Group items tagged

downloadable PDF book of images of Singapore from the beginning of the 20th century -- via the National Library of Singapore

The United Nations declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity. It is a celebration of life on earth and of the value of biodiversity for our lives. The world is invited to take action in 2010 to safeguard the variety of life on earth: biodiversity

The food crisis has pushed the number of hungry people in the world to almost 1bn, in what the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation described on Tuesday as a "serious setback" to global efforts to reduce mass starvation.

Oct 21, 2009

Interactive graphic on hunger in the world -- as 60 heads of state attend the United Nations World Summit on Food Security in Rome.

A list of games related to:  "Universal rights to which every person is entitled, by a moral standard that stands above the laws of any individual nation."

This website is in Beta at the moment, and has games based on fractions, angles & symmetry etc. Geared for upper elementary & middle school

"His mood brightens, however, when talk turns to the occasionally brilliant work of the students whose heavily footnoted history papers appear in his quarterly, The Concord Review. Over 23 years, the review has printed 924 essays by teenagers from 44 states and 39 nations. "

Interesting to think how this relates to primary and secondary education.... not just tertiary..... "In an era when students can easily grab material online, including lectures by gifted speakers in every field, a learning environment that avoids courses completely-or seriously reshapes them-might produce a very effective new form of college. That was the provocative notion posed here recently by Randy Bass, executive director of Georgetown University's Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship, during the annual meeting of the Educause Learning Initiative. He pointed out that much of what students rate as the most valuable part of their learning experience at college these days takes place outside the traditional classroom, citing data from the National Survey of Student Engagement, an annual study based at Indiana University at Bloomington. Four of the eight "high-impact" learning activities identified by survey participants required no classroom time at all: internships, study-abroad programs, senior thesis or other "capstone" projects, or the mundane-sounding "undergraduate research," meaning working with faculty members on original research, much as graduate students do."

Tons of great resources about teaching kids about earthquakes as well as seismic research, data, and activities.  Sponsored by the US National Science Foundation.

"The United Nations Environment Program hosts a helpful interactive map displaying more than one hundred examples of environmental change around the world. Each placemark on the map has close-up views of the land and a story about environmental change at that location. For example, clicking on the placemark for Manaus, Brazil will reveal close-up imagery of site and detailed information about the environmental changes taking place. If you click through the links in the placemarks you can find the references used in constructing the information available through the map."

Radiolab is a science podcast series from National Public Radio in the States that I totally recommend.... addictive listening...

"What is constant multi-tasking doing to teens' brains? That's the question NewsHour Science Correspondent Miles O'Brien set out to answer as he interviewed teens and neuroscience experts around the country. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health are currently studying whether teens' addictions to technology are wiring their brains differently than those of their parents and earlier generations. During adolescence, brain connections are "pruned" - those that are used a lot are strengthened, while those that are rarely used fall off. According to a scientist at UCLA who also studies the effects of technology on teens' brains, the brain's release of the chemical dopamine has a lot to do with why technology can become addictive for young people. When the brain experiences something pleasurable, like connecting with others via social networking, it is hard-wired to want more of it by releasing dopamine. Yet other researchers say multi-tasking and playing intense video games can actually help develop some skills like better vision and improved short-term memory. Because modern technology is still in its infancy, scientists are only uncovering the beginnings of how it will affect the human brain functions of tomorrow.

...why are Finnish students succeeding and ours are failing?  The difference is not the instruction. Good teaching is good teaching and it can be found in both Finland and in the US.   (The same can be said for bad teaching.)  The difference is less tangible and more fundamental.  Finland truly believes "Less is More."  This national mantra is deeply engrained into the Finnish mindset and is the guiding principal to Finland's educational philosophy.

Teaching is a compassionate profession, and caring about kids' feelings should be a crucial part of helping them learn.

re popularity of Waldorf / Steiner schools in the US at the moment