Bring the Arts into Your School
Target’s Arts and Culture in Schools Grants help schools and other nonprofits to bring arts and cultural experiences directly to K–12 students. To be eligible for the $2,000 grant, these programs must have a curriculum component. Target also sponsors free or reduced-admission events at museums and performing arts institutions nationwide.
Deadline: April 30, 2011
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Foster a Love of Reading
Target awards grants to schools, libraries and other nonprofit organizations to support programs such as after-school reading events and weekend book clubs. Target’s Early Childhood Reading Grants are intended to promote a love of reading and encourage young children to read together with their families. The amount of the grant is $2,000.
Deadline: April 30, 2011
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Fund Forward-Thinking Science Programs
The American Honda Foundation makes grants to K–12 schools, colleges, universities, trade schools and other youth-focused nonprofit organizations for programs that benefit youth and scientific education. The programs must be imaginative, creative, youthful, forward thinking, scientific, humanistic and innovative. Funding priorities are specifically in the areas of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, the environment, job training and literacy. The grant range is from $20,000 to $60,000 over a one-year period.
Deadline: May 1, 2011
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Generate Ideas That Will “Refresh” the World
The Pepsi Refresh Project supports those who generate innovative, optimistic ideas to move communities forward. The first 1,000 ideas submitted each month will be eligible for a grant of up to $250,000. Submit your idea and then encourage others to support your cause. The public votes to determine who wins. Each month, Pepsi will give away up to $1.3 million to the public’s favorites. The focus this year is on Arts & Music, Education and Communities. Visit the project’s Web site to download the free toolkit, begin your registration and track the process.
Deadlines: Ongoing, monthly beginning in April 2011
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Showcase Knowledge of a Pivotal Era
In April 2011, the HISTORY cable network and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) are commemorating the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War by inviting all U.S. high school students to participate in a national trivia contest—the National Civil War Student Challenge. This academic competition gives students a chance to showcase their knowledge of one of the most pivotal events in American history and qualify to win up to $15,000 in college scholarships. In addition, any teacher whose student qualifies for the final round of competition and who proctors the final exam will have a chance to receive up to $400 in classroom supplies, courtesy of HISTORY and HMH. Students can register today to take the challenge online and download the official study guide. Teachers and parents can set up class study groups and encourage study sessions and download and hang challenge posters and fliers.
Deadline: Challenge begins on April 7, 2011 and ends on April 10, 2011
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Celebrate Innovation and Creativity
K–12 classroom teachers can win $25,000 in the ING Unsung Heroes Awards, sponsored by ING U.S. Financial Services. Projects, under way or proposed, are judged on their “innovative teaching methods,” creative educational qualities and ability to positively affect students. Each year, 100 finalists and their schools win $2,000. Three top finalists win even more: first place receives an extra $25,000; second place gets an extra $10,000; and third place gets an extra $5,000. Finalists are selected by Scholarship America, with the top three chosen by ING’s Educators Advisory Board.
Deadline: April 30, 2011
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Ponder the Use of Technology
Samsung Techwin America’s Electronic Imaging Division is offering an opportunity for 10 high school students to each earn $1,000 scholarships. Students interested in participating need to submit an essay of up to a 300 words, answering the question, “Is technology critical to a live presentation? Or is it just a crutch?” The essays will be judged by an independent panel based on original thinking, relevance to the real world and writing quality.
Deadline: April 30, 2011
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Tag with Style
Tagxedo turns words—famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes—into a visually stunning tag cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text. With Tagxedo, you can make tag clouds in real time and re-spin to your liking; save the tag cloud as images for printing and sharing; look at all variants of the clouds in a gallery and choose the one you want for further tweaking or saving. You can also choose from many different fonts; use local fonts (e.g., downloaded from Font Squirrel, DaFont, FontSpace or your own hand-drawn fonts); quickly switch between different colors and themes and constrain the cloud to selected shapes (heart, star, cloud, oval and more). And with the premium features, you can use images and words as custom shapes. Check out the online cloud gallery and read about 101 Ways to Use Tagxedo.
Click Here to Access Free Application

Explore Common Core Curriculum Maps
The Common Core Curriculum (CCS) Mapping Project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is independent of the Common Core itself. It offers a coherent sequence of thematic curriculum units, roughly six per grade level, K–12. The unit maps connect the skills outlined in the CCS in English Language Arts with suggested works of literature and informational texts and provide activities teachers could use in their classrooms. Each grade includes a standards checklist showing which standards are covered in which unit. More than three dozen public school teachers had a hand in drafting, writing, reviewing or revising these draft maps.
Click Here to Access Free Curriculum Maps

