Astronomy: The Tools of the Trade: Telescopes--the Hubble Space Telescope

Do this activity to figure out the topic of this lesson: http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/space_level1/activity/cosmic_connection.html



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww-qwI2w6r8&feature=pyv&ad=3315788113&kw=astronomy

The Hubble Space Telescope is a very cool tool--and one of the most used--and there is a lot of info online about it. Here are some sites you can explore to learn more:

http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/space_level2/hubble.html (click on "show me the level 1 version" at the bottom of the page for a simpler version)--make sure you listen to the song!

http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/qa/hst.php.p=Capture+the+cosmos@,capture,>Hubble+Space+Telescope@,capture,hst,

http://hubblesite.org/

http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/myths/tech.php.p=Capture+the+cosmos@,capture,>Hubble+Space+Telescope@,capture,hst,

A movie: http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/22267-science-investigations-the-hubble-telescope-video.htm

Movies from Hubble (watch the MPEG-1s): http://hubblesource.stsci.edu/sources/video/clips/
http://www.rochesterforkids.com/hubble.htm

Astronomy: The Tools of the Trade--How do we get the info back to earth?

So there are space ships, space telescopes, and probes flying around in space sending us information. How does the information get to us?

Well, the space tools send information by radio waves, which are collected by satellites. Look here for a little more info and an activity: http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/space_level1/activity/maze.html

So the satellite array collects the messages sent back from the probes, and then satellite dishes on earth pick up signals sent from the satellite array.

An example: http://spitzer.caltech.edu/video-audio/639-ssv005-Artist-Concept-Spitzer-Observation-Cycle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_and_Data_Relay_Satellite

There is also the Deep Space Network, which helps Earth hear from space probes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Space_Network

Fun Space Exploration Page

This is a fun site for younger children. The individual pages are not indexable, so I can link you to the individual activities as part of our Astronomy Lessons, but it's a fun site worth exploring and full of great stuff (like a ca 1957 movie about Sputnik).

http://www.artyastro.com/

Teacher Guide from Arty Astronaut

http://www.3pounds.com/study_guides/artyastro/pdf/teacher_guide.pdf

Astronomy: Who's Who

http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos_who_level1/whos_who.html

Astronomy: The Tools of the Trade

So how do Astronomers figure out what they know now?

They still watch the things in the sky. But now they have tools that help them see more than their eyes alone can see. For example, there are tools that make things look closer (like telescopes). They have cameras that take pictures to capture what they see. They have tools that can see things besides light--like x-rays, radio waves, and infrared (think: heat). They have tools that can get closer to the things in the sky and send back information using radio waves.

They also use other sciences and math to help them.

Check out this site for details:

http://astronomyonline.org/Science/Tools.asp

Orbit visualizers

http://janus.astro.umd.edu/SolarSystems/

http://www.abc.net.au/science/holo/lunar2.htm

http://janus.astro.umd.edu/javadir/orbits/ssv.html


http://janus.astro.umd.edu/javadir/orbits/moons.html


http://janus.astro.umd.edu/javadir/orbits/ess.html


http://janus.astro.umd.edu/orbits/innerSS.html


http://janus.astro.umd.edu/orbits/outerSS.html


http://janus.astro.umd.edu/javadir/orbits/moons.html


And, for fun:


What would happen to the orbits if a wandering star wandered through our solar sysytem?
http://janus.astro.umd.edu/orbits/nbdy/rstar.html

Build your own solar system

http://janus.astro.umd.edu/orbits/ssbuild.html

How much would you weigh on other planets?

http://janus.astro.umd.edu/astro/gravity/

Collisions in Space!

http://janus.astro.umd.edu/astro/impact/

and the activities that go with it:
http://janus.astro.umd.edu/educ/collisions/students.html

And teacher materials:
http://janus.astro.umd.edu/educ/collisions/instructors.html

If the history of the universe happened in a week....

When did the dinosaurs die?

http://janus.astro.umd.edu/astro/times/

How big is the sun?

