Whether your interest is in crime scenes or weather reporting, Edheads will be able to help. The graphics immediately grab your attention. The activities use both visual and auditory tools to make learning complex scientific concepts such as forensics, medicine and weather forecasting understandable.

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Debbie Chikousky is an agricultural columnist that has combined her love of farming with her love of homeschooling. Her writing allows her to be a stay at home farm mom with her four children. Although the two oldest went through public school, their daughter is now a homeschooling high school graduate and the youngest isn’t far behind. Combining homeschooling with a busy day of farm chores and teenage life can be a challenge but it is always fun. She utilizes free tools as much as possible in her endeavors to keep learning connected to life. You can read more about her farm life at Chikousky Farms.

Name of Product: Edheads

Link to Product/website: http://www.edheads.org/

Description of Product: “Edheads helps students learn through educational games and activities designed to meet state and national standards.”

Debbie’s Description of Product: Edheads is a free-to-use website. There is no need for an account and no passwords to remember; however, it does require a Flash Player download. Once users arrive at Edheads, the graphics immediately grab your attention. The activities use both visual and auditory tools to make learning complex scientific concepts such as forensics, medicine and weather forecasting understandable.

Homeschool Uses: Edheads can be used either as a solitary learning experience or in groups. It is not a social site, but families with more than one child can do activities together interactively. In the teacher’s guide area, there is a full assortment of resources to choose from, along with how this site rates with the Ohio and National Science Standards. Since the site is geared for grade levels 4-9, parents may have to help some of the younger children with the language/reading involved in the activities.

Content and Safety: According to the site, “Edheads.org meets the guidelines of TRUSTe’s Children’s program.” They do collect contact or personal information without prior parental consent or parental notification. They do not publicly post or distribute identifiable contact information without prior parental consent, and will not ask for more information than is needed to participate in any of the given activities.

Debbie’s Experience Using the Product: When our family explored the virtual surgery activities, we found some graphic photographs of real life surgeries. They were a fantastic learning tool for children interested in medicine or even to use to prepare them for a surgery on themselves or others, but the photographs may be disturbing to some younger viewers, or the faint of heart.

Living on a farm, the weather is a daily concern and one that my husband avidly checks. So it was natural that this was the activity that we spent the most time at. The weather activity involves learning about both reporting and predicting weather. Each area has three levels where the children learn all the intricacies of weather forecasting and predicting. The most important skill for these activities is language comprehension, which the weather glossary can make easier. The Teacher’s Guide can also help users navigate through activities, providing useful tips and more.

In the reporting activity, we learned what all the symbols on weather maps meant and through the dialogue, learned how things like a low pressure system affects the weather. When you click on the weather symbol, the “Weathertron” shoots it out on the screen for the child so he or she can then drag it to where the dialogue tells him or her it goes. At the end of the activity, a report card is issued, which can be printed if desired.

We found the predicting activity to be a bit more challenging. For example, you need to be able to multiply by two digits to calculate wind speed and keep track of many weather symbols and facts. There is a calculator option to use on the activity so you don’t have to have one ready. The only part my son (age 15) found frustrating was that when he made a mistake the Predict-o-Matic didn’t tell him what the correct answer was supposed to be.

Summary: Whether your interest is in crime scenes or weather reporting, Edheads will be able to help. We found the site to be both engaging and fun. In addition to the weather, my husband and I found the virtual surgery activities to be educational as well.

Editor’s Note: Read this FREE Weather Review:
Learn About the Fascinating World of Weather with Weather Wiz Kids!