VCU STEM

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.

Thinkport is a product used in Maryland to help integrate technology in the classroom. The specific link that I am attaching is simulations of a multitude of subjects that could be incorporated into any lecture or free time that the student has. The topics covered vary from mathematics, an interactive art museum, anatomy, construction of different satellites, to literacy skills. It's goal is to increase technology use in the classroom regardless of the subject matter.

Have used this for years! A resource for my Epidemiology enrichment course in conjunction with Johns Hopkins.

Pretty cool demonstrations of the size of our solar system and universe with some fun little interactive "games." Also, amazing pics.

This resource is webcast from UC Berkeley Lectures, maybe not the most practical for the classroom but its always interesting to look out how others are teaching similar content.

A I just read an article about an innovation that will be awesome for military and national security. This invention will guide bullets, using lasers, to targets at a distance of almost 2 km. I know this isn't education related, but the students of today will be developing the innovations of tomorrow. I'm sure this bullet technology was engineered with a wealth of mathematics, physics, and earth space R&D.

I don't have too many go to sites yet (I hope that improves in the near future) but I did run across this compilation of youtube videos related to science that I think will be helpful in the future. Given some of them are way too basic to use, but there used to be really cool look inside the cell type stuff. The original site shut down so I had to find where someone else posted the links on their blog so my apologizes if you can not access it at this time.

Hey Eric- Thanks for posting this website- I was looking through the videos and happen to come across some that I think might be useful for me when I start teaching very soon!

The NOAA EVL is a great site for accessing satellite imagery and animations of phenomena at the Earth's surface. All images and animations are public domain and free for reuse, so its a great resource for teachers to share with students and collogues.

This simulation allows students to provide dimensions, angle of release, speed, and mass of an object. The simulation will calculate how far the object will travel, its range of motion, and height achieved. Students could be given a desired end result and be tasked with finding the right combination of size, speed, mass, and angle to get the correct outcome.

my favorite is the human.

Resourses + free image

If the population of the earth were reduced to 100 people...

Pretty cool activity for 1st day of class - provides common experience for theories changing with the addition of new data

Christina (Ms. Longo) did this with her students to illustrate theories v. laws. I think it worked pretty well.

I love using this site to reinforce topics

I am currently taking a class to wrap of my licensure in physics, and the professor is using PhET for the experiments. Nonetheless, I spent most of today playing with all of the cool little simulations on the website. I love this site.

Segments that particularly jumped out: - "there are three main components of teachers' knowledge: content, pedagogy, and technology. Equally important to the model are the interactions between and among these bodies of knowledge, represented as PCK, TCK (technological content knowledge), TPK (technological pedagogicalknowledge), and TPACK." -"Many approaches to teachers' professional development offer a one-size-fits-all approach to technology integration when, in fact, teachers operate in diverse contexts of teaching and learning." -"three key components of teacher knowledge: understanding of content, understanding of teaching, and understanding of technology. The complexity of technology integration comes from an appreciation of the rich connections of knowledge among these three components and the complex ways in which these are applied in multifaceted and dynamic classroom contexts."

10 of the best apps for education As iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches become included in curriculum, here are several education apps you might enjoy As iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches become more integrated in classrooms, educators and students are looking for new ways to apply them to the learning process.

Ipads and Ipods are becoming a huge part of education. Unfortunately there are a limited amount of devices in my school, but whenever I can get them, my students love playing and creating on IOS devices. At the EdTech conference this year, they discussed BYOD (bring your own devices). I thought this was an interesting way to keep students up to date without stressing the schools budget.

Eight minute video that defines and explains implications of STEM. Created & Posted by nwpaworkforce. 9 Feb 2011

I think this is a good video that students can relate too. Nice find!

Anna - this is something that I think teachers should show their students, even if there is no STEM curriculum in effect. I love how the students described something very practical- like playing video games- to show how each of the four disciplines are intertwined.

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.