Advice for keeping children safe in a dangerous world

John Walsh, the host of America’s Most Wanted, and Julie Clarke, creator of Baby Einstein, have teamed up to provide a wealth of child protection resources in TheSafeSide.com. Here you will be able to obtain DVDs titled “Internet Safety” and “Stranger Safety”. The site enables users to download resource material on those topics useful to both families and schools.

http://www.amw.com/ John Walsh’s original America’s Most Wanted site

http://www.thesafeside.com/ child safety site

http://www.familywatchdog.us/ track registered sex offenders in your neighborhood

Disappearing bees—how will Colony Collapse Disorder affect your life?

We stand on the brink of a disaster that could make global warming look like a Sunday school picnic. Bees in Canada and the U.S. are disappearing fast, and scientists are not sure why. There are dozens of theories, but no definitive answer. Without bees there will be no fruits or vegetables, because bees do the pollination required to grow them. We must find answers soon, or many agricultural producers will face bankruptcy and consumers will have rapidly dwindling food choices. Watch The Importance of Bees video at the link below.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/bees/impact.html

What can you do to help the bees?
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/bees/help.html

Would you know what to do if your baby stopped breathing?

The Parents.com website has a section called ParentsTV which features six video channels. The Baby Basics channel contains a series of videos on topics like baby CPR, breastfeeding, massaging your baby, burping your baby, and childproofing your home.

Here is the link: http://www.parents.com/parentstv/

The site also has other sections containing information on toddlers, preschoolers, and teens.

Transparency International—a global corruption watchdog

This organization monitors corruption in both public and private sectors. It fights against bribery in the construction and defence industries, as well as underhanded tactics in political party funding. Corruption in the judiciary of various countries is a target for this group. They offer a “corruption fighter’s toolkit” and an “anti-corruption handbook” for those who wish to participate in the anti-corruption process. Teachers may wish to take a look at these two publications: Teaching Integrity to Youth and Stealing the Future: Corruption in the Classroom.

http://www.transparency.org/

The Classroom @ Sea Project: Drilling the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Early in March, 2007, a team of scientists from Durham University, Cardiff University and the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, will travel aboard the RRS James Cook to investigate an area of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge known as the Fifteen-Twenty Fracture Zone (FTFZ). The scientific team on board the ship is led by Prof. Roger Searle from University of Durham, Dr Chris MacLeod (University of Cardiff) and Dr Bramley Murton (NOCS).

Seismological research has determined that the FTFZ appears to be a gap in the crust of the Earth thousands of kilometers wide. The mantle, located in the interior of the planet, is typically covered by crust several kilometers thick. The crust thickness averages about 18 miles (30 kilometers) under the continents, but is only about 3 miles (5 kilometers) under the oceans. It is light and fragile. The mission will attempt to determine whether the ocean crust was dislodged by geological faults or never formed in that area.

This voyage of discovery has been designed as an interactive project for students. The site features a diary which, beginning March 5, 2007, will display accounts of onboard events of interest. The website includes informative modules describing the marine geology and biological environment. Teaching aids and reproducible worksheets are provided. In addition, the site gallery will contain photo highlights of the cruise. Students around the world will be able to e-mail members of the team and ask questions about the excursion.

Climb aboard: http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/gg/classroom@sea/JC007/about.html

Science and astronomy: What will tonight’s sky look like?

Before I found this site, the night sky was mostly a mystery for me. I could pick out the North Star, and the Big and Little Dippers, but that was about it. This site provides diagrams every day of the upcoming night sky. Significant astronomical events, like the approach of a comet, are discussed in radio programs, available for listening or downloading.

The radio broadcast section contains more than astronomy information. Topics range from the poaching of wildlife in Africa to the migration routes of sea turtles.

Check out this site: http://www.earthsky.org/

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/

Piczo—A free website for teens

This site enables teenagers to establish a free, personal website for self expression and social networking. Piczo currently places no limit on the volume of information, guest books, comment boards, graphics, music and photos that may be uploaded to a personal site. Setting up an individual site, with multiple pages, is straightforward, requiring no advanced computer skills. Students often use their sites as part of a class project to share personal writing, including travel diaries, poetry and short stories.

The site administrators place a high priority on member safety and privacy, and include an online safety section to help members stay safe. One Piczo privacy feature is a “walled garden” function which means that members select, through an “invite-only” interface, which users may see their site. Both users and parents prefer this to an “open to the world” format common to other online networking sites.

Launched originally in the UK in 2004, Piczo expanded to the US in September, 2006, and now boasts more than 10 million monthly unique users.


Check out the site: http://www.piczo.com/?cr=4&rfm=y

Mindless Eating--Why we eat too much

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  Creator: Brian Wansink, PhD, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab


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  Photo preview of his new book, Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think


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  List of Dr. Wansink’s most popular published articles on nutrition and marketing


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  Questions and Answers related to his new book


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  Teacher resource section featuring printable lesson plan handouts describing in-class activities for health, marketing, nutrition, and marketing classes


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  Free newsletter sign-up available


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  Information on registration for free Consumer Camp held annually on the Cornell campus in Ithaca, NY


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  Author’s blog

Check out the site: http://mindlesseating.org/