Citing Electronic Resources

Citing an Internet resource is almost the same as citing a book or periodical. There are different rules for different types of citations, depending on whether you follow the MLA, APA, CSE guidelines or other authoritative style manual. Electronic resources vary, e.g., web pages, live chat, listserves, etc. and each type is cited differently. What they all have in common is that your citation must provide the date you accessed the information.

Some useful sources for electronic citation formats:

- APA Citations Electronic Media-Internet

- MLA Citation Style

- Purdue Online Writing Lab: Documenting Sources

- A Research Guide for Students

Vidque: Video Curator

Vidque aims to help users curate their own collections of the best videos available on the Internet. You can grab videos from sites such as YouTube and TED and put into your own collections.

Vidque is different from other video collection services such as VodPod in that it tracks your video preferences to help you find more videos. You can also follow other users, share videos, and rank videos. As such it's very much like a video bookmarking application.

FoldIt: Protein Folding Game

Foldit is a challenging, fun, protein folding game. The number of different ways even a small protein can fold is astronomical because there are so many degrees of freedom. Figuring out which of the many possible structures is the best one is regarded as one of the hardest problems in biology today. Foldit attempts to predict the structure of a protein by taking advantage of humans' puzzle-solving intuitions and having people play competitively to fold the best proteins.

By playing the game, you also contribute to important scientific research. The Foldit team, from the University of Washington Departments of Computer Science & Engineering and Biochemistry, is collecting data to find out if humans' pattern-recognition and puzzle-solving abilities make them more efficient than existing computer programs at pattern-folding tasks. If this turns out to be true, Foldit can then teach human strategies to computers and fold proteins faster than ever!

Tech Tools for Schools

Technology Tools for Schools Resource Guide provides definitions of key technology components and relevant examples, where appropriate as a glossary for educators. The guide also presents essential implementation and infrastructure considerations that decision makers should think about when implementing technology in schools. Technology
enhances administrative, teacher and student capabilities and performance, especially for those students who lack access to technology outside of school. Join the online discussion and share your examples at the supporting wiki.

Science Policy/Public Affairs Webinar

Communicating Science Primer: An AIBS policy staff publication that helps scientists better understand and work with reporters. Available at the AIBS bookstore.

Undergraduate and graduate students, as well as early career professionals in science, often contact the American Institute of Biological Sciences seeking information about alternate science careers. A growing number of individuals are interested in careers that allow them to apply their scientific skills to the resolution of societal problems. A common area of interest is science policy/government relations/public affairs. Public Policy staff of AIBS will host a 90-minute webinar on December 21, 2009, to:

- Provide information about employment options in science policy and public affairs;
- Provide tips to help interested students and early career professionals develop the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the policy/public affairs sector; and
- Help participants determine whether this career path is right for them.

To register, go to the webinar page.

Edublog Awards

Edublog Awards celebrate the achievements of edubloggers, twitterers,podcasters, video makers, online communities, wiki hosts and other web based users of educational technology. In order to nominate blogs for the 2009 Edublog Awards you have to link to them first! Nominations close Tuesday 8 December, 2009. Voting ends Wednesday 16 December, 2009. More information and entry form available here.

We've nominated the following sites:
- Technology: An Educational Issue?, nominated for Best Resource Sharing Blog
- Year of Science 2009 Twitter, nominated for Best Individual Tweeter
- Extreme Biology (a teacher and her classroom blog), nominated for Best Class Blog

Student Copyright Awareness

Intellectual Vengeance is a film about plagiarism included in Lesson 1 of Creative Thinking. This resource unfolds with a student who deliberately plagiarizes a paper for another student, thus tarnishing his reputation.

Northern Kentucky University (NKU) has developed lesson plans and videos that teachers can use to teach students about plagiarism, copyright, and fair use. Tied to national and state educational standards, Creative Thinking offers engaging content for teens and young adults in multiple disciplines. It could also be used for public library teen programs and community youth groups. The lesson content promotes research honesty and copyright consciousness for students. Both ethical and legal discussions are presented.

Copyright-Friendly Wiki

Copyright Friendly is a wiki with links to copyright friendly images and sounds. You may not need to ask permission to use them when publishing them on the Web for educational purposes, but it's a good idea to check and to cite or attribute these resources to their creators. If you see any copyright notices on the source pages, read them for further instructions. There are also links to resources where you can create avatars, concept maps, graphs, and other graphics useful to teaching. If you need help in using copyrighted materials, consult the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education.

