Allen Distinguished Educators Award
Posted on September 23rd, 2015 by Mary Lord
The Allen Distinguished Educators award program recognizes innovative K-12 teachers who “break the mold” and help students become thinkers, makers, and creators through computer science, engineering, and entrepreneurship. Applications for the $25,000 award are due November 1, 2015.
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Anywhere, anytime STEM professional development. That’s the idea behind The Smithsonian Science Education Center’s new web series, Good Thinking! The Science of Teaching Science, whose free animated videos identify common misconceptions, explore the science of how humans learn, and provide instructional techniques for effectively conveying scientific principles.
As a teacher, you’re supposed to have all the answers–but you know that sometimes, you just don’t. What if you always had an engineering expert to provide inspiration and advice? The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) recently announced the launch of LinkEngineering, a new website that connects preK-12 teachers with engineering experts, fellow educators, lesson plans, tips, and tools.
Elementary students investigate major landforms (e.g., mountains, rivers) in groups of two. They build a 3D model of a landscape depicting several of these landforms. Once they have built their model, they act as civil and transportation engineers to build a road through the landscape they have created.
Biofuels and other interdisciplinary energy topics are the subject of free “train the trainer” workshops for STEM and agriculture teachers sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Bioenergy and Bioproducts Education Program. The central New York workshop runs from July 27 – 30, with a Washington, D.C., workshop from August 10 – 13.
Whether you seek images of the cosmos to enhance your science class, hands-on activities to make forces and motion come to life, or free professional development webinars, look no further than NASA’s resources for educators.
Designing, building, and testing bridges can help students develop teamwork and problem-solving skills along with inspiring their interest in engineering. Such hands-on projects also can fuel an interest in reading about bridges. Here are some notable titles that might strike a chord with your budding civil and structural engineers.
Math can be a tough sell. Many students think it’s too hard, or that they’re no good at it. It doesn’t have to be this way, says Stanford Graduate School of Education Professor Jo Boaler, who has designed a free program for teachers to change mindsets and inspire their fifth through ninth graders to think more deeply in mathematics.
Last year, President Obama fielded basketballs lobbed from a hand-built catapult and test drove a search-and-rescue robot at the 2014 White House Science Fair. On Monday, March 23, the White House agaim will host dozens of young scientists and engineers – and you can watch it live online. 
