TurffMutt and some Stem Resources
Written on December 4, 2011 at 12:27 am, by jbrennan
Discovery Education has teamed up with a couple of friends for some early educational holiday gift giving.
First, you can save the planet one yard at a time and maybe even earn $5,000 to make your school yard a more ec0-friendly space. TurfMutt is a program brought to you by Discovery Education and the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute. It offers a variety of resources available for teachers of grades K-5, including standards-aligned, original science lesson plans and activities that focus on how green space benefits your community. That’s a winner even before entering the sweepstakes.
And/or help your students become tomorrow’s innovators. Discovery Education and Intel have developed a dynamic new website devoted to satisfying students’ innate curiosity. CuriosityintheClassroom.com has a variety of resources designed to guide, inspire and generate a passion for science in your students. The site is designed to bring classroom concepts to life in fascinating areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Computers, Robotics and more! Visit CuriosityintheClassroom.com today for more lessons and interactives. We hope you use these resources to transform ordinary lessons into interactive and informative adventures.
Cornucopia
Written on November 27, 2011 at 2:24 pm, by jbrennan
If you know the word unicorn or cornet and are familiar with the word copy or copious, it should be easy to glean “horn of plenty” from the title. We have our own cornucopia of professional development delights available for your instant harvesting at Discovery Education’s channel on YouTube.
And Porter Palmer has laid out the links, handouts and brief descriptions of the most recent virtual conference, October’s spooktacular “Tech or Treat.” Whether you are a seasoned veteran or new to visual storytelling and Discovery’s education tools, you can find some great ideas here for engaging your students and making memorable learning experiences.
Clip art credit: Jupiterimages Corporation (Producer). (2006). Horn of Plenty. [Image]. Available from http://www.discoveryeducation.com/
Collective Brain in NYC
Written on November 18, 2011 at 10:54 am, by lrougeux
Free Video Editor
Written on October 21, 2011 at 11:59 am, by jbrennan
Very soon after I had just sent a message out to my Digital Storytelling students alerting them to a good sale on editing software for PC’s, I sat down next to Steve Dembo to hear a keynote speaker at Iowa’s edtech conference. Within minutes Steve showed me a free, web-based alternative to the late (temporarily, I hope), great JayCut.com. It’s called WeVideo and they have even added a YouTube component (http://www.youtube.com/create_detail/WeVideo). With just a minimal experiment of my own to speak from, I have to say that it’s an easy, more powerful alternative for those PC users of the two versions of Movie Maker. It doesn’t have the green screen capability of JayCut (as of this writing at least) and it does depend on your Internet connection, but the price and the creativity it gives you far outweigh those minor “inconveniences.” Sign up now and take advantage of the larger, free accounts that they are offering during this introductory period.
And don’t forget Discovery’s Virtual Conference tomorrow morning to get some great ideas for your new found video editing capability. Sessions begin on the hour from 9 AM to 3 PM EDT.
DEN Gurus
Written on October 8, 2011 at 5:00 pm, by jbrennan
It’s not a religion or a cult (though it might feel like that when you are at a Discovery Educator Network event). The DEN is a “is a global community of educators passionate about teaching with digital media, sharing resources, collaborating, and networking.” And “the DEN Guru program honors educators who go above and beyond to share their passion for education with others and demonstrate an expertise in one or more academic topic areas.” They are also experts in helping their students and colleagues get the most from Discovery Education streaming. Wisconsin’s Chad Lehman recently posted about how much he enjoys having recently selected Guru, Jen Wagner, in his PLN and shared her pledge to make every Wednesday “DENsday” on her blog Thoughts from Jen about the DEN. From O.R.E.O. to Guess the Wordle, Jen is another rich source of ideas and inspiration. Definitely worth a weekly peek!
Upcoming on line events from Discovery Education:
October 11th: Clean up your Act! See a project based learning opportunity to clean up your students’ habitat and your class.
October 13th: Curiosity in the Classroom’s “Will Robots Take Over?”
October 22nd: Tech or Treat DEN Fall VirtCon 2011 An online conference you can attend from the comfort of your own home.
America’s Top Young Scientist Today!
Written on October 4, 2011 at 10:14 am, by jbrennan
Step aside, American Idol!
Hundreds applied. Ten finalists were picked. Today is the day we’ve all been waiting for– the final challenge!
Join Discovery Education and 3M today as the 10 finalists compete for the prestigious title of America’s Top Young Scientist.
