Timeline JS - Beautifully crafted timelines that are easy, and intuitive to use. Walk through the Continents - Print Maps Large and Small - Free. Print free maps large or small; from 1 page to almost 7 feet across; PC or Mac. For classroom and student use. MegaMaps requires Adobe Flash. Free online software—no downloading or installation. Print out maps in a variety of sizes, from a single sheet of paper to a map almost 7 feet across, using an ordinary printer. You can print single page maps, or maps 2 pages by 2 pages, 3 pages by 3 pages, etc. up to 8 pages by 8 pages (64 sheets of paper; over six feet across!). Walk Through The Continents Trace car trips; where grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins live; the Oregon Trail and the Cumberland Gap; Huck Finn's journey; the Rocky Mountains, the Appalachians, the Mississippi River, the Columbia River and the Colorado, label states… There are any number of ways to use these maps.
. • Print out a multi-page map of the US or the world, and have groups of students assemble it together, like a puzzle. By coloring and writing on the map, students make it “their own”. Math Notebooking. Writing about Math and Documenting What You've Learned Whether you call them math notebooks or math journals, writing about math and documenting math activities are a great way to cement mathematical understanding. And along the way, you're creating a wonderful record of your math studies that can be useful for portfolios or homeschool evaluations.
Grab a three ring binder and some paper. Let's start making math notebooking pages! Here you will find ideas for things to put into math notebooks, math journal prompts, free printable pages, and other math notebooking books and links. What you see in the picture above is math notebooking in action. A math notebook is not just a notebook full of boring worksheets and math problems. The possibilities are many: Choose whatever kind of notebook you prefer. For example, this sleeve protector holds a very long chart we made on fax paper. When we're done with the chart, it goes back into the math notebook for storage. the benefits of a math journal. Teach The Difference Between Persuasive and Expository Essays. Teaching middle school students how to write a formal essay is an ongoing process that requires many scaffolded activities throughout the course of the school year. Writing isn’t something that students can master; that is, there is always room for growth.
With this in mind, teachers should embark on essay writing by exploring the two most common types of formal essays: persuasive and expository. The following lesson will help students differentiate between the two as well as reflect on their own writing. Create an Appropriate Essay Tone Tone is one of the distinguishing characteristics between persuasive and expository writing. Mrs. Conversely, the purpose of an expository essay is merely to describe or explain, with the goal of sharing a personal experience. Use Specific Writing Techniques Persuasive writing utilizes specific techniques to connect with the reader. Logical: Incorporate facts and statistics to add credence to the argument. Teach Elementary Science Students about Force, Motion,and Energy. Fundamentally, science is about physics. The behavior or atoms and molecules are at the roots of all science taught in primary and secondary school.
Physics is the study of interactions of matter and energy and necessarily includes force and motion to describe these interactions. Opportunities to reinforce concepts of force, motion, energy, and matter are everywhere and easy to use. Elementary Definitions of Force, Motion, Energy, and Matter Terms should not be a problem for typical elementary students even first-graders.
Force is a push or a pull.Motion is a change from one place to another place.Energy makes things move.Matter has weight and takes up space. Demonstrating the Concepts Force, Motion, Energy, and Matter All of the above concepts can be demonstrated using a textbook placed on a table: To demonstrate force, push the book a short distance and then hold it between thumb and forefinger to pull it back. An additional concept that should be introduced is work. Sources: Online Science Experiment Websites. Every year middle schools across the nation hold science fairs. While this is a fun time for kids, it can be very frustrating for the parent trying to help. In most cases, it is much easier and better for everyone involved if you can find a specific project with a list of all that is needed, along with easy to follow directions. The following websites offer some of the best resources for finding the perfect science experiment for your child's project. Dr. If you are looking for a guaranteed win at the next science fair, Dr.
Hobby Science Hobby Science is a completely free site that offers everything children need to pull off the perfect science experiment. ChecklistsA-Z instructions for helping your childAccess to pages detailing the complete scientific method.These pages can be great help for parents who have been out of school a while and can barely remember the basic principals. 24 Hour Science Projects Reeko's Mad Scientist Lab. Online Science Games and Interactive Simulations. I'm a big fan of online games and simulations that allow children to virtually experience and experiment with concepts that may otherwise be difficult to test out, or in preparation for a physical experiment.
