Gamequarium - Keying games

Let's be honest, sometimes keyboarding is boring.

In Business Ed we are taught to go through the keys with the students and we often dictate the keys as they type them.

"AAA...SSS...DDD...FFF" is the first half of home row. That is a good way to help the kids improve and you know what they (should) type but it can sometimes lose the kids. "It's BORING Mr. Burt" they've said.

So in an attempt to help reduce the students being bored, there are several online typing games that can be used to help them improve and some of them can be found at the Gamequarium.

Most of the games are free and all similar in that they range from easy to hard for students of varying skill levels. Alphattack is one such game where the students have to hit the key for the corresponding letter shown on a falling bomb to prevent it from exploding.

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There is no specific curriculum like per se, but it is still a highly useful tool for keeping students engaged in the work.

For use in a classroom, this is a fun way to warm the students up, reward them for positive behaviour or just as an exercise if the students have completed an assignment and are sitting around.

If you wanted to get a link to the Evergreen curriculum you could use a keyboarding game once the all the alpha keys have been covered in Module 2: Learning to Keyboard to Touch.

Rome Reborn & Digital Roman Forum

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Ancient Rome was vividly brought to life in 2000's Oscar winning movie Gladiator starring Russell Crowe. As the movie nears its climax Crowe's character, Maximus, is brought to Rome to fight in the gladiatorial games occurring inside the roman colosseum. What we see of the roman colosseum, and all the ancient ruins in and around the city, is the result of 2000 years of mistreatment, pollution and disrepair.

While still an impressive monument (recently named one of the NEW 7 Wonders of the World) it looks old. The movie Gladiator brought the splendor of the colosseum and much of ancient Rome to vivid life. Now Rome Reborn and Digital Roman Forum have done it online.

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Rome Reborn offers students several digital Quicktime movies of what it would have been like for a Roman citizen to walk down the various streets. The animation is well done but the movies are small-ish in size. It does offer some amazing high resolution still images of places like the colosseum, the Forum of Julius Caesar and various shots of the city of Rome itself.

The Digital Roman Forum is another site similar to Rome Reborn in that it allows the viewer to take a digital tour of Rome. It is laid out somewhat differently and has some options Rome Reborn does not. One example is the ability to control the view of a building you want to look at (When you move your mouse the view of the building changes). It also offers Quicktime movies, and digital photos.

It offers a good browse function that allows you to find what you want faster as well. For example if a student wanted to know all the Religions structures it would allow that student to find and view the quickly.

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These sites would be great when teaching the Grade 9 Social Studies Time Unit.

For this type of website I would suggest a student use it when doing a project on Ancient Rome. What was the city like? Well, this site would show the class exactly what the city was like (to our best estimations anyway).

The students could also use the site to compare and contrast various aspects or characteristics of the ancient civilizations of Israel and Greece with Rome. Or, have them compare Ancient Rome with Canadian society today.

Students could also investigate some of the links between Canadian culture and Ancient Rome because many of these characteristics have come down to us through time from ancient European cultures, specifically ancient Rome.

Early Child Development

Developed by the World Bank, the site examines Early Childhood Development and the theory underlying its techniques and programs, benefits gained from ECD interventions, how to design and run and Early Childhood Development program and evaluate its efficacy, and how to do a cost-benefit analysis. The sections entitled 'What is Early Childhood Development' and 'Why Invest in Early Childhood Development' provide excellent information about development stages and socio economic influences.

In the Psychology section of the Evergreen Curriculum, Topic 3.5: Looking
Through the Eyes of the Systems of Supports looks at the Ecological model of Bronfenbrenner to describe the various degrees and types of influence that the systems of support have on infant development.

The website offers insights into what is and is not available for Early Childhood Development.

There are three Activities available at the Topic 3.5: Looking Through the Eyes of the Systems of Supports link that the website would enhance and help give students a better understanding of what's available and how it can help.

World War I Document Archive

The World War I Document Archive is an archive of primary documents from World War I. A primary document is a source of information that was created at roughly the time in question by someone with direct personal knowledge of the events being described and can include: diaries or artifacts.

The World War I Document Archive contains first hand accounts of diaries, official papers, treaties, speeches etc. Another benefit to this site is the documents archived are not just American, British, German, Canadian but are from a wide variety of countries that participated in World War I.

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This type of resource would best be used when a student was researching something beyond the actual events.

