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.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured 6-23-2014: NISE Network

 

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.

 

Launched in 2005, the NISE Network (Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network) has the target of engaging the public with the development of nanoscale research, as well as capturing the interest of young people and encouraging careers in nanoscale science or technology. The Network now includes fourteen museums and universities across the US.

The NISE Network is home to a selection of educational products designed to engage the public in nanoscale technology: educational programs and activities, media, exhibits, professional development tools, and evaluation and research reports designed for educators and scientists. All products are reviewed by scientists, educators, and tested with visitors. Most are available for free download and can be easily adapted and modified as needed.

 

 Visit the NISE Network Vimeo channel

 

Anyone interested in helping the public better understand nanoscale research is welcome to join. The NISE Network is funded by the National Science Foundation.

 

Note: Many NISE Network educational products are available in Spanish. The most popular programs have been adapted for Spanish-speaking audiences.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured 6-11-2014: School-2-School (AUA)

 

The School-2-School program, part of the America’s Unofficial Ambassadors* initiative, promotes goals related to education and mutual understanding at the  grassroots level in the United States and in the Muslim World.

 

Through School-2-School, an American school partners with a school in the Muslim World to design and implement a plan for their students to engage with and learn from each other. Further, the American school helps its partner school by raising money to purchase needed educational supplies.

 

 

Over the summer, an educator from the American school volunteers to travel to the partner school and work with the school’s students and educators. This teacher then shares the experience with his or her school and the local community.

 

School-2-School is a competitive program open to all American middle school or high school educators. Partner schools are carefully vetted to assure students and teachers have the appropriate English language skills and infrastructure to fully participate.

 

 See video profiles of AUA Volunteers and School-to-School teachers

 

Since 2005, School-2-School has benefitted thousands of students and their teachers in countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the United States.

 

* America’s Unofficial Ambassadors is a citizen diplomacy initiative aimed at developing mutual understanding and enhancing people-to-people partnerships between America and the Muslim World by placing Americans in volunteer positions in the Muslim World.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured 6-2-2014: Q?rius

 

Created for teens and tweens, Smithsonian's Q?rius (pronounced curious) is intended to help students make sense of the connections between nature, the planet, the universe, and their  everyday experiences.

 

 

Q?rius is an interactive and experimental "learning space" that capitalizes on the science, researchers, and collections assets of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History  Visitors are encouraged to be an active part of this energetic and fascinating community.

 

Through conversations with scientists and interactions with thousands of authentic specimens and objects, visitors will boost their understanding of the natural world, find new interests, and develop inquiry skills. Educators will come away with fresh ideas for engaging their students in science.

 

 

A Q?rius teacher account allows a teacher to create one account with multiple associated student sub-users. Teachers add student sub-users by providing a user name (not the student’s real name) which is associated with the teacher’s email address. No personal information is requested or collected about the students.

 

Student sub-users can create, save, and access a digital field book as part of the Create Your Own Field Book activity. Students can also post moderated comments to the Q?rius user community. Comments are only visible to other Q?rius users, and only by the user name provided. Sharing features, such as sharing content via social media services or email, are disabled for teacher accounts.

 

 

For student sub-users under 13, teachers are responsible for obtaining verifiable parental consent prior to registration. Teachers must retain this information for the duration of the school year in which they created the teacher account.

 

 Watch Q?rius - Question Everything - Discover More

 

Q?rius allow users to include media from Flickr, YouTube, and Vimeo into their field books. The AddThis service is used to allow certain users to share content via social media services using their own user names and passwords for those social media service accounts.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured 4-29-2014: Literacy Design Collaborative

 

Literacy Design Collaborative is a community of educators providing a teacher-designed and research-proven framework, online tools, and resources for creating literacy-rich assignments and courses.

 

The mission of Literacy Design Collaborative is "to ensure that every student in America graduates from high school with the Common Core literacy skills necessary for success in college and career.” In the furtherance of this goal, LDC strives to provide continuous, reflective professional development; to integrate literacy and content in K-12 instruction; and to help educators succeed in implementing the high expectations of the Common Core Standards.

 

Core Principles of Literacy Design Collaborative:

• Align with the Common Core State Standards.
• Promote the distribution of reading and writing instruction among all teachers.
• Make tasks central with clear goals.
• Connects reading and writing instruction.
• Use back mapping to identify the specific literacy skills students need if they are to succeed on a task.
• Foster a responsive system that encourages teachers to adjust their instruction in response to the formative information they gather on student performance.
• Encourage local choice with a balanced focus on results as well as means.
• Be teacher-friendly.

 

LDC offers educators an instructional system for developing students’ literacy skills in preparation for the demands of college and careers. LDC does not provide off-the-shelf curriculum units or lesson plans. Rather, LDC encourages teachers to build students’ literacy skills and understanding of science, history, and other content through meaningful, CCSS-aligned reading and writing assignments.

