Group items tagged

scripted curricula "Navigate stormy middle-school seas with the Second Step program. The program teaches empathy and communication, emotion-management and coping skills, and decision making. These skills help students stay engaged in school, make good choices, set goals, and avoid peer pressure, substance abuse, bullying, and cyber bullying."

"Common Core Standards: Teaching Argument Writing Argument writing is one of three types of writing stressed in the Common Core Standards for English, history, and science/technical studies. As I transition from persuasive to argument writing, my focus is on using technology to engage and support students throughout the process. Tall order. Here are some of the strategies I used to teach argument writing. What's the difference between persuasive and argument writing? Persuasive writing aims to persuade the reader that the stated position is correct. The writer wants to "win over" the reader, often by appealing to emotions. In contrast, argument writing must present a strong claim and support that claim with "sufficient evidence" and relevant "valid reasoning.""

"Design Squad from PBS Kids features a great collection of hands-on activities for elementary and middle school students. The activities are designed to help students explore engineering concepts. The collection of activities is divided into ten categories. The categories are technology, structures, sports, space, sound, simple machines, health, green, energy, and electricity. Each activity contains a materials list and directions. Some of the activities also have demonstration videos."

Photo essays rely on a simple truth: Telling stories with pictures can be more evocative and moving than using words. A photo essay engages the viewer at a very personal level. While people can respond to written stories intellectually, photography essays often create an instant emotion within the viewer.

"Welcome to the Student Climate Research Campaign Community Group The GLOBE Student Climate Research Campaign (SCRC) aims to engage students around the world in measuring, investigating, and understanding the climate system in their local communities and the world. Drawing on GLOBE protocols and data - and other important datasets - students take climate-related measurements and investigate research questions about climate during the two year campaign. The 2013 GLOBE Virtual Student Conference has begun! Check out what students have been learning about during Phase Two of the SCRC."

"Gamestar Mechanic is a game-based digital learning platform designed to teach the guiding principles of game design and systems thinking in a highly engaging and creative environment. The game and the accompanying Learning Guide are designed to foster critical 21st century skills such as systems thinking, problem solving, creativity, collaboration, digital media literacies and a motivation for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) learning. "

On this site, you will find several hundred pages of information describing the flow of history, from the evolutionary processes that formed our bodies, to the forces of globalization that exploded in the 1990s. It is detailed, engaging reading-the result of over 25 years of continuous refinement for actual classroom use.

"The Film The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute film that takes viewers on a provocative and eye-opening tour of the real costs of our consumer driven culture-from resource extraction to iPod incineration. Annie Leonard, an activist who has spent the past 10 years traveling the globe fighting environmental threats, narrates the Story of Stuff, delivering a rapid-fire, often humorous and always engaging story about "all our stuff-where it comes from and where it goes when we throw it away." Leonard examines the real costs of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal, and she isolates the moment in history where she says the trend of consumption mania began. The Story of Stuff examines how economic policies of the post-World War II era ushered in notions of "planned obsolescence" and "perceived obsolescence" -and how these notions are still driving much of the U.S. and global economies today. Leonard's inspiration for the film began as a personal musing over the question, "Where does all the stuff we buy come from, and where does it go when we throw it out?" She traveled the world in pursuit of the answer to this seemingly innocent question, and what she found along the way were some very guilty participants and their unfortunate victims. "

"The National Youth Summit on the Freedom Rides on Wednesday, February 9, 2011 at 12:00 p.m. (EST) will allow students to discuss history with the people who were witnesses and activists on the front lines of the fight for justice. They will also engage in conversation with scholars, public historians, and most importantly, one another in this incredible webcast that joins live audiences in six cities around the nation."

"Digital Storytelling can transform your students' writing into a visual masterpiece that is filled with voice and emotion, while enhancing critical thinking skills. The iPad takes digital storytelling to a new level by making the process easier, and even more engaging for students of all grade levels as well as for their teachers. This site will help guide you in what you need for success in the iPad Digital Storytelling classroom."

"Vanished is an 8-week online/offline mystery game for middle-school children, meant to inspire engagement and problem solving through science. Developed and curated by MIT's Education Arcade and the Smithsonian Institution, VANISHED is a first-of-its-kind experience where participants become investigators racing to solve puzzles and other online challenges, visit museums and collect samples from their neighborhoods to help unlock the secrets of the game. Vanished also provides a unique opportunity for players to collaborate Smithsonian scientists, MIT students, and their peers online. Players can only solve the mystery by using real scientific methods and knowledge to unravel the game's secrets."

" School librarians have been identified as the "go-to" people for digital content in a recently published report by the national education non-profit group, Project Tomorrow. The report, "The New 3 E's of Education: Enabled, Engaged and Empowered - How Today's Educators are Advancing a New Vision for Teaching and Learning (PDF)," shares the teacher, librarian and administrator findings from the group's Speak Up 2010 survey."