Resources for Teachers
Selected Government Web Sites
April 6, 2002
Exercises
You should be able to complete these exercises from the links provided on the class web page.
www.vla.org/pdf/grundweb.htm
Civics
Ben's Guide
1. How many words are in the Gettysburg Address?
[Hint: You don't have to actually count them.]
2. What is an "enrolled bill"?
3. Who was "Uncle Sam"?
4. What is macaroni, as in Yankee Doodle....?
5. Play Place the State. No need to do the whole thing. Just fun to see it.
6. If you like word games play Presidential Names Word Scramble.
House of Representatives web site
1. Who's Grundy's representative in the House of Representatives?
2. What caucus did he originate?
3. Compare his site to Eric Cantor's. Whose do you prefer? Why?
Senate web site
1. Click on Learning about the Senate.
Click on More in the Glossary section.
What's an "engrossed bill"?
2. Find either Virginia Senator's web page.
3. Which web site do you prefer - the House or the Senate? Which is easier to navigate?
Thomas
1. What is the status of H.R. 768?
[Hint: You need to know what Congress this was from. We're dealing with the 107th Congress.]
2. How did Representative Boucher vote?
LSU Federal Agency List
1. Use the LSU page to find the Division of Coal Mine Workers' Compensation.
[Hint: There would be several ways to do this.]
Virginia Laws & Legislation
1. Use the General Assembly site to find your legislator.
2. What happened to S.1057 in the General Assembly during the 2001 session?
3. Find a bill during the current GA session on a topic of your choosing.
Science
EPA's Educational Resources site
1. Teacher section click on Curriculum Resources & Activities.
Under Water go to Surf Your Watershed
Within Locate Your Watershed find Grundy.
2. What Grundy's watershed number?
3. What's the name of the watershed Grundy is located in?
4. What states share this watershed?
5. How many lakes are there in the watershed?
Kids section of the EPA web site
1. Click on Water
Do the What's Wrong with this Picture exercise.
2. Go back to the Kids page. Try the Garbage & Recycling link.
3. Go to Recycle City and look around.
What other government agencies might publish scientific information on their web sites?
1. Guess at some URLs for the following agencies:
Agriculture Department
Federal Maritime Commission
Food and Drug Administration
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Fish and Wildlife Service
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
National Science Foundation
Department of Energy - KidsZone section
1. Scroll down toward the bottom of the KidsZone page and ask the Energy Any a few
questions.
2. In the "Energy Dictionaries" section
Click on "Cool Science Factoids"
Check out the "Factoids"
How many people in the U.S. live near the ocean?
What energy source in the major generator of electricity in the U.S.?
Mine Safety and Health Administration
1. Go to the "Little Miners" online exhibit.
How young were some of the children who worked in mines?
2. Let's go Prospecting.
What's mined in Virginia?
NASA SpaceKids page
1. Go to the Solar-Max 2000 site
Take a look at the images of auroras from April 30, 2001 and October 21, 2001.
How far south were auroras visible on October 21, 2001?
Look at the Aurora Arc Map for the Northern Hemisphere. How far south are auroras
visible today?
Patents
1. Search for recent patents dealing with your golf swing.
2. Go the the Patents Kids page.
Click on Games
Test your knowledge of the U.S. patent system by trying your hand at the "Mousetraps."
3. Test your Inventor IQ - again on the Patents Kids page.
History
LC's American Memory site
1. What historical events took place on your birthday?
2. Using the Collection Finder section of LC's American Memory site find photographs on the a
bridge in Buchanan County, Virginia.
[Hint: Think architecture]
3. From the Learning Page try some of the "Activities". The Big Picture requires Shockwave,
but might be fun to try.
State Department
1. Find the latest Travel Warning about traveling to the Middle East.
2. Find out something about the history of Azerbaijan.
[Hint: Take a look at Country Background Notes.]
3. From the State Department's Timeline of U.S. Diplomatic History find out whether the
French liked or disliked Benjamin Franklin when he served in Paris as a representative of the
American colonies.
Virginia
1. From the Virginia History Resources on the Internet site go to the WPA Guide to the Old
Dominion. Search it for your hometown.
2. Also from the Virginia History Resources on the Internet go to the Virginia Cavalcade. Take
a look at the Lesson Plans for Educators section.
3. Also from the Virginia History Resources on the Internet - when was Mills Godwin, Jr.
governor of Virginia? Notice anything odd about when and how he served??
Math
FedStats
1. Click on Topic Links A-Z, Click on C, Select Coal
What federal agency is supplying the information?
Find Virginia Coal Statistics (hint Geography)
Find the Average Price of Coal Exports (hint Price)
2. Go back to Topic Links A-Z, Click on M, and Select MapStats
Choose or Click on Virginia
Answer the questions below from the resulting table.
What agency is supplying this information? (hint ?)
How many people lived in Virginia in 2000?
Did Virginia grow faster or more slowly than the United States between the 1990 and 2000 censuses?
In 1997, were Virginian's richer or poorer "per capita" than the average U.S. citizen?
Is Virginia more or less densly populated than the average for the entire United States?
National Center for Education Statistics
1. Choose Games and Activties
Take the "Mathematicians are People Too" quiz.
