I am very lucky to be in a school district that has a department that will set-up and pay for video conferences in the classroom. The students just LOVE doing video conferences, it gives them an opportunity to experience things that are nowhere near our urban school location.
We have done 6 video conferences so far this year, with about 4-6 more to go! They last about an hour and they are really inexpensive (sometimes they are free). For many of the video conferences, they send you the materials you need for the video conference as well.
We just did a video conference with the Alaska SeaLife Center and it was AMAZING! The students got to dissect squids! They went crazy for this one. We also added octopus and cuttlefish in order to do a comparative analysis of cephalopods.
The SeaLife Center sent us the squids, but you can find all three (octopus, cuttlefish, and squid) at most Asian markets. Just look in the frozen section! We thawed them all out in tubs of cold water.
Students learned a lot and they will never forget the experience!
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