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TYPES
OF PROJECTS
1. Keypals
E-Pals Classroom Exchange
http://www.epals.com/
This is one of the best.
It is a commercial site, but you will not see irritating ads on every page.
E-Pals offers teachers their own e-mail account and the possibility of
setting up accounts for each student in the class that can be monitored
by the teacher. The accounts that the teacher sets up are temporary
and meant to be used for a certain project. The teacher can be notified
if there is any bad language in messages automatically. Teachers
also have access to read and delete messages.
Mighty Media Keypals
http://www.teaching.com/keypals/
This is another site that
will match students with keypals. It is much safer than a child connecting
to any stranger on the web, but it is not as controlled by the teacher.
Mighty Media Keypals is basically a database of teachers and students who
have registered to be put into the database of possible keypals.
You can search by interest, location, type of interaction, gender and/or
age. They do not provide an e-mail account for you, but do route
your mail through their site and evaluate it somehow, although the details
are not explained on the site. I put my name on there years ago and
have not received any requests!
100th Day of School Project
http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/proj/100th/
This project is a variation
on Keypals. Taking advantage of the fact that many classes
across the US count the first 100 days of school as a way to work with
numbers and counting this project connects these classes into one big network.
Each class chooses 100 other classes and send them Happy 100th Day messages.
Then each class hopes to receive 100 messages. Besides involving
a great deal of reading the students in this project experience the reality
that the 100th day falls at different times depending on when schools start.
They also have a chance to map the locations their messages arrive from.
Many people who send messages tell a bit about their area.
2. Web Mentor
Pitsco's Ask an Expert
http://www.askanexpert.com/
This is a terrific site
to search for an expert to answer questions that your students may have
in some area. It is a database and has experts on all kinds of things
like science, animals, health, repair/trades, etc... Read the "How To Ask"
section to see how the site works.
Steven's Institute of Technology
Ask an Expert
http://k12science.ati.stevens-tech.edu/askanexpert.html
This is very similar to
Pitsco's Ask an Expert. It is a non-profit site that is funded by
partnerships and sponsors. It also contains links to many other Ask
an Expert sites! This site leads to other sites that may answer the
student's question before actually connecting you to a person
NASA Quest
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov
This site will lead you
to more than just experts. It almost fits into the Adventure category
because there are lessons that will connect your students with actual NASA
events. This is a terrific resource.
3. Web Collaboration
Journey North
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/
In this project students
from all over observe the migration of various animals and the blooming
of various plants. From the information that they send in charts
and maps are made that show the path that these animals are taking or the
times that blooming is happening. For younger students this ties
directly into the study of weather and shows how weather affects plants.
Older students can do more sophisticated things with the data and the exchange
of information. This project has been around since 1995 and has archives
of information dating back to that time. This information is not
only valuable for your students, but also for scientists who study these
things and observe trends.
4. Adventure
Quests-Classroom Connect
http://quest.classroom.com
Classroom Connect offers
several quests that your students can join and be involved in. This
year there is AmazonQuest for fall and GreeceQuest for spring. There
is a subscription fee to benefit from all of the features of these quests.
The cost used to be $149 for one class, $419.95 for 5 classes or $639 for
10 classes, however this year the site has been reorganized and you will
need to call to find out the price. In these quests, teams of experts travel
by bicycle to another area in search of an answer to a question or questions
that they have. Along the way they send daily reports about what
is happening, post pictures on the website and pose questions to the students.
The students actually guide the quest by voting in daily surveys about
what the quest team should do next. Through these quests students
have shared first hand in archaeological discoveries. The quests
also often bring up challenging questions of culture to discuss and bring
students in contact with animals and plants from another area. Also,
each day there is a "kid profile" telling about someone from the area that
the experts met up with. Some information on some of the quests is
online for free even if you do not sign up for the adventure.
Adventure Online
http://www.adventureonline.com/
Along the same line Adventure
Online allows students to participate in adventures that would not be possible
without the Internet. These projects take the Oregon Trail up a notch.
This Website is provided by an eLearning Company that designs learning
experiences using the web. Registering to be involved with this quest
costs $49 for a teacher or $249 for a school site license.
