Internet sites to check during vacation

Debbie Jacob

Hit the ground running for the July/August school holiday with some internet sites that are out of this world. Explore the universe. Learn about stars that are light years away.

Float virtually in outer space and zoom in on any place in the world you would like to go. The librarian in me loves to search the internet for unusual sites that are educational and entertaining.

Check out these cool sites:

Bachelor Studies.com. This site lists thousands of university degrees from around the world. Get your own account and create a folder of possible university choices to save and revisit. You’ll find links for bachelor of science and bachelor of arts degrees in business, law, technology, management, engineering, journalism and more.

You can search by degree or by the place where you’d like to study. There’s a link for student resources and scholarships. Follow this link: https://www.bachelorstudies.com/.

The World Digital Library at the Library of Congress in the US features a world-wide collection of cultural heritage materials in Spanish, English, French and other languages.

You can find books, manuscripts, maps, and useful primary sources. It’s a fun place to browse and a good resource for school projects – especially for history. Check it out at https://www.loc.gov/collections/world-digital-library/.

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine is my best discovery. Did you ever find the perfect online resource, forget to save it for your essay or project, go back to find the source and discover it has disappeared?
This is the place you go to find those lost resources. There are over 800 billion resources saved here. This may be the best resource you’ll discover this holiday.
Here’s the link: https://archive.org/web/.

Discover the stars at a cool astronomy site. Pick some of the 100,000 stars featured on http://stars.chromeexperiments.com/. Take a tour and experience what distance feels like in the universe.

The Smithsonian Institution bills itself as the world’s largest museum, education and research facility. And the Smithsonian magazine features articles for all ages to enjoy. Again, this is a good site to become familiar with for school projects.
Here are irresistible articles on history, science, innovation, arts, culture and travel. There’s a section for photos and videos. This site is also a good place to get reluctant readers interested in reading and research. Look at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/.

Where in the world would you like to explore? With a site called https://earth.google.com/web/ the sky is the limit. Start anywhere you want in cyberspace, spin Earth and choose a country to explore. Earth.google.com features cool lessons in geography, one of our most neglected subjects.
Pop-up pictures provide information about the place you’ve chosen.

Ten Amazing Astronomy Sites to Get to Know the Universe – Check in with the Hubble Telescope and see what it is watching today. Find the astronomy picture of the day. Read the latest astronomy magazines with all of their fascinating stories and pictures. There’s much to explore in outer space on this site: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/universe-amazing-astronomy-websites/.

Read Brightly offers a list of Young Adult (YA) books chosen for “summer reading.”
Studies show that students who read during long holidays return to school four months ahead of their non-reading peers.
If your child is not an avid reader, this site will provide information about the types of books teens are reading. YA books feature themes and conflicts important to teenagers like love, family, friendship, confidence and identity.
Check out this site and do check out local bookstores for Caribbean books. Reading Caribbean literature helps students to discover themselves because the place we live is a big part of our identity.
A quick pick of enjoyable Caribbean books includes Brian Samuel’s Song for My Father, Ira Mathur’s Love the Dark Days, and Lisa Allen-Agostini’s The Bread the Devil Knead.

I’ll be exploring other Caribbean literature students should check out this holiday. Get some good ideas about YA literature at https://www.readbrightly.com/summer-ya-books/.

Diaries are useful tools for self-reflection. They help you to work through issues and create a personal history to look back on decades from now. This website provides ten free sites for digital diaries. Find the one that suits you best at https://www.freemake.com/blog/top-5-free-websites-to-keep-diary-online/.

Responsible, limited Internet use during the holidays can expand your world of knowledge.