2. Try the "Creat your Own Graph" exercise. OR skip down to the Ask ERIC exercises and do
the M & M graphing and probability exercise.
Dept. of Agriculture's Kids page
1. What are the three type of graphs used most frequently by the Dept. of Agriculture? (you can
find this at least two ways) [Hint: Think "charts & stats"]
2. Take a look at Ag for Teachers.
Examine the lesson plans using the 1997 and 1992 Censuses of Agriculture.
Look at the other links provided on this page. Do some look familiar?
Ask ERIC
1. Take a look at Lesson Plans
Go to Mathematics and Choose Probability
Lets do the M and M Graphing and Probability Lesson!
Geography
State Department -Kids page - http://www.state.gov/kids
1. What is the 2001-2002 National Policy Debate Topic?
Click on the Geographic Learning Site
Go to Hot Spots and Cool Sites - How about that Malaria fighting mosquito?
Virginia
1. From the Geology of Virginia page
Name the five geologic divisions of Virginia.
What distinguishes the Mountain and Valley Region?
2. From the GeoHazards page
What geologic hazards are found in Virginia
3. From the CIA World Fact Book Site - http//www.cia.gov
Find a reference map for Africa
Kenya
Community Information by ZIP
1. What is a ZIP Code?
2. Find the ZIP + four for the Library of Virginia, 800 East Broad Street Richmond, VA
Click on Health
Find information on Lead Poisoning in your county.
Census
1. Go to the Kids Corner Page
Click on Facts take a look a couple of states
Click on Quiz each character has different questions
2. Go to the Census in the Schools site - http//www.census.gov/dmd/www/teachers.html
Go to Teaching Materials
Scroll to Making Sense of the Census 2000 Click on Grades 5-8 Scroll to Maps
Do a few of the exercises for Maps
Computer Skills
1. Search Grundy Virginia in Google's UncleSam search engine.
What federal agency does the first document you get come from?
How can you tell?
2. Search Buchanan County Virginia in Google's UncleSam search engine.
One of your "hits" should be Buchanan Map Stats from FedStats.
Take a look at it.
How many people under 5 years old live in Buchanan County.
Business
1. Go to the GPO Browse Topic on Business.
Look at the SBA information on starting your own business.
What should some of your First Steps be?
2. Go to the Virginia Dept. of Consumer Services.
Are there any certified organic growers in Buchanan County?
Visual Arts
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
1. Click on Online Exhibits and scroll to Visual Arts Room
OR
Click on Virginia Visual Arts Room - http//www.vmfa.state.va.us/gmuvava/index.html
How many eras have there been in Ancient Egypt? (lesson 1)
What was the purpose of Art in Ancient Egypt? (lesson 2)
Find a close-map of Egypt. (lesson 3)
Click on Lesson 6. I thought this was clever.
Smithsonian web page
1. Click on Museums
Explore some the museums and their web pages
National Gallery of Art
1. Click on Education
Click on Copley's "Watson and the Shark"
What does this painting commemorate?
Did young Watson survive?
2. Return to the Education page (Still the National Gallery of Art)
Click on Mary Cassatt.
How does this site differ from "Watson and Shark"?
Click on the image of "Little Girl in a Blue Armchair" then return to the Mary Cassatt page, review the suggested exercises for classroom use.
National Museum of the American Indian
1. Click on Education and Programs
Click on Information for Teachers and scroll down to Materials for Teachers
Review the booklets
Virginia
1. Not sure what who in government does what you need, what's a good page to start with?
2. Find a copy of Governor Warner's Executive Order declaring a state of emergency in Southwest
Virginia
3. Find a copy of the Virginia Constitution
4. Find a definition of Virginia's Motto "Sic Semper Tyrannis"
5. Find the state bird, the state flower, etc.
6. What is the state beverage?
7. Find a map of House of Delegates Districts
Who's your legislator?
8. Log into "FindItVirginia"
Take a look around at the resources available to you.
9. From the MyVirgnia.org home page use the "Find My Community" to locate your hometown and
see what services and web sites it has to offer.
10. From the MyVirginia.org home page go the the "State Web Site List"
Look a friend who works in the state government up in the "Contact State Government
Employees" directory.
Find a state agency that's interesting to you. Poke around its web site.
Health
USDA
1. Go to the USDA Kid's Page
Select the Food Pyramid
What's the difference between the Food Guide Pyramid for Young Children and the general Food Pyramid?
Find the reproducible Children's Food Pyramid art page.
2. Go to the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion - http://www.usda.gov/cnpp/
Get depressed (or not!) try the Interactive Healthy Eating Index
Spend some time looking at the variety of nutritional information available. You will notice some overlap with the USDA Kid's Page
Dept of Health & Human Services
1. Go to the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services Kid's Page - http://www.hhs.gov/kids/
Take a look at the "For Teachers/Educators" they provide some good links to lessons plans for various topics.
Spend some time looking at the other pages they suggest.
Foreign Language
Consumer Product and Safety Commission
1. What languages besides English and Spanish does CPSC publish in?
[Hint: Look at the Espanol page]
2. Find some Spanish language publications.
State Department - English Teaching Forum
1. Find an article in the 2001 volume on using humor in teaching a foreign language.
2. Find two articles which you think would be of use to any teacher of a foreign language.
General Resources
PLAY AROUND!!