Parents – April Resources – sites for parents helping students and for students.

SPECIAL NOTE FOR PARENTS – TUITION ASSISTANCE APPLICATION
Tuition assistance applications are now available online at: http://www.tuitionaid.com/ If you would prefer to apply using the paper form, these forms are available at your local Catholic school’s office. All Catholic elementary and high schools in the Diocese of Stockton use this same form.

FEATURED WEBSITES:

NEW Finding the Right College can be very difficult for high school students. Here are a couple of websites that help you to search for just the right college based on criteria you provide including miles from your zip code. http://www.nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/ and http://www.ucan-network.org/.

Highlights for High School is your guide to MIT courses selected specifically to help you prepare for AP exams, learn more about the skills and concepts you learned in school, and get a glimpse of what you'll soon study in college. http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/hs/home/students/index.htm

High School Science Video Contest WIRED Science wants high school students to share their science know-how with the world. Students are asked to make a short video exploring a cool scientific principle. It could be a math formula, a chemistry equation, a law of physics - anything as long as it's science-related. http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience
/education/student-video-contest.html

COOL SCIENCE WEBSITES FOR KIDS

If I could change the world I’d … http://braincake.org/default.aspx

Not just for science, BrainPOP has tons and tons of information in all subject areas, plus links for parents and teachers. http://www.brainpop.com/

Did you ever wonder…why the digits of Pi look random?...about the best bugs for cleaning up toxic waste? The answers to these questions, and many more are found at Berkeley Lab’s website: http://lbl.gov/wonder/

Games, podcasts, episodes from PBS Kids Dragonfly TV series are found here: http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/

Space … Medicine … Environment … and fun facts (did you know that a woman named Emily Roebling supervised construction of the Brooklyn Bridge?) all about engineering careers for girls: http://www.engineergirl.org/

Extreme Science is the place online to find the biggest, baddest, and the best in the world of extremes and learn about the science behind what makes each the most extreme example of its kind. http://www.extremescience.com/

No matter where you live or what language you speak, math, science and technology play an important part in your everyday life. Take a look around, and you'll start to notice that math, science and technology are everywhere! Sponsored by the Girl Scouts: http://girlsgotech.org/

Its good to know how stuff works? http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Earth science enterprise for kids only from NASA: http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/

Of course we have to include the National Geographic website for kids filled with games, videos and activities: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/

The Science Museum of Minnesota has lots of online activities for kids at their website: http://www.smm.org/explore/

Here is an engineering website for everyone. Test your knowledge and skills as an engineer. http://tryengineering.org/play.php

Well, if you can (or can’t) be an engineer, how about trying your skills as a chemical or physical scientist? http://tryscience.org/

(Thanks to Northwest Airlines magazine WorldTraveler for the above links)

ONLINE MATH RESOURCES FOR PARENTS AND STUDENTS

Online math resources for students: Looking for new ways to inspire your children? Check out these online resources:

The US Department of Education provides a great website for parents and teachers to relate math to real life. http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Math/index.html

Especially for Girls

The Girl Scouts' Girls Go Tech site offers games and resources designed especially for girls.

GirlStart is aimed at drawing middle-school girls into math and science with games and fascinating child-friendly articles.

The Girls Math & Science Partnership encourages and inspires teen girls interested in math and science.

Homework Help

Math.com offers students practice problems, games, tools and tutoring.

S.O.S. MATHematics includes useful tutorials in algebra, trigonometry, calculus and other advanced topics.

The University of Cambridge runs a fabulous site with new enrichment activities for elementary, junior high, high school and college-level students, every month.

(The above links are courtesy of ASCD – The Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development – as found in their 11/13/07 special report)

Professor Garfield website – This website offers games, challenges, videos, and cartoons for students from PreK-8. http://www.professorgarfield.org

Learning toolbox website – This site is a treasure-trove of strategies for writing, taking notes, setting goals, and more. There are areas for students, teachers, and parents. It was designed for special-needs students at James Madison University, but many of the tools are applicable in middle and high schools. http://coe.jmu.edu/Learningtoolbox/

Catholics Web Sites of Interest for Parents

The Vatican – Available in six languages. This site has links to Vatican archives, saints, papal writings and much, much more.
www.vatican.va

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops – This site contains an online Bible, an online Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Charter for the Protection of Young People (in four languages), movie reviews, Bishops’ statements, and more.
www.usccb.org/

The California Catholic Conference – legislative documents and the California Catholic Bishops’ views about the budget and legislation.
www.cacatholic.org/

NEW The National Catholic Educational Association http://www.ncea.org often has information of interest to parents as well as teachers and principals. Under the “Public Policy” link in the left side, you’ll find a link to “US Supreme Court Decisions” that have affected Catholic schools. Starting with the very first decision, Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary in 1925 which declared that the child is not a mere creature of the state and that parents have a right to choose the type of education they want for their children. If you wish to explore these decisions further, Cornell University has a great website featuring historic Supreme Court decisions at http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/historic.htm

Catholic Encyclopedia – more than just an encyclopedia, this site has links to news stories about religious matters.
www.newadvent.org/

Religion Textbooks – links to the textbooks used in our schools.
RCL/Benzinger (Faith First series) www.faithfirst.com/ Sadlier (We Live Our Faith series) www.sadlier.com/liveourfaith/

Movie Reviews – this fee-based subscription site ($24.95/year) has in-depth reviews of movies and DVDs – in much greater detail than the USCCB movie reviews. The main website has two sample reviews so you can see the depth of information available about any movie. Movies are reviewed in 15 categories from Alcohol through Music to Violence with an detailed account of the incidents found in the movie.
www.screenit.com/

Catholic Media Sources

The National Catholic Register
www.ncregister.com/current/

American Catholic - Home of minute meditations, Saint of the Day, Catholic Questions, the online editions of St. Anthony Messenger, Catholic Update, Millennium Monthly, Youth Update, Scripture From Scratch and many other features including daily news.
www.AmericanCatholic.org

Catholic On-line – a nice Catholic perspective on news and events, many other features too.
www.catholic.org/

 Last Update March 31, 2008