Extra: 12-6-2013 Otter

 

Free simple websites for teachers hosted by Otter make it easy to keep parents and students in the loop.

 

What Otter enables you to do:

• Homework uploads let you accept digital homework assignments from your students.
• Send classroom announcements to subscribed parents and students via email or text message.
• Maintain a classroom calendar with class-specific tags.
• Store your commonly needed files such as syllabi, homework examples, etc  

  

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

Featured: 12-5-2013 Newsy

Newsy is a multisource video news service that highlights nuances in reporting from multiple media outlets around the world.

 

Newsy can enhance your understanding of a news story by allowing users to compare video news sources from around the world to see how a story unfolds.

 

Newsy conveniently brings you a broader view of news, in a concise format - when, how, and where you want it.

 

 Watch Introducing the All-New Newsy App for iPhone

 

 

In addition to the website, there are free Newsy apps for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows 8, and more.

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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.

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

Featured: 12-2-2013 Google Play for Education

Discover, purchase, and share educational apps, books, and videos easily with Google Play for Education, a new online destination just for schools.

Browse content by grade, subject, keyword, or standard (including Common Core). Google Play for Education includes student tools in the categories study & reference, STEM tools, creation, and productivity & organization.

 

Teachers can find tools that support the cycle of planning, delivery, and assessment of instruction in the classroom, as well as tools that support classroom management, including behavior management, and communication with and between teachers, students, and parents.

 

A series of videos provide a closer look at how to use Google Play for Education.

 

 

Google Play for Education offers both free and paid content. Purchases can be made using purchase orders with no credit card required. Apps can be distributed quickly via the cloud.

 

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