Elaine Westbrook Home Page

Greetings from Omaha, Nebraska

I am a teacher at North High School in Omaha, Nebraska. Our school has about 2,100 students and is the high school math and technology magnet for Omaha Public Schools. My summer activities will include working with two other science teachers in developing and organizing a useful science web resource for our school system. This fall North High School will be starting its first year of a flexible time schedule called blocking.

• I am part of a team of teachers developing a two year non-textbook based course called Integrated Science. One of the most powerful educational tools available today is the Internet. Using dynamic Web resources such as international data bases and world class supercomputing resources our students study and research real scientific problems. We are currently developing a two year interdisciplinary water unit that researches the history, biology and chemistry of the Missouri River and its tributaries in our state.

• This year as part of the NSF funded SEERS Program called the Nebraska Water Project-An Interdisciplinary Approach, 100 teachers across the state developed and shared innovated curriculum that is relevent to the unique ground and surface water resources of our state.

• As part of the NSF funded Resource for Science Education Program at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications our team developed a Web-based resource for implementation of cutting-edge technology into math and science high school curriculum. Visit our web site to learn about this resource.

• As a 1996 Nebraska Education Techology Assoction (NETA) grant winner our science department will be able to effectively access and store world class resources from the Web. Learn more about our active statewide organization at our NETA web site.

• As a participant in an Action Research project at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, I researched integrating computer technology into the existing curriculum and its effect on student's achievement.

• As the Chemistry Visualization Resource person for our state, Nebraska teachers and students have access through Internet connection to the Silicon Graphics supercomputer at NCSA. This exciting computational science program allows high school students to visualize electron cloud configurations and create bonding movies to enhance their learning of chemistry. ChemViz has an excellent web site that is maintained by Keith Wessel of NCSA.

• Thanks to a grant from US WEST and support provided by ESU19 and ESU3 our students participated in a research project studying the implementation of Virtual Reality into the science curriculum. We evaluated several of the University of Washington's HIT lab VR applications including ChemWorld. To find out more about the Virtual Reality Roving Vehicle Project check out this excellent site maintained by Terry Wolfe.

My Favorite Internet Stops

• The science educator is a great resource for all areas of science.
• Teachers interested in teaching a Genetics unit would find this site useful.
• Hubble Space Telescope has the lastest press release about what is happening with the Hubble Space Telescope.
• Take a look at Omaha Publics Schools' Home Page to learn about the exciting things going on in our school district.
• For learning more about the mapping of genes Flybase-Drosophila.
• For a wide variety of interesting internet links, try Yahoo.
• A great site for teachers interested in learning more about Computational Science in education.
• The CEARCH Virtual Schoolhouse has a meta-library of K-12 links categorized by subject.
• Access Excellence is an excellent site for biology teachers. Classroom and lab activities, interviews with prominent biologists and research updates are just a few of the things you will encounter at this site.
• K-16 Science Education is an excellent site for science teachers. It serves as a clearinghouse of software and websites pertaining to physical, earth and life sciences, mathematics and engineering. Additional sources include Martindale's Health Science Guide and Reference Desk.
• The Biologist's Web Resource Page is a good molecular biology resource.
• The Tree of Life is a new phylogenetically-based resource that encompasses all kingdoms of living things.
• Biologist's Control Panel is another good molecular biology resource.
• The RSE Home Page is a the Home Page of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications program which brings visiting educators to develop technology-based materials and curricula.
• The Discovery Channel Online is an enjoyable, educational site that changes daily. Science and Nature sections are particularly well done.
• Biological WWW Sites is just what it says...
• The The WWW Virtual Biology Library is a great resource for research, student or teacher.
• The Biodiversity and Biological Collections WWW Server is a useful database of organisms in a number of different kingdoms.
• An excellent source of health information is the World Health Organization WWW Home Page.
• An ever-changing biology-based website is the CSUBIOWEB.
• The Environmental Protection Agency WWW Home Page provides a huge number of links to environmental and legal resources.
• The largest environmentally oriented WWW site is EnviroWeb. Great graphics and information.

• Netscape's Internet search engines (InfoSeek, Lycos, WebCrawler, W3 and CUSI) make up the most useful resource I've found up to this point.
• Anyone looking for a well-organized and concise site with lots of info and great links will find the Chemistry Teacher Resources site fantastic.
• For a wide variety of interesting internet links, try Yahoo.