Saturday, June 20, 2020

Science free online games and resources for Indian schools and students

How does the Ocean say Hello? .........................It Waves👋🌊

I made a chemistry joke ..................................There was no reaction 😰

Which planet is married? ................................. Saturn !!! It has rings 💍🖸

Why one should not drink water while studying?.......Concentration decreases 
                                                                             on adding water
Don't have an argument with Phi? ..............................Because it is Irrational

Why can't one trust atoms?........................Because they make up everything

Jokes are always fun. 

And so can be teaching science to your kids and students now. I am sure you are using the math online games in my previous blog. Now, go through this list of 7 websites which will make science learning fun for your kids and students during and post online classes. Refer the end of this article to see how to implement this with your kids or with your class

This is a free site, with no login required and covers major topics in science through a lot of games which eventually end up testing a student's understanding of science and technology. Covering topics for lower classes and primary section, the site has a lot of interactive games and video tutorials. The site also offers a lot of experiments, facts, quizzes(non-interactive), DIY projects with videos, lessons, and tons of images.

Overall a fully packed, science self-study package is available for kids. The most interesting feature is the Detective Games. Put on your Sherlock Holmes Cap!!!

Note: The Detective games were not working when i tried. Better luck to you.



Yes....you read it right !!!

It is NASA..... National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Spaceplace from NASA has everything that you ever wanted your kid to know about Earth and her Heavenly neighbors. To add to it, the graphics are top notch and the content is exhaustively covered through Games, Simulations, DIY craft activities, Worksheets, Handouts and Videos.

The glossary of all terms related to Earth and space is a particularly useful tool. Parents and educators can explore and access a lot of additional teaching material using the link to access other NASA resources.


If you are looking for simulation-oriented games, this is the site for you. The games are designed on naturally existing phenomenon but allows the kid to play with his own creativity in the same. Habitat maker, Solar system maker, Insect maker, Dinosaur maker etc. will surely spark creativity in your kids and engage them very well with these topics of science. The games are less, but worth your time.


The site consists of very limited no. of games. It covers some very basic topics. It has a major focus on animal, plants and human anatomy related games. Some games like creating ocean allows the kids to explore their creativity.


As name suggest, there are variety of games for kids. Subjects other than science are also covered. Hence the coverage of science games is lesser. However, the games are engaging and generally targets kids from kg till class 2 only. The unique features are science songs and some experimental games.


This site offers games to touch upon topics in science. Most of the games do not explore topics in depth, but enough to instigate curiosity and familiarity with the concepts of science. For e.g. the games related to space, do not explain much but helps the students to be familiar with most of the extraterrestrial objects. In short, these are good elementary games and videos which can be used while introducing the topic to the kids for the first time.

The other PBS parent website has some good tips and tricks for parents to deal and handle their kids learning, while at home. Some sections are a good read for parents. 


If you want your kid and students to learn about animals, this is the site to be in. National geography powered Kids site comes with obvously a lot of documentary videos. Additionally, there are quizzes on animals, personality quizzes (it is not what you think it is) and other fun activities. Most of it is very new and refreshing. You may or may not like it depending on your own taste. Most of the content is designed for an International audience and hence a few things might not seem relevant(especially few quiz questions).

But overall, it has good content. And you can blindly trust this to be a highly authentic and genuine content.

Hope this helps engage your kids and students in science study at home during these Covid-19 times. 

If you are an educator, you can share this sites for your students to practice science post conducing online classes. You can also check out 100% Indian apps and tools to conduct online classes too.

If you are a parent, you can selectively share a few sites depending on what grade your kid studies in. 

You can also share it with other parents who have kids from KG till class 8.

If you want me to write on any specific topics, please do put a comment below. Till then catch my next blog on coming Saturday. 

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Happy Learning !!!

Thursday, June 11, 2020

7 Free Online Games and learning resources for Maths of Primary Section

Those who think that winning an argument with one's Boss or Spouse is tough......try engaging a kid for a maths practice session for 15 mins.

I can't help with the former, but for latter......Definitely yes.

In my previous post i had discussed about various tools to conduct online classes and my subsequent post covered 100% Indian apps for online classes. However, for subject like maths, Online or Physical classroom teaching does not suffice. A lot of practice needs to be done by the kids after the class is over......and all maths teachers and parents will know that this is one of the toughest job.

And since our kids are going to use maths and number skills throughout their lives, we cannot compromise on the practice of maths. 

