Website of the Week: TryScience

A tip of the hat goes to my friend Cricket B for pointing me toward this week's website, TryScience. This site primarily acts as a "gateway to experience the excitement of contemporary science and technology [by interacting with over 400] science and technology centers worldwide." You can view a number of Live Cams!, including the seascape cam at the Carnegie Science Center and the butterfly cam at the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science. There's information to help you plan your next Field Trip to a science center along with Experiements for you to try at home.

Unfortunately, some of the links are outdated and the site is rather graphic-intense, requiring plug-ins for several activities. Nonetheless, TryScience is a great starting point if you want to locate and get a feel for the science centers near you. There's also an option on the website to view it in different languages, including French, Chinese, and Portuguese.

Website of the Week: National Zoo

Giant PandaPhoto credit: Jonathon Coombes, BurningWell.org
This week’s website of the week is the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. Visit Just For Kids and solve one of more than twenty online jigsaw puzzles, send an E-card, read fact sheets about animals and habitats (complete with photographs), enjoy a crossword puzzle, or print out animal coloring pages (including a Giant Panda Activity Book). Join the Conservation Kids’ Club and make a mask or listen to the call of a Golden Lion Tamarin. Explore the Kids’ Farm, one of the zoo’s newer exhibits, to learn about farm animals and discover where your pizza really comes from! Then Take a World Tour to learn about animals across the globe. Be sure to follow up by checking out one of the National Zoo’s more than twenty Animal Web Cams -- including two pandacams and three cheetahcams -- to meet your favorite animals up close.