Michigan Water Pollution

One of my students, Alex, focused on Michigan Water Pollution as he developed his Glog for our Environmental Life Science research.

This is an area of personal concern for this environmental science enthusiast. His evidence of focus on his topic makes this interactive poster quite useful. I would direct you to his inclusion of leftover medicines in the water systems which is an overlooked, yet extremely detrimental water contamination problem.

Teachers could share this Glog as an example for students or as a teaching tool. As always, I would recommend that you cite this blog in your work.

Our Footprints: Heavy on the Land!

A man's steps by isolano.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License

On Blog Action Day 2009, bloggers all around Earth are sharing their ideas, comments and actions for Climate Change.

If we hope to be the change we see in the world, let's start at home.

The Nature Conservancy has provided a wonderful, easy to use carbon footprint survey It can be used to determine your carbon footprint. Try it out and learn how you can lighten the burden on Earth.

Diigo a WORDLE!

Interested in learning more or sharing your WORDLES? Now, you can access the Diigo WORDLE Group.

If you haven't yet used Diigo, the social bookmarking site, now would be a great time to join. While you're at it, consider joining the Diigo for Educators site that is protected, so you can use it with your students.

Here is a slide show of many of our group's bookmarks, to date.

CR2.0: Just in Time Science Resources

While reading the new discussion items at Classroom2.0, I came across a request from a student, Mike P, in the Web 2.0 Class. Mike's request was to find

...good sites where [I] can find videos or even a good podcast for cellular biology?

Cellular Biology recommendations were first made by Michelle Eckstein, Shaun Fletcher and Britt Gow. Here is my response to the excellent request:

Good recommendations from all. I have used the Cells Alive website which is excellent, as are the others.

I would like to recommend a science education portal BioInteractive. Their motto is, "Teach Ahead of the Textbook", and BioInteractive is part of a worldwide effort by research scientists to help more people learn about science. Their focus at BioInteractive is providing material and information for science educators and their students.

Research labs and universities provide excellent virtual labs, still images, "Holdiay Lectures" on a science topic, videos, podcasts and so much more. I have used various BioInteractive materials with 6th - 12th grade students. Many of the materials could be used with younger students.

You can sign up for the HHMI Bulletin. The May Issue
would be very helpful to teachers. Also, you can receive their newsletter and get science research and news updates that can be used as current events for science or professional development information.

ClipMarks and a Firefox Update

This morning I received a notice that there were new updates for my excellent browser, Firefox, so I updated. As usual, the ending screen asked if I wanted to see the recommended Firefox add-ons. Certainly!! I always do.
As I was browsing through the add-ons, I noted a few that I might want to add, and then I came to Clipmarks. Oooooh!! ClipMarks has become my favorite social bookmarking community, so I thought "I haven't reviewed this add-on yet. I resolved that omission. I rated and reviewed Clipmarks for the Firefox review of Clipmarks that is available in the add-on download section.

Here is my review:

Clipmarks adds value to your browsing, browsing, clipping and sharing experience. Being a bookmark and hotlist aficionado, I was curious about ClipMarks. I already had del.icio.us, but I was drawn to the added feature of clipping quotable material.

I first added Clipmarks in early June, 2007 because it sounded like a great free tool for research. On the fly, I could copy snippets of the article I found important,as well as, properly quote and cite information for later use.

Being a teacher, I immediately could see the potential value for students researching a topic on the internet. When they found an article, they could clip it, store it online, and use it later for their research. I thought it would be especially helpful for teachers who ask students to find Current Event articles in their study area.

What I didn't know was that Clipmarks is a very powerful add-on program. You can clip snippets, pictures and save them to your online file. Also, you can tag your article in del.icio.us or magnolia. Your comments, are yours, they belong to you, so you can use them later in your research. Another striking feature is the ability to send your clipmark to your blog(there are several) or get code to embed in blogs, like MySpace, that are not supported. There are a vast array of other extras available in Clipmarks that you will want to use.

All your Clipmarks can be private, but by making your clips public, you have the added benefit of community. There is a community of "clippers" who can pop your clipmarks. The pop is a way to acknowledge your clip as interesting or important. They add your clip to their database...with credit to you. Also, people can comment on a public clip. Many times, clippers have led me to other similar articles.
Clipmarks is a wonderful online tool, with a tiny icon(w/dropdown menu) and a great community that is more agile and responsive than Digg!

You can lock in redundant bookmarking to del.icio.us, so I think everyone should add-on ClipMarks....

Did I mention that I love Clipmarks, and I am reviewing it after using it for several months? Yeah! It's true.