June 14, 2013

Timely reminders, fabulous freebies, best sites & more "worth the surf"

IN THIS ISSUE

Grants, Competitions and Other “Winning” Opportunities

Free and Inexpensive Resources

Powered-up Professional Development

On-the-Go Learning

STEM Gems

“Worth-the-Surf” Websites

In Partnership With:


Grants, Competitions and Other “Winning” Opportunities

Supplement Your Stretched Budget

GetEdFunding is CDW-G’s new website to help educators and institutions find the funds they need to supplement already stretched budgets. GetEdFunding is a free and fresh resource, which hosts a collection of more than 1,400 grants and other funding opportunities culled from federal, state, regional and community sources and available to public and private, preK–12 educators, schools and districts, higher education institutions and nonprofit organizations that work with them. The site offers customized searches by six criteria, including 41 areas of focus, eight content areas and any of the 21st century themes and skills that support your curriculum. Once you are registered on the site, you can save the grants of greatest interest and then return to read about them at any time.

Click Here to Visit Website

Support Projects Led by Women and Girls

The Open Meadows Foundation offers grants of up to $2,000 for projects that are led by and benefit women and girls. The projects must reflect the diversity of the community served by the project in both its leadership and its organization; and promote racial, social, economic and environmental justice. In addition, the organizations must have limited financial access or have encountered obstacles in their search for funding. Small and startup organizations are encouraged to apply. Projects must be designed and implemented by women and girls.

Deadlines: August 15 and February 15, annually

Click Here for More Information

Invest in Tech Futures

Chip In is a new crowd-sourcing program from Microsoft to help students purchase a new PC for school. The recently launched program allows students to register for a computer of their choice, establish a profile and seek contributions to pay for the device. The program, targeted at graduating high school and college students, requires a valid Facebook account and .edu email address. As part of the program, Microsoft will donate a portion of the funds and provide some software.

Deadline: September 1, 2013

Click Here for More Information

Enter The Big Deal Book of Technology Take-It-With-You Contest!

The Big Deal Book of Technology is a small book with BIG staying power! Our readers say that they keep their books close by as the go-to resource for the best curated mix of grant opportunities, newest apps, interactive web destinations and more. Now here’s another way to put this go-everywhere book to good use:

“Like” Big Deal Media on Facebook and then enter the Take-It-With-You Contest by posting a photo of you, with a copy of The Big Deal Book of Technology in hand, on our timeline. (Provide a brief description of the locale and, of course, your name!) If you don’t have a hard copy of the publication, you can download a copy (or just the cover) from http://www.bigdealbook.com.

Each month through October 31, 2013, we’ll give away one $50 gift card to Starbucks, Amazon or Barnes & Noble, to the photo capturing the most “likes” during the month posted. (Feel free to send a different photo each month.) We’ll announce each month’s winner on our Facebook page.

With summer right around the corner, there's no telling where the Big Deal Book of Technology may show up! We've already had a Big Deal Book of Technology sighting at the Taj Mahal!

Whether you’re two blocks from home or in Timbuktu, we want to see your photos with a Big Deal Book of Technology.

Click Here to Enter Take-It-With-You Contest


Free and Inexpensive Resources

Create Abundance

In the best-selling and highly readable book, Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think, Dr. Peter Diamandis, chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, cofounder of Singularity University (along with Ray Kurzweil, chief of engineering at Google), and well-known science writer and coauthor Steven Kotler document how progress in artificial intelligence, robotics, infinite computing, ubiquitous broadband networks, digital manufacturing, nanomaterials, synthetic biology and many other exponentially growing technologies—including educational technology—will enable innovators to make greater gains in the next two decades than in the previous two hundred years. To help educators tap into the ideas of the most brilliant minds in these areas, Dr. Diamandis is providing copies of Abundance to teachers and others interested in “abundance thinking” for just the cost of shipping and handling ($6.95). For every copy requested through the link below, Dr. Diamandis and his publisher (Simon & Schuster) will also distribute a free digital copy of Abundance to high-achieving, underprivileged high school students and their teachers. In addition to a free copy of the hardcover book, you’ll receive a series of three free videos that cover the major insights of “exponential and abundance thinkers” and how they leverage technology. You can also download a free chapter of Abundance by clicking on the “About the Book” tab at the top of the web page describing the book.

