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The Webliography of Rocks

Reviewer: David Stoelzel

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Website Name:

Exploring Earth

Website Address:

Summary of the Site:

This website includes information on various units in Earth Science. It is extremely useful for both students and teachers. There are an immense amount of visuals provided on this site. Having visuals to show students allows for a break in the lecture as well as a way for the students to visualize and understand the concept being taught. This site breaks down each subunit into easy to understand material for the students and teachers as well to understand. Sometimes there are certain concepts that may be a little more difficult to understand and the visuals as well as the simplified information this site provides makes it easy for one to comprehend the concept.

Commentary/Evaluation of the Site:

I give this site a 5, because it provides a various amount of information on the topics in Earth Science as well as the one in question. Everyone learns differently, whether it is auditory, kinesthetic, or visual, and the different types of learning materials make this site useful for almost all types of learners.

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Website Name:

Think Quest Junior: This Planet Really Rocks! All about rocks and minerals

Website Address:



Summary of the Site:

This site provides a very simple layout of the material for each subunit on Rocks and Minerals. This is useful because it puts the information about each subunit in simple terms and not complex terms. The site covers information on the different types of rocks, including how they are formed as well as some images of each type of rock, and the rock cycle. It also covers minerals, how to identify minerals and rocks, and some of the techniques that are used, as well of the importance of each subunit. This site is meant more for the student then the teacher. It provides a good review for a unit test or the regents.

Commentary/Evaluation of the Site:

I give this site a 4, because if one were to click on the Oracle Think Quest logo it would bring you to the main site and it is not very user friendly. It took me a little time to figure out how to get back to where I was as well as browse other unit activities. This site seems a little childish but the information it provides is in simple terms, but it is easy to understand the material with little room for confusion. While browsing the site and looking at the other topics that are covered, I found some useful activities not just in the area of science. There could be more animated visuals to help the students understand what is being discussed, especially in the Rock Cycle section.

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Website Name:

Rocks and Minerals 4u

Website Address:



Summary of the Site:

This website provides links to various sections covered in the Rocks and Minerals unit. Each section is filled with a decent amount of information that sums up each section. This helps the student because it shortens up the section and them with key information. For the teacher it provides two lesson plans. They are simple, but it is a good start to base a lesson plan on and there is room for improvement on the ones provided. It also provides for in-class activities. There are no animated visuals. This site is very easy to navigate; there is a column on the left side of the site that provides quick links to what section you plan on reviewing.

Commentary/Evaluation of the Site:

I give this site a 4. I like that this site provides an overview of each section. It is very easy to navigate, and being user friendly is a plus. It is a good review site when it comes to preparing for a test. The lack of visuals is what makes this site a little less useful when it comes to reviewing the material. Personally I like to incorporate visuals because I feel like they help get the concept across and definitely make it easier to understand when one sees how it occurs.

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Website Name:

Annenberg Learner

Website Address:



Summary of the Site:

This website begins with giving an introduction to Rocks, and then breaks down the information on each type of rock. There is a chart that shows what some of the rocks look like and the key characteristics that can one identify the different types of rocks. There is textual information provided in each of the sections as well as an animated visual. In the How Rocks Change section there is a video on heat and pressure and how it effects how a rock is formed. The Rock Cycle Diagram has text to describe the process as well as a chart and each step in the chart has a video associated with it. At the end of the unit there is a practice test for students to take, and they can print out their results. This site is directed to both students and teachers. The videos could be used in classroom lecture to help enforce the concept.

Commentary/Evaluation of the Site:

I give this site a 5, because it provided a lot of information, and it was very easy to understand the material and navigate the website. The visualizations that are provided help both the student and the teacher by allowing a break in the lecture so not to bore the students with lecturing. The visuals help the students visualize the processes that are occurring. There are also other topics available on this site for teachers of other subject areas to use, as well as many more science related topics.

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Website Name:

Mineralogy 4 Kids

Website Address:



Summary of the Site:

This site is very colorful and the topics stick out to the viewer. This site breaks down minerals into very simple non-complex information to understand. It provides a checklist of how to identify which is nice. It also has all the subunits of minerals and it describes each mineral in the subunit in detail. This is useful but it is a little more advanced, since it provides minerals that are not covered in secondary science classes. There are quizzes present in some of the sections. One of the sections is just games that are associated with review of rocks and minerals.

