FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
sitesALIVE! is an online curriculum program series that links traditional classrooms to students studying at field sites around the world. The series takes advantage of the best characteristics of the Internet, giving students in our member classrooms updated information on the experiences and learning adventures at the sites almost as they happen, as well as online home and classroom activities, resources and Teacher's Guides! Though sitesALIVE! is targeted to grades 4 to 8, first graders through high schoolers have enjoyed and learned from our programs. sitesALIVE! is produced by Ocean Challenge, Inc, a private company.
The field sites we connect to are run independently by career scientists, seamen, and teachers. The high school and college aged students at the sites transmit their journals, essays, answers to questions, photographs, and audios to Ocean Challenge headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The Ocean Challenge staff edits and compiles their submissions and posts them right on the web! The Ocean Challenge staff also post school and home activities and other curriculum supplements to provide member students with a substantive learning experience. Students and teachers can also access the site from their homes and share the experience with their families. All content on our site is monitored by our staff, so it is safe for children.
3. What curriculum does sitesALIVE! provide?
sitesALIVE! encourages contextual learning. Students learn science, social studies, environmental studies, and mathematics in real world situations! The content, tools and resources made available through the sitesALIVE! series are designed to provide classroom projects, develop skills in communication technology, and encourage creativity, critical thinking, observation, deduction, and information interpretation in an interdisciplinary fashion. Oceans Live!, Wetlands Live! and Rainforest Live! tend to favor the sciences, emphasizing earth science, oceanography, and environmental conservation. Class Afloat! emphasizes the social sciences.
4. How does sitesALIVE! fit into my classroom?
sitesALIVE! is an exciting program that can fit into your classroom in a variety of different ways! You can use the program to fill 10 minutes to 10 hours per week. sitesALIVE! can be used by a self-contained classroom teacher and integrated into many areas of the curriculum or used by a subject area teacher teaching science, social studies, or mathematics. You may choose to focus primarily on one of our programs, or, if you have a school license, integrate two or more programs.
5. What schools run the programs at the field sites?
Class Afloat is run by Class Afloat, Inc, a program of West Island College of Montreal, Canada. The School for Fields Studies of Beverly, MA runs the programs at the other sites. Both are accredited schools, and the students studying there earn academic credit for their work.
6. Why should I join sitesALIVE?
sitesALIVE! demonstrates the active application of subjects which might be dry in a textbook, but which come alive when used in the real world! Kids love the fact that this program is a real event with real people, happening right now! Also, our online educational programs are unique. Your students will be following the learning adventures of other students--young people that they can identify with! You will have 12 or more full weeks of programming per semester for each program--with journals, essays, and activities updated regularly.
You have the option to sign up for either the Full Year, the Fall Semester, or the Spring Semester.
8. If I sign up late will my students
miss the action?
Ideally, it is best to subscribe as soon as possible, because the research projects
and classroom lessons progress together. Each lesson tends to build on previous lessons,
but they can also be used individually if you choose to incorporate one of the sitesALIVE!
programs into your already existing curriculum.
9. How can I subscribe to the program?
If you are a teacher in North America, you can subscribe by contacting Ocean Challenge, Inc. at 1-800-890-3049 (U.S. and Canadian customers), Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm, EST. Outside of North America, please call 617-248-9777. If you are a home subscriber, you can subscribe to the program by logging on to the sitesALIVE! web page, accessing the Families at Home link and completing the required information.
This site is best used with either the Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Explorer browsers and RealAudio and vivoplayer plug-ins. For downloading information and other useful tips, please go to Browsers and Settings.
IMPORTANT!! Your browser stores pages in its cache after it downloads them. If you have not set up your broswer to check for the lastest pages each time then your browser, to save time, looks in its cache to see if the page you want is there. If it is, it will look at the old page instead of searching on the internet for a new, updated page.
To get updates from sitesALIVE! right away, you should 1.) configure your browser and tell it to look for new sites, instead of in its cache for old ones, or 2.) Refresh whenever you log onto sitesALIVE!
To learn how to configure your browser, go to Browsers and Settings.