Click Here to Get Free Abundance Book and Videos

Engage Students in Active Summer Reading

Gobstopper is a free tool for assigning, monitoring and leveraging summer reading in the classroom. As students read, they will see questions and get feedback, and they can stay motivated by earning badges. Teachers can use the tool to assign books, check on students’ progress throughout the summer and even benchmark data on students’ mastery of Common Core Standards before the start of the new school year. The tool can be used on all devices that have a browser and Internet access.

Click Here to Access Free Tool

Challenge Students to Find the Location

GeoSettr helps you create your own GeoGuessr games. When you visit GeoSettr, you will see two screens: the one on the left displays a map with a Pegman; the one on the right, the Street View imagery for the Pegman’s current location. Move the Pegman around, and zoom in if you like, until you find the location that you want students to guess. When you’ve chosen the location, click “set round” to save the location. After you’ve set five rounds (locations), your game is assigned a URL that you can distribute to students. When they play your GeoSettr game, students use the visual clues in the Street View imagery to guess the location. After making a guess, students see the correct location and its distance from their guess.

Click Here to Access Free Tool


Powered-up Professional Development

Incorporate Cultural Perspectives into Science Learning

Participants in TESOL’s online course “ESL for the Secondary Science Teacher” will explore the role of cultural perspectives in learning science, guiding principles of second language acquisition and methods of instructional alignment of objectives, teaching and assessment of scientific learning. Through guided instruction and active engagement, participants will explore, plan and apply principles from TESOL’s preK–12 English Language Proficiency Standards and current research. Ultimately, participants will design instruction that aligns content and language standards, teaching methods and student assessment in secondary science classrooms. The online course will take place from July 8 through August 4, 2013. The cost for TESOL members is $380; for nonmembers, $505.

Deadline: July 1, 2013 for registration

Click Here for More Information

Heighten Your Science Knowledge and Teaching Skills

The New Science Teacher Academy, cofounded by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and Amgen Foundation, is a professional development initiative created to help promote quality science teaching, enhance teacher confidence and classroom excellence, and improve teacher content knowledge. Designed as a career-enhancing program for middle school and high school science teachers in their second through fifth year of teaching, the year-long professional development and mentoring program offers unique support and resources throughout the year, with the intention of heightening teaching skills and content knowledge and easing the often difficult initial years as a novice teacher. The Academy provides each teacher with a year-long, discipline-specific mentor; web-based content development courses and other resources; membership with full benefits in NSTA; attendance at the 2014 National Conference on Science Education, including air travel, lodging, meals and registration fees. Hundreds of teachers will be chosen to participate in the 2013–2014 Academy and take advantage of cost-free, consistent online professional development activities along with face-to-face educational experiences.

Deadline: August 1, 2013, for applications

Click Here for More Information

Learn without Limits

Coursera has added a “teacher professional development” category to its collection of online and videotaped courses, allowing busy educators to participate according to their own schedule. The courses—developed by Coursera in partnership with seven schools of education, plus educational institutions and museums—help K–12 teachers and other individuals worldwide develop understanding of a wide range of education topics, including the Common Core State Standards and blended learning.

Click Here to Access Free Courses


On-the-Go Learning

Let Your Fingers Do the Hiking

Fotonauts’ free Fotopedia National Parks app for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch lets users explore all 58 National Parks in the United States—from Acadia to Zion, including Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and Glacier National Park—a journey that would require several years. Users will first discover the diversity of the national parks through a selected set of 1,500 photos; then they can dive into specific parks to find even more photos. The collection includes 3,000 stunning photos by the renowned professional photographer QT Luong, along with photo-stories based on the images of the national parks. In addition, each image is linked to a related Wikipedia entry. The app is available in 10 languages.

Click Here to Access Free App

Plus: Celebrate the beauty of the world with the free Fotopedia Heritage app for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Created in cooperation with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Fotopedia Heritage provides a virtual passport to the hundreds of sites that constitute the world’s collective cultural and natural human legacy. This app was recently selected as one of the top 50 apps of all time in Apple’s new Hall of Fame. With 30,000 awe-inspiring photos, the app has been called the world’s largest photo book, an inspiring travel guide, an entertaining teaching device and even a bedtime relaxation tool.

