Social Studies

Freemake Video Converter

— Ellora Assets Corporation

-11 0 favorites 0 promising practices http://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/ Last updated: Fri, 08/27/2021 - 11:50 share

How It Works

Convert, edit, and save video files with Freemake Video Converter. The video converter supports over 300 file input formats including video, audio, and image files. Use templates provided to turn photos or images into slideshows with a chosen soundtrack. Other features include the ability to clip and rotate video, upload to YouTube, and convert files to burn and save on Blu-ray or DVD. Be sure to watch the video on the site with directions on how to use this tool. It is a YouTube video so you may need to watch it somewhere other than at school.

In the Classroom

Share with students for use with any multimedia or presentation project. Use this tool to backup videos on your YouTube channel. Bookmark and save this video converter for use as an alternative to Online-Convert, reviewed here. This tool and Online-Convert are both used to download and save videos at home that you wish to show to students, especially if they are blocked at school. If you want to use the video at school, you may need to save the conversion to a USB stick, if a CD drive isn’t available.

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Tag(s): multimedia, video, movies, conversions, slides, images,

Google Maps Treks

— Google

-11 0 favorites 0 promising practices https://www.google.com/maps/about/behind-the-scenes/streetview/treks/ Last updated: Fri, 08/27/2021 - 11:50 share

How It Works

Never leave your easy chair as you journey beyond the road to faraway places using Google Maps Treks! Choose Gombe National Park, Pyramids of Giza, Angkor Wat, Colorado River, or the polar bears at Churchill. Tour Taj Mahal, Venice, Galapagos Islands, Eiffel Tower, Mt. Fuji, Everest, Great Barrier Reef, the Amazon Basin, and more. Click on the option and then click the open in Maps or Views button. On maps with multiple placemarks, click the placemark to view information about the location, and then click the title to go to the map. Choose from a variety of images taken at various locations found along the bottom. Some images are photospheres and can be manipulated using the sphere icon along the bottom right. Use the arrows in the sphere to rotate the image, giving a panoramic view of the location as you click. Use the familiar Google map tools to zoom in and out. Some Treks offer short videos that are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable.

In the Classroom

If you teach geography, this one is a must. It is also helpful for showing students WHERE a story or news event takes place. View these different places whether your content includes history, geography, literature, science, languages, and more. View places discussed in class, or in stories. Look at different cultural areas or environments in the world. Choose a trek as an inspiration for further research about the area, the inspiration for a student created poem or short story, artistic work, and many other projects. Encourage student groups to choose one of the places on this site to present to the class, highlighting various economic, recreational, historical, and cultural factors at each place. You may want students to use a tool such as Knoema, reviewed here, or Data - The World Bank, reviewed here, to make sure students get accurate information. Use this as a class "Where I visited in Google Maps" project! As students ask questions about the various places, encourage discovery in finding the answers together.

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Tag(s): environment, cultures, photography, images, maps, virtual field trips,

Maptia - A World of Stories

— Dorothy Sanders, Dean Fischer, and Johnny Miller

5-11 0 favorites 0 promising practices https://www.maptia.com/ Last updated: Fri, 08/27/2021 - 11:50 share

How It Works

Maptia is a bold, beautiful world of thoughtful and inspiring stories told through photographs by photographers, adventurers, and writers. Explore stories categorized by places, themes, and storytellers. Stories focus on portraying an individual perspective of the location and why it matters on a personal level. Find a collection of inspiring stories by people and organizations who are making a difference in many corners of the world. When browsing through offerings, information includes a short synopsis along with the location featured and an estimate of time to read the story. Create an account to add your stories. Bookmark and save favorites for viewing at any time. Maptia works well for viewing in all browsers, but it is optimized for Chrome and Safari when creating stories.

In the Classroom

Share Maptia on your interactive whiteboard or projector to discover personal stories from anywhere in the world. Share with students as examples of personal narrative writing. Challenge students to create an account and add their own personal stories. To find even more stories like those under Causes see The Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heros, reviewed here, and follow their ten steps for writing about people who make a difference. Create a class account and bookmark favorites. Share with students through a link on your class web page. Display photographs for use as a creative writing prompt.

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Tag(s): photography, narrative, creative writing, digital storytelling,

MapFight

— appspot.com

4-11 0 favorites 0 promising practices https://mapfight.xyz/ Last updated: Fri, 08/27/2021 - 11:50 share

How It Works

MapFight is a clever tool for comparing the physical area of different countries and states. Use the dropdown boxes to select from countries and states available and then click compare. View an image with the two locations overlaid on each other with a short sentence comparing the sizes in kilometers. If you click on the name of the state or country you will be taken to a Wikipedia entry about the location.