Get Math Help from an Expert
The Web-based nonprofit Khan Academy was created as a tutoring and enrichment tool that now offers more than 2,000 original educational videos designed to help K–12 students improve in math and science. With the addition of a progress dashboard for teachers, the digital lessons are being used as part of a blended-learning model in some districts. Founder Salman Khan is also expanding the project’s scope to include economics and humanities, and translating lessons into other languages.
Click Here to Access Free Video Lessons

Address the Issue of Teen Victimization
The COPS Teen Action Toolkit [PDF] includes a blueprint for engaging youth in community problem solving around the issue of teen victimization. Teen Action Partnership for Teen Victims is a youth-led civic engagement program designed to improve local policies, outreach and services to teen victims of crime.
Click Here to Download Free Toolkit

Plus: Out on a Limb is an interactive guide designed to help children in grades 2–4 work through conflict.
Click Here to Access Free Curriculum Guide

Learn the Story Behind Labor Laws
One hundred years ago, on March 25, 1911, 146 workers died in an enormous fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, the deadliest workplace disaster in New York City’s history. The tragedy sparked a series of labor and union laws that continue to impact workers today. The PBS NewsHour Web site provides the story behind this disaster—both online and as a printable PDF, along with a classroom activity, suggestions on how to use the story in the classroom, a student worksheet with reading comprehension and discussion questions, and related resources, including the PBS American Experience film on the Triangle Fire.
Click Here to Access Free Resources

Celebrate Leonardo da Vinci’s Birthday (April 15, 1452)
At the Boston Museum of Science’s Exploring Leonardo Web site, you’ll find four main content sections: Inventor’s Workshop highlights some of Leonardo’s futuristic inventions, introduces the elements of machines, lets students explore how these elements can work together to perform new functions and gives students a chance to try analyzing Leonardo’s inventions and designing their own. Leonardo’s Perspective introduces Leonardo’s way of looking at the world and explores Renaissance techniques for representing the 3-D world on 2-D surfaces. What, Where, When? is a brief biography of Leonardo da Vinci with images. Leonardo: Right to Left explores Leonardo’s curious habit of writing in reverse. The site also has four pages with cool interactives: Playing Around With Size and Distance, Exploring Linear Perspective, Investigating Aerial Perspective and Gadget Anatomy. And it offers five lesson plans for hands-on classroom activities to extend learning: Leonardo Right to Left, Leonardo’s Window, How Far? How Small?, Sketching Gadget Anatomy and Be Inventive! Plus, the Web site supports three opportunities for students to communicate their ideas electronically.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Celebrate Earth Day (April 22, 2011)
Written for students, with contributions from students and teachers in the Earth Day Network (EDN), this Student Activist Toolkit provides everything your students need to get started making changes in their classrooms, on their campuses and in their communities. Filled with project ideas and useful materials, the toolkit will help them get organized, get active and get credit for greening their school and community. EDN’s Educators’ Network has made available, for free, hundreds of K–12 environmental lesson plans and activities, including new lessons on the themes of sustainability, climate, natural resources and wildlife, energy, green jobs, civics education, Thoreau, organics and food.
Click Here to Access Free Toolkit
Click Here to Access Free Lessons

Create “Green” Art for Earth Day
The Earth Day Network (EDN) and the United Nations Environment Programme’s youth branch (UNEP-Tunza) are working together to encourage everyone to participate in the 20th Children’s Painting Competition for Earth Day 2011. To highlight the UN’s International Year of Forests in 2011, the theme of UNEP’s 20th International children’s painting competition is Life in the Forests. Children between 6 and 14 years of age can win up to $2,000 and a trip to Indonesia for the UNEP-Tunza International Children’s Conference.
Deadline: April 15, 2011
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Navigate Beneath the Ocean
Art meets science in The Ocean Portal, a beautiful Web site designed by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. The Ocean Portal’s interactive online experiences inspire awareness, understanding and stewardship of the world’s oceans. Students can dive into Ocean Life & Ecosystems, view Photo Essays, see The Ocean Over Time, learn about Ocean Science and discover The Ocean & You. An Educators section includes free lesson plans, activities and suggestions for using the Ocean Portal’s features.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Plus: Using maps and graphics, Smithsonian geologist Dr. Liz Cottrell provides an overview of the major earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, 2011. In this newly added video, she explains the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the movement of tectonic plates and subduction, the concept of earthquake magnitude and the formation of tsunamis.
Click Here to View Video

