Life Science Safari
A jungle caravan awaits you at www.vilenski.org/science/safari/ where an adventure guide will take you on a Life Science Safari. It will introduce you to five types of living things, from microscopic bacteria to towering giraffes. You can go on a Cell Expedition and view the inner parts of cells where organelles such as golgi bodies and mitochondria roam free. If you're up to the challenge, sit down in the hot seat of the classification game show, "Who Wants to Be a Scientist?" Go on a wild ride through the mysteries of life. (May 26, 2002)

Riverdeep - The Learning Company, featured Human Body Adventure in their online and e-mail newsletter, The Classroom Flyer, as a featured link under the heading "Integrating Technology" in their January 24, 2002 issue.

"Students will take a complete tour through the inner workings of the human body, learning about all the systems and interacting with quizzes and trivia. High interest reading and interactivity."
View the newsletter

"I will be adding the links to Life Science Safari and Human Body Adventure" on January 16, 2002. "I am also adding them to the "Content Rules: The Schrockguide Award" award page, since they exemplify the type of site I choose for this very select group of content-rich sites."

"I have 26 criteria that I consider before adding a link to the Schrockguide, but, when choosing the sites for the "Content Rules!" award, I have chosen those that include a substantial amount of content presented in a usable way for teachers and students."

Life Science Safari and Human Body Adventure were reviewed and added as links to the Hougton Mifflin Link Library on January 3, 2002.

EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD from the Awesome Library on December 28, 2001

"Congratulations! Your site has been selected for an Editor's Choice Award from the Awesome Library, a collection of the top 5% of sites in the field of K-12 education. To find the links, go to"http://www.awesomelibrary.org/" and search for the word: vilenski

In order to be included in the Awesome Library, a site must meet the standards and criteria presented on our Ratings pagel.

Because the Awesome Library only includes the very best sites, it has been rated as the top resource for "k-12 education" in many of the popular search engines, such as Google, Alta Vista, Direct Hit, Lycos, Ask Jeeves, MSN, Excite, Infoseek (Go Network), Inference, Northern Light, and GoTo.com.

Your "Life Science Safari" site is featured in the November issue of the "Top 10 Educational Sites on the World-Wide Web." Learning in Motion publishes the Monthly Top 10 List on our Web Site for educators and students who are interested in integrating the Internet with their schoolwork.

Human Body Adveture was listed as one of the 5 Coolest Sites for the week of December, 17, 2000

"Each week, the Education World Great Sites for Teaching About ... page highlights Web sites to help educators work timely themes into their lessons. If your class is among the millions of students celebrating the arrival of spring, this week's sites are among the best on the Web for integrating plants into your curriculum.....

Life Science Safari: Plants
Did you know that a eukaryotic cell is any cell that contains a nucleus and related membranes? This great page for elementary kids on plant cell structure doesn't hold back on the substance: cell membranes, walls, chloroplasts, cytoplasm, golgi bodies, ribosomes, and more. Each term is a link to a concise definition with examples and animations to help create understanding. There are lots of links to other kinds of living things too."

Life Science Connections: The Human Body Adventure - This site opens with great Flash animation, introducing year 7 students to 'Skippy', the character whose body is explored throughout the site. Very easy to navigate and packed with sound information, the site takes us level by level into the body - skin, eyes, ears, muscles, internal organs, digestive system and skeletal system. An extremely useful and fun resource for biology teachers. (28 September 2000)

See the November Newsletter and Review! (PDF, 421K)

Beginning of the article...

LIFE SCIENCES SAFARI PROVIDES GUIDED TOURS THROUGH BIOLOGY
One of the joys of surfing for educational Web sites comes from finding really robust and creative endeavors developed by teachers for their classes. One of these slick cyberstops, Life Science Connections, was created for the parents and students of Jennifer Vilenski's seventh-grade class at Roger Ludlowe Middle School in Fairfield, Conn.

Throughout the site, Mrs. Vilenski shares with the World Wide Web audience clever ways to explore life with a focus on biology, botany, ecology and zoology.

"Your site has been chosen as one of the Links of the Week based on its originality, content and quality." For the week starting August 28, 2000.

Review: "These interactive adventures for middle school students can make the study of life sciences more fun. The three adventures are The Human Body, Life Science Safari, and The Case of the Disappearing Dinosaur. Colorful flash animations help make the presentations interesting, and the lessons have interactive quizzes to help students learn."

Site of the Month:

December 2000 - Kid Zone: Human Body Adventure

August 2000 - Kid Zone: Life Science Safari

August 2000 - Life Science Safari

"Sites receiving this award are distinguished by the quality of their content alone. A flashy Web site will not receive this award if its content lacks interest and integrity. A simple Web site will receive this award if it serves the interests of discovery, mental enrichment and thoughtful enjoyment. This award doesn't go to "cool" sites. It goes to the great sites."

August, 2000

Awarded for Human Body Adventure and Life Science Safari on 8/9/00

Human Body Adventure was again featured in Study Web in January 2001...Human Body Adventure "has been selected as a featured site in Lightspan's StudyWebę as one of the best educational resources on the Web by our researchers. You will be able to view it in our Professional Development:Teaching Resources:Collaborative Activities:Health:The Human Body section

This site has been awarded the Education Planet "Online Project Top Site Award" by our teacher/reviewers for it's quality content and usefulness to Online Project educators and students. (8/7/00)

Review: "Human Body Adventure - Lets crank up that MicroCamera, drink that shrinking potion and grab our secret wall penetrating ring ... and we are off to explore Skip's body. First step is the skin. Do you know what a hair follicle looks like up close? Here's one to look at. Be sure to read the Bonus Science Facts at the bottom of the page.Then its off to the muscles... Do you know how many muscles the Human Body has? If you think you are an expert, try out the muscles self quiz. Then its off to the internal organs.

Be sure to visit each of the body systems. If you are having trouble finding specific information, check out the Lost? link at the bottom of the web page to see a list of all the pages on this web site."

Life Science Connections has been a featured site from approximately 7/2000 to the Present

Reviewed on 5/20/00

From June 9, 1999 to April 2001, Go Free Home Pages has listed Life Science Connections as a "Cool Home Page."

www.4kids.org recommended Life Science Connections in their syndicated strip in dozens of Sunday newspaper comics on 7/11/99.