EVERYTHING
FOR YOUR FAMILY
Education
|
||||
|
The 10 best websites to help your kids study Gone are the days when a student would head to the library after school, backpack in tow, armed with a pencil and pad of paper, to search through reference books for information on a class paper or project. Today’s students, from elementary to high school, no longer rely solely on the library for research and homework help, nor do they even need to find that information in books. The Internet is the tool of choice for students when conducting research to help them write papers or complete classwork or homework assignments. A 2001 survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project showed that nearly 94% of 12- to 17-year-olds who report using the Internet had used online sources for school research. And 71% responded that they used the Internet as the major source for most of their school projects. While parents of many middle- school and high-school students grew up before the Internet Age, they understand the benefits of conducting research online. Bruce Bates of Coto de Caza and his wife, Lisa, encourage their 3 children to start their information search online. “A book typically offers 1 viewpoint – the author’s,” Bruce Bates says. “An Internet search immediately yields a multitude of viewpoints and articles. Plus, an Internet search is a lot faster and typically more up-to-date. “These days, I think one would be hard-pressed to find significant information in a book that also isn’t available online, at least in some sort of abridged form, along with discussion, dissenting opinions, etc.” Who needs libraries anymore? There are countless websites that provide information students can reference when doing homework or researching a paper. The multitude of choices makes it difficult for students to find what they are looking for or find information that is relevant, unbiased and factual. The process of vetting online sources for relevant information can also be a learning process. “The Internet is here to stay and developing good ‘search’ skills is certainly valuable,” Bates says. “Good search skills include the ability to separate the wheat from the chaff.” When Carly Bates, a freshman at Tesoro High, needs to go online for help with her schoolwork, she starts by doing an Internet search instead of relying on only 1 or 2 sites. “The websites I usually find most useful are Google and Dogpile and Ask.com,” she says. “I never use Wikipedia because everyone can edit the info and it may not always be correct. I sometimes look at a few websites and gather general knowledge from them all.” Our top 10 homework websites In the spirit of helping parents and students find appropriate online resources, we have put together a list of terrific sites that provide homework help, reference guides, and interactive projects and games for a range of grades and subjects. Since information for virtually every person, place or event can be found in an encyclopedia, that’s a good place to start. But which one should you use? > “The Encyclopedia Britannica” is the granddaddy of reference books, but its online site (britannica.com) offers limited information without cost. Paid memberships entitle users to access more than 120,000 articles, an updated world atlas and an online dictionary. > By contrast, MSN Encarta (encarta.msn.com) is a free site featuring more than 4,500 articles pooled from Microsoft Encarta, and comes with dictionaries, maps, fast facts, interactive quizzes, handy homework tools and more. > Fact Monster (factmonster.com) has everything elementary and pre-high-school students need, including a searchable dictionary, word games, an encyclopedia with more than 57,000 articles and numerous world maps. The site’s colorful, kid-friendly interface, and age- and gender-specific blogs are features that encourage return visits. But where the site really makes the grade is its robust Homework Center, which includes help in geography, math, science, history and social studies. > Bartleby.com’s Great Books Online site is a literary encyclopedia aimed at high-school and college students. The site contains a dizzying array of material, from “Roget’s Thesaurus” to “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.” Looking for a famous quote? Bartleby.com has a large collection of quotations, as well as free fiction and non-fiction anthologies. > If you’re a student of history or just need to research a paper on the Battle of Midway, the History Channel (history.com) website offers a rich multimedia experience. Based on the cable TV channel of the same name, the History Channel’s online version contains a large collection of video footage, such as moon landings, as well as audio of famous speeches. > HyperHistory Online (hyperhistory.com) lacks the glitz of the History Channel Online, but it enables visitors to navigate through 3,000 years of world history with interactive lifelines, timelines and maps. Like Wikipedia, this site encourages people to add new information. > Learning doesn’t always have to be boring. Funbrain.com boasts being the Internet’s No. 1 education site for K-8 grades. It is definitely a top site for entertaining and educational games. Young baseball fans will enjoy Math Baseball, which presents a math problem to “swing at,” with each correct answer worth a single, double, triple or home run. > Making science fun is the goal of Funology (funology.com). It provides plenty of science information in the form of games and activities, all presented in a colorful, easy-to-use interface. > Keeping kids informed on current events is the aim of Time For Kids (timeforkids.com). The online companion to Time For Kids magazine not only connects youth to news on what’s going on in the world, it includes a dictionary, measurement conversion table, country information and games. > For students needing help with math homework, Math.com has resources, tutorials and practice quizzes for all levels – from basic addition and subtraction to algebra and calculus. The Everyday Math section has calculators that tell you the driving distance between U.S. cities and help you calculate the amount of money you would spend on gas for each trip. > Lastly, The American Library Association’s “Great Web Sites for Kids” (ala.org/greatsites) has countless links to sites that are both fun to visit and educational. Divided into several categories, such as Animals, The Arts and Reference Desk, the sites listed by the ALA have clearly identified authoring sources so students and parents, alike, can make the most of the vast resources the Internet offers. The Top Ten: Homework Helping Websites 1. encarta.msn.com 2. factmonster.com 3. bartleby.com 4. history.com 5. hyperhistory.com 6. funbrain.com 7. funology.com 8. timeforkids.com 9. math.com 10. ala.org/greatsites Richard Ramus is a contributing writer to OC Family Magazine. |
||||
RSS Subscribe
Digg This ArticleSEARCH THE SITE
