The Royal Society of Chemistry: a European perspective

In the process of checking out the toxicity of sulphur dioxide as a food preservative, I discovered The Royal Society of Chemistry website, which contains a wealth of information on the chemical sciences.

The visual elements of the site are spectacular. The Visual Periodic Table is especially attractive and informative: http://www.chemsoc.org/viselements/index.htm .

The Chemsoc Timeline is a visual representation of the history of science. Check it out here: http://www.chemsoc.org/timeline/index.html

Students of chemistry will be delighted with the interactive version of the IUPAC compendium of chemical terminology, known as The Gold Book. Check it out here: http://goldbook.iupac.org/

Would you like to research food preservatives? Go here: http://www.chemsoc.org/ExemplarChem/entries/2001/anderson/preservatives.htm#e220

The LearnNet section of the site contains several excellent teaching and learning resources: http://www.chemsoc.org/networks/learnnet/index.htm

Home page: http://www.rsc.org/

Storyline Online--Storytelling for kids

This site is an excellent resource for parents, teachers, and child-care providers alike. It features various members of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation reading children’s stories in streaming video. As the narrator reads the story, images of scenes from the story are depicted on a screen, helping to focus attention and heighten interest.

One of 17 stories featured on the site is White Shoes, depicting the courage of a young black girl in the face of the prejudice and discrimination which occurred several years ago in the southern part of the U.S. Other story titles include: Romeow and Drooliet, Enemy Pie, Dad, Are You The Tooth Fairy? Me And My Cat, and The Polar Express.

Operating the site may require the free download of a small program called Flash Player, a plug-in from Macromedia.com. You probably already have this on your computer if you have ever watched Internet videos. The home page has a place at the bottom to click on to begin the download if you need it.

There’s also an activity guide, in PDF format (most computers can read it) for the story you select, containing questions for discussion, project and research ideas.

Check out the site: http://www.bookpals.net/storyline/