Week 1: Gooru Learning

I saw online someone's take on the 365-day photo project - doing a 365-day web 2.0 project.  I wasn't sure I had that in me - I'm even having a hard time with taking pictures every day! - but I decided to do a 52-week web 2.0 project, in an effort to find some great tools to give to specific teachers.  


For week one, I investigated Gooru Learning.  The folks bringing the world this repository of science and math education resources state that their mission is "to make high quality education accessible and free to the world's one billion students within three years."  Lessons are available in a plethora of science and math  subject areas, and targeted for 5th - 8th grades, although the high school science teacher I shared this with thought there was a lot there that she could use.  From what I saw, the interactives, videos, etc. here aren't created for Gooru and aren't solely on here, but this is a sort of online library for math and science teachers.  (I could have used this as an example in my Cataloging class when we needed to name a library online!)


The main page includes lessons on everything from the solar system, weather and climate, states of matter, and mammals (5th grade science) to absolute value, graphing linear inequalities in two variables, functions involving square roots, and the Pythagorean Theorem (8th grade math). 

Currently, Gooru Learning is by invitation only, but I received my invitation within 24 hours of asking.  It's certainly worth the bother, though, if you are one who teaches math or science or help find resources for those that do.  Gooru Learning's interface is pleasant and easy to navigate.  So much fun, too!  (I particularly love the interactives from the BBC - love those British accents.)  With nearly 2,000 lessons and over 18,000 resources, you're sure to find something you can use.