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from Canada:  "Scientists and teachers work together to develop and deliver science units comprised of hands-on lessons on specific themes. There is a major focus on the experimental process of science. The lesson plans fit the BC Ministry of Education guidelines for Science K to 7. Opportunities are created to link lessons to other areas of the curriculum, such as math, fine arts, English and French language arts, and First Nations. Some lessons focus on issues facing society such as marine pollution, climate change, soil erosion, biodiversity, and the importance of protecting the environment and ecosystems. Thirty-three science units have been developed during the Scientist in Residence Program and are organized within four curriculum areas. More than 200 science lesson plans are available for download as PDF documents. These include lesson plans for field trips, thereby extending learning in natural environments. Please scroll down to view the titles of science units for each curriculum area, and click on science unit titles to view and download individual science lesson plans. If required by your browser, please enable Scripts to download documents from this web site. New science lesson plans will be posted on this website as they become available."

A free online university course, but some of the readings might be useful to teachers in primary/secondary  - DESCRIPTION: "This is a course for those who are interested in the challenge posed by massive and persistent world poverty, and are hopeful that economists might have something useful to say about this challenge. The questions we will take up include: Is extreme poverty a thing of the past? What is economic life like when living under a dollar per day? Why do some countries grow fast and others fall further behind? Does growth help the poor? Are famines unavoidable? How can we end child labor-or should we? How do we make schools work for poor citizens? How do we deal with the disease burden? Is micro finance invaluable or overrated? Without property rights, is life destined to be "nasty, brutish and short"? Has globalization been good to the poor? Should we leave economic development to the market? Should we leave economic development to non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? Does foreign aid help or hinder? Where is the best place to intervene?"

The American Association for the Advancement of Science's Project 2061 (an imitative to improve science, math and technology literacy) -- "A new Web site is taking aim at this challenge, providing educators with quick lists of scientific statements broken down by subject matter, highlighting concepts that tend to be misunderstood by students.... The site (which is accessible after free registration) also provides teachers with some 600 multiple choice questions for tests that could help pinpoint conceptual sticking points. Multiple-choice tests have drawn criticism for being too reductive, and DeBoer acknowledges that "too often test questions are not linked explicitly to the ideas and skills that the students are expected to learn." So to figure out just what kids know-or think they know-researchers involved in the seven-year-long project tested more than 150,000 students in some 1,000 classrooms and conducted interviews with many of them to try to figure out how well the questions were getting at the underlying understandings."

"Would you like to develop an iPhone or Android application? If so, it just got much easier with the Buzztouch content management system. Visitors don't need to know any coding, and after creating a Buzztouch account they can get started building their own application. Visitors should look over the "How Buzztouch Works" area to get acclimated to the program and they should also check out the "FAQ" section. This version is compatible with all operating systems and users will need to have access to an iPhone, iPad, or Android phone to test their application's functionality. "

Great Article via Ali F. The lecture has its place. Asking students to close their laptops has its place. But, failing to explore new possibilities for education prompted by emerging technologies does not serve the interests of either group.

Gates & McArthur foundation looking to sponsor a version of Sim City for Educational use. 

"GlassLab is working with commercial game companies, assessment experts, and those versed in digital classrooms to build SimCityEDU, a downloadable game designed for sixth graders. Scheduled to be be released in the fall of 2013, it builds on SimCity's city management theme, but provides specific challenges to players in the subject of STEM. "The big pain point we've heard from teachers is that they cannot entertain their kids to the level that they are being entertained outside of the classroom," said Jessica Lindl, general manager of GlassLab. "They want to be able to create meaningful learning experiences and they just can't compete with the digital tools their kids are accessing all the time.""

Based on research not just opinion. What is it about games that is transcendent? Perhaps it's the fact that games are optional, they are obstacles that we volunteer to overcome. Games are what we choose to do. They are what we are drawn to when we have a choice about how to spend our time and energy.  Games are freedom.

Article with lots of links to research around the subject of games being good for us.

"Students use the iPod touches to record themselves reading what Nienhueser calls a fresh read passage, as it is the first time they have read it. They then listen to the recording and score themselves based on a rubric given to them by their teacher. The rubric scores students based on their level of fluency, expression, pacing and smoothness. Next, each student meets with a partner so they can evaluate someone else's recording. Nienhueser said students have to be able to explain why they chose the scores they selected. The partners also take time to see if they agree with each other's scores."

