Many of these services have archives on their web sites of previously asked questions. These archives are a rich source of information and may be searched before formulating a new questions. The answers are often geared to the grade level of the child who asked the original question. The archives can be used as a stand alone source of information, even if you do not plan to use the Ask an Expert part of the site. Some services try to explain the answer in detail and some services provide the student with further resources to find the answer themselves.
Responses can take anywhere form a few days to a few weeks.
Some of these sites use a web form to send a question and others use an email link. This is a draft document by Abby Kasowitz, with lots of good ideas for using Ask a Services. Gather Data for Use in a Class Project Have pairs or small groups of students access a web site to collect data or information that can be used by the whole class. This is a good type of activity for one or two computers in the classroom, because each group of students is only at the computer for a short time. For example, third graders studying the regions of the United States can go to a weather web site and type in their assigned city.