Brainstorming Exercise

It takes time to become facile at thinking up lesson ideas that make use of the internet. Time and practice. In this exercise, you'll look at several existing web resources and try to come with ways that you could use them in your classroom.

The Sites

TAO Observing Array in the Tropical Pacific (http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/toga-tao/home.html)
Coconut TropicCam (http://www.coconut.com/tropicam/index.html)
CMARGIN Notes (http://www.cmargin.com/notes.html)
World History Chart (http://www.hyperhistory.com/)
Global Weather Charts (http://www.comet.net/weather)

Questions to Jog Your Thinking

Could you create a story or mystery that uses one of these sites as a data source?

Is this site about something that parallels something you already teach about, so that you could compare one thing with another?

Is there information at this site that your students could add to by gathering data locally?

Would this site help your students make predictions about something?

Are there people at this site your students could write to or conference with?

Jot down some notes on the ideas you generate and we'll share them as a whole group in a few minutes.

Return to the August Workshop page.