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The Kids' Science Challenge is a national (United States) contest for students in grades three through six. The challenge asks students to innovate and build upon on our current conceptions of how things work. There are three areas of innovation in this year's contest; reducing waste, developing meals to be eaten on Mars, and developing a toy or game that demonstrates an animal's intelligence. The contest is open until February 29, 2012. Applications for EducationTo help students start thinking about the topics in The Kids' Science Challenge, the challenge website has a series of games and videos for students. For teachers, The Kids' Science Challenge offers a page of lesson plans and hands-on activities designed to help students develop ideas related to the contest's three challenge topics.

If you're an iPad aficionado, you must check out this excellent iBook  professional development resource. This is my inspiration for developing  future workshop materials!

I am also developing a site for pupils called www.MathsMaster.Org  . My plan is to develop a video tutorial for every topic on the secondary school curriculum (11-16 years). The site is very much in it's early days but lots of pupils are using it already. I'd be really interested in hearing your impressions of the site and please feel free to share it with your pupils! 

Providing world-class professional development opportunities for educators.

New kind of professional development for Twitter http://t.co/QeUga7Gj #eits2010 - Lois Lindell (LALindell) http://twitter.com/LALindell/status/118779507736981504

"HippoCampus is a project of the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE). The goal of HippoCampus is to provide high-quality, multimedia content on general education subjects to high school and college students free of charge. HippoCampus was designed as part of Open Education Resources (OER), a worldwide effort to improve access to quality education for everyone. HippoCampus content has been developed by some of the finest colleges and universities in the world…"

Excellent blog post on web based tools and what they are to assist you in you lesson development. 

Great professional development read. Several topics: Assessment, Evaluation, & Curriculum Redesign, Constructivism as a Paradigm for Teaching and Learning, Cooperative and Collaborative Learning, Inquiry-based Learning, and more!

Following the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v F.E.C., the growth of Super PACs, and the influx of negative ads this campaign season, some Americans are concerned about the influence of money on our electoral system and our democracy itself. Others point out that wealthy individuals, corporations, and labor unions have always influenced politics and point to the loopholes of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act as the origin of unlimited contributions. Does money = speech, and do any restrictions on campaign contributions violate the First Amendment?  Does money unfairly influence our political process? In this election year, help your students understand and develop their own opinions about these campaign financing issues. Watch a variety of C-SPAN video clips explaining the varying sides, read articles with opposing viewpoints, complete associated activities, and engage students in classroom deliberations.

The National Endowment for the Humanities supports tuition-freeprofessional development programs each summer for American schoolteachers.  Participants receive stipends to help cover travel and livingexpenses.

Constitution Day (September 17) is less than a month away now. Federal law requires teachers in the US to teach a lesson on the US Constitution on that day. To help you develop lessons, Sunnylands Classroom is offering a free package of teaching resources. Included in the collection is a free DVD about the 1991 case of Edmonson v. Leesville Concrete Company which effectively barred race peremptory challenges during jury selections. Other resources from Sunnylands for Constitution Day include an interactive game on the First Amendment and an interactive game about the Constitutional Convention. Register here by September 5 to have the Sunnylands resources sent to you. H/T to US History Teachers Blog. Applications for Education The Constitution Day resources from Sunnylands Classroom really seem to be targeted toward a middle school and high school audience. That said, with a little adaptation you might be able to use some of the resources with 4th and 5th grade students too.

a new app my cousins are using to track the activities and development of their first child.

America on the Move is a great online exhibit produced and hosted by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. America on the Move showcases the evolution of transportation in the United States. America on the Move is divided into three main sections; Exhibition, Collection, and Themes. The exhibition section is essentially a timeline tour through American history. The exhibition section begins with the construction of the first National Road and chronicles each phase of transportation development through the 21st Century. The collection section of America on the Move features images of artifacts related to various forms of transportation used throughout US History. Visitors to the site can browse the collection or search by era, region, or form of transportation. The themes section of America on the Move arranges artifacts and stories into eight different themes. Each theme contains narratives related to various eras in the transportation history of the United States. Applications for Education In addition to the great online exhibits America on the Move offers three well-designed educational games for students. Each of the games is requires students to analyze and process information about the history of transportation. In the first game, Where's Everyone Going? students match vehicles to their proper era to learn about transportation in that era. In the second game, Drive Through Time, students spin a clock to select a year. Then they select a scenario and mode of transportation appropriate for that scenario's era. In the third game, Be a Movie Director, students select a storyline and the modes of transportation necessary for the storyline. At the end the students will see the movie they created. America on the Move also offers teachers some free classroom guides to use while students explore the exhibits.

Learn Your Tables is a neat little site for students to use to learn and develop multiplication skills. The site offers two basic games on two different levels. The most basic game is a simple drag and drop activity in which students match equations to their correct answers. The more "advanced" game has students enter the correct answer to a multiplication question. The easier of the two levels only contains problems from one multiplication table while the more difficult level contains problems from multiple multiplication tables.

a handy site for teachers who are looking for some lesson plan ideas to go along with children's books. The library features picture books, books for early readers, and books for young adults. Each book is linked to a list of activities that could be done either while reading the book or after reading the book. The books themselves are not free (you can buy them online or find them locally) but the listed activities are free for your viewing. Teaching Library is supported through Amazon Affiliate sales so if you purchase a book through their site you will be supporting them.  Applications for Education Teaching Library could be a good resource for teachers struggling to develop a new lesson idea. If you're looking for some new books to add to you classroom, but you're not sure which ones you want, take a look at Teaching Library's suggestions.

 a collection of six examples of science based Google Maps. The collection includes examples of use in environmental science and geology lessons. One of my former colleagues also used Google Maps in geology lessons. 

Pre-Grade Your Paper: Free Online Grammar Checker, Proofreader, and More "PaperRater.com is a free resource, developed and maintained by linguistics professionals and graduate students. PaperRater.com is used by schools and universities in over 46 countries to help students improve their writing. PaperRater.com combines the power of natural language processing (NLP), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, information retrieval (IR), computational linguistics, data mining, and advanced pattern matching (APM). We offer the most powerful writing tool available on the internet today."

which bills itself as a "free online grammar checker, proofreader, and more." It really is free, though on their "pricing" tab, they reserve the right to start a premium service at some point in the future. I haven't actually used it, but would be curious what folks on this list who try it think of its features.

Animation virtual studio. "A virtual animation studio partnering with animators from around the world to create, high quality 3d, 2d and flash cartoon animations. Aniboom cultivates animated content by leveraging the web providing online animation opportunities such as animated competitions and free online animation software."