Running head: EVALUATION OF WEBSITES

The Evaluation of Five Websites for the Elementary Science Classroom

Sarah E. Sennett
State University of New York at Oneonta

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Background Information

The following pages contain the evaluations of five different websites. The sites that
were chosen all focus on the content area of science and aimed at the developmental level of a
third grade student. When choosing sites for this grade level, it was important that the sites did
not display any material that was too mature for the audience and students could read the
material with minimal assistance from a teacher or parent.

EVALUATION OF WEBSITES

The Weather Wiz Kids website was created by meteorologist Crystal Wicker. Crystal is a
graduate of Northern Illinois University and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in meteorology
with a minor in journalism. While working as a meteorologist, she would often educate students
about the different types of weather that occurs in their environment. During her career she
decided to create the Weather Wiz Kids website in 2009 which was most recently updated during
the summer of 2014. Crystals site contains several pages providing information about the
various forms of weather. The information on her site is accurate and easy to navigate. Despite
living in Illinois, Crystal makes sure that her website addresses all types of weather, even types
she has not personally experienced in her part of the country. She makes sure to discuss the
meteorological events that are found all around the Earth so that anyone can find her site usable.
Weather Wiz Kids provides plenty of information about how and why different types of weather
occur (Wicker, 2014).
The creation of the Weather Wiz Kids website provides elementary students a place to
explore and learn about the different types of weather that transpire in all parts of the world. It is
clear that the design and layout of the site is geared for younger learners. When viewers click on
a weather event they are brought to a web page that is written with a child-friendly font and size.
Since the developer uses larger letters and spacing, it allows the reader to follow along and
comprehend the text with greater success. Crystal Wicker also provides students with several
definitions of difficult terms, pictures, charts, and hands-on activities to ensure that the material
is being presented in a variety of ways. Weather Wiz Kids has the potential to be useful to many
elementary students and teachers.

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In 2006, Sandra K. Morgan created the Facts4Me website after years of frustration when
looking for places on the internet that her students could use to research information. As a third
grade teacher, she found that most sites that had useful information were not written at an age
appropriate level for her students. Creating this site became a great resource to her students as
well as many other primary students who use the internet for research. Although she did not
write all of the information, on many of her pages you can find resource information and
citations listed for the material that she presents ensuring the accuracy of the material. When
looking through all of the options of topics, she provides many key science and social studies
subjects that an elementary student needs to know. After reading many of her pages, her
information is not biased, however one can get confused why she has a page dedicated to state of
Georgia beyond what information she supplies on the U.S. States page. Overall, the material that
she presents spans many essential elementary standards. Although each page has a limited
amount of information, nevertheless it is not too overwhelming for a primary student and will
serve their research needs (Morgan, 2009).
Facts4Me provides useful and age appropriate material to primary students for a variety
of science and social studies topics. The information provided is written with a second to third
grade reading level in mind. This is helpful to younger students who are just learning how to use
the internet to research classroom topics as well as students who are learning the English
language and older students who have learning disabilities. Without the use of advertisements, it
allows teachers and parents to feel safe to let their children explore the site freely without
concern. The only downside to Facts4Me is that users will need to subscribe to the site to access
all of the information listed. Prices range from $20-$150. All in all, this site is very beneficial.

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Greg Nussbaum is a teacher in Fairfax County, Virginia. Over the span of his career he
has taught 2nd-6th grade students. As an elementary teacher, Greg wanted to create a fun and
educational website for his students to use so he created Mr.Nussbaum.com. Gregs website
includes information and educational interactive games for multiple subject areas and for grades
PreK-6th. He covers a wide range of subjects and topics that elementary teachers require
students to learn about. Mr.Nussbaum.com is continually adding and updating the information it
provides to make sure that the students have the most recent and accurate facts. The latest
changes just occurred in February of 2014. Gregs website provides numerous amounts of
information and activities by addressing all academic subjects.
Mr.Nussbaum.com can be very useful for teachers and elementary students. The website
presents the information and data in a fun and interactive way. Greg wants to provide students
with various learning styles an opportunity to understand the crucial academic topics that
teachers need students to learn by offering videos, writing the text on an elementary reading
level, and providing games to reinforce the lessons. Despite having material for several grade
levels and subject areas, it still lacks some information that the students may need. For instance,
when viewing the science page, there are only eighteen different topics that are provided. Many
important areas of the field of science like health, simple machines, matter, etc. were left out. It
can be beneficial that his one site has so many different subject areas and grade levels; however
more information about important topics is still needed. Finally, this is a website that could be
valuable when studying a specific topic with the teachers guidance or as an exploration tool.

