Annotated+Links+Page

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Stacie
This is a short article from edutopia that promotes simulation use in the classroom. The viewpoint is that simulations offer students the opportunity to learn in an experiment type setting while also allowing them to make mistakes. The example is that when dissecting a frog, one mistake can interfere with the entire experiement and learning. When using a simulation (2 frog dissecting simulations were also cited) students can make a mistake, learn from it, and set the simulation up again. It also points out advantages of virtual field trips and the regular use simulations already have in the corporate world. Another resource sited in the article ties simulations to literacy as well as science. Explore Learning is a site that has hundreds of math and science simulations, which they call "gizmos" for grades 3-12. The site provides an introduction to explore learning demonstration video along with 5 teaching videos. Every gizmo in the library has a 5 minute free pass and you are able to explore all the aspects of the gizmo including a student exploration guide and vocabulary. There is also an assessment piece that can be useful in showing the increase in student acheivement from using the gizmos. The assessment also supports higher order thinking skills. Gizmos are sorted by state standards which helps to make searching simpler. You also have the ability to sign up for a free 30 day trial. This resource does cost money. You have the option of subscribing just as one teacher or for a whole school or district. The prices are not listed. This is a collection of simulations set up for ages 5-6 through ages 10-11 through the BBC. The above link takes you to a page where you select either ages 5-6 or 6-7. Once you select an age, it shows you the simulations for that age group. The other age groups are then listed on the left side. You can go through the simulation right on the site or follow the given directions to paste the url into a blog or website for students to follow and use. Once you are actually at a simulation, you can click on math on the left side also. You can choose from number, shape/space/measures, or handling data. This site is free. This is a site created by a K-12 science teacher from Washington. It is a collection of useful science games and simulations that are all free to use. The BBC clips and Explore Learning are both listed there as well as many others. On the right side, there are also some handy math resources! This article is describing Colorado University-Boulder's science simulation project. The project, known as PhET, was started in 2002 for physics students and has now grown to include chemistry, biology, earth science, and math. The project recently received a 1.1 million dollar grant to continue their development of simulations.
 * [|Edutopia Online Simulations]
 * [|ExploreLearning]
 * [|BBC Science Clips]
 * [|Your Science Diva's Guide]
 * [|University of Colorado at Boulder Online Simulation Article]

Neil
This collection of simulations is clearly designed for high school, and perhaps university level, students; however, there are several useful simulations for elementary students. In particular, there is an interesting glaciers simulation, which fits into upper elementary science and social studies. Also, there is a Plinko simulation, which would be useful in teaching upper elementary math, specifically probability. This collection of dynamic maps allows students to interact with the United States over time. Students can explore the changes in vegetation over the course of a year, the invasion of exotic species over that last decade, and the changes in the terrain over that last 2.6 billion years. This page would be useful in upper elementary science and social studies. This simulation deals with escaping slaves from the South. The server has been having some difficulties, so this may not be a reliable simulation, but it looks so good that it is worth keeping an eye on. This simulation allows for students to role play as escaping slaves. This ties into to upper elementary social studies. Lemonade Stand allows for student to simulate running a lemonade stand. Students are responsible for ordering supplies, pricing products, and adjusting mixtures in order to maximize profits. This simulation fits in with upper elementary math and social studies. The standard upper elementary social studies curriculum used in the state of Michigan does not contain much economics, which the state requires. Westward Trail is a modern version of the classic game Oregon Trail. This game allows for students to travel west on the Oregon Trail. Along the way, students are responsible for buying supplies, maintaining animal and human health, and general safety of the party. This game ties into upper elementary social studies. From this simulation, students learn about the Oregon Trail and explore economics. The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives may not fit into everyone's definition of a simulation, but his web page is close enough, and so wonderful, that I must include it. This web page allows for easy manipulation of numerous math concepts taught from kindergarten through 12th grade. A fantastic site that will meet almost any math need.
 * [|University of Colorado at Boulder Simulations Index Page]
 * [|National Atlas: Dynamic Maps]
 * [|Flight of Freedom]
 * [|Cool Math: Games]
 * [|Global Game Network]
 * [|National Library of Virtual Manipulatives]

