MITS 2013 Summer Professional Development Institutes! For Elementary, Middle and High School Educators.

Spring is here, and Summer is just around the corner! Join us this June and July for the MITS 2013 Summer Professional Development Institutes! For Elementary, Middle and High School Educators.

Educational Crossroads: Science, Technology and Engineering Meet Literacy and Social Science

The 2013 MITS Summer Institutes offer you an opportunity to experience cross-disciplinary investigations and to create the synergy of science, technology, engineering, literacy and social sciences in your classroom:

Learn to use or increase your skills with inquiry-based, hands-on methods in your classroom and participate in classroom and outdoor experiences. Explore educational resources in your community and explore field trip and classroom resources available from museums, nature centers and other organizations in your region. Become part of a network of teachers from your region and across the state. Earn PDPs/CEUs or PDPs and graduate credit.   

MITS is offering 3 types of courses this summer!

Hybrid Courses (10 hours online, 5 days on-site) Dates: June 17 - July 30

Boston Region: Science Solutions: Using Design Education to Investigate Animal and Human Needs

On-Site Dates: July 8 - 12

Southeast Region: Investigating Interdisciplinary Pathways Through Engineering Design and the Natural World

On-Site Dates: July 15 - 19

One-Week Institutes

Dates: July 8 - 12 or July 15 - 19

Central Region: Minds-On, Hands-On: Integrating Science, Technology, Engineering and Literacy

July 15 - 19

High School Teachers' Institute: Under the Periscope: Marinating Your

STEM Curriculum with Marine Science, Engineering Design and Literacy Connections

July 8 – 12

Two-week Institutes

July 8 - 19

Merrimack Region: Teaching STEM Through the Past, Present and Future

Berkshire Region: Engineering Innovations: An Interdisciplinary Look at the Social, Ecological and Economic Fabric of the Berkshires

Visit - http://mits.org/summer-institute/ or www.mits.org for details, a complete brochure and to register.

Museum Institute For Teaching Science

What are MITS Summer Institutes?

MITS Summer Institutes are a unique professional development opportunity. Visit each of the partner organization's sites for 1-2 days and participate in both content and skill development sessions taught by professional educators, scientists and other content experts. Depending on the region, daily activities will include: nature walks, behind-the-scenes tours of facilities, introductions to resource centers, modeling of inquiry-based activities and more. Days will include a balance of indoor, classroom-based components and outdoor field experiences. All activities are designed to help you meet State Frameworks and create interdisciplinary connections. Participants can choose to receive PDPs, or graduate credit and PDPs.

Learn More About the 2013 Summer Institutes! Visit the MITS website - http://mits.org/summer-institute/ to read regional summaries, browse our Summer Institute brochure, and register online!

What if math???

What if Math announces $1,000 in prizes to be given out to the best  Spreadsheet Math Experiments on sustainability. The contest is open  to all K-12 students in the United States. What if Math is a  revolutionary math program built by students for students using  spreadsheet-based-projects to help students learn math. We treat  spreadsheets as laboratories to experiment on interesting problems,  to build models, organize data, and ask what if The top five  Spreadsheet Math Experiments on sustainability developed by students  will be published on the What if Math website for other students to  perform. Their authors will receive a $200 cash prize!

Join us in developing this new way to learn the math everyone uses in  business today and that we need to learn to prepare every student for  the future. We welcome you to http://www.whatifmath.org as a student  and as an inventor. Go to the website to learn more.

New England Resource Directory

http://www.bscp.org/resourceDirectory.asp


The New England Resource Directory provides information to students, advisors and administrators on outreach efforts, internships and science-related programs at New England educational institutions, and biomedical and biotechnology organizations. The directory describes non-degree programs sponsored by high schools, colleges, universities, professional and graduate schools, hospitals, private industry, foundations and government agencies.

