RICOCHETSCIENCE.COM: Current Event Resources from RicochetScience

Current Event Resources from RicochetScience

As I have been traveling across campuses this spring I have had many requests for resources to integrate current event topics into the classroom. Most instructors do not have time to look daily for level-appropriate resources, so the staff at RicochetScience have prepared several resources to help you quickly get the content you need.

One of these is Delicious - an online bookmarking site that allows users to set up networks and share bookmarks.

The RicochetScience Delicious site was set up specifically for introductory biology and genetics courses. Several times each week I update the site with links from Science, Nature, the National Science Foundation, EarthSky and other websites. Each of these are tagged by topic (see below) allowing you to quickly find relevant, current-event topics for your classes.

A really nice tutorial for using Delicious in the classroom is available on YouTube

Once you have subscribed to Delicious, you can easily set up RSS feeds (see link on the bottom of each Delicious site) and import these directly into your course management system. For example, in Connect, all you have to do is click on the RSS feed icon on the bottom of your course and enter the RSS feed URL.

For those of you who are still looking for additional resources, you can also generate RSS feeds from the RicochetScience Twitter site or the MaderBiology twitter site. The RicochetScience Twitter contains daily updates on a number of topics associated with introductory biology, whereas the MaderBiology Twitter site contains areas specific for the Mader series of textbooks from McGraw-Hill. Both of these contain appropriate content for your course management systems.