Rube Goldberg Machines: Try this at home!

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/rube-goldberg-video-gallery/

Nature by Numbers movie

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/03/nature_by_numbers_linking_math_to_n.html

How Chocolate Bunnies are Made

http://www.rmpalmer.com/tour.asp

The Virtual Body Interactive

This is one of the cooler interactives I've seen. Thanks Chastity for sending the link!

http://www.medtropolis.com/VBody.asp

Plagiarism definitions and detection tools and copyright guidelines

I suspect most homeschooling families don't think much about plagiarism because of the nature of homeschooling. When the teacher is pacing the room or folding laundry on the couch behind you while you're researching your paper and writing it, it's a lot less tempting to copy and paste!

However, homeschooled students, like all students, need to know about plagiarism and how to avoid it.

There are some really useful helps on this site: http://www.guidetoonlineschools.com/online-teaching/plagiarism

Math Dude

http://mathdude.quickanddirtytips.com/

Fun words for your Lexiphanic Child

http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/scitech/2010/03/23/wacky-science-words/?slide=1

Virtual Tour of a State Fair

http://host.newspin360.net/statefairofoklahoma/

Fly Over Mars

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2010/03/18/take-flight-over-mars/

Cool Online Art Museum (SFMOMA)

http://www.sfmoma.org/projects/artscope/#r=64

Watch Know

Thousands of educational videos, organized by topic and rated.

http://www.watchknow.org/

Discovery Channel Games

http://dsc.discovery.com/games/games.html

Discovery Channel can be a little irreverent, so you might want to preview these games.

Edinformatics Directories

This is a great links repository:

http://www.edinformatics.com/

Edinformatics Interactives Library

http://www.edinformatics.com/il/

Vermilion Interactives Library

http://www.vrml.k12.la.us/curriculum/tech/interactives/interactivelibrary.htm

Current Conditions on Earth

This is a pretty cool interactive map based on current satellite data:

http://forces.si.edu/current/base.html

El Nino

Interactives: http://forces.si.edu/elnino/library.html

Lesson: http://forces.si.edu/elnino/exhibition.html

Activities: http://forces.si.edu/elnino/educators.html

Links: http://forces.si.edu/elnino/learn.html

The Atmosphere

Interactives: http://forces.si.edu/atmosphere/04_00_00.html

Lesson: http://forces.si.edu/atmosphere/02_00_00.html

Activities: http://forces.si.edu/atmosphere/05_00_00.html

Links: http://forces.si.edu/atmosphere/06_00_00.html

The Arctic

Interactives: http://forces.si.edu/arctic/04_00_00.html

Lesson: http://forces.si.edu/arctic/02_00_00.html

Activities: http://forces.si.edu/arctic/05_00_00.html

Links: http://forces.si.edu/arctic/06_00_00.html

CNN Science Interactives Archive

There are a lot of broken links here, but the ones that work are pretty cool.

http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/space/interactive.archive/

Science (mostly) Jigsaw Puzzles

http://science.discovery.com/puzzles/puzzles.html

Not sure why they included Tarot cards and zombies in Science, but most of these are truly science-based.

Solar System Memory Game

Find the matching planet photos:

http://science.discovery.com/interactives/memory/solarsystem/solarsystem.html

Science Channel's Science Interactives

http://science.discovery.com/interactives/interactives.html

Some of these are very cool.

Medical Science and Human Anatomy Interactives

http://www.thevisualmd.com/interactives_library

Note to Parents:  Be aware that this is a medical site not intended for K-12 learners, but that might be of use to them. It has photos of human bodies and diseases on it, so preview this and decide if your students can handle these  appropriate medical images of unclothed men and women. There are some fantastic resources like an interactive view of the difference between adult and infant skin, and of fetal development. Just pre-view the site before you send your kids exploring.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorial.html

Note: This site also includes medical information about many disorders, diseases, and procedures. This site is geared toward patients and doesn't include photos, but it does include drawings of human anatomy. Preview this site as well. REALLY good information.

Learner.org Video Courses

Some of these are available only by purchase, but many can be viewed online. Many include video and materials, some are interactives (with a discussion and activities).

http://www.learner.org/resources/browse.html

Or check it out here: http://www.learner.org/#

Who knew dirt could be so interesting?

http://forces.si.edu/soils/04_00_00.html  --interactives

http://forces.si.edu/soils/02_01_00.html --lesson

http://forces.si.edu/soils/05_00_00.html --activities and links

Vacations and Vacationing Unit

http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pdfs/programs/vov-education-kit.pdf

While this unit is focused on Victoria, the activities in it are excellent and easily linked to or adapted to discussions of leisure and vacationing either in a family history setting or in a local or state tourism resources setting.

Lots of fun activities and pictures are here.