In the Classroom

MapFight is perfect for use on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use to demonstrate size differences in states and countries. Have students use this site when presenting state reports. Find a similar sized state (or country), then use the map as part of the presentation. Have a new student from another state or country? Use MapFight to begin discussion of comparative size of where they came from to where your classroom is located. Use this to give students a perspective on geographic size of earth features that they can’t see by looking at a standard map. Use to discuss and informally assess prior knowledge as you start your study of states. This tool would be especially important when explaining the concept of map scale or square miles/meters. Use MapFight to compare locations students read about in Globetracker’s Mission or books they are reading. Include it in discussions about the impact of a country’s size on its culture in world language or cultures classes. Have students create a simple infographic sharing their findings using Venngage reviewed here. Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram (reviewed here) to compare any two locations.

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Tag(s): area, countries, states, maps, map skills,

US States & Cities With the Best Summer Weather on Cool Maps

— Honolulu HI5

4-11 0 favorites 0 promising practices http://www.honoluluhi5.com/whow/weather/ Last updated: Fri, 08/27/2021 - 11:50 share

How It Works

Explore two interactive maps to find the number of "ideal" summer days per month (70F -90F degrees) or Temperature & Rain averages in over a thousand cities in the United States. Click on any state and choose a city to view graphs displaying monthly averages of summer days for each place. Select the Temperature & Rain Averages map to see a graph of any city displaying average high and low temperatures, as well as inches of rain per month. Remember, if the temperature is above 90F, the amount of "ideal" summer days may be less in that state. Comments from this site can be shared on Facebook.

In the Classroom

Include these maps for use with any weather unit to find data for your location and compare to others across the country. Ask students to use data from the maps when researching states for reports. Have students explore on their own and choose the places they would and would not like to live. Use the information in a persuasive writing project. Use the provided embed code to put information directly on your class website or blog for students to access at home. Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to compare and contrast two different locations.

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Tag(s): temperature, seasons, weather,

Free Video Lectures

— Free Video Lectures (FVL)

8-11 0 favorites 0 promising practices http://www.freevideolectures.com/ Last updated: Fri, 08/27/2021 - 11:50 share

How It Works

Free Video Lectures is a resource offering over 1000 free (upper high school and college level) online courses and 25,000 video lectures from more than 30 universities. Begin your search by choosing a subject or university to explore. Use the search bar to find specific content. Icons for each course offer a short description along with the number of included videos. Find topics ranging from accounting to web designing to business management and many others. Download or embed any videos using links and download instructions. Ignore the advertising; the site content is worth it. Note that these videos are NOT hosted on YouTube so may or may not be locked at your school.

In the Classroom

If you are flipping your classroom, use videos from this site to introduce content to students. Embed videos onto your class website or blog for easy student access. Free Video Lectures is perfect for use with gifted students. Use videos to provide advanced instruction and lessons in content not offered in your school. Have students create a word cloud of the important terms they learn from a video using a tool such as WordItOut (reviewed here). Challenge students to create a presentation using Prezi (reviewed here) to show what the have learned.

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Tag(s): cultures, video, business, genetics, literature, medicine, oceans, psychology,

40 Maps That Explain World War I

— Vox

6-11 0 favorites 0 promising practices http://www.vox.com/a/world-war-i-maps Last updated: Fri, 08/27/2021 - 11:50 share

How It Works

It is hard to believe that World War I began over 100 years ago. Explore "The War to End All Wars" through a series of maps, both contemporary and historical. The collection provides extensive insight into the causes, progress, and impact of World War I. Each map is accompanied by a brief explanation of what it illustrated. Each map can then be opened as an image alone in another tab/window and is then zoomable. Some of the historic maps are static; others have interactive features. The maps are organized into categories: Background, War Breaks Out, Major European Battles, the War Outside Europe, Technology, Allied Victory, and Consequences of the War. There are hyperlinks to further information embedded in the explanatory material with each map.

In the Classroom

These maps are perfect for use on an interactive whiteboard. If you are teaching World War I, these maps need to be among your "go to" bookmarks for illustrating important highlights about the War. Consider also providing a link to the maps as part of materials students can access to learn more, as extra challenge, or for independent or group projects. The maps illustrating important technology first used in World War I will fascinate students who enjoy learning how things work. Have students create a multimedia project about the aspects of WWI that fascinate them most.