The New England Resource Directory was developed in 1992 by the Biomedical Science Careers Program (BSCP) because of the need for a centralized resource describing New England non-degree, biomedical science related programs offered by the private and public sectors. This directory contains programs developed to serve minority and disadvantaged populations, as well as programs open to anyone.

Major program categories include:
Education
Research
Work-Study
Internship/Fellowship
Counseling
Mentoring
Career/Academic Planning.

Computer Science Teachers Association Conference  July 15th & 16th, Boston Marriott Quincy, MA  We would like to make you aware of this summer's highlight, our  National CSTA Annual Conference below. We are really looking forward to seeing as many members as possible  at the CSTA Conference that will be held in Quincy, MA.  We have an  outstanding array of national speakers, sessions and workshops. Our  keynote speakers, Hadi Patrovi and Selena Deckelmann will inspire all  of our attendees sharing their incredible accomplishments.  The price for the conference is $60.00 and workshops are 60.00 a  piece or 2 for $100.00.  To register visit:  https://www.softconf.com/d/csta2013/

Project Lead The Way - Information Sessions

Project Lead The Way (PLTW) comprehensive STEM (science, technology,  engineering, mathematics) programs were endorsed by the Massachusetts  Governor's STEM Advisory Council. PLTW curricula are collaboratively  designed by K-12 teachers, university educators, engineering and  biomedical professionals, and school administrators to promote  critical thinking, creativity, innovation and real-world  problem-solving skills in students. The hands-on, project-based  programs engage students on multiple levels, expose them to areas of  study that they typically do not pursue, and provide them with a  foundation and proven path to college and career success. PLTW  currently provides three programs for grades 6 to 12; an elementary  program for K-5 will be released in 2014. More than 5,200 schools in  all 50 states and the District of Columbia currently offer PLTW  courses to their students. For more information, attend a one-hour  PLTW information session. Information sessions will be held at the  University of Massachusetts Amherst, 138 Hasbrouck  on Tuesday April  30th at 4:00 and at the Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical  High School, 250 Foundry Street, South Easton on Wednesday May 1st at  3:00. For more information or to RSVP for an information session  please contact Carolyn Malstrom at cmalstrom@pltw.org.

 Carolyn Malstrom, Ph.D.

 Senior Director of School Engagement, East Region  CT, MA, MD, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT  Project Lead The Way, Inc.

 phone: 518.320.6909

 www.pltw.org

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Summer Institute for Middle School Science Teachers

http://www.nist.gov/iaao/teachlearn/index.cfm

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Summer Institute for Middle School Science Teachers is a two-week workshop for middle school science teachers featuring hands-on activities, lectures, tours, and visits with NIST scientists and engineers in their laboratories.


Teachers who participate in the NIST Summer Institute gain:

•Increased understanding of the subjects they teach

•Increased understanding of how scientific research is performed

•Materials and resources to implement what they learned at NIST in their classrooms

•Increased enthusiasm for science

•A network of scientists and engineers at NIST with whom to consult

Teachers finish the NIST Summer Institute with a wealth of new knowledge about core topics such as forensics and materials science, and materials to integrate these topics into their classroom while meeting curriculum standards.
The NIST Research Experience for Teachers is a follow-on program that provides two local middle school science teachers with six weeks of real-world research experience at NIST. Completion of the NIST Summer Institute is a prerequisite for participating in the Research Experience for Teachers.

GoFundMe is empowering Makers

GoFundMe is empowering Makers to turn their passion into profit. Never before has it been easier to share your project with the world and generate money for your idea. At GoFundMe, we realize that evolving your idea doesn't have to mean launching a huge business. GoFundMe's crowdfunding options are perfect for all stages of any project. http://www.gofundme.com/makeathon?pc=make2

Meeting - New England Association of Chemistry Teachers - March 16th - UMASS Dartmouth

The New England Association of Chemistry Teachers (NEACT) will host its March meeting at UMass Dartmouth, Saturday morning March 16, 2013. The meeting begins at 9AM with registration at 8:30.


