Trap a Leprechaun

Our next holiday, St. Patrick’s Day, is right around the corner.  I was looking for some creative ideas for that theme, and came across a fun concept – trying to trap a leprechaun.  If you teach students in higher grades, you could really get into some math and physics with this challenge.  Pretend there is … Read more

Ewok Escape

Ewok Escape is one of 12 Design Challenges (7 current ones, and 5 in the archives) offered by Boston’s Museum of Science on their website.  The question posed by this particular challenge is, “CAN YOU DESIGN AND BUILD A BALANCING DEVICE TO HELP AN EWOK ESCAPE THE IMPERIAL FORCES BY SLIDING DOWN A TIGHTROPE TO … Read more

Fibonacci

The mysterious Fibonacci pattern can be a great way to hook students into both math and science. Here is a fun video from YouTube that shows the connection, and a link to some Fibonacci lesson plans integrating music. Direct YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahXIMUkSXX0

Talking Tom and Ben News for iPad

You are probably familiar with the “Talking” apps.  There are a variety that are available for free, and work on iPhone, iTouch, and iPad.  This particular one is only compatible with the iPad at the moment, and is free (though there is an offer for an in-app purchase).  My Multimedia club students had fun playing … Read more

Geography Awareness Week

Next week, November 13-19, is Geography Awareness Week.  I think we can all agree that we could stand to brush up on our geography skills.  This site, produced by National Geographic, has some great activities for doing that.  You can print out a booklet of “missions”, or go to the online version.  The wording in … Read more

60 Graphic Organizers

This is a great resource for differentiating.  Many teachers use graphic organizers, but there are a few here that I’ve never seen – such as the jigsaw puzzle.  Changing things up always grabs the students’ attention.  To apply this to different abilities in your classroom you could try the following levels, in order from least … Read more