Resources for Parents on the Internet

Resources for Parents on the Internet

This annotated list of websites is intended to assist parents in finding parenting information and educational resources for their families. The list is not intended to be comprehensive, and due to the constantly changing nature of the Internet, the links included here may become outdated at any time. However, these sites were reviewed with the goal of selecting a sampling of some of the more engaging parenting, reference, science and mathematics material on the internet useful for parents and families. Once you are familiar with using search tools on the Internet, you will be able to find other sites, and perhaps ones that are more suited to your specific interests. If you find sites you want to recommend to The Shodor Education Foundation, Inc., please send the URL to WebMaster@shodor.org.

Parenting Resources

The Children's Partnership
http://www.childrenspartnership.org
A national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization which informs leaders and the public about the needs of America's 70 million children. The Partnership undertakes research and policy analysis, publishes reports and multimedia materials, and forges new alliances among parents, policy makers and the private sector to achieve tangible gains for children. Includes a technology guide for parents and several reports on current children's issues.

Parents and Children Together Online
http://www.indiana.edu/~eric_rec/fl/pcto/menu.html
This is the online version of ERIC's Clearinghouse for Reading, English and Communications magazine Parents and Children Together. This site includes original stories and articles for children suitable for reading aloud, a special section for parents with articles on issues related to children's reading and writing, and book reviews of recent children's literature.

The National Parent Information Network
http://npin.org
The purpose of NPIN is to provide information to parents and those who work with parents and to foster the exchange of parenting materials. Full text materials, publications, brochures, and other resources are included in the site, in the categories: Resources for Parents, Parents AskERIC question-answering service and the PARENTING-L electronic discussion list.

America Links Up
http://www.americalinksup.org/
America Links Up: A Kids Online Teach-In is a broad-based public awareness campaign to ensure that every child in America has a safe, educational and rewarding experience online. America Links Up is sponsored by a broad-based coalition of non-profit organizations, education groups, and corporations.

National PTA
http://www.pta.org/
Topics in the site: About the PTA, Program Areas, PTA Membership, Annual Convention, Legislative Activity, Links to PTAs and Child Advocacy Organizations, Online Subscriptions, Chats, BBs and More.

The Family Education Network
http://www.familyeducation.com
A forum for parents and schools to find resources on parenting, health and safety, learning disabilities, college planning, and much more. "Experts" can be contacted via email, and many families and schools are members of this network. Be prepared for lots of advertising from sponsoring companies.

The Partnership for Family Involvement in Education
http://www.ed.gov/PFIE
The Partnership for Family Involvement's mission is to promote children's learning through the development of family-school-community partnerships. Calendar of events and Timely Topics sections are resources to help stay up to date with education issues.

The National Coalition for Parental Involvement in Education
http://www.ncpie.org/
This organization works to develop effective family-school partnerships in schools throughout America. Their mission is to advocate the involvement of parents and families in their children's education and to foster relationships between home, school, and community that can enhance the education of all the nation's young people. Includes links to upcoming conferences, resources, and meetings (held in Washington, DC) of member organizations, as well as links to web pages of the many member organizations.

Parents at Home
http://advicom.net/~jsm/moms
This site is especially for (but not limited to) those parents who are foregoing full-time paid employment outside the home in order to raise their children. It is also for those who work for pay within the home and those who stagger their work hours in order to have a parent at home, as well as for those considering staying home. Employed Parents are welcome too! Here we attempt to focus on many of those issues that are particular to at-home parenting. Categories in the site include: Home, Newsletter, Discussion Forum, Book List, Parenting Links, Money Issues, About PAH, Organizations.

Jon's Homeschool Resource Page
http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/
One starting point to find home schooling resources and contacts on the internet.

Parents Guide to the Internet
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/internet/
This U.S. Department of Education guide to the internet is a brief introduction that explains the essentials and encourages parents to be involved in their children's schools and technology committees. A printed copy of the guide is available for free.

Safety Tips for Kids on the Internet
http://www.fbi.gov/kids/internet/internet.htm
A list of suggestions for helping children use the internet wisely.

Megasites

Berit's Best Sites for Children
http://db.cochran.com/db_HTML:theopage.db
Well-established collection of reviewed sites for children, organized by category and given a rating from 1 to 5. The site is updated regularly and makes a good starting point to find web sites your children will enjoy.

Jean Armour Polly's The Internet Kids & Family Yellow Pages
http://www.netmom.com/ikyp/samples/hotlist.htm
Her site for children has existed for several years, and now she has published a book. The website is still maintained and contains many useful links for kids, parents, and other topics.