If the earth were the size of a marble....

http://janus.astro.umd.edu/astro/sizes/

Practice with "Scientific Notation" (aka "powers" in math)

http://janus.astro.umd.edu/cgi-bin/astro/scinote.pl

and the activities:
http://janus.astro.umd.edu/educ/scinote/students.html
http://janus.astro.umd.edu/educ/scinote/instructors.html

Explore Astronomical Distances

http://janus.astro.umd.edu/astro/distance/

The Known Universe

What if the Earth had rings like Saturn?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoz5Q2rGQtQ

Make a sidewalk solar system

Silver City, NM, put in a permanent Sidewalk Solar System.
http://nfo.edu/solar/index.html
You probably can't just go install one like they did, but you can make one using sidewalk chalk and a little research.

Here are their instructions:
http://nfo.edu/solar/direct.htm

Plus a link to the data they used:

http://nfo.edu/solar/guide.htm

How a bronze plaque is made

http://nfo.edu/solar/casting.htm

Photos of the Planets

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html

Carnivorous Plants

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Ten-Plants-That-Put-Meat-on-Their-Plates.html?utm_source=relatedarticles&utm_medium=internallink&utm_campaign=SmithMag&utm_content=Ten%20Plants%20That%20Put%20Meat%20on%20Their%20Plates

Venus Fly Traps

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/The-Venus-Flytraps-Lethal-Allure.html

Sherlock Holmes' London

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/78434572.html

Attach a camera to a bird, and ....

You get this:

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2010/01/20/see-scotland-from-an-eagles-point-of-view/

Really Great Chemistry Animations and Interactives

click on the chapters in the menu on the left and use the "Figures Alive" options. Or, click on "Figures Alive Full Screen" and download all of them.

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072410159/student_view0/index.html

Chemistry Audio Glossary

Pronounce your chemistry words correctly: http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073511072/student_view0/audio_glossary.html

Chemistry animations

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073511072/student_view0/animations.html#

Awesome interactive maps for world geography

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073051500/student_view0/interactive_base_maps.html#

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073522821/student_view0/base_map_collection.html

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073522821/student_view0/interactive_maps.html#

Tons of Info on the Elements

http://www.webelements.com

Visual Periodic Table of the Elements

http://www.rsc.org/chemsoc/visualelements/index.htm

Full text math books for higher math

Algebra series:

http://www.mhhe.com/math/devmath/dugopolski/elem/index.mhtml --this appears to be a complete Elementary Algebra book online, with pdfs of one section at a time available if you click on "Online Learning Center" under "Student Resources". There are also interactives available.

http://www.mhhe.com/math/devmath/dugopolski/acs/index.mhtml --this is the same series--college algebra

http://www.mhhe.com/math/devmath/dugopolski/inter/index.mhtml --this is the same series--intermediate algebra.

Calculus:

http://www.mhhe.com/math/finmath/hoffmann/ -- click on "Online Learning Center" to access the full text and exercises

Math Midway

Fun even if you don't actually go there and try the activities in real life.

http://www.mathmidway.org/math-midway-activities.php

Museum of Mathematics

http://momath.org/

Mathematics and Art Galleries of Images

http://bridgesmathart.org/bridges-galleries/

Make a giant SOMA puzzle (think Giant 3-D Tetris)

http://www.georgehart.com/Soma/Soma.html

3-D fractals

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/math_monday_fractal_polyhedra_clust.html

Crayons and Crayon Colors--Fun Stuff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Crayola_crayon_colors

http://www.weathersealed.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/crayons_big1.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Crayola

Make Stuff (ezine)

http://www.makezine.com/

Humanities: Ancient Egyptian Plants part 4

Here is more information: 

Flowers:

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/flowers.htm

Flax:

http://www.touregypt.net/KIDS/Family/flax/flax.html

If you want to read more about gardens in Ancient Egypt, you can read this:

http://www.gardenvisit.com/history_theory/garden_landscape_design_articles/west_asia/egyptian_gardens

Plants:

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/history/egypt/egyptpaper.pdf

Now look at this site to review and make sure you didn't miss anything (it has good pictures!):

http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/botany/index.html

Humanities: Ancient Egyptian Plants part 3

Look at these sites for more about Ancient Egyptian Plants:

http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/egypt/environment/plants.htm

http://www.allsands.com/history/places/egyptplant_zxg_gn.htm

Where else have you heard about layers of onions?