Editor's note: An extraordinary number of species-from squid to lizards to humans-engage in play. But why? In this article, adapted from Dr. Sam Wang and Dr. Sandra Aamodt's book Welcome to Your Child's Brain: How the Mind Grows from Conception to College (Bloomsbury USA, 2011; OneWorld Publications, 2011), the authors explore how play enhances brain development in children. As Wang and Aamodt describe, play activates the brain's reward circuitry but not negative stress responses, which can facilitate attention and action. Through play, children practice social interaction and build skills and interests to draw upon in the years to come.

hHelping students learn how to learn: That's what most educators strive for, and that's the goal of inquiry learning. That skill transfers to other academic subject areas and even to the workplace where employers have consistently said that they want creative, innovative and adaptive thinkers. Inquiry learning is an integrated approach that includes kinds of learning: content, literacy, information literacy, learning how to learn, and social or collaborative skills. Students think about the choices they make throughout the process and the way they feel as they learn. Those observations are as important as the content they learn or the projects they create.

Kids are growing up in a digital world. They connect, share, learn, explore, and play in way unimaginable just a  generation ago. This is the only world they know and their parents, teachers, political leaders and even the media  are all doing what they can to catch up. The emergence of social media, in all its extraordinary forms, is pushing the  boundaries of what we think of as private while giving us all, and our children, a platform to express ourselves anytime,  anywhere.  It can be an unnerving prospect to a parent or teacher to see their kids pack so much processing power in their  pockets. The media have played on these fears with screaming headlines and nightly news leads about cases of  online predators, pornography, cyberbullying and sexting. Some lawmakers have proposed online safety legislation  based on a single event, such as a suicide that had an online component to it. At least RQHVtate Dttorney  Jeneral suggested raising the age limit for kids accessing social media to 16 years.  While understandable, these reactions are not always helpful or healthy

Through the ©reativity on Film project, The Film Foundation hopes to create a respect and understanding among young people for the need to protect and preserve our cultural heritage, and enhance their appreciation of art and creation. The Film Foundation uses filmmaking as a point of departure to communicate to young people the important skills they will need to succeed in today's society-such as imagination, collaboration, communication, leadership, and responsibility. The key component of this project is the "Making Movies: A Guide for Young Filmmakers" production manual. Created with the assistance and expertise of 25 professional film artists and educators, this step-by-step production manual includes tips from experts, hands-on exercises, and an 8-week filming schedule-thereby explaining the filmmaking process from story concept to completed film.

"For teachers, in designing learning experiences for students that are embedded with technology, the wording and focus of the question are paramount.  The question needs to be deeper than simply "Should or shouldn't we use the iPad with this project." The question needs to be open ended, elastic and invite multiple interpretations. Learning outcomes based on the question need to be defined and articulated,  and experiences to achieve those outcomes need to be created with student engagement in mind. Engagement alone is not enough. But engagement matched with outcomes around a carefully worded question propels student learning."

"If you are a teacher and you are trying to explain what you do, say, 'I am a learning designer!' Teachers need to be empowered with a variety of instructional designs to meet the needs of all students. They need to be honored for their expertise to create creative and engaging learning environments. We can re-frame the concept of "teaching" to truly encapsulate all that teachers can and should do!"

This past week, my first-born became legal. Not to drive, vote or drink, though; that comes later. My son turned 13 years old, making him eligible under terms of service to have his own social media account. That isn't to say he hasn't been on those sites for years, though. His social media cred is older than our daughter, who turns four in a couple months. He has had moments where he used Facebook too much, only to self-censor like a boss when he found it was cutting into his reading time. These days, his activity is largely limited to liking Doctor Who content on my geeky Pinterest board and collaborating with peers on Google (despite his original account there being deleted due to age restrictions). He has never had much interest in tweeting, but he got a video camera yesterday that may signal the beginning of a new vlog.

Summary via the Scout Report (May 2012): "This site was created by two German physicists (Ute Kraus and Corvin Zahn) and it offers a "visual and intuitive approach to the theory of relativity." The site does not offer the basics dealing with the theory of relativity, but rather a novel approach to understanding what an object might look like while moving near the speed of light or what it might be like to "travel to the vicinity of a black hole and take a look-around." As the site notes, "Part of the difficulties in understanding relativity are due to the fact that relativistic effects contradict everyday experience." On the homepage, visitors can learn more in the Content area. Here they can watch remarkable visualizations such as Rolling Wheels, Sights that Einstein Could Not Yet See, and Accelerated Motion. The site also offers brief explanations of each visualization, along with links to additional resources. Finally, the site also includes a gallery of images and an FAQ area. [KMG]"

Scannable bar codes may be just what you need to spark some student interest in your classroom - read on to learn how to use them to showcase your student work and give some life to your classroom's infographics.

One of our main goals at Powerful Learning Practice is to turn educators into 21st Century educators. That is, teach them how to use social media and other powerful Web 2.0 tools to transform their classrooms into learning environments that are ready for today's iGeneration students. One of the most common questions we get is, "But where do we find the time to use all this new technology?" To answer that question, we developed this infographic - A Day in the Life of a Connected Educator to show that using social media in your classroom and in your life can be integrated, easy, and fun.