Planning to do a lesson on nature?

If so, click here to find eleven new creatures that have recently been discovered. MSN has created a slide for each creature with a short description of what the creature is and where it was found. Some of them are truly bizarre and may cause students to recoil in horror but should definitely create an interesting class discussion.

Also, don't forget that on MEC you can find a whole host of resources about nature by clicking on Interactive Worlds.

Climate change at the end of the world

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about the effects of global warming on a region in northwest Siberia.

You can find this story in the News Items section on your Work Area screen.

While looking at the Guardian website I noticed they have 'interactive guides'. These take on various forms, they can be slide shows, pdfs that you can zoom into, or diagrams with areas you can click on to get more information. These guides are added regularly so you’ll find current topics and because it's online the older ones are stored safely there too.

In class you could introduce a topic by showing one of the guides on a projector or IWB. Alternatively your students could choose a guide to read for homework and present in class the next day. If you have a computer lab you could give your students some questions which they have to answer by reading one of the interactive guides during the lesson. 

Here are four of my favourites:

Bidding war starts for Mandela's revelatory personal archive

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about Nelson Mandela releasing his personal archive of diaries, letters and notes to the public.

You can find this story in the News Items section on your Work Area screen.

Land of history, land of legends

This week’s news item is our monthly news item for teens. It is about the south-west of England and the various attractions that can be found there.

You can find this story in the News Items section on your Work Area screen.

You can also find longer versions of the news item with extension activities by logging in to our teachers’ area here.

November word games

This month's Witch's Pot topics are 'places in and around the house'(Easy), 'items that can be used when you are camping' (Average) and 'adjectives describing build' (Difficult).  

The Swamp Disaster topics are 'words related to shopping' (Easy), 'words related to money'(Average) and 'materials' (Difficult).

The Wordsearch topics are 'office items' (Easy), 'travelling by plane' (Average) and 'words meaning ''miserable''' (Difficult).

There are new Crosswords and Bridge Builders at all levels too.

Visit the Word Games area to find them all.

TED is a non-profit project started in 1984 to bring together the best ideas from all over the world, on any subject. Today, it is a global community, which includes various conferences, an annual prize, and the website TED Talks.

Lost Greek city emerges from the deep

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about an ancient Greek city that archeologists have discovered under the sea.

You can find this story in the News Items section on your Work Area screen.