Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Makey Makey Invention Kit ~ An Invention Kit for Everyone
MaKey MaKey is an invention kit for the 21st century. Turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. It's a simple Invention Kit for Beginners and Experts doing art, engineering, and everything in between.
Please click on the link below to bring you directly to the site:
Are you inspired to create now?
Monday, June 24, 2013
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Great Article~ 10 Fun Indoor Summer Projects
Sneak Preview:
"Summer’s here and along with valuable time spent outdoors learning and embarking on adventures, kids can use downtime at home to keep those brain circuits exercising indoor, too. To that end, here are 10 ideas for indoor learning opportunities."
2. PLAN A MISSION. Dream up a LEGO Technic engineering mission and work with friends on completing the mission using the LEGO Technic building system. Kids can find ideas for missions at MY LEGO Network, a new social networking site built especially for children. They can build a LEGO page on MY LEGO network to show off their team’s work.
3. LEARN TO BE A WEBMASTER. Using a free toolkit like Thimble from Mozilla, kids can learn some basic web skills and how to build a site. Thimble is designed to give novices an easy-to-use online tool to quickly build and share web pages. Younger learners who aren’t ready to learn programming can start with plug-and-play blogs like WordPress and Blogger.
6. FORM A BAND. The skills involved in learning music require daily practice, and starting a band can help motivate practice. Original composition is sparked through collaborating with other young musicians. Kids can put a band together and even record a single. YouTube hits are not far off.
8. MAKE A FILM. The next Steven Spielberg might emerge from a summer movie-making project. Kids can exercise their writing, creativity, organization, and artistic skills by making their own movies, just as any director does: writing scripts, choosing actors, practicing lines, not to mention actually filming and editing. For those who own an Apple computer, iMovie makes the process very simple. YouTube also offers free editing, and you can find other editing software online.
To read the full article, please click on the link below:
Great Article~ 10 Awesome Outdoor Summer Learning Ideas
Sneak Preview:
"Summer can be a mixed bag, a combination of relief from the stress of school, followed by boredom, the bugaboo of a creative mind. The break from school offers a chance to carve out enriching, fun projects and beat the doldrums brought about by summer loafing. The warm weather is a great invitation to enjoy and learn about the outdoors during this time off. Here are 10 learning opportunities for kids to come away from the summer months invigorated with fresh skills."
1. EMBARK ON BIRDWATCHING ADVENTURES. Local chapters of the Audubon Societyhost birdwatching outings, where those new to birding can benefit from the expertise of the pros. Kids can learn about the local ecosystem, as well as wildlife adaptability and habitat preservation. If birding catches their fancy, they can keep the adventures going with YardMap, a citizen science project designed to cultivate a richer understanding of bird habitat. The YardMap network lets you draw your landscapes with a beautiful online mapping tool and connect to other citizen scientists, solve problems, share maps and ideas, all while helping to build database of habitat data for Cornell Lab of Ornithology Scientists.
3. HANG A ROPE SWING. With about 10 feet of rope and a buntline hitch knot, it’s easy to build a tree swing. Kids can learn knotting and building skills and do the math to determine attachment points and rope lengths. If the backyard won’t work, there’s always the nearest park.
4. FARM THE BACKYARD. Anyone with any amount of space can grow food. Whether it’s starting a small herb garden on the fire escape or building raised beds in the backyard, the process of growing food allows kids to develop an understanding about our food sources, nutrition, how irrigation works, even the importance of supporting local growers. Plus, they’ll benefit from having the responsibility of taking charge of their own important project.
To read the full article, please click on the link below:
Click Here to Read the Full Article~ 10 Awesome Outdoor Summer Learning Ideas
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Hard Work Pays off! Michelle and Jocelyn found the Lost Lunch Box!
The Lost Lunch Box
"We hope you have enjoyed playing thelostlunchbox.com! So far, over 200 users have found the lunchbox, ranging from age 7 to age 19! Over 2,000 people have signed up. We have improved the game play so that it is a little easier to get past the science lab. You can also buy pets to travel the school with you that will help you. Remember, to find the school map, go into any classroom and complete the challenge!"
Congratulations Michelle and Jocelyn!
Congratulations to Porter, Maya, Lara, Tali, Caterina, Sophia, Miranda, Ava, and Casey for finding the Lost Lunch Box!
