IPad Apps for Schools

Here is a great App suggestion from our friends at http://ipadapps4school.com 

The Human Body by Tinybop is an iPad app designed to help elementary and middle school students learn human anatomy. The app features interactive diagrams of the major systems of the human body. A few of the things that students can see on the app are how lungs breathe, the heart beats, and the ears hear. One of the features that I liked is that through the app students will also see how the feeling of a touch of the hand is received in the brain. Students can turn layers and labels on and off throughout the app.

Tinybop offers a free PDF handbook to go along with The Human Body app. The handbook provides more information about the things featured in the app as well as activity and discussion prompts for teachers.

Looking for more ap ideas for your classroom- just sign up for http://ipadapps4school.com 

A Fabulous Genetics Resource

The Learn Genetics Website from the University of Utah, is an unbelievable web resource for teaching an learning genetics.  Check it out at: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/ 

Cell structures made of clay

Students worked in small groups to make clay cell models. Hands on work with clay is good for learning and creativity! Students also had fun tweeting their cell pics to friends using their own devices.

Fail Forward!

Do you learn more from success or failure? Does it matter? And are we preparing our kids to fail? We should be.  I have often said that in STEM education we don’t have an engagement problem we have a “stick with it” problem.  Students so often quit when they can’t do something, they don’t stick with it, they don’t continue to try their best till they get it right.  Educators need to give students opportunities to try and try again, to fail and learn from their failure. Think about how you support your students when they fail. What do you do well? what can you do better? what will you change in your future practice as a STEM Teacher? 

A few more resources on the subject:

The Growth Mindset: http://mindsetonline.com/

New York Times Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/what-if-the-secret-to-success-is-failure.html?_r=2

Drawn to Science Website

I was recently made aware of a great teacher resource that would support anyone teaching in the STEM fields.  The drawn to science web site provides examples and information about how to use and analyze student drawings to examine how students are learning science.  

According to their web site the Drawn to Science website is part of Project Nexus, a National Science Foundation supported project in the Teacher Professional Continuum Program. The full title of the project is The Maryland Upper Elementary/Middle School Science Teacher Professional Continuum Model.  A major resource  of this website is to provide an example of how drawings can be used as evidence in science education research.

At Weaver Lake every student in grades K-6 uses a science notebook as a science tool, students collect data, sketch experiments and use it as a nature journal when out in our nature area. Teachers use authentic activities to demonstrate the need to keep an accurate science notebook.  There are many great books you can purchase about how to start using science notebooks in your classroom:

• A great website http://www.sciencenotebooks.org/ 
• the Book: Science Notebooks: Writing About Inquiry 

  
Happy Notebooking!!