In the Unit One: Death of the Old Order section of History 20, the Russian Revolution is covered.

In that unit the decisions of the Czar are questioned and his actions and inactions set the stage for the Russian Revolution that allowed the Communists to come to power. The World War I Document Archive contains a link to a site with Lenin's call to power.

If a student were to use this site on a project he or she could really capture the feel of the times as written by the people who were there. I think it would also give the students a new perspective on the events because we have the luxury of time to look back, but the writers of the source documents were living history.

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Not all of the links on The World War I Document Archive go to outside sources, but so do in order to give the largest possible collection of archived material.

Frontline: The Secrect History of the Credit Card

There is no Personal Finance curriculum in Saskatchewan. At all.

One of my assignments last year was to be part of a team that developed a Personal Finance curriculum that would be presentable to Sask Learning. When we looked into what was not covered in teh Evergreen curriculum we found many missing elements that would help students achieve some financial security.

A lot of what was missing is basic, but we found that many parents choose not to discuss financial matters with their children and many think that it is inappropriate to discuss finances in school as well. If that is part of the reason there is no Personal Finance element in the Evergreen I do not know, but what I do know is that students are leaving home for jobs or post-secondary education and they have no idea how to handle money.

• There is no place to help students learn about handling money.


• There is no place to help students learn about saving or investing money.


• There is no place to help students learn about budgeting for a week, bi-weekly or month.


• There is no place to help students learn about service charges and bank fees.


• There is no place to help students learn about renting a house vs buying a house.


• There is no place to help students learn about leasing a vehicle vs buying a vehicle.


• There is no place to help students learn about interest rates; And


• There is no place to help students learn about credit cards.

The link to the video The Secrect History of the Credit Card is a fantastic video that shows the dangers of misusing a credit card. It contains plenty of relevant and interesting facts and will, hopefully, help make the students aware of what could happen.

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Because there is no curriculum I cannot link it to anything. However I feel it is a very important, yet missing, element to a young persons life and that is why I have included it here.

Canadian Orders, Medals and Decorations

The Victoria Cross - For most conspicuous bravery or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy. There have been 1,351 Victoria Crosses awarded worldwide, 94 to Canadians.

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When people think of medals, the image most people conjour is that of veterans gathered for Remembrance Day. But while these honours are generally associated with military service, civilian equivalents exist to honour exceptional contributions to the nation in time of war, or for outstanding acts of citizenship.

Canadian Orders, Medals and Decorations is part of the Veteran Affairs of Canada website. This particular section discusses the various war medals Canadians soldiers have earned throughout the course of its history. Also included on the page are civilian medals that ordinary people have earned for acts of bravery and selflessness.

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This website does not fit into the curriculum in any specific place, but I still think it would be useful in a high school or elementary class.

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I would use this site when having a specific guest speaker come into the class. One of the most inspiring classes I was ever part of was a Canadian History class that covered the two World Wars. My teacher did not believe in just "reading the text" or "watching A&E video's". He wanted us to experience history ourselves.

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One class he had a guest speaker come in. After all these years I cannot remember the man's name but he was a World War II veteran. The gentleman brought in all his war medals (including the Military Medal, The War Medal 1939-1945 and many more I'm forgetting now. He had 15 or twenty overall) along with bullet shells, his uniform and a Nazi dagger.

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This website would allow students to research the reasons a veteran would be awarded the various medals and from there they could prepare a series of questions. Now with many World War II veterans in their 80's now it might be impractical to have one of them come to a school and speak, but the website covers Korea to the present day United Nations Peacekeeping medals.

Confederation for Kids

Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed beginning 1 July 1867 from the provinces, colonies, and territories of British North America.

Confederation for Kids is a website designed for students ages 9 to 13 to help them discover Canadian Confederation, who was responsible, what happened and why. Background information, the key people concerned with Confederation, and a large number of photographs are included. The teacher section provides many suggested activities with downloadable handouts.

It could be used as a starting point for high school students but the information is somewhat basic and would best be utilized in Elementary schools.

I am not too familiar with the elemenraty curriculum, but I think it is useable in two areas at varying grade levels.

Specifically Grade 8 Social Studies in the unit on The History of Canadian Government Structure.

The unit that it would be best for is in the Grade 5 Unit 2: Heritage section. That unit specifically deals with historical topics such as - Building a Nation: Immigration, the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Treaties, the Wars and Confederation.