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Tag(s): europe, world war 1, map skills, maps,

25 Maps and Charts That Explain America Today

— Washington Post

7-11 0 favorites 0 promising practices http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/02/24/25-maps-and-charts-that-explain-america-today/ Last updated: Fri, 08/27/2021 - 11:50 share

How It Works

Learn about the states of our nation through maps and charts exploring who we are and how we live. Maps explore financial situations through income, number of millionaires, and home ownership. Other maps display political and religious divisions by state, tax rates, and housing statistics. Some maps delineate topics more suited for adult readers. Click links in each map description to view articles with more in-depth information. Preview specific maps before you share, as some content may not be appropriate for your classroom.

In the Classroom

This site is excellent for enrichment or critical thinking about the U.S. and societal/governmental issues. Display a map on your projector or interactive whiteboard during political campaigns to ask why different politicians/parties have gained a foothold in certain states or locations. Include links to specific maps from it on your class web page for students to access both in and out of class. Have students create a simple infographic sharing their findings using Venngage, reviewed here. Have students create maps including local information using MapHub, reviewed here. Students can add icons, URLs, text, images, and location stops!

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Tag(s): demographics, religions, financial literacy, politics, maps,

Seterra Online Free Map Quiz Games

— Seterra Online

2-11 0 favorites 0 promising practices https://online.seterra.com/en Last updated: Fri, 08/27/2021 - 11:50 share

How It Works

Seterra Online is a challenging educational geography activity with more than 100 different exercises. Learn about countries, capitals, oceans, flags and cities in Africa, Europe, South America, North America, Asia and Australia using outline map exercises! Explore the 50 states of the USA and even the capitals. Choose from quizzes sorted by continent or the entire world. Once the map loads, follow the prompts to click on the correct area of the map. After a few incorrect tries, the right area will flash in red. Correct responses on the first try appear in white, yellow indicates a right answer on the second attempt, and the red areas indicate incorrect responses. When complete, view the percentage correct and time it took to finish the activity.

In the Classroom

Share this link on your class projector or interactive whiteboard. This is a perfect addition if your students are learning the 50 states, capitals, or even countries throughout the world. Be sure to include this site on your class web page for students to access both in and outside of class for further practice. Share this tool as an excellent study guide for learning locations around the world. Challenge students to increase time and accuracy in completing these map activities.

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Tag(s): game based learning, cities, maps, continents, quizzes, countries, states,

Thematic Mapping Engine

— Bjorn Sandvik

5-11 0 favorites 0 promising practices http://www.thematicmapping.org/engine/ Last updated: Fri, 08/27/2021 - 11:50 share

How It Works

What is a .kmz file and how do you make one? A .kmz file, when opened, launches Google Earth and the files needed to view specific portions of the globe, map overlays, and other information. There are several ways to create a .kmz file to share with others for specific content to be learned. Thematic Mapping Engine provides you with a very simple way to create Google Earth .kmz files. This tool uses data from the United Nations to create maps of all types of development and environmental data. Follow the instructions in the yellow box along the right side of this tool. Select a statistical indicator category from the dropdown (for example, Life expectancy or population). Then, select a year or range of years, and the manner in which they would like the data displayed in Google Earth. Preview and download the .kmz file. Share this file on your blog, wiki, or web page. Click on and then download the file. Once the file is opened, Google Earth then opens and the data is seen within Google Earth. Note: Google Earth must be installed on student computers. Check with your technology department about the availability of Google Earth in your schools. See more information about Google Earth, reviewed here.

In the Classroom

Use this tool with Google Earth to discuss population changes, incidence of various diseases, or look at environmental data such as carbon dioxide emissions. Use this tool when discussing various countries and populations throughout the world, looking at the various factors that affect countries. Use this information to question the history and current state of various populations. Create more than one .kmz file to place on your class website. Provide time for student groups to look at one of the files and draw conclusions or report on their findings. Use class time to look at the information from all groups to obtain a snapshot of various regions, looking at populations, diseases, and more. For younger grades, use an interactive whiteboard or projector to show these files in Google Earth and compare what students know about the United States or other areas in unfamiliar countries. This tool would be perfect for gifted students to use to extend learning in a Science or History/World Cultures class to better understand the world around them.

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Tag(s): climate change, population, diseases, news, landmarks, earth,
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