Travel Buddies
http://rite.ed.qut.edu.au/oz-teachernet/projects/travel-buddies/
Maybe your class cannot
participate in an online adventure, but they have a stuffed animal or mascot
that they can send on an adventure. In the Travel Buddy projects
one class sends a representative on a trip around the world to different
classes. The representative has a journal. The sending class
is in e-mail contact with each of the schools that the representative is
going to along the way. The buddy sends back e-mail reports about
the trip (with the help of the people he/she is visiting of course) and
collects postcards or something from each place. Eventually the buddy
makes the whole trip and returns to your classroom richer for the experience.
Flat Stanley
http://flatstanley.enoreo.on.ca/
A variation on the Travel
Buddy project based on a book about Stanley who gets flattened and travels
in an envelope.
5. Web Survey
Global Grocery List
http://landmark-project.com/ggl/
Students from all over the
world send in prices for certain common grocery items and the various prices
are posted on the site. This is the 11th year that this project has
been done. Data from back years is still available, so besides comparing
prices between countries students can look at how prices have changed over
time. The data that has been collected can be accessed in table form
that is easy to look at, or in tab-delimited form that can be copied and
pasted into a spreadsheet for manipulation of data.
Do You Have Homework Tonight?
http://www.chinooksedge.ab.ca/OES/timeforworkplaypreamb.html
This is a simple survey
from a 4th grade class in Canada that might generate some authentic data
that your students would be interested in.
Here are some places that
you could post your survey so that other teachers might participate or
look for surveys that you might want to participate in:
IECC Intercultural Email
Classroom Connections
http://www.teaching.com/IECC/
IECC is a place where you
can register your survey and ask others to participate. It is also
a good place to look for Keypals. IECC has a mailing list so all
new projects are sent out to the list of teachers who are interested.
It is free.
Global School House
http://www.gsn.org
Global Schoolhouse is a
non-profit organization that has been supporting use of the Internet in
education for a long time. Their Project Registry can be searched.
You can add your project to the list and you can join a mailing list called
Hilites that will automatically send you newly registered projects.
Here are a few sites where
you can create Online Surveys to use with your projects:
FunBrain
http://www.funbrain.com/
This site lets you create
online quizzes, but they could also be used as Online Surveys.
Quia.com
http://www.quia.com
You can sign up for a free
account and design games, quizzes and surveys here.
Formsite.com
http://www.formsite.com
This site offers a free
account where you can create online forms. There are various pay
services where you can get forms with out advertising also.
6. Cooperative Challenge
Math Forum-Problem of the
week
http://mathforum.org/
The Math Forum is a great
site for promoting the NCTM Math Standards. They call themselves
An Online Math Community Center. It is funded by a grant from the
National Science Foundation (NSF). One activity on the site is a
Problem of the Week. Students not only need to send in the answer,
but also how they solved the problem. A real person from the Math
Forum sends an answer to each response, so that the students get feedback
on their thinking about math.
Minds Eye Monster Project
http://www.monsterexchange.org/
In the past you may have
tried the activity where one student writes a description of something
and the other student attempts to draw what was described. Students
learn about descriptive language, careful reading and picturing what they
are reading from this exercise. The Monster Project is like this,
but it also brings in connections to students in another area. This
project has been active since 1995 and galleries of the past drawings with
the descriptions are fun to look at.
Here are some eMINTS classrooms
that participated:
Ruth Kem-Jefferson City
http://www.monsterexchange.org/scripts/ms/showcard.asp?id=236
Janice Uptegrove-Smithville
http://www.monsterexchange.org/scripts/ms/showcard.asp?id=311
Keith Miller, St. Louis and
Sharon Sumner, Sullivan-Keith gives the advice to find a partner that you
know will complete the project or it can be disappointing.
http://www.monsterexchange.org/scripts/ms/showcard.asp?id=148
Steven's Tech
http://www.k12science.org/currichome.html
or
http://www.k12science.org/projectlink
These projects are science
oriented. Some of the projects listed here may fit better in the
category of Social Action. This site is run by CIESE the Center for
Improved Engineering and Science Education at Steven's Institute in New
Jersey. The projects all center around the use of real-time data
and global telecollaborative projects. The organization has nearly
two decades of experience working with technology to enhance science and
mathematics instruction in K-12 education.