Kim
This site offers simple virtual labs which could be useful if you are short on time and/or resources (equipment/chemicals). They are pretty simple, but explain the chemistry fairly well. This site offers several videos and some interactive learning links. They would be great for both secondary and elementary levels. Here is an amazing site that covers grades k-12. It offers blogs, connections to state standards and videos/simulations as well as lesson plans, quizzes and activities related to virtually every subject (science, math, technology, arts and music, health, English, and social studies). Unfortunately, there is a subscription requirement to view the majority of the videos, but there are a few free ones that looked pretty good and you can take advantage of a free trial offer. Great site with a lot of great information AND a virtual chemistry lab! An amazing site for those who teach biology and are limited in resources when it comes to dissecting. It offers virtual dissection CD's for frogs, squid, starfish, cow eye, owl pellet, fetal pig, + genetics pea and fly for a resonable cost of $300. The fee allows you to use the CD as many times as desired for one full year. An at home version can also be purchased for onely $30 and can be installed on up to three computers in the home. A site that offers virtual chemistry software at a reasonable price. The software comes with pre-defined lab simulations (Standard for $32.99) and the option of the Lab Wizard if you purchas the Model Chemlab Pro for $135. The Lab Wizard allows you to create custom simulations. This site allows students (or teachers!) to design their own rollercoaster from predetermined choices. Once your design is complete, it evaluates your choices and explains why your design was a good or bad one from both safety and fun standpoints. A virtual tour through the human body including cross-sections, planes of sections (with animations) and interactive annotations. An interactive activity that allows students to solve a mysterious death through the use of Quicktime movies and virtual reality images. Seems like it would be a GREAT activity for a Forensics class. This site offers an abundance of resources including a virtual lab, tutorials, simulation links, scenarion activities (including the Mixed Reception Activity above), an on-lind stoichiometry course (set in a real-world scenario), concept tests, and automatically graded problems. It is managed by Carnegie Mellon University and sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The "Related Projects Link" at the bottom of the left scroll bar of the ChemCollective offers links to additional sites including the link to this site. The acronym (MERLOT) stands for Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Training. There were 600 links just for chemistry! Topics they cover include arts, business, education, humanities, math and statistics, science and technology, and social sciences. The site allows you to search by material subject or type (animations, case studies, etc.) They also offer the opportunity to add "communities" to your profile, allowing you access to "differentiated information" of your liking. You can sign up to become a member for free. This site was found by way of both MERLOT and linksgiving.com. It is a California State University - Fullerton website that provides links to animated tutorials as well as automated assessment units. The Lewis Structure tutorials were EXCELLENT and offered great step by step directions for figuring out the correct Lewis Dot Structure, including showing how a structure could be incorrect. This site appears to have some interesting and useful software for purchase, though the amount of information available is very limited. It actually requires that you call for pricing information. One great thing about the link is that it covers K-12 and specifies which grades would benefit from each specific software they offer.
 * [|Chemistry For Life]
 * [|Exploratorium]
 * [|Brain Pop]
 * [|Fact Monster]
 * [|Froguts]
 * [|Model Science Software]
 * [|Amusement Park Physics]
 * [|Guided Tour of the Visible Human]
 * [|Mixed Reception Activity]
 * [|The ChemCollective Site]
 * [|MERLOT]
 * [|Fullerton Chemistry Learning Tools]
 * [|Riverdeep]

This is the website I noted in Tips and Tricks. Both Stacie and Neil mentionned it above for its applications to elementary classrooms, but it is a fantastic site for high school. I counted 82 simulations, indexed to specific content areas, including Physics,(which has the most extensive choice of sims), Chemistry, Biology, Earht Science, and Math. The simulations are modern, user-friendly and polished. One cool option- they have translated simulations! Meaning I can do the same simulation for my Japanese exchange student, in Japanese, that I did for my English speaking students, (or in French, or Spanish, etc.)! This one is from the Chemistry Department at Iowa State Universtity. A truly impressive array of simulations for many Chemistry topics- impressive because they are very good simulations, and also because there are so many of them. The site also includes activities and tutorials on some of the topics. This one comes from the California State university at Northridge, and has links to many different simulation sites, some better than others, in the content areas of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Earth and Space Sciences. There's a lot to peruse and choose from, which is not always the greatest thing, but there are some gems to be found, such as the next annotaion- Flash Simulations for Physics These 97 simualtions on 14 different Physics topics are very useful. They're created by David M. Harrison, Dept. of Physics, Univ. of Toronto, and they are copyrighted by Harrison in Creative Commons. He notes several simulation sites (like Merlot, above) have links to his simulations. They are varied and user friendly. NASA has this site which includes 22 powerpoint stand alone lecture modules touching on 8 different topics as varied as light, sound, electricity, weather, flight, smell, the invention process and plate tetonics. Reminds me of our StAIR Projects with built in simple simulations. Could be useful, especially seems geared towards middle school aged students.
 * [|Interactive Science Simulations: University of Colorado at Boulder]
 * [|Iowa State University: Department of Chemistry Animations Index]
 * [|Simulation Links from The Sourcebook for Teaching Science]
 * [|Flash Simulations for Physics]
 * [|NASA Simulations]