photo:
As an example, here is a short (well, sort of short) list of websites I found that would help me research the Haiti earthquake and apply what I found across a range of curricular areas. If I found these resources in less than two hours, how many more could I find?
Taking the Idea of 21st Century Skills to a Real-World Issue - Links to Information on the Haiti Earthquake
Haitian Earthquake - Current News
http://upcoming.current.com/search?q=Haitian+Earthquake+Disaster
USGS Poster
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/poster/2010/20100112.php
USGS Earthquake Lessons
http://education.gsfc.nasa.gov/ess/Units/Unit4/U4L24A.html
DLSE Teaching Box – full units on teaching Earthquakes grades 6-12
http://www.teachingboxes.org/earthquakes/index.jsp
National Geographic – natural disasters; good set on Earthquakes
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/
USGS Search for resources and lesson plans according to grade level
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/search.php?sendContentID=&sendLevelID=8&sendRegionID=&sendTopicID=30
USGS List of resources for earthquake topics (list is huge and comes from researchers and universities across the country)
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics.php?topicID=60&topic=Education%20resources
BBC News Animated Guides to Earthquakes (page also links to animations of other disasters)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7533950.stm
Haiti Earthquake Data Portal by USGS
http://cegrp.cga.harvard.edu/haiti/
New bing maps about disaster in Haiti
http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#5003/0.50328=&o=&a=0/5872/style=auto&lat=m2qyty&lon=8z4jz6&alt=-4.843361&z=19&pid=5874
Google Earth added before - after files to view the earthquake area over time
http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/01/haiti-imagery-layer-now-available.html
Google response site - links to all types of information regarding this disaster
http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/
Google Overlay Map with Earthquake Data
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=http:%2F%2Fmw1.google.com%2Fmw-earth-vectordb%2Fhaiti%2FHaiti-Earthquake-nl.kml&sll=40.111689,-95.712891&sspn=41.414553,93.076172&ie=UTF8&z=18
Interesting Photosynth made of NASA pictures after the earthquake
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=4b180dc9-d59c-4ebf-853c-362fedb096f6
Links to excellent earthquake pictures from The English Blog
http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/english/2010/01/haiti-earthquake-pictures.html
PBS Teachers – Resources for teaching about Haiti earthquake
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/connect/resources/7548/preview/
Scholastic News for Elementary Students
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/search?Nr=AND%28Collection_ID%3AAR%2CSource_Name%3AScholastic+News+Online%29&query=Haiti+Earthquake
Facing the Hati Earthquake in the Classroom
http://blog.gale.com/speakingglobally/news-in-context/facing-the-haiti-earthquake-in-the-classroom/
Free Lesson Plans on Haiti Earthquake
http://www.freelyeducate.com/2010/01/free-lesson-plans-and-educational-sites-on-haiti-earthquakes.html
Lesson Plans on Haiti from the NY Times
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/?s=Haiti+Earthquake+Lesson+Plans&search.x=31&search.y=13&search=Search
Understanding Numbers in News Reports
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/that-figures-understanding-numbers-in-news-reports/
Social Networking and it’s new role in disasters
http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/play/1255999/twitter_facebook_connecting_people_in_haiti_disaster
Facebook comes of age with disaster in Haiti
http://www.projo.com/education/content/Facebook_Haiti_01-31-10_N2H71GO_v39.39870f7.html
Haiti Crisis Update and other blog articles
http://rayharris57.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/haiti-crisis-update-education-needs-and-response/
European Association of History Educators – social historical context of natural disasters
http://www.euroclio.eu/site/index.php/news-mainmenu-730/history-education-news-mainmenu-384/the-social-historical-context-of-natural-disasters-haiti.html
Social Media and the Haiti Disaster
http://www.emergencymgmt.com/emergency-blogs/disaster-zone/81627957.html
Before and After Pictures of Haiti
http://baldophobe.com/haitiearthquake.htm
Haiti Earthquake Photogallery
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/6987916/Haiti-earthquake-aerial-and-satellite-photos-of-Port-au-Prince-from-the-air-and-space.html
Haiti: How to discuss the Haiti earthquake with your students – Edutopia Article
http://www.edutopia.org/how-to-student-discussion-haiti-disaster
Talking to children about disasters – for parents and teachers from Scholastic
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=1466
Haiti: What can you and your classes do right now to help – Edutopia Article
http://www.edutopia.org/groups/edutopia-welcome-lounge/12213
Awesome infographic highlighting the impact of the Haiti earthquake
http://awesome.good.is/transparency/usersubmissions/haiti/schwartzman/
This is not by any means an inclusive list; these are just the resources I found while following the searches I did and seeing where the Internet would take me. Try letting your curiosity take you on a journey sometime and see the amazing information you can find out about a real world problem. And give your students the real world - not just the piece of it found in a textbook.
