Edheads



=EdHeads=

Edheads is a free educational website that allows students to "think" their way through simple and compound machines, engineering a cell phone and several types of surgery. It was designed with the purpose of "making hard-to-teach concepts understandable using the power and interactivity of the Internet".  Edheads enhances the classroom learning environment with visual and interactive simulations. The cell phone design, surgical and crash scene simulations begin with an introduction to the concept and are followed by a research or simulation section. The simple and compound machines and weather units are structured in a gaming format and points are rewarded for appropriate selections (positive reinforcement). Each topic segment could be used help the future engineer or doctor explore his or her potential career. The topics are relatively short in duration and can be easily accessed via the Internet.

Grades 5-8 ||= Grades 7-12 ||=  Grades 9-12 || Grades 7-12 ||=  Grades 7-12 ||=  Grades 7-12 || Grades 2-6 ||=  Grades 2-6 ||=  Grades 4-9 ||
 * = [[image:Designing_a_cell_phone.png width="272" height="103" link="@http://www.edheads.org/activities/eng_cell/swf/index.htm"]]
 * = [[image:hip_replacement.png width="274" height="83" link="@http://www.edheads.org/activities/hip/swf/index.htm"]]
 * = [[image:Odd_machine.png width="253" height="86" link="@http://www.edheads.org/activities/odd_machine/frame_loader.htm"]]

Video Clip of Brain Surgery Simulation from Deep Brain Stimulation media type="youtube" key="A8BpZRSHNyw" width="425" height="350" align="center"

Cell Phone Design Center



Actual Brain Surgery



**__Inquiry__** Each topic has a introductory research segment. It give general information about the specific simulation.

__**Construction**__ Calculation of forces help students recreate the crash scene to find out what happened. With their calculations, they must predict possible scenarios which contributed to the accident. The cell phone design section requires student to think and work thorough the engineering process.

__**Communication**__ The only form of communication is feedback from the web site to reinforce a student's decision or surgical procedure.

__**Expression**__ Expression is limited in this website. It is probably not a good idea to encourage creative surgery. However, there are situations in which the student must be creative to solve a problem or design a solution.

__**Advantages**__ Content rich and easy to use Factually accurate Engaging interactive activities and multimedia resources Lesson plans and teacher resources are available Printable handouts and design results are also available for select topics

__**Disadvantages**__ Some of the surgical photos maybe too graphic for young students. There is not a way to limit access to specific lessons. Once the student is in the activity, it is not possible to pause the video or go back to the previous section. The entire video must be replayed in its entirety. This website was under creativity, but I believe that there should be another section titled, "Simulations" and Edheads could be placed there.