TIPS Volume 3, No. 3
November, 2002

     Grade Level Key 
     = Elem, = Middle
     = High, = Teachers

The First Thanksgiving

http://teacher.scholastic.com/thanksgiving/

Scholastic, the educational publisher, offers this collection of Thanksgiving resources every year. Included are contributions from Plimouth Plantation, the living history museum on the original Mayflower landing site. There is information, and instructional activities.

The Official US Time

http://www.time.gov/

Here's the government's website on time. It shows accurate time (within 0.5 seconds) for any time zone included in the US, plus information pages on a variety of time-related subjects, including timepieces and calendars down through history.

GetSmarter.org

http://getsmarter.org/

Very interactive, and full of content. You can take quizzes on line, and compare your results to students across the globe! (U.S. students don't, in general, fare very well, I'm afraid, though it's impossible to compare samples.) It covers all grade levels. Great site! 

PrimaryGames

http://www.primarygames.com/

It says "Games," but it's mostly activities for young students. Some are instructionally aimed, and some are just fun.

Flong

This collection of Java-driven interactive sites is the work of Golan Levin, a multimedia artist and engineer, in collaboration with like-minded friends. The sites ("The Secret Life of Numbers," the first one listed, is a good example) explore the possibility of using this capability to enhance exploration and learning in a visually stunning and fully interactive environment. Good examples of the future of Web instructional delivery.

Here's a collection of contests and projects, some with prizes! Take a look!

Doors to Diplomacy, a web competition open to middle and high school students. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State through its Global SchooNet foundation. Scholarships and school cash awards!

ThinkQuest USA is one of the oldest web project organizations, with a huge participation rate. Teams of teachers and students (grades 3-12) produce informative web pages on academic subjects. Registration through early January.

The Presidents' Project is in its fifth year, sponsored by Walter McKenzie's SurfAquarium

The Art and Architecture Project is another Walter McKenzie initiative, this one through his Arlington, VA school web presence.