Online Resources to Find Unusual Information
Unusual information almost always piques the interest of students. Given that human beings are naturally curious, information that is not typical within a given content area can help capture students’ attention and further clarifying the importance of a particular concept.
The following are some useful online resources:
· The New York Times (www.nytimes.com) – This site is useful for finding interesting and current information for science (John Tierney’s column is especially fun), social studies, and language arts. You can also search the New York Times archives and find historical articles on almost any topic.
· Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (http://free.ed.gov) – This site is a federal resource geared specifically toward education. It provides information and educational links in the subjects of language arts, math, science, and social studies. Pictures and videos are available as well.
· Arts & Letters Daily (www.aldaily.com) – This site provides many articles on art and current events. It is also useful for its variety of links. It provides links to many newspapers, magazines, columnists, blogs, and even radio stations.
· PBS (www.pbs.org) – This site provides access to PBS and NOVA videos as well as webinars on various topics from PBS Teachers LIVE! You can find unusual information or innovative ideas for instruction on the PB link to the Idea Lab blog.
· Live Science (www.livescience.com) – This site provides videos and information in the subjects of space, animals, health, environment, technology, culture, and history. A section of the site is even dedicated to strange news.
· Science Daily (www.sciencedaily.com) – This site provides interesting information on the results of recent studies or discoveries in scientific arenas such as health and medicine, ancient species, and technology and mathematics.
· Trivia-Library (www.trivia-library.com) – This site provides trivia on a wide range of topics that teachers could creatively apply to almost any content area.
· Smithsonian Education (www.smithsonianeducation.org) – This site provides lesson plans, information, and resources for virtually any content area. It also allows teachers to access state standards and provides resources and links for almost all of those standards.
· Vocational Information Center (http://www.khake.com) - The Vocational Information Center website is an education directory that provides links to online resources for career exploration, technical education, workforce development, technical schools and related vocational learning resources. Check out the “Math at Work” link for occupations using math.
Adapted from The Highly Engaged Classroom (Marzano & Pickering)