Tag: STEM

Books, Education, K-12, QR Codes, Science

Penguins Ready to Go, Go, Go!

Terri Eichholz

Penguins Ready to Go Go Go! by Deborah Lee Rose explores the life of Emperor penguins, skillfully blending STEM elements with a heartfelt narrative that engages young readers and educators alike. Through vivid storytelling and stunning visuals, Rose invites us into the wondrous world of these magnificent birds, emphasizing the importance of teamwork, adaptation, and resilience in the face of environmental challenges.

image shared with permission from Deborah Lee Rose

This is a book for all ages. The clever rhyme that’s full of action and the accompanying photos will capture the attention of even the youngest audience. QR codes scattered throughout the book along with the compelling back matter will serve as fascinating resources for curious older readers.

image credit: Paul Ponganis, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego

The photos and videos (through the QR codes) give unique insight into the lives of the Emperor penguins. As Rose described it to me, “Most people think of Emperor penguins on the ice but in fact an enormous part of their lives—including all hunting for food—takes place underwater. And that is where it is hardest for scientists to discover the birds’ secrets of survival, which this book helps teach. Sliding into the water on their bellies is pretty easy, but getting out!!! That’s where their extraordinary adaptation involving bubbles comes in.”

As a STEM enthusiast and educator, I am particularly impressed by how Rose weaves together facts about Emperor penguins’ adaptations, life cycle, and the challenges they face due to climate change, encouraging young readers to think critically about conservation and their role in protecting our planet. This book, along with her other publications, are testaments to Rose’s skill as a storyteller and her commitment to science education, making them wonderful additions to any home or library.

Penguins Ready to Go, Go, Go! will be available on April 9, 2024, just in time for World Penguin Day on April 25th! You can download the free educational guide here or on Deborah Lee Rose’s website. You can get the book here or from your favorite independent bookseller through Bookshop.

Emperor Penguins
Paul Ponganis, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego
Outnumbered Math Game
3-12, Games, Math

Gifts for the Gifted – Outnumbered

Terri Eichholz

Several years ago, I thought I would help out the parents of my gifted and talented students by writing about some games, toys, or books that I thought might make good purchases during the holiday season.  I called the series of posts, “Gifts for the Gifted,” and I have continued to do it annually (except for 2019) every November and December.  These gifts are suggestions for any child – not just those who qualify for a GT program. Sometimes I receive a free product for review, but I am not paid for these posts, and I never recommend a product that I wouldn’t buy for my own child.  For past “Gifts for the Gifted” posts, including my 2022 list, you can visit this page. I also have a Pinterest Board of Games and Toys for Gifted Students. 

Outnumbered: Improbable Heroes is on the 2023 list of Mensa’s Games “Recommended to Play.” Because we are getting close to December 25th with today’s recommendation, I’m going to give you the Amazon link to the game as well as the direct link to the manufacturer’s page, Genius Games.

As you can probably guess from the game title, this is a math game. The recommended ages are 8+ and it’s designed for 1-6 players. One thing that I love about it is that it’s a cooperative game, so all of you are working to defeat the “villains”, which are the number cards advancing toward the bottom of the gameboard.

Children will really enjoy the comic-style design of this game, and the hero vs. villain premise. Players each get to choose the hero who will represent them. The heroes also come with superpowers, such as “Add 1 to a Value.” To defeat villains, you roll dice and can use any combination of operations and/or your superpower to “hit” the target numbers on the villains. There are also “Bonus Power” cards that can be earned and used throughout the game. You can learn more about how to play Outnumbered with the video below:

Outnumbered offers a lot of opportunities for strategizing, but all of the players are working together, making this an entertaining way to practice mental math skills without the anxiety. You can also play the game at three different modes, “Training” (ages 4+), “Sidekick”(standard difficulty), or “Hero” (hard difficulty), which makes this a versatile game for classrooms and families.

If you’re more interested in science, Genius Games has two other games that made Mensa’s list this year: Cellulose: A Plant Cell Biology Game and Ecosystem: Coral Reef. Our family played the latter one, and really enjoyed that one as well!

3-12, Math, Problem Solving

Sumplete

Terri Eichholz

Maybe the site formerly known as Twitter is circling the drain, but I’m still getting some wonderful resources from it. Case in point is a recent thread started by @kathyhen_ where she asked for more ideas for fast finishers in her class. She helpfully provided a doc that she gives her students, and then many people responded with additional suggestions.

Though many of the sites are already part of my Math Sites That Won’t Make You Fall Asleep and Brainteasers and Puzzles collections, I did see a few that I need to add. One of those is called, Sumplete.

To play Sumplete, you simply click on numbers in each column and row to “X” them out so that they will actually add up to the sums on the right and bottom of the grid. In the example above, 19 is bolded, which means that row already adds up to it, so you don’t need to delete any numbers. However, the middle row needs a number deleted so that it will correctly add up to 16. I can click on the 5, but I need to make sure the 5’s column will then also equal 10 when it’s deleted, as it does.

