SCRATCH This! SCRATCH That!

Scratch is a cool coding site that allows users to create stories, games, and animations from SCRATCH! Once something is created, you can share it with the world, remix it into something even cooler, and create endless possibilities. It is available in 150 + countries and 40 + different languages making it widely accessible.
Designed specifically for ages 8-16, but fun for all ages, Scratch helps to teach coding; which is an important skill in today's society. Learning to code to some degree is essential to literacy as it promotes a higher level of thinking and problem solving. It can be used across all disciplines as there are games and stories about many topics such as weather, Super Mario, history and even Fortnite; all of which is created by the users.  Things are more meaningful if students create it themselves, giving them a sense of accomplishment.

Amazon Smile

Funding is certainly one area of that affects all teachers, students, administrators, communities. Here in the State of Michigan, we were ranked dead last in terms of school funding growth. Per pupil spending has declined 15% in the last 20 years and these numbers don't look any promising anytime soon. This is where Amazon Smile may come in handy as a way to raise money for your local school. Amazon Smile is a simple, automatic, and free way to support any charitable organization every time you shop, including schools. Nothing about Amazon changes in terms of prices, accessibility, etc. The one catch is that whoever wants Amazon to donate a portion of the purchase price to your school of choice should go to AmazonSmile first.

You can access AmazonSmile from the web browser on your computer or mobile device. You can even bookmark it for even easier access. Amazon and AmazonSmile can be accessed using the same account so no need to change your account. Nothing changes. There are tens of millions of products eligible for donations. However, recurring Subscribe-and-Save purchases and subscription renewals are not currently eligible. Once you have determined which organization you'd like to support, you need to select it and it will be remembered automatically and start donations with every single eligible purchase. Also, there is no commitment. If you want to change the organization that receives your donations, that is always an option for you. There are over 1 million eligible 501(c)(3) public charitable organizations to choose from. Once you have established where you want your donations to go, AmazonSmile will begin to donate 0.5% of the purchase price to your charity of choice. This 0.5% includes the purchase of the item minus any rebates and excluding shipping and handling, gift-wrapping fees, taxes, or service charges. Amazon may even offer special promotions increasing the amount. However, the only downside I can see to AmazonSmile is that donations are not tax deductible by you.

I would highly recommend setting up an AmazonSmile account with your school today and seizing the benefits of this great opportunity.

ABCYA

                                                            ABCYA

     ABCYA is another exciting educational web site for kids of K-6+, ABCYA has lots of interesting fun videos that enhances motivation. This fun website has search games that are categorized into age groups and subject matters, and the content categories are split into two main categories and then spilt into subgroups. The main categories are numbers, letters, holiday, strategy and skills, games, and activities are designed to meet the Common Core State Standards Initiative, the site itself is easy to navigate and GUI friendly for both adult and kids.

Vocabahead

Vocabahead is a wonderful site where students can learn new words. The site has lists of words from A-Z for grade levels 6-11. It also has other categories, one serving as SAT prep. This site contains illustrations for the words, as well as audio recordings that are played along with the definition. Not only does the site define and provide imagery for the word, but it also gives at least three sentences that use the word in it. These examples function to show the learner multiple cases that the word takes place. While I was browsing through the lists, I was shocked to see how many complex words were available. Vocabahead can be a cool site for teachers to encourage students to increase their vocabulary beyond the classroom. I could see myself using this site and offering bonus points for any words that are used in assignments that were learned through this site.

Merriam-Webster Games

Did you know the Merriam-Webster site has games on it? I didn’t realize this until recently! Search engines like Google and other elements of technology have eliminated the use of a dictionary in some ways. For instance, I have not touched and opened a dictionary in years. I don’t even own one! Recently, I was searching their site and stumbled on a few of their games. Even for my age, I found them challenging!

Rhymes

This Rhymes website allows the user to search for words and it gives them a brief definition as well as other words that rhyme with it. The words that rhyme with the original one are grouped together based on how many syllables they have, which is pretty cool in my opinion. It’s pretty fun to mess around with it, especially when it has countless words from A-Z and their rhymes.This site can be a great resource to writers who are composing a work such as a poem or song. Rhyme is an important part of our culture and language. Just look at the beloved Dr. Seuss! This site can also expand users’ vocabulary because there are many rhymes that come up that are not commonly used in our day-to-day lives.

