Saturday, July 12, 2008

Teaching STEM Using Gadgets and Gizmos


Edutopia News: PBL

News for Tuesday, July 8, 2008


Maker Faire Inspires Learning and Creativity
This event on do-it-yourself projects offers ample fodder for classroom STEM activities.


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Edutopia Poll

Should states require all parents to immunize their children?


Teens Come Together to Put Robots Together

Video: Teens Come Together to Put Robots Together

Participation on their high school robotics team provides Colorado students with valuable lessons in applied mathematics and engineering.

Putting Project-Based Learning on the Fast Track
At this charter school in Hawaii, students build electric
cars from start to finish and, in the process, learn how
to practically apply what they learn to everyday life.

Readings, Viewings, and Listenings
Free registration may be required and news-sensitive links
may expire over the next week.

Engineering the Future: Teachers Learn Principles to
Pass On to In-Demand Students

The Project Lead the Way courses emphasize hands-on
activities, teamwork, listening to other's needs,
communicating, and understanding there's
no "right" answer. Students gain math proficiency
as they perform the projects -- using trigonometry,
for example -- to calculate arcs for their table-tennis-
ball launchers. -- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Related Edutopia video:
STEM Projects Encourage Students to Excel

Lock-Step Learning Is Not What Students Need
At the Hudson County Schools of Technology,
our students learn math and apply it by calculating
appropriate roof angles, designing product models,
and building robots. -- Record (Bergen County, New Jersey)

Related Edutopia article:
Why Teach with Project Learning?

Ford's Advanced Curriculum Gets
Students Motivated

For one of her assignments, Cathedral High School
teacher Veronica Moreno-Nicholas used the
Ford curriculum and asked students to redesign
a product. One group took the idea, ran with it,
and planned to raise money to patent the slogan
of their new, redesigned Banamp3, a modification
of an MP3 player that's shaped like a banana.
-- Desert Sun
(Palm Springs, California)

Related Edutopia article:
Real-World Issues Motivate Students

This Is a Class the Kids Really Dig
Kate Smithers, who will be a second grader this fall
at the Western Hills Magnet Center, is one of a
handful of students participating in the
Outdoor Classroom, a sort of school garden club.
-- Omaha World-Herald

Related Edutopia video:
Seed-to-Table Learning

Students Like New Buddy System
As part of a buddy program that Lassiter Middle School
teacher Rachel Davis started . . . sixth graders became
pen pals last school year with high school students at
Berwick Academy, in South Berwick, Maine.
-- Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky)

Related Edutopia article:
Collaborative Distance Learning

Opportunities and Resources

The George Lucas Educational Foundation
Grant Information List


National Weather Association Sol Hirsch Education
Fund Grants
(deadline August 1; $500 for teacher
enrollment in accredited course in atmospheric
sciences or for scientific materials or
classroom equipment)

Partnership for Reform in Science and
Mathematics Conference: Accepting the
STEM Challenge
(September 11-13; Atlanta;
K-16 educators and policy makers can
showcase how they've addressed STEM in
their classrooms and communities)

Siemens Math and Science Competition
(deadline October 1; $1,000-$100,000 for
innovative and outstanding individual or
team STEM projects)


The George Lucas Educational Foundation
1 Letterman Drive, San Francisco, CA 94129

1 comment:

Jim Ross said...

Mesut:

Perhaps we can ADD some of these progressive EDUTOPIA STEM elements to our ongoing "Communities of Designers" conversation culminating in our 2nd cohort executions.

Our current "corps of teachers" informed insights regarding same would be most helpful and instructive here.

Best,

Jim