Wireless G and Wireless N Routers Explained

Ever wondered what the difference is between Wireless G and Wireless N routers?

Here's a good video I found from Netgear that explains the difference:

5 Oceanography Classroom Resources

Here are 5 Oceanography resources you can use in your classroom:

Office of Naval Research

The Office of Naval Research, an official U.S. Navy website, provides excellent resources for educators to teach about oceanography.  Resources include ocean characteristics, habitats, ocean life and ocean regions. The website also includes information about their research vessels.  

NOAA

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has a wonderful page full of resources for teachers.  If you are needing resources for ocean currents, ocean floor features, tides and tsunamis.  Each topic includes multimedia resources, lesson plans and activities and even information about careers students could have in this field.  

Kathy Schrock's Guide

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators, who's guide has a plethora of resources on almost everything, also includes resources on Oceanography.  The guide includes multiple links to several resources that cover oceanography.  If you need a good starting point to your research, this is the best place to start. 

PBS - NOVA

NOVA, a resource from PBS, provides several resources to learn about Oceanography.  Resources include classroom activities, ideas shared by other teachers and interactive resources for students.  The interactive resources is a solid way to get students engaged.  One of the interactive resources provided is "Anatomy of a Tsunami" - which provides diagrams and animated videos and images.  

NASA

NASA is a outstanding resource to engage students in the learning of Oceanography.  Resources include ocean topography, sea surface temperatures, climate variability, carbon cycle and the water cycle. Each topic includes images and data.  NASA also provides a few interactive resources such as "Ocean Motion". This interactive shows animated videos of ocean currents.  

5 Free Apps to stay informed of Severe Weather

Over the last couple of weeks, there has been several storms in the area I live in that have produced Tornadoes.  Thankfully no one has been hurt and everyone has stayed safe.  

With technology like tablets and smartphones, you can be alerted to severe weather warnings and events without having to be near a radio or TV.  Here are 5 resources you can use to stay informed of severe weather when it occurs:

Intellicast (IOS, Android) is a excellent resource to check out current weather radars and severe weather alerts.  The app also offers push notifications for your phone/tablet whenever there are severe weather alerts for your area (Severe Thunderstorm Watches/Warnings, Tornado Watches/Warnings, etc.)  With the push notifications enabled, you can be alerted of what is going on without even being in the app.  You can also access Intellicast by going to their website at www.intellicast.com.  

The Weather Channel app (IOS, Android, Windows) is also a handy app to have when needing updates on severe weather and radars. The app also provides push alerts to your phone just in case you are not in the app or not aware of any severe weather events in your area.  You can also get weather forecasts for the week ahead or for the current day. You can also get this information via The Weather Channel website at www.weather.com.

Accuweather (IOS, Android, Windows) provides a excellent app severe weather and weather forecasting.  Along with the other apps mentioned thus far, this app also provides push notifications in case of severe weather, weather forecasts and weather radars.  The app also includes news and videos related to weather events.  You also have the choice of sharing your current weather conditions on social media websites like Twitter and Facebook. 

The Weatherbug app (IOS, Android) is a great weather app to have in you need to look at the weather forecast, weather radars or receive alerts for severe weather.  Weatherbug provides also a lightning detector called "Spark".  This gives you a idea of how many lightning strikes are in a certain area.  The app also provides live weather cams from different locations across the United States.   

The TVN Weather Live Storm Chasing app is one of my favorites.  If you watched Storm Chasers when it was on the Discovery Channel (or caught it currently on Netflix), you'll be familiar with Reed Timmer.  Dubbed as a "extreme Meteorologist", he, along with multiple other chasers for TVN (Tornado Videos.net) chase tornadoes.  This app provides weather radars and live video feed from chasers who are online.  So, if you are looking for live video of potential tornadoes in your area, this app has you covered.  This can also be accessed from their website, www.tvnweather.com.       

Programing Tutorials - Learn coding with screencasts

Programming Tutorials - a app on the Windows store, is a great app to help you get started coding.  The app, which requires Windows 8.1 to run, provides free screen-casts that give you a step by step guide to coding.

The screen-casts range from programming languages such as HTML, Javascript, Java, Ruby, PHP and several others.  Each programming language has it's own set of screen-casts.

If you looking into creating a Windows Store app, Android app or a Iphone app, this app has you covered. The series of screen-casts for the Windows Store app development, for example, is a very well done series created by Bob Tabor (www.learnvisualstudio.net).  If you don't have Windows 8.1 to run this app, you can head on over to Bob Tabor's website and watch these videos for free.  Click here to visit the free screen-casts lists on his website.

Looking for more coding resources?  Feel free to visit my Coding 101 Livebinder:

Coding 101

JetStream - Online School for Weather

Looking for resources to teach about weather or learn about weather?  I recently discovered a excellent resource from the National Weather Service called "JetStream".  

JetStream is a outstanding website that has a ton of resources for learning all different aspects of weather.  Topics cover, for example, the Atmosphere, the Ocean, Thunderstorms, Lightning and information regarding the Doppler Radar.  

Here's a sample from their page about Tornadoes: 

The Tornado page discusses everything from wind shear, Doppler Radar images and the Enhanced F-Scale. There is also a WMV video file that shows a train being blown off the track by a Tornado.  Click here to go to the Tornado page.  

JetStream also has several pre-made lesson plans that cover multiple weather topics.  Click here to go to their lesson plan page.  

Looking for more resources on Tornadoes or Hurricanes?  Please visit my Livebinders, Understanding Tornadoes and Understanding Hurricanes:

Understanding Tornadoes

Understanding Hurricanes

5 Free NASA IPAD Apps

NASA has multiple STEM applications that Educators and Students can use to enhance their learning experience. If you want to see the entire list, click here.  

Here are 5 free Ipad apps that are definitely worth checking out:

The main NASA app is a must have in your STEM collection.  The app includes videos, images, Tweets from NASA, NASA TV and much more.  

If you are looking to get started with the multiple resources that NASA has to offer both Educators and Students, this is a app that would be a great starting point.  

The NASA Television app is a great app to add to your NASA collection.  The app includes live and on-demand videos from the NASA Television program that is also viewable via the NASA website.  This is a great app as well because you can see a schedule of programs up to a week in advance - that way you can plan out your lesson in a timely manner if you plan on using this app in the classroom.

Images of Change is another app from NASA that provides images of how the Earth is changing due to global climate change.  Images compare and contrast one aspect, for example Alaska's Muir Glacier, from a earlier date and time to present time.  If you are discussing global climate change in your classroom, this is a excellent app to add to your lesson planning.

International Space Station Live is a awesome app for learning about the International Space Station.  The app includes real-time data streaming from the ISS and isting of previous crew members and science experiments performed on the International Space Station.  There is also a excellent feature that gives you a 3D virtual tour of the Mission Control Center that is located in Houston, TX.

NASA Science - A Journey of Discovery is a excellent app that has a database of NASA science missions including details about the spacecrafts, instruments, data and what exactly NASA is trying to learn about with these missions.

Some of these questions include, "What are the effects of space weather on Earth's technology?", "Are there other habitable planets?" and "Was Mars ever a habitat for life?".  

Let's teach kids to code - by TED

Let's teach kids to code - by TED

Wanted to share this video by Mitch Resnick on www.ted.com on coding.

Well done video from 2012 that shows some pretty cool projects that have been created on Scratch - a coding program created by MIT:

If you are looking for coding resources to pick up coding yourself or for your classroom, please check out my Livebinder, Coding 101:

Coding 101