News Articles For Students

Smithsonian's TweenTribune is a free website with news articles for students. Each article includes comprehension- and vocabulary-based quizzes and adjustable Lexile levels. All past articles are available and can be filtered by grade level or keyword. There are also tech-related stories and articles in Spanish.  To see the website click here. 

If you used an idea from this website then buy Mr H a gatorade :)  Thank you

The Smithsonian Learning Lab

 

 The Smithsonian Learning Lab is a free, platform with millions of vetted digital resources and collections. You can search resources by type or search collections by topic.  According to their website "Teach effectively by creating your own interactive learning experiences-or adopt exemplars made by teachers and Smithsonian experts."  To see the website click here.

If you used an idea from this website then buy Mr H a gatorade :)  Thank you

VR Hangar from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

This free app is now available for your Iphone or Android device.  There are three virtual reality tours available from the Smithsonian air and space museum.  They are: The 1903 Wright Flyer,  Chuck Yeagar breaking the speed of sound and  Apollo 11.  You can see these VR tours by clicking here. 

TweenTribune

According to AASL, "Tween Tribune hosts high interest, reputable current events articles for K-12 audiences compiled by the Smithsonian. The articles are categorized by grade, lexile, language (English/Spanish), and subject area. Each article is available across multiple lexiles for differentiation and has an associated comprehension assessment. Free educator accounts offer a plethora of features: Monday morning newsletters, class and student profiles, lesson plans, article assignment capability, and assessment score grade books. Student privacy is protected, and all comments are educator-moderated. Use Tween Tribune to compare bias/viewpoints from varying sources, support or inspire inquiry, or as a station highlighting literary styles."  To see the website click here.  Make sure you click the Teacher tab at the top if you are a teacher or the Spanish tab at the top if you are interested in the Spanish version.

Ask Smithsonian

These videos are all around a couple of minutes long and might be used to introduce something you will be discussing in your class.  For example "What happens when you get a concussion?"
To see the website click here.

Smithsonian X 3D

 The Smithsonian Institute will make public access to some items along with their 3D data sets to the public. They have tours along with these items as well as many links to videos and other information about the items they are exhibiting.  Take a look at the video I made of the website.

Here is a video that the Smithsonian put out about X 3D

Forensic Science

Are you or your students interested in Forensic Science?

There are a couple of great sites to check out.  The first is from the Smithsonian Channel.  It is the Catching Killers game.    Click here to see the webpage.

You can click here to see the  webpage by David Andrade.  There are a ton of links relating to Forensic Science.



The CSI Experience is produced by CBS, Rice University and a few others.  It is an educational web game that has 5 levels in increasing order of difficulty.  Check it out by clicking here.

Dia De Los Muertos

In preparation for Halloween I saw this interesting site from the Smithsonian Latino Center

They have some great ideas for teachers.  For Social Science teachers the accompanying pdf discusses customs and beliefs.  For the Art teachers the pdf discusses making paper mache skulls.  For the Foods class they discuss making sugar skulls.  There are other ideas and activities worth checking out.

The website can be found by clicking here.  The accompanying pdf users guide can be found here.
Also if you are a member of  teacherspayteachers (you should be as it is free to register and it has many freebies) you can check out this writing and presentation assignment by clicking here.