Click Here to Access Free App

Solve the Mystery in Los Griegos

Mentira is a place-based augmented reality game using the Augmented Reality for Interactive Storytelling (ARIS) platform, developed at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, for use on the iPhone and iPod touch. The game consists of close to 70 pages of dialogue and informative text, almost all in Spanish, about 150 photos or pieces of still visual art and four short movies. The game is a murder mystery consisting of current and Prohibition-era fictional events, all set in the Los Griegos neighborhood in Albuquerque. The basic structure of the game is directed conversations between the player and fictional characters (Non-Player Characters, or NPCs) concerning the murder and its solution. Each conversation is situated at a particular place and time in the game’s narrative, somewhere between reality and fiction. Visit the Implementations section of the game’s website for information on how the game can be used in Spanish classrooms.

Click Here to Visit Website

Click Here to Download Free ARIS Software

See It in 3-D

AndAR Model Viewer is a free Android app that is capable of displaying 3-D models on Augmented Reality markers. The goal is to help young students better understand the differences between shapes such as cones, cubes and squares, a Common Core math requirement. It helps build students’ spatial reasoning—they can zoom in on these objects and interact with them in the virtual space—and it gives students an understanding of what these objects look like in real life.

Click Here to Access Free App


STEM Gems

Spark Interest in STEM Careers

An innovative, free resource is now available to educators across the nation to help them ignite students’ interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Spark 101 inspires students to thrive in college and future careers and helps teachers bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world applications. Spark 101 provides teachers with interactive videos from industry and instructional resources to engage their students with real-world problem solving, integrated directly into a course’s curriculum. The short, scenario-based videos are shared by industry professionals and directly aligned to national curriculum programs, such as the College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP), Project Lead the Way (PLTW) and National Academy Foundation (NAF) programs. Several organizations have already contributed content, such as Lockheed Martin, NASA, Proctor & Gamble, PepsiCo, University of California Berkeley and Deloitte. Explore the site and try a lesson. To get involved or participate in an upcoming educator or industry training webinar, email [email protected].

Click Here to Visit Website

Grow Science Literacy

Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading (Seeds/Roots) is an integrated, inquiry-based, hands-on science and literacy program that involves students in grades 2–6 in conducting research and writing about scientific topics and discussing as scientists do. For example, in the unit on shoreline science, second and third graders learn about the properties of sand and other earth materials, erosion, organisms and the environment, and human impact on the environment. They learn and use scientific vocabulary, such as habitat, predator, evidence and compare. The program’s teacher’s guide helps teachers learn about and implement best practices when teaching English language learners. The program was developed at University of California Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education and The Lawrence Hall of Science.

Click Here to Visit Website

Click Here to Access Shoreline Science Unit

Engage Garden-Based Learning

Nothing says summer like butterflies. GardenABCs’ Citizen Science Projects for School and Home offer ways for students to help scientists learn more about these important insects. For example, students can monitor patches of milkweed weekly to count monarch eggs and larvae and assess milkweed density. This data will help scientists determine the distribution and abundance patterns of monarch butterflies in North America. They can also help offset the loss of milkweeds and nectar sources—critical monarch habitats—by creating “Monarch Waystations” in home gardens, at schools, businesses, parks, zoos, nature centers, along roadsides and on other unused plots of land. Once a “waystation” has been created, it can be certified, and a sign may be purchased from Monarch Watch. Or they can combine an annual summer evening ritual with scientific research by tracking the fate of fireflies. With the help of a network of volunteers observing fireflies in their own backyard, scientists hope to learn about the geographic distribution of fireflies, their activity during the summer season and the way they are affected by human-made light and lawn pesticides. Find these and other citizen science projects, along with monthly activities to do with children in the garden, on GardenABCs’ website.

Click Here to Access Free Citizen Science Projects

Click Here to Access Free Monthly Activities

Plus: Download fun activities that use multiple intelligences to emphasize math, science, music, language and visual arts in the garden. The activities are categorized by age range: “Garden Patterns,” “Seed Sorting” and “Role Playing: From Seed to Sprout” for ages 3–5; “Chart Your Own Garden” and “Create a Garden Diorama” for ages 6 and up.

