Some Helpful Websites on Visualizing math and science and Interactive Reading-

Plus some links to presentation-slides.
(compiled by Katharina Boser, IDL)

Howard county has "smart" pages for math many activities come from illuminations , thinkport (please see the game 'labyrinth' at this site, my son sits in front of it with his calculator, just to make it to the next level!)...and others mentioned below.

Carolyn Staudt's science software site (the one she has worked on is the 'molecular workbench' under modeling environments) since donna asked about those tools There are also others she's been involved in at kidsolve
They're all free and downloadable as well. The seeingmath ones are just great.

My favorites are under resources for teachers at Kathleen -McClaskey's site
-see the reading links and kidspiration and then middle school science (science learning, exploratorium etc. are NASA and NSF funded sites)

I also love Gizmos for science at gizmos, Edutopia and learning science. This last one is based on some of the best BBC web resources out there--there are just super interactive and animated games for learning science.

If you go to the research/readings section at Kathleen McKlaskey's site there are papers on learning disabilities and technology. Try also Peter Reynold's programs at fablevision (Peter is the writer of the wonderful book called "ish" about a child's need to draw regardless of what others think of his work) I had a chance to meet him recently and invited him to come to our upcoming Diamonds2010 conference--now he's created "anim-ish". You can visit some of the blogs his followers and he have created thenorthstarcommunity.org http://stellarcafe.blogspot.com/ and http://fablefolk.blogspot.com

and watch an inspiring video written about a child who has autism, called "I'm here".

I also highly recommend starfall for reading activities and narratives. see my list of links below, Kathleen's and also the following document for more

The mcps site (ebooks at MCPSS)
--there is a lot there under the HIAT site where there are a TON of resources for parents and students (see educational websites--)

Another great math visualization site is shodor organization (click on interactive games activities) Have your child check out the simulation called wolves and rabbits here (click start simulation) then change parameters or view the graph--this really shows how 'context' and meaning are so important to understanding graphs.

and the other one having to do with probability and likelihood that I LOVE is the fire in the forest there are several versions of this, but you also try to set fire to the trees and see how many neighboring ones burn. Alex loves this one!! Have fun. A great tool to get kids to better visualize word problems in math is thinkingblocks and of course, I love the abacus sites associated with cut-the-knot (this site is a bit dense)..

I compiled a longer list of links including some of the sites above as well as some new ones for a recent presentation with Confident Student. Please see my revised list of links Here. Click on the title for a slide show of my presentation: "21st century skills and technology: Environments for ALL kinds of learners."

In February of 2010 I am giving a talk for the CHADD group. Please find a .pdf of my slides at the link here. And also a longer compilation of relevant videos and websites, blogs etc. (Some are duplicated here, but there are MANY more!)

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