Useful Classwork Sites


Special Note: This issue of K.I.D.S. is written by High School Students. It includes sites that may not be appropriate for younger children.


This issue of KIDS, dated October 17, 1997, was written and produced by students of the New Vista High School in the Boulder Valley School District in Boulder, Colorado. This report includes sites that were found to be most useful for classwork completed during the preceding school year.

The KIDS Report is published with the support of the Internet Scout Project and the National Science Foundation.

The World Factbook 1996 Reviewed by Brendan
The World Factbook is extremely useful, containing a wealth of geographical information. Although this site has no entertainment value, it does a good job of communicating important information to the user. It is very well organized, so that in a small amount of time you can find the information you want for the country you want. The pages have a lot of consistency, so after looking at one page you will know where to look on other pages to find the same kind of information. Limited use of graphics and concise writing make it so that you do not have to wait a long time for pages to load. I would give this site a 9 out of 10. An awesome job of communicating useful information in an efficient manner.
URL: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/nsolo/

Brazil: Rich Man, Poor Man (three sites) Reviewed by Mary
For my Culminating (Graduation) Project I planned and raised money for, a service trip I'm going to make to Brazil to work for six months in an agency that helps street children in Brazilian cities. As part of my Project, I did some research on the living conditions in Brazil and I learned about what are basically two worlds in one country. There's one world for the rich, filled with extreme luxury and privilege, and right alongside that world there's another for the poor, filled with extreme hardship and deprivation; and there's almost no one in between. I was particularly interested in the problems faced by children and women, but I also learned about the terrible working conditions, the denial of basic human rights, and many other disturbing realities. The sites listed here provided me with much of the information I used. They range from an official government page, which acknowledges many of the problems but tends to gloss over them, to international agency reports, to stories from the people themselves. I think each of us needs to learn more about these problems in the world, so we can help do something about them.
URLs:
Child Labor in Brazil
http://www.brasil.emb.nw.dc.us/evar01cl.htm
Urbanization of the Third World
http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu:7654/hist/urbanhis.html
Why Aren't the Children Singing?
http://www.tcpd.org/handouts/thornburg/singing.html

Sex Laws Reviewed by Neely
This web site provides an extensive index of laws in various states and countries which regulate sexual behavior. It helped me a great deal, because I got the information I needed on sexual offense laws; I used the information in writing a paper for my class on kids' rights. Out of all the sexual assault web sites I looked at, this one helped me the most on the laws and taught me the most. I learned that there are many rumors about sexual assault laws that aren't true; reading the pages linked to this site, I found reliable information about sexual assault laws, which is what I found the most interesting about this web site. The layout of the page is appealing because of the font and the size of the of the introduction letters. The layout made me really want to read the page. It would help people if there was more information on the laws in their specific states. I recommend that you read this page if you want to learn more about sexual assault laws to the first degree, second degree, and third degree.
URL: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/2269/

Vietnam Veterans' War Stories Reviewed by Jason
During the last quarter of school, I was in a class based entirely on the Vietnam War. I conducted a series of interviews with Vietnam Veterans to get a better understanding of the reality and mind-set of the war. I found Vietnam Veterans' War Stories to be a wonderful source of information for people interested in hearing about the war first-hand, from the people who fought in the war. The site includes war stories, a jukebox with over 300 rock-n-roll songs from this era, a list of Americans who died in the war, a message board for veterans who want to contact each other, and a list of links to similar pages. The war stories section includes poems, letters, documentaries, and student essays on the war.
URL: http://www.csnsys.com/vietvet/index.htm#main_menu

Hypercars and Resource Conservation: Doing Less with More (two sites) Reviewed by James
Although it's not common knowledge, we already have the basic technology to create many products which would preserve our resources and greatly improve our lifestyles. With only a fraction of the energy spent on developing technology for luxury items, alternatively fueled engines and other more efficient and environmentally friendly products could be fully developed and economical. The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a research center founded by Hunter and Amory Lovins, is dedicated to exploring sustainable and efficient use of energy resources. The site publishes RMI research, and it has incredible information. For a paper I wrote, I used an RMI research report which shows that the combination of an aerodynamic, carbon-fiber body and a generator-powered electric engine could easily increase fuel economy to between two hundred to three hundred miles per gallon. This apparent wonder car is no miracle at all, but rather designed by looking at the energy use and waste in an average gas-powered car. If you're interested in environmentally friendly technology, start here.
URLs:
Rocky Mountain Institute
http://www.rmi.org/
Hypercar Shifts Gears
http://www.rmi.org/newsletters/96fwnl/moving.html

