Journal #8

Spotlight: Free Sciences Resources Online
By Dave Nagel

This article basically tells us about 3 extremely good and creditable sources that can be used to help students take more of an interest in the field of science. They offer free multimedia and other tools, and also lesson plans and curriculum that will help make the most of these tools.

1) MIT

I’m sure everyone is familiar with this institute, which has been a leader in technology forever. MIT is trying to bring OpenCourseWare into education. Although it is available to students of all ages, MIT is trying to focus on secondary, or high school education at this time. OpenCourseWare would provide resources such as lecture notes, syllabi, video and audio, and assignments, which have been taken from actual MIT courses, in order to educate our high school students about the latest science technology.

2) NASA

NASA also provides many online resources about what is happening in science today. NASA also has many of the same resources such as video and animation, and the subject content is available for every grade level. NASA’s resources are not just for students, but are available to teachers, as well as anyone who has an interest in science, for whatever reason. NASA is also keeping it both fun and interesting by adding games, and virtual resources.

3) Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Education site if focused more on resources for the teacher. The site tries to stay focused on reality and offers historical materials and tries to stay within state and national standards with all its subject matter. The site can be searched by state, grade, and subject, and steps outside the box of science, by offering information in other areas like art and literature.

QUESTIONS

#1 – What site would be best suited to enlightened younger students about science?

The NASA site would be best suited. Although both the NASA and Smithsonian site have resources for all grade levels, the NASA site talks about games and trivia that can be used to make science more interesting. They even have a picture dictionary for younger audience members.

#2 – What site sounds the most interesting to you and why?

This is an opinion question. I’m really not much of a science person, so being that the Smithsonian talks about having material on a variety of subjects, like literature and language arts, I would think that I would definitely favor that site. But the NASA site actually looks the most interesting. It seems to make science more fun, for those of us who wouldn’t normally see it that way. And also when it talks about going beyond the classroom with a Solar System Simulator, and the latest space missions, I would say that the NASA site is the first one I want to explore in.