Featured 7-17-2014: Highlights for High School

 

Highlights for High School is a companion website to MIT OpenCourseWare* providing open educational resources for high school educators and students.

 

Highlights for High School includes content created specifically for high school students as well as resources collected from the MIT curriculum that can be used effectively in high school.

 

Available resources cover not only science and math, but also engineering, humanities, and social sciences. The material can be integrated into classroom lesson plans, shared, reused, and remixed. Though meant primarily for juniors and seniors in high school, motivated younger students can also benefit from these courses.

 

 

The website is organized into two main sections:

• The Subjects section is arranged by topics likely to be encountered in high school, such as mathematics, physics, and biology. Within each of these you will find a variety of content, such as labs, courses, and video resources.
• The Exam Preparation section is aimed at students who are preparing to take AP exams in biology, calculus, chemistry, or physics. These materials are meant to supplement classroom learning. Relevant OCW course materials have been mapped to the topics in these exams and are easily searchable.

 In addition to YouTube access, Highlights for High School has posted all of their videos to TechTV, an MIT-based video service similar to YouTube.

 

*See yesterday’s post

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Featured 7-16-2014: MIT OpenCourseWare

 

MIT OpenCourseWare makes the materials used in the teaching of almost all of MIT's undergraduate and graduate courses freely available on the web.

 

With more than 2200 courses available, OpenCourseWare provides free MIT educational content that can be used to augment your knowledge or in teaching others.

 

Each course consists of at least two parts: some type of instruction (a syllabus, lecture notes, reading list, calendar, etc) and a learning activity such as assignments, quizzes, or exams.

 

You may choose to use a complete course from beginning to end or just implement select concepts. You may use the material at your own pace.

 

 

OpenCourseWare offers several resources for you to use, adapt, and share with your students:

• Use advanced search to find assignments, recitations, exams, labs, study materials, or related resources on a specific topic.
• Simulations, applets, and visualizations let your students modify or control experiments.
• Audio and video lectures can facilitate a flipped classroom.
• Students can review concepts they should master for your course.

 Visit the MIT OpenCourseWare YouTube channel

 

MIT OpenCourseWare is free and requires no registration.

 

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Featured 7-15-2014: Biblionasium

 

Designed to engage, encourage, and excite young people about reading, BiblioNasium is a free, social network for children in elementary and middle school.

 

 

BiblioNasium includes the tools to function as a literacy partner, helping teachers efficiently develop and propel an effective, challenging, independent reading program.

 

Differentiate reading programs to meet students' individual needs by monitoring reading logs, creating reading challenges, and helping students expand genre choices and tailor reading lists. Build and manage programs by group, class, grade, and individual student.

 

 

More that you can do with BiblioNasium:

• Track what each student is reading and at what level, using Lexile® measures provided onsite.
• Virtual bookshelves help kids keep track of what they’ve read, what they like, and what they plan to read.
• Kids can share book recommendations and books, building conversation and connections around reading.
• Mascot and reading coach Chip Manzee motivates and entertains kids, challenging them and rewarding good reading behavior.

 Tour the Biblionasium website

 

BiblioNasium has taken measures to keep information safe. Only approved friends and the registered educator can see a student’s name and school.  Other signed-in users can see the student’s anonymous username, books, and other non-personal information. No users can see student information without authorization.

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Featured 7-14-2014: The Collaborative for Student Success

 

The Collaborative for Student Success is a grant-making initiative that pools the resources of a diverse group of education foundations.

 

Committed to improving public education, the members of the Collaborative for Student Success share the concept that successfully putting the Common Core State Standards into effect is important to ensuring that all students are prepared for school and life.

 

Their mission is to "support the state-led efforts of State Education Agencies and local education organizations responsible for educating and informing all stakeholders—parents, students, teachers and community leaders—about the new state standards and assessments."

 

The Collaborative is providing grants to:

• aid state and local efforts to effectively inform about the standards and assessments.
• ensure that teachers’ voices are heard both locally and nationally as implementation moves forward.
• involve higher education leaders and business representatives in dialogue about the standards.

 

 

Thus far, Collaborative for Student Success grantees have included groups representing state departments of education, state advocacy organizations, educator-led organizations, faith-based organizations, and local chambers of commerce.