E-Learning for Kids

E-Learning for Kids is a great website that offers games and lessons on a variety of topics and course levels. These options are free, which proves to be useful considering a lot of sites charge for subscriptions to use their features. This website can be resourceful for science and math teachers as well as health teachers, which is pretty interesting. The user can even learn about the environment or the category of “life skills.” We could all us some more knowledge on those topics. I like that there is a wide variety of choices for students, so the potential here is grand. You have the option to search for specific lesson topics as well as loading the games sorted by popularity.

INSPIRATIONAL STORIES FOR PURPOSEFUL LIVING

  

            This Blog centers more on approach to educational Technology ( Hardware), it is based on the application of engineering principles for developing electro- mechanical equipment for instructional purposes. Motion pictures, tape recorders, television, teaching machines, computers. It went on to analyze the three aspect of the human knowledge Preservation, Transmission, and Development. PRESERVATION are knowledge preserved the machines in the form of books which are shelved in libraries, tape recorders and films. The TRANSMISSION holds knowledge supported by machine like radio and television. DEVELOPMENT these provisions are made for research work, for collection and analysis of data It also integrates Software Technology Approach which is concerned with teaching objectives in behavioral terms, example are the principle of teaching, methods of teaching, reinforcement of instructional system, feedback, reviews and evaluation. It went on to highlight the major steps in the system approach in education, advantages of systems approach etc.

LINK

Hooked On Phonics: The App

I am a Hooked on Phonics kid. I spent hours and hours leveling up through the various audio, visual, and computer activities of learning how to read through grasping the basics of the phonetic system. I've since grown up, but I'm not alone in my maturation. Hooked on Phonics now includes an app that creates a gateway to more digital content for learners. 

Hooked on Phonics is a method of learning to read that focuses on the sounds that individual letters and syllables make. In the Program there are 8 steps a new reader can level up through from the first stage beginning in pre-K at ages 3-4, up to the final stage concluding in second grade at ages 7-8. Traditionally, the Hooked on Phonics kit came with flashcards, audio tapes, and a CD-ROM for each level. With the introduction of the HoP app, the entire program has become not only more streamlined, but expanded.

The app promises to get children excited about reading with over 100 reading videos and musical reading accompaniments. In addition to these videos, the app boasts almost 300 interactive games for children to apply the knowledge they've gained though the program. The app also gives children and parents access to over 70 eBooks that are fully illustrated. Syncing with all of your devices, whether a phone, tablet or computer, the app it is available at home or on the go.  

Extreme Science

Extreme Science is a website where you can find the most extreme world records in science such as earth science, plant and animal kingdom, weather records, etc. You can also find information on the ocean, space, and time. 

This website also has collections of science and technology resources available to help students with science fair projects as well as lesson plans for teachers. There is a specific tab, “Science Tutors” that acts as a database for information, that would be a great tool for students to use if needed while writing an essay. Another great tool found on Extreme Science are different types of science calculators. 

This website is concise and enthusiastically written to help students and teachers. It also provides a guide to build your own website, which students and teachers can use to portray information learned from Extreme Science.

http://www.extremescience.com

Science Channel

Science Channel provides many videos online for students to learn all things science. Their shows include, How It’s Made, How the Universe Works, MythBusters, Secrets of the Lost, Space’s Deepest Secrets, What on Earth? to name a few.

The website provides full episodes, as well as an option to watch shows live. There is also a schedule provided to keep track of what comes in the future. 

There is also a tab for Science Super Heroes, which is a celebration of the channel’s 20th anniversary. It recognizes people in the community that make a difference by applying science. Here, you can nominate, mentor, donate, and check out past winners. 

This website is awesome for interesting videos to apply to lessons. You can easily skip through to show short snippets, or the whole episode. The Science Super Heroes is a great way to stay up to date with amazing people helping improve their communities. 

sciencechannel.com

Hewitt drew it

I’m a high school physics teacher, and I want to tell about Paul G Hewitt.  When I started teaching physics, we used a textbook he authored. As I got familiar with the book, I liked how it communicated ideas.  I looked for more resources by Paul G Hewitt. He has really done a lot to help the communication, understanding, and relatability of people to the topic of physics and has many types of resources out there.  One of his resources is Hewitt drew-it, which is a part of his website that takes many different key ideas in physics, and talks about it in a short video that he has made.  These videos are usually between 5 and 10 minutes and use simple drawings, easy examples, and understandable words to communicate the idea.  Hewitt is quite a character, and artist, which I think adds to his ability to connect and communicate. He is very good at taking an idea, breaking it down, and promoting understanding by illustrating and explaining the concept in a simpler way.

