Catch of the Day - AwesomeStories - 8 Apr 10

AwesomeStories, a gathering of primary-source information, is today's catch

Launched in 1999, AwesomeStories is a site to help educators and individuals find original sources located at national archives, libraries, universities, museums, historical societies, and government web sites.

AwesomeStories Home Page

The purpose of AwesomeStories is to place primary sources, not opinions, at the forefront. Its objective is to take users to places where those primary sources are located.

Awesome Disaster Stories

The stories at AwesomeStories exist as a way to place original primary source materials in context and to tie those links together in an interesting and meaningful way.

Awesome Sports Stories

Joining AwesomeStories is free. Members can access everything on the site and explore all its many features, such as …

• An extensive image data base
• Narrated stories
• Lesson plans and text documents
• A monthly newsletter profiling current events and hot topics

Front Page of a Story

The author of each AwesomeStory is identified on the front page of the story and linked to more detailed information about the author. Additionally, hundreds of teachers have provided specific input for site improvements and story requests.

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Catch of the Day - Knowitall.org - 7 Apr 10

Knowitall.org is today's hot fresh catch

Knowitall.org is a product of South Carolina ETV for K-12 students, teachers, and parents. Knowitall.org is a free online collection of resources designed for classroom use.

This educational web portal contains interactive sites, simulations, image collections, virtual field trips, and streaming video designed to support and provide quality experiences for students on the Internet.

For Teachers and Parents

In the Teachers & Parents section of Knowitall.org, you'll find links to sites organized by subject area as well as professional development content and multimedia collections.

For Students

The Students section of Knowitall.org is sorted into areas for Elementary Students, Middle School Students, and High School Students.

Sample Search Results

Content is also presented in Subject and Grade Level groupings, as well as being easily searchable by keyword.

See a short video about Knowitall.org


Funding for Knowitall.org was provided by the S.C. General Assembly through the K-12 Technology Partnership consisting of the S.C. Department of Education, ETV, the State Budget and Control Board, the State Library, BellSouth, and the independent telephone companies.

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Happy Spring!!!

EDge21 Catch-of-the-Day will be on Spring Break Friday, 2 April through Tuesday, 6 April, 2010. Fishing will resume on Wednesday, 7 April. See ya then!

Catch of the Day - The Physics Classroom - 1 Apr 10

The Physics Classroom is fresh off the boat today

The Physics Classroom Tutorial is an online physics tutorial written for high school physics students by Tom Henderson, science teacher at Glenbrook South High School in Glenview, Illinois. The Physics Classroom covers basic physics topics using graphics and simple language.

The Physics Classroom Home Page

The Physics Classroom Tutorial topics…

• 1-D Kinematics
• Newton's Laws
• Vectors - Motion and Forces in Two Directions
• Momentum and Its Conservation
• Work, Energy, and Power
• Circular Motion and Satellite Motion
• Static Electricity
• Current Electricity
• Waves
• Sound Waves and Music
• Light Waves and Color
• Reflection and the Ray Model of Light
• Refraction and the Ray Model of Light

Each unit is broken up into lessons and sub-lessons. A lesson resembles the type and extent of coverage given to that physics topic in class. The sub-lessons are accompanied by "Check Your Understanding" sections, providing an opportunity to assess understanding of the lesson material. The tutorial, when combined with other resources at The Physics Classroom provides a student an opportunity to learn and to test his understanding.

The Sound Waves and Music Unit

The Multimedia and Flash Physics Studios offer animations and movies designed to demonstrate physics principles in a visual manner and interactives that simulate a physical situation.

From the Multimedia Studio

The Practice - Review content includes the Minds On Physics Internet Modules, a collection of carefully crafted questions to challenge students' misconceptions concerning physics concepts. The Calculator Pad offers the beginning student of physics the ability to conquer physics word problems. The Review Session is a collection of pages with review and practice questions and answers/explanations.

From the Shockwave Physics Studio

In The Physics Classroom's Teacher Tools you'll find a collection of classroom ready worksheets for use by teachers with their classes. In the Laboratory you can explore approximately 150 labs.

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Official EtherPad Closure Update

From the official EtherPad blog:

Transition Update

Wed Mar 31, by Aaron

As mentioned previously, we will be shutting down the etherpad.com server. In the next few weeks, we will be giving users some extra time to export their data and transition to other services if they so choose.

Here are some dates to keep in mind as you are thinking about exporting your pads before the shutdown:

• EtherPad service will remain the same until April 14th.
• On April 14th, we will disable new pad creation, but you will still be able to access your existing pads.
• On May 14th, we will shut down the service and replace the etherpad.com home page with links to other services.

As a reminder, here are two helpful ways to get your data off of EtherPad servers:

• For free public pads, you can export the pad data to various formats through the "Import/Export" tab at the top of the pad page.
• For Professional Edition pads, you can export pads individually or download a single ZIP file of all your pad data by clicking the "Download all pads" link at the bottom of the pad list.

See my earlier post on EtherPad alternatives.