Commentary/Evaluation of the Site:

I choose this site because it has a link to games on rocks and minerals as well as other science games. It also has useful information but it is not as detailed as I thought it would be. There is also information that is more detailed then this topic is in schools now. It is nice that this information is included, but it is not useful for this level. There are a few items on this site that are useful but the whole site is not able to be utilized to its full potential. Because of this I give this site a rating of 3.5.

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Website Name:

Oxford University Museum of Natural History: Learning Zone

Website Address:



Summary of the Site:

This website provides information on the rock cycle. There is a rock named Rocky and you join him on his journey around the rock cycle, making a stop at each step to learn what happens along the way. Each step is broken down, so that it is easier to understand the processes that are occurring. This site can be used by both students and teachers. It is useful because it breaks down the rock cycle so that it can be easily comprehended, and it provides at test at the end to see how well one knows the material.

Commentary/Evaluation of the Site:

I give this site a score of 4. I like how simplified the rock cycle is and that you take a trip with a fictional rock to understand what happens at each step. This site is very user friendly. It also has links to other topics as well which is convenient. Overall this website is very useful.

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Website Name:

Online Activities for Students

Website Address:



Summary of the Site:

This website provides links to other sites on the Rock Cycle, Minerals, and Fossils. There is also a key which identifies the difficulty of the site that you will be transferred to. There are an immense amount of links provided. This site can be useful to both students and teachers. The various links make it a nice site to go to because everything is in one location.

Commentary/Evaluation of the Site:

This site is nice because everything is in one location, making it very useful and also overwhelming. It is user friendly. There are a few sites that are useless and should not be linked on this site. Some of the sites that you are transferred to are difficult to navigate. For the lack of organization of that sites that are provided I give this site a 3. It is useful but you have to do some searching for the sites you want to use.

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Website Name:

Quia

Website Address:



Summary of the Site:

This website provides links to a bunch of activities associated with various topics in earth science. It provides a search engine so that one can refine their search to one specific topic. This is very useful for teachers because it has activities, notes and visual aids that other teachers have created. This is useful for students because the activities provide another way to get them interested in science and participate more. I know from experience being exposed to another teacher’s style of teaching made me because more interested and understand the material better. This website is a place where teachers can upload and share their activities.

Commentary/Evaluation of the Site:

I give this site a score of 3.5. It is very useful but it is also somewhat confusing because the descriptions of the activities may not be exactly what they are described as being. This site is more useful for teachers because it is a nice resource to find activities to incorporate into lectures. It is nice having everything in one location, and having it be a shared resource site is also a plus. There are a lot of class room activities and visuals but not a lot of demonstrations and notes as one would hope for, since it is a shared resource site for teachers.

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Website Name:

Review Game Zone

Website Address:



Summary of the Site:

This site is nice because it consist of only review games. And we all know students of the era enjoy playing games. Yes these games are somewhat childish but it sparks the students’ interest. The games contain information on the grade level that the questions cover so that the teacher or the student can choose the game topic that best suits the level of material covered. The website also includes links to other topics in education. I know from work in the school system that it is hard to find education game sites that are actually education and are related to the material they say they are. After browsing various games I approve this site because it is actually relevant and reviews material that students need to know.

Commentary/Evaluation of the Site:

I give this site a score of 3.5, because it was confusing at first to figure out how to play a game related to the topic chosen. You click the topic of choice, and are then transferred to another page, and instead of the game popping up in the center of the, you have to scroll down and pick the type of game you wish to play. The site is user friendly but it does take some time to get use to how it is set-up.

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Website Name:

Geography and Geology for Kids, The Study of Our Earth

Website Address:



Summary of the Site:

This website provides a lot of detail on different Erath Science related topics. The information is linked on the side of the website so you can click on the topic you wish to review. It provides simplified but detailed information on rocks and minerals. Breaking down each type of rock into its own section, there are about three sections for each rock type. There are no animated visuals, but there are some pretty unique pictures. It is very organized and can be used by both students and teachers. There are also plenty of other links that can be accessed and utilized.

Commentary/Evaluation of the Site:

I give this site a score of 4.5, because of the lack of animated visuals. It seems that in place of visuals there seems to be advertisements instead, right smack dab in the middle of the material. This can be distracting making one think that it could be related to the topic being discussed. I do like that this site has links to others that contain related information. It reduces the stress of searching for hours. It doesn’t really have any other flaws it is very informative so that makes up for the lack of visuals.

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