Electronics
Homework sites
Introduction
Sorting what's relevant from the mass of internet information can be tough - so we've done the hard work for you.
The internet's the launch pad for many school assignments and it's a useful study tool. We've uncovered 20 great sites for you or your kids to try. We've also grilled teachers and education experts to find the latest web-based teaching aids.
Search engines
Google and Wikipedia are mighty information portals but the hits aren't often kid friendly. Type "Albert Einstein" into Wikipedia and you'll discover he wasn't a scientist. He was a "German-born theoretical physicist".
Child-focused search engines aren't always better. Type "Albert Einstein" into Yahoo! Kids and you'll discover that Einstein was ... "an American theoretical physicist". Many of the external links also lead to sites that are old and clunky.
Better options
For better links, there's a great New Zealand-based search engine available through Te Kete Ipurangi. TKI is funded by the Ministry of Education. It's a major online resource designed to help Kiwi teachers - but parents and children will also find it useful.
TKI has a staggered search engine:
- Choose a filter (for example "Pasifika" or "social sciences") from a set list.
- Refine the search further by adding another filter ("primary" or "secondary" school).
- Add your key word ("Albert Einstein").
TKI lists links that you might find useful (much like Google) rather than giving you a site-specific biography. But unlike hits on Google or Yahoo! Kids, each TKI hit is accompanied by a detailed blurb as well as icons that tell you if the information's New Zealand based, commissioned by the Ministry, in PDF format, and so on.
All external sites recommended by TKI are quality assured - administrators check each site for accurate, current content that fits with the New Zealand curriculum. Our search for Albert Einstein was narrowed down to around 21 quality sites ranging from "Time's 100 greatest people" to an interactive site aimed at primary school students.
TKI also has its own kids' site called WickED. WickED links to external sites aimed at kids in school years 3 to 8 via the "Information Station". The site also contains information on famous New Zealanders, interactive activities (for subjects like maths and Te Reo Maori) and a gallery of student projects.
Search tips
It's easy to find relevant information when you know how to look:
- Focus your search by choosing keywords carefully and using several at a time. For example: Jack Johnson boxer.
- Use the + (plus) sign in front of words you definitely want to appear in your results: Jack Johnson +boxer.
- Use the - (minus) sign in front of words you don't want to appear in your results: Jack Johnson -music will limit hits relating to the musician of the same name.
- Use speech marks to search for specific phrases: "Heavyweight Champion Jack Johnson".
- Check your spelling's accurate: Johnson not Johnston.
Country specific
There are some great international homework sites - just be aware that they'll lean towards their country of origin.
For example, an American site will address topics in the American curriculum (such as baseball), use "grades" rather than "years" to denote difficulty, and use different unit measurements (miles not kilometres).
Project sites
High-quality research resources are crucial for kids about to begin projects.
Any Questions is a Kiwi web-portal that gives kids access to expert librarians between 1pm and 6pm during term time. The librarians at Any Questions are trained to deal with both primary and secondary school students. They're also police-vetted, so parents can rest easy.
Any Questions has a sister-site called Many Answers, which stores topics frequently searched at the Any Questions site. It provides you with external links that have helped others in the past.
New Zealand schools can publish local cultural and heritage stories in Maori or English online at Living Heritage. The site's administered by media company CWA in co-operation with the National Library of New Zealand and the 2020 Communications Trust.
Once schools are registered, Living Heritage provides them with a website template, technical support and copyright guidelines. The National Library hosts the Living Heritage site and stores completed projects for the future.
Revision sites
NCEA maths, English and science (physics, chemistry and human biology) students should find the award-winning Studyit website useful. Studyit:
- lists achievement standards accompanied by student-friendly explanations of each standard.
- offers plenty of study and exam advice for students juggling multiple NCEA assignments.
- contains seven subject-based forums where students can submit questions and draft work for review by expert teachers.
Studyit employs 30 teachers to answer a multitude of questions posted by teenagers working towards NCEA (there were 58,166 unique visitors in November 2008 alone). But other students also get an opportunity to answer questions on the forum.
The site contains previously asked (and answered) questions. Students can track down former discussions through an inbuilt search engine. (See "Studyit's higher calling" below for more on Studyit)
The New Zealand Qualifications Authority has a section dedicated to "learners". Here you'll find past external exams, assessments and unit standards for NCEA students. Practice for your big exam by doing past exams.
You'll also find "exemplars" - examples of work that earned "excellence" or "merit" or "achieved" - on the NZQA site.
BBC Schools is designed to help British students, but there's crossover between their curriculum and ours. Subjects from maths to music are covered for all ages.
BBC's "Bitesize" section is a useful revision tool. It provides simple step-by-step instructions for students struggling with common problems - brilliant if you still hate algebra.
Studyit's higher calling
Studyit project manager Ashley Blair left his job as principal of Porirua's Cannons Creek School seven years ago. He enrolled in an IT course at Massey University: "Back then I taught some students in Canada via internet and email - and soon realised that they were working on the assignments at night with their entire family."
The penny dropped. Maybe this was a way to encourage New Zealand students to study outside of school: "Online, students aren't restricted to a time or place of learning. They can study at their own pace wherever there's access to the net ... Studyit's most popular at 8pm."
Ashley's also proud that questions asked on Studyit's forums are above and beyond the curriculum: "That shows students are interested in the subject - not just cramming for an exam."
