13.2  SOME SPECIFIC RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS


In addition, there are a number of resources on the Internet aimed 
specifically at elementary and secondary students and teachers.  You can 
use these to set up science experiments with classes in another country, 
learn how to use computers in the classroom or keep up with the latest 
advances in teaching everything from physics to physical education. 

Among them:
                           
ArtsEdge        Federally sponsored Online arts resources for students
                and teachers, it's available on the web at
               
                http://k12.cnidr.org/janice_k12/artsedge/artsedge2.html

Ask Dr. Math    Math professors and college students help k12 students
                with tough math questions.  Students can ask questions
                by e-mail and browse past answers on the Web.  The
                e-mail address is dr.math@forum.swarthmore.edu; the Web 
                url http://olmo.swarthmore.edu/dr-math/dr-math.html

AskERIC         Run by the Educational Resource and Information Center, 
                AskERIC provides a way for educators, librarians and 
                others interested in K-12 education to get more 
                information about virtually everything.  The center 
                maintains an e-mail address (askeric@ericir.syr.edu) for 
                questions and promises answers within 48 hours.  It also 
                maintains a Web site that contains digests of 
                questions and answers, lesson plans in a variety of 
                fields and other educationally related information.  The 
                Web address is http://ericir.syr.edu/. 

Health-Ed       A mailing list for health educators.  Send a request to 
                health-ed-request@stjhmc.fidonet.org 
 
K12Net          Begun on the Fidonet hobbyist network, K12Net is now also 
                carried on many Usenet systems and provides a host of 
                interesting and valuable services.  These include 
                international chat for students, foreign-language 
                discussions (for example, there are French and German-
                only conference where American students can practice 
                those languages with students from Quebec and German).  
                There are also conferences aimed at teachers of specific 
                subjects, from physical education to physics. The K12 
                network still has limited distribution, so ask your 
                system administrator if your system carries it. 
 
Kidsphere       Kidsphere is a mailing list for elementary and secondary 
                teachers, who use it to arrange joint projects and 
                discuss educational telecommunications.  You will find 
                news of new software, lists of sites from which you can 
                get computer-graphics pictures from various NASA 
                satellites and probes and other news of interest to 
                modem-using teachers.  
                     To subscribe, send a request by e-mail to kidsphere-
                request@vms.cis.pitt.edu or joinkids@vms.cis.pitt.edu and 
                you will start receiving messages within a couple of 
                days. 
                     To contribute to the discussion, send messages to 
                kidsphere@vms.cis.pitt.edu. 
                     KIDS is a spin-off of KIDSPHERE just for students 
                who want to contact students.  To subscribe, send a 
                request to joinkids@vms.cis.pitt.edu, as above.  To 
                contribute, send messages to kids@vms.cist.pitt.edu. 

MicroMUSE       This is an online, futuristic city, built entirely by
                participants (see chapter 12 for information on MUSEs
                and MUDs in general).  Hundreds of students from all
                over have participated in this educational exercise,
                coordinated by MIT. Telnet to michael.ai.mit.edu.
                Log on as guest and then follow the prompts for more 
                information. 

NASA Spacelink  This system, run by NASA in Huntsville, Ala., 
                provides all sorts of reports and data about NASA, its 
                history and its various missions, past and present.  
                Telnet spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov or 128.158.13.250. 
                     When you connect, you'll be given an overview of the 
                system and asked to register. The system maintains a 
                large file library of GIF-format space graphics, but note 
                that you can't download these through telnet. If you want 
                to, you have to dial the system directly, at (205) 895-
                0028.  Many can be obtained through ftp from 
                ames.arc.nasa.gov, however. 

Newton          Run by the Argonne National Laboratory, it offers 
                conferences for teachers and students, including one 
                called "Ask a Scientist."  
 
                     Telnet: newton.dep.anl.gov.  
                     Log in as: cocotext 
 
                You'll be asked to provide your name and address.  When 
                you get the main menu, hit 4 for the various conferences.  
                The "Ask a Scientist" category lets you ask questions of 
                scientists in fields from biology to earth science.  
                Other categories let you discuss teaching, sports and 
                computer networks. 
 
OERI            The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational 
                Resources and Improvement runs a gopher system that 
                provides numerous educational resources, information and 
                statistics for teachers.  Use gopher to connect to

                     gopher.ed.gov. 

Spacemet Forum  If your system doesn't carry the K12 conferences, but 
                does provide you with telnet, you can reach the 
                conferences through SpaceMet Forum, a bulletin-board 
                system aimed at teachers and students that is run by the 
                physics and astronomy department at the University of 
                Massachusetts at Amherst.  
                
                     Telnet: spacemet.phast.umass.edu. 
                
                When you connect, hit escape once, after which you'll be 
                asked to log on. Like K12Net, SpaceMet Forum began as a 
                Fidonet system, but has since grown much larger.  Mort 
                and Helen Sternheim, professors at the university, 
                started SpaceMet as a one-line bulletin-board system 
                several years ago to help bolster middle-school science 
                education in nearby towns. 
                     In addition to the K12 conferences, SpaceMet carries 
                numerous educationally oriented conferences.  It also has 
                a large file library of interest to educators and 
                students, but be aware that getting files to your site 
                could be difficult and maybe even impossible.  Unlike 
                most other Internet sites, Spacemet does not use an ftp 
                interface. The Sternheims say ZMODEM sometimes works over 
                the network, but don't count on it. 

Yahoo           This Stanford University web service provides an archive of
                links to other educational resources on the net at
                http://akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo/Education/