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The Rearview Mirror 7-12-2014

For those of you who may have missed an EDge21 featured post or who didn't have the opportunity to look at some of them during this past week, here's a second chance.

 

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Monday

Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark case in which the US Supreme Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional.

Tuesday

Timeline World War 2 is a definitive history of the Second World War, presented by broadcaster Robert MacNeil.

Wednesday

Global Writes works with schools and school districts to develop and implement programs integrating performing arts techniques with literacy programs.

Thursday

MIT+K12 Videos about STEM topics are made for students by students.

Plus 7-11-2014: Makerspace

 

Simply described, Makerspaces are community centers with tools combining manufacturing equipment, community, and education in order to enable members to design, prototype, and create manufactured works that wouldn’t be possible with the resources available to individuals working alone.

 

Makerspaces can be organizations affiliated with or hosted within schools, universities or libraries sharing space and tools. Providing access to equipment, community, and education is common to all Makerspaces, but each is unique in how it is set up to meet the purposes of the community it serves.

 

 

A fairly new phenomenon, Makerspaces are beginning to produce significant concepts through the democratization of design, engineering, fabrication, and education. 

 

 Watch What is a Makerspace? by Andrew Goodin, Facilitator of the Makerspace at Grand Center Arts Academy in St. Louis, MO.

 

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Featured 7-10-2014: MIT+K12 Videos

 

 

MIT+K12 Videos about STEM topics are made for students by students.

 

Current MIT students are invited and trained to write and host webisodes for kids about their favorite science, technology, engineering, and math topics, seeking to entertain and engage as well as to educate.

 

 

The mission of MIT+K12 Videos is to "use MIT's unique resources to inspire the inner scientist in all learners. We believe everyone can have wonder for our world - so we create fresh and authentic video content that entertains and engages just as much as it educates."

 

These videos strive to show science in a different light from what you might find in a textbook while making the assets that are distinct to MIT accessible to a global audience.

 

MIT+K12 Videos are hosted by MIT students who possess a diverse set of interests, personalities, and backgrounds and are relatable and fun. By training these students to become engaging advocates for science and producing these videos, the hope is to foster an enthusiastic and curious global community of learners and educators.

 

 Visit the MIT+K12 YouTube channel

 

The MIT+K12 Videos are free and accessible to anyone in the world.

 

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Featured 7-9-2014: Global Writes

 

Global Writes works with schools and school districts to develop and implement programs integrating performing arts techniques with literacy programs.

 

Global Writes helps schools develop technology applications to share student-created work for publication and feedback. This includes the use of digital media, videoconferencing, podcasting, and blogging.

 

Schools and districts can get assistance in finding local arts partners as a classroom collaboration resource as well as in seeking local funding to sustain arts integration programs.

 

Global Writes helps schools around the world work together to foster communication and collaboration among students around literacy-based projects integrating the arts using technology as a resource.

 

 

Professional development opportunities focus on arts integration with existing literacy curriculum, providing teachers with opportunitites to develop an appreciation of the arts across the curriculum and confidence in using performing arts techniques in their classrooms.

 

 Watch a Global Writes overview

 

Global Writes provides both formative and summative evaluations to monitor student progress in their programs and supplies data to support increases in student achievement and teacher knowledge.

 

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Featured 7-8-2014: Timeline World War 2 with Robert MacNeil

 

Timeline World War 2 is a definitive history of the Second World War, presented by broadcaster Robert MacNeil.

 

Timeline World War 2 for the iPad features a zoomable interactive timeline that dramatically alters how history can be viewed and understood, bringing to life the events of 70 years ago for a 21st century audience.

 

With more than a hundred films from the archives of British Pathé and US broadcasters, additional commentary by Robert MacNeil, over 600 still images, and 1500 written entries provide the viewer an insight into the events of WW2.

 

Timeline World War 2 key features:

• Search and filter the event timeline to focus on content that most interests you.
• A dynamic map of the war, showing invasions, occupations, allegiances, fronts and country boundary changes.
• The location feature on timeline items can be used to see where each event took place on the world map.
• Over 100 WW2 US and UK (British Pathé) newsreels from the declaration of war to the dropping of the atomic bomb.
• Choose from the original newsreel audio, or Robert MacNeil's commentary.
• Watch the films that interest you in the order of your choosing, either on your iPad, or on your television with AirPlay.

