Today is Pi Day (March 14, or 3.14). Of course, we celebrated with our traditional Pizza Pi(e)s. But because Google informed me it was also the 101st birthday of Akira Yoshizawa, who is considered the grandfather of origami (see below):
I went searching for origami and circles, and chanced upon this wonderful website, WholeMovement.com. The author, Bradford Hansen-Smith, inspired in part by Buckminster Fuller, has compiled tons of information about all the mathematical and other concepts one can learn by folding circles. It doesn't take fancy equipment--he starts with paper plates and bobby pins--but it can take you deep into mathematical and geometric concepts.
So a great way to observe Pi Day (besides eating pie, pizza or otherwise) is to check out his website.
Showing posts with label online resource. Show all posts
Showing posts with label online resource. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Curriculum Resource: TED-Ed
Regular readers of this blog know that I am a great fan of TED, which shares "Ideas Worth Spreading" by posting FREE videos of some of the leading thinkers and doers across the world as they give presentations on important topics--all in 10 minutes or less.
Today, TED launched a new initiative called TED-Ed that will bring the TED philosophy to education (although I've used plenty of TED videos in my lessons already). TED-ED is a TED You Tube video channel dedicated specifically to "Lessons Worth Spreading." That is, TED-Ed posts more FREE videos of some exemplary lessons that TED has enhanced by adding appropriate animations or other features (when necessary--some talks are fine on their own). Right now, TED-Ed has just a handfull of videos, but by next month, they plan to add lesson plans and tools that allow teachers to customized the videos to their own classes (such as embedding questions or comments, etc.). They are also accepting nominations for outstanding educators or animators to use in the project, as well as suggestions for desired lessons.
TED-Ed is geared to the high school level and above, but I think the videos I watched would be appropriate for mature middle school students as well. But check them out and judge for yourself. For example, in honor of my middle schooler who has been enthralled with the deep sea since he was 2 years old, watch the TED-Ed video below on "Deep Ocean Mysteries and Wonders:"
Today, TED launched a new initiative called TED-Ed that will bring the TED philosophy to education (although I've used plenty of TED videos in my lessons already). TED-ED is a TED You Tube video channel dedicated specifically to "Lessons Worth Spreading." That is, TED-Ed posts more FREE videos of some exemplary lessons that TED has enhanced by adding appropriate animations or other features (when necessary--some talks are fine on their own). Right now, TED-Ed has just a handfull of videos, but by next month, they plan to add lesson plans and tools that allow teachers to customized the videos to their own classes (such as embedding questions or comments, etc.). They are also accepting nominations for outstanding educators or animators to use in the project, as well as suggestions for desired lessons.
TED-Ed is geared to the high school level and above, but I think the videos I watched would be appropriate for mature middle school students as well. But check them out and judge for yourself. For example, in honor of my middle schooler who has been enthralled with the deep sea since he was 2 years old, watch the TED-Ed video below on "Deep Ocean Mysteries and Wonders:"
Monday, February 20, 2012
Curriculum Resource: The 50th Anniversary of Americans in Space
Today we can celebrate not only our Founding President and the President who led our nation through its greatest challenge, but also 50 years of Americans in space. On February 20, 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the planet in his Friendship 7 space capsule (Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first person to orbit the Earth in his Volstok space craft the previous year). Americans at the time were transfixed during Glenn's approximately four-hour flight, which would lead in just a few years to Americans being the first humans to walk on the moon.
NASA is marking the occasion with an online interactive educational resource on Friendship 7 and the Mercury Space Program. It has lots of facts and multimedia materials to explore, including interactive views of the interiors of the space capsules, the rocket technology, components of the space suits, flight trajectories, etc. It also includes video footage of various aspects.
Below is one item from that website. It is a 25 minute video NASA has produced on the 50th Anniversary of Friendship 7:
I think it is hard for our middle schoolers, for whom space travel is such a regular occurence that no one even follows it any more, to realize how revolutionary it seemed at the time. So I would add to the official NASA videos a couple of great movies about the space program--The Right Stuff and Apollo 13 (which is one of my favorite movies ever).
Hmmm...perhaps after I fix a version of last year's Presidents Day meal, we need to settle down in front of a great space flick tonight....
NASA is marking the occasion with an online interactive educational resource on Friendship 7 and the Mercury Space Program. It has lots of facts and multimedia materials to explore, including interactive views of the interiors of the space capsules, the rocket technology, components of the space suits, flight trajectories, etc. It also includes video footage of various aspects.
Below is one item from that website. It is a 25 minute video NASA has produced on the 50th Anniversary of Friendship 7:
I think it is hard for our middle schoolers, for whom space travel is such a regular occurence that no one even follows it any more, to realize how revolutionary it seemed at the time. So I would add to the official NASA videos a couple of great movies about the space program--The Right Stuff and Apollo 13 (which is one of my favorite movies ever).
Hmmm...perhaps after I fix a version of last year's Presidents Day meal, we need to settle down in front of a great space flick tonight....
Sunday, February 19, 2012
The Great Backyard Bird Count
So many things to celebrate this weekend! But I wanted to mention one that can be one of the most educational of all, which is The Great Backyard Bird Count.
The GBBC is an event sponsored every year over Presidents Day weekend by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Audubon Society, and the Bird Studies of Canada. For the Friday through Monday of that weekend, they ask people all over North America to count the largest number of birds of each species they see while walking, hiking, and birdwatching. They compile them all into statewide and national lists to see how the bird populations seem to be doing in the U.S. and Canada.
The great thing about this project is that you don't need to be an accomplished birdwatcher to participate. They have a lot of tools built into their website to help you learn about and to recognize the birds you are most likely to be seeing, based on your vicinity (zip code and/or habitat). You input your information about where you are birdwatching, and they come up with lists of birds that are indigenous to that area. You can click on specific birds to see a picture and to read more about them to decide if that is the bird you saw, if you aren't already familiar with the species.
