Test your geographic knowledge and play a game. Depending on how accurate your answers are, donate between 2 and 10 cups of clean drinking water to those in poverty around the world. Great for interactive white boards as a starting or closing activity, a little extra time in the computer lab, or just for fun, FreePoverty is a neat little site!

Created through the USC Game Innovation Lab – part of the USC School of Cinematic Arts’, Interactive Media Division, the ReDistricting Game gives the player new insight into the apportionment and redistricting process. With five different missions, see the power of cartography and politics collide as you work to make state legislatures, the courts, and political parties happy.

Our senior US Government students love the game. It would be great for any 9-12 students studying government or civics, possibly for middle school too as each mission does have a basic and advanced level.

Good luck!

Who doesn’t like a friendly competition? And to see how typing skills are doing? An extra bonus.  Typeracer allows you to set up an account, or log in as an anonymous guest and type a series of sentences. While you type, your speed and accuracy go head-to-head with other typists somewhere out there on the web. At the conclusion of the “race,” you receive a speed and accuracy rating.
A fun little game break and a skill polisher to boot!

Who doesn’t like to explore art and what students don’t gravitate toward images? Today’s “Five” include five great image collections, I hope you find something of interest to you.

Thanks to Christie Burke, our new Library Specialist, I learned about the first resource, Minnesota Reflections, a collection of nearly 31,000 images and documents “shared by more than 95 cultural heritage organizations across the state. This site offers a broad view of Minnesota’s history for researchers, educators, students, and the public.”

Second, thinking regionally, is the Arts Collection, part of the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections.  The Arts Collection “brings together, in digital form, primary and secondary materials relating to the creative arts.” Here you can search a growing collection of art including images of pottery, architecture, and other artifacts.

Third, yes, it has appeared here before, but I use it so often, I couldn’t imagine an article on images without it!  The morgueFile is a great place for educators and students to find quality images for just about anything.

Fourth, part of the Pics4Learning is a free image library intended for educational use. Teachers can also submit their photos to be included in the collection. (An “Advanced Search” for photographer is an easy way for students to find their teacher’s photos.) If you submit your images, you retain your copyright but grant your permission for them to be used for education. FYI, it does take a couple of days for the images to be approved by Pics4Learning.

Finally, images from Craig Blacklock. Not able to be downloaded but beautiful to explore, Craig’s Lake Superior images are wonderful.

Happy Friday!

Teachable Moment, a project from the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility, is focused on helping educators improve students’ critical thinking skills through the use of current issues and topics. With lesson plans and activities for every grade level, elementary, middle and highschool, as well as other ideas, it is a great idea generator for discussing topics of the day with students.