Homework with the Internet

October is Computer Education Month and, as your children find themselves facing the first projects of the semester, you may find yourself unsure about how best to help them find accurate information quickly and efficiently. While the library still remains the easiest place to get help, the Internet also has many good sites.

Ready Reference

Many questions can be answered with a simple fact. If you donít have an almanac or encyclopedia at home, here are some places to visit:

Information Please Almanac http://www.infoplease.com

Whether your questions involves statistics such as the highest mountain or questions about states, an almanac gives you the answers quickly. There is also a Kids version: http://www.yahooligans.com/content/ka/index.html

Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia http://www.funkandwagnalls.com

This online encyclopedia is free, unlike the Encarta encyclopedia. Anyone can sign up for a password as long as he or she has an email address. The articles are thorough, but not too complicated for late elementary or middle school students.

Comptonís Encyclopedia     http://www.optonline.com/comptons/index.html

     Another standard encyclopedia with good articles.

Dictionaries and foreign language http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/rbeard/diction.html

An online dictionary can be more useful than a print one since it can offer alternative words if you only know some of the spelling. You usually have to at least have the first few letters correct, however. This site also includes foreign language dictionaries and a sign language tutorial with live animation.
 

Writing Help

Grammar:     On-line English Grammar http://www.edunet.com/english/grammar/

Bibliographies:   Writerís Workshop Homepage http://www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop/

Pictures

Altavista http://www.altavista.com has a image finder. For studentsí use, I suggest putting the family filter on first. Then type in the name of what you are looking for. Most of the images can be downloaded by clicking or right-clicking on them. The encyclopedias also have a picture search feature.
 

Elementary School

The best general site to bookmark for your elementary student is Yahooligans:      http://www.yahooligans.com
Like its parent organization Yahoo, Yahooligans is a web directory. The sites are arranged in categories such as Science and Nature, School Bell and Around the World. The most effective way to use a directory site is to narrow down the branch you are interested in before entering your search term. For example, searching for hurricanes at the top level will result in sites about the sports teams as well as the natural disaster. Sometime during kindergarten through fifth grade your children will have to do reports on animals, the 50 states, space and ancient civilizations. Yahooligans has good information on all three topics.

Also consider these sites:
National Wildlife Foundation for animals:   http://www.nwf.org/nwf/kids/
State Information:    http://www.50states.com/
Nasa for Kids:     http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/Space/
Folk and Fairy Tales - Tales of Wonder: http://darsie.ucdavis.edu/tales/
 

Middle School

What is middle school without a science fair? For all stages of the science fair work, try these sites: http://www.ipl.org/youth/projectguide/ and   http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Another popular assignment involves finding which city is located at particular coordinates. This is very difficult without an atlas. The print almanac provides section maps that can be used, but there is no one good web site. The National Geographic website offers the best world map that includes longitude and latitude: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/maps/view/worldt.html. If you can make an educated guess about possible answers you can check the World Cities coordinates at http://infoplease.lycos.com/ipa/A0001769.html.

One local middle school had to do a research paper on one of the presidential elections. It is very difficult to use the encyclopedias to find information other that the votes. The History of American Presidential Elections http://www.multied.com/elections/index.html has complete information on all of the elections. Once you know the names of the candidates, an encyclopedia will provide more information.

Another common paper involves biographies of famous people whether it is mathemeticians or Spanish-speaking celebrities. Two good sites are Lives, the Biography Resource http://members.home.net/klanxner/lives/index.html and the Biography Channel, www.biography.com.

High School

     In high school student often have to do research on more complicated subjects. The encyclopedias are still the best place to start to get an overview of the subject. For more recent information, the best place to go is to your local library online:

Rhode Island     http://www.lori.state.ri.us/lori/libraries/connecti.htm   Choose your own library and follow the directions or go to the Providence Public Library site: http://www.searchbank.com/searchbank/provid_main
Massachusetts     http://www.sailsinc.org   Click on Links, Databases and Infotrac Searchbank.

Both states provide online databases of fulltext magazine articles from journals such as Journal of American Medical Association,Time and the Journal of American History. To use the databases you must type in your library card number. The articles include all of the bibliographic information you need to cite the source and some of them even include the graphics that go with the article.

Other likely assignments will include:
Shakespeare     http://daphne.palomar.edu/shakespeare/
     This site includes study guides, Lamb's Tales of Shakespeare, lesson plans, criticism, etc.
Poetry     Start at Yahoo/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Poetry for a very complete arrangement of topics.
Chemistry    Periodic Table: http://www.webelements.com/

AOL subscribers can also find help through the Research & Learn channel on the channel menu. Watch out, however, for sites that are fee-based such as the Electric Library and Encarta Deluxe.

For fun go to http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/vlatlon.html and see real time satellite pictures.