7. Social Action
Frog Watch
http://www.mp2-pwrc.usgs.gov/frogwatch/
"Frogwatch USA relies on
volunteers, like you, to collect information regarding frog and toad populations
in neighborhoods across the nation." The US Geological Survey`s Patuxent
Wildlife Research Center actually uses the data that students send in to
monitor the health of frogs all over the United States. Involvement
in this project can have an important impact on an actual ecological situation.
North American Reporting
Center for Amphibian Malformations
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/narcam/
This project is very similar
to the Frog Watch project. Students learn about amphibians and the
ways that changes in agriculture in our country are affecting them.
The data that they collect is entered into a national database and may
help in finding the solution to this problem.
8. Community Connection
Global Schoolhouse CyberFair
http://www.gsn.org/
Then follow links to Collaborative
Projects and then to CyberFair
The CyberFair is an annual
contest where students and classrooms create web sites about particular
parts of their community. There are eight different categories that
the web pages can be entered into the competition under; Local Leaders,
Community Groups, Historical Landmarks, Environmental Awareness to name
just a few. There are platinum, gold and silver winners for each
category and the prizes include computers, printers, scanners, software
and many other things.
The Mayors of Valparaiso
http://www.schooltv.com/mayors.htm
An ongoing project in a
school in northwest Florida is a study of the history of the mayors of
the town. Students researched the mayors by talking to living people
who had been mayors or were related to mayors, looking up information on
landmarks named after mayors and many other methods. They put together
the information in a website that is of great interest to the community
there.
9. Simulation
Communication over the Internet
allows for some interesting interaction. Since students cannot see
the person who is answering their questions it is easy for an outsider
to play a part of a famous person from the past. Someone in the class,
the teacher or even an outsider (parent, HS student, community member)
can play the part of a character from a book that the class is reading
from history. Students can take turns asking the character questions
and sharing the answers they received. Another way to do this is
to have an older student or class take the part of the historical figure.
The participating class needs to ask them questions about their life and
times and guess who the person is.
History Mystery
http://www.siec.k12.in.us/pccs/historymystery.html
This is a project where
students have to figure out from clues sent through email who a character
is. A high school class acts as the historical figure and sends the
clues. Students send questions and ultimately guesses.
Another similar project is
described on this page. The page is out of date, but you can still
look her to get ideas of what projects other teachers have done.
http://pixel.cs.vt.edu/melissa/projects.html
10. Web Publishing
MidLink Magazine
http://longwood.cs.ucf.edu/~MidLink/
One of the most well-known
site of this kind is the Midlink Magazine. It was created for Middle
School Students, but it is a good example of what can be done. Although
most of the projects highlighted on the site have been done by middle school
and above, there is no indication that it is limited to older students
and there are some submissions by elementary classes. This site is
full of good ideas.
Hotlist: Kids did This!
http://sln.fi.edu/tfi/hotlists/kids.html
This is a collection highlighting
student work that has been published on the web.
Cyberkids
http://www.cyberkids.com/index.html
Cyberkids takes submissions
of student work and posts it on their site. They have a stated privacy
policy. Submissions are done through e-mail and if acceptable posted
on the site. It is managed by a .com which is working on posting
children's work on the web and creating content for kids. Kids must
register for free to participate.
Poetry Pals
http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/5165/index1.html
Poetry Pals is a K-12 Student
Poetry Publishing Project. There are clear guidelines on the site
for submitting poetry. It is a project that has been in existance
since 1997. It also has links to many other good sites that publish
poetry or about poetry.
11. Multimedia
Multimedia on the World
Wide Web is getting much easier. Including sounds, video, graphics,
text, animations and other elements into a web page can be as easy as working
with PowerPoint or Hyperstudio, saving the document as a web page, posting
it on the web and linking to it. Here are some examples of what some
students have done related to Halloween. This is published on the
Midlink Magazine site. You can find other examples on this site also.
Virtual Haunted House
http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/fall98/hh98.htm
Here are some ideas of multimedia
projects that students did with Hyperstudio on the theme of Halloween.
Similar projects can be done with PowerPoint.
12. Student Created
Projects
ThinkQuest
http://www.thinkquest.org/tqjr
Students who enter this
contest must work with a team to create a web site that will teach other
students using the best interactive qualities of the web. There are
significant prizes for the individuals and schools that win this contest. |