The article Internet Opportunities , highlights how the internet can be used in the science classroom. The author gives various sites that allow students to work with current data on several topics. The Centers for Disease Control site  gives statistics on communicable diseases. Students can sort the data by disease and region to look for trends in the data. For environmental science, the Raptor Center  allows students to track the location of migrating birds. Students can use this data to map out migration patterns of different species. The internet is also one of the only ways to stay up to date with scientific discoveries and breakthroughs.  Science Daily  is a site that indexes the latest scientific findings and headlines. Shareware and freeware on the internet can be used in the science classroom. The author mentions a digital oscilloscope at filez.com that can be used for experiments with sound.

        Science teachers can find tremendous resources on the internet for planning curriculum to professional development. The Physical Science Activity Manual  contains downloadable units on sound, light, magnetism, and Newtonian physics. The units contain demonstrations and labs for students to better understand the topics presented. Science teachers can also subscribe to a listserve to get information or ask about topics in a particular field of science.

    The author also talks about how many teachers do not use technology because they feel they do not have enough resources (only one computer). It is the author’s belief that projection equipment allows one computer to be used effectively in the classroom. I agree that one computer can be used for many demonstration type lessons in the classroom. The focus of integrating technology should be to have the students gather and manipulate the data themselves when possible. I plan on using some of the websites mentioned in the article. The physical science activity manual has quite a few things I want to try in my General Science classes next year.
 

Ridgeway, Dori. (1998). Internet Opportunities. The Science Teacher, 26, 20-22.