We are delighted to have speakers from UMass (Dartmouth, MA) and The Chemical Heritage Foundation (Philadelphia, PA) on the agenda.

Professor Alan Hirshfeld, physics professor and author of numerous monographs in the history of science, will speak to us about how astronomers used spectroscopy to determine the chemical composition of the Sun. Not only relevant to the high school chemistry curriculum, but exciting as it is the subject of his next book.

Gigi Naglak and Jen Dionisio, the creators of CHF.s popular First Friday Series are traveling all the way from Philly to enlighten and entertain us with their tasteful kitchen chemistry stories.

The meeting will take place in SENG 115 on campus; the best parking is in Lot 16 or 17.
For purposes of planning refreshments, we are asking that you RSVP to shawn5678@gmail.com by March 8.

(This is not a Northeastern University program)

Gordon-CenSSIS - Video series

Northeastern University's GORDON-CENSSIS and ALERT RELATED NEWS

NEW!!! Introducing ALERT Video Series - ALERT 101: Airport Screening Technologies - We invite you to watch the first episode of ALERT 101, which focuses on the applications of Millimeter Wave Scanning and Backscatter X-ray in airport security screening. Inspired by the success of TED (www.ted.com) and other educational media forums, ALERT has developed the ALERT 101 video series. Each video short will feature different technologies and research areas with which the ALERT Center engages. We hope that these productions help educate and inform the global community on these topics in an accessible and enjoyable way. To watch the video, visit the ALERT website here: http://www.northeastern.edu/alert/education-programs/alert-101/  

Interested in Digital Fabrication? MakeToLearn.org

http://maketolearn.org/explore/  


MakeToLearn.org provides an online space where teachers and students can come together virtually to explore digital fabrication, discuss it with like-minded colleagues, learn core academic content through lessons and curricular units, and discover new tools to facilitate digital fabrication in the classroom.

Additionally, MakeToLearn.org will be the online hub for sharing and downloading digital shapes and designs.

About Digital Fabrication
Digital fabrication involves translation of a digital design into a physical object. While digital fabrication has been around for decades, only now has it become possible for teachers and students to take advantage of this powerful technology.

Free CAD Software

Free CAD Software »Looking for free tools to teach engineering design? Energy3D Version 1.0 is now available. Funded by the National Science Foundation as part of our Engineering Energy Efficiency project, Energy3D is a computer-aided design and fabrication tool. Your students can easily design a dream home on the computer, then print and assemble a real model.- http://energy.concord.org/energy3d/?utm_source=The+Concord+Consortium+List&utm_campaign=28725bf68f-October_2012_Newsletter&utm_medium=email

Free Resource about the Common Core - Library of Congress

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is here and teachers are trying to figure out how to best integrate it into their tried-and-true lessons. They’re struggling to integrate technology to best augment CCSS. They are in desperate need of classroom materials that they can trust.
The U.S. Library of Congress has just  unveiled an enormous new (and free!) resource that’s all about the Common Core. It’s located at http://www.loc.gov/teachers  and worth checking out.

Interesting article - One Size Does Not Fit All: A Student’s Assessment of School,

The following is an excerpt of One Size Does Not Fit All: A Student’s Assessment of School, by 17-year-old Nikhil Goyal, a senior at Syosset High School in Woodbury, New York.


Can creativity be taught? Absolutely. The real question is: “How do we teach it?” In school, instead of crossing subjects and classes, we teach them in a very rigid manner. Very rarely do you witness math and science teachers or English and history teachers collaborating with each other. Sticking in your silo, shell, and expertise is comfortable. Well, it’s time to crack that shell. It’s time to abolish silos and subjects. Joichi Ito, director of the M.I.T. Media Lab, told me that rather than interdisciplinary education, which merges two or more disciplines, we need anti-disciplinary education, a term coined by Sandy Pentland, head of the lab’s Human Dynamics group.

