Group items tagged

"If you have students who are interested in hockey, the following videos from Smarter Everyday could offer a good way to get students interested in thinking about the science of hockey."

"As cool as technology is, its intricacies and inner workings are sometimes intimidating, especially for young people who may be more interested in what technology can do for them rather than what they can do with technology. However, when students hurdle that obstacle and see the value of computer science - specifically coding - they gain a broadened perspective and the potential for a rewarding career in the tech field. The following resources will help you teach your students the basics of coding and will provide tips on how to keep kids interested as you go."

"We are about to launch our Maker Space in our school library media center - it is going to be what is referred to as a 'soft launch.' Our technology facilitator and one of our classroom teachers are really the driving force behind this initiative, and much more familiar with the items we have purchased. While I'm more than happy to house the materials and provide space for them to be used, I know almost nothing about them. So, I'm hopeful that I will be able to form a team of interested students to help manage the project. Tomorrow after school we will have our 'Maker Team Interest Meeting.' From the students who show up, we're planning on forming a team to rotate being on hand when the maker space is open. They'll be in charge of answering questions, helping students figure out directions, and keeping everything orderly.  Wish us luck!"

"As regular readers of this blog know, I am a proponent of getting kids involved in physical activities like bicycling, skiing, and playing team sports. I also like to see connections made between students' interest in sports and lessons in the classroom. The resources below can all be used to create lessons connected to students' interests in sports."

"Brian South is an English teacher in Naperville, Illinois, a suburb 30 miles west of Chicago. He is also the faculty advisor of the literary magazine at Naperville North. When Brian began taking steps to self-publish his own novel, he did something few teachers feel totally comfortable doing-he invited his students to be part of the process. Bringing your outside interests into the classroom is tough for many teachers because they feel like they have to compartmentalize themselves. Others feel so pressed for time that sharing personal interested and hobbies seems like a burden. However, after he read a part of his novel at his school's open mic night, students in the creative writing club had a lot of feedback for Brian, who not only listened, but also soon realized that sharing his journey through self-publishing a novel could be an important way to empower students and potentially transform their lives."

""Makerspaces are too complicated for elementary students.  You can only get in depth with middle and high school students" "High schoolers are too jaded for making.  They'll roll their eyes at you if you give them LEGOs" I've heard variations of these criticisms so many times.  Placing some kind of age restriction on when students are capable of/will be interested in making seems to be one of the most popular excuses educators have for not even considering creating a Maker environment in their school. We need to smash these notions and assumptions.  That creativity is tied to a certain age group.  That we outgrow our desire for play.  That young children aren't capable of serious making.  That adults will never have an interest in expressing themselves."

"On a sweltering day in late July, a group of 9th and 10th graders gather around an iPad inside of the otherwise empty International School of Science in Queens. They've just completed an assignment on the quadratic equation, and a team of three is showing off their project: a funny video they animated of themselves playing volleyball, with the arc of the ball graphing out a parabola. There's not a sheet of graph paper in sight. The app they are using is called ChoreoGraph, and it's part of a suite of apps collectively known as Noticing Tools, developed by the New York Hall of Science, that aim to leverage the way kids naturally play to teach math and science concepts. The goal is to solve one of the major issues facing educators today: getting more kids interested in STEM-science, technology, engineering and math-an area where the U.S. has consistently lagged behind other top countries."

Today was Dr. Davey's first Maker Day, and an amazing one at that! Here's a look at our day. All of the Grade 1-Grade 7 students participated in today's Maker Day. Students attended two of seven different sessions based on their interests: Minecraft/Coding, Collaborative Art, Beautiful Junk, Positive Graffiti, Making Music, Lego/Blocks, and Egg Drop. Staff members paired up together to facilitate the learning at each of the sessions, and the students directed most of the learning based on their interests. I (Aviva) worked with an amazing Grade 4 student that led the Minecraft/Coding session, and even worked with small groups of students on coding the Arduino. It was really quite incredible! After two sessions, students reflected on the day and on their learning, and then extended the "Maker Learning" back in the classroom. Today was all about the Learning Skills, problem solving, creativity and critical thinking. As you can hear in our video reflection, there were also links to our classroom learning including Science (Structures) and Math (shapes, figures, and non-standard measurement). There was also a lot of Arts learning today (with creating music and creating works of art including the elements of design). What an amazing day!"