 

 

 Visit the Literacy Design Collaborative YouTube channel

 

Literacy Design Collaborative, as a dynamic community of teachers, is rapidly expanding its library of exemplary instructional modules, effective mini-tasks, and tools and resources for supporting teachers’ efforts to engage students in rigorous, CCSS-aligned learning.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured 3-19-2014: Created Equal

Created Equal brings together four acclaimed documentary films on the long Civil Rights movement: The Abolitionists, Slavery By Another Name, Freedom Riders, and The Loving Story.

 

Each of the films presented in Created Equal tells remarkable stories of individuals who challenged the social and legal status quo of deeply rooted institutions, from slavery to segregation. The films document the efforts to bring about equality for all races through the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. Each explores a different time period, from the antebellum abolitionist movement through the post–Civil War transition period for African Americans, and into the late twentieth century.

 

 

The thematic content presented by these documentaries can be used to address Common Core Literacy standards in Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening. Students have the opportunity to participate in discussions of the central themes of the civil rights struggle and then engage in writing activities built on the primary evidence they saw in the films. The Common Core writing standards for history are very specific and detailed regarding the presentation of evidence in order to express an argument or conclusion.

 

 See a video overview of Created Equal: America's Civil Rights Struggle

 

As part of the National Endowment for the Humanities’s Bridging Cultures initiative, Created Equal encourages people to revisit the history of civil rights in America and to reflect on the ideals of freedom and equality that have helped bridge racial and cultural divides in our country.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured 2-26-2014: Gooru

Gooru is a free search engine for education that makes it easy for K-12 teachers to discover topic-relevant content aligned to Common Core standards.

 

With millions of online resources available, teachers can organize learning playlists called collections to use in the classroom or to assign to students in a flipped classroom concept. Teachers receive direct feedback on mastery and progress as students study collections and answer questions,  allowing educators to differentiate instruction to meet individualized learning needs.

 

 

Users can contribute to an active community of teachers and students by sharing collections and best practices. Over half a million teachers in 140 countries and all 50 US states use Gooru to help students reach their full potential. Free learning materials can be found, rated, remixed, and shared.

 

 Watch Gooru: Discover, Organize, Teach

 

Gooru, developed by a non-profit organization whose mission is to honor the human right to education, is free of cost and ads. 

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 2-19-2014 Timerime

TimeRime is a web application that allows users to create, view, and compare interactive timelines.

 

TimeRime timelines can be interactive and multimedia, incorporating text, music, YouTube movies, Google Maps, and so on.

 

 

The TimeRime online community allows people from all around the world to view, create, and compare timelines about anything that relates to time. For instance a timeline about a scientific development, or an historical event.

 

 

Visitors to the website can register for a free account allowing them to create timelines. Timerime Edu Standard offers the following additional features for an annual fee of €149 (about $200 US):

• Your own TimeRime environment with restricted access.
• Access for all students and teachers in your school.
• Unlimited number of timelines.
• No advertisements.
• Teachers have admin rights that allow them to view, edit or delete timelines of students, and to grant and deny access to students.
• Timelines can be saved as pdf.
• Smartboard compatibility.

 Watch a screencast showing how to use Timerime

 

Timerime is available in English, Dutch, and Spanish. Flash is required.

 

 DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0 

Featured: 2-13-2014 Buck Institute for Education

The Buck Institute for Education (BIE) is a nonprofit organization that helps teachers learn how to use Project Based Learning in all grade levels and subject areas.

 

The Buck Institute for Education creates, gathers, and shares Project Based Learning (PBL) instructional practices and products and provides services to teachers, schools, and districts.

 

BIE offers teachers professional development on how to design, assess, and manage projects that engage and motivate students. BIE helps schools bring consistency and structure to PBL practices school-wide. BIE offers districts services and expertise in creating and sustaining district-wide PBL initiatives.

 

 

BIE offers a full range of PBL-related resources organized into three broad categories: Things to read, to watch, or to interact with.

• Things to Read include blogs, books, articles, and research about PBL, and also written documents you can use, such as rubrics, project planning forms, student handouts, and other materials for planning, assessing, and managing projects.
• Things to Watch include videos that showcase particular projects and PBL schools or to explain PBL, as well as an archive of recorded webinars on various PBL topics.
• Things to Interact With include live webinars, Google Hangouts, and Twitter Chats, plus online classes to take, conferences to attend, and websites to visit.

 

 Watch an interview with representatives from BIE

The Buck Institute for Education also recommends resources for teachers, principals, and district leaders who would like to take an independent approach to learning about PBL. The featured resources include a note on how you can use that item.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 1-22-2014 StrataLogica

StrataLogica brings maps, globes, atlases, and charts to life in an environment where teachers and students can "actively engage with our multi-layered world and easily share content and collaborate in ways never before imagined."

 

Recently redesigned with one-of-a-kind content creation and collaborative features, web-based, and powered by Google Earth, StrataLogica is designed for use on computers, projectors, and interactive whiteboards. It has been used by thousands and has been well-reviewed by both educators and students. 

