The topic I chose to work with is a topic that I am familiar with because I have taught it in the past. It is the topic of mixtures and solutions. One of my greatest resources that I like to use in my classroom is http://www.unitedstreaming.com/. This is the link to Discovery Education and it provides a great variety of videos, images, and usable documents for teaching not only mixtures and solutions, but any subject matter.
These tools are important in developing scientifically literate students in the 21st century because they expose students to the technology that is available. Even if the students cannot have their own individual computer in the classroom, they can still experience the benefits of these resources when the teacher uses these sites with an Interactive Whiteboard in the classroom. These tools help to create awareness.
One of the activities I have used with Discovery Education is to show videos of how mixtures and solutions can be created and how these mixtures and solutions can effect the environment. The videos help to build that background knowledge and help to bring in the real world context.
One of the challenges faced in using the technology is the fact that sometimes the Internet server can be down or the LCD projector bulb can blow. You just have to work around it.
