To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg in July, a new website called Gettysburg By The Numbers  presents information on the battle using eye-catching infographics and animations.

The site, designed for middle school students and up, is organized into a number of content areas, making it easy to locate interesting information. Here’s a sampling:

 

Demographics: The youngest recorded soldier was 12; women accompanied Union and Confederate armies; an estimated 1,000 African Americans participated in the battle.

 

 

Weapons: Besides cannons, muskets, and rifles, other arms used included swords and sabers, grenades and Gatling guns.

 

Casualties: The Civil War had the highest number of casualties per day of any US war in history (599 per day). 

 

Geography: Troops heading to Gettysburg marched long distances, sometimes 20 – 30 miles per day.

 

Costs: Military pay for a private in the Confederate army was $192 per month (in today’s dollars); for a Union soldier, it was $227.

Inside Packs and Haversacks:

 

Supplies: While on the move, soldiers ate salt pork or fresh meat, and hard bread.

There is additional information on the weather during the battle, soldier clothing, communication, monuments and the aftermath. Within each section are additional research questions for students to look up and answer. There are also lesson ideas and handouts, and links to more resources. 

This Illuminations Lesson provides printable mat, fish and clam figures for doing number comparisons using greater than, less than and equal symbols. 

ABCya Online Game for comparing numbers.

Worksheets for comparing numbers.

Anyone planning for the next school year yet? Although my school year is winding down (we take a break over the summer), and I haven’t started the heavy planning yet, I’m in the gathering phase, looking at this, checking out that, sampling the possibilities. I tell myself I have plenty of time, but deep down, I know that’s an illusion. Before I know it, September will be staring me in the face, so I’d much rather deal with things a little at a time than be bombarded with everything at the last minute.

One of the things I've been thinking about is adding some additional primary source examination to our history studies. We've studied the famous documents and speeches, but I'd like to add more ordinary stuff like old newspaper articles and letters, photos, maps and drawings, and see how that goes. To help with this, I've come across several sites that feature primary sources and ideas on how to use them:

 

 

Annenberg Learner's American History Course  looks like it has everything needed for a full year. It’s organized into 22 units, with videos, text, questions and activities. Each unit presents several broad themes that can be studied, and also includes associated primary documents, like old photographs and political cartoons, plus assignments to go along with them.

 

Archiving Early America: View important documents and ordinary writings, historical maps, rare images and portraits. You can also listen to music from various time periods.

Popular Songs in American History:  Another site with music from the 1700s to 1900s with lyrics and background information.

TeachingHistory.org: Ideas on how to turn your kids into history detectives.

Museum Box: Kids can "dig up" artifacts to build their own displays about historical people, places and perspectives.

Historical Thinking Matters: Explore four different questions of historical debate to draw your  own conclusions.

The University of Utah's Genetic Science Learning Center offers two sites for learning the basics of DNA:

LearnGenetics: Here, you’ll be presented with an animated tour of DNA, videos that explain how genetic traits are passed from one generation to the next, and a look inside of a cell. You can see how cells compare in size to molecules, atoms, and other objects, and build a DNA molecule.

TeachGenetics: The companion website to the one above, here, you’ll find ready-to-use “print-and-go” activities with instructions, worksheets, visuals, and answer keys. For example, you can download Have Your DNA and Eat It Too which includes instructions for making edible DNA with Twizzlers and mini marshmallows.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute: Learn about DNA, stem cells, and genomics and chemical genetics, among other topics. Most topics feature videos, animations, interactives, and articles. In the “Classroom” section of the site, you will find activities and teachers guides.

DNA From the Beginning: Readings, animations and videos covering topics in Genetics.

Curriki is coming out with a free Geometry course that will be available in September. The course is modular, so it can be used to supplement an existing Geometry program, or serve as the main curriculum.

The course is to be project-based, emphasizing real-world examples, such as using Geometry to create architectural designs for an apartment or house, or designing a floor plan that maximizes open space and natural light.

The Geometry units will feature interactives and videos as part of the instructional materials, and will be structured based on the six Common Core High School Geometry topics: Congruence; Similarity, Right Triangles, & Trigonometry; Circles; Expressing Geometric Properties with Equations; Geometric Measurement & Dimension; and Modeling with Geometry.