Try this:

How are Shrek and the Egyptians the same? Different?

Humanities: Ancient Egyptian Plants part 2

How do we know about plants in ancient Egypt?


Well, sometimes we know about plants that existed in Ancient Egypt by looking at the pictures the Egyptians left behind: http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/history/egypt/default.html.


Sometimes we know by the things the Egyptians and other people wrote long ago:  http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/botany/vegetables.htm (we'll look more at this site later, so don't worry about spending too much time on it).


Sometimes science tells us more about the plants:

http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/history/egypt/discovermore/PlantDNA.asp

And sometimes archaeologists actually find ancient bits of plants to study: 

http://www.kew.org/collections/ecbot/collections/region/ancient-egyptian-artefacts/index.html

http://www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk/index2.html  --go here. Click on "teaching and learning resources" on the side bar. Click on DIY (at the bottom of the list). Register if necessary (it's free). In the search page, enter "plant" under "Object Type" and press enter. It will give you images of actual Ancient Egyptian plant artifacts. Alternately, you can select "browse the categories" after "material" and choose "organic materials." Then choose "view all in category" or "view more details", then "View more details" or "view all in category" after "plant materials." Likewise, you can select "Browse the categories" after "object type" and then choose "Animal, vegetable, and mineral remains". Select "view all in category" or "view more details", then "view more details" after "organic remains" and "view more details" after "plant remains" to get a DIFFERENT list than you saw under "Material".

Humanities: Ancient Egyptian Plants part 1

Just like we made a graphic organizer for Egyptian Animals, we're going to make one as we go for Egyptian Plants showing the different plants and what the Egyptians used them for (clothes, food, paper, medicine, etc). You can do the same kind of graphic organizer you did last time, or you can choose a different kind. Start with "Ancient Egyptian Plants" in the "Topic" section. Then look at these sites to learn about Egyptian Plants.

We will be doing this for several days, so don't lose your paper!

Let's start by reading this paper:
http://www.egyptstudy.org/ostracon/archives/JBigelow_Feb2000.pdf

For Parents: The Outline of the Ancient Egypt Lessons

I have a general outline that I use to develop my coursework for my children's Humanities lessons which gives me an idea of what to cover in each "era" of the Humanities course I'm creating for them.  Right now, we are studying Ancient Egypt.

I thought it might be helpful if you had access to my outline, which is a work-in-progress right now as I collect and sort information, write lessons only a few days ahead of where we are now, and modify things as they work/don't work and as I discover new resources.

The outline starts with a list of links (quite long right now) that I found but have not yet perused and extracted "single-lesson" materials from.  Below that is the outline of what I'm working on. Links back to Learning Lynx are completed lessons. Links to outside sites are collections of pages I intend to examine when I sit down to write specific lessons on each topic. They have not been examined or evaluated, and are not to be considered a cohesive lesson yet. In fact, many of them will never appear on Learning Lynx as I usually discover that some links are more valuable than others.

With that in mind, here is the link to my developmental materials so that you can take it where you want your family to go if you're studying along with us.

 http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddssdqrh_74cbtjznfb

Also, if you want to develop your own Humanities lessons, here is the link to the blank "Era" worksheet/outline. Bear in mind that this is something I developed myself. It will not follow the standard teaching approaches for K-8 (or even K-12) traditional education, it might be too "thorough" for you or your kids, and I don't cover every single topic for every single era (conversely, I might add some for an era that warrants it).

http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddssdqrh_739jm6crfd

Cotton and it's uses (Chart)

http://www.cottonsa.org.za/viewimage.aspx?image=images/cotton_and_its_uses.jpg

For information on how cotton goes from seed to clothes, look here:

http://www.cottonsa.org.za/

Hover over "Educational and promotional materials" in the side bar on the left and then click on "Photo Library" for a photo essay on how cotton goes from seed to fabric.