It's not all plain sailing. Studyit's 23,467 registered users are mostly students from high-decile schools (schools in wealthier socio-economic areas). AC Nielsen says that's probably because teachers from high-decile schools are more likely to recommend the site to their students.
Opportunities to expand the site further may be lost: the Ministry of Education isn't providing Studyit with the same level of funding in 2009. The Correspondence School has come to the rescue and is now the main funder of the site.
Current affairs
Websites Stuff and NZ Herald both offer comprehensive news services updated throughout the day. You can also search backdated news stories.
National Geographic Kids provides information on animals and geography accompanied by breath-taking photography. The site's highly animated so you'll need broadband.
National Geographic's activities are hands-on - for instance, "plant your own herb garden" or "make a healthy oatmeal breakfast". Kids can also create their own accounts and store favourite photos and activities.
Time Inc goes to the trouble of publishing a weekly magazine just for kids. You'll find backdated issues at Time for Kids . This site is split: one half provides lesson plans and topics for teachers while the other half contains activities and articles for kids.
Look out for the "homework helper" section on the kids' half. Here you can search stories filed under different topics (for example "Science") and pick up advice on how to structure an article. There are plenty of educational games as well.
History sites
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage produces two very good history sites called NZ History and Te Ara Encyclopaedia of New Zealand.
The NZ History site features a "hot topic" section on its homepage, with more information arranged behind topic tabs. The tab of most interest to Kiwi students is the "NZ History Classroom": it has NCEA topics arranged in levels one, two, three, four and five.
The Te Ara Encyclopaedia has an eclectic range of topics from obscure Kiwiana ("eating kiore") to articles on famous Kiwis.
Learning Media specialises in educational resources. Its site contains useful online games for a range of years and subjects (maths, science, English, and social studies).
Learning Media also manages a helpful English-Maori, Maori-English online dictionary. That's available at www.learningmedia.co.nz/ngata.
Science sites
The Science Learning Hub is funded by New Zealand's Ministry of Research, Science and Technology. NCEA science students should find the site interesting - especially if they're eyeing up a career in the field.
You'll find science projects designed for students under the "context" tab. Each project goes into great depth (including fact sheets, activities and people to contact for further information) although there's a limited range of topics.
Exploratorium is the website of San Francisco's museum of science, art and human perception. The Exploratorium is a massive website with plenty of fun and interesting activities. But it isn't always relevant to the New Zealand curriculum.
The homepage of Exploratorium has regularly updated feature items such as "The Science of Music" and "The Hubble Telescope". Beyond the homepage, there are online activities both science- and maths-based for a range of ages. There are also recommended links to other sites, although these can be disappointing when compared with the Exploratorium's own pages.
Discovery Education is managed by the same company that makes the Discovery Channel. Discovery Education is aimed at teachers rather than kids, but it's more instructive than the company's child-specific site Discovery Kids.
The most useful tab on the homepage is "Home Resources". There, you'll find a trove of interesting articles and ready-made worksheets (on topics ranging from French to earth science). There are also a multitude of downloadable lesson plans and instructional videos - although these will require broadband.
Maths sites
Several sites such as Discovery Education and Learning Media have sections devoted to maths. But we also found two great pure maths sites.
Mathletics is based on the New Zealand curriculum, but the catch is that access to the site costs $99 a year.
For your $99 you can create your own "mathlete" and compete against others in "mathletic" competitions. Mathletics also provides a support centre where step-by-step lessons can help you iron out problems before the next competition. After each competition, you'll receive an electronic scorecard tracking your personal progress.
NZ Maths is run by the Ministry of Education. Here you'll find unit-standard exemplars for NCEA students plus online activities for younger kids.
Much of the information on NZ Maths is designed to help teachers plan lessons. Practical help for students is provided through links to external sites. Each link comes with a blurb and a rating out of four. NZ Maths also separates the links into topics (for example, "algebra" or "measurement"), so you'll be able to track down a useful site for help with a particular problem.
Schools online
Wellington College
www.wellington-college.school.nz
Wellington College teacher James Edgecombe (pictured) uses the internet in his classroom to illustrate lessons: "through the data projector in my room, we link to relevant news clips or look up biographies of people mentioned in texts."
James has also set up a wiki-page (a forum) where students can discuss projects: "It's hard to encourage students to participate. But if one student submits his thoughts others soon add to it."
He says that students would be foolish to ignore the resources on the net: "When I was at school we researched for formal essays using newspaper clips. Now students have access to every major newspaper with the click of a button."
James doesn't think the internet replaces good teaching and learning - it just amplifies it: "Good students have always shared work and given each other feedback. But now they can share an essay with thousands of students nationwide."
Te Aro School
Like many schools, classrooms at Te Aro School in Wellington (years 0 to 8) are equipped with interactive whiteboards. Principal Bryce Coleman says that teachers can project a site - via a laptop - on to the whiteboard or download lessons on to a memory stick and plug them directly into the whiteboard: "the internet's often used to illustrate a point during a lesson".
Bryce says that the main benefit of the net is that information is easier to access and is more current: "For example when an encyclopaedia was published, the information was almost immediately out of date."
Homework at Te Aro School usually consists of literacy for the junior school and larger projects for the intermediate school: "We've found both the BBC Schools site and the TKI portal to be wonderful online resources."
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Report by Luke Harrison