Again,  this course will not be available until September, but you can sign up to participate in the beta launch here. They will notify you when the course becomes available.

Curriki also has a free Algebra 1 course that was launched last September. 

Here are a few more free personal finance courses and resources:

High School Financial Planning Program: Designed by the National Endowment for Financial Education, these materials for middle and high school age, come in six units that cover Money Management, Borrowing, Earning Power, Investing, Financial Services, and Insurance. Register at the site and you can download the booklets or order print copies.

Practical Money Skills: Features teachers guides and activities on money management for grades K - 12. Lessons for the earliest learners introduce money (what it is and how to earn it), then moves on to such topics as savings, loans, credit, budgeting and investing. There are 22 lessons for high school. 

CompareCards.com: This credit card comparison site has free lessons for middle school and high school students on the basics of credit, credit cards and investing.

Banzai: This site teaches key concepts in personal finance by presenting students with a number of real life scenarios. Tasks to be completed include paying rent, understanding your paycheck (taxes withheld, direct deposit, gross and net income), budgeting for gas, groceries and other expenses. 

It's a valid question educators are asking themselves more and more in the face of dismal test scores and the fact that many high school students have never gotten a good handle on basic math, the stuff we use everyday. 

Yet despite the fact that most people will not go into engineering or use higher math in any way in their lives, it continues to be forced on students and hinders many from pursuing their true interests. Why should passing Algebra be such a determining factor in a person's future? (Homeschoolers, too, are affected by this either through state  graduation requirements, or via college entrance exams).

This math teacher for the middle- and high school grades doesn't think that makes any sense: 

"Too many of the nation’s 14-year-olds inadvertently narrow their college options before they’ve even settled into high school." The reason? They can't get past the "gateway" course, Algebra 1. Many fail a second time and never become proficient at it.

Some argue that the reason students are unnsuccessful is because the course as it is generally taught is badly designed.

"Algebra, as we teach it, is a death march through endless disconnected technical tools and tips, out of context....The course has no big ideas, no direction, no purpose. And when was the last time you had to graph inequalities?"

Others argue Algebra must be taught because it is necessary for developing critical thinking. But there are alternatives, both to the way Algebra is taught, (relate it more to real-world problem solving), and for the course itself (rigorous courses in statistics and probability, or philosophy and logic to develop reasoning and analytical skills).

And wouldn't we be serving students better if we made sure they had a good, working understanding of things like decimals and percents, how to measure square footage, budgeting and personal finance, how loan amortization works -- you know, some practical stuff? 

I don't think Algebra and other higher maths should be scrapped completely from high school courses of study. I just don't understand why these courses are a requirement for everyone. Hopefully, this will change.

In the meantime, the next time one of your kids asks, "Why do I have to learn this?" or "What am I ever going to use this for?", here are two sites that attempt to provide some answers:

Math Apprentice 

Get the Math 

By alternatives, I mean to the traditional general biology - chemistry - physics track that many high school students follow when headed to college. Some homeschoolers, depending on their children's interests, like to do other physical sciences or focus on a specific aspect of biology. The following links are to free online courses for some science alternatives: 

Georgia Virtual Learning: At this link to their Science page, you'll find courses in Anatomy and Physiology, Astronomy, Environmental Science, Forensic Science, Oceanography, and general Physical Science.

Saylor: Offers courses in Zoology, Marine Biology, Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Forensics Illustrated: Includes PowerPoint presentations, projects, labs, and tests.

DNA From the Beginning: Readings, animations and videos covering topics in Genetics.

Earth's Dynamic Systems: Online textbook, and companion site covering Earth Science and Geology. You can also visit Online Labs for Geology.

NROC: Offers a full course in Environmental Science.

Have you found any free science resources for high school science? Please share them in comments.

Learn about mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, plants, ecosystems and habitats, and endangered species at the Arkive, a not-for-profit conservation initiative that is building a multimedia archive of the world’s species.

