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Websites for Free Photos for School Projects

Mindprint Rating

Tags

Study Skills & Tools ^Music, Art and Makerspaces All Ages Website

Mindprint Expert Review

Pros

  • Adding images to projects enhances understanding and retention of the learning material.
  • Students will enjoy the diversion of searching for photos, without realizing the good analytical reasoning skills they are developing in making their choices.

Considerations

  • Adults should ensure students are making the appropriate attribution based on the site guidelines.
  • Some sites embed paid photos alongside free ones, and students might have difficulty differentiating at times.

Mindprint Expert Review

Adding photos or pictures to projects can be a useful way to engage students and enhance their understanding and retention of material they are learning. As students decide which pictures to use to accompany their work, they are developing their reasoning skills in analyzing their options and making decisions about which pictures are most suitable and why. In addition, they are more likely to remember the details of the topic as they associate the visual image with the information in their memory. Here are a few websites that offer free pictures and photos that students, teachers and parents can use. Adults should always remind students to make appropriate citations when using others' work and review the guidance provided on the website.

Pics4Learning: A useful site with photos categorized by popular categories including food, animals, education, space and countries. Instructions are provided for how to download and give the appropriate citation for the photograph.

Library of Congress: This site is filled with a compelling collection of digital photographs and art, although students might find it challenging to search unless they have a very specific topic in mind.

ClipArt ETC: Offers over 70,000 illustrations. Depending on the project, the historical, hand-drawn black-and-white drawings may or may not be appropriate.

Clippix ETC: Students and teachers can use up to 25 photographs for free. Students will appreciate the broad variety of attractive photographs, but they will need to format the appropriate citations on their own from the provided information.

Pixabay: Students can search from over 550,000 free photos, vectors, and illustrations with free copyrights under Creative Commons without attribution. However, sponsored images appear at the top of every search which require payment and/or attribution. Adults should be sure students are properly differentiating between free and paid choices.

Photos For Class: Creative commons photos that are age appropriate for a school setting. Proper citations are embedded in the photo so students do not need to do this on their own.

Find Icons: Colorful illustrations that can be filtered by size, color and other features. All of the images are free, but the site has advertising which could confuse students.

Academic Benefits

Improves academic skills

  • Provides sufficient and varied types of practice problems to maximize understanding and generalization of the targeted skill/concept
  • Manufacturer claims alignment with Common Core/Known Standards
  • Presents educational concepts accurately
  • Explains answers so students can learn from mistakes
  • Better for teaching the skill to new or struggling learners
  • Better for practicing or refreshing the skill
  • Skills are practiced through authentic, meaningful problems (not just rote practice)

Fun

Engaging for the Mindprint recommended age range

  • Appropriate for a broad age range to use and enjoy
  • Subject matter and problems are relevant, interesting and authentic to students
  • Visually appealing to children in the target age range
  • Provides virtual rewards or incentives after meeting specified goals or objectives
  • Provides a "break activity" between academic problem sets
  • Offers ongoing, progressive challenge
  • Overall - Enjoyable. Given the option, students would choose this option

Easy to Use

Understandable for children in the Mindprint recommended age range

  • Has a free or trial version
  • Provides teaching guidance for adults to support the child and set appropriate goals
  • Provides an age-appropriate tutorial/first time users can work independently
  • Student should be able to use independently after first use
  • Has a multi-player option to foster in-person collaboration or cooperation
  • Multiple users can save a profile
  • Student graduates to the next level or topic only after meeting a benchmark
  • Can play without sound and not distract others
  • Students can save work between sessions
  • Can effectively understand and monitor student's progress (email report or in product)
  • Requires registration before using the first time
  • Provides options to play in languages other than English/Good for ELL
  • Presents information in multiple formats (voice over, pictures and text, etc.)
  • Overall - Easy to use

Cognitive Concerns

May not be advisable for students with the following cognitive needs

  • Organization