“Today’s problems — from global poverty to climate change to the obesity epidemic — are more interconnected and intertwined than ever before and they can’t possibly be solved in the academic or research ‘silos’ of the twentieth century,” writes Frank Moss, the former head of the M.I.T. Media Lab.

Schools cannot just simply add a “creativity hour” and call it a day.

Principal at High Tech High, an innovative, project-based learning school in San Diego, California, Larry Rosenstock, points out, “If you were to hike the Appalachian trail, which would take you months and months, and you reflect upon it, you do not divide the experience into the historic, scientific, mathematic, and English aspects of it. You would look at it holistically.”

After indicating the problem at hand, scoop out the tools, research, networks, and people required to get it solved. Get out of your comfort zone.
“You can have students do laboratories and hands-on activities and learn nothing, because they are following the cookbook and going through the motions without having their brains on.”
In practice, this means the elimination of English, mathematics, history, and science class. Instead, we need to arrange the curriculum around big ideas, questions, and conundrums. What does learning look like in this model? Letting kids learn by doing — the essence of the philosophy of educator John Dewey. He wrote: “The school must represent present life — life as real and vital to the child as that which he carries on in the home, in the neighborhood, or on the playground.” Let kids travel to places, work with mentors, and inquire about the world around them.
(READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT)
http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/10/why-learning-should-be-messy/

MIT BLOSSOMS “Back-to-School” Lesson Contest

MIT BLOSSOMS “Back-to-School” Lesson Contest


http://blossoms.mit.edu/home

High school level teachers are invited to submit their lesson designs for a new MIT BLOSSOMS lesson in Mathematics, Science or Engineering. We are looking for a lesson that you have taught successfully and that you think would work well with the MIT BLOSSOMS “Teaching Duet” pedagogy. We are also looking for lessons that cover essential high school curriculum topics, but approach those topics in a fresh, dynamic way. Also, a winning math lesson will be supportive of the new Common Core standards. Here are some important things to remember about a BLOSSOMS lesson:

• A BLOSSOMS lesson is not a lecture.

• A BLOSSOMS lesson presents a topic from an unusual, interesting angle.

• The video segments should be 3 minutes or less, and never more than 4.

• The first segment needs to be no longer than 2 minutes and must excite the interest of both teachers and students.

• With video technology, segments can be filmed in interesting locations. Stay away from the classroom as much as possible!

• A lesson must provide challenging, thought-provoking classroom activities for the video breaks.



Important Contest Deadlines:

• Monday, December 3, 2012 – Teachers must submit the completed MIT BLOSSOMS Concept Template for their lessons, available here.

• Monday, January 7, 2013 - Finalists will be announced and asked to complete the MIT BLOSSOMS Architecture Template for their lessons, available here.

• Monday, January 28, 2013 – Finalists must submit the completed Architecture Template for their lessons.

• Monday, February 4, 2013 – Winners will be announced



The winning teachers will be invited to travel to MIT—all expenses paid—to film their lessons during either their Winter or Spring vacation weeks.

For further information, contact blossoms@mit.edu.

Siemens Competition and Resources

http://www.siemensstemacademy.com/

STEM Academy -Teacher Resources


Join your fellow educators by sharing your favorite lesson plans, tips, tricks, ideas, presentations, websites, videos and other STEM related resources that may prove useful for others who want to expand their classroom materials. Looking to grow your own library of resources to inspire your students? Browse this intriguing and ever-broadening collection of resources already submitted.

http://wecanchange.discoveryeducation.com/

What Is The Challenge? Become Agents of Change!


The Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge is the premier national environmental sustainability competition for grades K-12 students. Through project-based learning, students learn about science and conservation while creating solutions that impact their planet. Beginning September 13, 2012 through March 5, 2013, teams from across the country will be challenged to create sustainable, reproducible environmental improvements in their local communities.
To date, more than 62,000 students have participated in the Challenge. Give your students the opportunity, tools and inspiration to make a difference and become agents of change. Click on a grade band below to get started.

