Another Online Resource Roundup

Here are a few new resources. Happy exploring!

The Picture Post Network
Picture Post involves ordinary people (and school groups) in studying their environment through digital photography.  Participants establish a post (a designated observation site) and then take an eight-shot panorama of the surrounding landscape and a photo of the sky overhead.  Afterward, they upload the photographs to the Picture Post website.  Participants repeat the sequence weekly, taking photographs from the same location and position each time.  The result is a systematic—and beautiful—document of environmental changes over time.

TED-Ed
You've heard of TED talks, now come explore an exciting new web site for educators! Browse a current collection of original videos, created through collaboration by educators and professional animators, and use accompanying lesson materials. Or customize the learning experiencing by flipping the video!

Misconceptions-Oriented Standards Based Assessments Resources for T...
Tests are FREE to educators; however, since their structure and use differ from many assessment instruments with which you may be familiar, anyone seeking access to these instruments is required to complete tutorials about their design and proper usage.  The site will keep track of your progress through the tutorials, and give you direct access to the tests once the tutorials are complete.

The tests available on this web site were developed by a team of researchers in the Science Education Department of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The content of the questions is based on published studies of science misconceptions and the NRC National Science Education Standards.  Research scientists in the specific content areas evaluated draft questions for scientific accuracy and the development team iterated revisions with the scientists until all comments were resolved.  Subsequently, an educator with expertise in literacy reviewed the tests for readability and grade appropriateness.  The project team then constructed pilot versions of these tests and administered each test question to 100+ students in the lowest grade level to whom the test would be given.  

For example, the middle school tests were administered to students in grades 7 and 8. After the pilot data were analyzed, over 1000 students in several grade levels took field test versions of the tests. Thus, the middle school tests were given not only to students in grades 7 and 8, but also to high school students.  The result of these efforts for more than 10 years is more than 2,000 multiple-choice test questions addressing most of the NRC's K-12 earth science content standards.  The team has developed tests that are available to educators at no cost for downloading from the web as PDF files.

Cool Science Careers

At Rice University’s Cool Science Careers website, middle and high school students experience what it is like to be a scientist through interactive activities and games. In Professor Pathfinder, students get matched to a career in neuropsychology, neurobiology, neuroradiology, toxicology, or epidemiology; in Imagine Yourself, students virtually conduct activities from each fields. Zoom In presents education requirements for several careers alongside interviews with working scientists. Students can also vote for their favorite career in My Science Career or pose career-related questions in Ask-a-scientist.