Redesign the Human Body & Other Projects

Shawn Cornally, who helps run a competency-based high school in Iowa, appreciates “nucleators”. His “nucleators” are objects, ideas, or tasks that encourage students to take off with design. In his blog, Cornally discusses integrating design into subjects like social studies and biology.  Students might be charged with designing a utensil for eating spaghetti, printing their utensil on a 3D printer, and then living with it for a week. Some might think of ways to redesign the human body so that it will be more efficient in today’s world.  Cornally is “digging the idea of fundamental design quanta....”

Shake the Proteins

Simply shake and tilt an iPad to learn about proteins that break down sugar in cells. Sugar Shake includes a free version with eleven levels and an interactive menu. The app helps older students understand how chemical reactions work at the molecular level. All they have to do to get points is to set off a chemical reaction. Fun.   

Achieve 3000

Achieve 3000 is all about believing in students and reaching them at their own levels. It’s about making sure students believe in themselves and know that they can go on to the next level of learning. Achieve 3000’s products provide differentiated instruction in both literacy and science. In reading, individual student levels are determined and are continually assessed as students move through the program. Science instruction through eScience3000, a core science program, and The World of Biology, a supplemental curriculum for middle and high school students, are designed to help teachers “produce the forward-thinking scientific minds that will meet the demands of the 21^st century.” Case studies and implementation models are available on the Achieve3000 site.

Boundless Free Study Materials for Students

Boundless is a free online resource service for high school students taking AP classes and beginning college students. Content from free material online such as resources from colleges and universities and governments is used to provide just what students need to replace texts for American History, writing, economics, and biology.  You can complete the educator form to find out if Boundless can help your students and your school.

More Online Courses Available

It’s becoming a bit easier to find online courses for our students these days. iTunes just announced the availability of Environmental Psychology from the University of California at Irvine, Daring to do Mathematics and Writing Creatively by The Open University, The Sonnets of Shakespeare from the University of South Florida, Principles of Physics from La Trobe University, Statistics by HEC Paris, and more. While most of the courses are for college or upper level high school students, you can now create your own courses for the iPad in iTunesU. Just go to the course manager, then give your Apple ID and password or create an account. If your school isn’t connected with an iTunes institution, you can still create courses and give your students access. To be published in iTunesU, your school needs to apply to be part of Apple’s online university.

Free from Vernier for Science Teachers

Vernier offers a series of free hands-on science workshops for elementary, middle school, and high school teachers throughout the summer and fall. In the sessions, teachers learn about data collection technology and how to integrate the data collected into science experiments. Throughout the sessions, teachers will have the opportunity to work with Vernier’s LabQuest2 technology.

This summer, free five-hour workshops will be held at the College of Staten Island, CUNY. A session on July 24^th will be for elementary and middle school science teachers, while one on July 25^th will focus on helping teachers in middle school, high school, and college. Participants will receive training, a training manual, and a light meal.

The fall semester free four-hour data-collection workshops for middle and high school teachers begin September 10^th in Dallas, and are scheduled for a number of other cities through November. Also available from the company are a series of videos that include experiments and product demonstrations, free training at conferences, and a number of for-pay workshops and training sessions.

What to Do with E-Waste

The Funding Factory wants you to know that 70% of the toxic material in landfills is the result of e-waste. You and your students can do something about it by recycling and thinking green. Laptops, cell phones, digital cameras, GPS devices, iPods/MP3 players, laser cartridges, and ink cartridges can be recycled, and the Funding Factory will help you with this effort and give you rewards, too. The program is free; the Funding Factory pays all postage and gives you boxes for sending in what you collect. Rewards are in the form of points that are redeemable for technology, other equipment, or cash. To find out more about the program, register online or call for a Jump Start Kit.

Looking for Mathematics & Science eTexts for iPads?

If you are watching for etexts at the App Store, you’ll find that more are being added every day, especially for high school science and mathematics. Both Pearson and McGraw-Hill, for example, have national editions of their biology books ready for download at $14.99 each. The books include traditional text content, interactive experiences, reading support, and options for encouraging student learning. There are also etexts for chemistry, physics, astronomy, environmental science, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, etc.  If you’d like to browse a list of texts available at the App Store, click the link above and you’ll find those that are ready for download by clicking on “See all textbooks in the iBook store.” For many of the books, you can download sample chapters.

Khan Academy Free Resources

The Khan Academy, a non-profit organization, offers its learning resources free to everyone. It has over 300 videos available on topics such as K-12 math, biology, chemistry, physics, finance, and history. These educational videos are approximately ten minutes in length and are, as the Academy says, “digestible chunks”. Students can use  Khan Academy resources to learn on their own at their own pace. It also features a reporting system on student progress.

Lab Books Integrate with Science Data Collections

Vernier has announced the publishing of a new lab book: Investigating Biology through Inquiry. The lab book uses inquiry to assist teacher and students with AP biology and International Baccalaureate courses, and with the new AP inquiry requirements. It includes a CD with word processing files that teachers can edit. The book will be out in March 2012 and costs $48.  If you’d like more information on this lab book, check the Vernier site.