The Optical Society offers a variety of educational resources, many available free of charge. Use this online form to request them. In addition, teachers may join the Optical Society at a reduced rate of $35. Those who join by August 31 receive a free optics discovery kit. Optics4kids.org is the Optical Society’s educational website for young students, parents, and educators.
Category Archives: Resources
Summer Math Program, July 18-22 in Newton Highlands
Planet Kids in Newton Highlands is hosting a summer math program led by Christine Moynihan, Ph.D., an educational consultant and former principal of Williams School in Newton. Two programs will run July 18-22: Grades 2 – 5 from 8:30AM to 11:30AM, and Grades 4-7 from 1PM to 4PM, on the air-conditioned second floor of Green Planet Kids, 22 Lincoln Street in Newton. The aim is to show kids that math can be fun, exciting, and relevant to their lives. Using games, puzzles, and other materials, kids will cover number sense and theory, geometry, measurement, statistics, and patterns, all within a problem-solving context. Tuition is $275 plus $50 materials fee. Visit www.summermathforall.com.
Khan Academy: Free, Online STEM Education Videos
Salman Khan has created a growing library of over 2000 engaging educational videos — all free on YouTube — in arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, statistics, calculus, biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, history, finance, economics. See www.khanacademy.org for the entire library, including 9-minute video overview of all of it.
Sal’s recent 20-minute TED talk (video) explains how he aims to revolutionize and invert education (i.e., lectures will be at home via video, and what was once homework will be done in school), with each student progressing at his/her own pace and teachers coaching individuals and small groups. Continue reading Khan Academy: Free, Online STEM Education Videos
TenMarks: Online Math Education Resource
TenMarks (www.tenmarks.com) is on online math education resource “to help students achieve their potential in math, and supplement and enrich their classroom learning.” Its co-founder, Andrew Joseph, is a Newton parent featured in the “Newton person of the week” interview in last week’s Newton TAB. From the interview: Continue reading TenMarks: Online Math Education Resource
DIGITS Launches in All Four Newton Middle Schools
Newton has become the latest site for DIGITS, a statewide program offered free to middle schools to increase 6th graders’ interest in STEM and knowledge of STEM-related careers. DIGITS pairs volunteer STEM Ambassadors — professionals in STEM-related fields who are trained in the DIGITS program — with classrooms to inspire and motivate students and explain the importance of math and science in their careers. Continue reading DIGITS Launches in All Four Newton Middle Schools
Scientific American: ‘Bring Science Home’ in May
Scientific American has created Bring Science Home, a month-long series of activities for kids 6-12 years old to see how science is fascinating and part of everyday life. A new activity will be posted every day in May. Each can be done at home in just a few minutes using common household items and is easy to clean up. The activities were developed in collaboration with members of the National Science Teachers Association.
MA STEM Operations Board: “@Scale” Endorsement of STEM Projects — Application Deadline May 17
The Governor’s STEM Advisory Council’s Operations Board announced today the @Scale Initiative to endorse current STEM projects that:
- Address specific performance gaps in the goals of the Massachusetts Statewide STEM Plan (PDF) and
- Have the potential to scale up for statewide implementation.
Projects that receive @Scale Endorsements will be listed on the STEM Pipeline website so that potential funding partners may seek more detailed information and solicit proposals from project leaders for specific scale-up initiatives. Project leaders will then directly engage funding and implementation partners to establish coalitions for implementation. Continue reading MA STEM Operations Board: “@Scale” Endorsement of STEM Projects — Application Deadline May 17
Science Club for Girls
Science Club for Girls (SCFG) is a nonprofit organization focusing on girls-specific programming in underserved communities. It provides free, hands-on science and engineering programs to over 1,000 girls in five cities in eastern Massachusetts (Cambridge, Lawrence, Boston, Newton and Fitchburg), and in Pokuase, Ghana. The Newton chapter was founded in 2004 and meets in the Myrtle Street Baptist Church on Saturday afternoons in October, November, February, and March. In addition, it holds Leadership Forums, Winter Science Parties, and Museum Overnights.
- All girls grades K-7 are invited to join, and girls in grades 7-8 and high school serve as Junior Mentors. Mentor-scientists model and foster leadership, affirm college as an expectation, and promote careers in science and technology as goals and options.
- STEM professionals, graduate students, and undergraduate students interested in becoming a mentor-scientist can send an email to volunteer@scienceclubforgirls.org.
- Donations to support the program are gratefully appreciated.
iCreate & SAM: Learning STEM by doing stop-motion animation
iCreate to Educate is a startup dedicated to helping teachers use low-cost tools and SAM Animation software from the Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach to enable students to make their own stop-motion animations. Tufts developed SAM Animation to give K-12 students an easy, intuitive medium for developing their understandings of science and math (see examples and white paper).
iCreate to Educate introduces and supports the use of SAM Animation in classrooms by:
- Offering hands-on workshops to train teachers, who can then train other teachers,
- Developing lessons that are flexible enough to fit into existing curricula, and
- Providing simple, low-cost, effective tools: SAM Animation software, webcams to work with schools’ existing computers, and prop kits.
The cost for outfitting a classroom with webcams, stands, and a SAM Animation site license is under $2000. iCreate to Educate lists potential sources of grants for funding such innovation in the classroom. See also iCreate’s flyer for teachers (PDF).
Bringing STEM Professionals into the Classroom
Sarah Nitsche and Norma Sullivan are NPS middle-school math/science teachers involved in LIFT2 (Leadership Initiatives for Teaching and Technology), a professional learning program that brings teachers into STEM organizations for summer internships and provides additional training during the year. (Sarah wrote about last summer’s internship here.)
Inspired by LIFT2, both Norma (who has completed the program) and Sarah (currently enrolled) have been bringing STEM professionals into their classrooms to raise awareness and pique interest around STEM-related fields. Here’s what they have to say: Continue reading Bringing STEM Professionals into the Classroom