Archives: New on the website

Looking for a creative way to teach fluid dynamics concepts in your middle school math or science class? Three hands-on, inquiry-based lesson plans addressing this topic have been published in the unit “A mathematical model to describe fluid behavior” This unit is provided by the Kenan Fellows program.

Students delve into the topic of natural frequency by observing and calculating oscillations of pine trees and dowel rods. They also work with the formula for frequency and discover applications for irrational numbers in the real world using data collected during the activities.

In another lesson, exploration of the radii of vessels in leaves introduces students to Murray’s law (the equation that models an efficient fluid transport system). Throughout this activity, students become familiar with cubes and cube roots.

Finally, students learn about density, viscosity, and the Reynolds Number. Active inquiry engages students in the concept of viscosity and the various ways we encounter it in our daily lives. They also learn how to find the Reynolds Number of a fluid and how to use it effectively in a scale model to better understand real-world phenomena.

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve updated the curriculum guide “Teaching About North Carolina American Indians.” The guide, which was made possible by a grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, now includes a chapter about each of the eight state-recognized Indian tribes in North Carolina.

The curriculum guide consists of culturally appropriate, tribally-approved information on the Coharie Indian Tribe, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe, Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, Meherrin Indian Tribe, Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, Sappony, and Waccamaw Siouan Tribe.

Resources include best practices for teaching about American Indians, suggestions for curriculum integration, historic and contemporary visual resources, and lesson plans.

Learn more at the LEARN NC fall conference

In conjunction with the publication of this unprecedented collection of instructional materials, we’ll host a related session at the LEARN NC 2011 Fall Interactive Conference on November 7.

At 1:40 pm, Randi R. Byrd and Claire Morrow will discuss the curriculum guide on teaching about American Indians in North Carolina. Randi Byrd (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) is the Program Assistant at UNC’s American Indian Center and Claire Morrow (Meherrin Tribe) is a Curriculum Project Advisory Committee Member and Educator. Conference participants will have an opportunity to ask questions and share insights during a question-and-answer period.

For more details on this session, see the conference agenda page.

We’ve just launched a new blog, The Well: Carolina Research for Your Classroom. The Well shares recent education research paired with practical tips you can use in your classroom tomorrow.

Our first posts include:

• “Don’t Be Afraid to Play,” a look at how video games can promote higher-order thinking, increase the positivity of a learning environment, and decrease achievement gaps.
• “Struggling in Silence,” which provides insights on how to understand and teach struggling adolescent readers.

We’ll add new posts each week, so stop back and see what’s new!

We’re pleased to report that we’ve just published Mandarin Chinese AP, an advanced-level digital textbook for secondary students of the Mandarin language. This freely-available advanced textbook is the final edition in a series of digital Mandarin textbooks:

• Mandarin I
• Mandarin II
• Mandarin III
• Mandarin IV

Mandarin AP is designed to help students synthesize the skills they’ve acquired in the four previous courses and expand their knowledge of the Chinese language and culture. The four chapters in this online textbook cover a variety of interesting topics including sports, foreign travel, literary figures, ancient characters, and film.

All five textbooks feature video vignettes that introduce new language and culture. Each vignette is accompanied by a transcript and vocabulary list that presents both the traditional and simplified versions of the language. The textbooks also include a clickable audio link for each line of the vocabulary, making it possible to hear expressions and individual words as often as students like. All video and audio can easily be downloaded to a portable device or personal computer.

The textbooks were produced in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the North Carolina Virtual Public School and were developed as content for online courses funded by a Foreign Language Assistance Program grant from the U.S. Government. For more information, including the recently published digital Arabic I textbook, see LEARN NC’s critical languages page.

We’ve just published Mandarin Chinese IV, the latest in a series of digital textbooks designed for the study of Mandarin Chinese language. This freely available honors-level textbook builds on the foundations established in Mandarin I, Mandarin II, and Mandarin III.

Mandarin Chinese IV expands upon the theme to “think globally and live locally” and provides the user with opportunities to expand Chinese listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills with short literary texts, authentic materials, and media on topics such as pollution, economic issues, and world population concerns. Chinese characters are presented in traditional and simplified forms.

All four textbooks feature video vignettes that introduce new language and culture. Each vignette is accompanied by a transcript and vocabulary list that presents both the traditional and simplified versions of the language. The design also includes a clickable audio link for each line of the vocabulary, making it possible to hear expressions and individual words as often as you like. All video and audio can easily be downloaded to a portable device or to your computer.

The textbooks were produced in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the North Carolina Virtual Public School and were developed as content for online courses funded by a Foreign Language Assistance Program grant from the U.S. Government. For more information, including the recently published digital Arabic I textbook, see LEARN NC’s critical languages page.

We’ve just published the eighth and final article in our series about differentiated instruction. In “The Power of Nonfiction: Using Informational Text to Support Literacy in Special Populations,” author Joan Barnatt presents the idea that informational texts, rather than fictional literature, may better help students develop literacy skills — particularly for English language learners, at-risk students, and students with learning disabilities.

Please join us on Tuesday, April 26, for the final web conference in this series. Article author Joan Barnatt and veteran teacher Paul Niles will be with us to discuss teaching with informational texts as an effective differentiation practice. Participants will have ample opportunities to have their questions answered by the presenters. Registration is open and space is still available. See the differentiation web conferences page for more information and to register.

The archive from our most recent web conference on differentiated instruction is now available. This interactive session featured Dr. Bobby Hobgood, author of the article “Inclusion in the 21st-Century Classroom: Differentiating with Technology,” and sixth-grade teacher Becky Goddard. The presenters addressed research-based best practices in using technology to differentiate instruction.

Our next web conference, on April 4, will focus on the article “Using Knowledge of Student Cognition to Differentiate Instruction,” by Dr. Silvana Watson and Dr. Robert Gable. The conference is free and space is still available, but registration is required. See the differentiation web conferences page for more details and to register.

We’ve just published the seventh article in our ongoing series about differentiation. In “Using Knowledge of Student Cognition to Differentiate Instruction,” authors Silvana Watson and Robert Gable discuss the concept of working memory and list twenty concrete strategies for improving how students acquire, retain, and retrieve knowledge.

On Monday, April 4, we’ll host a web conference in which participants can bring their questions about using knowledge of student cognition to differentiate instruction. Registration is open and space is still available. See the differentiation web conferences page for more information and to register.

We’ve just published the sixth article in our ongoing series about differentiation. In “Inclusion in the 21st-Century Classroom: Differentiating with Technology,” authors Bobby Hobgood and Lauren Ormsby offer a variety of strategies for integrating technology into differentiated instruction.

The article includes videos illustrating how tech-savvy teachers differentiate by content, process, product, and learning environment, as well as a screen-capture demonstration and a feature about a gifted classroom that uses virtual worlds to contend with real-world problems.

On Monday, March 7, we’ll host a web conference in which participants can bring their questions about using technology to differentiate instruction. Registration is open and space is still available. See the differentiation web conferences page for more information and to register.