In the Unit 2: Heritage section on Confederation students learn about the understanding that confederation occurred in response to a number of situations including:

1. British and French immigrants
2. wars between France and Britain;
3. demand for a more democratic government; and
4. threat of absorption by the U.S.A. Confederation marked the beginning of European style
5. federal and regional governments and boundaries were established.
6. reasons why Confederation was deemed necessary;
7. the events and the process;
8. major players;
9. the short and long term effects on people; and
10. how Confederation changed Canada

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This website has 9 different hand outs and activities and also includes assessment materials for the teacher.

Activity #1 is a great research project for groups of students.

Activity #1 - Building a Nation: How Did Canada Start?

Research Team I
When did the Dominion of Canada come into being?
Which colonies joined the federation? How were they reorganized in 1867?
What is the difference between a province and a territory?
When and how have new provinces or territories been created?
Which ones joined Confederation as full partners?

Research Team II
Why was this new country Canada formed?
Do you think these same reasons exist for today's Canada?
Are there new reasons for the existence of the country called Canada today?

Research Team III
Where and when did the three important meetings (Conferences) leading to the creation of Canada take place?
Why is the term "Fathers of Confederation" confusing? Who did these men represent?
Who was not (directly) represented at the Conferences in 1864-1866 (and later)? Why were they excluded?
Which groups do you think should be represented at a meeting to discuss today's Canada?

Research Team IV
What assets (strengths) did each of the new groups/regions bring to the newly formed country?
Are these the same strengths that are valued/important in today's Canada?

Research Team V
What document was produced by the delegates at the three Conferences?
What were the major points of this constitutional legislation?
Is this document still in use in today's Canada?
What types of documents were used to define the boundaries and status of new provinces (Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan) or when other colonies joined Confederation?

Research Team VI
Can you locate maps to show the territory of Canada from 1886 to the present?
What are the major differences between Canada's provincial and national borders in 1867, 1870, 1882, 1898, 1905, 1912, 1927, 1949 and today?

Ipatiev House - and the death of Czar Nicholas II of Russia

Nicholas II of Russia was the last Tsar of Russia who ruled from 1894 until his forced abdication in 1917. The abdication of Nicholas II and the subsequent bolshevik revolution brought three centuries of the Romanov dynasty's rule to an end.

Already an unpopular ruler fighting an unpopular war, Nicholas II was faced with the demand to abdicate as revolution swept through Russia. His family was firmly in the hands of the Provisional Government and, fearful of unleashing civil war and opening the way for German conquest, Nicholas had no choice but to submit. At the end of the "February Revolution" of 1917 Nicholas II abdicated his throne.

On 22 March 1917, Nicholas was reunited with his family and placed under house arrest by the Provisional Government. In August 1917 the Kerensky government evacuated the Romanovs the Urals, allegedly to protect them from the rising tide of revolution. There they lived in the former Governor's Mansion in considerable comfort. After the Bolsheviks came to power in October 1917, the conditions of their imprisonment grew stricter and talk of putting Nicholas on trial grew more frequent.

As the counterrevolutionary White movement gathered strength, leading to full-scale civil war by the summer, Nicholas, Alexandra and their daughter Maria were moved in April to Yekaterinburg.

The family was imprisoned with a few remaining retainers in the Ipatiev House. Nicholas, Alexandra, their children, their physician, and three servants were woken and taken into a basement room and shot at 2:33 A.M. on July 17.

The bodies of Nicholas and his family, after being soaked in acid and burned, were long believed to have been disposed of down a mineshaft at a site called the Four Brothers. Initially, this was true — they had indeed been disposed of there on the night of July 17. The following morning — when rumours spread in Yekaterinburg regarding the disposal site and they were removed and concealed elsewhere. When the vehicle carrying the bodies broke down on the way to the next chosen site, most of the bodies were buried in a concealed pit on Koptyaki Road, a cart track (now abandoned) 12 miles (19 km) north of Yekaterinburg. The remains of all the family and their retainers with the exception of two of the children were later found in 1991.

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The Ipatiev House website is a fantastic resource for people researching the fall of the Romanov's and the rise of the Communists in Russia.

It could be utilized in History 20 Unit One: Death of the Old Order when talking about the results of World War I.

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I would have the students do a mini-project and/or presentation based on an aspect of World War I. This site would be helpful when talking about the fall of the Russian government, their exit from the war and the rise of the communists.

