Group items tagged

This is a great tool for teachers to find great tools for Earth Science education- it provides lesson plan ideas as well as great interactive tools/resources that can be incorporated into the lesson plan. It is specific to Earth Science Education, but I think it is a great site for teachers to find a complied list of resources for individual topics in the discipline.

Innovation to me is the enhancement of education using customized tools. Recently, there has been great buzz about promoting SMART technologies- a collaborative leaning software that accommodates a variety of learning styles- promoting varied instruction. The SMART notebook collaborative learning software is the world's leading lesson creation software that opens options for interactive lessons that support student-centered learning. Of the vast technologies within this field I seemed to find SMART boards as a very innovative tool for classroom instruction. A SMART board is basically an interactive white board that allows teachers to project a website or image from the laptop to the white board. These SMART boards are capable of storing and saving lessons as well as turning simple lessons into more interactive and customized ones geared to enhance student learning. I think this application is more useful in disciplines such as Science because science changes all the time and has the ability to be much "active" using the web- this is not to say that it cannot be useful in the other disciples however.

Jamie Kasper, associate director of Arts Education collaborative, provides her own perspective or interpretation of the TPACK model.

Favorite line(s): o "TPACK gives us a model to think about the intersection between technology, content, and instruction" o "We can say the same thing about technology: while we can spend a limited amount of time learning the skills to use it, we eventually need to move beyond skills to think about technology's use in learning."

The pencil analogy she makes is fantastic. "Think about this: in the 1500s when the pencil was new, people generally did not study how to use the pencil." I agree. In 1997 when I decided to go into teaching, the tools of the classroom (overhead projector, chalk, copier) really did not need to be taught as part of the college courses. Now, mastery of the tools we have and the software and websites available is necessary to be a strong educator. I also hate to use these terms, but you are "adding to the plate" of teachers by making them learn more than we had to learn in the past. But technology also "takes things off the plate" by saving great amounts of time in the daily routine of a teacher. I used to spend hours with a calculator on grades each six weeks (yes, six weeks) figuring out grades. It also took much more time finding a parent's phone number, calling, leaving a message, waiting for the call back than simple email technology gives us today.

How 3D printing is becoming more accessible to teachers; includes a link to the Smithsonian about a release of some of their data sets which will allow students to recreate artifacts for study in their classrooms.

One of the newest and greatest innovations continues to be video games. In the past, educational games have never quite met expectations, but with grants and contests such as this one, hopefully the games improve and students can learn something while playing video games.

This looks like a great tool for kids today- especially considering how attached some kids are to games. Children need to know how they get sick and what is going on inside of them when they are sick. One concern I have is that the game may be giving the message that all bacteria are bad and will make them sick. This is a common misconception that has led to the over use of antibiotics and hand sanitizer. Children should be taught that although some bacteria are pathogens, most are not, and they actually help other animals (ie. Humans) carry out every day functions. Bacteria ≠ Pathogen.

About four years ago, I went to a facility planners conference and they said the most improperly used space in the school is the library. It should not be filled with stacks of books, but it should look more like a media center where you have gaming centers, areas for public wi-fi access and a small section for books, but it would not be the dominant feature of the media center. It would also not close with the school, but be an area that would be open to the general public after hours. We will probably not build another school in Spotsylvania in the next decade, but it will be interesting to see if divisions will be starting to convert what we currently see as a library into something else.

Activities Short instructional tools to be woven into lesson plans. Lesson Plans Plans for explaining a topic in a few class sessions; includes student activities, PowerPoints, assessment materials. Multimedia Resources Collection of archived MSiC videos, PowerPoints, and podcasts. Tutorials Step-by-step instructions for use of various calculators, computer software, and web applications.

free for educators/students!

Lesson on application of engineering techniques to understand biological systems - activities include analyzing DNA profiles of bank robbery suspects and 3D building of DNA

Students extend knowledge of skeletal system to biomedical engineering design, specifically the concept of artificial limbs.  Associated activities include designing, creating, and testing lower leg prosthetic limbs and designing splints/casts.

I love this site! I used to use this with my MiID students when I taught science. I would teach them about reading labels, calories, what's good and what's not so good. It was always interesting to see their reaction when I would have them to select a meal from McDonald's and we would look at the calories and nutritional information.