Other Web Sites

Internet Resources for K-12 Teachers

by Brian D. Keith

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This resource listing is designed to be an ongoing effort that will be regularly updated. I do visit and review every site before listing it. The comments are my own, and provided for your information. Your reaction to a site may well be different from my own, so I encourage you to visit any site that sounds interesting or useful, and not rely on my word alone. I would appreciate any comments, suggestions, or recommendations for additional listings that you have found useful. I can be reached at keithb@indiana.edu.

Sites with specific activities and resources for earth science teachers

Water Science for Schools
A site that is full of factual information about water. It also includes galeries of pictures and maps, each image accompanied by a text explanation of the image and often links for additional information. The links feature is quite useful and found throughout the site with cross links on many topics. The only part that I was a little disappointed in was the Activity Center, which consisted of various questionnaires to be filled out rather than activities related to water that you can carry out on your own. Overall, it is an attractive, well organized, easy to navigate site suitable for middle and high school level.

Kentucky Earth Science Education Network (KESEN)
This part of the Kentucky Geological Survey's site is designed specifically for K-12. KESEN has interesting facts about Kentucky geology with attractive graphics. The Earth Science Standards page has grade-level appropriate links to sites for various specific topics. There is also a listing of classroom activities for topics in Earth Science. Only a few are active at present, but those appear useful.

SEPM K-12 Earth Sciences Education Committee
This site has a lot of classroom activities that are indexed by appropriate level (LE-UE-MS-HS). Each has a teacher guide and detailed instructions. These were developed by different people from a variety of institutions, but have the same easy-to-follow format. An excellent resource.

The Learning Web
This site is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey for teachers. Activities are grouped by topic area: global change, working with maps, and earth science (with an emphasis on volcanoes). Each topic area has background information and images as well as activities. For global change and maps, the activities are rated for different grade levels; for earth science they are not. Each activity is quite self-contained with background information, time needed, list of materials, and a teachers guide. The site is limited in subject matter, but the stuff that is available seems quite good.

Exploring Planets in the Classroom
Maintained by the Hawaii Space Grant Consortium, this site provides hands-on activities on planetary geology and exploration developed and/or tested by the consortium and presented at their annual summer course for K-12 teachers and librarians from Hawaii. The activity pages are formatted to be printed out and used as is. Topics include: Introduction to the Solar System, Planetary Properties, Volcanology, Impact Craters, The Dynamic Earth, Gradation (soil formation and erosion), Gravity Forces and Rockets, The Moon, and Remote Sensing. Activities are not rated by grade level, but do include teachers guides and materials lists, as well as the downloadable activity sheets.

Education Resources Catalog
This on-line catalog lists a variety of products and links including: curriculum materials, workshops, posters, CD-ROMs, maps, slides, and links to other catalogs. Some teacher guides and classroom activities are also included. Many of the items also include a link for further information on the product or specific ordering information. Most of the products relate to planetary study. Items are generally less than $50, although some are in the $100-200 range.

Science and Math Links
This National Science Teachers Association site is designed to provide links for teachers to a variety of other sites. Earth Science related subject areas include: earth and space science, environmental science, geology, and paleontology. Links are quite varied in content, and range from sites with further links to sites with classroom activities. This site also solicits recommendations for other sites to be added to their listing. On the down side, I found this site to be slow and unresponsive, and some of the links were either not current or unavailable. I think it would still be useful to check out.

Site with searchable database for teachers

Blue Web'n
A neat site maintained by Pacific Bell Education Fellows that is a searchable library (database) of Blue Ribbon educational web sites that are indexed by grade level, content, and type of information available (activities, lessons, resources, etc.). New sites are added regularly and you can subscribe to a weekly mail list that includes the weekly HOT SITE and new additions to the database. A well maintained and easy to use site. I did a search on earth science and came up with over 60 matches, some of which I will add here as I explore them.

Sites with more general earth science and/or education information

OceanLink
This is the web site extension of a textbook "Invitation to Oceanography" by P.R.Pinet maintained by the book's publisher, Jones and Bartlett. It is a new concept where the site is keyed to the book, but it does contain many links to other sites (generally educational institutions and government agencies) that are listed by topic. There are a lot of color pictures and diagrams that convey a lot of information. It is geared to introductory college level, but would be quite useful at the high school level as well. The site worked well, although the frames format takes a little getting used to.

Kentucky Geological Survey
The main KGS site has information related to Kentucky geology including fossils, energy, mineral, and water resources. Of particular interest to teachers is the GeoNews page which has useful links to sites with current news and information related to natural events happening around the world including: CNN-Earth, USGS registry pages for reporting earthquakes and volcanoes, and sites related to weather and floods.

Geology Link Page
Has links to many geology sites including many state geological surveys, geological societies in the U.S. and in the world, geology newsgroups, and sites on specific subjects such as paleontology, volcanology, and hydrology.

RockHounds links
Just like it says, this site has links of interest to rock and mineral collectors including: the Smithsonian collection, rock and mineral associations, and commercial sites. A lot of nice mineral pictures.