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 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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Featured 6-18-2014: CollegeEd

 

CollegeEd is the free, standards-based* college planning and career exploration program for middle and high school students from the  College Board.

 

 

Drawing on more than a century of experience by the College Board in guiding students on the way to college, the CollegeEd program provides lessons and activities meant to help students evolve the skills needed to meet their goals. In collaboration with Roadtrip Nation, CollegeEd gives students the chance to "explore their aspirations and set long-term goals to get them on the path to higher education and a successful career."

 

Lessons written by experienced counselors and AP teachers are organized around three consistent themes: "Who Am I?", "Where Am I Going?" and "How Do I Get There?" 

 

 

CollegeEd offers flexible options for teaching, implementation, and family involvement. The program consists of three levels, each with its own student workbook and accompanying educator guide:

• Grades 7-8 gets students thinking about the path to college.
• Grades 9-10 has engaging activities to help students discover their interests and begin planning for college.
• Grades 11-12 guides students through the college search and application processes.

 

CollegeEd materials can be used online and are also provided as downloadable, printable PDFs. Materials are also available in Spanish.

 

* The CollegeEd program is based on standards developed by the College Board, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and ASCA.

 

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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.

 

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Featured 5-27-2014: BrainPOP Educators

 

BrainPOP Educators presents tips, tools, and resources to excite and support anyone who educates young people.

 

BrainPOP offers animated educational movies, quizzes, games, activities, and other resources for students in grades 3-12, covering more than 750 topics in the areas of Science, Math, English, Social Studies, Health, Technology, and Arts & Music. The movies are supplemented with resources including a quiz, activities, related games, a timeline, and a selection of high-interest reading.

 

 

On BrainPOP Educators you’ll find resources including lesson plans, calendars of events, and creative suggestions for using BrainPOP in the classroom. It also includes a blog that announces new BrainPOP features, hosts guest bloggers, and follows current events from the world of educational technology. 

 

 

A database, searchable by standard, subject and grade level, correlates BrainPOP topics and games to Common Core math and English standards is available. The database also allows you to correlate BrainPOP movies with curriculum standards from individual states and Canadian provinces.

 

 See an overview of BrainPOP Educators

 

BrainPOP Educators offers a variety of training resources including outlines for giving workshops, handouts, and webinars.

 

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Featured 5-22-2014: The Math Open Reference Project

 

The Math Open Reference Project is free, interactive math textbook on the web covering high-school geometry.

 

 

The Math Open Reference Project has the goal of providing high-quality digital content free of charge to the end user, while providing numerous benefits over paper textbooks:

• Accessible anywhere, any time.
• Interactive, interesting experience.
• Hyperlinks promote exploration and easy lookup.
• Use the search to look up a word or term.
• Interactive quizzes with instant feedback.
• Lower cost.
• Less weight.

Using interactive tools and compelling animations, The Math Open Reference Project provides an engaging way to learn and explore the subject. A vast library of virtual manipulatives can be used to demonstrate concepts using a computer, projector, and whiteboard. Students can use the same manipulatives themselves outside the classroom.

 

 

The Math Open Reference Project meets the NCTM standards for content and is aligned with the Common Core standards, but also has the potential to adapt to and comply with the standards for every state.

 

The Math Open Reference Project will work with most popular browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. The interactive illustrations use Java and/or Flash, so these plug-ins must be installed on the user's computer.

 

The copyright and license agreement permit any printing for non-commercial use, useful for class handouts.

 

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Featured 5-6-2014: AppInventor.org

 

Learn how to program Android mobile apps using MIT's App Inventor at AppInventor.org. An on-line book and video lessons walk you through the creation of successively more complex apps.

 

AppInventor.org is also intended to be used by teachers. The teaching materials included here have been used as a basis for middle school, high school, and college courses. The course-in-a-box provides structure and material to get a new course up and running quickly.

The book is designed for absolute beginners. It is organized in a way meant to motivate learning. The learner is walked through the creation of twelve successively more complex apps. The apps section is followed by a separate Inventor's Manual section which explains programming and computer science concepts in easily understood terms. Note: The book is a web document, not PDF.

These tutorials are refined versions of the tutorials that have been on the Google and MIT App Inventor sites since App Inventor's inception and have been used by thousands of beginners to learn programming.

 

 Go to the App Inventor YouTube channel

 

AppInventor.org is funded by the W.M. Keck Foundation and theNational Science Foundation. It is part of the Democratize Computing Lab at the University of San Francisco.

 

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http://www.appinventor.org/

Featured 3-4-2014: Historical Thinking Matters

Focused on key topics in US history, Historical Thinking Matters is a website  designed to help students learn how to critically read primary sources and how to critique and construct historical narratives.

 

Historical Thinking Matters supplies high school students with a framework for reading documents as historians read them. By developing these habits of mind, students will be able to critically examine historical sources and make reasoned conclusions about the past. Additionally, students can become critical users of the immense quantity  of historical content on the web.

