easily search by month or day by clicking the timeline in results page.
CONS: you can only see 10 tweets at a time, which doesn’t let you scroll enough to find most useful/credible tweets. To see more, you have to click on another part of the timeline.

UPDATE: As of July 2, 2011, Google has temporarily disabled its Realtime Search feature following the expiration of a deal with Twitter. ”We’re exploring how to incorporate Google+ into this functionality, so stay tuned,” says a Google spokesman. 

VIDEO:

Students and staff alike can learn the basics from Lee LeFever’s videos. Here’s one:

Also see Commoncraft videos explaining

• Web search strategies
• Twitter (the basics)
• Twitter Search (hashtags, trends, real-time news)
• blogs
• Wikipedia
• secure websites
• phishing scams

Freesound Project: collaborative database of CC licensed sounds (i.e. sound effects). Freesound focusses only on sound, not songs. To search by tags, go to http://www.freesound.org/tagsView.php.


Jamendo: http://www.jamendo.com/en/tags Jamendo is a CC music site where (mostly unknown) artists worldwide upload albums that are freely downloadable and remixable under CC licenses. The quickest way to browse and choose is to go to the “tags” page. As I write, I am listening to an African experimental hip hop album by Mr. Mamadou–I can easily imagine student using clips from this music for a podcast or screencast.


Free Music Archive: http://freemusicarchive.org/ “An interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads. The Free Music Archive is directed by WFMU, the most renowned freeform radio station in America.” I like this because you can browse by genre and subgenre, like “hip- hop” narrowed down to “hip-hop beats.” This can save lots of time.


Beatpick: http://beatpick.com/player/index This is a commercial site, but noncommercial folks do NOT have to pay to use the music. The search function is very advanced–search by genre, mood, main instrument, tempo, vocal, language, etc. Fun!

The World Bank has a great site (ICT Tables) with PDF data tables that make it easy to compare Internet and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in both industrialized and developing countries. The economic and social context is given for each country, and the data is from 2000 and 2008.

Students can compare data and answer questions like:

• How affordable and accessible are internet and cell phone services in Cape Verde and Haiti?
• What percentage of Egyptians use cell phones? How much do these cell phones cost based on the gross national income?
• How does Internet bandwidth speed differ between the United States and Sudan?

Happy researching,

Susanna