The Sumplete page gives more detailed instructions if needed. As you can also see in the above example, there is an arrow next to 3×3, which you can click on to select larger puzzle grids. Once you get to 6×6, you can also choose the difficult level. The most difficult is 9×9 master.

Interestingly, the Sumplete page mentions that the puzzle was created in collaboration with ChatGPT, and you can read all about the steps the creator, Daniel Tait of Hey, Good Game, went through for this process. It inspires me to try my own puzzle creation, so I’ll let you know how that goes 😉

female scientist wearing latex gloves
3-12, Careers, Math, Science

Women in STEM Posters and Lessons from Ingenium Canada

Terri Eichholz

I want to thank @MsABahri for sharing the link to these free Women in STEM posters on Twitter (still not calling it the other name, sorry not sorry). There are nearly 100 free downloadable posters on this site from Ingenium Canada, and I am sorry to say that most of the names are new to me. Fortunately, each poster in the series has an image as well as a caption to help us all learn more about each of these amazing people. In addition, you can go to this page for lessons that can be used with the posters, and 3 of the posters have been made into coloring sheets that you can download.

Don’t forget to check out the STEM videos, the interactive Timeline, and the other educational resources while you’re on the site. If your students are studying the ocean, there is also an #OceanDecade link that has specific posters and lessons for that topic.

You can also take the “Implicit Association Test” to get an idea of your own implicit bias when it comes to men and women in different careers.

Celebrating Women’s History Month – Getting Excited About STEM (NHQ201703280001)
Celebrating Women’s History Month – Getting Excited About STEM (NHQ201703280001) by NASA HQ PHOTO is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0
3-12, Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Research, Student Products, Teaching Tools

The Big Fib Podcast Planner

Terri Eichholz

One of my most recent workshop additions is one on using podcasting in the classroom. The title is, “From Script to Sound: Engaging Student Learning Through Podcasting.” During this three hour PD, participants learn how to use podcasts as a tool to help with reading and listening comprehension as well as to develop critical thinking skills. In the second half, they learn how to create podcasts using Canva (yes, it can be done!).

One of my favorite ways to start students off with creating in any kind of media is to use a “mentor” piece, whether it’s text, songs, poetry, video, or podcasts. In this case, we use a podcast called, “The Big Fib.” This is one of many productions suitable for kids that you can find on the GZM classroom site, an excellent resource which I blogged about earlier this year.

Choose an episode of the podcast that has a format your students can emulate for a topic you’re teaching. I chose “The Big Fib” because the premise of the show is that two people are being questioned, an expert and a fibber. The listener is supposed to be able to discern from their responses who is the expert and who is the fibber. There is a different topic each time, such as Ancient Egypt. The structure of the show not only supports critical thinking skills, but also easily allows for students to make their own similar podcast on any topic they are studying in class. (Though it’s not part of the GZM family of podcasts, another great “mentor podcast” is, “Smash, Boom, Best,” which you can read more about in this post.)

During the latest workshop, the teachers got to try out using the podcast planner which I’ve made based on “The Big Fib,” and to spend time working in Canva to make their podcasts. We didn’t have time to finish, but they got a good understanding of the steps, and I was completely floored by their creativity! One group chose the show, “Bluey” as their topic (which is apparently an extremely moving show despite being for pre-school kids), another was doing Edgar Allan Poe, and a third group — composed of an art teacher and two language teachers — had come up with a podcast they called, “Just Say It,” where they would ask a question and the two guests were supposed to respond in Spanish (but one would not be responding correctly).

The variety of topics from the teachers made it clear that this is something that could be done as a great assessment tool in most subjects because you could pretty much have students “show what they know” about anything with this activity.

If you’d like to make your own copy of the planning document they used (I made some modifications based on their feedback), click on this link. And, if you’d like to have me do this workshop with a group of teachers in your district, virtually or in-person, drop me a line at terrieichholz@engagetheirminds.com!

Artificial Intelligence, K-12

What Do Students Think About AI?

Terri Eichholz

Since I’m no longer in the classroom, I don’t get the valuable daily perspective of young students about education topics that impact them, such as AI (Artificial Intelligence). When I do get the opportunity to ask students of different ages about how the subject of AI is being handled at their schools, most of them tell me that it’s either being banned or largely ignored. So, I was curious to see a video made by some students at a Code Ninjas location in College Station run by David Hendrawirawan. The students participated in a camp in which the teacher, Julia Weiss, helped them to learn more about Artificial Intelligence.

As these astute young people have concluded, there are some troubling ethical issues surrounding AI, but there are also some very exciting uses that can dramatically improve people’s lives. I would argue that it’s imperative for us to face the reality that AI will be ubiquitous in a short matter of time and that we will be doing our students a huge disservice by ignoring its potential impact.

In a recent presentation that I gave about AI, I included this quote:

We cannot stop AI. What we can do is teach our children what it is and how to use it ethically to solve problems. The good news is that there are lots of resources to help you do this that I’ve been collecting here, including a new page from Code.org specifically for teachers. And, there are some tools that can improve your life as educators right now by saving you time, such as Curipod. While we need to be wary of privacy and safety with AI, as with any technology tool, banning its use completely from schools is definitely not the answer.