History of Gardening

This is an extensive, interesting, hyperlinked timeline history of gardening. Visually not much to look at, but very cool.

http://www.gardendigest.com/timegl.htm

Watch an asteroid fly by

http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/2010AL75.2.GIF

Geometry Explorer

http://homepages.gac.edu/~hvidsten/gex/index.html

Math Links from McGraw Hill

http://www.mhhe.com/math/devmath/mathlinks.mhtml

(note that the correct address for the BYU math dept is: https://math.byu.edu/home/)

Math resources for Math Ed Students--manipulatives, etc.

http://www.mhhe.com/math/ltbmath/bennett_nelson/conceptual/-- This site has TONS of useful stuff on it--printable manipulatives, math explorations, weblinks, graph paper, etc.

The first link is the "conceptual" approach. This one is the "activity" approach: http://www.mhhe.com/math/ltbmath/bennett_nelson/activities/

You can also try these:
http://www.mhhe.com/math/ltbmath/bennett_nelson/index2.mhtml
http://www.mhhe.com/math/ltbmath/bennett_nelson/index3.mhtml

Human Motor Development Videos

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073523623/student_view0/video_clips.html

OLCs and How to Use Them

https://sites.google.com/site/learninglynxlibrary/textbook-companion-sites

Practice addition facts

This site is only free for addition facts. If you want to practice other math, you have to pay.

http://www.carrotsticks.com/

Solar Eclipse Photos

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/01/photogalleries/100115-eclipse-ring-fire-annular-pictures/?025632_600x450.jpg?source=link_fb01152010#025632_600x450.jpg

Zoology Taxonomic Wall Chart

http://www.mhhe.com/sem/online_learning_centers/wall_chart.pdf

Amusement Park Physics

Awesome site, including design your own roller coaster activity.

http://www.learner.org/interactives/parkphysics/index.html

or just the roller coaster activity:
http://www.learner.org/interactives/parkphysics/coaster.html

Physics Weblinks--very cool stuff

http://www.mhhe.com/physsci/physical/griffith/weblinks/weblinks.mhtml

Economic Botany Web Links

http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/pae/botany/simpsonlinks/weblinks.mhtml

Zoology weblinks (college level)

http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/pae/zoology/kentcarr/links.mhtml

http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/pae/zoology/linzeylinks/weblinks.mhtml

Meyer-Briggs Mini-Test

Need some guidance on what jobs you might enjoy?

Try this--it's quick:

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

Visual Fractions

http://www.visualfractions.com/

Film of an Asteroid flying near the Earth

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/wednesdays-near-earth-asteroid-caught-on-film/

Animal that produces Chlorophyll

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/01/13/half-plant-half-animal-really/?test=faces

How Congress Works

http://corporate.cq.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=235

Sources of Graph Paper

http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/

http://www.printfreegraphpaper.com/

http://www.paperprintout.com/paper/graph-paper/index.php

http://www.csun.edu/science/ref/measurement/data/graph_paper.html

Sodium Party

What happens when $100 worth of sodium meets water. All at once.

http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Stories/011.2/index.html

Humanities: Make an Animal Chart

For Humanities, we've been studying Ancient Egyptian Animals. Now we're going to do a project:

Let's make a poster about ancient Egyptian Animals. We're going to sort out all the animals on this list: http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddssdqrh_76ch8gssg9 (you can find information about most of them on this site: http://learninglynx.blogspot.com/2010/01/ancient-egyptian-bestiary.html). Feel free to print the list--you can even cut the list up and glue the words onto your poster if you don't like to hand-write things.

There are many ways you can sort them. For example, you could organize them by what they eat (carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores), or by what kind of animal they are (mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish), or by what color they are, or what size they are, or any number of other ways.  What we're going to do today is make a poster to hang on the wall that organizes by how they interacted with the humans in Ancient Egypt. For example, were any of the animals used for food? For pets? Were any of the animals dangerous to people? Which were related to the Egyptian gods? Some animals will fit into more than one category. You can brainstorm categories now (for food; for protection; danger; pets; gods are just some of the choices you might use), but keep in mind that you might need to add new categories as you go.