That's why I'm highly recommending the University of Colorado's free online PhET project: Interactive Science Simulations. The PhET project provides free online physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and math simulations that are fun, interactive, and research-based. Educators can browse the activities section by simulation type and grade level. PhET offers special workshops and materials for educators. Science Simulations In Science Activities Online, Amy Martin says that educators who teach science online don't have to give up doing traditional hands-on experiments, because science simulations can replicate classroom labs.
Follow Up With Hands-On Science Of course, running simulations doesn't mean we can't do both virtual and physical experiments. Free Online Science Games. More Interesting Science Facts for Teachers and Students. The average American is not well-versed in science. Teachers have a unique opportunity to identify and correct misconceptions about the way the world works.
Early intervention in elementary school is the best time to begin, but all science teachers will hear myths and bad science. The Weather is a Big Source of Mystery When viewing a rainbow, the sun is shining on one’s back. Rainbows are created by refraction and reflection of light typically late in the afternoon. The water droplets in the air refract the sunlight light a prism and the inner surface of those drops reflect the colors back toward the sun. Physics Myths Gravity does not disappear in outer space. Chemistry for Young Learners Helium on Earth is very rare. Life Science for Learners Speaking of rainforests, they are not extremely hot — daytime temperatures average somewhat less than 90 degrees F. Earth Science Every Day. What’s the best map projection? | A User's Guide to the Universe. Next term, I’ll be teaching a course in general relativity, and while preparing my notes on the curvature of space, I was reminded of a really fun paper I worked on with Rich Gott a few years ago.
As you probably know, the earth is roughly a sphere, and if you try to wrap a piece of flat paper around it to make a map, you’re going to get a lot of crinkles and folds. In short, you can’t make a perfect map of the whole earth. There are some, like the Gall-Peters, that are area-preserving. In other words, equal areas on the map always represent equal areas of land.
Peters argued that the only way to properly appreciate the importance of places like Africa and South America in the world was to use the Gall-Peters projection. Other maps, like the well-known Mercator projection are not area preserving, and thus make North America and Europe look huge compared to more equatorial continents. So where does the general relativity come into it? However, there are also huge large scale effects. Mercator's Map, 1569: The First Proper Map for Ocean Navigators. Once there, seamen immediately realized an awesome fact: with their mighty rollers, ferocious storms, vast distances and long months at sea, the Atlantic, Pacific and other oceans were nothing like the coastal waters to which they were accustomed. Sailing the Oceans for the First Time It was a relatively simple matter to sail the tideless Mediterranean sea, or make coast-hugging voyages around Europe. But the oceans presented navigators with colossal problems, and posed questions to which there was no easy answer.
How wide was the Atlantic Ocean? Even Christopher Columbus did not know for sure until he crossed it for the first time in 1492. How wide was the Pacific? Then again, how long was the west coast of Africa? The Unsuitable Plane Sea Chart The basic difficulty was lack of proper navigational equipment. On the plane chart, the lines or meridians running north and south were shown as parallel to each other.
The Perils of Ocean Sailing Mercator’s Cylindrical Projection Sources. The Dangers of Ocean Exploration. It was this unknown element that made voyages of exploration so dangerous. Before the end of the 15th century, European sailors had never crossed the oceans or encountered the mighty ocean currents, mountainous rollers and violent storms. Facts which Geographers Did not Know The geographical knowledge of the time was unsuited to world exploration. In the first place, no one knew for certain that the world was round. The Polish astronomer Niklaus Copernicus said it was and Columbus himself believed it.