If you are interested in going in more depth about birdwatching, they have a great resource on Building Skills that teaches you ways to identify birds more accurately. They have an entire section on GBBC for Kids, which not only provides simple information and some puzzles and crafts, as well as some games that are not only kind of interesting to do, but is building their online bird identification software so it will be better at helping unfamiliar birders to correctly identify the birds they see. Finally, it is a way to have your children assist with an international science data collection effort, and see how their contributions at a local level help build a national database.
We are not great at bird identification. However, we try to do this regularly, and every year we learn to identify at least one or two more birds than we did the year before. And here in the Triangle NC area, the weather has been glorious to be out with the birds.
You can still participate today and tomorrow (Sunday and Monday), so I encourage you and your middle schoolers to take a walk, or to watch your bird feeders for a sustained period, and become part of one of the largest citizen science activities in the country. Of course, the resources are available year round, so they are good to know about whenever you have a question about birds. But it is fun to contribute to a large group project like this. You can even print out a certificate to demonstrate your participation, and may even win a prize given to randomly-selected birdwatchers.
The GBBC is an event sponsored every year over Presidents Day weekend by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Audubon Society, and the Bird Studies of Canada. For the Friday through Monday of that weekend, they ask people all over North America to count the largest number of birds of each species they see while walking, hiking, and birdwatching. They compile them all into statewide and national lists to see how the bird populations seem to be doing in the U.S. and Canada.
The great thing about this project is that you don't need to be an accomplished birdwatcher to participate. They have a lot of tools built into their website to help you learn about and to recognize the birds you are most likely to be seeing, based on your vicinity (zip code and/or habitat). You input your information about where you are birdwatching, and they come up with lists of birds that are indigenous to that area. You can click on specific birds to see a picture and to read more about them to decide if that is the bird you saw, if you aren't already familiar with the species.
If you are interested in going in more depth about birdwatching, they have a great resource on Building Skills that teaches you ways to identify birds more accurately. They have an entire section on GBBC for Kids, which not only provides simple information and some puzzles and crafts, as well as some games that are not only kind of interesting to do, but is building their online bird identification software so it will be better at helping unfamiliar birders to correctly identify the birds they see. Finally, it is a way to have your children assist with an international science data collection effort, and see how their contributions at a local level help build a national database.
We are not great at bird identification. However, we try to do this regularly, and every year we learn to identify at least one or two more birds than we did the year before. And here in the Triangle NC area, the weather has been glorious to be out with the birds.
You can still participate today and tomorrow (Sunday and Monday), so I encourage you and your middle schoolers to take a walk, or to watch your bird feeders for a sustained period, and become part of one of the largest citizen science activities in the country. Of course, the resources are available year round, so they are good to know about whenever you have a question about birds. But it is fun to contribute to a large group project like this. You can even print out a certificate to demonstrate your participation, and may even win a prize given to randomly-selected birdwatchers.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Curriculum Resource: Dr. King's Original Documents Online
In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Day 2012, the King Center has opened a new online resource. With the help of JP Morgan Chase, the organization that continues the work of Dr. King has digitized over one million materials related to King's life and mission. They are now making about 200,000 of them available for free over the Internet.
The collection is organized into themes, such as public opinion, economics, the Vietnam War, and such. It contains many different kinds of materials, including articles, hand-written drafts or notes, telegrams, photographs, etc. It is a premier resource for the original source material for one of the most important American thinkers and activists of the 20th century.
To view these documents, go to the Archives of the King Center.
The collection is organized into themes, such as public opinion, economics, the Vietnam War, and such. It contains many different kinds of materials, including articles, hand-written drafts or notes, telegrams, photographs, etc. It is a premier resource for the original source material for one of the most important American thinkers and activists of the 20th century.
To view these documents, go to the Archives of the King Center.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Christmas 2011 Blog: Waiting for Santa
It's the night before the big day, so in addition to food and family and holiday cheer, we'll be checking on on Santa's progress on the NORAD Tracks Santa website. As I write this post, around dinner time in North Carolina, he is working his way through Scandanavia. We typically go out for Mexican food on Christmas eve, so maybe by the time we get back, Santa will have started on the United States.
Merry Christmas Eve to all!
Merry Christmas Eve to all!
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Curriculum Resource: Interactive Pearl Harbor
Since tomorrow is the 70 year anniversary of "the day that will live in infamy," I figured many of us may be doing at least mini-lessons on the Attack at Pearl Harbor. I know we will.
I found this interactive resource online that I thought I would share. It is an hour-by-hour timeline of the events of that day, interposed on maps of the area. It gives a brief summary of the action, but you can click on each event to read more about it and see photographs related to that topic. Or you can click on small images of some of the eye witnesses or people involved (both Japanese and American) and read their descriptions of the event. It was developed by National Geographic, so it is a high quality production.
It is not overly dramatic, but it is still pretty emotionally effecting...at least was for me.
Check out Remembering Pearl Harbor: Multimedia Map and Timeline on the National Geographic website.
I found this interactive resource online that I thought I would share. It is an hour-by-hour timeline of the events of that day, interposed on maps of the area. It gives a brief summary of the action, but you can click on each event to read more about it and see photographs related to that topic. Or you can click on small images of some of the eye witnesses or people involved (both Japanese and American) and read their descriptions of the event. It was developed by National Geographic, so it is a high quality production.
It is not overly dramatic, but it is still pretty emotionally effecting...at least was for me.
Check out Remembering Pearl Harbor: Multimedia Map and Timeline on the National Geographic website.
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