Why is the Arctic and Antarctica cold? An experiment for kids. - The Hands-On Homeschooler This month, we are doing a unit study of the Antarctica and the Arctic with The Usual Mayhem, No Doubt Learning, Journey 2 Excellence, and Childhood Beckons. This week, we decided to look at why the Arctic and Antarctica are cold. Our inspiration comes from Sunshine Makes the Seasons by Franklyn Branley. The book does a wonderful job of explaining that the earth’s rotation around the sun determines which season we are in. To create your orange “earth”, you pierce an orange with a pencil, draw a line for the equator, and place a thumbtack at your approx. location on the earth. We went into a dark room, and then shined the flashlight on the orange “earth.” Afterwards, the author recommends that you tilt your orange so that the axis was at an angle, and then pictorially demonstrated how the earth’s tilt is the reason we have seasons. Finally, we started to explore the 2 poles – the North Pole and the South Pole. Note: The book above is linked to my Amazon affiliate account.
A warning to college profs from a high school teacher For more than a decade now we have heard that the high-stakes testing obsession in K-12 education that began with the enactment of No Child Left Behind 11 years ago has resulted in high school graduates who don’t think as analytically or as broadly as they should because so much emphasis has been placed on passing standardized tests. Here, an award-winning high school teacher who just retired, Kenneth Bernstein, warns college professors what they are up against. Bernstein, who lives near Washington, D.C. serves as a peer reviewer for educational journals and publishers, and he is nationally known as the blogger “teacherken.” By Kenneth Bernstein You are a college professor. I have just retired as a high school teacher. I have some bad news for you. No Child Left Behind went into effect for the 2002–03 academic year, which means that America’s public schools have been operating under the pressures and constrictions imposed by that law for a decade. Troubling Assessments A Teacher’s Plea
Free K - 12 Common Core Lesson Plans and Ideas Sixth Grade Reading: Informational Text Scroll Up Scroll Down back Key Ideas and Details: Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. 107 Lesson(s) Determine a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments. 72 Lesson(s) Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a text (e.g., through examples or anecdotes). 16 Lesson(s) Craft and Structure: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings. 35 Lesson(s) Analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the ideas. 24 Lesson(s) Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text. 23 Lesson(s) 17 Lesson(s)
Johns Hopkins University: New Horizons for Learning Welcome to New Horizons for Learning - a leading web resource for identifying and communicating successful strategies for educational practice. The Johns Hopkins School of Education does not vet or endorse any information contained on the New Horizons website. Information posted on New Horizons prior to January 1, 2014 can be repurposed as long as the repurposing party provides attribution to the original author of the material being used. Information posted on New Horizons after January 1, 2014 is considered open access information and can be repurposed without attribution to the original author. In all cases, attribution should be given to the New Horizons website. For questions, contact soe.externalaffairs@jhu.edu. New! Vol.X No. 2, Special Edition: Focus on Autism Vol. It's Here! We just launched an exciting initiative to provide educators with an efficient technology resource database that is teacher-tested. Vision Click here to see our complete vision. Archives
Games for Science Learning and Scientific Discovery Even though more people are recognizing the potential for teaching and learning through video games, there are still plenty of skeptics -- those who see video games as a mindless distraction, as entertainment and not education. But the work of a research center at the University of Washington may be at the forefront of challenging that notion. And this isn't just about how students can benefit from educational gaming either; it's about how scientific discovery can benefit from gamers. That latter element has found UW's Center for Game Science in the news a lot lately, as one of the games it developed has helped lead to a breakthrough in AIDS research. Creative Research Outsourcing The game in question is called Fold.it, an online protein-folding game. Since the game's release, some 100,000 people have played Foldit, most of whom have little or no background in biochemistry. "We wanted to see if human intuition could succeed where automated methods had failed," Dr. A Peek Under the Hood
The History Guide -- Main Lewis Center for Educational Research - Teaching the Next Generations' Science Start by "Like"-ing "NGSS Science Education at the Lewis Center for Educational Research" on Facebook and enter the conversation about NGSS.Next, (2/2016) consider using using one of these Cmaps to help you plan your courses, units and lesson plans: K-5 and 9-12. [Understand that these Cmaps are 'living' documents and are being updated weekly]. These resources were created using Cmap. A Cmap 'NGSS Planning Guide' does not exist (yet) for MS as the AAE/LCER adopted IAT's PBIS MS curriculum which comes 'pre-laid-out' and NGSS correlated for grades 6-8. We distributed the existing PBIS units at each grade level using this plan. Finally, (2014) consider using Symbaloo. MS Integrated Science Course 1 (6th Grade) [.doc] MS Integrated Science Course 2 (7th Grade) [.doc] MS Integrated Science Course 3 (8th Grade) [.doc] As CMaps. Step 5: After creating unit and lesson plans, consider how you will assess student learning. > In the mean time...