Science U: Math and Science Interactives, kits, and crafts

http://www.scienceu.com/start/

Thomas Jefferson's Library Interactives

http://www.myloc.gov/Exhibitions/jeffersonslibrary/Pages/Interactives.aspx

What are interactives and why use them?

http://www.schoollibrarymonthly.com/articles/Lamb&Johnson2010.v26n5p41.html

National Virtual Library of Manipulatives (Math)

I'm sure I've mentioned this site before, but here it is again. An excellent collection of online interactives for Math.

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html

Seeing Math Interactives

http://seeingmath.concord.org/sms_interactives.html

Explore Early America with Interactives

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/earlyamericas/online/interactives.html

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/earlyamericas/online/index.html

Exploring Mars--a Timeline History

http://science.discovery.com/tv/phoenix-mars/timeline/timeline.html

The Near Future of Space Travel

http://science.discovery.com/tv/space-week/constellation/constellation.html

How to Build your own Time Machine

Learn about light speed, atoms, particle accelerators, etc, with this interactive game:

http://science.discovery.com/interactives/time-machine/time-machine.html

General Ecology with audio lectures

http://ocw.usu.edu/biology/general-ecology

Japanese Rare Books

While this is rather specialized and most average K-12 families won't need this, students of Japanese language and culture might find this fascinating:

http://elib.doshisha.ac.jp/english/digital/index.html

Educational Games at Game Classroom

It's a web portal for educational games, sortable by level.

Very cool.

http://www.gameclassroom.com/

When you click on a grade level, you get a popup asking you to sign up for the newsletter. You don't have to sign up to access the games. Just close the popup window.

Animal Makers

This is the website of a company that makes "fake" animals for Hollywood. It's pretty cool. Be sure to check out Behind the Scenes (both Making of and On location), where they have pictures and movies of making and using the fake animals.

Pretty cool!

http://www.animalmakers.com/index2.php

Tree of Life Web Project

http://tolweb.org/tree/phylogeny.html

Short Animal video clips

These are not highly edited documentaries. Rather, these are brief clips of animals being themselves in their own habitats. It's like observing the animals in nature. Very Cool.

http://tolweb.org/movies/Animals/2374

Animal Diversity Web

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/index.html

Includes pictures, animal sounds, and explanations of things like animal naming as well as an abundance of information about animals.

Classification

Math practice games

http://math.cilenia.com/en

Norton's Online Writing Course and Handbook

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/write/writesite/writing_home.aspx

Complete Online Algebra Courses

http://www.hippocampus.org/Algebra

Online AP Biology Course

Semester 1:
http://www.montereyinstitute.org/courses/AP%20Biology%20I/nroc%20prototype%20files/coursestartc.html

Semester 2:
http://www.montereyinstitute.org/courses/AP%20Biology%20II/nroc%20prototype%20files/coursestartc.html

Includes multimedia and complete course, but you will need a text. It recommends one, but you can use a college-level online textbook or check one out from the library. Or buy one used online.

Online Biology Text--illustration-rich

http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/BIOBK/BioBookTOC.html

Virtual Biology Lab

Some of these I linked to before, but this is a more complete list.

http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/virtual_labs_2K8/

Why the Stars Appear to Move

http://wwnorton.com/college/astronomy/astro_ani_webad/ViewFromThePoles/

Life Photo Archive

Explore history and photography:

http://images.google.com/hosted/life

Grammar

http://www.azargrammar.com/, where you will find lessons, worksheets, songs, etc.

and

http://www.pearsonlongman.com/ae/azar/grammar_ex/message_board/archive/index.html, where you will find an index of English Grammar and usage.

These were designed for ESL students, but are useful to all of us.

Online Dictionary

http://www.ldoceonline.com/

For Parents: Tips on Reading with your Kids

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6720442.html

Full textbooks online

http://my.hrw.com/

This is intended to be a sample site for Holt. Right now there are science books there. Click login to access the books. I can't guarantee they'll stay, but for now, there are 3 textbooks available.

Ancient Egyptian Climate Interactive

http://www.americanepic.org/demos/Egypt/Egypt.html

and activities

http://www.fi.edu/learn/tut/5-8/weather.html

Shadow Puppets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtOsVmRdK9w

Drawing in Water and Sand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go7gzkYj34o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TXDSlhSo-U

Free animation software for the budding film maker

http://www.calicomonkey.com/blog/free-cartoon-animation-software.php

Fantastic Pictures of Earth

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1254834/Nasa-reveals-detailed-images-Earth.html

3-D Street Art

Be sure to watch the "making of" video.

http://www.metanamorph.com/displayimage-album,4,pos,0,3D%20Pavement%20Art-Ice%20Age-The%20Crevasse.html

World Maths Day is upon us!

Registration deadline for 2010 is March 1 (today).

http://www.worldmathsday.com/2010/Default.aspx?

Tech TV Video clips

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073516708/student_view0/g4techtv_videos.html

Animations explaining how tech stuff works (like digital cameras)

http://www.computing2008.com/Animations

Links to all the State Depts of Education

http://www.epd-mh.com/statestandards.php

Video clips of teaching techniques

http://www.epd-mh.com/evideolibrary.php