Reports from the Millennium (four sites) Reviewed by Ruben
Change hangs in the air, waiting to pounce, like a winged demon, to throw our balance into complete chaos. The bell will toll. As the Millennium (January 1, 2000) approaches, "What is going to happen?" is the question on the minds of some people more and more. I wanted to find some of the answers for an article I wrote for Enigma (our student magazine). So I looked through a lot of web sites, including religious pages, astrology, and even business sites. The things these sites present are pretty fascinating, not to mention bizarre. The sites listed were some of my favorites. Talk 2000 contains an article by a columnist in the Village Voice, who says business is "gonna market like it's 1999!" The Fantastic Future, on the other hand, says the Millennium is going to bring about a change in that kind of thinking. Big business and other "dinosaurs" will be replaced by more harmonious forms of interchange. The Phoenix site deals with the beliefs surrounding the mythical bird that rises from its own ashes to be reborn. Millennium Fever offers many different views, and has many links to other pages as well as the most comprehensive list of possible futures. One of the more interesting links is to a page that connects the Mayan calendar (and its 26,000-year cycle) to events that will unfold in the year 2012. It all sounds pretty fantastic; but just remember, whatever happens, you heard it here first.
URLs:
Talk 2000-The Biggest Party Ever
http://humnet.humberc.on.ca/t2-art6.htm
The Fantastic Future
http://www.community.net/~tachyon/future.html
The Phoenix is Stirring
http://www.aa.net/~mwm/phoenix/yfuture2.html
Millennium Fever
http://www.calweb.com/~ganskarj/mfever.html

Bonobo Sex and Society Reviewed by Aja
Don't let the title fool you. This site is an excellent source of information on Bonobo pigmy chimpanzees. Surprisingly, it's one of many sites that I found, but I think it has the most valid information and contains many of the facts and examples that I found elsewhere. For example, in one section the author talks about how bonobos use sexual behavior to ease tension, bond, and counteract aggressiveness. The site's information is divided into distinct sections, so it's easy to find what you need. There is also a list of other readings you can use. Unfortunately, the site doesn't have photographs and images to illustrate the content and to make the content interesting. Overall, I found this site the most informative site that I looked at about bonobos and the easiest to read as well.
URL: http://soong.club.cc.cmu.edu/~julie/bonobos.html

The Animal Diversity Web Reviewed by Jamie
Animal Diversity Web is an excellent way to get information on specific animal species. It gives great information on a variety of subjects relating to the animals, like their food sources, and their roles in their ecosystems. This information is very good and fairly well detailed, providing a large amount of information through a small amount of reading. The pages are well organized, indexing under headings that are linked at the top of each page. The site also features a Tree of Life, which helps you study specific levels of classifications to see the relationships between species. When you select a specific species, the Tree tells you every level of classification for that species, and allows you to link to each level. The pages also provides a few photographs for each animal, and they comprise a very good selection of photographs. I used this site for a report I did on armadillos; it gave me a lot of the information that I needed. Animal Diversity Web is a great, easy to use, easy to understand source for information on animals, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for this information.
URL: http://www.oit.itd.umich.edu/bio108/

NASA Shuttle-Mir Reviewed by Kyle
I originally used this page for a project about the future of space. It has some movies and pictures of outer space and of shuttles launching. I found it very useful, especially because I could trust that all of the information was correct since NASA was the source. Still, I think the site could have more information and I would put more cool pictures on all of the pages. Probably the most useful thing for me was the information on when the government plans to conduct manned missions to Mars and the Moon and put colonies there. The information is well organized, and the site provides a nice index.
URL: http://shuttle-mir.nasa.gov/

The Math Forum - Ask Dr. Math Reviewed by Melissa
I used this site for my math projects. It has many links to other math sites, including sites about "how-to's" in math and histories of people and subjects in math. Also, you can e-mail Dr. Math with questions, and he will answer (although he won't do your homework problems). Dr. Math is a professor at the host university, so I believe he is qualified. I found a lot of information on Pythagoras and his society when I was doing my project for my Figures, Shapes, and Patterns (Geometry) class. I also found useful information when I needed to study hyperbolic geometry. Despite all the content, the site is also quite user-friendly--it includes pictures to help understand some of the text.
URL: http://www.forum.swarthmore.edu/dr.math/dr-math.html

B.J. Pinchbeck's Homework Helper Reviewed by Zane
This site has almost no graphics or other cool stuff (well, except for a couple of cute animations); but Dude!, this site is awesome. Some ten-year-old kid (with his dad) has put together more than 350 links to all kinds of incredibly useful sites. He has sections on Reference, News and Current Events, English, Social Studies, History, Art and Music, Foreign Language, and, just to show he has a life, Playtime. He even has a section for Search Engines; but, if you come here, who needs a search engine? The largest section, by far, is Math and Science; but all of the sections are packed with incredibly useful stuff. The Reference section has more than 80 links, including all kinds of dictionaries and encyclopedias like the "Microbiology Glossary". I always go to this site first whenever I have any class projects or just tough questions to answer. This dude may be a young'un, but his site can help anybody. DO NOT PASS GO! THIS IS THE PLACE TO START!
URL: http://tristate.pgh.net/~pinch13/


These Internet resources were evaluated on the basis of the Site Selection Guidelines that the students developed. Questions and comments can be sent to teacher Stevan Kalmon, kalmon@bvsd.k12.co.us

Last Modified: 5:00 PM 10/15/97

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