Friday, October 01, 1999
Internet terrific resource for students
BY ANNE MICHAUD
Enquirer Contributor
When Judy Kuhn's son was a senior in high school, his civics teacher assigned an extra credit report on a legal case of interest to high school students. Her son forgot about the assignment, went on break for the Christmas holiday and remembered the assignment on the last day of vacation.
The paper was due the next day. “Naturally, the libraries were closed for the holiday. So he started surfing the web,” says Ms. Kuhn, a retired teacher living in Springfield Township.
He found a site on U.S. Supreme Court decisions maintained by Northwestern University. He wrote about the rights of high school newspapers and finished his paper on time.
The Internet was an assignment-saver for the Kuhns. Many students and parents turn to it regularly for research. Not only is in conveniently located and open at all hours, it contains up-to-the-minute information.
What's more, much of the information comes directly from the experts.
NASA has several sites, for example, about the Mars Pathfinder Mission, the Hubble Space Telescope and Earth and space.
Www.HomeworkCentral.com is perhaps the mother of all homework sites. It can also be reached via an old address, www.homeworkheaven.com. The site invites researchers to “explore 9,000 study subjects linked to 75,000 scholar-selected Internet resources.”
A recent home page offered links to Hindu history through comic books, myths about tornadoes, an address in America that requires a mule for delivering mail and knowledge about U.S. aircraft carriers. The site also holds discussion groups and college planning help for students, lesson plans for teachers and advice on home schooling and distance learning for parents.
Typing in “East Timor” on this site's search engine produced links to a history of crisis, a map and geography information, newspaper stories and something called the “untold story of East Timor.” The untold story turned out to be a version of history put out by the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, which is battling independence fighters in East Timor. So, parents and students will want to make sure they know where theinformation is coming from and view it with a critical eye.
A search for “Toni Morrison” turned up a brief biography, a photograph, summaries of the author's major works, an interview with Time magazine and the press release issued when she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.
Another mom, Sherryl Wilson of Florence, is home schooling and said she uses the Internet constantly. She has 30 pages of sites logged for reference. The Internet is especially helpful for locating books, Ms. Wilson said.
“I'm always looking for a specific book, and quite a few are out of print,” said Ms. Wilson, who added that she usually finds what she needs online.
Kathie Fuller of Westwood helps her stepsons research online. She especially likes the public library site, http://plch.lib.oh.us, and one that offers ideas for study topics, www.researchpaper.com/index.html.
Ms. Fuller is a student herself at Cincinnati State and uses the Internet for her own school work. “I think I am a good influence for them,” she said. “They see a 55-year-old lady studying and working on homework just like they are.”
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