Dositey: Math Challenge
Challenge your younger students to use their problem-solving skills with these short problems. Although this site requires paid registration to access many of the Math Challenge problems, there are several that you can use for free. Review understanding of time, addition, subtraction, and, most importantly, an understanding of how to attack a word problem. Some of the problems have solutions submitted by young mathematicians. Show your students the real world application of the abstract mathematic skills they are learning with these short exercises. These would be good as a whole class activity or small group instruction.
http://www.dositey.com/problems/mathchallk2.htm
Exploring Earth: Is It Safe to Live Near a Volcano?
You might not remember what you were doing on May 18, 1980, but I remember hearing on the radio that morning that Mount. St. Helens had erupted, wondering what that would mean for my family and me, and watching ash falling like rain from the sky just six hours later. We live 300 miles east of the volcano, and the fine ash from that eruption covered our city and shut it down for a week. The primary focus of this excellent interactive site is for you to decide how to plan for evacuation when a volcanic eruption is imminent. You can examine volcanic deposits from prior eruptions, see an interesting time-lapse video of the eruption alongside a cross-section of the volcano showing what was happening inside the mountain, and find out what the actual area affected by the eruption. As you go step by step through the scenarios, there are questions posed for you to consider for potential evacuation plans.
http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/investigations/es0907/es0907page01.cfm?chapter_no=investigation