Thursday 27 February 2014

A Great Collection of Science Websites

Despite the absence of Digital Leaders this week I feel obliged to write a blog post to sustain popularity and do what was meant to written today. So without further delays here is multiple scientific websites. For Periodic Table obsessives: I recommend webelements.com which shows the entire Periodic Table (including Actinoids and Lanthanoids) in which you discover extensive and key information about any element. For those of you want to learn and master the lyrics to Tom Lehrer's magnificent 'Elements' song to impress your friends here's a YouTube video (and it's accompanying lyrics). For space fanatics here's NASA's official site:  http://www.nasa.gov, which includes a educational and children's section for learning more about space and The Solar System.

For those who want science featuring famous intellectual masterminds I recommend, the previously recommended TED, which includes talks by Professor Stephen Hawking and Professor Brian Cox. For those who enjoy unconventional and oddly interesting science I recommend the also previously recommended awesome Vsauce (more details in my review here).

Hope you enjoyed this review! Look out for more science website recommendations by my fellow Digital Leaders.


Saturday 22 February 2014

Spice Bites - Digital Leaders Site Presented to Staff at Riddlesdown



On Monday I will be proudly presenting the Riddlesdown Digital Leaders blog to the wonderful staff at Riddlesdown Collegiate.  Our Digital Leaders are only in their infancy stages and have so much more to do in the school but they have already achieved a great deal and staff are very much looking forward to seeing a little glimpse of what they have been up to so far.

It is the first day of term and very, very early but I am hoping that the some of the Riddlesdown Digital Leaders will be there at 8.25 in the hall to help me show off their super work.

I am one proud teacher!

Ms F


Wednesday 19 February 2014

Scribblenauts Unlimited 3DS Review

Scriblenauts Unlimited is the third title in the Scribblenauts series. The objective of the Scribblenauts games is to complete levels and puzzles by summoning objects/persons/fantasy monster/weapons with the primary character Maxwell's magical notebook e.g. Quest 'make a potion for the witch, so she can have a romantic date with the troll" Object 1: snail, 2: flower 3:candy. The ability to add adjectives allows you to convert the attributes/personality of the objects,e.g. making people happy=evil or evil=friendly, creating great humour. The series' slogan is 'Endless Possibilities, Imagine Anything, Explore Everything",it believes the only limitation is your imagination, which is partially true, although the lack of the Object Editor in the 3DS version, causes a prevented imagination to the user. Another disappointment was the level of difficultly and I found far less challenging than the previous titles suggesting it may be aimed at children with his cartoony style although it's still rated a PEGI 12 for violence.

 This version of Scribblenauts includes popular Nintendo characters/items such as Mario or Link or a Invincibility Star or Master Sword unlike its predecessors.  Since it was released in the USA nearly 1 year 1/2 ago, they are many edits to the European versions since it doesn't include internet memes such as Nyan Cat or Rickroll anymore after the creator of Nyan Cat sued Warner Bros, which could have created a more enjoyable experience.

Buy the game: http://goo.gl/lByGvd 

 Pros:
+Funny
+Creativity is almost unlimited
+Intriguing puzzles
+Nintendo Characters

Cons:
-Less challenging than previous titles
-No internet memes
-Less unlimited than believed

83%-SILVER AWARD

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Recommended for education: TED Talks

TED is a variety of educational talks about 'Ideas Worth Spreading" as it's slogan says, from Can Video Games Make Kids Smarter? to a North Korean refugee, now living in the USA who lost his family during the country's famine. The topics range from entertainment to global issues. TED Talks have been hosted by ordinary people to YouTubers. From Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Bill Gates to world-renowned Professor Stephen Hawking to Michael Stevens (Vsauce). The channel is great since it features a range of interesting topics, allowing you to gain detailed insights into today's world society's interests and issues, in a manner which is attractive to adults and knowledgable students.
YouTube channel: http://ow.ly/tKTfH
Other good TED talks:

Thursday 13 February 2014

Recommend for Maths lessons: Mathletics

The website called "http://www.mathletics.co.uk/" is a fun and entertaining website which helps children with their math skills.




You also get to have a character to start off with and then as more matches you win against opponents you earn fake money and then you can buy accessories, clothes, backgrounds and many other things for your character. Also you can enter a competition and earn a certificate. I will strongly advise you to use this website for maths even though it will cost £39.99 for a child.  


By Lagosan

Recommend for Maths lessons: Watch Simpsons and Futurama episodes-it's that simple!

If you watched any episodes of the Simpsons or Futurama, it has very clever and nerdy mathematical references from Pi to 1729 embedded in it. This is because the writers have Masters and Bachelors even doctorates in mathematics.

They have even created a proper mathematical theorem hidden in 'The Prisoner of Benda" Futurama episode. From more in-depth details of these awesome secrets I recommend reading The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets by British mathematician Simon Singh (buy it here, SPOILER-it's brilliant).

So in your maths class, have a story time of this book or ask your teacher to turn on Simpsons/Futurama episodes on projector from WatchCartoonOnline.com or YouTube then locate these deliciously excellent easter-eggs, then the teacher can explain the mathematics behind it.


Recommend for Maths lessons: BBC Bitesize, Calculator and My Maths

For KS3 I recommend http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/maths/ . You can use this to revise or learn.



Here is a calculator http://www.online-calculator.com/

Good websites for students and teachers are:   http://www.mymaths.co.uk/ or http://www.mangahigh.com/en-gb/


Have fun learning maths!

