Teachers are continually seeking new ways to create active learning environments that capture
children's attention, engage their minds, and nurture their interests. The Internet is a powerful
tool for engaging minds: school groups and individual students can become involved in
authentic, collaborative projects; children can pursue individual interests as never before,
allowing them to take responsibility for managing their own projects; and everyone benefits from
greater opportunities to find timely information and communicate with peers and experts
worldwide. In essence, the Internet provides kids with a way to break through school walls so
they can engage people and access resources around the world.
Parents, too, are seeking ways to enhance, as well as play a more active part in, their children's
education. The Internet contains many resources designed to help parents assist their children
with homework, learn more about various topics of study with their children, and find engaging
educational activities that effectively extend their children's learning environment from the
school to the home.
Teachers and parents can use the following Internet resources as a starting point for further
exploration of the many math- and science-related Web sites. The resources are grouped to
reflect some of the roles that the Internet plays in science and math education today.
Activities
Math in Daily Life
http://www.learner.org/exhibits/dailymath
Math in Daily Life offers a number of exhibits that connect math concepts with everyday
situations and tasks. The site also includes an extensive list of math-related print and electronic
resources.
Odyssey of the Mind
http://www.odyssey.org
Odyssey of the Mind is a worldwide program that promotes creative, team-based problem
solving for K-12 kids and college students. The program helps students learn divergent-thinking
and problem-solving skills while they participate in a series of challenging and motivating
activities.
Whelmers
http://www.mcrel.org/whelmers
Instead of overwhelming students with science, teachers can "whelm" them with whelmers--classroom activities designed to capture the attention of even the most indifferent students.
Whelmers are the perfect complement to a comprehensive science program.
Career Information
Mathematical Sciences Career Information
http://www.ams.org/careers
This Web site includes a bulletin board that features descriptions of nonacademic math careers
through profiles of mathematicians working in industry and government. Visitors can query the
currently featured mathematicians or search the archive of profiles by key word, employment
sector, or level of education.
Real Science!
http://www.realscience.org
Associated with San Jose's public television station KTEH, Real Science! provides visitors with
information on many science-related careers, including profiles of people working in the field
and links to related resources.
Collaborative Projects
The GLOBE Program
http://www.globe.gov
Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) is a worldwide network
of students, teachers, and scientists working together to study and understand the global
environment. GLOBE students make environmental observations at or near their schools and
report their data using the Internet. Scientists use GLOBE data in their research and provide
feedback to the students to enrich their science education.
Houghton Mifflin Project Center
http://www.eduplace.com/projects/index.html
Designed for teachers, the Houghton Mifflin Project Center Web site lists collaborative
classroom projects in a variety of categories, including math and science. Teachers can also post
their own online projects on this site, which is updated weekly.
The Mars Millennium Project
http://www.mars2030.net
The Mars Millennium Project, an official White House Millennium Council Youth Initiative,
challenges K-12 students across the country to design a community for the planet Mars. The
project is intended to get kids thinking about what makes their own community work as they
create a living environment from the ground up.
Family Learning Experiences
Helping Your Child Learn Math
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Math/index.html
This online booklet presents basic math concepts through a number of everyday activities that
parents and children can do together. An extensive list of print and electronic resources is also
included.
Helping Your Child Learn Science
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Science/index.html
This online brochure describes a variety of everyday science-related activities that parents can do
with their children at home and in the community. An extensive list of print resources is also
included.
Homework Help and Tutoring
The ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics, and Environmental Education
(ERIC/CSMEE) Homework Companion
http://www.ericse.org/homework.html
The Homework Companion section of the ERIC/CSMEE Web site contains links to online
resources related to math and science homework, parent guidelines for helping children with
homework, and related resources.
Math for Morons Like Us
http://library.advanced.org/20991/home.html
Designed for students, Math for Morons Like Us presents tutorials, sample problems, and
quizzes that cover a range of math topics from pre-algebra to calculus. The site also includes
links to other math resources and a message board where kids can ask questions and post
answers.