Cubist Science Education Leadership Award

Cubist Science Education Leadership Award
Cubist is once again seeking nominations for the Science Education Leadership Award program, which honors innovative science teachers in middle and high schools in New England. This is the fourth straight year that Cubist has teamed up with the New England Patriots Radio Network, 98.5 The Sports Hub, and its 36-station radio network to recognize science teachers during the Patriots season.

Throughout the season, a “Teacher of the Week” will be announced during the New England Patriots radio broadcast. At the end of the season, one of these teachers will be selected as the recipient of the Cubist Science Education Leadership Award and win $5,000 for the teacher’s school science department. The award winner will also have a special meet-and-greet with Patriots broadcasters at the CBS Scene in Foxboro at the final home game of the season, and a Patriots alumni player will make a special appearance at the teacher’s school.
Consider nominating a teacher today at www.cbsboston.com/contests . Teachers will be selected based on their innovative efforts to engage their students in the classroom.

OpenCourseWare brings reality TV to OpenCourseWare

Step into my lab: MIT OpenCourseWare brings reality TV to OpenCourseWare


A new series of videos to be published this fall follow fourteen MIT freshmen through their introduction to hands-on science.

Each year, groups of MIT freshmen are introduced to MITs laboratory environment through a four-week January course called 5.301 Introductory Lab Techniques. The stakes are high—students who pass the class are guaranteed a job in an MIT research lab. This fall, MIT OpenCourseWare will follow a group of fourteen students as they face the challenges of learning Chemistry the MIT way through a unique series of videos called ChemLab Boot Camp.

The videos shot in a style that mixes the geek fun of open educational resources with the immediacy of reality TV, brings viewers closer to the experience of being an MIT student than ever before. Follow the students as they struggle to master the intricacies of working with solvents and compete to create the largest crystals. The videos are part of a broader effort funded by the Dow Chemical Corporation to foster interest in science and engineering careers.

The episodes will be released on each week though the fall, starting in September.

Watch the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1fMW_bUWjU

MIT BLOSSOMS Announces Lesson Contest for High School Teachers

MIT BLOSSOMS Announces Lesson Contest for High School Teachers


With school opening for the 2012/2013 academic year, BLOSSOMS is inviting high school teachers to submit lessons in Mathematics, Science or Engineering that they believe would make excellent video lessons. Submissions are due by Monday, December 3rd, 2012, and winners will be announced by Monday, February 4thth, 2013. Winning teachers will travel to MIT with all expenses paid to film their new BLOSSOMS lessons. For contest details, read more.

http://blossoms-newsletter.mit.edu/whats-new/september2012.html

101 Websites for Science Teachers

101 Science Web sites you might find of interest


Posted by Erik Schreefel in Educational Technology, Web 2.0 Tools on Jul 25, 2012. 2 Comments


Boldly go where no science teacher has gone before!


Your continuing mission: to discover useful new sites, to integrate them into your lesson plans and to giggle at this corny Star Trek reference.

FREE STEM Sunday Family Event at Northeastern July 8

Join us for CMMI's FREE family day at Northeastern University on July 8, 2012.

Families of K-8 students will have the opportunity to participate in fun interactive demonstrations and science and engineering activities at Northeastern's Cabot Phyiscal Education Center (building 41 on the Campus Map) .


Participants will have the opportunity to build a city of the future, draw a science mural, take home a garden kit, learn about whales, and more!

Visit http://sciencesunday.weebly.com/ for more information.

STEM Sunday is presented by Northeastern University's Center for STEM Education in collaboration with the National Science Foundation's CMMI Engineering and Research Innovation Conference, Cambridge Science Festival and Science on the Street,  Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, Maker Faire, Boston Children's Hospital, NStar, American Society of Civil Engineers and the Northeastern NUTRONS.

Space is limited, families must REGISTER HERE and be entered for a raffle!