Free Educator Webpages

Here are 10 places where educators can build and host their website for free. Note that signing up for an account is always free for the links below, but some providers offer the option to upgrade for a small fee.

1. SchoolRack: create a classroom website or educational blog for students, parents, and colleagues to visit.
2. Yola: free website builder, no matter how much content you add.
3. Webs: offers a wide variety of templates and layouts, good for novices.
4. Hipero: is rich in features and easy to use.
5. Web Node: easy website builder, simple enough for students with little tech experience to use.
6. Weebly: indexes your pages for easy navigation of visitor navigation.
7. Microsoft Office Live: free but your own domain name comes for a small annual fee.
8. Google Sites: set up a free Google account and get a web site builder.
9. Sauropol: publish blogs, image galleries, bulletin boards, document folders too.
10. SnapPages: the free basic service has enough features for class websites.

Photo: Screenshot of TexasEmpowerment.org, created on SnapPages.

Wish List? Tweet It

Richard Byrne, a social studies teacher in Maine, was able to attend the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in Washington, DC the summer of 2009, thanks in part to twitter and other online technology. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), which organizes the annual conference, launched the Newbie Project. It’s co-founder, Beth Still, used the power of Twitter to find enough people willing to donate $1 or more to send Byrne to NECC. Two weeks after Still announced the effort on her blog and began tweeting, several dozen people donated $750, enough to cover conference registration and airfare. Still continued her effort and eventually a technology company donated $700 to cover food and lodging for the newbie.

Byrne said in an interview, “Hopefully Beth’s project convinced people that the professional connections you make online can be just as meaningful as professional connections developed in person.” The Newbie Project is again fundraising via technology to send more first-timers to its 2010 conference in Denver, CO. (Photo: NECC 2009 Exhibitor's Hall, by Oksana Hlodan.)

Evolution Symposia Media

The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), in conjunction with the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), will again co-sponsor an evolution symposium at the 2009 National Association of Biology Teachers(NABT)professional development conference. The symposium will be held on Friday, November 13 in Denver, Colorado. "Evolution in Extreme Environments" offers presentations and a workshop on evolution in five extreme environments.

Those unable to attend this year's NABT conference will be able to participate in the symposium via live webcast on Friday, November 13th from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm, MST, for all or part of the webcast. For full program information and the link to view the live webcast, visit NESCent.

The presentations from previous symposia are available on the NESCent website. The presentations are movies of each speaker, both audio and visual of the scientists, synchronized with the slides from their PowerPoints. Teaching and learning resources and references related to the symposia are free for anyone to view and use. (The photo is the cover of a CD from the AIBS media library. It is not a supplement to this year's symposium.)

Interactive Tree of Life

The Wellcome Trust has created a visually-appealing, interactive tree of life where one can manipulate different views, see a trace of the lineage's path, and zoom in on particular animals. The site is called, simply, Tree of Life.

You can also download the Tree of Life video (as seen here) to view, share with friends, or post on your blog or website. Create your own version of the video with the site's remixable files.

Process of Science

How do we help students to gain not only content knowledge but also process knowledge, i.e., how we know what we know? There are online resources for integrating the process of science into your teaching at all levels, using a variety of different techniques.

VisionLearning provides information and activities for:

• What is teaching the process of science?
• Why should I teach the process of science?
• How do I teach the process of science?
• What are some examples for teaching the process of science?

The Process of Science website was created by educators at Carleton College, MN. The college also offers the site, The Science Education Resource Center, where more resources for science education can be found. (Photo: VisionLearning)

Understanding Science

The Understanding Science web site challenges educators to exploring the nature and process of science. You will find classroom activities, a K-16 conceptual framework, and tips and strategies for integrating the process of science into your curriculum.

In addition, the site offers case studies, interactive resources, checklists, and informative, short articles. Understanding Science is a fun, accessible, and free resource that accurately communicates what science is and how it really works.

Web Conversations

The Future of Education is a web site hosting a free-to-participate interview series and discussion community. This community is devoted to providing an opportunity for those who care about education to share their voices and ideas with others. It's a place for thoughtful discussion on an incredibly important topic. The site was started by the founders of Classroom 2.0, the social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in education. Classroom 2.0 is also a free, community-supported network, which not only holds live interviews but also live workshops.