Steve Savitzky's Interesting Places for Kids
http://www.starport.com/places/
Author is updating the sites, so expect to see changes if you visit often. Also includes a list of interesting sites for parents. Contains many category topics along with advice for parents on helping children use the internet.

Online Reference

United States Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov
Contains news, publications, financial aid information, programs and services offered by the Department of Education.

Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov
Links to many online reference services and educational sites, including the American Memory project which has historical pictures, sounds, and documents, and THOMAS: Legislative Information, which gives full text access to current bills under consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

AskERIC
http://www.askeric.org
The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), a federally-funded national information system that provides, through its 16 subject-specific clearinghouses, associated adjunct clearinghouses, and support components, a variety of services and products on a broad range of education-related issues. AskEric is a personalized Internet-based service providing education information to teachers, librarians, counselors, administrators, parents, and others throughout the United States and the world. It began in 1992 as a project of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology at Syracuse University. From the AskERIC page are links to the Question and answer service, Virtual library, ERIC database, and current news.

The Internet Public Library: Reference Center
http://www.ipl.org/ref
A broad range of reference services complete with real-time access to professional librarians. If you do not need an instant answer, send reference questions via email and receive an electronic reply. A large collection of ready reference sources is also available for anyone to search. Makes a good starting point for research assignments.

American Library Association Resources for Parents and Kids
http://www.ala.org/parents/
Includes several links to book lists, internet sites for children, and an question-answering education service called KidsConnect.

B.J. Pinchbeck's Homework Helper
http://tristate.pgh.net/~pinch13/
A large collection of reference and educational sites, neatly sorted into commonly used categories, created by a thirteen year old boy (with lots of help from his father). This site has been reviewed in the media many times and is a well-known starting point for finding information on the internet.

My Virtual Reference Desk
http://www.refdesk.com
In the spirit of Samuel Johnson's opinion that "The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it," this site tries to serve as an intuitive searching tool to finding information on the internet. Realizing that people use many different types of search techniques to find information, the author organizes the site so that it may be useful for all kinds of searching. Includes subject indexes, links to dozens of search engines, customized search pages of all kinds.

Education World
http://www.education-world.com
Resource for educators with reviews of educational websites, lesson plans, curriculum, book reviews, financial planning information, and a mailing list.

The American Academy of Pediatrics
http://www.aap.org
Many publications available free online and for sale, information on current pediatric news and research, child advocacy programs, and other family information.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov
News, Travelers' Health Information, Data and Statistics, Publications, Funding, Software and Products, are all accessible from this site.

National Urban League
http://www.nul.org
Founded in 1910, the National Urban League is the premier social service and civil rights organization in America. The League is a nonprofit, community-based organization headquartered in New York City, with 114 affiliates in 34 states and the District of Columbia. The website includes a national job bank searching service, speeches and publications, resources, programs and special events information and more.

The U.S. Census Bureau -- International Programs Center
http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/
Large collection of statistics from the Population Division of the U.S. Bureau of the Census, which conducts demographic and socioeconomic studies. Site contains world population information, microcomputer software and applications for working with statistics, technical assistance and training services.

Science and Mathematics Sites

The Shodor Education Foundation, Inc.
http://www.shodor.org
The Shodor Foundation is a non-profit research and education organization dedicated to the advancement of science and math education, specifically through the use of modeling and simulation technologies. Included on this site are instructional resources and software ready to be used in the classroom.

Internet Safety and Cybersecurity Awareness for College Students
https://www.cyberdegrees.org/resources/internet-safety-for-college-students/
Internet safety and cybersecurity awareness have now become essential assets for the work-from-home environment. In order to help individuals working from home, CyberDegrees.org has created a guide that provides tips on the internet safety and cybersecurity awareness.

The Franklin Institute Science Museum
http://sln.fi.edu/
The Philadelphia museum's website is a popular resource for teachers and families. Changing exhibits, online units of study, puzzlers, hotlists of educational sites, publications and expert help are all part of this vast site.

NASA's Quest Project site
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov
A resource for online interactive projects including communicating with NASA scientists, and joining other people interested in following ongoing space missions.

NASA Spacelink
http://spacelink.nasa.gov
Spacelink is a comprehensive electronic library that contains current information related to NASA's aeronautics and space research. Spacelink offers not only information about NASA programs and projects, but also teacher guides and pictures that can enhance classroom instruction. Spacelink also provides links to other NASA resources which are available on the Internet. Educators can access materials chosen specifically for their educational value and relevance, including science, mathematics, engineering and technology education lesson plans, information on NASA educational programs and services, current status reports on Agency projects and events, news releases and television broadcast schedules for NASA Television.