 

Historical Thinking Matters introduces the site’s approach by exploring conflicting first-hand accounts of the 1775 Lexington Green skirmish.

 

Student Investigations focuses on five topics from the post-Civil War US history curriculum. Each investigation includes:

• An introductory movie framing a question of historical debate;
• Ten historical sources;
• Guided questioning that fosters historical thinking skills such as sourcing, contextualization, close reading, and corroboration;
• Text annotations and audio and video clips that provide additional commentary;
• An assignment that asks students to respond to the investigative question by drawing on their previous engagement with the sources;
• Directed explorations of virtual archives.

Teacher Materials offers educators classroom materials and strategies, examples of student and teacher work, and supplementary resources.

 

 

 Visit the Historical Thinking Matters YouTube channel

 

If you are a teacher educator, HTM for Teacher Educators offers resources on teaching historical thinking skills and on common mistakes new teachers make.

 

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Featured: 1-6-2014 Big History Project

The Big History Project is a free, open, online social studies curriculum designed for secondary schools (students aged 14+). 

 

Big history weaves 13.7 billion years of evidence and insights from science and history into a single, cohesive story. The Big History Project asks the big questions about our Universe, our planet, life, and humanity. Students can consider our future path and be challenged to develop the skills and knowledge they will need. 

 

 

The aim of the Big History Project is to help "students develop vital skills, knowledge, and a deep, enduring passion for learning."

 

Some features of the Big History Project:

• Materials that are easy to download, print, and share
• Lesson plans, inline teaching guidance, and support
• Custom content including videos, texts, comics, and animations
• Easily tailored to state standards and instructional approaches
• Aligned to Common Core ELA standards for 9th and 10th grades  

 Watch Big History Project: A Story for Everyone

 

 

The Big History Project is a joint effort between a group of dedicated teachers, schools, and supporters. Bill Gates is providing ongoing support to establish the Big History Project and make it free and publicly accessible. 

 

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Featured: 12-4-2013 HudsonAlpha iCell

HudsonAlpha iCell gives biology teachers and students a 3D view inside a cell using iOS and Android apps, as well as in a desktop browser*.

 

HudsonAlpha iCell includes examples of three types of cells: animal, plant, and bacteria. Students can learn about the various parts of the cell used by biologists, biochemists, and DNA researchers at the HudsonAlpha Institute to advance the limits of biotechnology. 

 

iCell includes accurate and realistic 3D models of cellular organelles. The iPad version also supports the ability to choose among three levels of detail in the descriptions of the cellular structures.

 

You can tap on parts of the cell to select and zoom in on that particular organelle. Each organelle comes with a name and a short description of its function in the cell.

 

iCell gives you a 3D view inside a typical plant, animal, and bacterial cell. iCell is easy to navigate and simple to use giving you an intuitive tool to compare animal, plant and bacterial cell structure.

 

For a better view of each cell, drag to rotate around the cell or selected organelle or zoom in and out. 

 

 View a video about the iCell iPad app

HudsonAlpha iCell offers a new way for students at all levels to explore the cell. 

*To access iCell from the desktop, you will need to download and install the Unity 3-D Web player plug-in.

 

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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.

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Featured: 11-20-2013 Race2Achieve

Race 2 Achieve is a free supplemental curriculum for 11th and 12th grade math classes aligned to Common Core standards. The focus is on how the Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR team uses key concepts from Algebra II and trigonometry, and applies them in a real-world context. 

 

The project-based curriculum includes a complete and adaptable kit with: 

• A comprehensive teacher’s guide
• Student notebooks
• Videos featuring Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Hendrick Motorsports Engineers
• Car kits for each team of 5 students 
• Pre- and post- curriculum assessments

 

Race 2 Achieve is designed to be used over approximately five-ten class periods. Small teams of students work together to each build a race-ready car culminating with a class “race day” competition to determine which team has built the most efficient car from the car kits provided with the curriculum materials. Teachers are provided with all of the components necessary for teams to assemble their cars. 

 

 

Race 2 Achieve was free to the first thousand 11th and 12th grade math classrooms interested. Unfortunately that number has been reached. However, complete the signup form here and you will be placed on a waiting list.

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Featured: 10-22-2013 She++

In 2012, she++ was Stanford's first conference on women in technology. In April, more than 250 attendees met on Stanford's campus with a group of inspirational women in tech, from companies such as Google, Facebook, Dropbox, and Pinterest, and others.

After positive feedback, it was decided to expand she++ into a full-fledged community to inspire women in computer science.

The she++ Conference is now an annual event at Stanford University where college and high school students and industry professionals join in a one-day symposium on what it is to be a woman in tech.

Previous events have included career and student panels, interactive workshops, a mentoring lunch, documentary screenings, and keynote addresses. The next event is coming up in April 2014.

 Watch a documentary about she++

The she++ e-mentoring program creates opportunities for high school students and potential technologists to connect with college CS role models. A single online meeting is setup between a mentor and student. Mentors and students are then free to independently develop a mentoring relationship if they so choose.

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