Websites-apps and fun learning

I love perusing blogs, articles, magazines, and the Internet for the latest and greatest new sites and apps for education. One of my longtime favorite sites ( and paid apps) is http://www.wolframalpha.com. It defines itself as a site that gives, "dynamic computations based on a vast collection of built-in data, algorithms, and methods." Sounds like a geeky math website, but it isn't. I use the site to investigate scientific data, discover fun facts such as what occurred on a certain date, convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, and to compare various famous personalities. It is also good for math questions, formulas, and computations. If you are stuck for an idea, you can always access the examples page and spend hours pouring through the information there. Sounds geeky, but fun.

The other site and FREE app I currently love is the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov. I use this in classes to demonstrate the importance of primary resources. It is filled with historical photos, films and multi-media. It supplies ample links for a variety of age levels and interests. I love learning about the history of the day, an intriguing science fact, or listening to something from the performing arts link. The photos are interesting and great discussion starters connecting us to the past.


Both sites/apps are easily accessible and the navigation is simple with loads of links and/or ideas. I will be exposing the students to both sites throughout the year but in the meantime feel free to use them yourself. Since we will probably have a few snow days in the near future, instead of letting your kids play video games all day, ask them to find one interesting fact, clip, data analysis, or composition of THEIR choosing off one of these sites to share with you. You might be amazed what they come up with!!


Keep reading,

The Noisy Librarian