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"Japan got just a little bit bigger this week, as a volcano created a brand new island about 600 miles (970 kilometers) south of Tokyo."

If your students investigate bugs, use a microscope, need an authentic purpose for research, I'd like to suggest partnering with Bugscope. You get to collaborate with expert scientists to explore bugs (i.e. looking at a bug's tongue). You would do this all via the internet. It looks amazing! Below is a response from them, with an attachment.  A news-release summarizes a history of Bugscope (http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2011/0729sp_spore.shtml). Bugscope allows teachers everywhere to provide students with the opportunity to become microscopists themselves-the kids propose experiments, explore insect specimens at high-magnification, and discuss what they see with our scientists-all from a regular web browser over a standard broadband internet connection. You sign up, ask your students to find some bugs, and mail them to us. We accept your application, schedule your session, and prepare the bugs for insertion into the electron microscope. When your session time arrives, we put the bug(s) into the microscope and set it up for your classroom. Then you and your students login over the web and control the microscope. We'll be there via chat to guide you and answer the kids' questions. If you would like to see the response from one class who have done this, read Mrs. Krebs' blog post: http://krebs.edublogs.org/2011/09/04/bugscope-session/  If you need any help with this, just let me know. If you end up taking them up on this FREE collaboration, please let me know when/where so I can drop by. This looks fascinating! Kind regards,Tracy

STEM -- promoting sci/tech in girls Every year, Xavier holds an event to encourage middle school girls in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). We were deeply impacted by the data that showed girls in 6th grade had equal interest as boys in STEM, but by 9th grade that interest had evaporated. Consequently, we hold this event annually to engage, encourage and excite middle school girls in STEM. It is a FREE event open to all middle school girls - we just need an RSVP so we can have enough goodie bags for all. (This is NOT a recruiting event for Xavier. We believe a girl deserves the opportunity to be inspired in STEM regardless of where she attends high school.) Our data shows this event has an excellent impact on the girls! As a result of participating in Girls Have IT Day, about 2/3rd report being inspired to work harder in school to make a difference in the world, almost the same number say they would like to be an engineer, and 3/4ths report they learned something new and had fun. Join us!

Take a picture of a tree & have it identified while adding to a Smithsonian database. You can also search for a particular leaf/tree.

I found this app for my iPhone, so I'm not sure there is a compatible app for Android or Blackberry, but it might be worth a look if you are interested.