In just a few hours the 10 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge finalists will take the stage! For the first time in Young Scientist Challenge history, the final presentations will be available via a live stream web cast.
You won’t want to miss this!
DATE: Today, Tuesday October 4. TIME: 2-4 PM ET.
LOCATION: 3M World HQ in Saint Paul, MN and classrooms across America.
LIVE STREAM URL: http://www.youngscientistchallenge.com/webcast
Differing Views on Multiple Intelligences
Written on October 3, 2011 at 12:05 pm, by jbrennan
One of the students in the Wilkes EDIM 503: Differentiation Supported by Technology class shared an interesting article on the California Watch website questioning the effectiveness of multiple intelligence instruction. Though controversial at first, Howard Gardner’s almost 30 year old theory seems to have found fairly broad acceptance in the education community. The challenge seems to be more a matter of implementation in this era of crowded classrooms and limited funding. As the article states, “But a group of four psychologists, including professors from UC San Diego and UCLA, have reviewed historical data and say there is little scientific evidence to support the learning-styles theory.” By setting up a set of criteria and scouring the research, the study’s authors claim they have found no evidence of improved test scores when instruction was tailored to students’ learning styles. Many educators and supporters (including suppliers of material and training) of Gardner’s theory, of course, disagree. The article concludes with a diplomatic, “Both camps agree on one thing: Using a diverse range of teaching styles is important for all students.” What do you think?
Discovering October
Written on September 30, 2011 at 11:45 am, by jbrennan
You probably can’t hear the word discovery and October without thinking of Columbus Day. So, why not take a look at Janet Hallstrom’s post where she describes using a primary source document letter from Columbus to get her students thinking about the many ramifications of that celebrated and maligned navigator’s opening of the “new” world.
While we are at it, why not also explore some of the free resources the Discovery Educator Network has on tap for this month?
October 3rd: Discovery Education streaming 101 – Get an overview of the basics of Discovery Education’s flagship service which is available for free to all Wilkes EDIM students.
October 11th: Clean Up Your Act – Are you beginning to lose sight of your desk top as the papers now stack up? Learn new and creative ways to go reduce the paper and increase the communication and collaboration in your class with Google Tools. We’ll show you a project based learning opportunity to clean up your students’ habitat and your class.
October 13th: Curiosity in the Classroom’s “Will Robots Take Over?” – Some think that by 2050 robots will be able to out-perform human brains in every area of cognition.
October 18th: Reaching all Students with Project Based Learning – At the end of this whirlwind tour, you will feel empowered to transform learning in your own classroom.
October 19th: Can I Help You With That? The Student as Collaborator, Creator and Director – Learn how you can use digital media, technology, your state standards and the authentic task to engage your students and move them from the best seat in the house to the director’s chair.
October 22nd: Tech or Treat DEN Fall VirtCon 2011 – Join thousands of educators online and in-person as the DEN team goes house to house to explore the many digital treats available to educators today.
October 25th: May I Have Your Attention Please… The Following Is THEIR Safety Announcement – Learn how to help your students inspire their peers and community through creating public safety announcements utilizing a variety of Web 2.0 Tools on water safety.
Feed Your Mind
Written on September 24, 2011 at 10:51 pm, by jbrennan
The GenYouth Foundation and Discovery Education invite you to join New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez on Tuesday September 27th for a webinar as he and other hosts introduce ideas on nutrition and fitness that are easy to apply at school, at home and at play. Mark will lead Central Park East Middle School students in Harlem through fun activities to get students thinking and moving. Submit your students’ questions ahead of time and during the presentation. Participating classrooms will also have a chance to win autographed prizes.
The GenYouth Foundation is dedicated to reducing the obesity rate for children which has quadrupled since the 1970’s. Give their website a good look for some eye opening statistics, strategies and a state by state update of the number of participating schools (Nebraska is #1 at 98% and California is at the bottom at 21%).
Curiosity in the Classroom
Written on September 20, 2011 at 1:56 pm, by jbrennan
Hopefully, that’s a common occurrence. And to help keep that spark alive “Discovery Education and Intel have teamed up to create Curiosity in the Classroom, a website designed to bring teachers, students and families on a journey through life’s biggest questions.” There are lesson plans and multimedia for teachers, activities for parents and their children, and explorations, resources and polls for students to investigate. To get things going there is a sweepstakes with a family exploration vacation as grand prize and three webinars for teachers. The first is this Thursday at 7 p.m. EDT followed by one on Oct. 13th and another one on Nov. 3rd, both at 1:00.
Stay curious, my friends!
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