Because it is a visually appealing and detailed website, it would be interesting to show the students the interactive 3-D map of Ipatiev House along with the photos taken shortly after the assassination of Nicholas and his family.

Elections Canada

The right to vote is one of our most important rights in Canada. But what happens at election time? How did we get to where we are? Who can vote? Is the Queen still our Monarch and what the heck does that mean?

The Elections Canada website answers these questions and many more.

With it's searchable database, information on post elections, history of Elections, FAQ's, registration information and much more, Elections Canada website is an indispensable tool to use for educators wanting to teach about Federal Elections, how they work and why they work the way they do.

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The Elections Canada website is best used in Unit One: Political Decision Making and Unit Three: Ideology in the Decision Making Process in Social Studies 10.

Both units focus on the role and importance of Government in Canada and the world stage.

The Elections Canada website would fit best in Unit One: Political Decision Making though as that details the Political Process and Making Decisions in a Parliamentary Democracy.

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The best way to use this website in a high school would be to hold a mock election in the class. The instructions (from the Parliament of Canada) for having a mock election are easy to follow and can be found here at the bottom of this page.

The mock election should be the last element of the unit because by then the students will be expected to demonstrate knowledge of the following:

• Structure of parties
• Financing of elections
• Party policies
• Steps to an election
• Campaigning
• Polls
• Conducting an election

This unit will also help them to:

broaden their vocabulary as they explore parliament conduct research using various resources access and interpret media reports on elections interpret data relating to polls conduct their own polls identify special interest groups and their methods of operation experience their rights as a citizen of Canada through the election process gain a greater appreciation for democracy

There are also a number of Teaching Tools available from the Government that are available for ordering.

Budget Webquest

Budgeting is often ignored in Saskatchewan high school and without any real reasons.

In fact there is almost nothing about it in the Evergreen Curriculum despite the importance and the need of financial planning. One area it is included in is Money Management in the Life Transitions area. It can also be included in the Extended Study Module in Practical and Applied Arts.

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A student should not be going into the world with no idea how to handle money. What this Budget WebQuest does is helps the student learn to manage their money on a monthly budget.

Students will receive a paycheck each week and pay a variety of bills including cable, electric, car payment and most important - rent. They must make sure they have enough money to pay all their bills and still have some left over to have some fun!

The basic task for the students is to determine the cost of all of the monthly expenses needed to live on their own. They will keep track of all of bills and paychecks in a checkbook. At the end of the project, they will determine the percentage of each "category" of bill and create a circle graph using Microsoft Excel.

But that's easier said than done.

The links on the site include all the forms the students will need to complete the budget.

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I think this would be a natural fit in an Accounting class when talking about assets, liabilities, capital and balancing books.

What I would probably do though is take advantage of the Extended Study Module to use the Budget WebQuest as part of its own separate mini unit on financial planning. It could be done before you officially start the accounting unit or after.

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For several years the Business Education Faculty has been lobbying to have a Financial planning aspect added somewhere to the Evergreen Curriculum because students need to know how to handle money. They are getting credit cards at an earlier age than ever, have higher student loas than ever and still want all the things young people want (a car, a place of their own and so on). Financial planning is one of the keys to helping them make the transition from student to adult but it is sadly lacking in Saskatchewan schools.

Stockquest

Stock Market Games allow players and students to gain experience by trading stocks in a virtual world where there is no real risk. A stock market game is a perfect way for students of any age to learn how to trade stocks without the risk of loosing real money.

In a classroom setting, students compete with each other to see who can predict the direction the stock markets will go next and thus increase their investments. Many stock market games are based on real life stocks from the Nasdaq, NYSE or other major market indexes.

Though there are many Stock Market games on the web, StocksQuest is one of the better games for students of all ages. It is simple in it's instruction and the teacher can set up a class competition.

The idea behind the StocksQuest, and the implementation of it in the classroom, is a class competition to see who ends up with the most money at the end of a specific period of time. The teacher sets the parametres of the competition and then each student signs up and joins the class.

StocksQuest uses Yahoo Finance as its source for stock information. StocksQuest updates itself 30 minutes behind Yahoo to allow for some lag-time on the internet. From there students are able to look up stocks they are interested in buying based on the amount of money the teacher has alloted.

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The students should be required to make a minimum of five trades per day so they don't just sign in, buy their initial stocks and then stop. By having a minimum requirement of stocks to trade each day it forces the students to research the companies they are interested in investing in to see if that company is a solid investment or not.

