Pages

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Simulations

I love using simulations in my biology classes.  I find students have much more success understanding certain concepts when there is a visual attached, especially one that is interactive.  Chapter 3 of the text does a good job of discussing why computer simulations enhance learning and gives helpful guidelines for their use.  The learningscience.org website is a great resource for so many topics.  I have used many of the websites listed on that site.  The BBC Interactive Human Body would be useful as a review and the johnkyrk.com cell biology animation site looks good (I had never seen that one), but I like the Cells Alive site better for my students.  Although ExploreLearning.com looks like it has interesting ones, I shy away from sites that are not free.

Here are some that I have incorporated into my curriculum in the past and found to be useful:

Food Webs: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/explorer/ecosystems/be_an_explorer/map/line_experiment14.swf
http://www.ecokids.ca/pub/eco_info/topics/frogs/chain_reaction/index.cfm
http://www.gould.edu.au/foodwebs/kids_web.htm
http://www.vtaide.com/png/foodchains.htm
Virtual Pig Dissection:
http://www.whitman.edu/biology/vpd/main.html
Circulation:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/heart/heartmap.html
http://www.ehc.com/vbody.asp
Digestion:
http://kitses.com/animation/swfs/digestion.swf
http://exhibits.pacsci.org/nutrition/noflash_nutrition.html
Evolution:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/evolution/
http://www.becominghuman.org/
Cells:
http://www.cellsalive.com/index.htm
Genetics:
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/ (home page –great website!)http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/traits/
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/traits/karyotype/
http://nobelprize.org/educational/  (this is a great website, not just for genetics – scroll down on this page to see a list of some of the interactive games!)http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sheppard/analyze.html (DNA fingerprinting)http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/dna/
Rainforest:
http://www.mbgnet.net/sets/rforest/index.htm
Population:
http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html
Posted by at
Labels: ,

5 comments:

  1. TaylorJuly 9, 2011 at 8:53 AM

    This is an excellent list of sites. I use many of these already, but I will add many of these to my list. I specifically like the food web ones. I found some of those last summer but forgot to incorporate them into my ecology unit last year. I absolutely love the becominghuman website. I recommend that to any biology teacher. Thanks for the list Linda!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jaime JohnsonJuly 10, 2011 at 5:30 AM

    Yes- same goes for me. I do use many of these tools- but I do tend to forget about some of them. Thanks for the new links!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jessi and SuJuly 10, 2011 at 12:48 PM

    Wow! This is an amazing list. Thanks for helping out your fellow bio teachers.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jim GlynnJuly 10, 2011 at 5:37 PM

    Nice work. Looks like a solid list even if I don't teach bio. How are going to handle the sims with different levels of students. Do you think the the sims are better/worse/same for lower level students? What's your take?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Linda KocianJuly 10, 2011 at 10:06 PM

    You are all quite welcome. I know I am missing many, so if I think of more I will post them!

    As for your questions, Jim...
    I think simulations work well with lower level students especially because I find that most of these students seem to favor visual learning. But the simulations cannot be too complicated and often times need to be narrated by the teacher while viewing. I use guided worksheets when students are looking at them on their own to help them focus and understand the simulations better.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)