Fun Finds Friday

Read the original post of how I use Fun Finds on Fridays.

This week's finds:

1.   Brilliant - Website designed to help you excel in math and science.  Users can "learn from wiki pages and problems written by a community of mathematicians, scientists, and engineers". Students can choose from subjects such as algebra, geometry, basic mathematics, chemistry, computer science, and electricity and magnetism.

2.  Pantheon - Visualizes global culture by analyzing data.  Check out their Tree Maps, Matrices, Scatterplots, and Maps ~ all are awesome!

3.  The 30-Second Brain Test - Which side of your brain is more dominant?   Take this 30-second test to find out.

4.  DIY - Kids can learn how to do some amazing things - from other kids!  They can try a challenge, get peer feedback, and earn badges.

What have you discovered this week?

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Fun Finds Friday

Read the original post of how I use Fun Finds on Fridays.

This week's finds:

1.  Secrets of the Snowy Owl - Watch this video to "follow the migration path of Baltimore, the young male snowy owl outfitted with a GPS transmitter backpack for a research project called Project Snowstorm."

2.  Lightning Storm Recorded at 7000 Frames Per Second - Lighting in slow motion!

3.  Panoramic Coffee Cups Illustrations - Artist Adrian Hogan creates these sketches while out and about and they are amazing!

4. Type Drummer - Type to create a tune!

Fun Finds Friday

Read the original post of how I use Fun Finds on Fridays.

This week's finds:

1.  Gorgeous Time Lapse of Chicago by Eric Hines - Absolutely stunning!

2.  Voltige (Aerobatics) - CG Animation video with trapeze artistry

3.  Wonderopolis - "Where the wonders of learning never cease" - Be curious, and learn all kinds of interesting things. You can even post what you are wondering.

4.  Beat Maker by Splice - Compose your own beat, or listen to the creation of others

Fun Finds Friday

Read the original post of how I use Fun Finds on Fridays.

This week's finds:

1.  Google Keep -  Organize your notes - in text, pictures, or audio recordings.  Keep is tied to your Gmail account, so it is accessible on any device - I love the app on my phone!  You can set reminders, share your notes, change colors, and add labels.

2.  Curiosity Machine - Fun website featuring design challenges across many areas: aerospace, art of science, biomechanics, biomimicry, civil engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, food science, materials science, mechanical engineering, neuroscience, ocean engineering, robotics, and satellite systems.

3. LEGO Color Chart - "Features every color of LEGO that exists."

4. Pop Up LEGO Himeji Castle - Talapz took 15 months to finish the castle, and has previously built other pop up LEGO creations including Todai-ji (Buddhist temple) and a Kinkaku-ji (Kyoto's famous golden temple.

Fun Finds Friday

On Fridays, I share "Fun Finds" with my middle school students. These include cool websites,  interesting images and photographs, and intriguing videos.  If we miss a Friday, the kids are disappointed, and always ask to make it up on the following Monday.  While these finds are often entertaining, they also plant seed ideas for future projects, independent study work, or just add to our schema for future reference.  Innovators pull from a variety of experiences they have had, and connect them in a novel way.  By exposing my students to a variety to "interesting things" I am helping them to develop a broad background of experiences from which to pull.

Fun Finds For This Friday:

1.  The Unseen Technology Behind the NFL's "Magic Yellow Line" - So I am not a football fan, but I am intrigued as to how they make the yellow line magically appear on the field during a broadcast.  The video on the website branches into other sport applications, and explains the complicated process behind this technology.

2.  Google Maps Smart Pins - Putting Trivia on the Map - Geography Based Trivia!  You can start a multi-category game, or choose from specific categories: March Madness, Arts and Culture, Science and Geography, Sports and Games, Entertainment, or History and Cultural Events.  A question is posed, and you drop the virtual pin on the location you believe answers the question.  A point for each mile you are off is deducted from your original 1000 miles. You keep playing until you use up all of your miles.  Many students took this on as a challenge to improve their geographic knowledge!

3.  Desmos Creative Art - Student Examples from Graphing Calculators - A fun connection between art and math!

4.  Flat.io - Allows users to compose musical scores online, including collaboratively.  The free plan met the needs of my students who wanted to try it.  They also offer "Flat for Education" where you can follow student progress and work on class projects.

What "Fun Finds" have you found?