The class (depending on size) could do a vareity of things before they begin buying stocks. They could be required to do a presentation on the stocks they decided on and explain the rationale for their choices. If the class is too large the assignment could be a mini-paper or PowerPoint or something else to be handed in by the students.

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The downside to this is the timeframe in which the game is played. In the real world with real money on the line it is important to invest wisely. With StocksQuest, or any other stock market game, the idea is to make as much money as possible and win a class competition in a very short amount of time. While it gets students resarching and investing, it doesn't deal with the ramifications of losing real money or the slow gains most people see over many years.

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This particular assignment does not fit anywhere properly in the Evergreen Curriculum. Where it does fit is in the Accounting Extended Study Modules that are allowed. According to Evergreen:

The extended study module is designed to provide schools with an opportunity to meet current and future demands that are not provided by current modules in the renewed PAA curriculum.

The flexibility of this module allows a school/school division to design one new module per credit to complement or extend the study of existing pure core modules and optional modules.

The list of possibilities for topics of study or projects for the extended study module approach is as varied as the imagination of those involved in using the module.

Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

Mein Kampf (which means My Struggle) is a book by written by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler following the failed Beer Hall Putsch after which he was found guilty of high treason and sentenced to five years imprisonment. It combines elements of an autobiography with an outline of Hitler's Nazi party agenda and goals. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and volume 2 in 1926.

During this time in prison, Hitler underwent something of an epiphany with regards to his use of violence: from now on everything was to be done in a legal manner. With non-violence in mind and Hitler's ability to understand people, Hitler felt that he needed to make sure that the public knew what he stood for, so began to dictate a book to friend and fellow Nazi Rudolf Hess.

In Mein Kampf, one very prominent aspect is the violent anti-Semitism of Hitler and his associates. Hitler uses the main thesis of “The Jewish peril”, which speaks of an alleged Jewish conspiracy to gain world leadership. The book describes the reasons he became increasingly anti-Semitic and militaristic, especially during his years in Vienna, Austria.

After Hitler’s rise to power, the book gained enormous popularity and became the virtual Bible of every Nazi and all German soldiers received a free copy. By the end of the war in 1945 there were almost 10 million copies in print.

Germany does not allow any copying or printing of the book though owning and selling used copies is not illegal.

All text from Wikipedia

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The following quotes from Mein Kampf were taken from just a single chapter:

• "Jew’s know how to create the illusion that this is the only way of preserving the peace, and at the same time, stealthily but steadily, they conquer one position after another, sometimes by silent blackmail, sometimes by actual theft, at moments when the general attention is directed toward other matters"
  
• "Wherever I went, I began to see Jews, and the more I saw, the more sharply they became distinguished in my eyes from the rest of humanity."


• "it became positively repulsive when, in addition to their physical uncleanliness, you discovered the moral stains on this 'chosen people.'"
  
• "Was there any form of filth or profligacy, particularly in cultural life, without at least one Jew involved in it?"
  
• "for the first time I recognized the Jew as the cold-hearted, shameless, and calculating director of this revolting vice traffic in the scum of the big city, a cold shudder ran down my back."
  
• "I didn't know what to be more amazed at: the agility of their [Jewish] tongues or their virtuosity at lying. Gradually I began to hate them."

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This site would be used during History 20 - Unit Two: The Toalitarian State.

In this unit students focus on:

1. How the pervasive nature of totalitarian regimes affected the rights of the citizens of those totalitarian nations.


2. How the inclination of totalitarian regimes to utilize state violence at both the domestic and international levels was to continue.


3. How the inability and/or unwillingness of the international community, particularly the Western democracies, to confront the aggressive tendencies of these totalitarian regimes was to have profound consequences.

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This website could be used in a variety of ways for a variety of assignments.

If teaching a unit on the Holocaust, I would use the site and have students comb through it looking for examples of Hitler's political agenda regarding the Jews. He spells out a lot of what his overall goals are in the book (though the idea for the Holocaust was several years away at the time of publication) but there are plenty of examples on his beliefs.

By having the students look for specific things in the text they will learn and practise the basic research skills of finding information; classifying information into meaningful categories; distinguishing between relevant and less relevant information; and,
summarizing information.

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World War I is often referred to as a turning point in world history. Its consequences were to significantly impact the course of history in this century and Hitler believed that the German people were made scapegoats by the French and even the ruling German party.