There were several important facts geographers did not know. How long was the coast of Africa? Mercator’s Map for Ocean Sailing Explorers also set out into the unknown oceans without proper sea charts or navigational equipment. Over short distance this did not matter very much. This was because the parallel meridians on the plane chart made east-west distances seem much greater than they really were. The Chronometer for Reckoning Longitude Calculating Position by the Moon Sources. Columbus on Hispaniola, October 12, 1492 Changed the World. This shout heralded the rise and fall of the Spanish Empire; the end of the Inca and Aztec civilisations; the destruction of American Indian societies; the emergence of the United States and Canada; the beginning of the British Empire and the West's control of world trade.
The Taino Christopher Columbus found a thriving community of Taino native people on Hispaniola. Some historians believe there were 500,000, others 8 million. However, within 30 years the vast majority of them had died of smallpox. The Tainos inhabited several Caribbean island chains - the Bahamas, Virgin Islands, Greater Antilles (Cuba, Jamaica Hispaniola [modern Haiti and the Dominican Republic], and Puerto Rico). The Tainos had developed a highly complex society c. 500AD with vilages of at least 2,000 inhabitants, built around ball courts and public structures. The Arrival of Christopher Columbus The Tainos Economy Columbus returned in 1493 The Consequences Sources. L'application Web de la ligne du temps. Fun Geography Activities for Middle School. Middle school students will learn and remember more of their geography facts if they are having fun while learning and are inspired by interesting topics.
Weave games and creative extention activities into the curriculum. Use issues which appeal to them to bring geography to life. An imaginative geography curriculum can include a variety of student interests including other subjects and non-curricular activities into fun lessons. Listen to the students and focus on things they are excited about outside geography class. Play Geography Games Ask students what their favorite (non-video) games are and list them. Some fun games to adapt for geography: Jeopardy Hangman Password - students are in teams, with at least two teams of two people. Map Fun Geography students should be familiar with all sorts of maps. If you can't find a printed map to suit your purposes, and you can't print out the map you need using your printer, consider having students create a large map.
Guest Speakers. The Two Main Branches of Geography: Human and Physical Geography. Geography is highly interdisciplinary, as many fields of study are interconnected with spatial and temporal relationships with humans and their environment: climate, culture, health, economics, anthropology, history and more. There are two main fields of geography: physical and human. Physical geography studies the natural world of climate, plants, animals, water, land, and biology.
Human geography studies the world constructed by humans such as buildings, societies, societal structures, as well as how humans perceive, interact and manage the environment. Physical Geography Physical geography studies the world in spatial terms and physical systems of the environment. The earth sciences are all interconnected with physical geography. Physical systems such as ecosystems, landmasses, bodies of water, and climate are all included in this branch of geography. Some of the subcategories and interdisciplinary studies included in the study of physical geography include the following: Resources. Definition of Human Rights Summit: A Geographic Teaching Tool. Almost every nation of the world values the concept of human rights. One of the principal problems in the protection of human rights, however, lies in the inability of governments to agree on a specific definition. Declaration of Human Rights: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN on Dec.10, 1948.
It guarantees many individual, social, economic and political rights. These include rights to such things as equal protection under law, to a fair hearing, to be presumed innocent, to free movement, to marry and have a family, to social security, to work, to join trade unions, to adequate standard of living for health and well-being, and to education.
As pointed out by in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, subsequent treaties added group rights such as the "protections of ethnic groups against genocide and the ownership by countries of their national territories and resources. " Definition of Human Rights: The definition of human rights is a subject of debate. Themed Unit Study Ideas for Geography Classrooms. Unit studies by nature include multiple subject areas, such as reading, writing, math, art, history, geography, and other sciences. These suggested unit study themes for home school teachers and other educators include ideas for activities and assignments. Natural Disasters Unit Study in Geography Class Students are fascinated by natural disasters, as they are dangerous and mysterious. Natural disasters include earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, blizzards, and storms.
Ideas for classroom activities include: compiling a natural disaster scrapbook from newspaper clippings or website information; watching DVD's about natural disasters; assigning students the task of conducting an emergency preparedness lesson (one group presents on tornado emergency procedures, another presents on earthquake preparedness, etc.); and marking locations of natural disasters on a world map. Rivers of the World Unit Study Endangered Species Unit Study for the Geography Classroom Resources: The Patterns of Commercial Centers in a City: A Field Study.