Resource: George Lucas Educational Foundation
The George Lucas Educational Foundation, which was created to help education catch up with the many technical advancements in how we interact with each other and the world, maintains a comprehensive website called Edutopia, which features resources and videos for teachers. It is designed to spread the word about ideal, interactive learning environments and enable others to adapt these successes locally. Edutopia contains an archive of continually updated best practices, from classroom tips to recommendations for district-wide change.
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Tags: Internet Resources, PBL, Project Based Learning, Resources for Teachers, Teacher Resources, Videos, Web Resources
Robert Goodman, a science teacher at Bergen County Technical School in Paramus, N.J, always felt that teaching 9th graders biology, but not chemistry and physics, was the wrong approach. So, he devised a curriculum for teaching physics that conformed with 9th graders’ math knowledge. His method is now being piloted in 21 schools.
PepsiCo, the second-largest soda pop maker in the world—has agreed to refrain from selling its sugary products in schools, removing full-calorie, sweetened drinks from primary and secondary schools in 200 countries by 2012. 
Congress is gearing up to reauthorize Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which channels funding to K-12 education and which was last reauthorized during the Bush Administration, when it was re-dubbed No Child Left Behind (NCLB). President Obama’s version, unveiled last week, would greatly overhaul NCLB. 
The National Academy of Engineering has launched its Grand Challenges K-12 Partners Program, where colleges of engineering across the U.S. can join a regional partners program. The colleges would provide primary and secondary schools with engineering materials and curricula appropriate for various grade levels, offer professional training to teachers, and host regional STEM conferences.
Across three or more class periods, students in grades 4-8 combine their own ideas with the elements of machines to imagine and design inventions to solve specific challenges. Using a variety of materials, they can create small working models of their inventions to test and improve them.
In this activity for grades 6-8, students gain first-hand experience with the mechanical advantage of pulleys. Students are given the challenge of helping save a whale by moving it from an aquarium back to its natural habitat into the ocean. They set up different pulley systems, compare the theoretical and actual mechanical advantage of each and discuss their recommendations as a class.
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