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Tech That Spurs Critical Thinking

Tech That Spurs Critical Thinking

mind mapping.pdf STEM Education: Five Tools That Transform the Classroom As new technological tools continue to be used in classrooms, the push for students to become experts in STEM increases. There are plenty of tools out there that teachers can use in their lessons "to reinforce theoretical concepts by demonstrating their real-world applications," said an article on TheAtlantic.com. "By showing students that the knowledge is relevant and useful, teachers can help them unlock new realms of creativity in all scientific realms and possibly change their future career trajectories," the article said. The Atlantic then listed five technological tools that can help educators teach STEM. The first tool listed is 3-D printers. "And that’s just what they can do for students, too; as 3-D printers have become less expensive and more ubiquitous, schools have begun integrating them into their science and engineering curriculums," the article said. A second tool the article listed is the "flight simulator." Read the full story and comment below.

38 Question Starters based on Bloom’s Taxonomy - Curriculet Curriculet is free for teachers and students. Get started here. This is the 2nd post in a series on how to write better curriculets (and literacy curriculum). Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Write Curriculets By Lindsey Howe, Curriculet writer and teacher During the five months I have been writing for Curriculet, I have experimented with many different ways to tackle question-crafting. While looking for ways to improve my questions, I discovered this list of 38 question starters based on Bloom’s Taxonomy. List of Question Starter Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy This list moves through the 6 taxonomy levels with questions for each one. Level 1: Remember – Recalling Information Key words: Recognize, List, Describe, Retrieve, Name, Find, Match, Recall, Select, Label, Define, Tell Question Starters: What is…? Level 2: Understand – Demonstrate an understanding of facts, concepts and ideas Can you explain why…? Level 3: Apply – Solve problems by applying knowledge, facts, techniques and rules in a unique way

Next Gen Assessments 25 fun things to do with a Raspberry Pi Raspberry Pi, the bargain micro PC released earlier this year, has fertilised the imaginations of the public, bringing with it a boom in inventive approaches to computing not seen since the good old days of 8-bit. Indeed, a veritable golden age of computers is once again upon us, so with that in mind here are our top 25 fun things you can do with your Raspberry Pi. If you're new to Pi, check out our guide for getting started with your new piece of kit first, but bookmark this page and come back. Editor's note, 28 July 2014: This guide was written back in 2012 with the original Pi in mind, not the new, sleeker Model B+, but all of these tips are still relevant, with minimal tweaking. 1. Mod My Pi do a great range of colourful cases, using state of the art injection moulding techniques, and they're not a bad price either. 2. Fancy making your own case? 3. Now your Pi is in a cool looking case, hook it up to your TV and enjoy a mini-media experience with OpenELEC. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

How to Teach Your Kids Critical Thinking Skills: A Great Introductory Resource With two 5-year-olds and a 4-year-old in our family, bad logic frequently permeates our home. Here are two conversations just from yesterday: Me to my 4-year-old daughter: “Can you please put that blue ball away?” My daughter: “Mommy, I’m not wearing blue today. Logic fail: Not wearing blue has nothing to do with whether or not you got the ball out. Me to my 5-year-old daughter: “It looks like you need to go potty. My daughter: “No, mommy I don’t need to go.” Me: “Then why are you walking like a duck?” My daughter: “Because I need to go potty.” Me: “You just said you didn’t.” My daughter: “Right, because I don’t.” Logic fail: Totally inconsistent responses. It’s pretty easy for adults to call out kids when they’re using poor logic. Consider the following statement that commonly gets tossed around the internet. “Religion is just an accident of geography. (This is called a genetic fallacy – saying something can’t be true because of where it began, how it began, or who began it.

How To Teach Critical Thinking Using Bloom's Taxonomy The various levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy are well known to teachers, students, and the rest of the education world at this point. You need to slowly ascend the pyramid in order to effectively reach your goal(s). That’s great. This happens. The visual guide you see below is from Flickr via Kris McElroy’s Pinterest board (she shares a lot of fabulous resources so check ‘em out!). Level One From the base knowledge level of the taxonomy you can see that you start with the usual ‘who’ ‘what’ ‘where’ and other questions. Level Two You’re asked to re-tell and dive in a bit deeper into the topic you’re researching or discussing. Level Three How do you actually apply the skills you’re learning? Level Four Like a good scientist (this is close to the Scientific Method after all), we must analyze the results that are now coming forth. Level Five Time to remix and synthesize some new ideas or formulations. Level Six Boom. Think about that the next time you’re asked your opinion.

