Sunday, May 31, 2009

The Social Web: Science Forums, The Original

In searching for a science based online community to participate in I was able to locate many, however, finding a site that was useful to me as a teacher who teaches all strands of science was a little more challenging. I first tried NSTA's blog, however, the postings were intermittent and I did not find them very useful. Next was Ning, there were many communities to participate in but most were class sites, highly specialized or centered around one topic, not a broad based science forum with many users. Finally, while searching for directions to prepare nutrient agar from scratch I found Science Forums, The Original. Not only did I find the directions to prepare the nutrient agar for a science fair project but also my online community. The site is very well organized. By visiting the community page you can choose different forums in Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Medical Science, Mathematics, and more. Under each of the these topics you can choose the general science forum for each field or a more specialized topic under the fields, such as, quantum theory, genetics, or organic chemistry. In addition to the forums found directly on site, Science Forums, The Original also provides links to blogs created by the users themselves. This service offers additional resources and continued conversations for topics these users specialize in.

Where I found this online community most useful was in learning alternative approaches to explain science concepts my students were having trouble grasping. Another was finding more material to continue class discussions or to help answer questions from class. While searching and reading threads for various topics many users include links to radio programs, TV shows, or other media that can be used for class readings and discussions. Another great advantage of the wide array of topics and users of this site are the labs, class activities and additional resources to supplement class material that can be found throughout the listed threads. One of the major reasons I think if found this site so useful compared to others I looked at was the shear number of users. While most of the users are not teachers, everyone is interested in science and seems very knowledgeable in their field of study. This allows for feedback from many people with different approaches to a topic or question which I found very useful when trying to find different ways to present or talk about material so that every individual student is given the information in a format they can understand. It also allows for quick responses to questions. On average, I have received a response to questions I have posted within 5 minutes which then starts a continued conversation about the topic with other viewers and as they hold conversations with themselves, I have been able to find the answers I have been looking for.

You can check out this online community by clicking on the link below:

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