Group+3


 * The Virtual Cell Website**

By: Jeff Degg

[]

This website is a great learning tool to be offered by teachers and used by students. Students who use this site will be able to get a virtual experience of cells within the human body. Although the topic of cellular biology is usually considered a challenging one, this website allows students to receive extra help in or out of school. The Virtual Cell Website allows for students to get an in depth look at the different structures associated with cells. It guides students through a very easy, interactive tour giving the students the ability to zoom in on different parts and rotate them for a better look. it also has a detailed description telling you what you are looking at. The site also offers four different language settings, a virtual textbook, and worksheets to go along with what the students are learning. A small limitation of this site is that it does have some advertising, but in no way is it distracting to students. Also, the site has not been updated since 2003, but the material used in the site has remained unchanged for many years now. Some great advantages for teachers using this site are the sites copyright friendly images and models, and the fact that the site is offered for free. __**Comments:** __ Wow! This site is pretty cool. I like how it takes you through all the parts of the cell and gives you the 4-1-1 on the parts you're looking at. -Zack Pleger __**Comments**__: This website would be very useful for a school that may not have the resources or money to do dissection. It helps to show the inside and outside parts without the mess! The ability to zoom, rotate, and "dissect" the different parts of the cell gives the student a easy to see 3-D--making it feel like they're really doing the work. -HH



 * Cell's Alive!**

By: Jeff Degg

[]

This website offers a variety of different approaches to help students gain a better understanding of the different disciplines associated with biology. The topics include cell biology, microbiology, immunology, and microscopy. Under each of these disciplines is a table of contents that allows students to click and learn about different subjects within that area of study. The site is very easy to navigate through, and has hardly any advertisements. The site is also very well organized making it easier for students and teachers to find the appropriate topic they are looking for. another great part to this site is that there are a great deal of interactive videos and models that help students gain a more "hand-on" approach to learning within the subject matter. One drawback toward the site is that the information provided is only that which the author chooses to display, this could pose a problem if this is does not correspond with a teachers lesson plan. For a teacher, this site also has a fun and effective way of testing your students knowledge with interactive puzzles and quizzes that are provided. Another issue is that the site is only updated annually, making any of the puzzles and quizzes obsolete after just one use.

//Heather Heethuis' Evaluations//:

[|HeatherHeethuisWebsiteRubric.docx]

**Animals- Facts, Information, Photos, Pictures, Sounds, Habitats, Reports, News-National Geographic**

By: Heather Heethuis []

This website is extremely useful for teachers, students, and anyone looking to explore more about the animals of the world. The students are able to not only see the information listed in facts on the web page of the desired animal, but also able to learn more through audio and video files. The website also allows for the students to view pictures of the animal as well as offering a printable fact sheet to print off and use free of charge. The website is easy to navigate through, especially for young learners. The only limitation that is noticeable on the website is the advertisements. There are advertisements on the bar across the top, along the right side of the page, and a small box on the bottom left corner of the page. This is distracting to the eye as they are brightly colored and flashing. It is good to mention that the ads seem to be harmless in terms of appropriateness.  This website could be very useful in the classroom. For example, in a sixth grade classroom, the students would be assigned an research paper for any animal of their choice. It not only allows the student to explore and learn about animals, but ties into language arts skills through writing an essay. The students will be able to also use speaking skills during a presentation of their research animal.

Pretty neat website. They show you all the animals and it's easily organized so that way you can choose which animal you want to learn about. Good stuff. -Zack Pleger
 * Comments:**

I really liked the images on the site, something that's sure to interest anybody looking at it immediately, I also like how well organized, and how you can find anything really quickly. - Patrick
 * AplusMath **

[]

By: Heather Heethuis

This site supports teaching and learning by offering help inside and outside of the classroom. It also allows the students to get extra practice on learning their "basic" math skills. They can practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square roots, rounding, and telling time problems through the "flashcard" application listed on the web page. The student also can get "homework help" online by allow the student to input a math problem to check to see if the student has solved the problem correctly or not. The website also offers games to engage the student in learning and understanding the concepts at a deeper level. Extra worksheets are offered to print or electronically fill out to also provide more practice to refine the skills of the student. All of the applications for the user can either be used via Java or without Java. This makes it nice for the user if they don't have Java. The website has limited advertising by Google, that is located on the right side of the page. It is harmless by offering more links to math lessons and games. The website is confusing to the user because the text is very uniform throughout the page. Within the text there are multiple tabs to click on--this is very confusing to the user to know where the link will take them. Another limitation of the site is that the author is not cited, nor is there any indication that this website has been updated recently. This website could be used in the classroom as a supplementary exercise for students to use during a lab time to get more practice on their math skills. The website could also be used in the classroom by printing out the available worksheets and then administered to use as homework or in-class assignments for the students. Another way this website might be useful in the classroom is for when students finish an assignment in class or free-time after a test. Overall, I would not recommend this website as a main source in the classroom. I agree that the advertising was minimal and i don't think it would hinder learning in any way for the students. I also liked the flashcard application, i think it will be a good way for students to memorize things like their times tables. - JD
 * __Comments__**:

