|
|
Last week’s article was about back-to-school sites for parents and teachers. This week, it’s for you, the student. From preschool to college grade level, these sites are sure to be useful. For preschoolers: Try out myschool.tripod.com. ABC’s, rhymes, animals and basic skills are made fun. A color-changing bear takes you through the site. Abctooncenter.com is like going away to camp but online! Old tyme music and a couple of scouts named Hoot and Cat guide you through the adventures in learning. Just for laughs, try out the back-to-school mystery story at searsportrait.com/storybook/bts_mystery_00_form.html. It is geared for the younger crowd, but anyone can enjoy it. For grade school, teens, and adults: Studyweb.com is still free until later this fall, but will be absorbed into another pay site very soon. Information is divided into categories such as math, science and language arts, then subdivided. For example the science category contains subdivisions of physics, biology, chemistry, and so on. You’ll also find listings for online references such as thesauri and converter programs. The Discovery Channel now has discoveryschool.com. Current front-page topics include Cleopatra’s palace, woolly mammoths, and a “webmath” class. One of their best recent additions is B.J. Pinchbeck’s homework helper. It’s a huge catalog of over 600 websites that offer help with your home studies. Teachers and parents will find a section for themselves too (I know, that should have been in last weeks article!). Bigchalk.com is powered by Homework Central, a directory of pre-categorized learning and teaching websites. Click on the special back-to-school link on the right for information on college application papers, SAT’s, and financial aid advice. It’s common sense knowledge that isn’t so readily available to many students. Need help with a research paper or other reference work? Refdesk.com/homework.html is the place to go. Help is divided by grade level, as well as type of reference. How about a search engine devoted entirely to homework helpers? That’s exactly what you’ll find at freeality.com/homework_helpers_search_engines.htm. They’ve linked directly into the search engines of tons of homework-based sites. Simply type your request into the proper line on the form for more replies than you’ll know what to do with. A terrific list of sites accumulated by one webmaster can be found at w3.trib.com/~dont/hwhelp.html. The page itself is not fancy, but the contents on foreign languages, literature and science are invaluable. Would you believe, a homework site designed and updated by a 14 year old? Visit jiskha.com for a professionally laid-out site that even offers help on physical education class and mythology. Submit essays you’re proud of, they’ll be put online. Just don’t try to steal one to use yourself; I’m sure your teacher reads this column too. Geocities.com/Athens/3843/index.html is home of the Looney Bin. Yes, it is a homework help site, but in a different manner of speaking. They offer tips on how to pass different types of tests (such as the proper way to approach a multiple choice exam), make better use of your study time and habits, and take good notes. These sure would have come in handy when I was in school. Awesomelibrary.org/homework.html is another type of homework search engine. It has separate help pages for teens and younger kids on how to best use its features. There are so many quality sites out there, it’s difficult to choose which ones to tell you about. I hope these will help you make the grade this year. |
|