My Addled Brain Learns Math & Science

Research continues to show that boys and girls learn differently.  Taken from scans of the brain, girl's brains--the hippocampus and Cerebral Cortex in particular--generally devote higher functioning to verbal and memory skills.  Boy's brains are dedicate more towards spatial and mechanic functioning.  

Without making gross over-generalizations, I am beginning to believe in this day and age of smartphones, HD gaming, and access to other technology, the gap between how the brain functions across genders is decreasing.  I continue to observe, however, differences between how boys and girls function and learn in school settings and work on developing a variety of tactics to engage the student with whom I work.

With this in mind, I have been asked more and more to find resources for STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) instruction and classes, particularly for students who are "reluctant" scientists or mathematicians.  Here are some interesting ones:

1. The Science of Football--From NBCLearn, this site uses videos to discuss physics and math as it relates to football.  Excellent visuals for understanding.
2. Exploratiorium's Sport Science--Site has a wide variety of resources and lessons that deal the the math and science of sports.  Most sports have some representation here as well...Go Sk8trs!
3. MLB Vision--Awesome video dealing the calculations, reaction time and vision needed to hit a 90-mile-an-hour fastball.  
4. The Science of Hockey--From NBCLearn, this collection of videos discusses math and science as it relates to hockey.
5. Mathematics in Sports--Great, higher-level site that deals with a variety of aspects of math in sports--how to make the best football or tennis racket, the power of the right swimming suit...

I have to admit Math and Science (notice the capital letters) are not my forte, but I find them entirely interesting.  Combined with a true passion (sports), the ability to visualize how all these things come together makes science riveting!

Some other suggestions:

• Use fantasy sports to teach math concepts like averages, basic math functions
• Use bowling to teach math (elementary)
• Use pool to teach about geometry and possibly some trig
• Use sports to teach statistics (Moneyball)

I would certainly have retained much more math and science learning it this way.

Evolution, Revolution or Convolution?

As the school year winds down, I am finally catching up on reading print subscriptions (yes...print...painful but necessary?) to a variety of library and professional educator magazines.  I came across this article in Scholastic Administrator yesterday.  It's just a "skimmer" article but poses some interesting questions and options for future classroom content.

Scholastic, Spring 2012

IBooks Author is slowly changing the way we operate.  Gone are the days of asking your friendly, local media specialist if you can copy chapters, short stories, poems, articles from various sources and put them into your own class "textbook".  With iAuthor (my term), teachers can make their own, entirely interactive, textbook with videos, links, etc...viewable entirely on the iPad (or computer).  Textbook companies, like Houghton Mifflin, McGraw-Hill and Pearson, are quickly working to use this new tool as well.  They are offering textbooks at a greatly reduced $14.99!  Quite a bit different than the $60+ for print versions.

I will be the first to admit there are some serious limitations to iBook Author...licensing and proprietary software being the main concern.  Apple is awesomely proprietary and doesn't play well with others...no Windows version of iBooks Author, created textbooks are viewable only in iBooks on the iPad (which means you need to buy iPads, etc...

However, creating your own textbooks is a great idea.  There are other options as well.  Five distinct FREE possibilities:

1. Use Diigo or Delicious to bookmark sites and resources (articles online,...) for your classes.  Create a stack of materials and share these resources with your classes.
2. Use Livebinders to collect all your materials into an online "3-ring" binder...tabbed and organized.  Livebinder is awesomely easy to use.
3. Aggregate your resources with Google Sites or a wiki site.  I prefer Google sites because they are easy, included with our Google Apps for Education accounts, and integrate videos and gadgets well.
4. Use course software (Edmodo,...) to collect resources and create online, blended classes.
5. Use a blog, like this one, to collect resources and share content and ideas!

The important concept is finding delivery methods that meet the needs of our students for timely, relevant and meaningful learning and engagement.  

They are ready...are we?

Children's Book Apps

In my wanderings through apps today for staff development, I discovered an excellent site, Digital Storytime, that lists and reviews a large collection of children's book apps for iPad.

The books, available through the App Store, range in price (free to $4.99), are relatively diverse, and have a small file size (19MB on average).  To my great excitement (being a librarian and CHEAP), searching for the free ones (around 45) is easy.

I downloaded 20 free books for the amusement of my 4 and 6 year-olds for "travel time" or basketball tournaments.

Hope you enjoy.

Sometimes I Forget

I saw a woman reading a book at a baseball game on Sunday.  My first thought was "she should get a Kindle" as I sat reading my iPad next to her.

Then on Monday, during a meeting at UW-Oshkosh...

My phone died...didn't keep it's charge.

My Chromebook died...I forgot to plug it in.

I took notes using a pad of paper and a pen.  Yes...hard for me to believe as well.

Today, I realized I can't read my own writing and tossed the notes out.

Perhaps Lane Smith has it right?

(Special thanks to the Dodgeland teacher for sharing this video)

Earth Day Resources

Just a couple of quick Earth Day Resources:

Earth Day and All Days: 10 Ways to Learn About the Environment

The Best Earth Day Sites by Larry Ferazzo