Online Projects

I've  searched the Internet for projects that can be used in your classroom.  Here are a few that I have found.  If you don’t see something you’re interested in, ask me and I’ll see what I can locate for you.

E-Pals Would you rather spend your computer time having your students write friendly letters to an imaginary person that never gets the letter or to a pen pal across the world? E-Pals can connect your class up to another one on any continent. Requires parental permission.

Global Grocery List This project has been running for over 14 years. It is the second oldest project of its kind on the Internet. Your students will go with their parents to the grocery and record the prices of food. Then they average their prices as a class and submit them to the site through e-mail. They can then compare their prices to the prices of the same items in other states and/or countries.  This is fabulous for a math or social studies project.

Bugscope This is an awesome site! You can use an electron microscope in Illinois!! Teachers need to fill out an application. Then you choose what bugs you’d like to see. They will schedule at time for you and your students. You will actually be manipulating the microscope remotely using the Internet. This will take some planning on your part but the pictures you get will be worth the effort. This site also offers the ability to see how other schools across the US have used the microscope.

Skittles Any grade can participate. Buy bags of Skittles and count how many candies of each color.  A great activity for prediction and averaging.

Monster Exchange Are you working on descriptive writing? Maybe you are having trouble getting your students motivated? This project may be just the thing for your students.  The children are to draw a monster, then write a description of it. The description is posted online.  Another student somewhere else in the world reads that description and attempts to draw the monster from the description.  Then both pictures are posted and compared.  Students will really try to get their descriptions right for this project. For grades K-8.

Down the Drain Students record how much water their family uses in an assigned week, they bring the data back to the class to average. Then go to this site where you can compare their usage with the usage of others across the world.  Do we use more water?  How much more?  This makes a great science project.  It's also good for something to write about.

Pet Census This is a good project for all elementary grades,  but particularly fun in the primary grades.  Count up the number and types of pets in your classroom, submit the info via the Web and then compare your numbers with the numbers elsewhere.  Can be applied in class on a very simple or complex level.  This is a project that you can make work for you.

Oreo Stacking Ever wondered how high you could stack Oreos before the tower fell? Join this project and have your kids find out. The students can come up with a hypothesis on how many they think they can stack.  Also good for measurement skills.  Be prepared for a mess!  Have parents donate packs of Oreos. This is from Sept. 15 to Oct.31 this year!

The Day I Was Born look at 12 Internet sites to research when they were born, then compare their results with others around the world. In one year, over 20,000 students participated!

Book Reviews Each time students in grades 3-4 read a book, they write a short review of it and post it to this site. They can also read others’ reviews on this site to pick out books they like.