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Saugus Union School District in Santa Clarita, CA is launching a new program for its fourth-grade students that couples writing and science using ultra-mobile devices and collaborative learning software, among other technologies. According to information supplied to us by the district, the initiative is being funded through a $1.4 million EETT competitive grant the district recently won. The initiative, dubbed "Student Writing Achievement Through Technology Enhanced Collaboration" (SWATTEC), focuses on writing achievement within the science curriculum. EETT funding will provide access to Asus wireless ultra-mobile devices (UMDs) for all 1,700 fourth-grade students in the district, Web-based writing tools, and an online collaborative learning environment. It will also provide teachers with laptops, projectors, printers, interactive pads, mobile carts, and wireless hardware. Teachers are also receiving professional development for the initiative.

Science and math video songs

Spore, produced by Electronic Arts, promises much more than the day-to-day adventures of simulated people. It starts with single-cell microbes and follows them through their evolution into intelligent multicellular creatures that can build civilizations, colonize the galaxy and populate new planets. Unlike the typical shoot-them-till-they're-all-dead video game, Spore was strongly influenced by science, and in particular by evolutionary biology. Mr. Wright will appear in a documentary next Tuesday on the National Geographic Channel, sharing his new game with leading evolutionary biologists and talking with them about the evolution of complex life.

"This is the US Teachers' Guide for using the Professional Cartoonists Index web site in your classes. We have developed lesson plans for using the editorial cartoons as a teaching tool in Social Sciences, Art, Journalism and English at all levels."

As technology has played a bigger role in our lives, our skills in critical thinking and analysis have declined, while our visual skills have improved, according to research by Patricia Greenfield, UCLA distinguished professor of psychology and director of the Children's Digital Media Center, Los Angeles. Learners have changed as a result of their exposure to technology, says Greenfield, who analyzed more than 50 studies on learning and technology, including research on multi-tasking and the use of computers, the Internet and video games. Her research was published this month in the journal Science.

Basic Physics Lessons

This cartoon by Dwayne Godwin, a professor of neurobiology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and Jorge Cham, the former researcher and cartoonist who created PhD Comics, has won first place in the informational graphics category of the 2009 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.  

Engineering and technology lessons for children!

videos associated with the periodic table

integrated interactive lessons cross-curricular

Educational Resources of the U.S. Geological Survey serving primary and secondary education (K-12) repositories, reports, publications, maps, aerial photography.

This is a stunning example of what 'good design' can bring to the understanding of statistical information. Good use of colour, layout and typographic information helps create a more engaging (and potentially more easily understood) reality. There are numerous uses for this; not least in playful and enjpyable learning. "A visual real-time simulation that displays the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, birth rates, and death rates of every country in the world."