ziizoo blog

“A clear voice for science….” says the Earth & Sky website. This site covers everything from robot hands to animal news, to the wint-o-green lifesaver effect. Learn from scientists around the world. All you could want to know science facts for curious minds interested in science and our world is available at earthsky.org. Pick content for teachers, kids, Spanish language content, etc., and all of it available as podcasts daily. I am impressed with the depth of the information available and the clearly thought out delivery.

Nrich is a University of Cambridge site addressing ALL levels of Mathematics skills K-12, presented in a fun, interactive, and visually rich environment. Choose any stage 1-5, and there are puzzles and games dealing with maths concepts within them. I like the UK terminology as it differs somewhat from our US english. Each problem offers a hint, notes, and solutions submitted by readers. You can submit an answer and if it is correct you may be featured. Pretty cool!

In short, the kids will stay interested in the animated graphics, sounds, pictures and problems. Check out nrich.org!

Here’s a cool UK based site I stumbled across explaining the chemistry behind many useful and entertaining molecules. Pretty helpful for someone looking to understand the molecules in everyday things like cleaning agents and de-greasers for example. The site is legible, clearly arranged and uncluttered. My eyes thank the webmaster for larger fonts! Another great thing is when concentrating on complex molecules you won’t have to ignore Ads running up and down the borders of the page, etc.

Today’s site is a functional homage to the mighty slide rule. Learn theory and use of the slide rule, its history, geometry of the slide rule, and there’s a great movie on the homepage introducing them.

Bourne is on the loose again, in Singapore this time, and has created an easy to read and concisely useful site, Interactive Math to explain difficult math concepts ranging from Algebra, Trigonometry and Graphing, to Higher Calculus. I took a particular interest in reading the Money Maths section explaining credit cards, home mortgages, and interest. Very timely stuff that’s well explained and easy to grasp after Bourne lays it out. I wish Interactive Math was around when I needed it in high school!

Take a tour of our solar system! I have always been fascinated with space and the planets, as a kid I was able to attend planetarium showings at my school, and it was the highlight of my year….well we are all grown up now get to see outer space regularly these days with tools like author Bill Arnett’s Nineplanets website. It is loaded with NASA info, coomentary and hints for current and budding astronomers. I personally like the inside joke concerning Pluto…..

UK author Kjartan Proskitt has created the most appealing books on math your kids could hope to read. Hilarious illustration by Philip Reeve accompanies Proskitt’s short stories and clear explanations of various everyday math concepts. There’s an extensive series of his books available via the murderous maths website. Now when I was in gradeschool, why didn’t we think of this? Funny and interesting to look at while learning = understanding math.

By far the most timely science website I have ever come across. Doctor Fungus is chock full of life science information! Learn about fungus in your body, or all the fungus out in our world.

Good times. As if the name weren’t perfect enough…..

Too cool. I love popsci.com for its zesty content and uncluttered layout. These guys chose a font that won’t make you go blind while trying to desperately cram as much content onto the home page as possible. You can read tons of popular science news, follow step by step guides to build stuff, or just browse about the gear, gadgets, military technology, entertainment & gaming if you are interested. I am……

We all remember the Aviator no doubt. HHMI Cool Science invites curious kids to explore biology. Well illustrated and designed too. Kids will love the layout and educational science games like “Classifying Critters” and “Butterfly Life Science”. Take a look……

HHMI, a non-profit medical research organization that ranks as one of the nation’s largest philanthropies, plays a powerful role in advancing biomedical research and science education in the U.S. In the past two decades HHMI has made investments of more than $8.3 billion for the support, training, and education of the nation’s most creative and promising scientists. The Institute commits almost $700 million a year for research and distributes $80 million in grant support for science education.