While preparing for a talk on how technology can support new and cross-over physics teachers, I came across the TappedIn system. The purpose of TappedIn is to make it easy for educators to share materials and participate in professional development sessions. I urge you to check it out. http://tappedin.org/tappedin/
Last evening, I spent an interesting hour taking a guided tour of various educational materials offered by the National Aeronautical Institute. I will cover some of the highlights here.
The first stop was their dedicated YouTube collection. Many teachers use these videos as a way of stimulating students to write. They show the clip, dicuss it with the class, and then have the students write about it. There are four categories: Our World is geared for grades K-5, Real World Math is for grades 6-8, NASA Launch Pad is for grades 9-12, and NASA 360 is for the General Public. Each section has multiple videos.
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/nasaeclips/index.html
You can create your own set of bookmarks within the NASA portal. You will see login to MyNASA right below the NASA meatball logo.
21st Century Explorer is another segment of the NASA portal. It has 12 lesson plans that are connected to short videos, national educational standards, and they are all available in a Spanish version.
http://education.jsc.nasa.gov/explorers/
Another section of the NASA Portal has SciFiles. These programs are written as Problem Based Learning. The educator guide has between 40 and 50 hands-on experiments
http://scifiles.larc.nasa.gov/educators/index.html
There is more, but I don’t want to go into overkill. Bear in mind that I was relaxing at my desk while I was taking this guided tour. I was able to ask questions and get immediate answers. Demonstrations are scheduled in advance and reminders are sent out. You also get a transcript of the session. I must admit I found that handy for reference as I typed this entry.
I urge you to try both TappedIn and the NASA Portal.
Cheers,
Pat
Dear Pat,
Wow … thanks for so quickly sharing these resources with others.
Just wanted to clarify a few points …
The NASA eClips resources (Our World, Real Word, Launchpad, and NASA 360) are produced by the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), http://www.nianet.org/.
If you go to our Home page, you’ll also see Discovery Now, 90-second radio spots that can be downloaded and used by anyone, too.
The dedicated YouTube channel for NASA eClips can be found here … http://www.youtube.com/nasaeclips
And these same video segments can be found at the NASA portal, http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/nasaeclips/index.html
You can also find some educator resources for some of the NASA eClips segments at the NASA portal url.
As you discovered last night in TappedIn … there are LOTS of great NASA and NIA resources developed for teachers of all grades.
And … we’re always happy to help teachers find these resources or know how best to use these resources. If you need/want help, please email me at sharon.bowers@nianet.org.
We need to inspire our students to see themselves as 21st Century Explorers.