To make a poster of this, we need a visual way of organizing the information. Look at these samples of different ways of organizing information graphically, choose which you are going to use, and make a poster or book.

http://www.swiftchart.com/example_3.htm#tree_ex5

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/stapleless-book-30010.html

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/readwritethink-webbing-tool-30038.html

http://my.hrw.com/nsmedia/intgos/html/igo.htm

http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/graphic_organizers.htm

http://www.graphic.org/squirrel.html

http://www.graphic.org/class.html

http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/pdf/cluster.pdf

http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/pdf/ideawheel.pdf

http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/pdf/spider.pdf

http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/pdf/tree.pdf

http://www.graphic.org/concept.html

I'm not promoting this software, since it's not free and I've never used it. But their website has some good visual examples of graphic organization that you can use as starting points to just draw your own:

http://web.singnet.com.sg/~axon2000/showcase.htm. Click on each thumbnail to enlarge it.

(For more Graphic Organizer tools and printables, check out the "Online Tools" section of the index. With some of these tools, you can even make your poster online and then print it.)

If you have a printer, you can print pictures of the animals to glue onto your poster. You could also just write the names, or draw pictures. If you want, you can use color-coding to add another layer of organization to your chart. For example, you could write the names of all carnivores in red, all omnivores in blue, and all herbivores in green, regardless of what other category they fit into on your poster. Be creative!

Feel free to decorate the poster any way you want. We'll add it to the wall with our maps of Egypt when you are done.

Graphic Organizers--to print or make online

http://my.hrw.com/nsmedia/intgos/html/igo.htm

http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/index.php

http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/

http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/graphic_organizers.htm

http://www.readwritethink.org/search/?q=graphic+organizers&srchgo.x=0&srchgo.y=0&old_q=

http://www.readwritethink.org/search/partner.html?q=graphic%20organizers&srchgo.x=0&srchgo.y=0&old_q=&include-reviewed=true

Cool Lesson on Heroes vs Villians

Great for readers or writers. It says "teen" throughout, but it can be used for younger children, too.

http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/activities-projects/telling-good-from-movies-30305.html?main-tab=1#tabs

Make a Venn Diagram Online

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/venn-diagram-circles-30006.html

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/venn-diagram-circles-a-30032.html

More:

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/printouts/venn-diagram-30196.html

When to Use an Apostrophe

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe

Why are we learning about Animals and Plants in Humanities?

It's a good question--why are we learning about animals and plants in a Humanities course?

The answer is simple:

The study of humanities is really the study of people, their lives, and the ways they express themselves. In order to fully understand the art, music, literature, and history of a people, we must first understand how the people lived, what their challenges were, what they did for fun, etc. In short, we have to understand their culture.

And culture is, in large part, defined by environment (including geography and natural resources) and technology (including what people do with their environment and natural resources according to THEIR understanding and science, not ours). The animals and plants are a big part of the environment. They provide food, clothing, work, and shelter for people. Sometimes they influenced the religion of the people in the area. They also provide medicine, hobbies, toys, dishes, etc. The animals and plants also can be a source of danger and a source of protection for people. In short, the animals and plants helped shape the world of the people in the past more directly than we realize they do now, so in understanding the people, it's helpful to understand the animals and plants they interacted with on a regular basis.

Besides, in real life, the world isn't divided up into "subjects" that never cross over. It is good to see different subjects, like biology and art, in the context of the real world (instead of the context of a classroom) because these subjects, as distant as they sometimes seem to us today, came from and relate to our world and our needs as human beings still today.

Tons of Great Botany Links

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/explore/botany.htm

How Gum is Made

http://inventors.about.com/od/gstartinventions/a/gum.htm

http://www.gumassociation.org/default.aspx?Cat=2

Ancient Egyptian Bestiary

Very cool:
http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/bestiary/index.html

Interactive Maths

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/

Nice Web Book on Pluto

http://www.discoveryofpluto.com/

Photos of microscopic things

http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/scitech/2010/01/04/nikon-small-world-photomicrography-contest?test=faces

Awesome Resource: Websites By Kids for Kids--and GOOD, too

http://thinkquest.org/pls/html/think.library?p_instance=2537395395128427

Animation and Cartoons

http://library.thinkquest.org/08aug/00479/index.html

Real Life Mysteries/What do you think?

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/01/04/planet-hunting-telescope-unearths-hot-mysteries-space/?test=latestnews

What ARE those things?

