How can I find definitions for science words in Spanish.  I teach
Science to 70 students who are primarily Spanish-speaking.  Some speak
little to no English.  I would like to be able to translate all my
science vocabulary and even find subject-related videos in Spanish to
show those who can't understand me at all.  Can you help?  I would be
so grateful, as I care immensely about these students.  Here in FL if
you can't pass our standardized test, you do not get a high school
diploma upon the completion of your Senior year. (So SAD!)  Thanks so
much.  My return e-mail (I am writing this from home) is
patricia.pike@polk-fl.net  Whatever the cost, I have to know how to
get my hands on this kind of info.  Please bear in mind that I am not
technologically savvy so please make answers simple for us computer
do-dos.  Thanks so much.  Your friend, Patti Pike

I can't help you with videos or anything like that, but if you are
simply looking to translate English words into Spanish, I would
recommend Babelfish.  It's a free service offered by the search engine
AltaVista.  Simply visit their site, enter the word you wish to
translate, select "English to Spanish" from the drop down menu, and
press "Translate".  This should work for most scientific words, unless
they are highly unusual words.  However, since this is high school
science, I don't anticipate that you will run into too many words that
Babelfish can't translate.  The address for Babelfish is:

  http://babelfish.altavista.com

While I tend to agree with crabcakes on the idea of online
translators, I have had, by and large, great success with utility over
at http://www.freetranslation.com
While I don't speak Spanish fluently, I am currently studying it at
intermediate levels in college, and my professor has had no problems
with the translations it offers. You definately don't want to try
translating anything beyond simple sentences and even those are messed
up some times, but for terminology translating, it is quite
functional. Technical terms are rather easy anyway by there very
nature.

I would very strongly urge you to avoid all automatic translators like
the plague, unless you yourself are reasonably proficient in both the
source and target language. My main sphere of work at present is as a
freelance translator specialising in medical subjects. I have put some
texts into automatic translators and am in general horrified by the
results.

A useful place to look not only for translations of terminology, but
also for associated explanations, is in the searchable glossaries on
the translators' web site at http://www.proz.com
You might also find the scientific and technical sections of
EuroDictAutom helpful: http://europa.eu.int/eurodicautom/Controller

If you are interested in simply being able to give definitions of
science words to your students in Spanish, I'd recommend dictionaries
(the old-fashioned kind) that specialize in science words.

Your question is listed under chemistry, so I assume you are a
chemistry teacher.  So, you might find _Wiley's Chemistry Dictionary:
English/Spanish - Spanish/English_ by Steven M. Kaplan useful.
It is the standard and you can buy it new or used for as little as $50 on amazon.

There are other dictionaries that might suit your needs, such as:

Dictionary of Sciences Spanish & English
by P. Hartmann­Peterson (about $150)

Diccionario de Informatica y Telecommunicaciones Ingles Espanol:
English to Spanish Dictionary of Computer Science and
Telecommunications
by Arturo Moreno Martin (about $100)


However, if you have your heart set on using a translator online (for
free) I recommend using WorldLingo's free online translator at
http://www.worldlingo.com/products_services/worldlingo_translator.html

This translator allows you to set the input language (english) and the
output language (spanish) and the particular subject you are dealing
with so it knows which vocabulary set to use (you can choose from
about 20 different subjects including chemistry, computers, earth
sciences, electronics, life sciences, mathematics, engineering, and
physics).  I have used this service for both spanish and greek and
have found them to be the best (and I have tried a few).  However, it
is not perfect and often it'll give a definition that is inappropriate
for the context.  But like I said, I still think it's the best online.
 Plus, you can insert the url to a website and it will translate the
entire website for you.  On the same site you can also request that a
human translation be done if you are willing to pay for it - if, say
you create a study sheet for the final and you want to make sure the
field is level by ensuring that all your students have an equal chance
of understanding it, for example.


Anyway, hope this helps.  I'm working on the videos.  You want the
videos to be about chemistry specifically or science in general?  It'd
help if you were a bit more specific.


By the way, as a son of a Cuban immigrant, I appreciate that you are
concientious enough to make sure all your students can understand.

Thank you everyone for your help and advice, especially from dry
twiddler.  I really appreciate how people help and care and I know my
students do as well.  Your friend, Patti Pike