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Project Densho The Densho Educational Web site gives students access to a wealth of primary source material relating to the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Project Densho's partnership with historians at Stanford University produced curriculum to help students and teachers use these valuable resources in classroom activities. This is a powerful tool to bring inquiry-based learning into middle and high school social studies classrooms. This is a powerful site for inquiry-based learning for upper grades; however, there isn't anything already created that we can enroll our classes in... unless it's there and I'm missing it.

A great reminder...

Fab read. I've only highlighted a few paragraphs... then it goes into concrete ways to improve tech integration using the example of the iPad. ---- "n: Just bringing new technology in your classroom and working it into day-to-day routines isn't enough. The iPads arrived two days before my students, and I quickly made plans to integrate them into our curriculum. Despite my high hopes, the next two months were less than successful. A casual observer would have witnessed a sea of students glued to glistening tablets, but the effects were superficial. The iPads were not helping my students make substantial progress toward self-efficacy, academic achievement, or social-emotional growth. Around the end of September, I took a step back-it was time to evaluate and reflect on what was happening. I asked myself: "What have we been doing so far with this technology?" Students used math apps instead of math card games. They'd made slideshow presentations for isolated units. They'd done some research on the Internet. In short, things were going ... OK. Nothing to write home about. Not what I would consider "worthy" of a $20,000 grant. Clearly it was time for a change. The problem, I began to realize, was my own understanding of how the iPads should be utilized in the classroom. I had seen them as a supplement to my pre-existing curriculum, trying to fit them into the structure of what I'd always done. This was the wrong approach: To truly change how my classroom worked, I needed a technology-based redefinition of my practice."

Fab read. I've only highlighted a few paragraphs... then it goes into concrete ways to improve tech integration using the example of the iPad.

Description: "The resources in Xpeditions provide an opportunity to cross the curriculums of science, social studies, math, and language arts using National Geography Standards. At the same time students are engaged in unique and well planned inquiry, project, and problem based activities." Benefits: Just about all the work is done for you. Lesson plans, video links, everything right at your fingertips. Pitfalls: Deciding what you want to do and where to start.

technology based activities, competitions, and a library of educational websites

This is a very comprehensive guide, with lots of examples of PBL projects.

This global collaborative project at http://ciese.org/curriculum/squareproj/ -- Registration closes SEPT 30 Driving questions: Why HERE and not THERE? Presents students with a world map and two animals/insects from different areas (EG Monarch butterfly and Australian stick insect specimens). Pose a challenging question: Why here and not there? Why there and not here? How can we find out? Register class on Square of Life, an Internet-based collaborative project that has students investigate their local environment and share information with students from around the world. Students examine a square yard of local ground and organize what they find into categories they define themselves: living and nonliving, plants and animals. Through close examination, they organize small creatures into groups by shared characteristics, and learn to discriminate between classes of animals, including insects and isopods. Theorize about the role of habitat and niche in insect distribution. Share their findings with Australian students (or students from around the glove) and report their conclusions about Why here and not there? Why there and not here?

The Wordle based on what the coaches sent me.

"This week we're giving away licenses for two Web-based tools: Edublogs' blogging tool and VoiceThread's multimedia collaborative platform. Five winners will receive a two-year subscription to Edublogs Pro, and a one-year VoiceThread School subscription for one hundred users."

Free (value of $180)

I think I need to win...both.

tons of resoures and ideas for STEM and PBL

We'll explore during session 8...

Description: "Join us for our journey through the project-based learning experience using the proven strategies in the Cemetery Scene Investigators (CSI) module -- one of the many successful journeys students, teachers, and community members collaboratively take in their lifelong pursuit of authentic learning. " Pitfalls: Cultural and religious beliefs about death and burial grounds.

CIESE sponsors and designs interdisciplinary projects that teachers throughout the world can use to enhance their curriculum through compelling use of the Internet. We focus on projects that utilize real time data available from the Internet, and collaborative projects that utilize the Internet's potential to reach peers and experts around the world. Below is a catalog of projects that are currently being or have been sponsored by CIESE . The mission of the Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) is to help teachers use the Internet, math software, CD-ROMs, computer-based laboratory systems (CBLS), and other tools to create dynamic, inquiry-oriented classrooms that promote achievement of content standards in science and math. To this end, they offer a number of interdisciplinary projects grouped into four categories: collaborative projects, partner projects, real-time data projects, and projects using primary sources and archived collections.

Mangahigh just launched their fully-integrated COMMON CORE standards as a core part of their game-based math curriculum.  It's FREE to sign up!

I love this idea of having the PBL measurable -- not only a PSA, and an action step, but MEASURING the changes in behaviors/beliefs through tangible measurements. (Makes me think about Kirkpatrick)... It also makes me think about how this is a great CommonCore unit too! I would love to see an authentic school-wide (or grade level) PBL. How innovative would that be? While also causing us to behave as a PLC.

The Mystery Class investigation is an eleven week hunt in which students try to find ten secret "Mystery Classes" hiding around the globe. The changing amount of sunlight at each site is the central clue. Students take an inspiring journey from knowing only sunrise and sunset times to discovering exact locations of the ten sites. Benefit: This sounds like problem-based learning at its best!

Wow T.O., This project sounds great! I think it is a great way to get our students to become problem solvers.

This standards-based Real Time Data Module has been created for use by students in the elementary grades to allow them to investigate weather phenomena both locally as well as in other places around the world. By using hands-on activities and real-time data investigations, the students will develop a basic understanding of how weather can be described in measurable quantities, such as temperature, wind and precipitation.