Home - MC-GEN HELP 5 Future Trends That Will Impact the Learning Ecosystem As summer reflections on the past school year turn into aspirations for the next year, it's important to keep in mind the big picture of change in education. Five shifts in how we think about schools and education in general will help to regenerate the learning ecosystem, and will provoke our imagination about new possibilities for teaching and learning. 1. Democratized Entrepreneurship Democratized entrepreneurship will spread an entrepreneurial mindset among learners, educators and communities, accelerating a groundswell of grassroots innovation. Entrepreneurship is no longer reserved for those few with the resources to buffer risk and the social capital to access expertise and guidance. To take advantage of this trend: Begin to cultivate an edupreneurial mindset of experimentation, risk-taking, learning from failure, creative problem-solving, and market awareness in your classroom, and expand it to your school and district. 2. 3. 4. 5.
World Mentoring Academy | FREE Interactive Learning OpenCourseware from MIT, UC Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, U Houston, USC, UCLA, Khan Academy, NPTEL General description: The College Level Examination Program (CLEP), Dantes (DSST),TECEP, ECE, NYU-SCPS & others, are a group of standardized tests that assess college-level knowledge in 170+ subject areas that are administered at more than 1,700 colleges and universities across the United States created by the College Board, Gov & 3 State Universities. There are 1,000 to 2,900 colleges which grant Univ. credit. Each institution awards credit to students who meet the college's minimum qualifying score for that exam, which is typically 50, but it does vary by school and exam. Resources: OpenCourseware from Darden MBA, Tepper School of Bus., Harvard, Yale, UC Berkeley, Stanford, FSI, Husson along with many of the World's finest University's. Language: English Free General description: Test assesses the knowledge you’ve gained from three years of college-preparatory mathematics, including two years of algebra and one year of geometry. Professors: Default Professor, Cliff Ishii Total units: 117
The Einstein Project Science Writer Welcome to CAST Science Writer, the tool that supports students in writing lab and class reports. This tool is geared toward middle school and high school students. Check out the supports and help available in Science Writer described below. Or click the "Take a Tour" button above to see how Science Writer works. A Report Structure All parts of a science or lab report are broken into small steps so the author can concentrate on one part of the report at a time. A Process for Writing Science Writer helps you through the process of draft, revise, and edit when writing a science report. Sentence Starters The "Help Me Get Started" button has two functions (1) it divides the writing into smaller sections and (2) provides sentence starters when on the draft screens in the writing process. Checklists Checklists are available when you revise and edit your science report. Journal This is a place in Science Writer where you may write notes, reflect, make comments or questions, or keep track of data.
Common Core poses big challenge for students, big opportunity for teachers The complex language skills that are the focus of Common Core’s English language arts standards will be needed to excel in Common Core math and the new science standards. They are stressed, too, in California’s new language standards for English learners. Courtesy of Dr. With an emphasis on developing verbal and analytical skills, the new Common Core standards will pose a big step up for most students. “Common Core is pushing us toward a higher level of achievement, and that depth is predicated on an ability to use language in sophisticated ways,” said Ben Sanders, director of standards, assessment and instruction for the 10 districts that formed the nonprofit California Office to Reform Education, or CORE. Recognizing this will also be a unique opportunity and a heavy lift for teachers. Robert Linquanti, an adviser on both the new state English Language Development standards and the new Common Core English language assessments (photo by John Fensterwald).
untitled