 

StrataLogica for the iPad is a free app where students can learning about our world with a tap or pinch of their fingers. Version 2.0 brings powerful features for creating content, collaborating, and sharing from the desktop to the iPad.

 

StrataLogica for the iPad features: 

• Tools (marker, symbols, text labels and pushpins) to add your own content onto geography, history, and earth science layers.
• Save and share custom views or presentations with school or district students or colleagues.
• Share content with anyone in the world via Twitter, Facebook, or e-mail.
• Teachers can initiate dynamic collaborative projects with students.
• Access e-book atlases and related student activities.

StrataLogica delivers a unique educational experience. Even without a school account, you can experience a sampling of StrataLogica's interactive layers for free.

 

 See a video overview of StrataLogica for iPad

 

The web version of StrataLogica is supported on all major browsers and operating systems. To view maps in 3D you need the Google Earth Plugin. The StrataLogica app is free and is compatible with iPads using iOS 6.0 or later.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 1-9-2014 International Big History Association

The International Big History Association promotes understanding of the integrated history of the Cosmos, Earth, Life, and Humanity, using empirical evidence and scholarly methods. 

 

 

A principal purpose of the International Big History Association is to support the teaching of Big History. In aid of this goal, examples of syllabi now being used in the field are provided. An exhaustive list of Big History syllabi has been compiled. 

The IBHA Members' Newsletters highlight the activities, projects, and reflections that International Big History Association members have on Big History. 

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 12-3-2013 Other Worlds/Other Earths

Other Worlds/Other Earths provides you and your students the opportunity to participate in the search for other worlds and other life using a telescope that you control online.

 

You will be able to take your own images of distant solar systems, interpret the data you gather, and become one of the few humans to detect a planet orbiting a star beyond our Sun. 

 

The goal of the Other Worlds/Other Earths project is to give your school and students first-hand experience with the nature of scientific inquiry. They will:

• Learn how to gather, assess and interpret their own data.
• Use interactive models to help make predictions and interpret findings.
• Communicate their results to a community of student observers and professional scientists.

 

Many of the basic concepts of earth science, astronomy, and physics that your students are already learning and will use throughout science can be applied in this project. This will allow you to assess your students' understanding of core concepts as they work through the project.

 

Other Worlds/Other Earths takes about two to three weeks to complete. In the first part students will be involved in the detection of another world, using the MicroObservatory online telescopes.  From their observations, they can deduce the size of the planet, its distance from Earth, and even whether the planet's orbit is tilted.

 

 

Students can learn how to use scientific models to tell much more about what these other worlds are like in the second part of the project. They'll use interactive models to learn how to decode light coming from exoplanets and what the light can tell us about a planet's surface.

 

Finally, students will have to draw on their imagination as well as the evidence they have considered to create their own 3-D model of their newly discovered planet. 

 

Other Worlds/Other Earths is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0 

Featured: 10-24-2013 UClass

UClass is a global lesson exchange created by teachers for teachers.

UClass taps into an abundance of experience and knowledge by gathering, sharing, and crowd-sourcing planning globally. A huge collection of authentic classroom assignments is readily accessible.

When teachers connect on UClass, their classrooms can participate in dynamic global exchanges. Teachers may choose to open access to a global audience, allowing students to receive feedback from students around the world, thus fostering a powerful sense of global citizenship.

UClass lessons each consist of:

• a lesson outcome
• directions
• Common Core standard tagging
• a full lesson plan
• a worksheet
• an assessment
• and a multimedia link

Lessons are searchable by grade, subject, category, strand and standard.

 Watch a video introducing UClass

A teacher who has joined UClass can access lesson previews, but must purchase lesson credits to download the entire lesson. If a teacher creates a lesson, that teacher gets paid for each time it gets downloaded.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 10-23-2013 UN Cyberschoolbus

The United Nations Cyberschoolbus offers informative and interactive educational resources, curriculum, and quizzes/games to a global community.

Following are just a few of the many things Cyberschoolbus has to offer:

The Cyberschoolbus interactive database, InfoNation, is accessed by thousands of users monthly to locate accurate, official, and up-to-date information and statistics regarding the countries of the world.

The Schools Demining Schools project brought schools together around the issue of landmines. After learning about the topic, schools ran their own fundraising drives to raise money to clear school grounds of mines. Students could follow the results of their actions through email exchanges with the demining teams in Afghanistan and Mozambique.

The Model UN Discussion Area attracts thousands of students who gather to discuss international issues, request information, and exchange ideas.



For the Health module, classes from around the world connect with each other on a discussion board to talk about, then define health, before getting together on-line to question experts from the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization about their concerns.



Cities of Today, Cities of Tomorrow includes a comprehensive 6-unit teaching module on urban issues that covers everything from the history of urban development to profiles of today's important cities to issues facing the cities of tomorrow.

 View a video about the UN Cyberschoolbus

This year, the Cyberschoolbus Global Teaching and Learning Project is working on several large scale projects, including activities related to science, music, and history.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0