HOT TOPIC: Virtual Science Museums
Volume 3, Issue 32 - April 29, 2007"There are so many ways a visit to a science museum can instill a sense of wonder in students. Experiencing sophisticated concepts first-hand can provide understanding and inspiration for all kinds of everyday applications, future innovations, and careers. Still, the best science museums are not always within driving distance and even when they are it can be difficult to coordinate visits.
Enter virtual science museums. These are Web-based collections of activities that promote a deeper understanding of scientific principles, skills and processes through interactive virtual experiences. Aided by Web technologies, these online museum exhibits allow students to see, hear and manipulate objects that would be otherwise unavailable in the typical classroom.
Having a collection of these resources available for instruction is a luxury. Consider the varied and sundry science topics offered in your curriculum. Teachers typically have supplementary support materials and some collection of lab materials to teach the science content for which they are responsible. Teachers typically limit their instructional repertoire to the materials to which they have access. Introduce a set of free, ready-to-use online activities that can extend and rich instruction and teachers can begin to rethink the possibilities for reaching their students.
And it’s not just access to materials. Web-based learning experiences provide an additional dimension to instruction in accommodating how students learn. Traditional approaches to instruction accommodate the verbal and logical intelligences. Web-based delivery of instruction is more student-centered, promoting the visual, musical, kinesthetic, naturalist, interpersonal, Intrapersonal and existential intelligences and allowing learners to experience and internalize content in the ways they learn best.
This week’s D12 offers the best online virtual science museums for your consideration. Gathered from around the world, they’re as close as your nearest Internet connection. Of course you’ll want to make sure your browser plugins are up-to-date to handle this dynamic delivery of content; one of the best educational values online today."
