Archives: In the news

UNC School of Education Dean Bill McDiarmid addresses the impact of poverty on student learning outcomes in a guest column in the Dec. 14 edition of the Raleigh News & Observer. In the article, he explores data that describe a relationship between student poverty levels and schools’ performance. He explains that more research is needed to find “ways to support our most vulnerable children.”

The article was originally published in The Carolina Slate‘s Fall 2011 edition.

The Outreach Center of Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies is offering a free webinar for teachers, featuring educator-created resources and lessons plans for teaching about September 11 in 5th- through 12th-grade classrooms.

The one-hour webinar, entitled “Responding to the 10th Anniversary of 9/11 in the Classroom,” is scheduled for August 25th and will begin at 7 pm EDT. Presentations and discussions will take place entirely online, using an Elluminate virtual classroom. This platform runs through Java, and does not require any downloading of additional software.

For more information and to register, see the webinar description on the Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies website.

Teaching contemporary history can pose a variety of challenges, particularly when teaching the history of a traumatic event like the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

In preparation for the tenth anniversary of the attacks, the National Museum of American History, National September 11 Memorial & Museum, Pentagon Memorial Fund, and Flight 93 National Memorial recently offered an online conference for K-12 teachers. The conference included roundtable discussions with content experts and six workshop sessions that shared strategies, ideas, and resources, and encouraged conversations on how to document, preserve, and interpret recent history and current events.

Teachers can now access archived sessions from the conference, along with K-12 lessons and activities from each organization and background information on September 11.

On Saturday, the News and Observer reported that archaeologists had successfully recovered a 3000-pound anchor from the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the ship intentionally grounded by the pirate Blackbeard in 1718.

For those students inspired by this incredible feat, or generally affected by pirate mania, we encourage you to share Nicholas Graham’s article “The Life and Death of Blackbeard the Pirate,” which appears in the colonial module of the North Carolina Digital History textbook. The article draws this description of the notorious pirate from a 1726 book about pirates:

In Time of Action, he wore a sling over his Shoulders, with three Brace of Pistols, hanging in Holsters like Bandaliers; and stuck lighted Matches under his Hat, which appearing on each Side of his Face, his Eyes naturally looking fierce and wild, made him altogether such a Figure, that Imagination cannot form an Idea of a Fury, from Hell, to look more frightful.

That description, along with the article’s account of the harrowing firefight that led to Blackbeard’s demise, is sure to satisfy even the most die-hard pirate aficionado. (And for those hungry for still more, you can browse our collection for other Blackbeard-related resources.)

This week is Banned Books Week, a celebration established by the American Library Association in 1982 which draws attention to the benefits of the free and open exchange of information.  Check out our Banned Books Week Guide for links to websites, lesson plans, and articles to help you celebrate intellectual freedom with your students this week and all year long.

Today is the first day of National Hispanic Heritage Month, the 30-day period from September 15 to October 15 when Americans celebrate the contributions of Americans whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.  LEARN NC has published several resources and collected links from around the web to help you honor these Americans, including your students of Hispanic descent.

Connecting with Latino students and families

• Bridging Spanish Language Barriers in Southern Schools is a collection of articles that help teachers understand their Latino students’ cultural background and educational expectations, as well as exploring the administrative challenges inherent in binational education and providing strategies to help teachers meet the needs of all of their students.
• In the lesson plan Spanish and Hispanic English in North Carolina, students learn about the Hispanic English dialect by examining audio and video recordings.
• LEARN NC’s English Language Learners guide provides links to a variety of resources for teachers and administrators working with students with limited English proficiency.
• The Latino Immigration page in our North Carolina Digital History Textbook offers a snapshot of North Carolina’s Latino community, the fastest growing Latino population in the country.
• Voices from the Latino Community in North Carolina is a digital oral history archive including interviews of thirteen individuals from eight different Spanish-speaking countries.  The site helps students gain an understanding of the immigrant experience and practice the Spanish language.
• The Barahona Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents provides lists of books in English about Latinos as well as Spanish-language sing-alongs, magazines, and websites, and Spanish translations of Caldecott and Newbery Medal Winners.
• Education Resources for Spanish Speakers provides assistance for parents who wish to help their children with homework or use the library, as well as information about No Child Left Behind, economic aid, and services for ESL students.

Understanding history and celebrating culture

• The lesson plan And Justice for All: The Trail of Tears, Mexican Deportation, and Japanese Internment draws connections between these three legally-sanctioned forced relocations, introducing students to the displacement of ethnic minorities.
• LEARN NC’s South America guide collects links to several resources for students and teachers studying the continent, including lesson plans about bullfighting and weaving and slide shows about the textile and chocolate industries.
• The Changing Face of Mexico is a multimedia resource consisting of four units about Mexican culture, past and present, including historical information and classroom activities.
• In the lesson plan Opening an Hispanic Restaurant, students conduct research as they create an authentic menu and recipe books, learning vocabulary related to food, restaurants, and menus.
• The Smithsonian Institute’s website Textiles of the North American Southwest explores traditional weaving practices of the American Indian and Hispanic residents of Mexico and the United States.
• The ARTSEDGE lesson plan Five Artists of the Mexican Revolution asks students to research the Mexican War of Independence and the Mexican Revolution, and explore the relationship between art and history.
• Students can learn about corridos, traditional Mexican ballads, through the ARTSEDGE unit The Music & Meaning of Mexican Corridos and the Smithsonian Institution’s online exhibit, Corridos Sin Fronteras.

How will you celebrate? Share your plans for Hispanic Heritage Month with us in the comments!

