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 7-7-2014: 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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Featured 6-24-2014: Kids Discover

 

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. 

 

The mission of Kids Discover is "to expose kids to all the wonders in the world—science, space, nature, history and culture—in one easy-to-understand, beautiful publication” with the goal of encouraging kids' natural curiosity while fostering an enthusiasm for reading and learning.

 

A Teacher’s Guide and a Power Vocabulary packet accompany every Kids Discover title. These free downloads come with with activities, exercises, and assessments to help you integrate their nonfiction titles into your curriculum.

 

 

More Kids Discover resources:

• Reproducible, one-page infographics and lesson sheets bring complex concepts to life with diagrams and short captions.
• Long-form Spotlights articles each cover one topic in-depth, and include a photo gallery and short assessment to help improve reading comprehension and vocabulary.
• Short (about 300 words) Quick Reads nonfiction pieces are intended to get kids interested in exploring new ways to read and digest information.

A subject-matter expert from a prestigious university or museum authenticates each issue of Kids Discover. All issues are ad-free.

 

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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.

 

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Featured 6-19-2014: LEGO Education

 

LEGO Education was created to bring classroom tested and ready solutions that will engage and motivate young students.

 

Combining the fun, exciting aspects of LEGO bricks with subject-specific tools and curricula, LEGO Education can help teachers meet their objectives.

 

Based in Denmark, LEGO Education has been working with educators for more than three decades to provide classroom solutions and resources that can be used to bring subjects to life and make learning fun. 

 

 

LEGO Education educational sets, activity packs, teacher resources, and programming tools can make learning inspiring and meet your curriculum needs. Materials are designed to stimulate interest in science, technology, engineering, computer science, math, and the humanities. 

 

 Visit the LEGO Education YouTube channel

 

The ultimate goal of LEGO Education is to "encourage students to think creatively, reason systematically and release their potential to shape their own future."

 

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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 6-4-2014: TeachUNICEF

 

TeachUNICEF is a collection of free interdisciplinary global education resources for grades PK-12.

 

 

The standards-aligned TeachUNICEF lesson plans, stories, and multimedia resources cover social studies, science, math, English/language arts, and foreign/world languages.

 

TeachUNICEF deals with many topics including Armed Conflict, Child Labor, Child Trafficking, Global Citizenship, Poverty, Water and Environment, and more.

 

 

The mission of TeachUNICEF is to "support and create well-informed global citizens who understand interconnectedness, respect and value diversity, have the ability to challenge injustice and inequities and take action in personally meaningful ways.”

 

TeachUNICEF strives to provide rich, engaging academic materials offering multiple viewpoints, thus stimulating the consideration of global issues.

 

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) works in more than 190 countries and territories to save and improve children’s lives, providing health care and immunizations, clean water and sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief and more.

 

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Featured 5-28-2014: One Hen

One Hen provides educators with flexible curriculum resources designed to help students develop financial responsibility, personal initiative, global awareness, and giving back.

The motivation for One Hen comes from the children’s book, One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference. A young Ghanaian boy named Kojo who uses a small loan to buy one hen, which in turn lays eggs and hatches more hens, until he eventually becomes the largest chicken farmer in the country.

 

One Hen challenges kids in grades K-8 through a series of interactive lesson plans, an engaging storybook, and a website of games and activities. Teams of students face the challenges of running their own real-world small businesses. With the profits they earn, they repay their loans and make a donation to a non-profit organization of their choice, helping to meet a local or global need.

 

 

In the process, the young entrepreneurs learn necessary skills in business math, personal financial literacy, and social entrepreneurship.

 

One Hen is a non-profit organization whose mission is to "empower all kids to become social entrepreneurs who make a difference for themselves and the 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 5-13-2014: ReadWorks

 

ReadWorks is a national non-profit organization that provides free, research-based, Common Core-aligned reading comprehension curriculum.

ReadWorks supplies units, lessons, and authentic, leveled non-fiction and literary passages directly to educators online to be shared broadly.The curriculum is based on the most highly regarded, proven research on reading instruction, and includes:

• Informational and literary passages and question sets for grades K-8
• Skill and Strategy lesson units for grades K-4
• Comprehension (close reading) units for grades K-5
• Novel study units for grades 5-6

ReadWorks is committed to "solving the nation's reading comprehension crisis by giving teachers the research-proven tools and support they need to improve the academic achievement of their students."

 

 

 View Intro to ReadWorks

 

The ReadWorks curriculum is aligned to the Common Core State Standards, the standards of all 50 states, and to top core reading programs. Each lesson page lists the standards that a specific lesson aligns to on the Standards Alignment tab. You can also edit your profile to automatically show the standards alignment for your state and grade.