Online Learning Centers
A+ Math
http://www.aplusmath.com
Designed to help students improve their math skills interactively, the A+ Math Web site features
problems, games, and a bulletin board where students can post questions and answers.
The Learning Studio @ The Exploratorium
http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio
The Exploratorium's Learning Studio Web site provides visitors with reviews of Web sites in 23
topic areas, access to online exhibits, many science-related activities for students, and more.
The Math Forum
http://forum.swarthmore.edu
The Math Forum is an online community of teachers, students, researchers, parents, educators,
and citizens at all levels who have an interest in math and math education. The site features
online math resources by subject and grade level, information on new methods and issues in
math education, and timely discussions of math education and associated source materials.
Online Magazines
Science News Online
http://www.sciencenews.org
This Web site features selected full-text articles from current and past issues of the print version
of Science News Online, which covers all aspects of science and remains the only weekly
newsmagazine of science published in the United States.
Scientific American Explorations
http://www.explorations.org
This Web site features selected stories from Scientific American's new quarterly magazine,
Scientific American Explorations, which is designed to make learning about science and
technology fun for the entire family. Each issue includes museum and exhibit updates, family
vacation planners, inhome experiments for kids, and reports about what's new on the Web for
families.
Question-Answering Services
Ask Dr. Math
http://forum.swarthmore.edu/dr.math
Ask Dr. Math is a question-answering service for K-12 math students and their teachers. The site
includes a list of frequently asked questions, a searchable archive of previously asked questions,
and many links to other math-related Web sites.
KidsConnect
http://www.ala.org/ICONN/AskKC.html
KidsConnect is an online question-answering service for kids in grades K-12. The site is
sponsored by the American Association of School Librarians--a division of the American Library
Association--with support from Microsoft.
The Mad Scientist Network
http://www.madsci.org
The Mad Scientist Network provides answers to science-related questions and links to related
sites. Visitors can search the entire network, including its links, archives, and library.
Scientific American: Ask the Experts
http://www.sciam.com/askexpert/index.html
Ask the Experts features answers to readers' questions about astronomy, biology, chemistry,
computers, math, physics, and other topics related to science and technology.
Virtual Field Trips, Museums, and Nature Centers
Science Adventures
http://www.scienceadventures.org
Science Adventures makes it easy to find informal science education centers throughout the
United States that offer students, teachers, and parents the opportunity to participate in science
education experiences.
Smithsonian Museums
http://www.si.edu/organiza
This Web site provides visitors with links to the Smithsonian network of museums, events,
activities, resources, tours, and more.
Virtual Tours
http://www.dreamscape.com/frankvad/museums.html
The Virtual Tours Web site contains links to more than 300 museums, exhibits, and points of
special interest that offer online multimedia guided tours.
Virtual Libraries and Reference Sources
700+ Great Sites for Children: Science and Technology
http://www.ala.org/parentspage/greatsites/sciencew.html
The largest juried collection of children's Web sites on the Internet, this site includes links to
online resources related to general science, chemistry and physics, biology, mathematics,
computers and technology, and science experiments. The sites are recommended for children in
grades pre-K-9 and their parents. The list of sites was compiled by the Children and Technology
Committee of the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library
Association.
The Virtual Library
http://www.vlib.org
Run by a confederation of topic-area experts, the Virtual Library is recognized as one of the
highest quality guides to specific sections of the Internet. The science category provides links to
sites related to biology, chemistry, earth science, physics, science fairs, and more. The science
category also includes a link to math-related topics.
Note: The information presented in this article was adapted from two books--The Connected
Family's Companion to Science Education and The Connected Family's Companion to Math
Education--that are being published by the ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics, and
Environmental Education.
| David L. Haury is Director of the ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics, and
Environmental Education and Associate Professor of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Education at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.
Linda A. Milbourne is Associate Director of the ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics,
and Environmental Education at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. She is also the
AskERIC Coordinator for the clearinghouse.
|
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Searching the ERIC Database on Science and Mathematics Topics
