Discovery News: Earth, Space, Tech, Animals, Dinosaurs, History.
Read all about it. This is a great channel from the Discovery Channel bringing news about science, technology & human history. There’s great reading here and food for thought that can spark real interest, discussion and more learning. Beats includes space, archeology, humans, earth, history, technology & animals, including dinosaurs.
AMERICAN MASTERS: JOAN BAEZ: HOW SWEET THE SOUND Thirteen.org’s EdOnline is still highlighting Joan Baez which premiered on television in October. For learning about the 1960’s, there are some excellent resources here. Lessons plans, that tie-in with the Joan Baez video include:
The 1960s: Youthful Optimism, Activism, and Joan Baez
Vietnam Passage Journeys from War to Peace
Stumbling around the Internet earlier this year I came upon a class blog, Write Out Loud, where students discussed what they learned about this tumultuous decade in a 7th grade English Class. It’s truly interesting reading the comments from today’s students. Being a teenager in school at that time, it’s humbling and fascinating to look back and realize that you, too, have an historic voice, small though it might be. Through the technological miracles of the, television, and a free press, you were there. Some of my friends who are a bit older were videotaped; and my mother actually attended SUNY Stony Brook NY which also erupted in violence.
iEARN – International Education & Resource Network – is one network that actively works to provide frameworks for global communication.
Melinda Galbraith at NECC 2009
I met Melinda Galbraith at 2009 NECC presenting information about iEARN and their global initiatives for student interaction and professional development. There are wonderful opportunities for international collaboration and building multicultural understandings through various disciplines. They have several active projects.This is from their most recent email update.
A join
t project of Discovery Education & WM Waste Management, Think Green has a very comprehensive set of resources for K-8 classrooms, and some for 9-12 as well, online. Included are lesson plans, hands-on activities, videos, interactive activities and some great classroom display materials. All of these are free, and no registration is required.
The interactive activity, Energy Consumption has links to worksheets, explains BTU’s and students calculate and compare costs of using different fuels and insulation to heat and cool a home in San Francisco, Dallas and Minnesota. There are many activities linked to this interactive.
Future Power includes a virtual lab. Links to videos and articles are embedded in the activity. Students compare the costs and CO2 emissions of natural gas and coal mixtures. Unfortunately the lab doesn’t include other fuel options, but perhaps students can investigate those as well. It is still a very useful activity and challenges students to plan, experiment and report their findings.
How to Light Up a Room is another virtual lab that studies the effect of different window coverings on temperature. Students can run the experiments, compare and chart data.
Power Up is a fairly simple interactive activity where students complete a pie chart that identifies how much electrical energy is provided by different fuel sources in the US. Written information is provided for each source (grades 5 +). Mineral Resources – Recycling Aluminum is a one-session interactive good for lower grades.
Overall this is an exceptional collection of resources that can used to enrich learning in science and other disciplines.
400 years ago, under the Dutch flag, Henry Hudson sailed into the river, known to the Lenape Indians as the Muhheakantuck, the River that Flows Two Ways.
From Ian Chadwick’s website about Henry Hudson [http://www.ianchadwick.com/hudson/hudson_03.htm], this an excerpt of September 1609’s voyage:
- 11: Hudson sailed through the Narrows and anchored in New York Bay. The first night he anchored off the northern tip of Manhattan.
- 12: A flotilla of 28 canoes, filled with men, women and children approached, but, Juet wrote, “we saw the intent of their treachery and would not allow any of them to come aboard.” However, the crew bought food from them. Hudson noted the natives used copper in their pipes and inferred there was a natural source nearby.
- 13: The crew traded for oysters with the Native Americans; the ship was near today’s Yonkers.
There are many quadricentennial celebrations and exhibits underway to mark this event. Some great gateways to explore stories and information about this are the Henry Hudson 400 web site home, with an interactive map filled with archival historical maps and links for more data, and Explore NY 400, a very comprehensive site dedicated to celebrating New York’s 400th year.
What did the native Lenape Indians eat? Check out Garden Lab’s Lenape Edible Estate, which was created for the Hudson Guild and is located at 441 West 26th Street at 10th Avenue, New York, NY. This Monday, September 14th, there is a free, family Harvest Opening event from 6:00 – 8:30 PM featuring harvest activities, interpretive garden tours, native foods cooking demonstrations with field-to-fork food education program Growing Chefs, and other food demonstrations with Hot Bread Kitchen. On the website you’ll find pictures of the plants, the garden layout and lists of all the plants in the garden.
One of the more remarkable projects is The Manahatta Project. After 10 years of diligent, hard work the team, headed by Dr. Eric Sanderson, unveiled a website that details what Manhattan was like in 1609.
I had the good fortune to learn about his project at Teaching the Hudson Valley’s summer institute in July of 2008. It is truly a remarkable piece of well researched science and technology. The effort began with a very detailed British Army Survey Map from 1692. Using a sophisticated matrix of species and environmental conditions, scientists developed a ‘Muir Web’ of the likely flora and fauna for every inch of 1609 Manhattan. They estimate that there were 55 distinct ecological community type. To get started,you’ll need to type in an address. Blocks are highlighted and clicking on one brings up another window with detailed information about the probable wildlife, plants, Lenape usage and landscape together with a photograph depicted that type of environment. You can easily mouse-over the map and do the same for every are of Manhattan.
There are some excellent teacher resources here as well including activities and lesson plans. One of these teaches the water cycle in an interesting, place-based way and compares the life of a water droplet in 1609 to present day. This is much more fun and realistic than the idealized charts we are used to. Another idea from here is to create a web using yarn going from one participant to another that connects specific plants, animals or environmental features. It becomes very apparent, very quickly, that everything is connected. To review and download the Manahatta Curriculum visit their website.
THV just posted new links to Quadricentennial resources on THV’s web site:
A Hudson River Journey — seven short digital slide shows online or as part of a display, speakers’ bureau, and a booklet called A Glimpse of the Lenape: The Night Before.
available in packages or separately. Order online from James Douglas Gallery. Ask about free delivery for large orders.
Hudson River Panorama: 400 Years of History, Art, and Culture – exhibit at the Albany Institute of History & Art with related lessons and professional development opportunities.