"Join a network of fellow maker educators on our Google+ Community. We welcome your ideas, successes, stories, and challenges as you engage in making experiences with the youth in your community. Anyone interested in topics surrounding making and education are encouraged to participate. Please spread the word! If you're interested in contributing to Maker Ed's Resource Library, don't hesitate to submit your favorite resources directly to the Google+ Community by posting a link and short description to the "Resources" category. This Resource Library is an ever-changing, evolving collection, and using its guidelines, Maker Ed is excited to regularly review incoming resource submissions from the greater community of educators and makers. We will let you know if/when we add it to the library!"

"Today I am hanging out at the Twitter HQ in San Francisco. During the presentation on Twitter I learned you can MUTE someone without unfollowing them. There can be periods of time that someone you follow is tweeting a series of tweets that do not pertain to your interests. Someone may be at an event that does not interest you to keep up on. Someone may be participating in a Twitter chat for an hour and blowing up your Twitter stream."

"Intel's "MakeHers: Engaging Girls and Women in Technology through Making, Creating and Inventing" report was created in consultation with experts including the Girl Scouts and Maker Education. It is Intel's latest effort to support the maker community and increase access to and interest in computer science and engineering, especially among girls and women. The report indicates that girls and women involved with making, designing and creating things with electronic tools may build stronger interest and skills in computer science and engineering. Read the full report at www.intel.com/girlsintech."

All of the Interesting Ways Google Presentations in one blog post. Share with your colleagues.

Dean Shareksi's interesing way of expressing quotes he finds, well, interesting!

It's interesting what you can find when you look around a bit on Google. I thought I'd look for a few new ebooks to read. I found 20 different ones that might be interesting to you. It never hurts to get a few different perspectives. In all cases, the first link is to a PDF file, the second link is to the site where it's hosted.

Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest. There are now nearly 600 maps. Maps 1-366 are also available as PDF posters. Use the menu above to find a map of interest.

The Interesting Ways series continues to be a great example of crowdsourcing good quality classroom ideas and it has been a privilege connecting with all of the people who have taken time to add an idea.

"The first virtual world dedicated to science! Explore all kinds of virtual islands depending on your interests: health, aeronautics, genomics, environment, engineering and more. You'll find fun games, interesting facts and fascinating photos and videos - all on a science theme. "

"If I had written this article two years ago, it would have been very different. Back then, I would have made (or felt like I had to make) a compelling case for why we should even consider the idea of incorporating video games into classroom instruction. Back then, I would have expected most readers to incredulously click to the next article. But today, Game-Based Learning (GBL) and Gamification are gaining some real traction in the teaching community. At the recent OETC conference, the organizers dedicated an entire wing of the convention center to the subject, and educators weren't shy about their interest. When I presented on the subject at Common Ground 14, I had the dreaded "last-presentation-of-the-day" spot, but I was very pleased at the turnout and interest."

"Periodically, I find it interesting to see what's new over at TED Talks. While not every video they have really floats my boat, there is generally a wealth of inspiration and interesting stories shared there. We've shared a number of these inspiring talks in the past - some relate specifically to teaching, others cover more general life lessons or inspiration. So it is finally May, and even the coldest of climates are emerging out of winter into spring by now, we're sharing a few more great videos to put some spring in your step. Check them out and enjoy!"

"I spend a significant amount of time watching Twitter; in particular teachers and educators on Twitter. I call this research although I know I am deluding myself as at best it is usually procrastination. I am beginning to notice with interest that Twitter is causing the power balance in education to be shifted slightly away from the centre with a number of grassroots initiatives that look as if they are influencing policy for example a few high profile Tweachers meeting with Ofsed and the Headteachers Roundtable . Among the many topics currently being debated in this Twibe is evidence informed teaching practice and Random Controlled Trials (RCT). This interest has been particularly apparent over the last 18 months or so. I see the trigger being a presentation given by Ben Goldacre a doctor, academic and author of the Guardian column Bad Science and the book Bad Pharma. "