from Educators' eZine
More than 30 Federal agencies formed a working group in 1997 to make hundreds of federally supported teaching and learning resources easier to find. The result of that work is the FREE web site. FREE stands for Federal Resources for Educational Excellence. The web sites listed below are excerpted with permission from the FREE web site. This month, we highlight web sites for various subjects; in other months, we feature specific subject areas. You can search our site for the word FREE to find them.
Arts
Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting
examines a phase of the Renaissance in Venice when three great masters were working side by side (1500 to 1530). Bellini, Giorgione, Titian and their contemporaries influenced European art for centuries. Learn about their innovations. Examine how they used sacred images and stories, allegories and mythologies, and more. (National Gallery of Art)
BRUSHster
lets you paint on the web. More than 40 brushes and textures are offered with a full palette of colors and effects that blur, ripple, and fragment your designs. Click "auto" to see the computer generate screen designs. (National Gallery of Art)
Careers
America's Career Resource Network
provides career development guidelines and resources to help students identify career directions and related education programs. A "career decision-making tool" walks students through a 6-step cycle for making decisions about careers and education programs. (America's Career Resource Network, Department of Education)
Language Arts
Colorín Colorado
is designed for parents and teachers who are helping Spanish-speaking children learn to read in English. Find activities to help children learn about sounds, letters, and words. Use tips and materials to help children develop skills in reading. (Available in English and Spanish.) (Colorín Colorado, Department of Education)
Math, Technology and More
Mixing in Math
offers 40 activities that can be used to "slip a little math" into kids' everyday routines. Activities include using clocks and calendars, figuring lengths and widths, gathering and organizing fun facts about everyday things, and adding shapes and numbers to stories and skits. Activities are designed for use in after school programs and other programs for kids ages 5-13. (TERC, National Science Foundation)
Computing
examines computer science research efforts to create information systems of the future: virtual one-on-one instruction for students of all ages, robots to amplify physical abilities and software agents to carry out our specialized thought processes, a web of systems to coordinate our response to natural and man-made disasters, and more. (National Science Foundation)
Technology
reports on how a car company is experimenting with nanotechnology in the quest for environmentally friendly vehicles, how a museum exhibit (created by an artist and a scientist) helps get the word out about the implications of nanotechnology for health care and other fields, and how GPS chips in some cell phones let businesses track delivery drivers and parents keep track of kids. (Online NewsHour, National Science Foundation)
Engineering
looks at the work of engineers: using fundamental science to develop new devices and systems to solve societal problems. Learn how engineers are helping improve health, national security, and the economy. (National Science Foundation)