Congratulations to Porter, Maya, Lara, Tali, Caterina, Sophia, Miranda, Ava, and Casey for finding the Lost Lunch Box!
About the Game:
The Lost Lunchbox is the one of internet’s first educational role-playing games (RPG) designed specifically for children in grades 3 –8. Conceived by Greg Nussbaum, creator of MrNussbaum.com, and designed by the team at igamestudio.com, The Lost Lunchbox is an unforgettable and exciting experience for students that incorporates critical thinking skills in multiple disciplines, problem solving, and a healthy dose of adventure and curiosity. The Lost Lunchbox is an outstanding, educational alternative to traditional video games that glamorize violence and promote mental stagnation.
The object of the game is to find the character’s lost lunchbox in an enchanted school. In order to find the lunchbox, the user has to accumulate a variety of prizes, tools, and clues that will lead to its location. The accumulation of such objects is achieved through fulfilling the challenges in the school’s many classrooms. The academic challenges were designed to be, well, challenging! Users will likely not succeed the first time. Some classrooms will require users to conduct minor on-line research or use process of elimination. Others will function as trials, in which users will improve over time before fulfilling that particular challenge. After the completion of each academic challenge, the user will undoubtedly feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. Most users will not be able to “conquer” the game right away. It will take perseverance, persistence, and actual learning to do so. Below is a list of the academic challenges students have to fulfill to obtain the clues and prizes necessary to find the lunchbox.
- Conduct an online science experiment in which the user has to make a volcano and then make it erupt.
- Make ten math problems and answers from a series of six numbers
- Put a variety of “fun” historical events in their correct order (with respect to date).
- Pick out a misspelled word among twenty correctly spelled words. The user must spell the misspelled word correctly.
- Identify types of prose.
- Identify a missing word in a famous quote or passage.
- Identify U.S. states on a U.S.A map based on a clue.
- Play a memory game
- Identify musical instruments
- Dress up an athlete according to the clothes and equipment worn in a particular sport.
Click Here to Visit the Lost Lunch Box Game
Monday, June 10, 2013
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Monday, May 27, 2013
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Math Trail~ Combining Math and Geography for Fun and Engaging Learning Experiences
Math Trail~ Combining Math and Geography
Math Trail from HeyMath!
*Powered by GoogleMaps
*Exciting trails take you to locations connected by a theme
*Test your Math and Geography along the way
*Students need parent permission to play (Families, you need to have an email account to play)
Click on the link below to discover Math Trail and watch a short, how to play video:
Click Here to Learn About Math Trail~ Engaging Math and Geography Education
Families, if you decide to explore Math Trail with your child, please sign them up with your email address. After exploring myself, I found Math Trail to be a unique, enriching, educational game that combines both math and geography. I liked the fact that it offers various levels of difficulty to choose from. Discover for yourself!
Google Chrome~ Web Lab~ Explore and Learn How the Web Works
Google Chrome~ Web Lab~ Bringing the Extraordinary Workings of the Internet to Life
"Web Lab is made of up 5 Chrome Experiment installations that bring the extraordinary workings of the internet to life and aims to inspire the world about the possibilities of the web.
The installations make up a year-long public exhibition at the Science Museum, London and can be interacted with by anyone, anywhere at chromeweblab.com.
Worldwide visitors both on and offline will be able to make music with people across the world; launch information into cyberspace and see where images on the web live; watch their portrait being processed, translated, and then drawn in sand by a robot; and travel instantly to far away places all over the world."
Learn about the science and technology that powers the web. Click on the link below for additional resources for students and educators.
Watch the short (less than 2 minutes each) videos that explain:
Real-Time Collaboration~ See how the web enables you to collaborate
Compression~ See how the web can give you experience of being somewhere else
Programming Language~ See how the web connects to physical objects
Data Travel~ See how data travels across the web
Finding Data~ See how information on the web is easily accessible
Below is a brief description of the 5 Google Chrome Experiments:
Universal Orchestra~ Make music with people across the world by playing real instruments live in the museum or in the virtual orchestra
Teleporter~ Travel instantly to far away places and take real- time photos
SketchBots~ Take a picture of yourself and watch your portrait being processed and drawn by robots.
Data Tracer~ Trace routes across the internet's vast network and discover where images are stored
Lab Tag Explorer~ Explore Web Lab's global community and browse visitors' creations
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