Social Change
Students will research a social issue and, after learning about the issue, will find out what other students at their school know about it. They will develop a method of gathering and analyzing the data. Various methods of increasing awareness of the issue will be developed and implemented. To measure the success of their efforts, they will give the survey again. A comparison of the two surveys will determine hown effective their efforts have been. Example: Saving gorillas from extinction.
Vocabulary: Variety and Venture
This lesson is intended to help students increase their vocabulary especially in their written work. Student will locate definitions and synonyms through a variety of activities.
Lesson Goals:
Students will learn the meaning of new vocabulary words.
Students will locate synonyms for each vocabulary word.
Students will collect and store definitions and synonyms in their database.
Students will create programs that will enhance others’ learning.
Active Lessons
Active Lessons are engaging, technology-based, student-centered (pupil-centered) learning activities designed by teachers using PowerPoint (or other presentation tool). The idea is to empower teachers to easily create technology-based activities that draw upon variety of existing and new digital resources from internet, repositories of learning objects and other sources, and require students to use technology and create artifacts demonstrating their understanding. This idea partially challenges
Digital Storytelling in the Classroom and Beyond
This workshop explores how contemporary technology tools empower students and teachers to engage in highly creative and reflective tasks to organize and present information, and express emotions, ideas and knowledge through multimedia creations known as digital stories. Digital storytelling is increasingly becoming popular in schools all over the world as an engaging technology-based learning strategy. In this workshop, the participants will be exposed to powerful user-friendly and cost-free tec
HOU Middle School Curriculum: Solar System Science
The HOU Middle School Curriculum, Solar System Science (previously Hands-On Solar System or HOSS), lets your students use images from professional telescopes along with image processing software developed for use in the classroom, to learn key concepts in astronomy, mathematics, and technology. Solar System Science blends content learning with critical thinking skills and processes such as data interpretation, measurement techniques, and using appropriate tools for exploration.
Puzzling Polarizers
When we apply the scientific method to real-world problems, often we can invent applications for the effects we observe even without understanding the origins of those effects. This process is commonly used in the development of new technologies; one example is the discovery of x rays. This curriculum unit is designed to encourage this investigative process through inquiry-based learning involving exploring, observing, and then applying the information gained. Light and its interactions with mat
Readings in Eastern Philosophy
Many classic works in Eastern philosophy are accessible via online sources on the Internet. Fortunately, many of the influential and abiding works are in the public domain; these readings provide a convenient way to produce quality learning experiences for almost anyone seeking information and help. Our present collection of edited readings is free but subject to the legal notice following the title page. By placing these selections in the public domain under the GFDL, the editors are, in effect
Journey North Journals: Helping Young Minds Grow
This teachers' lesson offers tips on using Journey North journals to inspire learning and assessment. When students use journals to capture and reflect on observations, experiences, and data — and put forth opinions, predictions, and theories — learning blossoms. These records can also be great assessment tools because they offer you and your students windows into their thinking, understanding, and knowledge gaps. Finally, they can help you address pressures to integrate writing into subject
Investigating the Climate System: NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission
This series of five problem-based learning modules is designed to bring NASA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) science into the middle school classroom. Modules for grades 5-8 include Clouds, Precipitation, Weather and Winds; the fifth module, Energy, was developed for high school-level audiences. The modules use role-playing scenarios to help students discover real-world applications of data. While these modules were developed under one series title, they were designed so that each mod
Byrne Administration: Interview with Clifford Goldman (January 11, 2007 Part 2)
This interview is a part of the Eagleton Institute for Politics's Program on the Governor. For more information please visit their website: http://governors.rutgers.edu/
Image-ing Our Foremothers: Art as a Means of Connecting with Women's History
This is an 8 week experience for the college student that begins by setting a learning context through using library resources, especially online databases, for locating images and art that reflect a chosen research topic and creating a mural that demonstrates the students’ comprehension of the chosen topic. The experience includes conducting research on 3 significant events or people in women’s US history. The written research will be accompanied by images or art that the student has chosen
Tropospheric Ozone and Smoke from Earth Probe TOMS: Indonesia
Researchers have discovered that smoke and smog move in different ways through the atmosphere. A series of unusual events several years ago created a blanket of pollution over the Indian Ocean. In this animation, significant smog or tropospheric ozone is represented by red and green and regions of significant smoke index are in shades of white and gray.
California Fires MODIS imagery and TOMS Aerosols from October 2003
This animation sequences through the MODIS imagery of the devastating Californian fires from October 23, 2003 through October 29, 2003. Then the animation resets to October 23, 2003 and zooms out to see the TOMS aerosol sequence. It clearly shows that the California fires had an impact on air quality as far east as Maine.
China Dust Storm during April 2001 (WMS)
A major dust storm occurred in April 2001 over parts of China and Mongolia. Dust from this storm was transported all the way to the coast of the United States. Although dust from the Sahara Desert is routinely transported across the Atlantic to the east coast of the United States, Asian dust rarely makes the distance across the Pacific to the west coast. These airborne microscopic dust and smoke particles, or aerosols, were measured by the TOMS instrument on the Earth Probe satellite. For govern
Aerosols from 2003 Southern California Fires (WMS)
A devastating series of fires occurred in Southern California during October 2003. The effects of these fires were detectable from space. The Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument measures aerosol particles (microscopic airborne dust and smoke). TOMS was able to detect aerosols from these fires moving West over the Pacific Ocean and East over the continental United States.
Elementary GLOBE
Elementary GLOBE is designed to introduce students of grades K-4 to the study of Earth System Science (ESS). Elementary GLOBE forms an instructional unit comprised of five modules that address ESS and interrelated subjects including weather, hydrology, phenology, and soils. Each Elementary GLOBE module contains a science-based storybook and classroom learning activities. Five (5) books are included in the series: All About Earth; Do You Know That Clouds Have Names?; The Scoop On Soils; Discoveri
Elementary GLOBE: We all need soil!
A learning activity for the Scoop on Soils book in the Elementary GLOBE Series. Each student will explore three activities that promote understanding of and respect for soil. They will generate responses to the following questions: "What makes up soil?" and "What lives in the soil?" Next the students will watch a demonstration of how much soil there is on Earth that is available for human use. Last they will create their own soil connection sentences. The purpose of this activity is to introduce
Elementary GLOBE: Soil Treasure Hunt
A learning activity for the Scoop on Soils book in the Elementary GLOBE Series. Students will make predictions about what they think they will find in a sample of soil. They will investigate the sample and sort out the various items they find. Next they will spend time outside observing one or more sites to see what they find in the soil. After recording and sharing their observations they will create their own stories about the things they found in the soil. The purpose of the activity is to le
Elementary GLOBE: Getting to Know Soil
A learning activity for the Scoop on Soils book in the Elementary GLOBE Series. Each student will make predictions about the properties of various soil samples. Then they will examine several types of soils and record their observations. Next, they will learn about soil profiles and horizons by both examining a soil sample in a jar and by creating a soil profile flip chart. The purpose of the activity is to provide the opportunity for students to ask questions and make observations about soil an
Elementary GLOBE: We're All Connected
A learning activity for the "All About Earth: Our World on Stage" book in the Elementary GLOBE series. One of the "big ideas" in Earth system science is the notion of interaction among parts of the Earth system. In the Elementary GLOBE book All About Earth: Our World on Stage, the children in Ms. Patel's class discuss instances of how the four major spheres of Earth's system interact. They symbolize these interactions by using large arrows to link the system components: air, water, soil, living
