The KIDS Report is a biweekly publication produced by K-12 students as a resource to other K-12 students. It is an ongoing, cooperative effort of 15 classrooms from around the world. Teachers assist and provide support; however, students select, evaluate and annotate all resources included in every issue of the KIDS Report.
The KIDS Report is published with a generous grant from John and Tashia Morgridge and with the support of the General Library System of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
This issue of KIDS, dated April 11, 2000, was written and produced by Joan Whartnaby's class at Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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World War I Trenches on the Web
http://www.worldwar1.com/
World War I Trenches on the Web is a great web site and resource for learning and researching about what went on during World War I. This site is very impressive from the start. The homepage has nice graphics and photos of the war, famous quotes, and even a scrolling message from WWI leaders. The homepage has a translation service for non-English speakers (those who speak Spanish, French, German, Italian or Portuguese). On the homepage, you can find a welcome message describing how to best use this web site. From there you can either start at the Reference Library or go directly to your search. It is well organized and easy to find your way around. This site offers a comprehensive look at the Great War. You will find information written in a pleasant tone about the causes, battles, leaders, armory, casualties, and much more. This site is visually interesting containing many links that have photos, artwork, documents, maps, and posters from World War I. They even have a page of VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language), that if installed you can view World War I weaponry, airplanes, Zeppelins, and battle cruisers. There is also an art gallery in a virtual 3-D world that you can navigate and interact through. The spelling and grammar is good and the text is recommended for people who are 12 years and older. It works well with ZoomText and JAWS for the visually impaired reader. The web page contains book reviews, events, periodicals, forums and many more exciting links to explore. It has a page of all its credits and you can e-mail the trench-keeper. It is also a member of the History Channel.com. We consider this site to maybe be the best source for researching the First World War.
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World War I: The Great War, The Western Front
http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/EMS/WWI/WWI.html
This web site on World War I is very organized and easy to find your way around. It contains a good amount of information that is easy to read and it is very educational. When you enter this web site you will see a table of contents by years, a list of other web sites with a brief description, and pictures about the war. You can also just scroll down further to get to each link by years. Because this site is organized by years it makes it easier to go to the part of the war that you want. You can find out a lot about the war including such topics as President's Wilson's warning to the Germans in 1915, nurses in the Great War, trench warfare, and the Treaty of Versailles. The homepage ends with the poem "In Flanders Fields" by Major John Mc Crae. This web site loads in a reasonable amount of time and works very well with ZoomText. Pam Robinson prepared the site for the students at Elkton Middle School, Elkton, Virginia. She can be e-mailed comments or suggestions. I would recommend this web site to anyone.
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The Great War, 1914-1918
http://www.infosites.net/general/the-great-war/
This is a great web site with lots of information about World War I. It was written by Kare Murray who lives in Northern Ireland, and wants to keep the memory alive for those who served in the Great War. His site has won a four star award from the American War Library. I like the way it is organized and how easy it is to move around the site. The homepage has all his links, and links to other war sites. You can find information in paragraph or table form about many topics about World War I. Things such as an account of the Great War with expandable maps; statistics; time lines; Ireland's involvement in the war; a personal account about one of Mr. Murray's relatives; and much more. I recommend this site for elementary readers on up. The site loaded in a reasonable amount of time and most of the links worked quickly.
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Germany's High Sea Fleet in the World War
http://www.richthofen.com/scheer/
The homepage is an on-line magazine called The War Times Journal. It is entirely staffed by volunteers and you can submit your own articles or archives to this site. From this homepage you can link to archives, major wars, and games you can download for free. There's also a store in which you can purchase books and things. There is a wide variety of links that take you to many wars and military history links and they are all active. This link to the Germans' High Sea Fleet gives detailed information on World War I from the Germans' point of view. This site is based on Admiral Reinhard Scheer's original memoirs published in 1920. He was the commander of the entire German High Seas Fleet. You will find that the page is very well organized. As you look through the different links, you will notice that the pages are arranged by chapters. The pages load quickly and the information is creditable. This site works great with JAWS. All information seen is educational for the reader and is recommended for people 12 years or older. I highly recommend this site if you are doing a report on The Great War.
