This case study places students in professional roles in organizations dealing with resource issues where they perform typical tasks. Whereas background content is provided via the Web, activities are done on paper. This case consists of three modules completed in successive lab sessions, focusing on gold mining in South Africa and its economic, political and social ramifications.
geology: Student groups, representing gold mining companies, are given company directives, topographic maps and sample analysis reporting forms. The directives instruct them to assess their map regions for gold deposits. Groups report on the results of a geochemical survey they conducted to identify potential gold deposits.
economics: Groups are given new company directives and geologic maps of the area previously studied. They perform an economic assessment of the gold deposit(s) in their area and recommend whether the company should proceed to production. Groups design and implement an exploratory drilling program, i.e. select drilling sites, methods and depth, and give the map to their instructor for coring. They are provided corresponding cores which they use to select stratigraphic intervals for geochemical analysis. Using deposit grade, volume and recovery factor, students calculate the market value of the deposit's recoverable gold. Comparing this value to projected production costs, groups recommend whether their company should proceed to production.
social: Groups are assigned new unique roles, e.g. mining company, miner's union, worker's rights NGO, to investigate the social consequences of mining, i.e., the role of mining technology on safety, job security and environmental impact.. In this scenario, the mining company is considering new technologies to offset the increasing cost of deeper mining. Based on their perspective, groups identify externalized costs; evaluate potential impacts on their group and establish a starting position for negotiations between stakeholders. The various groups then negotiate an agreement about which technology(ies) to adopt.

Portland Public Schools has developed this unit. Their hope is that ALL K-5 students will be able to access rigorous, standards-aligned science instruction that engages them in hands-on experiences and sense-making through student discourse. They want to encourage all students to be critical thinkers and lifelong learners. To that end, the science and ESL departments at Portland Public Schools, in consultation with NGSS writer Rita Januszyk, have developed units that are aligned with both Next Generation Science Standards and Oregon’s English Language Proficiency standards.

In this unit, students observe glass objects, identify properties of glass and other materials, and investigate changes of materials when they are heated or cooled. They test materials to choose one to best solve an engineering problem with water bottles.

In this activity students will make a “growing” bracelet and learn about the basic elements plants need to grow and thrive. Includes activity instructions, extension activities, songs, and additional reading list.

NGSS: K-LS1-1, 1-LS1-1, K-ESS2-2 (extension activity)

CCSS: L.K.5, SL.K.1, SL.K.5, SL.1.4

Social Sciences: Partially meets 3.13

Time: 30 minutes

Materials: "One Bean" book, chenille stems/pipe cleaners, and pony beads (yellow, brown, blue, clear, green, and red.

POGIL is a research-based instruction strategy comprising peer learning, development of process skills, and activities that are designed around the constructivist theory of learning cycles (pogil.org).

Guided Inquiry Activities for Programming Language Concepts is a collection of activities intended to support the use of POGIL in intermediate-level undergraduate computer science courses on functional programming and the implementation of programming languages.

Disclaimer: These activities have not yet undergone the peer-review process of The POGIL Project and so cannot be labeled "POGIL activities" ; however, they are designed based on the POGIL approach to designing activities.

As a beginner to 3-D printing, I totally sympathize with trepidation you may have when approaching your first 3-D printing design. However, through the use of Tinkercad's unique and convenient digital Web design program and these instructions, you'll be able to quickly and easily replicate this miniature book design for 3-D printers. In just a few hours, you can hold your very own 3-D printed work.

To begin, you'll need:

1. A computer with Internet access

2. Access to a 3D Printer

A collection of eight art lessons (puppets, visual arts, music) that integrate social emotional learning for grades K-2. Written lessons provide step-by-step instructions to be done at home. Lessons were created by Arts Corps teaching artists. Lessons are available in English and in Spanish.

Students use a hurricane tracking map to measure the distance from a specific latitude and longitude location of the eye of a hurricane to a city. Then they use the map's scale factor to convert the distance to miles. They also apply the distance formula by creating an x-y coordinate plane on the map. Students are challenged to analyze what data might be used by computer science engineers to write code that generates hurricane tracking models. Then students analyze a MATLAB® computer code that uses the distance formula repetitively to generate a table of data that tracks a hurricane at specific time intervals. Students come to realize that using a computer program to generate the calculations (instead of by hand) is very advantageous for a dynamic situation like tracking storm movements. Their inspection of some MATLAB code helps them understand how it communicates what to do using mathematical formulas, logical instructions and repeated tasks. They also conclude that the example program is too simplistic to really be a useful tool; useful computer model tools must necessarily be much more complex.

I am very proud to present standards-based instructional resources for Visual Arts. The model lesson is a set of full lesson materials developed to train content area teachers at the 2016 All Students, All Standards Instructional Strategies Summer Institute. The additional sample lesson resources represent the work of a team of Colorado educators to share how they develop their own unique standards based lessons that employ high impact instructional strategies. As examples, they are intended to provide support (or conversation/creation starting points) for teachers, schools, and districts as they make their own local decisions around the best instructional plans and practices for all students.

How can we Design Cattle to Better Meet Human Needs?

In this high school Storyline unit on genetics and heredity, students are introduced to ‘SuperCows’. As they explore the vast variety of cattle breeds, students discover that cattle are specialized for different purposes and while similar, the ‘SuperCows’ are clearly unique. Students wonder what caused this diversity and specificity which leads to investigations about the role of inheritance, DNA and proteins.