I will link these to my iLearn page or even show them in class.  I’m always trying to give my students many different types of resources and these videos are a great example  They are another option and perspective for my students to hear the material. Maybe the way I talked about it or showed it just didn't’ settle with them.  Maybe they didn’t quite understand how an activity worked or what they were doing. These videos can provide another opportunity to understand the idea and another opportunity to help communication.

Fidget with applets

A wonderful resource I often utilize with my students is a website called simbucket.  They have a lot of interactive applets (called simulations) and videos that are great for communicating an idea another way.  Sometimes it’s hard for a student to picture what’s happening, understand how or why things interact, or a major idea if they cannot see/feel/hear it directly.  The applets help make ideas simpler to see, interact with, and understand. From the home page, you can search for material by subject (tabs just below on the right), or click the simulations tab and browse the many interactive applets available.

You could spend a lot of time investigating what is on this website and how you could use it, but I want to quickly point out two (of many) that have been useful to me.  When we talk about lenses and mirrors, that may seem like something students are familiar with and can interact with, but there are actually so many cases, situations, and zones to consider, that it’s very hard for them to see possibilities of each.  Using their lens and mirror applet allows students to see each of these cases, change the setup, and see how the construction of an image changes live.  It helps students see patterns and understand situations much better.

The other applet I find very helpful is for circuits and electricity.  Circuits are visible, but electricity and how it works is invisible, and if you do something wrong, you can have a bad interaction.  The DC circuit builder applet allows students to build different types of circuits, see what works and what doesn’t, what positive or negative effects changes can make, and why.  Again, turning something invisible, dangerous, and probably confusing, into something understandable.

FARM Science Lab

The FARM Science Lab is a mobile classroom packed with different STEM lessons and equipment to emphasize the importance of agriculture in today's world. The FARM Science Lab provides teachers and students with a refreshing and novel way to experience the impact of agriculture without having to take an actual field trip (especially if there isn't a farm within driving distance of a school in Michigan). The lab also provides lesson plans to teachers which are in-line with NGSS to continue to bolster an inquiry-based curriculum which fosters student engagement and critical thought. Additionally, by exposing kids to agriculture at an early age, we can begin to introduce the career possibilities associated with the agricultural field.

PhET Simulations

The University of Colorado - Boulder has a website completely populated with science simulations called PhET, and they are amazing. Simulation content ranges from physics and biology, to chemistry and math, and the simulations are not only incredibly accurate, but they are fun as well. For example, the simulation titled John Travoltage teaches students about the buildup of static electricity with a visualization of the transfer of electrons between objects, as well as how different charges interact with each other. Teaching science can be difficult especially when it comes to younger students, as visualizing an abstract phenomenon can be difficult for some students, but through playing around with a visual simulation of that phenomenon, the information can be presented to students in an engaging format. I would highly, highly recommend the inclusion of various PhET activities in any science classroom, but specifically at the middle school and early high school levels.

National Video Game Challenge

The National STEM Video Game Challenge is an annual competition that students grades 5-8 can compete in. Students design a video game and submit their final product to the committee using a written design document, a free platform playable game (Scratch, Game Maker, Prototype, Unity, etc), or an open platform playable game (Flash, RPG Maker, Game Salad, Stagecast Creator). These designs are then reviewed by the judging committee and the winners in each category are announced a few months after the submissions are due. Winning group members get $1,000 and a lifetime subscription to GameStar Mechanics.
This would be a great resource for middle school teachers to use to show students how what they have been learning in school can be applied to a potential future career for them and expose them to new ideas of what they might be interested in for the future. Designing this video game requires students to think about systems, problem solve, collaborate with others, practice communication, and computer design and computational thinking. These are all skills that are necessary for people entering STEM fields to have and it is great for students to begin building these skills while still young.
 http://stemchallenge.org/about/challenge-rules/

Make a Rube Goldberg Machine

Rube Goldberg machines are machines that perform a certain task by using chain reactions. There are many different ways to build Rube Goldberg machines which is great because it leaves students room to explore and make each project different from another one. This is a great STEM project because it incorporates science, technology, engineering and math. Students must perform trials to test their hypothesis, and retest them to improve what they think will work to perform the task. They must also plan out how far each object in their chain reaction can be from each other and how exactly to build it to perform it's task most effectively.
When introducing this project students should watch a video of a Rube Goldberg machine in action to build excitement for what they are doing and then be introduced to the problem their machine will be solving. These problems could include:

