Cliotech: February 2010

28 February 2010

Siemen's Teachers as Researchers Deadline!

Siemen's Teachers as Researchers

Dates: June 20 – July 2, 2010

Have you ever wanted to be part of scientific research team? Have you ever wanted to bring the excitement of authentic research into the classroom? Siemens teachers as Researchers (STARs) will provide the experience, resources, and contacts you need to do just that!

Apply now. Deadline for applications is March 1. 2010.

Program Description and Benefits
Siemens Teachers as Researchers is a two-week residential professional development program, all expenses paid*, in which teachers will engage in mentored research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. STARs provides middle school and high school STEM teachers the opportunity to engage with top scientists and researchers on short-term research projects about current topics of national interest that are related to ongoing research at the laboratory.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is America’s largest, multi-purpose, national research laboratory. Its primary research areas are neutron science, advanced materials, biological systems, energy, national security, nanotechnology, chemical sciences, nuclear physics, and high performance computing. ORNL is home to more than 50 scientific centers and specialized facilities, including the Spallation Neutron Source, National Center for Computational Sciences, Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences, Joint Institute for Biological Sciences, Bioenergy Science Center, Center for Nanophase Material Sciences, National Transportation Research Center, and the Tennessee Solar Initiative.

ORNL mentor scientists will design short-term research projects on current topics of national interest that are related to ongoing research at the laboratory. Working in teams of 4 to 5, teachers will collaborate with ORNL scientific teams to conduct assigned research projects. DOE-ACTS teachers at ORNL will provide additional leadership and resources to help you incorporate research into your science and math classrooms.

In addition to the research immersion, you will have additional educational enhancements in the form of seminars, mini-workshops, tours, and field trips to focus and expand the research experience.

It’s 21. Just Pass

The Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA), the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) and Discovery Education announce a new partnership creating the It’s 21. Just Pass initiative.

Designed to reinforce the message that the legal drinking age is 21 and challenge high school students’ knowledge about the laws and consequences of underage drinking, It’s 21. Just Pass has launched in 21 cities across the country. It’s 21. Just Pass challenges high school students to learn the risks of underage drinking, test their knowledge and win amazing prizes.

For more information, visit http://www.its21justpass.com.

20 February 2010

Applications Open for the Siemens STEM Institute

Are you looking to bolster STEM learning in the classroom? Do you want access to top STEM scientists, thought-leaders and innovators? Then you’ll most definitely want to apply attend the Siemens STEM Institute! The Siemens STEM Institute is a one-of-a-kind immersion program that promotes hands-on, real-world integration of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) in the classroom. Fifty teachers will be selected as STEM Fellows to attend this all expenses-paid*, week-long professional development experience, hosted at the world headquarters of Discovery Communications, located just outside of our nation’s capitol in Washington D.C. Fellows will be exposed to leading scientists, thought-leaders, personalities and innovators whose work across STEM disciplines shape and define our world today.

The week will be filled with guest speakers at the forefront of STEM, field trips to leading institutions where Fellows will observe real-world applications of STEM subject matter, and opportunities for networking and collaborating with peers from across the nation. In addition to broad-based STEM applications, each Fellow will be assigned to a thematic working group that will provide additional deep-dive exposure.

You don’t want to miss this incredible opportunity. The deadline to apply is April 16, so don’t wait!

Apply now

Win A Trip of a Lifetime

Become a Facebook Fan of DSA on Facebook and you could win a FREE trip!

Teachers (grades K-12) and parents of students ages 10-18 are eligible to win a Discovery Student Adventure “Ultimate Summer Field Trip” to Italy and Greece just by becoming a Fan on Facebook ! Go to their Facebook page, join the fan club and you will be entered to win! Plus, increase your chances of winning with every friend you invite. Lucky winners will act as guest bloggers and videographers as they rescue loggerhead sea turtles, white water raft the Lao river and make pottery with locals in Caltagirone . Up to 5 trips will be awarded, two for teachers and three for students. Travel dates to Italy and Greece are July 5-19, 2010.

This is an opportunity that you do NOT want to pass up. Visit their Facebook page and become a fan now!

15 February 2010

Pepsi Refresh Project

I saw Porter Palmer blog about the Pepsi Refresh Project on the DEN blog. I looked into it anf thought that it seemed pretty solid as a Challenge Based Learning outlet.

We're looking for people, businesses, and non-profits with ideas that will have a positive impact. Look around your community and think about how you want to change it.

Pepsi is accepting 1000 ideas every month. Starting February 1st, vote for up to 10 of your favorite ideas every day. If you submitted an idea, feel free to vote for your own.

The projects are categorized into themes - health, arts & culture, food & shelter, the planet, neighborhoods, and education.

Check it out!

14 February 2010

Supporting Literacy With WordSift

About a month ago I discovered a Web 2.0 literacy tool, WordSift.

I Tweeted it out and was instantly swamped with questions from fellow educators.

Since then, I have been telling anyone and everyone who will listen about WordSift.

I was working on a presentation called "Oh, the Humanities!" for the TCEA Discovery Education pre-conference, Beyond the Textbook.

Oh The Humanities

View more presentations from Jennifer Dorman.

I was compiling pre, during, and post-reading resources like AutoSummary in Word, ReadWriteThink, Wordle, TagCrowd, and Great Summary that can be used with digital text to help students identify themes, main ideas, and key vocabulary when I stumbled upon WordSift. Unlike many of the similar word cloud tools, WordSift was created with the expressed goal of supporting education.

