Not really a true videoconference, but some great interactive information!

Smithsonian launches online cultural heritage tours

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/heritage

The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies is offering a series of free online tours that invite educators, families, and students to learn about America’s diverse cultural heritage by examining objects drawn from the Smithsonian’s vast collections. The cultural heritage tours “allow viewers to delve deeper and learn even more about African American and Latino history and culture through the prism of art and historical objects,” said Director of Programs Stevie Engelke. Each virtual tour features a dozen objects selected from several Smithsonian museums. The African American Heritage tour, for example, features Mohammed Ali’s 1974 red boxing gloves, the Woolworth’s lunch counter that was the site of a crucial 1960 civil rights sit-in, and portraits of George Washington Carver and Mary Church Terrell.

The web site offers a number of interactive features that allow users to examine, research, and react to the objects they encounter. Teachers also will find classroom activities, downloadable images for classroom display, and information on learning standards addressed.

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Smithsonian Education

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/index.html

Looking for lesson plans tied to the Smithsonian? Check out the 'Educators - Prepare, Plan, Teach page.' There are three ways to use the page:

(1) Click on the Lesson Plans links in the areas of Art & Design, Science & Technology, History & Culture, and Language Arts;

(2) Use the Find Resources fields to search for resources by Keywords, Grades and/or Subject;

(3) Use the State Standards of Learning fields to search for resources by California State Standards.

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Parks Online Resource for Teachers and Students

PORTS is a collaborative effort between public schools and California State Parks. By using the California's K-12 High-Speed Network (HSN, a high speed network connecting California’s public schools) PORTS is able to deliver live presentations to classrooms from parks throughout the state.

Click on this link the view thier videoconferences.

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NASA Free Video Conference links.

Free, interactive programs allow you and your students to learn more about our home planet and space

http://dln.nasa.gov

http://erc.arc.nasa.gov/dln