Click Here to Download Free Age-Appropriate Activities

See Mathematics in Action

The National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) opened in New York City in 2013. The museum’s exhibits and programs aim to stimulate inquiry, spark curiosity and reveal the wonders of mathematics. As part of its commitment to provide engaging, interactive mathematical experiences, MoMath has created Math Midway, a hands-on traveling exhibition that highlights the engaging and playful nature of mathematics. The Math Midway is making appearances at science and technology centers across the country.

Click Here for More Information

Plus: MoMath has partnered with Make Magazine to produce Math Monday, a weekly column on Make: Online, featuring fun, experiential and puzzling items that explore different aspects of mathematics.

Click Here to Access Free Articles

Assemble a Geometric Paper Torso

Australian architect and paper artist Horst Kiechle recently constructed a geometric paper torso complete with modular organs, including lungs, intestines, kidneys, pancreas stomach and more. The piece was made for the Science Lab of the International School Nadi, Fiji. On completion of the model, Kiechle launched an extensive website with free downloadable templates you can print and assemble, along with photographed step-by-step instructions for every piece.

Click Here to Download Free Templates


“Worth-the-Surf” Websites

Create Cultures of Caring and Respect

The Making Caring Common initiative seeks to help educators, parents and communities raise children who are caring, respectful and responsible toward others and their communities. The initiative is housed at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and led by Richard Weissbourd and Stephanie Jones, who are working to make these values live and breathe in the day-to-day interactions of every school and home. In the links on the left side of the Making Caring Common website, you’ll find tips and tools inspired by the newest research and wisdom of experience that will help you promote social and emotional learning, prevent bullying and other forms of cruelty, and create cultures of caring and respect in schools.

Click Here to Visit Making Caring Common Website

Plus: Making Caring Common has partnered with the RFK Center and the Chrysler Group to launch Project SEATBELT, a groundbreaking initiative to prevent bullying before it starts.

Click Here to Visit RFK Project SEATBELT Website

See a Signed Yearbook from 1860

It’s the season for signing yearbooks. See how they were signed 150 years ago in “Final Farewells,” a lesson from Smithsonian in Your Classroom. In the lesson, students examine an 1860 Rutgers College yearbook owned by a southerner who would go on to fight and die for the Confederacy. The inscriptions from his northern classmates tell much about the Civil War as a “brothers’ war.” This issue of Smithsonian in Your Classroom also includes a timeline of national events in the four years these students were at Rutgers, from 1856 to 1860. As the classmates were forming close friendships, the country itself was splitting in two. They entered their freshman year as proslavery and antislavery settlers were fighting in Kansas Territory. They graduated just after the nomination of Abraham Lincoln, whose election that year would result in secession.

Click Here to Visit Smithsonian Education Website

Click Here to Access 1860 Yearbook

Click Here to Access Poster with Yearbook Dedications

Create Your Own Masterpiece

Many museums post their collections online, but the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has taken the unusual step of offering downloads of high-resolution images at no cost, encouraging the public to copy and transform its artworks. The museum, whose collection includes masterpieces by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Mondrian and van Gogh, has already made images of 125,000 of its works available through Rijksstudio, an interactive section of its website. The staff’s goal is to add 40,000 images a year until the entire collection of 1 million artworks spanning eight centuries is available. Rijksstudio is unusual among digital museum projects in that it provides online tools for manipulating, changing or clipping the images.

Click Here to Visit Rijksmuseum

Click Here to Visit Rijksstudio

Explore the Himalayan Glaciers

GlacierWorks, Microsoft and mountaineer/filmmaker David Breashears have collaborated to develop Everest: Rivers of Ice, a new interactive site that takes visitors on a virtual trek to Mount Everest base camp. Virtual travelers make eight stops along the way to base camp. At each stop, they can explore panoramic images of valleys and glaciers. After completing the virtual trek, they can compare the size of Himalayan glaciers in the 1920s to the size of those same glaciers today. GlacierWorks’ mission is to document, educate and raise awareness about changes to the glaciers in the Greater Himalaya through art, science and exploration.

Click Here to Visit GlacierWorks Website

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