Timeline World War 2 is compatible with iPad and requires iOS 5.0 or later. It is available for $9.99 (USD) from the iTunes App Store.

 

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Featured 7-7-2014: Brown v. Board of Education

 

Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark case in which the US Supreme Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional, overturning the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896, which allowed state-sponsored segregation, insofar as it applied to public education. The unanimous decision handed down on May 17, 1954, held that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. This ruling opened the door to integration and was a major victory of the civil rights movement.

 

 

The National Park Service, in support of the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Kansas offers a collection of lesson plans and curriculum units for K-12 on their website. Related Common Core standards for all the materials are specified.

 

 

The National Archives provides a compilation of documents related to Brown v. Board of Education  as well as lesson resources, standards correlations, teaching activities, a document analysis worksheet, a timeline, and biographies of key figures.

 

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The Rearview Mirror 7-5-2014

For those of you who may have missed an EDge21 featured post or who didn't have the opportunity to look at some of them during this past week, here's a second chance.

 

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 Monday

The Pericles Group provides game-based learning solutions for students, teachers, and administrators in a wide range of situations and a variety of disciplines.

Tuesday

The GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) program is a worldwide hands-on science and education program for primary and secondary schools.

Wednesday

Peekaboo Studios is an educational app developer focused on building apps aligned with Common Core State Standards for PreK-12.

Plus 7-3-2014: Make Math a Game

 

Make Math a Game is devoted to helping people, both kids and adults, improve their math skills while having a good math experience.

 

Browse the Make Math a Game blog for ideas that can improve your math ability. The free website helps you understand the basics and alleviate confusion so that math becomes fun. The goal is to "give help to kids, teens, and adults who want to get better at math – and it doesn’t matter what your current math level is!”

 

In addition to the blog, there are sections on Math Concepts, Practice, Everyday Math, Math Tricks and Teasers, as well as special featured items.

 

 

The philosophy of Make Math a Game is that you can do math better with practice and the practice will be easier if it is fun.

 

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Featured 7-2-2014: Peekaboo Studios

 

Peekaboo Studios is an educational app developer focused on building apps aligned with Common Core State Standards for PreK-12.

 

Peekaboo Studios has created over 140 apps that teach early concepts, critical thinking, vocabulary, math, music exploration, and more. A few of the available titles are Best Books for Tweens, Ultimate Trivia: The Fault in our Stars, Learn the Colors, Math 7 Testing Prep, Learn the Alphabet, and Reading 5.

 

There are apps available for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, Google Play Android devices, Barnes & Noble's Nook, and Amazon's Kindle devices. For a full list of apps:

• iPad/iPhone/iPod: Apple apps
• Nook apps: Nook apps
• Apps for Kindle: Kindle apps
• Android apps: Google Play apps

You can contact Peekaboo Studios for a free promo code to try out one of their iOS apps (only Apple provides promotional codes).

 

 

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Featured 7-1-2014: The GLOBE Program

 

The GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) program is a worldwide hands-on science and education program for primary and secondary schools.

 

The vision of the GLOBE program is to promote and support students, teachers, and scientists collaborating on inquiry-based investigations of the environment and the Earth system.

 

Participation in the GLOBE program is open to teachers in participating countries who become trained in GLOBE scientific protocols. These teachers mentor students in taking, reporting, and using high-quality data and using these data to perform investigations.

 

 

The GLOBE program works in partnership with NASA, NOAA and NSF Earth System Science Projects in study and research about the dynamics of Earth's environment.

 

 Visit the GLOBE program’s YouTube channel

 

Since its start on Earth Day, 1995, 112 countries have participated in the GLOBE program. There are more than 66,000 GLOBE-trained teachers representing over 24,000 schools around the world. More than 10 million students have participated and contributed more than 100 million measurements to the GLOBE database.

 

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Featured 6-30-2014: The Pericles Group

 

The Pericles Group provides game-based learning solutions for students, teachers, and administrators in a wide range of situations and a variety of disciplines.