High Tech Rocks! STEM Kit. The Natural Sciences Education & Outreach Center collaborates with CSU faculty, National Parks and citizen science programs to translate their current scientific research into unique STEM experiences for students in the form of Educational Kits that can be checked out. Each kit contains just about all of the materials needed (minus common things like water and paper towels) to explore some really interesting scientific research topics.The kits are available for teachers and informal educators in Colorado to check out for a duration of a week by submitting either a local pickup form or a delivery form available at the linked website. This kit is provided free for educational use. This Kit is available in Spanish.

Students learn how to program using loops and switches. They see how loops enable us to easily and efficiently tell a computer to keep repeating an operation. They also see that switches permit programs to follow different instructions based on whether or not preconditions are fulfilled. Using the LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT robots, sensors and software, student pairs perform three mini programming activities using loops and switches individually, and then combined. With practice, they incorporate these tools into their programming skill sets in preparation for the associated activity. A PowerPoint® presentation, pre/post quizzes and worksheet are provided.

This worksheet has students identify and annotate stratigraphic and structural features on top of four outcrop photos. It's designed to give students critically important practice, training their eyes to see geologically important features and understand what these features look like in real life. Stratigraphic and structural features are described for each of the four photos. Using the descriptions, students sketch and label each feature on top of the photo. For one photo, students also draw arrows to indicate the direction of fault movement given the geometry of bedding in the photo. Students also complete six multiple-choice questions pertaining to the concepts of the worksheet.

This worksheet uses the sketch-understanding program with built-in tutor: CogSketch . Therefore, students, instructors, and/or institution computer labs need to download the program from here: http://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/software/cogsketch/. At any point during the worksheet, students can click the FEEDBACK button and their sketch is compared to the solution image. The built-in tutor identifies any discrepancies and reports pre-written feedback to help the student correct their sketch until they are done with the activity. Once worksheets are emailed to the instructor, worksheets can be batch graded and easily evaluated. This program allows instructors to assign sketching activities that require very little time commitment. Instead, the built-in tutor provides feedback whenever the student requests, without the presence of the instructor. More information on using the program and the activity is in the Instructor's Notes.

We have developed approximately two dozen introductory geoscience worksheets using this program. Each worksheet has a background image and instructions for a sketching task. You can find additional worksheets by searching for "CogSketch" using the search box at the top of this page. We expect to have uploaded all of them by the end of the summer of 2016.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Average inquiry level: Guided inquiry
Students working in groups will examine and discuss earthquakes, volcanoes, topography, faults, and seafloor ages and use those features to identify the boundaries of tectonic plates and specific features and processes associated with specific types of plate boundaries. This lab is designed for face-to-face instruction.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

IDENTITÀ dell’Italia Contemporanea is a narrative-based language learning program for beginning Italian. This program is a complete curriculum and can stand on its own. This program is organically aligned with ACTFL, featuring Can-Do Statements as an organizing principle and as a springboard from which the learner can direct and personalize their learning. This is a language learning instructional design model by Pilar Hernández (for PLUMA Historias en español), translated to Italian and adapted by replacing the instructional videos and stories in Spanish with Italian ones.

World competition and stringent United States fuel economy goals, and emission regulations for the 21st century vehicles, have pressured the automotive industry to design and evaluate advanced automobiles at an accelerated rate. The industry consensus is that the Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) represents the currently available technology for increasing propulsion system efficiency and decreasing pollutant emissions. However, HEVs operate much differently than conventional vehicles. Therefore, existing design techniques and guidelines developed for conventional powertrains do not apply well to hybrid vehicles. There is a need for training automotive technicians and engineers as well as educating students in this new and emergent technology of HEV. This paper describes a funded project whose goal is to fill this need by developing integrated learning system for HEV technology. This project targets engineering/engineering technology students in 4-year universities, automotive technology students in community colleges, automotive engineers and technicians in industries, and technology teachers in secondary schools.

Single lecture presentation containing tips for using technology to enhance teaching. Uses proven multimedia design principles to enhance learning.

Suppose you’re designing an online course. How might you use Open Educational Resources (OER)? Let’s take a quick look at a common model for instructional design – the ADDIE model. (There are many others but this one is very common and useful for our discussion.)

This course outline examines topics of importance to educators participating in instructional design projects. Topics include needs assessment, adult learning principles, learning objectives, instructional strategies, assessment, implementation and evaluation. Learners will develop a course using media and open educational resources while observing copyright and plagiarism guidelines.

This bilingual curriculum and resources guide and is designed to help elementary school teachers organize instruction to increase achievement of Hispanic primary-grade children whose first language is not English. The guide offers a curriculum plan, instructional strategies and activities, suggested teacher and student materials, and assessment procedures. Because language development is a fundamental co-requisite for learning mathematics and science concepts, processes and skills, the lessons in many instances begin with literature (e.g., stories, books) and discussion activities that set the stage for posing questions and presenting conflicting situations related to the Big Ideas in mathematics and science that are the focus of the lesson.

Free practice modules for Spanish language educators
Introduction to Oral Proficiency Levels is a free open educational resource that can help Spanish teachers gain a foundational understanding of how to evaluate Spanish speakers. The resource includes 17 video-based practice modules designed to strengthen your understanding of the ACTFL Speaking Proficiency Guidelines and to help you evaluate the speaking levels of your language students.