Jason Project
http://www.jasonproject.org
The Mission of the JASON Foundation for Education is to excite and engage students in science and technology, and to motivate and provide professional development for their teachers through the use of advanced interactive telecommunications. The JASON Foundation is an educational project begun in 1989 by Dr. Robert D. Ballard following his discovery of the wreck of the RMS Titanic. After receiving thousands of letters from children who were excited by his discovery, Dr. Ballard and a team of associates dedicated themselves to developing ways that would enable teachers and students all over the world to take part in global explorations using advanced interactive telecommunications.

Exploratorium
http://www.exploratorium.edu
On-line since December 1993, The Exploratorium's Internet presence, called ExploraNet, has been a center for experimentation on how to bring experiences and resources like the Exploratorium to students, teachers, and people who may not have the opportunity to come into the actual physical museum itself.

Air Force Kids Online
http://www.af.mil/aflinkjr
Air Force Link Jr. provides children (ages 6-12) an educational and entertaining online experience while familiarizing them with the Air Force and its heritage. It provides online activities, reading, language skills and motor skills, as well as general Air Force information. Content will be renewed periodically.

Martindale's 'The Reference Desk'- CALCULATORS online CENTER
http://www-sci.lib.uci.edu/~martindale/RefCalculators.html
Impressive collection of a wide array of calculators and many other tools for math, statistics, science and engineering. Thousands of links, sorted by category.

Measure 4 Measure
http://www.wolinskyweb.com/measure.htm
A comprehensive collection of interactive sites that estimate, calculate, evaluate, translate. Science, Math, Health, Finance, and a "measure of everything else."

NIST - Jave webclock (US Atomic Clock)
http://www.bldrdoc.gov/timefreq/javaclck.htm
Java clock that shows UTC time and your computer's time. Other pages from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) sites have information about time and frequency, clocks, and calendars.

Sundial Computations
http://home.earthlink.net/%7Eslawek/
From this family page link to "sundials" to find lots of information.

The Grey Company Trebuchet Page
http://www.iinet.net.au/~rmine/gctrebs.html
Interesting page created by a historical reenactment enthusiasts who created three "siege engines"--machines for catapulting objects. Includes a link to a page of mathematical models for "virtual hurling" machines.

Volcano Applet
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/kids/fun/volcano/volcano.html
Watch a simulation of a volcano eruption where you can make adjustments and observe the effects.

The Virtual Laboratory -- Physics-related Java applets
http://physicsweb.org/TIPTOP/
On-Line Physics Java Applets and VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language--3D representation on the web) Resources.

Cellular Automata -- The game of Life
http://cgi.student.nada.kth.se/cgi-bin/d95-aeh/get/lifeeng
Cellular automata could reveal a lot about how the universe works and maybe even about how life began. Life is one form of cellular automata that creates spectacular patterns. The simplest form of cellular automata are one-dimensional. Universal machines are systems capable of any computation. "Life" is one of them.

BAD-web: Subsonic Aircraft Design
http://fornax.arc.nasa.gov:9999/badweb/subsonic.html
Basic Aircraft Design-Web gives some rudimentary insight into the art and science of aircraft design. While purposefully limiting the scope of BAD-Web to ensure quick results, it demonstrates the kind of trade-offs and decisions that aircraft designers face on a daily basis.

Miami Museum of Science: The pH Factor
http://www.miamisci.org/ph
The pH Factor is designed as a resource to help elementary and middle school teachers introduce acids and bases to their students. Materials are organized using a conceptual framework called the Seven E's: Excite, Explore, Explain, Expand, Extend, Exchange, and Examine. This model can be used in a linear fashion or each E can stand alone. Each E contains an interactive screen and lesson plans. The interactive screens can be used directly in the classrooms, either with individual students or groups. The lesson plans are designed to be read by teachers and modified to fit their specific classroom needs.

UCSB Interactive Astrophysics Arcade
http://www.deepspace.ucsb.edu/ia/index.htm
Collection of astronomy and astrophysics activities including the study of sunspots, the solar system, and quizzes.

Hands On Universe
http://hou.lbl.gov
Hands-On Universe is an educational program that enables students to investigate the universe while applying tools and concepts from science, math, and technology. Using the Internet, HOU participants from around the world request observations from an automated telescope, download images from a large image archive, and analyze them with the aid of user-friendly image processing software.

Cosmos In A Computer
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/Cosmos/CosmosCompHome.html
Witness the birth of the cosmos, watch the universe unfold, all from your desktop. Sounds ambitious, but cosmologists are doing just that: developing powerful computer models that "evolve" the universe from the Big Bang to the present. The scientists are asking some basic but tough questions: How did our universe come to be what it is today? How could galaxies and galaxy clusters emerge from the inferno of creation?