Encyclopedia of Life

The Encyclopedia of Life is text, images and videos that can be uploaded by anyone who's interested, and content is vetted by expert curators.

The inventory has grown more quickly than anyone expected. To date, there are pages for more than 150,000 species, with contributions from 250 specialists and 1,200 "citizen scientists".

Members of the public have contributed more than 30,000 images via the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) group page on the photo-sharing website Flickr. Once the identity of the photographed species has been confirmed by an expert, the image is added to the main site.

By 2017, the site aims to have collated information on all 1.8 million recorded species. To help the project push on towards this goal, the founding sponsors today announced a further $12.5 million in funding.

24 things about to become extinct

This may turn into an interesting lesson.

24 Things About to Become Extinct

24 Things About to Become Extinct

24. Yellow Pages
23. Classified Ads
22. Movie Rental Stores
21. Dial-up Internet Access
20. Phone Landlines
19. Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs
18. VCRs
17. Ash Trees
16. Ham Radio
15. The Swimming Hole
14. Answering Machines
13. Cameras That Use Film
12. Incandescent Bulbs
11. Stand-Alone Bowling Alleys
10. The Milkman
9. Hand-Written Letters
8. Wild Horses
7. Personal Checks
6. Drive-in Theaters
5. Mumps & Measles
4. Honey Bees
3. News Magazines and TV News
2. Analog TV
1. The Family Farm

Tearch training videos

Want to get a quick intro to a new tool?  Check out Teacher Training Videos.  http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/  These videos were created for teachers to help them to incorporate technology into their teaching. Just click and a video will open and take you through how to use that technology. From podcasting to screen capture to wikis to blogs, there's a video for that.

Publishing student work

Publishing student work usually means photocopying multiple copies for the class.  What if you can create a FREE book of your students' work?  You could publish anthologies, books of poetry, or anything they have done.  Check out http://www.bookrix.com/.  You upload the file and then the book appears as a clickable book.  Read the book online or even download your own copy.  Great for those faraway grandparents.

Another student publishing outlet is LuLu  http://www.lulu.com  Again, upload your files and a book is created.  But LuLu allows you to purchase a print edition of the work.  So you can have your class project available as a free download or as a low-cost print edition.  Check it out.

Scientific American Podcasts

Applications for Education
Scientific American's 60 Second podcasts http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/ could be an educational, interesting, and entertaining way to start a science class. You never know when a student's curiosity might be piqued. Offering students quick lessons from a variety of science topics increases the chances that they may hear something that they want to explore further.

Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
The Why Files - The Science Behind the News
Planet Science - Science Games and Lesson Plans
Great Science Activities from Exploratorium

Educational Games

Now that classes are a bit longer, you may be looking for anchor activities for students. One thing many students love is playing a game on the computer. It can actually be educational. I've been updating the resources on my school page http://library-media-center.rms.concordnhschools.net/ to include many resources for you to use. As I find good educational games, I'll be adding them to the wiki page of games. If you have any that you would like me to include, just let me know.

http://rmsgames.wikispaces.com/

Give Funnelbrain a try

Looking for a fun way for students to review? Give FunnelBrain a try. Students can create their own "flash cards" or access those already made.

What is FunnelBrain?

FunnelBrain.com is an academic question and answer site that provides an environment for collaborative online learning.

What's special about FunnelBrain?

Students work in teams to create review questions and answers, paired with video explanations, for academic subjects. Users have access to wiki-style content creation tools, as well as a learning management application known as the "Funnel" that tracks and monitors learning progress and focuses the student's attention on a particular question at a particular time with a spaced repetition algorithm.

What is the FUNNEL?

The FUNNEL is a learning application that manages the review process to make it as efficient and effective as possible using a spaced repetition algorithm that presents the right question at the right time.