Activities for Atomic Theory and Atomic Issues

Check out activities with sheets and pics of some engaging games to teach the concepts of ‘isotope’ and of radioactive decay and half life. Beans, pennies and dice on rainy days, fun.

EnFORCING Actual Thinking: 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 minutes

The Energy Opportunities Project is up and running as students link energy to their lives and today, to world issues. Or do they? Making the best of a Valentine’s Day lull in engagement. Who’d have predicted that?

Data Analysis made Almost Interesting

Always a challenge but by using their own data about something they really care about, we had a much deeper conversation about bias, trends, lines of best fit and significance. Classes graphed their test scores against scores of variables that might have affected test scores. Does studying longer actually make a difference? And more…

8th Grade Graphing Skills: less rubbish than I thought

Do kids learn and retain skills from one year to the next? Leveraging Monty Python’s “Ministry of Silly Walks” to find out (and teach the concept of distance vs time graphs).

When the going gets tough…

Mid-project grumbling and struggles. Some struggle is necessary to achieve almost any worthwhile outcome in any walk of life, including The Sports Project.

What affects tests scores? Kids graph it themselves.

Amount of sleep? Studying ‘hard’? Interest in the subject? or how hungry you are? All is revealed by quick and dirty pass-around graphs after the first test.

What the kids had to say about TAP…

Survey results are in, highlights are here, and well, was it worth it?

How/not to use www.storyofstuff.com

Fact checking The Story of Stuff. Or not. Wondering about the future of the world and sharing a great new PBL green resource from edutopia.org.

What affects biodiversity? – analyzing squat spot data

Analyzing class data from the field is more fun with Excel sorting then letting kids think about it themselves.

Stories in vital statistics about sex!

Using national and local survey data to interest kids in sex! And as a way to discuss data bias and survey design.