WordSift was created to help teachers manage the demands of vocabulary and academic language in their text materials. WordSift helps anyone easily sift through texts -- just cut and paste any text into WordSift and you can engage in a verbal quick-capture! The program helps to quickly identify important words that appear in the text. This function is widely available in various Tag Cloud programs on the web, but we have added the ability to mark and sort different lists of words important to educators. We have also integrated it with a few other functions, such as visualization of word thesaurus relationships (incorporating the amazing Visual Thesaurus® that we highly recommend in its own right) and Google® searches of images and videos. With just a click on any word in the Tag Cloud, the program displays instances of sentences in which that word is used in the text.

Click here to take a quick video tour of the service.

Here is an overview of how I would use WordSift with a primary source speech available from Discovery Education streaming.

Step 1: Search for the speech and download the transcript.

Step 2: Copy/paste the transcript text into WordSift.

Step 3: Use the word cloud to ask students to identify main ideas, themes, goals of the speech, intended audience, or to develop questions they believe should be answered by the speech. This could be done as a "pre-reading" strategy to develop the structures for "during reading" focus.

Step 4: Identify key vocabulary by creating customized word lists to make the vocabulary stand out as a different color.

Step 5: Isolate words for further discussion by dragging them to the workspace.

Step 6: Use image and video clues.

Step 7: Click on the words to populate the Visual Thesaurus widget.

Step 8: Use sentence context clues to make meaning of the vocabulary in the context of the speech.

Step 9: Place the sentences back into the full text to use nearby context clues.

Here are some quick tips for bringing WordSift into desktop presentations.

Click on the About link on WordSift to see the myriad ways educators have been using the service and visit the educator videos posted under Demonstrations.

For Discovery Education subscribers, you can use WordSift with the Encyclopedia Articles, Speech Transcripts, Reading Passages, and any other media asset types that contain digital text. Quick Tip: If you are using a speech, be sure to check out the Speech Guide that contains media resources for scaffolding and provides historical context for the speech.

13 February 2010

PLANET EARTH and LIFE Coming to Discovery Education

Excite Students' Curiosity About the World Around Them with PLANET EARTH.

Available in Discovery Education streaming in March

Engage and enlighten your students by utilizing Discovery Education's free comprehensive Teacher's Guides. Teacher's Guides contain program objectives, discussion questions, and lesson plans that support DE streaming video content. See examples of PLANET EARTH: Pole to Pole Teacher's Guides.

Teacher's Guide Grade Level: 3-5
Teacher's Guide Grade Level: 6-8
Teacher's Guide Grade Level: 9-12

Captivate Students Through the Wonders of LIFE

LIFE is the definitive exploration of our planet's living things and their spectacular and fascinating behaviors. Segmented into concept-level clips that focus on different animals and plant groups, LIFE captures never-before-seen behaviors using the latest in state-of-the-art high-definition filming techniques.

Available in Discovery Education streaming PLUS in March

Click here to watch a preview of LIFE and download an informational flyer.

06 February 2010

Discovery Education Wilkes University MS Degree in Instructional Media

To advance a new generation of education technology leaders, Discovery Education, renowned for its quality content and digital media services in over half of all US schools, and Wilkes University, a leader in graduate education, have teamed up to create the online Master of Science degree in Instructional Media.

To thrive in the 21st century classroom, successful educators are embracing a new approach to teacher instruction. New tools. New technologies. A new appreciation for digital media. From Web 2.0 to digital storytelling, to virtual field trips, the 21st century classroom has the power to engage and inspire today’s tech savvy students. This degree provides teachers the tools, knowledge and strategies to be successful 21st century educators.

Learn about the program from our amazing course designers, check out student projects, and more at our brand new website: www.discoveryeducation.com/masters

Every Tuesday educators enrolled in the Discovery Education Wilkes University Instructional Media Program get together to share ideas. Join them on February 16, 2010 as they have Daniel Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind, dropping by for an hour-long discussion. All the details can be found here.

Click here to join the webinar.

An hour with Dan Pink

View more presentations or Upload your own.

Click here to follow WUIM on Twitter stay up-to-date on the Wilkes University Instructional Media Program and subscribe to the WUIM blog.

05 February 2010

Are You Teaching America's Next Top Scientist?

The Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge is now open for entries for 2010.

The challenge is the nation’s premier science competition for students in grades 5 through 8. Ten finalists will be selected to receive an all-expense paid trip to New York City to compete in the final challenge in October. The winner will receive $50,000 in U.S. Savings Bonds ($25,000 cash value), a tour of 3M’s celebrated Innovation Center in St. Paul, Minnesota given by some of today’s top scientists, and the title of “America’s Top Young Scientist.”

Check out the Science in Action blog to learn more!

Siemens STEM Academy

In partnership with the Siemens Foundation, we are thrilled to announce the Siemens STEM Academy. It is a multi-faceted program that includes:

a premier on-line community designed exclusively to foster STEM achievement through the sharing of best practices

a monthly webinar series that will feature today’s leading scientists, academics, and personalities such as Dr. Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist and host of Science Channel’s Sci Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible, to excite students and provide teachers with actionable recommendations for integrating STEM into the classroom

a week-long STEM immersion program that will enable 50 select teachers to meet in Washington, D.C. to engage with today’s critical science thinkers and other peers from across the nation and visit leading institutions to see real-world applications of STEM subject matter

a two-week residential professional development program, Siemens Teachers As Researchers (STARS), for select middle school and high school teachers in which teachers engage in mentored research projects with top scientists and researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, TN

Visit http://www.siemensstemacademy.com today! The webinar archive from Michio Kaku’s presentation is already on the website.