This weekend marks the beginning of the 2010 North Carolina Science Festival, a celebration of science with over 250 events across the state.  Join the celebration by using these LEARN NC science resources in your classroom.

Recently published science lessons

This summer, we published several science units and lessons provided by the Kenan Fellows Program at NC State, as well as a few lessons about energy use in the United States.

For elementary schools

• Invention Convention is an interdisciplinary unit in which students design an invention using their prior knowledge of magnetism and electricity, as well as utilizing non-fiction writing skills and principles of design.
• BioMusic introduces students to the relationship between biology and music, including animal communication and the mechanics of sound.
• In I’m on a Diet and Proud of It: Nutrition through Math and Science, students learn that diet is a multi-faceted concept and explore basic concepts of food and nutrition.
• In The Earth and Sun: Investigations for the Third Grade, students gain an understanding of the relationship between the Earth and the Sun and how this produces effects such as shadows and the day/night cycle.

For middle schools

• Critical Thinking in Science is an inquiry-based unit leading students through the scientific process as they develop and utilize critical thinking skills.
• In Biomanufacturing: An Inquiry Lesson in Growing Cells, students investigate cell growth and its uses in the pharmaceutical industry.

For high schools

• Why Does Chemistry Matter in My Life? addresses students’ questions about the relevance of chemistry to their everyday lives. It introduces students to topics such as nanotechnology, stoichiometry, and alternative energy.
• In Who Has Seen the Wind? Harnessing Alternative Energy, students investigate the production of wind energy and the economic and social factors which make a site desirable or undesirable as a wind turbine site.
• Rising Tides: Climate Change and the Sea requires students to conduct independent research to understand the connection between climate change and sea level rise.
• In Understanding Data Mining: Extracting, Organizing, and Analyzing Large Sets of Data, Algebra I students learn to extract information from large sets of data across multiple disciplines. They then analyze the data and use their findings to make predictions and solve problems.

Going deeper

Investigate a particular area of science in depth with our guides to these topics:

• Animal Adaptations
• Focus on Planet Earth
• Astronomy
• Water and Weather
• Plants and Trees

If you’re looking for something specific, search our collection. We have over 1800 science resources included text, images, audio, and video.

Don’t forget to check out the NC Science Festival schedule to find activities, workshops, lectures, exhibits, and more in your area!

With hurricane coverage dominating the news, September is an excellent time to take advantage of students’ curiosity about this powerful natural phenomenon. LEARN NC features a variety of resources — from our own site and around the web — to support your instruction.  Here are some highlights:

• Nature’s Fury: Hurricanes, from National Geographic, explains the science behind hurricanes through text, images, and video.
• Graveyard of the Atlantic, from LEARN NC’s North Carolina Digital History Textbook and The Hurricane of ’38, from PBS, provide a historical perspective on how hurricanes have affected Americans.
• The lesson plans Coastal Weather Issues: Planning for a Hurricane and Hurricane Response: What Do We Do First? ask students to take on the roles of emergency management team members and community leaders and create a plan of action for their community as it faces the threat of a hurricane.
• Hurricanes on Sandy Shorelines is a virtual field trip to the North Carolina beaches in which students explore hurricane formation and how hurricanes affect the sand sharing system on North Carolina’s barrier islands.

In addition, our North Carolina Digital History Textbook devotes an entire chapter to Hurricane Floyd, which devastated North Carolina’s coast in 1999. The chapter’s fourteen pages address the issue of hurricanes from multiple perspectives, including:

• scientific topics such as How does a hurricane form?
• geographical information such as Mapping rainfall and flooding
• economic concerns such as Floyd and agriculture
• social issues such as The problems of flood relief

Check out this guide for more of our best resources for teaching about hurricanes. You can also browse all of our hurricane-related content to find relevant images, slide shows, videos, and lesson plans.

Chinese language courses have become a lot more popular in North Carolina. The supply of instructors, however, isn’t keeping up with this demand. The Asia Society has released “Meeting the Challenge: Preparing Chinese Language Teachers for American Schools,” a report on addressing the growing call for Chinese language instruction in the U.S.

The report discusses recommendations for states, schools, and universities who wish to bolster the number and effectiveness of Chinese language teachers in America. In discussing what is currently being done, “Meeting the Challenge” also mentions LEARN NC’s work in developing the North Carolina Virtual Public School’s Mandarin online courses and digital textbooks.

The recent economic turmoil in the European Union has thrown some of the world’s major economic powers into a state of anxious uncertainty. Helping your high school students make sense of these developments requires an understanding of the economic structure and policies at the heart of the EU — a topic that may not be covered by your textbook.

The Center for European Studies and the European Union Center of Excellence at UNC-Chapel Hill have developed Euro Economics, an online textbook introducing the economics of the EU to high school students and their teachers. The textbook is offered free to all students and can be used without registration or permission.

Euro Economics affords teachers a worthwhile resource on a safe site to offer to students interested in learning more about economics and contemporary Europe. It provides a solid, up-to-date perspective on a quickly changing region — a feat that can’t be matched by any print textbook. Best of all, it encourages active exploration at a depth and breadth controlled by the student.

If you’re teaching Europe, Euro Economics can help you fill in gaps with in-depth information. If you teach Civics and Economics or economics electives, it can provide a case study for comparison with the United States. Whatever you’re teaching, Euro Economics can serve as a way to experiment with digital texts for teaching and learning, as well as a way to understand and respond to current events.

For more information, contact the Center for European Studies and the European Union Center of Excellence at UNC-Chapel Hill.