• Pop a balloon
• Blow out a candle
• Close a door
• Water a plant
• Crack an egg

Students can use ramps, drops, swinging objects or basically anything else they can imagine to build their machine.The awesome thing about this project is students can use almost any materials to build their machines so it does not have to be too costly if students choose materials that are already available or cheap to purchase. These machines are very neat to see in action but work best with older students. These students will love solving problems with their simple machines and will learn a lot from this activity.

https://tinkerlab.com/engineering-kids-rube-goldberg-machine/

Trivia Crack

Trivia Crack is a mobile app that user can compete against other users across the world. Each player is given a question from six categories including; Entertainment, Art, Science, Sports, Geography, and History. When you start you will receive a total of five lives meaning you can start five different games and then will receive more after a given time on a timer. To begin your turn you will be asked to play with a friend or random opponent. Then you will spin a wheel that will determine what category the user will receive. The user then will have 20 seconds to answer the question the best to their general knowledge out of the four given choices. To win the game the first user to get all of the cartoon looking character wins. This game is fun way to test you knowledge and teachers can use this app in the classroom as fun way to have students maybe learn something that they don’t know already. Some of the questions can relate to things inside the classroom and some are things that the students learn from outside the classroom. I find this game to be  fun and entertaining and would recommend this to teachers and friends.

 

Gameful Learning Pedagogy and Gradecraft

Having become familiar with the Gradecraft platform for the purposes of this course, I started to ask myself if I really know the true benefits of using gameful learning as a pedagogical approach in my future classroom?

Gameful leaning is a pedagogical approach that takes inspiration from good games function and applies that to the design of learning environments. Gameful design operates in a self-deterministic framework to intrinsically motivate students. In order to move towards accomplishing this theory, student autonomy, solid learning objectives, and proper feedback, the freedom to fail, and transparency must be goals set.

Student autonomy can sometimes be underlooked in educational practices, but students need to have some control over their learning environment. It is suggested that students should be able to make decisions of how they will earn 50% of the points they need to get an A. So if you establish a design where students need 10,000 points to get an A, then 5,000 might come from assignments you ask everyone to complete and 5,000 from assignments

Feedback is highly encouraged by instructors and to give it to students as quickly as possible. Descriptive feedback is also as important and platforms such as Gradecraft are working to provide a variety of tools to support this.

Freedom to fail can seem like a scary concept for students, but we as educators should always encourage students to take risks and try things. Working hard, practicing over and over again, failing miserably. Sounds scary, right?! However, if we structure learning opportunities to be flexible and non-competitive, students will enjoy the experience and make it meaningful.

Transparency is truly the only way a system like this would work and in order to have transparency, instructors should have their assignments designed and ready to go right from the beginning. There are also no grading curves. Just as in games, you don't get points "extra points". Students need to be able to know that whatever points they earn maps directly to the grade they'll get.

A gameful learning pedagogy is a practice that I highly recommend that sets the bar high for students and motivates them to succeed and create high-quality work.

Reference: Gameful Pedagogy: Motivation First Pedagogy. (2018). The University of Michigan Office of Academic Innovation. Retrieved: http://www.gamefulpedagogy.com/

Mathway

Mathway is one of the most useful free calculator websites/apps that offers instant answers to the users most complex math equations. The website practically solves anything from basic math problems, geometry,algebra to more complex calculus equations and trigonometry. Developed by Mathway LLC, this app is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

 

The free version only gives the answers, but a subscription will give step-by-step solutions to problems in a wide variety of math types. It is a highly recommended app for all students who are struggling with math problems. An excellent topic glossary and intuitive interface make for straightforward use.

 

 

PhET

https://phet.colorado.edu/

PhET is a website that contains FREE interactive math and science simulations for all ages. The project is run by the University of Colorado Boulder. These simulations help students understand concepts with ZERO cost! These simulations are great when you do not have a proper setting for chemical experiments or these is no budget for lab materials. I have used these in my classroom for many years and they keep adding new simulations. The simulations are easy to manipulate. They also have accompanying g teacher resources which range from slide shows to worksheets to guided lab inquiries and some even included quizzes.