So, I have tried to explore and find out some good websites which allows students to practice and hone their maths skills. And since nothing engages a young mind more than games, i have tried to identify 7 sites which offer lots of online maths games (in addition to videos and worksheets)

Lets game...

It covers all major topics of maths in primary section. It has Games, Videos, Worksheets and blogs on innovative maths teaching. The best part of this site is that the entire content is categorised from KG till Class 7. This makes it extremely easy for teachers and parents both to guide the students properly to use this site. No sign-up/login required.


2) www.mathgames.com

One of the largest collection on online games for maths. All games are segregated class-wise as well as skill wise. A student/teacher/parent can chose to play games on basis of fundamental number skills too. Worksheets are available but no videos. No login is required.


Unique feature of this site is it offers gaming arcade. Students can play some really cool games, accumulate points, cross levels….its a lot of fun!!! This feature however requires one to sign-up and login.


3) www.matific.com

This is a good site but a paid one. Good news is due to Covid-19, a free complimentary access of 7 days for parents and 60 days for teachers is provided by the site. The site has a good compilation of games/episodes, worksheet and word problems. The unique aspect of the site is various DIY workshops. Students can model a lot of things like fractions etc and hone their number skills and easily related with a lot of concepts. It also comes with reports which can help a parent monitor the progress of their kids.

 

4) www.splashlearn.com

The site offers maths games from KG till class 5. The collection of games is good and the graphics are of very high quality. The site requires a sign up, but it is free. The best feature of the site is it allows you to allocate days and time that your kid wants to commit to study maths. The site also keeps a tab on this and keeps the parent updated via the parent dashboard. A very useful feature, if our kids are as we were during our school days 😊

 

5) www.themathsfactor.com

Based on the UK curriculum for maths, the site has some good games. The coverage is not very exhaustive from Indian curriculum point of view, but there are enough games to cover the basic skills and concepts in maths. The site has paid content, but currently it is made free for all. The site needs sign up and there is a parent login also through which parents can monitor the progress of their kids. There are a few interesting blogs also on making maths more interesting

 

6) www.education.com

This is another very interesting site for maths. Lots of worksheets and online games are given, categorised grade and topic wise. Interesting features are the guided lessons which enables the student (with some help from the parent) to learn on their own. Also there are ready to use lesson plans, with step by step activities to enable learning. This will be extremely useful to parents who are trying to teach their kids for the first time, that too without the kid going to the physical school. 


In addition to this, there are lot of Hands-on activities, Interactive stories, online exercises, printable workbooks, science projects and song videos. The only catch is that the site has 2 versions; basic and premium. Certain features are not fully accessible in the basic version. Basic is totally free and premium is charged.

 

7) www.mathplayground.com

 This site contains maths content from grade 1 to 6. Videos and online games are interesting. The most unique aspects are story math and math arcade. Story math consists of word problems which can be solved by creating online models. The model making process is very easy and gives a very good perspective of the problem to the students, making it very easy for them to understand and solve word problems. The math arcade consist of online multiplayer games taking maths practice for students on a full on gaming level. I myself got hooked to it 😊


How you can use these resources?

1) Schools & Teachers: 


2) Parents: 

  • Use the teacher recommended games for the current class of your kid
  • Use all the games of previous grades, to ensure that your kid revises all the concepts that they studied last year. 

3) Others:

  • Share this blog with anyone who is a maths educator or a parent of kids from KG till class 8

Use the below options given at the end of the blog to share it using Facebook, Twitter, email etc.


Hope this blog is helpful to you all. Please do share your feedback in the comments section at the end of the blog. Also mention any other topic that might be worth covering in my next post, publishing every saturday

If you liked it then please do follow and subscribe my blog using the options given at the top right side of the blog. Screenshot given below



Happy Learning !!!

Saturday, June 6, 2020

Indian Apps for Conducting Online Classes in Schools

आत्मनिर्भर भारत: Call to Develop Indian Apps 

Last few weeks have been exciting and we saw the entire teaching fraternity demonstrating their ability to move from traditional to digital platform for teaching in a very short span of time. Hats off to our teachers !!!

I tried comparing the existing apps for online classes in my last blog. Çlick here to view it. Since all of them were Non-Indian apps, i am trying to compare the Indian alternatives available so far. 

A word of caution. Most Indian apps are very new and yet to stand the test of time and huge inflow of users. Many are yet in their Beta version and will improve over time. So kindly take note of this before using them 

Hope this helps








Happy Learning !!!