Stephanie Bickford

SLM

Elective Web Cams

Web cams

There are so many web cams available on the internet. You can check out how traffic is flowing hundreds of cities all over the world. Many cities have cams perched atop their highest buildings so that you can get a round the clock bird’s eye view. There are hundreds of animal cams where you can watch everything from Sumatran tigers to sharks. Here are some ideas for incorporating web cams into the classroom.

Australia

There are many web cams listed for Australia. Watch the surf off Australia’s gold coast. Get a panoramic view of Perth and Melbourne. Watch koala bears behavior from the comfort of your own home. Showing students these web cams, teachers can broaden a unit on Australia with live footage. See how our seasons in North America are completely opposite than Australia’s seasons. Click on the Perth web cam during the school day and see firsthand that it’s night time in Australia. Students will have fun and add to their background knowledge at the same time.

Coastal Watch: Monitor the beaches throughout Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania and Indonesia. These web cams can help you decide where you want to go to catch some choice waves. Teachers could pair this site with a unit on the delicate coastal ecosystem and the balance between man and nature. http://www.coastalwatch.com/cam.asp?cam=1100

Perth Cam: This web cam provides a panoramic view of Perth city. Cams also monitor traffic and beach activity. This is a good example of a city cam that could be used to show the time difference between Perth and a U.S. city. http://perthcam.bankwest.com.au/cable.html

Melbourne City Search: This website has everything you need to plan a fun-filled trip to Melbourne, Australia. Mellbourne City cams offer many different views of the city, from the docks to the downtown. Teachers could use this cam to compare life in aa United States city with life in Melbourne. Consider traffic, tourist destinations and day to day activities. http://melbourne.citysearch.com.au/feature/26/

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary: Watch koalas and kangaroos in their natural habitat. What do koalas eat? What do they do all day? Explain why koalas and kangaroos are native to Australia and why. Use Enchanted Learning to supplement koala information. http://www.koala.net/travel/webcam/default.htm

Leisurenet Everything you need to know about vacationing in Australia: the weather, flight info, national parks and monuments, wildlife…: Good additional material for Australia unit. http://www.leisurenet.com.au/front.shtml

Pandas

Everyone loves panda bears. Watch them romp, eat and sleep. Ask students to check out panda cams twice a day for a week. What did the pandas do? How often did you catch them sleeping? Supplement the first hand accounts with visits to the panda facts web pages. Students could list 5 panda behaviors that they witnessed on the panda cam and explain why these are important to panda’s survival.

Giant Pandas at the Smithsonian Museum : Here is the official site for the National zoo panda cam. Watch pandas eat, frolick, sleep and play. Available 9am-5pm Monday thru Friday. http://pandas.si.edu/pandacam/videostream/pandavideocam1.htm

Panda Cam San Diego Zoo: Watch Bai Yun, Shi Shi and young Hua Mei do what pandas do at San Diego Zoo’s Panda Research Station. Hua Mei is the first panda baby born in North America to live past four years. What is the zoo doing to improve panda survival in captivity and in the wild? http://www.sandiegozoo.org/special/pandas/pandacam/index.html

Panda Facts : use these facts to help support panda unit and provide background knowledge about pandas. http://www.sandiegozoo.org/special/pandas/panda_facts/index.html

Animal Planet at Discovery.com: Another view of Mei Ling and Tien Tien at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

http://animal.discovery.com/cams/pandavidr.html

Welcome Panda Bears : Pages devoted to facts, conservation issues and behavior of panda bears. http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Jungle/8530/pandas.html

Animal Cams

Students could choose an animal cam from one of the sites listed below. Watch the cam for 2 or 3 minutes everyday for a week. What animal did they chose? What was this animal doing while on the web cam? Students could then go to enchantedlearning.com to learn more about their animal. Students could explore habitat, diet, breeding and behavior. Using the information at Enchanted Learning and what they witnessed on the animal cam students could do a presentation about their animal. Students could work individually or as a team. Each student could characterize, explain and provide examples of one or two animal behaviors.

Discovery.com: This site has a wide selection of animal web cams from which to chose: gorillas, tigers sharks and more. Information and facts are also available for each type of animal available on web cam.

http://dsc.discovery.com/cams/cams.html

Wildlife Website: Here’s a great spot to find a list of animal web cams available on the internet. Be cautious, some of these links are now defunct. Some of these links are terrific. Check out the Manatee cam and the Nesting Birds page. http://www.wildlifewebsite.com/cams/

Cabrillo High School Aquarium: Cabrillo High School in California has put together a terrific list of outstanding webanimal web cams on the internet. Many of these are also available at Discovery.com

http://site.yahoo.com/cabrillo/aquariumcam.html

Paris

Paris, France is known as a center of fashion, food and fun. Many great historical events have also taken place in Paris. Use this web cam for a then and now unit on Paris, France. Show paintings and photographs of Paris before the industrial age. Then show students modern photos and the Paris web cams. Have students compare and contrast what they see. What are some of the constant themes between then and now. Paris web cams could be used for units on history, culture and literature.

ABC Paris Live: If you can’t hop on a plane to Paris right now why not check out this site and visit via web cam. More than 6 web cams are available of the Eiffel Tower. More Web cams stationed throughout the city. Instantaneous images available of the Seine River, the Champs Elysees and more. http://www.abcparislive.com/

Aquariums

What happens below the surface of the ocean? For many years, we did not venture below. Many sailors who spent their entire lives at sea never learned to swim. Now we have the technology to study marine life in their native habitats. Aquariums are also a great place to learn about what happens underwater. If you can’t visit an aquarium, check out these web cams.

Giant Ocean Tank: The New England Aquarium provides web cam footage during normal business hours. Students could visit this site once a day for a week and create a journal of what kind of marine life they saw and what each animal was doing. Students could then visit Enchanted Learning.com to research 2 or 3 of the creatures they witnessed. Students could provide another journal entry comparing and contrasting these animals. http://www.neaq.org/vtour/webcam.g.html aquarium cam, watch fish in large ocean tank

Monterey Aquarium: The Aquarium in Monterey California features a penguin cam and cool penguin facts. Use this cam when talking about the polar regions and ecosystems. How do penguins survive in such a cold climate? How do penguins walk and why?

http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/efc_se/se_sz_cam.asp

http://www.awesomeclipartforkids.com/animalclipart3.html finally a decent clipart site