Exploration of The Exploratorium

I have been working in a third, fourth and fifth grade science class at Tennessee School for the Deaf this semester. This made me want to look at a web site that has to do with science. I fell in LOVE with The Exploratorium. It is FANTASTIC! There is so much information all packed into one website, they have different categories and within those categories there are different activities. 

This is a shot of some of the different activities the students can use in the "Human Body" section. Aren't the pictures FANTASTIC!! They just make you want to explore :)

This is one of the sections in 'Everyday Science.' It is so colorful and interactive! In this you can click on a flower and it will pull it up so you can see it close. There is also a part that you can see the different parts.  

I knew that there were such things and appropriate web sites and inappropriate ones but I never realized how many different criteria there are. I think overall this activity went very well, it was upfront with what was wanted but there was still some need for clarifications. I don't think there was anything that didn't 'go well' maybe if there was more time to do this in class or if we were told before hand to look at the websites or have a few in mind. Though I wouldn't have the one that I picked then because it was recommended to me in class so there are ups and downs. I don't think that I would do anything different next time with this activity, I went through all the questions and was playing with the website as I was filling them in. 

With using this in my classroom I don't know how much time I will have to go through every website that we use but I will keep all these things in mind to look for the authors and well known sources and make sure there is no bias. I know that I will use this website 100% in my classroom if I am teaching science and if I am not I will let the science teacher know about this website. I think this activity reenforced information we have been taught about using websites since we have been using internet in school! It went deeper into the things that we need to look for. I have heard horror stories from other teachers talking about how they were using Google Images and then something nasty came up on the screen and they panic and couldn't get it down fast enough. I know to always look at a site before you pull it up in front of the class but took it to a new level. I think its important to look at the websites so you know that you are giving the students the right information. This activity helped to show me what to look for.