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The World War I Document Archives
http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/
The site I chose has many documents about World War I. It has been assembled by volunteers of the World War I Military History List and has been recommended by the History Channel. If you would like to find experiences of what happened to people during this war, read this site. You can link to treaties, official papers, biographies, and much more. A neat image archive is available that shows photos of before and after towns and buildings were destroyed. Lots of people who were involved in the war kept logs during this time detailing their life and how the war affected them. Memoirs are arranged by year. There are links to discussions groups and workshops to help with the site. The site is easy to find your way around, but is for a more advanced reader. I was able to get to the links fine and it works very well with JAWS version 3.1 and 3.5. It was recently updated in March 2000. The site could be used to educate you or inform you about the many archive documents from World War I.
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WORLD WAR I
http://www.geocities.com/enchantedforest/tower/3968/wars/ww1.html
The homepage that links to this site is called Mike's Patriotic Site. When you link to his page you hear the Star Spangled Banner playing and you can find links to other major wars and history facts. This site loads in no time at all because of the small amount of graphics used. Despite not having flashy pictures, it does have a cool MIDI theme. There is a link to all his MIDI files of patriotic music. It is a great resource, especially for those who have to dig knee deep into the war. Each section is titled and the title describes the contents of that section. It is written in small, concise paragraphs covering all major events of the Great War, starting with the assassination in Sarajevo and ending with Great Britain and France declaring war on Germany in 1939. It is done in a nice, large font so those with a visual impairment can read it. However, the color scheme is not real suitable for visually impaired people. The background is white and the text is a light blue. The reading level spans from elementary school on up. The author, Patriotic Mike, is a Vietnam Veteran. He has a guest book and I signed it because I thought it was a great site. I also read other peoples' entries and, like myself, everyone who signed it was happy with the research conducted by this man. Visit the awards page to view his many awards. If I had to rate it on a scale of 1 to 10 I would give it an 8. I would have given it a 9 or 10 but it lacks graphics and that's what people like. If you have to do a report on World War I, or if you have any free time, read these pages because they're interesting.
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The Aerodrome: Aces and Aircraft of World War I
http://www.theaerodrome.com/
The home page starts with a graphic that you can link from to all its pages, or you can just scroll down to the links at the bottom. This web site has plenty of information about aces (pilots who are credited with 5 or more victories), aircraft, medals, and much more. To get to the information, you have to go through several links, but when you get there you will find great facts about famous aces and their aircraft. These facts cover such topics as nationality, rank, training, and statistics. You can purchase World War I books, videos, T-shirts, or just read the reviews. There is even a help link with a glossary, abbreviations, frequently asked questions and a search box. Visitors can follow links to other web sites, e-mail the website authors, and view the many awards for excellence at this site. It loads in a reasonable amount of time and is easy to navigate. I recommend this site for people who are 12 years or older. The accessibility for JAWS is very excellent with this web site. If you want to learn more about the aircraft during the Great War and the brave men who flew them, then this is the site for you.
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Military History: World War I (1914-1918)
http://www.cfcsc.dnd.ca/links/milhist/wwi.html
I liked this web site tremendously. The main page was a timeline of military history from ancient times until the 20th Century. When I linked to World War I, I came to this site. There were many fascinating links on the home page. From this site you could link to many sites covering the following topics: general resources, aerial operations, art and literature, biography, campaigns and battles, cryptography, media and propaganda, military medicine, modeling museums and memorials, naval operations, organizations and programs, participation by country, personal narratives, reenactment, and finally regimental histories. A wide variety of information can be found from a descriptive account of the Battle of Ypres, to U-boats, to all of the participating countries. Also, you can look at an actual diary kept by a soldier and a picture of the coded message from Zimmerman. There are plenty of excellent photographs and the site is relatively easy to navigate. The main page loads in a reasonable amount of time and going back and forth between the pages and the main page is easy. Surprisingly, many of the links did not work; however, there where so many to chose from that I could still find lots of useful information. The information at the site is easy to read; I recommended this site for people 12 years and older. All the links and the main page have correct spelling and grammar. The Canadian Forces College, under the Department of National Defense (Canada), developed the site. I would definitely recommend this wonderful website.
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These Internet resources were evaluated on the basis of Site Selection Guidelines that the students developed. Questions and comments can be sent to the facilitating teacher at Overbrook School for the Blind, Joan Whartnaby, at Joan2@obs.org
2000 Copyright by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the entire KIDS Report provided this paragraph, including the copyright notice, is preserved on all copies.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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