Imagine a Nuclear Reactor Meltdown
What happens when a nuclear reactor overheats? Nuclear Reaction: Meltdown, a video segment adapted from PBS’s FRONTLINE, looks at the nuclear reactor meltdown at Chernobyl. Download the video freely or view it online. Also find a printable background essay and discussion questions.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Use Science to Crack the Case
Rice University, in partnership with the Forth Worth Museum of Science and History, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and CBS, has created CSI: Web Adventures, a game designed to introduce middle school students to forensic science through cases based on the popular TV-show franchise about crime-scene investigations. During the game, students identify shoe prints, test DNA and interview suspects in order to crack the case. The game outlines which academic standards it covers and was crafted with learning objectives in mind.
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Provide Individualized Math Practice
Designed for grades 1–6, Britannica SmartMath provides online math practice that adapts to each student’s ability. Unlike traditional math practice, SmartMath builds formative assessment into the learning process. Students who do well see more challenging questions, and students who struggle see progressively less difficult questions until they achieve success. With SmartMath, students spend more time on task because they are working at their own level and having fun, significantly improving their math skills and test scores. Try it out, for free, online.
Click Here for More Information
Click Here to Try Free Demo

Plus: Check out insideBritannica, a free monthly newsletter that includes tips to help librarians, teachers and students make use of the many educational resources in Britannica Online. Read previous editions of insideBritannica and learn more about this resource.
Click Here to Sign Up for Free Newsletter

Embrace the Power of Technology in the Classroom
You don’t have to be an artistic genius or tech wizard to develop captivating, inspiring media content for your classroom. Full Sail University’s Education Media Design & Technology Master’s degree online program teaches you how to reach learners through movies, podcasts, animation—even music and games—in a way that suits the specific needs of your learning environment and students.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Provide Insight into Business Acumen
The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business has launched KWHS, a version of its Knowledge@Wharton Web site, geared toward high school students and their teachers. The site is intended to inform students that “business underlies everything they may want to do.” There are lots of videos, including interviews with young people describing how they’ve used business skills and started their own companies. The site also has a version of the Online Training and Investment Simulator game that lets students choose a portfolio and compete against other students. And because one of the big hurdles to learning about business is deciphering its language, KWHS has a video glossary through which Wharton professors explain the terms using examples high schoolers can relate to. For example, one professor tells students what an “angel investor” is, using Justin Timberlake’s character in The Social Network. “Opportunity cost” sounds abstract until students hear a management professor offer up an angst-inducing example of someone confronted with a choice: whether to go to a great party or to a movie with someone special.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Participate in an Augmented-Reality Game
In Socks Inc., a game from Awkward Hug, players make their own sock puppets (avatars) and complete “missions” in the real world. Missions are related to the fictional company Socks Inc., which is headed by Mr. Barnsworth, a polka-dotted sock puppet with a pipe-cleaner mustache. Themes include “grounds-keeping,” which involves going outside, and “R&D,” which stands for “rhyme and drum.” To complete a mission, players upload a photo or video, although Socks says children or their parents can keep the posts private. Socks Inc. has been holding events at museums and festivals and is set to launch the public online version of the game in April 2011.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

Preserve Students’ Digital Content Choices
There is a growing awareness of the importance of preserving the often-transitory digital cultural artifacts distributed over the Web. But so far the vast majority of decisions about which Web sites will live into the future have been made by adults and reflect adults’ sensibilities. To broaden this perspective, the Internet Archive and the Library of Congress launched the K–12 Web Archiving Program. The K–12 program has two primary objectives: (1) to archive the Web from the perspective of students to ensure that at-risk digital content that is important to them is captured and preserved forever; (2) to stimulate students to think about history and actively participate in selecting the primary sources of today for historical research tomorrow. Participants use the Archive-It service from the Internet Archive to create “time capsules” of digital content available via the Web chosen by students to represent their world.
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Get to Know Poe
The activities on Knowing Poe introduce students to the literature, life and times of one of America’s foremost writers, Edgar Allan Poe. On the site, your students can explore Poe’s worlds—both fictional and real—from a number of perspectives. They can examine the complex choices writers such as Poe make as they create their works. They can also investigate the “hard facts” about life and death in Baltimore, where Poe lived, and the United States during Poe’s lifetime. And they can learn about the continuing impact of Poe’s legacy. The classroom resources have been created especially for students in middle school and high school. In addition to these interactive experiences, there are lesson plans created by teachers, primary source documents, links for further research and materials for fun family activities related to Edgar Allan Poe. Throughout the site, students can watch for the Random Raven, which will give them some inside information and little known facts about Poe the person and Poe the writer.
Click to Visit Web Site

Say “Hello” to the World
If your students wanted to say “hello” to everybody in the world, they would have to learn at least 2,796 languages and give their greeting to 5,720,000,000 people! This site will help students get started! They can choose to say “hello” in any of these languages: Arabic, Cherokee, Chinese, Czech, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mayan, Mohawk, Nahuatl, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Welsh, Zapotec—or Non-Verbal Languages: Braille and Sign Language.
Click Here to Visit Web Site

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