Instructify

BY REBECCAH HAINES

Do you ever sit around and think to yourself, “Gosh, those people in the government sure don’t know what they’re doing! I could do so much better”? Well, Challenge.gov gives you a chance to take a crack at solving some issues, and even winning prizes.

The premise of the site is to get the public involved as a partner with the government to work on current issues like healthier school lunches, disaster preparedness, and helping the environment. There are tons of challenges you can browse, but here are a few of particular interest to educators:

1. Balloonsat High Altitude Flight Student Competition — This is a challenge for high school students to design a flight experiment or technology demonstration that, if chosen, will be sent to the stratosphere by NASA in a High Altitude Balloon. This competition is almost over, but if students can work quickly, there is still time for a submission.  NASA’s details on the guidelines for the competition can be found here. Submissions due February 11, 2011.
2. Calendar Cover Contest for womenshealth.gov — This challenge requests submissions of art for the 2012 Women’s Health calendar. High school art students may be an appropriate audience for this challenge. Giving students a real-world reason for doing a project usually motivates them to do a good job, and the prize of having nationally published art may just inspire them. Submissions due February 28, 2011.
3. It’s My Environment Video Project — This challenge, sponsored by the EPA, requests 10-second videos of people taking action to help the environment where they live. In your video, you must say or put up a sign that says “It’s My Environment,” and the best of the video submissions will be stitched together into more lengthy compilations. This one would definitely be fun for your students to do! Not only would they be submitting a video for the competition, in order to do so, they’d have to be out in the community serving the environment. Submissions due April 15, 2011.

If none of these current competitions strikes your fancy, keep checking the website. More challenges will be posted as various government agencies come up with problems for which they’d like public input.

Challenge.gov

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BY REBECCAH HAINES

Usually, teachers aren’t known for encouraging students to shout. We tend to be more of a “shush” kind of crowd. However, if you’re going to shout about something, why not make it about solving an environmental issue? While it doesn’t condone disrupting class with loud vocalizations, Shout does encourage students to collaborate and get excited about helping the environment.

Shout provides an online arena for teachers and students to connect with environmental experts, collaborate with people around the world, and share ideas. The central scaffold for learning is called a “Shout.” This year’s theme is “land,” and the first Shout is “Live with the Land.” This Shout was live in November, and like all Shouts, contains three components: Explore, connect, and act. To explore, there are three one-hour sessions from a Smithsonian virtual conference, which are archived and available for viewing. To connect, Shout encourages educators to use the MIcrosoft Partners in Learning Educator’s Network in order to collaborate with other teachers on their effective implementation of the Shout into their classrooms. Finally, to act, students and teachers are encouraged to join TakingItGlobal to collaborate worldwide.

Of course, Shout has a teacher’s guide that gives more specific ideas on how to incorporate Shout into your classroom. Live sessions are planned every three months, with the next session scheduled for January 26, 2011.  This session’s theme will be “Study the Land” featuring the following sessions: A Natural History Approach to Plant Study and Conservation; Climate, Classrooms and Trees; and Charles Darwin in the Islands: Evolution, Adaptation, and Sustaining our Natural Heritage.

In the classroom, I can see several uses for Shout. If you were teaching an AP Environmental Science class for example, and you wanted students to work on some kind of action project, you could send them to Shout to get started. Another use could be with an environmental student club. The site has its first global challenge posted — DeforestACTION. The environmental issue behind this challenge is obviously deforestation, and the challenge to students is to take some kind of local action against deforestation.  To me, this sounds perfect for an after school club project.

If you’re a teacher who wants to develop globally thinking and compassionate students, and especially if you teach environmental science, take a look at SHOUT.  And shout out your joy at having such a well organized site. Just don’t disrupt the math teacher next door.

Shout

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BY BILL FERRIS

This is a last-minute announcement, but it’s worth looking into. The Smithsonian is offering three free, live interactive webcasts Tuesday, November 16 as part of their “Live with the Land” educational event (see below for a schedule).

“Live with the Land” is the first installment of the Smithsonian’s yearlong “Shout” program, presented in conjunction with Microsoft Partners in Learning, TakingITGlobal, and LearningTimes.

The sessions and times are as follows:

Session 1: 1pm EST/6pm GMT, November 16, 2010 (one hour)
“Deer in the Forest: Can There Be Too Much of a Good Thing?” with Dr. Bill McShea, Wildlife Ecologist, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

Session 2: 3pm EST/8pm GMT, November 16, 2010 (one hour)
“Documenting the Reality of Our Landscapes” with Toby Jurovics, Curator of Photography, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Session 3: 9pm EST, November 16, 2010, 2am GMT, November 17, 2010 (one hour)
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BY BILL FERRIS

NASA has published a good deal of evidence of climate change on its Global Climate Change site. What better way to win over the climate-change deniers in your life than by turning to the folks who faked the Apollo moon landing? (I kid, I kid.)

According to NASA:

“Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale. Studying these climate data collected over many years reveal the signals of a changing climate.”

The site features interactive data documenting rising sea levels, an exponential increase in CO₂ in the atmosphere, and global temperature. This is good info your lesson plans, as well as for students doing research on the subject. NASA’s climate change site should be useful to any science or ecology teacher, or anybody who cares about the environment.

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BY REBECCAH HAINES

To you, fall may be exciting due to the return of football, the cooler weather, and the changing foliage.  However, it can also be a season for celebrating science.  Everyone loves a good holiday — a reason to celebrate, let loose, and have some fun.  The following fall science festivals can allow you such an opportunity in your classroom in the upcoming weeks.

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BY KEVIN HODGSON

Although it dominated the headlines during spring and summer, for most students, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a news story far removed from daily lives. Voices on the Gulf, a new social networking site, seeks to find a way to unite students and classrooms from all over to learn more about what happened and the progress of recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast region.

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BY JASON DON FORSYTHE

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BY BILL FERRIS

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BY KEVIN HODGSON

What student doesn’t like to imagine what their life will be like in 25 years? Given the rate of technology advancements, it’s an interesting exercise in imagination to conceive the future. Amy Zuckerman and James Daly (along with illustrator John Manders) do just such an exercise in their picture book 2030: A Day in the Life of Tomorrow’s Kids, a fascinating glimpse into how they envision the world. This is not all fantasy either, as Zuckerman and Daly consulted scientists, engineers, technology experts, and “futurists” about what might be possible in a few decades, given the world as it is right now.

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