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....”

Maker Faire: The Greatest Show and Tell on Earth

There are Maker Fairs all over the world, and they are all about innovation. According to Maker Media, Maker Fairs are filled with the excitement and energy of a county fair. They are our school science fairs and innovation conventions expanded with the minds of all ages and subject areas such as science, engineering, art, performance, and crafts. Maker Fair participants are given the opportunity to show how they created their idea or product and what their creation can do. If there’s a Maker Fair coming to your community, encourage your students to attend and perhaps even participate.

The Maker movement promotes a DIY (Do It Yourself) attitude. It’s about practical learning and creativity. For the many students who don’t find school subjects interesting, the concept of creating brings action into STEM studies. Students become inventors, developers, designers, programmers, mathematicians, and scientists while still in school.

Critter Corral for Math Understanding

Stanford Research Associate Kristen Blair was the leader of a team that developed the early learning app, Critter Corral. What makes Critter Corral special is that it is designed to help students understand math. Using this app, children aren’t just counting; they are connecting ideas about quantity and developing a basis for math learning in the future. The numbers in Critter Corral are presented in different ways, and children learn to “fix” answers that aren’t exactly right. In addition to being a great game for young students, Critter Corral is helping Stanford researchers learn more about how children solve problems. You can download Critter Corral free at the iTunes store.

Playful Learning’s Bite-Sized eCourses

The Playful Learning site offers a free eBook that is designed to help teachers and parents provide activities that will enhance children’s love of learning. The eBook, Raising Lifelong Learners, may be read online or downloaded.  The site features a great list of science apps and an abundance of activities you might be able to use in your classroom. The activities are grouped into categories such as Arts & Crafts, Math, Science, Seasonal, Social Studies, Well Being, and Writing. This is a very nice site to recommend to parents of young students.

Intel Science Search Semi-Finalists—Role Models for Your Science Enthusiasts

It is a pre-college competition, and some of the previous winners have gone on to win the Nobel Prize and the National Medal of Science. You and your students can check out the forty 2013 Finalists and take a look at the topics that they investigated.  Approximately 2000 students took part in the competition. Three hundred semi-finalists were selected before the forty Finalists were announced. The Finalists were in Washington, D.C. this month (March 2013) meeting with notable scientists and competing for over $630,000 in awards, with the top winner receiving $100,000. Sara Volz (Colorado), who explored algae-powered biofuel was selected as the 2013 winner, with students investigating predictions of protein binding in drug therapy and pulsed plasma devices coming in second and third.

Haiku Deck—Presentations Made Simple with an App

The free app Haiku Deck gets applauds from publications such as TIME and The Wall Street Journal. The word is that using the “fiendishly simple” Haiku Deck, you and your students can create beautiful presentations (called decks), which are both clean and concise.  Be sure to browse through Haiku Deck’s Gallery of Featured Decks, especially Book Reports: iPad Style. Decks can be shared on Facebook and Twitter and through email—and it’s fun to use.

Transforming Learning

High School Principal, Ben Johnson, believes that iPads have the capability to transform learning. In an article in edutopia, he offers scenarios of how iPads could be used effectively in classrooms. These include a geometry lesson that challenges students to find the “best geometric form for a deep sea submarine”. To complete the assignment, students search for information about pressure, tune in to lectures from experts, use math to discover the most durable form for the sub, work with their peers and teachers, both in–person and through networking, develop simulations, graph and present their results, and share what they learned. Students can accomplish all this and more without textbooks and without apps.  While Johnson believes that there are times when apps and other resources are useful, freeing students to think and create on their own is what will transform learning. According to Johnson, teaching mostly through apps and through control of student learning, “limits the true potential of the iPad.”

One Hundred Years from Now

I suggest you read Michio Kaku’s “The Physics of the Future”, especially if you are a science, math, technology or writing teacher. Kaku, a quantum physicist, combines his knowledge with that of approximately 300 scientists who are working on futuristic projects, to predict the world in 2200. He says that scientific predictions are often not far-reaching enough as he cites those who thought air and auto travel, along with widespread use of computers, impossible. Students in middle and high school who are interested in space, science fiction, engineering, technologies, creative writing, and physics will also profit from the information in the book. New York Times reviewer, Dwight Gardner, found it rather “dull” and “charmless” but filled with interesting facts. As an educator, I found it a good read—not dull to me—with ideas like those of Jules Verne integrated with those of Leonardo daVinci, and science fiction writers. Be warned. This is non-fiction and not a sci-fi adventure. The book is available in audio format, which may be an easier way to found out all you want to know about our future.

For Those Tech Gurus Who Need More

What do you do with that handful of students who want to extend their tech learning beyond what you can possibly offer in high school? — Or if you want to extend your own learning in this area? — Think online help from universities. Stanford University’s UnCollege, for example, offered its highly popular computer courses online for free this fall. The courses were so successful that they will be offered again starting in January 2012. Selections include Computer Science 101, Machine Learning, Software as a Service, Human-Computer Interaction, Natural Language Processing, Game Theory, Probabilistic Graphical Models, Cryptography, The Lean Launchpad, and Technology Entrepreneurship. To sign up for the courses, click on the links. All you have to do is enter your name and email address. The courses require no textbooks and no tests are given. You can read descriptions, watch videos, and learn about the instructors before you and/or your students sign up.