EVALUATION OF WEBSITES

The Missouri Botanical Gardens created the website Biology of Plants for grades K-3 in
2005 shortly after releasing the website Biomes of the World. The concept and content are
provided by Dr. Elizabeth Schwartz, Dr. Larry DeBuhr, and Barbara Addelson. Together these
three individuals pooled their knowledge and made a website that primary kids could access to
learn about plants. Since the site was created and is maintained by the Missouri Botanical
Gardens, students will not need to worry that the information they are reading will be misleading
or inaccurate. This website is strictly factual data about plants and therefore does not contain
any biased opinions. Only the facts that primary kids need to know for school are presented.
Although the goal was to make a website for grades K-3, some pages offer so much detail and
information that this site can even benefits older students too (Schwartz, DeBuhr, & Addelson,
2005).
Primary students who use the website Biology of Plants should find that it provides a
substantial amount of data and information to help them with their academics. Although some of
the text may be lengthy and use difficult vocabulary, the pictures, videos, and glossary should
help anyone who struggles with reading. Parents and teachers should feel confident when young
children are using this site because it does not contain any advertisements or pop-ups to distract
them from their learning. The only concern one would have for using this site is the availability
of being able to access the videos through their filtering system. The videos are an asset to those
students who learn best through visual representation and not being able to view them could
prevent them from learning the material. Overall, this site is a wonderful tool for students to use
when studying the biology of plants.

EVALUATION OF WEBSITES

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) developed a website in

September of 2005 to provide information to the public about our solar system. On their Solar
System Exploration website, they created a special link for kids to use so that they can explore
and learn about the solar system. The link provides information from NASA about the different
planets, comets, and stars. When a student opens the site and begins exploring the different areas
they will find each item they click on provides several useful facts written at an age appropriate
level. Each solar system feature has pictures, 10 need to know facts, timeline of events, author
information, and more. Students will find a wealth of material and facts on all of the items that
are located in our solar system (NASA, 2005).
NASAs Solar System Exploration 101 website is a great place for students to explore
and learn about our solar system. The design of this site, when compared with other websites,
can be considered to some as unique. Upon the opening the page, the students will see a display
of the solar system. When using the webpage, students will move their mouse around on the
screen to find different features in the solar system to click on. Therefore, if a student wanted to
learn about Jupiter they would first have to find the picture of Jupiter on the screen and then they
could click on it to open it up. From there, students will have to choose an icon (images,
timeline, authors, etc.) to click on for more information. Since the site is designed so differently
from most sites, it helps to keep the interest of the students. However, students who are English
language learners or have difficulty academically may have a difficult time with this website.
Teachers may also find this site difficult to use if they are instructing an entire class to navigate
the page in unison. Using this web page may work best as an independent exploratory site for
students.

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References

Morgan, S. K. (2009). Facts4Me. Retrieved from: http://www.facts4me.com/

NASA, (2005). Solar System 101. Retrieved from: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/kids/index.cfm#
Nussbaum, Greg. (2014). Mr.Nussbaum.com. Retrieved from: http://mrnussbaum.com/science/
Schwartz, E., DeBuhr L., & Addelson, B. (2005). Biology of Plants. Retrieved from:
http://www.mbgnet.net/bioplants/main.html
Wicker, C. (2003). Weather Wiz Kids. Retrieved from: http://weatherwizkids.com/index.htm