Recommend for Maths lessons: IXL Learning




I have found a good website for revision called IXL it has revision for reception to year 12.

http://uk.ixl.com



By Sam Shackleton

Saturday 8 February 2014

Recommended for English lessons: No Fear Shakespeare

No Fear Shakespeare (nfs.sparknotes.com/) is part of the excellent Spark Notes website (www.sparknotes.com/sparknotes/), it is designed to make shakespeare easier to learn for anyone! 


No Fear Shakespeare puts Shakespeare's language side-by-side with a facing-page translation into modern English—the kind of English people actually speak today. This makes it much easier to understand and infer from the text; as both versions are avalible side by side it makes comparison and understanding of not so common words so much simpler.












It also provides summaries and in depth analysis of each act/scene and character. This is useful during revision to quickly remind yourself of the story or for some extra perceptive points for your essay.

It is a huge resource for both students and teachers and the best bit is that it's free!

Thursday 6 February 2014

Recommended for English lessons: freerice.com

Freerice.com is a website in which you answer multiple-choice question on the definition of easy and difficult English words, for every correct answer, 10 grains is donated to United Nations World Food Programme, aiding those in necessity and poverty, just through your English vocabulary knowledge. Fortunately nothing negative occurs via incorrect answers. So not only does it improve a student's vocabulary knowledge, but helps improve the quality of someone's life in poorer countries. Overall I think it is a fantastically amazing website for both leisure and for teachers/students in English lessons. It also many other subjects including maths, science, modern-foreign languages, humanities even test preparation/revision, although the main and original subject is English.


Site-http://freerice.com/

One Piece: Romance Dawn 3DS Review

Konnichiwa, O genki desu ka? Japanese viewers and readers of our blog, today I'll review ワンピース ロマンスドーン 冒険の夜明け (One Piece Romance Dawn). Tanoshimu! :) Enjoy! :)
One Piece: Romance Dawn is a video game based on the fantastic Japanese manga and anime One Piece by Eiichiro Oda, it is about a young adventurous boy called Monkey D. Luffy who wants to become the King of The Pirates, he acquired rubber powers after eating the Gum-Gum Devil Fruit, who assembles a great crew. The game follows the storyline from Luffy's beginnings to the Romance Dawn timeskip. The game is a RPG (Role-playing game) in which you level up via battling the enemy pirates and Marines in this case, gaining experience for each character. The anime cutscenes are in Japanese, due to copyright problems over the English dubbed anime, although have English subtitles for those un-fluent in Japanese. The gameplay is fun, being able to punch, kick, slice and dice enemies with each individual character's insanely awesome attacks and powers. Although is annoying, if defeated and have to revert home screen, since you cannot locate a save point, losing data and re-doing gameplay. The manga-like scene are cool, since they combine elements of the manga and anime together. Overall I think this is a great video game for both One Piece and RPG fans.

70%-BRONZE AWARD

Links: 
More info on One Piece:
http://onepiece.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.onepieceofficial.com
Buy the game:
UK version:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Piece-Romance-Dawn-Nintendo/dp/B00F9SQIEK/ref=sr_1_4?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1391706771&sr=1-4&keywords=one+piece
Japanese version: http://www.amazon.co.jp/バンダイナムコゲームス-ワンピース-ROMANCE-DAWN-冒険の夜明け/dp/B00D11GCJI/ref=sr_1_2?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1391708111&sr=1-2&keywords=one+piece+romance+dawn






Recommended for English lessons: Google Books

Students who are reluctant readers will begin reading, once they grow awareness of this book recommendation service by Google Inc. People can search and browse, even purchase from Shakespeare to Marvel comics, it is for any age, from primary to adults. The purchasing is from the most common booksellers e.g. Barnes & Noble, Amazon or Waterstones. For e-book and technology obsessives, there is an Android app and e-books to download for your Kindles, Kobos and Nooks. It even allows you to read books for free, so no online freenium.
Overall I think this will be a great resource to encourage reading among adults and children.

Site-http://books.google.com

Reccomended for English lessons: Wordement

Wordement is available of window 8 stores.
The Game gives you a grid as shown below and you have to try and find as many words in it as possible.
So say for this you would be able to get:
Man
Me

Game Background
Say if the Word started with M you can only have the 8 letters around.

This game if Fun as well as educational


Recommended Sites for English: EnglishBiz

I recommend http://www.englishbiz.co.uk/ for anything to do with English.

It combines many sites about English, like BBC Bitesize (which is useful as well for English, and other subjects as well) so you can find everything you need about English. But not necessarily how to spell pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis! Yes, it is a real word!

Saturday 1 February 2014

Riddlesdown Digital Leaders - Subject Blog Challenge

Over the course of the next couple of months our blossoming bloggers here at Riddlesdown will be completing blogging challenges.  They will be researching and recommending digital tools, apps and sites for various subjects.  Each of our wonderful student Digital Leaders will be producing short snappy blog posts about their top recommendation/s for your subject.

So teachers and students alike - stay tuned!


The schedule of topics is below for your perusal.

Thursday 6th of February - English
Thursday 13th of February - Maths
Thursday 27th of February - Science
Thursday 6th of March - Modern Foreign Languages
Thursday 13th March - Geography
Thursday 20th March - History
Thursday 27th March - PE
Thursday 3rd April - Art