 

The Pericles Group offers ‘practomimetic' courses that blend stories and game play providing students the opportunity to explore learning as a narrative and as a game.

 

 

The attitudes and behaviors of students learning in the practomimetic courses change along with their level of knowledge. They can become active learners, metaphorically engaged in making the world a better place.

 

The Pericles Group partners with teachers to develop and deliver materials for game-based courses and curricula that capitalize on the opportunities of teaching as a digitally-enhanced practice. Although the practomimes don’t look like traditional video games, the play is similar and they teach more. Practomimetic courses can teach students to "play the curriculum," reaching the learning objectives and mastering the skills and content the practomime is designed to support.

 

Students might play as scientists, recruited by a shadowy multinational corporation, investigating phenomena out of science fiction and fantasy. Latin students could play as operatives on a mission to find a lost inscription that can only be deciphered if they are able to read Latin. 

 

Currently developed products of The Pericles Group include:

• Operation LAPIS is a two-year introductory curriculum in Roman civilization and the Latin language
• Operation BIOME is a full-year game-based (practomimetic) course in biology.
• Operation CAESAR is an advanced Latin course aligned with the new Latin AP standards.
• CARD-tamen is a stand-alone card game where players construct a persuasive argument about the subject matter in relation to a controversial topic.

 

 

The Pericles Group offers a series of professional development seminars that demonstrate the potential of practomimetic courses. These seminars can be customized to the needs of each school district.

 

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The Rearview Mirror 6-28-2014

For those of you who may have missed an EDge21 featured post or who didn't have the opportunity to look at some of them during this past week, here's a second chance.

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Monday

The NISE Network is an online digital library of public nano educational products and tools for educators and scientists to use to increase their ability to engage their people in nanoscale technology.

Tuesday

In order to help you integrate core nonfiction topics into your curriculum, Kids Discover has developed hundreds of free downloads, articles, lesson plans, and other resources.

Wednesday

MathTerms is a free illustrated glossary of nearly 1000 mathematics terms for middle- and high-school students and teachers in both English and Spanish.

Thursday

Sharplet is a new web app that promises users will remember more in less time using the spaced repetition learning method to optimally schedule flashcard review sessions.

Featured 6-26-2014: Sharplet

Sharplet

 

Sharplet is a new web app that promises users will remember more in less time using the spaced repetition learning method to optimally schedule flashcard review sessions.

 

 

Spaced repetition is a learning technique that utilizes increasing intervals of time between subsequent review of previously learned material in order to take advantage of the psychological spacing effect. The amount of time between learning sessions is a determining factor in long-term memory formation, not the amount of time spent learning.

 

During your study sessions, grade flashcards on how well you recall them. Cards are scheduled for review based on these grades. Cards you know well will move further ahead in the review schedule so you will see them less often. The progressively increasing review period between each card moves knowledge quickly from your short to long-term memory.

 

 

The founders of Sharplet believe that some flashcard applications may be good but are lacking essential features and none seem to be fully integrating spaced repetition. They endeavored to make Sharplet easy to use and to provide the appropriate features that will allow users to have fun while learning.

 

 Currently Sharplet does not have dedicated mobile apps but the website will adapt to the screen of size of your device so you can study a course on any device. Dedicated IOS and Android apps are planned for the near future.

 

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Featured 6-25-2014: MathTerms

MathTerms is a free illustrated glossary of nearly 1000 mathematics terms for middle- and high-school students and teachers in both English and Spanish.

 

With its colorful, annotated illustrations, MathTerms has been accessed online by millions of students over the past five years. It is now available as an iPad and Android app with permission of The Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin and Agile Mind, Inc.

 

Key features of MathTerms:

• Free with no advertising
• Covers Middle School Math, Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, Precalculus, Calculus, and Statistics
• Colorful, annotated illustrations
• Complete, sentence-based definitions
• Alphabetical indexes
• Flash card function
• No internet connection required for use

 

Complete definitions are available in both English and Spanish. Display toggles between English and Spanish terms, and the search function is available in both languages.

 

 Watch a video demo of the MathTerms app

 

 The MathTerms iPad app requires iOS 3.2 or higher. The Android version requires Android 1.6 or higher.

 

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