I think this is a great site to teach students basic math skills, making it interesting and drawing kids in, I especially liked the flashcards, it seems like a great way to drill the basics. - Patrick

__**Zack Pleger's Evaluations:**__

[|website eval pleger.doc]

**Web Elements: The Periodic Table on the Web**

By: Zack Pleger

[|http://www.webelements.com/]

Web Elements is a pro-teaching and pro-learning site just based on its merit and the authors who have created it. Basically, the website's main page is a periodic table of elements which links each element on the table to an article stock full of information on each element. From the main page, there are tabs that are linked to other pages that explain such topics as the history and the uses of the periodic table. The site takes the time to make itself very user friendly and obviously educational. There is little to no advertising and based on the material, there is very little to no bias. There aren't many limitations to this website. It might be difficult at first to navigate because there aren't instructions as to how to move about the page and how to interact with any of the links. This website is very well built with first time users in mind. There are many possible uses for this website in the classroom. Since this website has a focus on chemistry, it would be most useful in a chemistry class, preferably when the class goes over the periodic table. Other uses could be if a class has to do a research report on an element, this website has all the known elements linked to pages full of information useful to anyone wanting to know more about any element they desire. While this website does not have games or video, it's usefulness spans more long-term than just a lesson plan. It can be used almost as a search tool and a resource for anything that a chemistry class might need.

__**Comments:**__ I really liked this website, it looks like it could be useful from high school up through college. I liked how detailed each description of the element was, it could help students stay on the same site and get all the information they need as opposed to having to search all over for answers. - JD

__**Comments**__: This website has extensive information on each of the elements. After clicking on a particular element, it offers a simplified box full of the major knowledge of the elements, including the atomic weight, color, and many other specific information that makes that element special. This could be helpful for students if asked to research and create a presentation on an element from the table. The only distraction that is a downfall to this website is the layout of the page. The format is very mixed together without much blank space for the reader. Overall, the website seems to have a lot to offer; I would use it. --HH


 * Dr. Saul's Biology in Motion**

By: Zack Pleger

[|http://www.biologyinmotion.com/]

Dr. Saul's Biology in Motion website supports learning and teaching due to the material on the site and the author who happens to be a teacher as well. This site was created a teacher, who also is a programmer, with students and their learning needs in mind. There is no advertising and no source of anyone, besides the author/teacher, who runs and supports this website. This means that on this teacher's free time and using his own money, he has set up this website and provided the material for it to make it educational. The limitations that this website runs into, is a pure bias based on the fact that there is one author and only one publisher. This means that all of the material on this website is what this teacher wants to publish and anything that doesn't make the cut is not put on. While this teacher might be exercising his best judgment, it's very possible they could have left out facts and information vital to an important system. This limitation also hurts this teacher's credibility and creates doubt as to whether this information is as accurate as possible. Regardless of the limitations, this website could be very useful in the classroom setting. Because there is a focus on biology, it would be important to use in a biology class. There aren't many resources for research, however there are plenty of videos, quizzes, and games that could help teach a lesson or help a student grasp a concept easier. In this way, this website becomes useful because it can be used to help establish concepts and in the short term fill a lesson plan.

Physics.org

Patrick Bobek



[|www.physics.org/]

This website is useful for teachers and students who may have questions about how basic physics works. Students can search the site for what they seak, and learn more about the subject. The webpage also has some applications aimed at kids to interest them in the subject, including experiments that can be done at home. Teachers could work with students to do some of these in the classroom, or some kids could do them at home themselves, hopefully developing interest in the subject. A few weaknesses would be difficulty in navigating the site, it's not set up so it's clear where information would be found, and the limitations of applications. The website also has a lot of advertising on it, and although Im sure its less interesting to kids than the rest of the site based on the material advertised, it is an unwanted distraction. This website could be useful at lower levels, at getting students interested in science, and answering their basic questions. However because of difficult navigation, and the lack of applications, I wouldn’t recommend this site.

[|www.mathplayground.com/]

site supports teaching and learning by making learning an interesting experience for kids, providing games and puzzles, while at the same time providing a means to learn basic math skills, practice and even get help on homework. For kids who really need to learn the basics it offers flash cards and a few other tools to drill basics This website has a lot of advertising, which may be distracting to kids using this, who will be likely to go for the entertaining pictures to links. The website is straitforward for navigation, with very little text to sift through, and the main applications being right on the front page. The author is not cited as well, another flaw. This website could be used in the classroom as a tool to help drill students on basic math, or for a teacher to make learning more interesting to studetns who would otherwise be bored with mathematics. I would recommend this site for thos reasons.