Another assignment or way to utilize the site would be a research project on Germany and the conditions which made that war a possibility and an actuality.

The Treaty of Versailles was not kind to Germany and Hitler, who served in the German army, always felt betrayed by the terms Germany was forced to surrender. In Mein Kampf Hitler discusses the "betrayal of the German people" and teh effects the Treaty had on Germany. Using the online version of Mein Kampf students could do a research project or paper discussing Hitler's views on the Treaty.

One such assignment could be "A Trip back in Time" where a student or students research and present a 5 minute oral report with a suplimentary paper to be handed in, on the topic as if they were actually there witnessing the event. Everyone in class will experience it as if they were there too, thus getting Hitler (or an average German citizen's) perspective on the Treaty.

We're open for Business

Have you ever dreamed of starting your own business?

Do you know what's involved? Where to start? What you need? how to get it? What can you do? What can't you do? How much money do you need? Are there grants? How about a loan? Once I've made my mind up... then what?

We're Open for Business is a resource based webpage that helps entrepreneurship students discover what's potentially involved in opening a business and, hopefully, successfully running it . Of course each business has different needs, but this website is a solid resource for students who are just getting the entrepreneurial bug and want to explore what their options might be and where to get started.

The website offers students a hands-on appraoch as they look at what's available.

It basically consists of a series of useful links to other sites with the information required.

On it students will find information on:

• Starting a Business


• A Business Plan


• A Small Business Webquest


• The Entrepreneur Test (are you an Entrepreneur?)


• Marketing Plan worksheet


• And many, many other useful things that will help them decide if they have what it takes, are on the right track or how to get them where they want to go.

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This website would be perfect for use in the Entrepreneurship 30 class.

In it students have to create and run a venture of their choosing for the semester. This website would give invaluable information on the necessities of starting and running a business. Not every element of the site would be needed for a student run business, but many links are useful.

The whole point of Entrepreneurship 30 is about teaching the students the different elements of running a business.

We're Open for Business would target many of the different modules required by the Evergreen curriculum.

Module 1 Introduction to Entrepreneurship
Module 3 Entrepreneurial Skills
Module 4 Seeking Opportunities
Module 5 Business and Co-operative Development
Module 8 Market Research
Module 9 Initiating a Venture
Module 11Forms of Business Ownership
Module 12 Laws and Regulations
Module 13 Planning a Venture
Module 14 Financing a Venture
Module 15 Evaluating a Venture

With all that in mind the students would decide on a venture (or ventures) as a class that they would do together. From there the class would be responsible for everything from product design, production, sales, market research, finance and so on. We're Open for Business would assist the students in many aspects of the class.

Saskatchewan Settlement Experience

The Saskatchewan Settlement Experience website is a fantastic site dedicated to the settlement of Saskatchewan from the pre-1870's to the end of the Great Depression in the 1930's.

It fits into the Social Studies curriculum in a variety of ways.

Grade 12 History:
Unit 2 - The Nineteenth-Century: The Road to Democracy
Unit 3 - External Forces and Domestic Realities

Grade 9 Social Studies:
Unit 1 - Time

Grade 10 Social Studies:
Unit 2 - Economic Decision Making

Grade 12 Social Studies:
Unit 1 - Change
Unit 2 - Economic Development
Unit 3 - Culture
Unit 4 - Governance

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Perhaps the greatest weakness of this website is there is minimal Aboriginal content. Outside of the section on the Landscape of the prairies, the section on Aboriginal People is the smallest. Care must be taken to ensure there are balanced viewpoints as this site mainly looks at the European perspective.

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This site has names and places such as Cannington Manor that are still around and could be researched before or after a field trip. Part of the experience of history should be going to the places students are reading about in their books. A trip to the European battlefields of World War II might not be realistic, but a drive to one of Saskatchewan's early settlements, where the students can utilize all their senses and get closer to their own history could be a rewarding experience.

For this webpage I would use it as a research tool either before or after visiting a place of historical interest. Students could then use it as information for a paper or project.

One of the benefits of this site is the content is obviously for Saskatchewan residents. That alone makes it valuable, but the interactivity and the ease at which you can navigate the site furthers its benefit as a tool to be used in a classroom.

Worldmapper - a New way to look at the world

Worldmapper is a unique tool that is perfect for Social Studies. Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.