What is a Raspberry Pi? The Raspberry Pi is a low cost, credit-card sized computer that plugs into a computer monitor or TV, and uses a standard keyboard and mouse. It is a capable little device that enables people of all ages to explore computing, and to learn how to program in languages like Scratch and Python. It’s capable of doing everything you’d expect a desktop computer to do, from browsing the internet and playing high-definition video, to making spreadsheets, word-processing, and playing games. What’s more, the Raspberry Pi has the ability to interact with the outside world, and has been used in a wide array of digital maker projects, from music machines and parent detectors to weather stations and tweeting birdhouses with infra-red cameras. We want to see the Raspberry Pi being used by kids all over the world to learn to program and understand how computers work. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a registered educational charity (registration number 1129409) based in the UK.

Resources and Downloads for Teaching Critical Thinking Tips for downloading: PDF files can be viewed on a wide variety of platforms -- both as a browser plug-in or a stand-alone application -- with Adobe's free Acrobat Reader program. Click here to download the latest version of Adobe Reader. Click on any title link below to view or download that file. Resources On This Page: Lesson Plans & Rubrics KIPP King Curriculum Planning Guide <img height="12" width="11" class="media-image media-element file-content-image" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content_image_breakpoints_theme_edutopia_desktop_1x/public/content/08/pdficon.gif? Back to Top Tools for Critical Thinking Scope and Sequence, Speech and Composition <img alt="" title="" class="media-image" width="11" height="12" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content_image_breakpoints_theme_edutopia_desktop_1x/public/content/08/pdficon.gif? Culture at KIPP

10 Signs You're A Critical Thinker Critical thinkers are able to analyze issues from a wide variety of angles, resulting in more success in business and life. Discover your ability to think critically today with these ten signs you’re a critical thinker. 1. You get your news from a wide variety of sources. Critical thinkers know that partisan politics come into play at any mainstream media outlet, so they strive to learn about the world from a variety of sources that offer different journalistic voices. 2. Critical thinkers are not afraid of a healthy debate. 3. Critical thinkers know that it is impossible to be right about everything all the time. 4. Critical thinkers are often frustrated at the total lack of rationality that surrounds them on the Internet. 5. Critical thinkers wake up every day, excited to have another opportunity to sharpen their thinking ability. 6. Critical thinkers have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. 7. Critical thinkers would rather innovate than regurgitate. 8. 9. 10.

Raspberry Pi 2 runs free Windows 10, costs $35 - CNET Microcomputing fans take note -- there's a new Raspberry Pi in town. The all-new board brings a host of new hardware, including a Broadcom 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor and 1GB of RAM. Those upgrades, the Raspberry Pi Foundation says, make the Pi 2 Model B a much more powerful computer -- not just a good computer for its $35 price. The Raspberry Pi is an extremely simple computer that can be yours for very little money. "It's been successful beyond our wildest dreams," said Raspberry Pi Foundation founder Eben Upton at the London launch of the Pi 2 Model B, noting that since launch, 4.5 million Pi boards have been sold to date. "Over time it's become clear that there is interest among children in learning computing," Upton said. The Foundation says it won't be discontinuing the other Raspberry Pi boards, with the A+ board -- introduced back in November -- still the cheapest way to get your mitts on a Raspberry Pi. Windows 10 version "It runs," Upton said at the board's launch.

Developing Students' Critical Thinking Skills Through Whole-Class Dialogue ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, videos, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you. More Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals. More Teacher Resources by Grade Your students can save their work with Student Interactives. More Home › Classroom Resources › Lesson Plans Lesson Plan Overview From Theory to Practice Students take positions all the time. back to top

26 Teacher Tools To Create Online Assessments You teach, which means you need to know what students do and don’t understand. Which means you need to assess. You teach in the 21st century, which means you use the internet and digital tools to plan, share, and curate learning. This means online assessments could be a boon to your teaching, whether for blended learning, a flipped classroom, eLearning, to better communicate learning progress to parents, or for students to track their own mastery. So then one or two of the 26 teacher tools to create online assessments by Classroomaid Chuang may prove useful to you, yes?

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