 

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Featured 5-5-2014: eduCanon

 

eduCanon is an online learning tool that can be used to build and share interactive video lessons transforming passive content into an active experience for students.

 

Begin with a YouTube, Vimeo, or TeacherTube video. Use eduCanon to break the content into digestible chunks by time-linking activities that students interact with as they view the video - increasing student engagement and, with real-time monitoring, informing the next day’s lesson planning.

 

Principally designed to be used in a 1:1 student learning environment, teachers have used eduCanon in class as a blended tool, assigned students an eduCanon lesson as homework in a flipped setting, and had students to create their own lessons. eduCanon is flexible enough to be adapted to your resources and teaching style.

 

 

eduCanon is a web-based app, so no downloading or installation is required. It works on Macs and PC, on all major browsers, but the best experience comes with Chrome or Safari. It can even be embedded into a website or blog.

 

 Watch eduCanon’s introductory video

 

eduCanon is committed to keeping a free, functional site. Some premium features are offered such as gradebook export, free response question types, and a lesson search giving you access to the library of high-quality lessons created by users.

 

Note: Students are not required to have an email address to sign up for eduCanon.

 

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Featured 4-16-2014: Facing History and Ourselves

 

Facing History and Ourselves encourage teachers and students to think critically about history and to understand the consequences of choices.

 

Facing History and Ourselves provides ideas, methods, and tools in support of educators who share the goal of creating a better informed and more understanding society.

 

The goal of Facing History and Ourselves is to counter "racism, antisemitism, and prejudice and nurture[s] democracy through education programs worldwide.” With the aim of inspiring and innovating, Facing History and Ourselves works with educators around the world throughout their careers to improve their effectiveness in the classroom and their students’ academic performance, historical understanding, and civic learning.

 

 

Facing History and Ourselves offers educators resources, training opportunities, and professional coaching, and guidance for administrators. These resources include Holocaust and Human Behavior, Race and Membership in American History, Elie Wiesel's Night Study Guide, and Choices in Little Rock.

 

 View Face It - Facing History and Ourselves PSA

 

Founded in 1976, by educators who wanted to develop a more effective way to engage students, Facing History and Ourselves has grown from a single innovative course to an organization reaching classrooms across the US and around the world.

 

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Featured 4-2-2014: Doing Science: The Process of Scientific Inquiry

Doing Science: The Process of Scientific Inquiry is a creative, inquiry-based instruction program designed to promote active learning and stimulate student interest in medical topics. 

 

Doing Science: The Process of Scientific Inquiry brings cutting-edge medical science and basic research discoveries from the National Institutes of Health into middle school classrooms. The objective is to help students:

• Experience the process of scientific inquiry and develop an enhanced understanding of the nature and methods of science.
• Appreciate the role of science in society and the relationship between basic science and human health.

The Doing Science curriculum supplement has been designed to complement existing life science curricula and to be consistent with the National Science Education Standards. The supplement was developed and tested by a team composed of teachers, scientists, medical experts, representatives from the NIH, and curriculum-design experts. Real scientific data and actual case studies are incorporated into classroom activities.

 

 

Teachers can effectively facilitate learning and spark student interest by using scientific concepts in real-life scenarios. The inquiry-based activities promote active and collaborative learning and help students develop problem-solving strategies and critical-thinking skills.

 

 

The Doing Science: The Process of Scientific Inquiry curriculum supplements, available at no cost to teachers across the US, each come with a complete set of classroom materials including printed materials, background and resource information, and an interactive website.

 

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Featured 3-26-2014: The Inquiry Project

The Inquiry Project aims to build an understanding of science in students ages 8-10 that lays a foundation for later understanding of matter in terms of molecules and atoms.

 

The Inquiry Project is centered on material, weight, volume, density, and related ideas that are important and challenging for students. Elements of this work are the integration of mathematics and the focus on investigative inquiry.

 

Research, curriculum, assessment, and professional development are blended in one coherent system, each component being essential to developing an understanding of how to best prepare learners.

 

 

The basis of The Inquiry Project lies in three content-specific dimensions of inquiry: measurement of matter, change and conservation, and scale. It has been designed to feature the following fundamentals of scientific inquiry:

• Questions
• Evidence
• Explanations
• Knowledge
• Communication

 Watch an intro to Talk Science Pathways

 

The Inquiry Project is a partnership between teachers, TERC, and Tufts University funded by the National Science Foundation.

 

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