The site can be explored by topic or grade level (ages 5 - 18), and there are many learning kits and activity packs to download, some with PowerPoint presentations to introduce and explain topics. Some examples: 

Nocturnal Animals: Includes a PowerPoint presentation and game for matching animal sounds to correct animal pictures.

Animal Classification: Several different presentations, worksheets and activity packs are available for this topic, including a Guess Zoo guessing game.

Animal Communication: Presentation on how animals communicate, and resources for researching a particular animal and creating a video report on how it communicates.

The site also has a games and puzzles page, and activities page with animal origami and mask crafts. Check it out.

(Had to include this cute picture. :)

In response to inquiries about reading sites and worksheets, here are some that I've found useful.

E-Reading Worksheets: For grades 6 - 12. Includes worksheets on story elements (characterization, main idea, theme, etc.), figurative language, grammar, and text structure (chronological, cause and effect, compare and contrast, etc.). There really is a lot to check out here.

K12 Reader: Another comprehensive site for reading comprehension and phonics, grammar, spelling and writing prompts. Also provides suggestions for games and activities.

Word Dynamo: A site where you can quiz yourself on groups of words for a particular grade level (elementary through college), or words within a particular subject (social studies, computers, literature). You can study flashcards of lists, or play games to quiz yourself. This site also has lists for test prep, and Spanish and Latin.

Mr. Nussbaum: This teacher has put a lot of cool games and interactives online for all the core subjects, for kindergarten through grade 8. There are reading comprehension, grammar and spelling exercises that can be done online or printed. You can input your own spelling words and play online games, or make your own printable puzzles. There are also several animated biographies of famous Americans.

ReadToMe: View books as they are read. Each book has a corresponding lesson plan with discussion questions, worksheets, and acitivities.

Scott Foresman Reading: Online grammar and writing handbooks that can be downloaded; for grades 1 - 6.

College-Bound Reading List:  Includes not only American and World Literature titles (with drama and poetry suggestions), but also suggestions for biographies and history, science, and social science.

Just received a cool poster in the mail from the National WWII Museum showing how the science and technology of WWII not only helped us fight and win the war, but how it continues to influence many aspects of our lives today. The poster also features instructions for making a version of synthetic rubber, a material scientists began experimenting with due to a shortage in the natural rubber supply.

Download the poster here. 

The museum also has a great website that focuses on the science and technology of WWII. The site features: 

Darkroom of images of artifacts related to WWII science and technology, in such areas as medicine, communications, rocketry, and mathematics.

Timeline outlining activities leading to the development of the atomic bomb.

Top 10 List page where you can vote for what you think was the greatest scientific achievement during WWII. There's also a Bottom Five poll on the worst uses of technology during the war.

Cipher Disk you can use to send and decipher coded messages.

Discussion questions, lesson plans, and essays.

Submit questions to the experts at the WWII museum and read answers to questions submitted by others.

Here are some materials to supplement a study of the states of matter and phase changes: 

BrainPop has a couple of explanatory animations on States of Matter andg Matter Changing State. Here's a printable  activity page that goes along with them.

BBC's site has a lesson plan on solids, liquids, and gases that includes animations, worksheet, and activities.

Interactive Sites for Education provides links to a number of virtual labs for exploring physical and chemical changes of matter.

Solid or Liquid?

Everyone makes their own oobleck at some point. At Reeko's Mad Scientist Lab, you'll find the simple recipe to make this strange stuff, along with a basic explanation of why it does what it does. For parents and older kids who want a more thorough explanation of oobleck and how scientists are using non-Newtonian fluids to make cool things, read this article from Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine.

To make a different kind of Gleup, (plastic) visit Scifun's Home Experiments.

Download States of Matter worksheets, including an activity exploring how the Incredibles use superpowers to alter their states.

Does anyone remember listening to 78 rpm "kiddie" records from the 40's and 50's? I don't, as these are before my time, but there's a site called  Kiddie Records Weekly that has brought these old classics back to life online. You can download, for free, the recordings and the images that go along with them. They've got a large selection of stories, including some history (Christopher Columbus), literature (Mutiny on the Bounty), and Bible stories.

