Biology: Why Are Some Ideas So Difficult?
Focuses on the need for conceptual understanding and examines the scope of student ideas by exploring the central idea of photosynthesis, that the substance of plants comes mostly from the air. This innovative workshop for teachers explores the reasons why teaching science is so difficult and offers practical advice to help you teach more effectively.
Workshop 2: Drag Races
Forces can help put objects into motion and can also bring moving objects to a stop. In this workshop, fifth-grade students explore the physics of motion using plastic cars with strings and washers attached to provide a pulling force. The students test the speed of the vehicles and explain what forces bring the vehicles to a stop, as the cars collide with and displace ba
Summarization Strategy - Reciprocal Teaching, Part 1 of 2
In this segment, the teacher begins by reviewing the process of reciprocal teaching, a powerful comprehension strategy. The students, in guided reading group, work through the four stages of reciprocal teaching with non-fiction text: predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarizing. In this collaborative environment, students lead each other to develop greater understanding of the text through discussion and reflect
Building Understanding: Comparing Linear and Quadratic Functions
Watch the video 6b-Building Understanding (running time: 4:27), the second part of the interview, in which students use the Comparing Functions applet to explore the y = 2x and y = x2 functions.
Character Development in Narrative Writing Students create their own character trading cards with the interactive Character Trading Cards tool. Character cards can be used to help students deepen understanding of characters in a book they are reading or as a prewriting exercise for narrative stories. Promp
Learn to Write the Lower Case Letters of the Alphabet
This video shows how to write the 26 letters of the alphabet - in lower case. Each letter's name is read by the narrator, while the correct pen stroke is illustrated via animation. (4:19)
How to Learn to Write English
Learning to write English begins with reading stories and
understanding basic sentence structure. Understand how young children can begin to write in English with information from an experienced English tutor in this video.
The E Pluribus Unum Project
This site examines Americans' attempt to make one from many in three pivotal decades: the 1770s, 1850s, and 1920s. Each decade is framed by an introductory essay with links to key topics and primary documents, including the Declaration of Independence, newspapers, and the rhetoric of the Revolution; reform, cultures of the North and South, religion, and popular movements; and prohibition, Broadway, evangelical Protestantism, and the Roaring Twenties. The exhibits and projects on this site invite
21L.448J Darwin and Design (MIT)
In the Origin of Species (1859), Charles Darwin gave us a model for understanding how natural objects and systems can evidence design without positing a designer: how purpose and mechanism can exist without intelligent agency. Texts in this course deal with pre- and post-Darwinian treatment of this topic within literature and speculative thought since the eighteenth century. We will give some attention to the modern study of feedback mechanisms in artificial intelligence. Our reading will be in
John Haldon, Princeton University: History, Remote Sensing, and GIS - The Avkat Survey Project
This talk introduces briefly the Avkat Archaeological Survey, a collaborative research project in north-central Anatolia which seeks to integrate a number of different approaches to studying the past, using recent technological advances to integrate disparate datasets into a cohesive framework of analysis. From the 1980s, there has been continued development of methodologies of archaeological field survey, as well as remote sensing techniques ranging from ground-penetrating radar to airborne rad
Sanjeev Arora: Computational Intractability - A Barrier for Computers, Man, and Science
Lunch 'n Learn presentation: We have begun to develop an understanding of what makes computational tasks "intractable" not just for current computers but for all foreseeable computers. This has implications for many scientific fields. An overview of the field and the research center headquartered at Princeton. More information available at http://blogs.princeton.edu/itsacademic/2008/12/computational_intractability_a_barrier_for_computers_man_and_science.html.
Sanjeev Arora: Computational Intractability - A Barrier for Computers, Man, and Science PDF
Lunch 'n Learn presentation: We have begun to develop an understanding of what makes computational tasks "intractable" not just for current computers but for all foreseeable computers. This has implications for many scientific fields. An overview of the field and the research center headquartered at Princeton. More information available at http://blogs.princeton.edu/itsacademic/2008/12/computational_intractability_a_barrier_for_computers_man_and_science.html.
What Neurology Can Tell Us about Human Nature - October 15, 2009
Studies of neurological patients can provide insight into the workings of the brain and suggest new treatments. The first section of the lecture will focus on phantom limbs as a key to understanding brain functions. We show that far from having fixed connections, even the basic “wiring ” of the brain is constantly being modified in response to changing sensory inputs. This has theoretical implications as well as practical implications for recovery of function from stroke, phantom pain, and
What Neurology Can Tell Us about Human Nature - October 15, 2009
Studies of neurological patients can provide insight into the workings of the brain and suggest new treatments. The first section of the lecture will focus on phantom limbs as a key to understanding brain functions. We show that far from having fixed connections, even the basic “wiring ” of the brain is constantly being modified in response to changing sensory inputs. This has theoretical implications as well as practical implications for recovery of function from stroke, phantom pain, and
The Fruits of the Genome for Society - February 17, 2010
Lunch 'n Learn presentation: The sequence of the human genome, the primary goal of the Human Genome Project, was achieved just a few years ago. Because our genomes are a string of 3 billion sequences of four chemical letters in the DNA polymer, the ability to obtain genomic sequences depended on revolutionary progress not just in DNA chemistry but also on the equally revolutionary advances in speed, capacity and versatility of digital computers. By far the most prominent result of the determinat
The Fruits of the Genome for Society PDF - February 17, 2010
Lunch 'n Learn presentation: The sequence of the human genome, the primary goal of the Human Genome Project, was achieved just a few years ago. Because our genomes are a string of 3 billion sequences of four chemical letters in the DNA polymer, the ability to obtain genomic sequences depended on revolutionary progress not just in DNA chemistry but also on the equally revolutionary advances in speed, capacity and versatility of digital computers. By far the most prominent result of the determinat
Freshman Assembly: Neuroscience and Everyday Life
On Sunday, September 12, Samuel Wang, Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Molecular Biology, addressed the Class of 2014 for the annual freshman assembly on the subject of "Neuroscience and Everyday Life."
Professor Wang offered the following introduction to his lecture:
"Our brains are essential to every aspect of our everyday lives, even though we are often not aware of it. The last few decades have been an incredible time of discovery and new understanding of brain function from a medi
Freshman Assembly: Neuroscience and Everyday Life
On Sunday, September 12, Samuel Wang, Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Molecular Biology, addressed the Class of 2014 for the annual freshman assembly on the subject of "Neuroscience and Everyday Life."
Professor Wang offered the following introduction to his lecture:
"Our brains are essential to every aspect of our everyday lives, even though we are often not aware of it. The last few decades have been an incredible time of discovery and new understanding of brain function from a medi
Freshman Assembly: Neuroscience and Everyday Life
On Sunday, September 12, Samuel Wang, Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Molecular Biology, addressed the Class of 2014 for the annual freshman assembly on the subject of "Neuroscience and Everyday Life."
Professor Wang offered the following introduction to his lecture:
"Our brains are essential to every aspect of our everyday lives, even though we are often not aware of it. The last few decades have been an incredible time of discovery and new understanding of brain function from a medi
Freshman Assembly: Neuroscience and Everyday Life
On Sunday, September 12, Samuel Wang, Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Molecular Biology, addressed the Class of 2014 for the annual freshman assembly on the subject of "Neuroscience and Everyday Life."
Professor Wang offered the following introduction to his lecture:
"Our brains are essential to every aspect of our everyday lives, even though we are often not aware of it. The last few decades have been an incredible time of discovery and new understanding of brain function from a medi
