Through the Forensics in the Classroom project, Court TV provides free curricular materials for science teachers in grades 7-12. Using one of five different cases, teachers can incorporate national science standards in an exciting and engaging instructional unit that teaches the students to apply forensics science to solve a crime. The units include the mystery, instructions, handouts and activities for students, and project extensions. The … Continue reading On the Case

I first wrote about this about five years ago, and I still think it’s really neat. At Heavens Above, you begin by selecting your location. It will then tell you where everything is in the sky. This includes stars, planets, satelites, and space vehicles. Want to see the International Space Station? If you’re in Cleveland, your next chance is May 31 at 4:49 AM. At … Continue reading Heavens Above

Intel has jumped on the cheap laptop bandwagon with its $400 Eduwise computer. Aimed at the developing world, Intel’s stated goal is to "not only extend affordable PC access but to develop the right PCs tailored to local needs" (background). They’re clearly taking a shot at Nicholas Negroponte’s $100 laptop, which received a lot of attention last year due to its affordable cost and unusual … Continue reading Edu-Foolishness

You may have noticed that I write quite a bit about podcasts, yet I don’t actually have one. While it’s true that I’m kicking around a couple ideas for podcasts, and that I am encouraging other educators to get involved with podcasting, I’m more of a writer than a talker. At the same time, I am a consumer of audio. I listen to a dozen … Continue reading Talk to Me

Last week, I met with Rick Wherley (Independence Local Schools) and Shari Bailey (Garfield Heights City Schools). We were all working on our districts’ technology plans, and spent some time discussing various technology-in-schools issues and how we’re approaching them in our technology plans. In Ohio, schools are more-or-less required to use the state provided technology planning tool to complete our technology plans. In one of … Continue reading Technology Test Coming?

In this installment from the series of posts about podcasts for teaching and learning, we’ll take a look at podcasts related to language arts. There are hundreds of podcasts related to English, language, literature, and writing. Here are a few: Today’s Podcast is a short program about an interesting word or phrase. They’re typically about two minutes long, and recent episodes have addressed words like … Continue reading Language Arts Podcasts

It’s hard to make classical music accessible to kids. It’s generally a "grown up" kind of thing. We have to get dressed up and go to fancy concert halls, sit quietly in our seats without fidgeting, and listen to boring music without words. Cincinnati’s classical public radio station, WGUC, is trying to change that perception with their "Classics for Kids" program. While the radio show … Continue reading Classics for Kids

I’m a sucker for primary sources. Ever since we spent six weeks on Lexington and Concord in high school, I’ve loved looking at the actual documents and artificats from history’s particpants. By examining the actual sources, and considering the points of view of their authors, one may paint a more realistic picture of the time, event, or situation than can be found in an interpreted … Continue reading From the Source

Wikibooks is a project for collaborative development of books online.  The focus is on developing free electronic textbooks that students and teachers can use. More than 1,000 books are in various stages of development for just about every imaginable subject. Looking at Physics, for example, there are four high school physics book projects currently underway, as well as 17 undergraduate and five graduate level projects. … Continue reading Write Your Own Textbook

You can quickly and easily create nice-looking graphs at the Students’ Classrom Create a Graph site. Sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics, this easy-to-use site allows you to create all kinds of different graphs to help visually represent complex data. When you’re finished, you can print your graph, download it in one of a number of different formats, or email it to yourself. … Continue reading Fast Graphs

This is the second in a series of posts about podcasts for teaching and learning. A number of podcasts are available to help supplement classroom instruction in a variety of areas. This time, we’ll look at math. The Mathgrad Podcast discusses everyday math for everyday people. The goal is to discuss the mathematics behind many real life topics in a way that even the worst … Continue reading Math Podcasts

Listen: Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time. I’m so used to listening to podcasts that I regularly try to pause or rewind the radio. It’s a little embarassing when I catch myself changing the radio station by mistake. It just seems natural that I should be able to back it up and replay something I missed or wanted to hear again. It doesn’t help … Continue reading Time Shifting