Post # 9

The online tool that I looked at was on learning more about Marine Ecology. The website I found that was pretty interesting was http://www.secretsatsea.org. It is a website that would be useful in an elementary school setting, such as grades 3-5. It was interactive learning that would teach the student's facts about the ocean and how they can do things to help keep it clean. It is in essence an adventure game that the student's take to learn more about the ocean.

In the game, the student's must complete tasks that are related to what they learn as they go through the game. As they answer more questions, they get closer to solving the case. In this particular website, they are learning about whales. They find out what they eat, where they live, and other facts. There is a vocabulary sheet there to enhance what they are learning through the game. I think that this website could be extremely helpful in teaching young children about marine life and how to take care of the ocean. It is very kid friendly and easy to use and I think it would be a great tool to use in a classroom.

Another tool that I could use as a teacher is Excel. I think that I could use Excel and similar programs as a teacher. I could use this spreadsheet tool to keep track of student's grades and to help keep them organized in one place. I could also use it in a class project in a 7th grade science classroom as a way of organizing data. For example, if the student's were doing an experiment on plants, they could use Excel to keep track of plant growth, how much water they give the plants and other variables that are involved in the experiment. They could also develop charts on the program to help present their data in an well organized fashion. In chapter 13, it mentions various ways to use spreadsheets. I could use Excel to create charts and graphs that would present data on what we are learning. I could also use it to help calculate numbers that we are dealing with or to calculate grades. I think that using Excel as a teacher would be very beneficial and will enable me to keep track of grades in an easy manner.