Educational Some Tips and Tricks Dear World, Screensavers offer a great opportunity for incidental learning. I have run these on the computers in my classroom and they can lead to some great discussions. SOHO Sun Activity Each time this screensaver starts it downloads the latest collection of sun activity photographs. You have access to images of sun spots and solar flares at the same time as scientists around the world. BOINC Get the kids involved in large scale volunteerism   For a couple of years I ran the SETI@home project screensaver on one of my classroom computers. It had a great interface that examined data collected from radio telescopes for evidence of ET :) The kids loved it! The software has now been expanded and you can get your class involved in all sorts interesting projects in your computer's 'down time'. eg. Climate change research, Search for Extraterrestrial Life, Search for Gravitational Waves or Malaria Control. NB I feel that even though the students may not fully understand the research being conducted, it is important for them to see that they can easily participate in worthwhile worldwide projects. Cities is a very nice animated Earth that lights up major cities of the world and displays the local time and population down the right hand side. Great for having on your laptop and then demonstrating wonder to the kids ie 'Gee, I wonder what's in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky?' :) and then going off to find out. Eye of the Storm This screensaver has a great rotating 3D image of our Earth that overlays detailed data about storms around the world. Fantastic for all sorts of discussion. Photo Slideshow for PCs Once we've been on an excursion, had a school event or have some work samples to display we drop all the digital photos into a folder and point this screensaver to that folder and it displays them as a slideshow.   Harry Potter Screen Saver   This one throws heaps of interesting facts up on the screen from the series. Nice illustrations and information. BTW - the kids love the Wizard's challenge. Tips and Tricks * If your system's administrator won't install these for you, run them on you laptop as a work-around :) - 'It is education that drives technology use in schools, NOT the other way around'.

More Educational Software