It would fit in perfectly in several areas of Social Studies 10.

For example in Unit 2: Economic Decision Making students learn several this in section including the Problem of Distributing Wealth.

• This map shows "Often Preventable Deaths"
  
  In rich territories, deaths from most of these conditions are much lower except for infections in the elderly. For this reason they can be considered easily preventable conditions.
  These conditions are divided into (with their contribution to the total deaths in Group I in 2002):
  A. Infections [Infectious and parasitic diseases], Map 372, (59% of deaths). These are diseases spread directly or indirectly from person to person.
  B. Respiratory infections, Map 403, (22% of deaths). These are infections of the ears and respiratory tract.
  C. Maternal conditions, Map 407, (3% of deaths). These are conditions affecting women before, during and after childbirth.
  D. Perinatal conditions, Map 408, (13% of deaths). These are conditions arising in babies before or within one week of birth.
  E. Nutritional deficiencies, Map 411,(3% of deaths). These are conditions due to food, vitamin and mineral shortages.
  These conditions caused 32% of all deaths worldwide in 2002, an average of 2968 deaths per million people
  

Territories are sized in proportion to the absolute number of people who died from most preventable (communicable infections, maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions) in one year.

(all text was taken directly from worldmapper)

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The above map can be used to illustrate a variety of things including: which countries have money, who can afford to spend money on heath care but it can also be used as a starting point for other areas such as causes of death and so on that are related to Economic decision making in the Social Studies curriculum.

Worldmapper has a huge selection of maps (there are 366 in total) and there are often links with each map to guide research further or take the student in a whole new direction.

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Other areas that WorldMapper could be used in are Defining an Acceptable Standard of Living, Generating Wealth to Support A Living Standard and Organizing an Economy to Create Wealth from Unit 2 alone. These maps can be used troughout all levels of Social Studies and even in certain history areas.

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I think this would help improve student learning in a variety of ways:

1. These maps are saveable and can be printed if computer labs are unavailable to students.
2. They are an interesting and visually appealing way to get students looking at things from a perspective they may not have considered.
3. They are probably something new to the students in format and idea so hopefully they would be intrigued by them
4. Because it is arguably a fun way to look at things the students might have more interest in doing their homework. I have not yet tried these in a Social Studies environment but a fellow classmate did and he said his students loved them and used them on a variety of projects throughout his internship.

Anne Frank and the Children of the Holocaust

As most people know, Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl who was in hiding from the Nazi's, betrayed and sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where she died of typhus. What set Anne apart from so many other persecuted Jewish people was she put her thoughts in writing in her Diary. After the war, the diary was retrieved by Frank's father, Otto Frank.

The Diary was first published in Amsterdam in 1947 and was translated into English in 1952. Since then, more than 25 million copies of the book have been sold and it has been translated into more than 50 languages.

Anne Frank began to keep a diary on her thirteenth birthday about three weeks before she went into hiding with her mother, father, sister and four other people in the secret annex of her father's office building. With the assistance of a group of Otto Frank's trusted friends they remained hidden for two years and one month, until their betrayal in August 1944, which resulted in their deportation to Nazi concentration camps. Of the group of eight, only Otto Frank survived the war.

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This webquest will allow students to get to know Anne and others that were victims of the Holocaust.

Anne Frank Webquest

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I would use this webquest in the Social Studies 20 unit on Defining Human Rights

While it is designed for English, I think the tasks would be a good introduction to the horrors of the Nazi regime and their abuses of human rights.

Anne Frank inspired many people including some of the most powerful and influential people in the 20th Century who spoke of her.

"Of the multitudes who throughout human history have spoken for human dignity in times of great suffering and loss, no voice is more compelling than that of Anne Frank."

- President John F. Kennedy

"Some of us read Anne Frank's diary on Robben Island and derived much encouragement from it."

- Nelson Mandella

Both quotes are applicable for any discussion on Human Rights and Anne Frank personifies human Rights abuses by people in power.

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I would get the students doing Anne's webquest and use selected passages from her Diary before introducing the Human Rights so that the students would have in their minds what happens when someone has no regard for other people based simply on their religious beliefs.

I think this type of exercise would help students learn in a fun way (everyone likes to surf the web) while letting them do the research and learning on their own with the teacher as a guide.

Further self-learning could possibly take place as well with a link to Anne Frank House which offers virtual tours, plenty of information and pictures.