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.   

PBS for PreK

You can sign up for free or login to your PBS account to view resources that help students learn about topics that span the curriculum. If you search for Caillou on the PBS site, for example, you’ll find PreKindergarten activities, printables, songs, and other goodies all featuring the four-year-old Caillou. At PBS Learning Media, there are Caillou videos about life science, health, investigation, and social, physical, and emotional development. Caillou’s Cricket, for example, is an engaging story about a preschooler who finds a cricket in his little truck. During a search for the cricket throughout the house, Caillou learns about crickets and the sounds they make. Be sure to watch Caillou’s Dance Party, Shadow Scientist, and Caillou Makes a Meal.

Let Their Minds Soar

Let your students’ minds soar as they think about newly evolving technologies. You might start with 3-D printing and interactive holograms, since these technologies are not only coming into the school market but also inspire dreams of the future. 3-D printers can make plastic objects and yummy chocolates, and even build new human bone.  MIT Technology Review reports that “the world’s first 3-D printed battery” and a “bionic ear” have been created. The “ear” was for demonstration purposes only, but 3-D or additive printing gives glimpses into what may be possible in years to come.  As for interactive holograms, introduce your students to the possibilities shown on zSpace. The zSpace Science Station, for example, features a 3D virtual holographic system for subjects such as biology, earth science, and chemistry. —And that’s not all programmers are doing with zSpace.

The need is great for us to encourage our students to learn to think “outside the box” so that they can be innovators of the future. Already Silicon Valley and other tech communities throughout our nation are worried about finding innovators who can envision products that will help us all.

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.

Good News: Students & Math & Science

A new report from the National Center for Education Statistics relates the good news that more students are opting for rigorous courses in the STEM subjects. For example, the percentage of students taking calculus increased from 7% to 16% between 1990 and 2009. The percentage of those taking chemistry in 1990 was 49% and in 2009, 70%. Percentages of students in Grades 9-12 taking physics went from 21% in 1990 to 36% in 2009.  Racial/ethnic group percentages for math and science increased during this time period, as well. The report also found that students enrolled in private schools were more likely to select advanced level STEM courses than those in public schools.

Time Tech’s 50 Best Sites & Services of 2013

TIME magazine gives an annual salute to “sites and services that keep you entertained and informed, save you time and money—and maybe even change your life.” Some of the recommended sites that may be of interest to educators are:  the TWiT (This Week in Tech) network, which keeps you up-to-date with what’s happening in technology; Feedly, an RSS reader for sharing what you read/and or saving it to read at another time; MyPermissions that helps you discover what permissions you’ve allowed and lets you revoke them if you want; Office Web Apps, which may be “all the Office you need”; Pixlr, a photo editor that works with your browser; Forvo, like Wikipedia for pronunciations; Super Simple Learning with its focus on math and phonics through video and song; and Distance to Mars, which lets you and your students travel through the universe to Mars—428,000 pixels away.

TED Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing

Take the tour of TED Ed to see how you can use videos that are on the Internet to create super lessons.  On the site, you can also look at lessons others have created, and if you think you can use them in your courses, you can change them to fit your students and your curriculum. Lessons are listed by category such as mathematics, health, literature and language, social studies, and science and technology. Some of those that are called “Best Flips” or exceptional lessons featured are: Atoms from A to Easy!, Pi with Pies, The Secret to Rising Sea Levels, The Dawn of Art, and What is Nano?

Gaming for a Better World

We know that students like educational games, but most teachers don’t think of themselves as game designers. Perhaps, we will take that on in the future, or at least take on the editing of some games—just like we do with other educational resources. Keeping in mind that students and many adults find some games addictive, we need to consider why this addiction happens and how we might use this knowledge to improve educational games and perhaps solve other problems as well. If we can create games that motivate students into problem solving modes, just like the most popular online games do, this will not only mean learning across the curriculum but also learning that may benefit education and our world.

Game designer Jane McGonigal's goal is to show everyone that game play can help solve the world’s problems. Just consider: playing games online helps students “learn as they go” and to collaborate and cooperate with others. Games match ability to game levels, offer collaborators to help, feature inspiring stories, give rewards, and leave users with a feeling of satisfaction. Many students spend as much time gaming as they do in school. Also, gamers may get better feedback in virtual worlds than they do in our schools. Because of her belief that gamers can offer solutions to many of our world’s problems, McGonigal has developed three games to test her theory. These include: World Without Oil (what happens when oil supplies run out), SuperStruct (gamers have 23 years left on Planet Earth), and Evoke (motivating social innovation skills especially for those in developing nations). Evoke is available online for you and your students to try. Users of these games have, according to McGonigal, come up with some “amazing solutions.”

Attracting Girls to the STEM Careers

The Scientific American piece, To Attract More Girls to STEM, Bring More Storytelling to Science, by teachers Jonathan Olsen and Sarah Gross, says that integration of the arts and sciences is the key to getting girls into STEM careers. The authors suggest that teachers of STEM courses include fiction books like Vonnegut’s Player Piano, artwork such as that by M. C. Escher, and information about the story behind the HeLa cells in their courses. As storytelling activates brain cells, enjoying real-life stories such as that of Henrietta Lacks (see photo) and those called “polymaths” such as Benjamin Franklin and Leonardo da Vinci, will do more to motivate girls toward STEM careers than will, according to Olsen and Gross, “a pink microscope.”

Easy Way to Find Educational Apps

EdShelf on the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest offers help with finding great applications for you and your students. For example, this week's recommendations from EdShelf include AlgebraGenie (gaming with algebra problems), Eyes on the Solar System (NASA tool), Stencyl (creates games), Tynker (teaches students computer science and programming), Sketchometry (practice in geometry), and MaKey MaKey (electronics kit). Some of the latest trending tools listed are: Mystery Math Town, Word Wonders Project, and Basker's Presidents. You can search for what you need by topic and/or receive email messages from EdShelf. Use the video intro to learn more about this site and its abundance of resources.