5 Resources for Learning About Aviation - How Airplanes Fly

Today at the WWII Museum in New Orleans I took a bunch of pictures of My Gal Sal including some 3D images that I'll use in VR headsets. Looking at My Gal Sal and some of the other planes in the museum was a treat for someone like me who is fascinated by aviation. When I got back to my hotel room I went through my archives to find some of my favorite resources for learning about flight and how airplanes fly.

The Minute Physics video How Do Airplanes Fly? explains the roles of wings, propellers, turbines, and wind currents in making a plane fly.



The Contest for Human Flight is an interactive site about the competition between the Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss. National Geographic has an interactive timeline that complements the episode. In the timeline you can see archival videos of the first airplane flights, images of prototype drawings, and additional passages of text about the Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss.

The Wright Brothers - The Invention of the Aerial Age is another good timeline for teaching about the developments made by the Wright Brothers. Dig into the Interactive Experiments section of the timeline and you'll find Engineering the Wright Way. Engineering the Wright Way offers interactive simulations in which students learn about wing design by joining the Wright Brothers for test flights in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

America by Air online exhibit is a series of thirteen online activities that take students through the history of commercial aviation in the United States.

How Things Fly features an interactive module in which students design their own airplanes. The activity starts with a simple and slow airplane that students have to modify until it reaches a target speed and altitude. As students modify the wings, fuselage, and engines of their airplanes they are given instant feedback on the effects of those modifications. In some cases the feedback includes the airplane crashing and the students having to start over again.

5 Good Resources for Teaching and Learning About World War II

This morning I went to the World War II museum in New Orleans. It is a fantastic museum. The museum does a masterful job of mixing artifacts and oral histories into the greater context of World War II. And for folks like me who are fascinated by aircraft the Boeing center is a great place to see vintage aircraft up close. In the Boeing center I stopped and recorded some photospheres in the Google Street View images app and in the Google Cardboard Camera app. The whole experience prompted me revisit some of my favorite online resources for teaching and learning about World War II.

The Science and Technology of WWII provides students and teachers with lesson plans, timelines, essays, images, and learning activities about the scientific and technological developments that took place during WWII. The darkroom section of the website contains thirteen categories of images of WWII scientific and technology developments. The timeline on the website allows students to explore the scientific, technological, and political steps in the development of the atomic bomb. The learning activities section of The Science and Technology of WWII gives students the opportunity to learn about and send coded messages.

The World at War is an interactive timeline about FDR's decisions during WWII. Click on any of the key decisions listed to learn more about those decisions. The decisions are interspersed amongst other key events of WWII. None of the event descriptions are terribly detailed, but the timeline does provide a nice general overview.

History Animated is a resource that I first started using with students in 2009. History Animated provides animations of battles of the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the US Civil War, and US Campaign in Europe in WWII, US Pacific Campaign in WWII. In each of the three series of animations you will see the animated movement of armies displayed on a map. Each animation is accompanied by captions describing the strategies of the armies as well as the results and consequences of each battle. The animations will make great supplements to classroom instruction. The animations are a significant improvement over drawing or pointing to places on a map.

The BBC's World Wars In-depth series contains some great audio, visual, animated, and text resources for learning about WWII from start to finish. WWII In-depth contains a timeline overview of the war. From there you can jump-off in a number of directions to explore details about WWII.

The Wikimedia Commons' Atlas of World War II contains dozens of maps related to World War II. Some of the maps are blank outline maps, but most are labeled. In the Atlas of World War II you will find maps of battle locations, shifts in control, and possession of territory. The collection of maps is arranged by region.

The Week in Review - The Most Popular Posts

Good evening from New Orleans where my daughter and I have been spending time exploring while mom is at a conference here. This is a completely new-to-me travel experience as we're up early and wandering the city before almost anything is open. This morning we were the first in line to buy tickets for the WWII Museum. If you get the chance to see that museum, do it!

Wherever you are this weekend, I hope that you're having a great weekend. If you're plans include trying some ed tech tools, take a look at those featured in this week's most popular posts.

Here are this week's most popular posts:
1. GE Teach Tour Builder - Create Google Earth Tours for the Web
2. 10 Math Tutorial YouTube Channels Not Named Khan Academy
3. This Online Audio Editor Is Beautiful
4. Two Free Speech-to-Text Tools
5. Create Your Own Google Classroom - G Suite Not Required
6. Story Cubes - Templates to Help Students Plan Stories
7. Getting Going With G Suite - An Online Course

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I am offering five different online courses over the next four months.

• Getting Going With G Suite is a five week course that offers a graduate credit option. 
• Teaching History With Technology is a three week course for middle school and high school social studies teachers. 
• Blogs & Social Media for Teachers and School Leaders is a three week course that walks you through how to create blogs and use social media to engage your community. 
• Practical Ed Tech Jumpstart is the course for anyone who has looked at the educational technology landscape and wondered, "where do I start?" 
• Finally, by request, I am offering from Blog to Job - A Teacherpreneur Jumpstart.

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PrepFactory offers a great place for students to prepare for SAT and ACT tests.

Boise State University offers a 100% online program in educational technology.

My Simpleshow provides a great way to create explanatory videos.

Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp Early Bird Discounts Available for One More Day

The Practical Ed Tech Summer Camps have sold out every year that I've hosted them. This year promises to not be an exception to that pattern. Four registrations for the Practical Ed Tech Chromebook Camp arrived yesterday. Those four got in at the early bird discounted rate. There is just over 24 hours left to register for either the Practical Ed Tech Chromebook Camp or the BYOD Camp at the early bird discounted rate. Click here to learn more about both events.

Your registration includes sixteen hours of hands-on learning in a friendly environment. Of course, I'll also feed you breakfast and a hearty lunch during both days too.