Another Homeschooling Study comes out in favor of homeschoolers

"Homeschool student achievement test scores are exceptionally high. The mean scores for every subtest (which are at least the 80th percentile) are well above those of public school students."


http://www.nheri.org/Latest/Homeschooling-Across-America-Academic-Achievement-and-Demographic-Characteristics.html

Lectures from UC Berkeley

http://www.youtube.com/user/UCBerkeley#p/p

College lectures on many subjects, from Law to Physics to Peace Studies to Math.....take your pick!

More Science Videos online from New Scientist

http://www.youtube.com/user/newscientistvideo

Feynman, Lecturing

http://www.vega.org.uk/video/subseries/8

Free Science Lectures Online

http://www.youtube.com/user/FreeScienceLectures

http://www.freesciencelectures.com/

http://freescienceonline.blogspot.com/2008/12/richard-feynman-physics-video-lectures.html

Science Made Fun Videos, games, and links

http://www.youtube.com/user/sciencemadefun

http://www.sciencemadefun.org.uk/

Tip for Homeschoolers Required to Keep Records:

Use a googledocs form. You can email it to yourself or bookmark the link and fill it out online every day. When you click submit at the bottom of the form, it automatically enters the information on a spreadsheet for you. Days work done!

Here are some screen shots of the form I use for my son:

Paper Art

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/05/100-extraordinary-examples-of-paper-art/

Awesome video and lesson portal

http://www.neok12.com/

Videos from NASA for kids

http://www.youtube.com/user/NASAeClips

Free Brainpop Movies

http://www.brainpop.com/free_stuff/

Physics Games

http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/physics/

Islands as seen from space

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/islands-space/4/

New Section in the Index

If you haven't looked at the Learning Lynx Index yet, you should. It is the thing that takes this playground of random links and imposes order, making it possible to use the site for an organized learning experience. The Index is constantly evolving as the blog grows, so check back often. I actually use the Index as the launching point for our daily group lessons, rather than coming straight to the blog itself (although the kids like to do that for fun).

With some personal research I've been doing lately on Exceptionally Gifted and Profoundly Gifted children, I've decided to add a section to the Index specifically for them (but that anyone can use). There, I will cross-list Lynx that are especially of interest to XG and PG children and families (especially the homeschoolers), like college courses they can access online without having to try to convince the professors that it really IS appropriate for their 10 year old to be studying on that level. Bear in mind, though, that some of the best resources for XG and PG kids will be the blog itself, unindexed (as it presents a playground of information), the Click List and Watch Something List (on the side bar), the Subject Links, and the Unsorted List (also on the side bar) of sites I've found that warrant further exploration but I haven't actually studied yet (often because they are so PACKED with information, I don't know where to begin). Also, I would WELCOME links from these families, most of whom manage to collect great resources on their own out of necessity.

Great Web Portal

http://www.intute.ac.uk/

Video for every book of the Bible

I hesitated to put this in because it reflects an academic view of a sacred book--and that doesn't always mesh with the religious views of the same text. However, religious views don't mesh with each other regarding the same text, either, so here it is:

Bibledex.

http://www.bibledex.com/index.html

Parents: You might want to preview the videos before you show them to your kids, just so you are aware of a) the biases and b) the jargon (for example, one speaker uses the term "folklore" to refer to the contents of the Bible. In popular parlance, this has a connotation of "false" or "lies" or "fiction." As an academic term, however, "folklore" refers exclusively to material that was transmitted in a certain way, regardless of the verity of the subject matter, and is, therefore, NOT a statement of the truth or untruth of the Bible, but only of how it was transmitted in early times according to scholarly understanding).

More Videos from Periodic Videos

http://www.periodicvideos.com/extravideos.htm

Videos about physics and astronomy

From the makers of Period Videos:

http://www.sixtysymbols.com/

Learn the Elements--one video for each element

http://www.periodicvideos.com/#

I LOVE these!

Fun, irreverent science from Brainiac

These are fun. Brainiac has admitted that they sometimes fake the experiments to produce a bigger bang, so be aware (and perhaps use it as a mind-bender to figure out what's legit and what isn't!). +

http://www.youtube.com/user/brainiacstore

videos about the elements