Not knowing much of anything about these records, I Googled the topic and discovered that during this "golden era" of children's records, studios often enlisted famous personalities to produce these dramatizations (folks like Bing Crosby, Jimmy Stewart, and Gene Kelly to name a few).

I think I'll try some of these vintage audiobooks on the kids -- see how they go over.

This BrainPop Video discusses the evolution of the atomic model. (I know BrainPop videos are not free, but this one is on a Glencoe site, so you have free access).

Chem4Kids has information on matter, atoms, and the elements.

You've probably seen the Periodic Table of Videos featuring this dude (a professor at the University of Nottingham). 

Here's another Dynamic Periodic Table (click into each element to find out more information).

Downloads available at this site:

How To Draw Bohr Diagrams

Elements Worksheet

Elemental Puzzles

At KidsHealth there are a number of health lessons, games, and worksheets for pre-school through high school, covering topics on the human body, personal health (fitness, nutrition, hygiene, etc.), and health problems. There are: 

• short movies on the different systems of the body
• games, experiments and other activities
• animations 

Right now, my son is studying How the Body Works, and we are using these additional downloads: 

• digestive and excretory system
• respiratory system
• muscular and skeletal system

Right now, within our high school literature studies, we are doing a unit on poetry.  If you're interested in poets from the Romantic Period, visit Georgia Virtual Learning's free high school e-course on English Literature and Composition. The unit that covers the Romantic Poets provides an overview and description of the period, focusing on several key poets, and including discussion questions and suggested assignments (eg. creating a PowerPoint or writing an essay). 

Additional material is contained in this download, which features discussion questions and essay prompts for five of the Romantic Era poets.

The Georgia Virtual Learning site also has free high school courses for the other core subjects, languages, and electives. They've got a number of middle school courses too, so browse around.

I came across some interesting math puzzles over at MathPickle. My daughter likes doing dot-to-dot puzzles, but on this site, you'll find these puzzles with a twist: you use a ruler and only connect the pairs of dots that are a specific distance apart. For example, the puzzle starts out looking like this: 

And if you connect all the dots properly, (in this case, those that are 5 cm apart), you'll get a design like this: 

This is one of the easy ones. There are 23 progressively harder puzzles, with solutions, that you can download from this page, along with other puzzles. 

We've also been looking at symmetry: 

and the way 3D shapes look when they are flattened out (noting things like the number of surface faces, sides, and vertices):

You can find both of these free downloads at Nyla's Crafty Teaching.

My son likes to study maps and to draw up his own. He has always enjoyed learning about landforms and the locations of continents, countries, mountain ranges, bodies of water, etc., so geography has never been something he dreads. (Grammar and spelling, however, are another matter entirely). 

Most kids are going to find at least one subject distasteful, an offense to have to study, which is why we homeschool Moms and Dads are always on the lookout for ways to make those subjects more palatable. (If anyone's found something that works for Algebra and other higher math, please let me know).

One way to make geography fun is with geocaching. It's like an outdoor treasure hunting game in which participants, using GPS devices, navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location. Kids can learn about and sharpen such concepts as direction and mapping, coordinates, longitude, and latitude. 

• Geography and Cultures Links: I use Pearltrees to catalog all the links I've been collecting these past couple of years. Here is one for cultures and geography which currently has 19 links.

I came across an article (10 Pairs of Commonly Confused Animals) that reminded me of when my two youngest children (7 and 10) and I were learning about the five classes of vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish). We talked about classification in general, putting things into groups based on different criteria, and we learned about the characteristics that put animals into their respective groups. (Our study developed into a rather strange game we called the "Dharma Initiative," in which talking animals assist scientists in preserving the various species due to some impending, yet unknown cataclysm). 

Anyway, from that, my daughter decided she wanted to learn about animals that she classified in her own way as “kind of the same but different, like frogs and toads.” For the next few days, she would come up to me with a new pair of animals: alligators and crocodiles, hares and rabbits, octopuses and squids, etc. Each time, we would look them up, compare and contrast them, and she would make drawings of some of the animals. Voilà. Her own unit study. ("Dharma Initiative" is still one of her favorite games).