Saturday, July 25, 2009

PreK-2nd Science Education - Big Strands

The curriculum should cover:

Earth Science

Earth’s Surface
Changes in position of objects and environments through time; - volcanoes, canyon thru erosion, mountains thru earthquakes, videos, beaches thru erosion (interesting how they are rebuilt), dust-storms thru cutting down cover
Relative movements of the Earth, Moon, Sun, and the planets - sun song,

Physical Science

Matter and Its Transformations - water cycle, burn something (smoke and ash)
Energy and Its Transformations - physics and game engine
Forces and Motion - physics game engine

Life Science
Change and Evolution - Avoid evolution but show how selection changes. Dogs are great example.
Cells and Their Functions
Organisms
Ecology

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Science Curriculum Math Curriculum

[Talk about online science curriculum and online math curriculum!] Here is a list of science and math textbook publishers from Gizmos website (explorelearning .com) for future reference. http://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm?method=cResource.dspResourceCatalog
  • Carolina Biological
  • CPM
  • Delta Education
  • Freeman
  • Glencoe/McGraw-Hill
  • Harcourt
  • Holt
  • Houghton Mifflin
  • It's About Time
  • Key Curriculum
  • Macmillan
  • McDougal Littell
  • Prentice Hall
  • Scott Foresman
  • Wright Group

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Monday, July 20, 2009

Science simulation tools

A few big possibilities if I don't want to develop from scratch.

www.fantasticcontraption.com - a great game, reminds of the incredible machine. I think it's by Brain Fargo (who I remember from Interplay's Glory Days in the late 80s, early 90s when I was at 3DO). Can this be used as a learning tool? As in:
- no ads
- programmable with decent science
- is it physics and motion only??

www.explorelearning.com - their gizmos are cool, they're intended for education, they belong to VoyagerU that just merged with some one.
- what would their licensing model be?

Videos
- universal
- brainpop.com