NSTA Free Resources

The Science Teacher's Grab Bag has many great resources for teachers.

More NSTA free resources can be found here.

Many of these resources are available without being a member.

Cool Tools for Schools

Check out this Wiki, "Cool Tools for Schools."

Touch the Sky

Students can win a visit from children's book author, Ann Malaspina.  Read the excerpt from the "Missourian" to find out how your students can earn a visit from this author.
 
"Touch the Sky" is an inspirational children's book about Olympic High Jumper Alice Coachman, the first African American woman to win a gold medal in the Olympic Games. The author of the book, Ann Malaspina, will be in Washington Oct. 13 to share her inspirational story about Coachman at the annual Run to Read, organized by The Missourian and the Four Rivers Area Family YMCA.

Local students have the opportunity to win a school visit from Malaspina on Oct. 12 by entering a writing contest sponsored by the Missourian In Education program. To enter, children in kindergarten through high school are invited to write a letter to the Olympian, who turns 90 in November.
Taking the line from Malaspina's book, "But a dream is a beginning and as Alice grew older, her dream was to soar," the students should tell Coachman why her story is inspiring and share their own dreams and aspirations.

Letters may be handwritten or typed and children may include hand-drawn pictures. To enter, submit letters to "Alice Coachman Dreams to Soar Contest," Missourian In Education, P.O. Box 336, Washington, Mo., 63090. Letters may be hand-delivered to any Missourian office, but should be labeled for the contest.

The winner of Malaspina's school author presentation will be selected from a random drawing from all letters received on or before 5 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 26. The drawing will be held during the Book Buzz birthday celebration for Newsbee, "10 Years -- 10,000 Books," at 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30 at the Washington Public Library. The public is invited to this event.

For more information, contact Chris Stuckenschneider at cstucky@me.com or (636)239-7272.\

http://www.emissourian.com/features_people/newspapers_in_education/missourian_in_education/article_25c1c768-fbb9-11e1-9f4d-001a4bcf887a.html

Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

I have always thought that the "PEMDAS" rule was a tad confusing.  Because, technically it should be written like this to make sense. 

P

E

MD

AS 

P: Parenthesis first
E: Exponents next
MD: Multiplication and Division next
AS: Addition and Subtraction last

The acronym PEMDAS can be deceptive, because students think they should do their multiplication before division and addition before subtraction, but that is not the case.  Notice that the M and D are grouped together, as are the A and S. This is because Multiplication and Division are at the same priority level, and should be done in left to right order. Likewise, Addition and Subtraction are at the same priority level, and should be done in left to right order. This is a great video to illustrate using the ORDER OF OPERATIONS.

Ad-O-Matic Campaign Commercials

 

      This is a quick way to make funny presidential campaign commercials. With the upcoming election, it might be fun to have your students create their own videos when they complete their classwork.  All you need to do is upload their pictures and have them answer a few questions.  I would suggest using only first names for your students. 

The National Constitution Center Ad-O-Matic:  http://adomatic.us/

Apps for Education

Using MI for Differentiation

Enrichment Centers

Enrichment centers are designed to offer students a variety of learning alternatives as an adjunct to a common unit of instruction. These centers are typically used after the presentation of important materials or concepts and are designed to provide students with opportunities to enrich and enhance their appreciation and understanding of the topics through individual experiences in the center. For example, after you have presented a lesson on the life cycle of plants, you might assign individual students to a center with the following components:

• Construction of a terrarium using soil, several plants, rocks, etc.
• Observing several plants under the microscope
• Designing an individual observation kit for use in the field
• Preparation of several foods using different types of common plants
• Exploring various news articles on plants in our daily lives
• Creative writing on the uses and misuses of plants in modern society
• Watching a filmstrip on the ecological implications of acid rain on plant life
• Painting a mural on the stages of plant growth

Enrichment centers require you to be aware of your students' learning styles as well as their knowledge about a topic. The enrichment center can provide individual students with varied activities or combination of activities that differ from those pursued by other students. As such, the center becomes an individualized approach to the promotion of the topic.  To find out more, visit TeacherVision.

 

Enrichment Centers

Ms. Jasztal has created a system of centers for enrichment.  Even though she does not have her actual centers on her blog, she has given several ideas how to create centers for the math-minded, science/nature-minded, art-minded, music-minded, literary-minded, public relations-minded, and world-minded.  Here are some more learning center ideas:

Learning Center Ideas

Challenge Capsules

     I found this idea on Pinterest!  Fill the capsules with enrichment activities for your students who finish early.  How cool would it be if you could actually find a toy vending machine to dispense the capsules!

Choice Boards

     A great tool for differentiation is a choice board. Choice boards offer students ways to make decisions about what they will do in order to meet class requirements.  A choice board could be used for a single lesson, a week-long lesson, or even a longer unit of study.  Choice boards can be used in any subject area and in any grade level.  Here are some examples of choice boards.  To view more choice boards, check out Dare to Differentiate.

 

Enrichment Sites for Students Who Finish Early

 

Well, it's the beginning of the school year, so inevitably there is quite a bit of review, which is necessary for many students.  Unfortunately, there are a handful of students who really don't need review.  And, if they finish early, they definitely don't want to do more of the same work (that they already know).  So, here are some enrichment sites for students who finish early.

KB...Konnected Kids 

Enrichment Resources for Grades K-6

Curriculum Extensions