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This week, I'm changing hats from picture book writer to reading specialist because I wanted to share some really great resources I've found online. With the Common Core's push to have students...

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NY Times Articles with questions for kids

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NY Times Articles with questions for kids

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Teach and learn with The Times: Resources for bringing the world into your classroom

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Tips for Combining Project-Based and Service Learning

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Help your students find a larger sense of purpose in their schoolwork even as they achieve educational goals.

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Both project-based learning and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) education are growing rapidly in our schools. Some schools are doing STEAM, some are doing PBL, and some are leveraging the strengths of both. Both PBL and STEAM help schools target rigorous learning and problem solving. As many teachers know, STEAM education isn't just the course content-it's the process of being scientists, mathematicians, engineers, artists, and technological entrepreneurs. Here are some ways that PBL and STEAM can complement each other in your classroom and school.

STEAM Beyond the Acronym

I think one of the pitfalls of STEAM is in the acronym itself. Some might oversimplify STEAM into mastery of the specific content areas. It's more than that: Students in high-level STEAM work are actively solving problems, taking ownership of their learning, and applying content in real-world contexts. Does that sound like PBL? That's because it is. High-level STEAM education is project-based learning.

Project-based learning can target one or more content areas. Many PBL teachers start small in their first implementations and pick only a couple of content areas to target. However, as teachers and students become more PBL-savvy, STEAM can be great opportunity to create a project that hits science, math, technology, and even art content. You could also integrate science, art, and the Chinese language, for example-you're not limited to the subjects in the STEAM acronym.

Embedding Success Skills

Skills like collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving are part of any STEAM PBL, and will be needed for students to be effective. Like the overall project, success skills are part of the glue of STEAM education. In a STEAM PBL project, teachers teach and assess one or more of these skills. This might mean using an effective rubric for formative and summative assessment aligned to collaborating, collecting evidence, and facilitating reflection within the PBL project. Although STEAM design challenges foster this kind of assessment naturally as an organic process, PBL can add the intentionality needed to teach and assess the 21st-century skills embedded in STEAM.

For example, a teacher might choose to target technological literacy for a STEAM PBL project, build a rubric in collaboration with students, and assess both formatively and summatively. In addition, the design process, a key component of STEAM education, can be utilized. Perhaps a teacher has a design process rubric used in the PBL project, or even an empathy rubric that leverages and targets one key component of the design process. When creating STEAM projects, consider scaffolding and assessment of these skills to make the project even more successful.

Students Shaping the Learning

In addition to the integration of disciplines and success skills, voice and choice are critical components to STEAM PBL. There are many ways to have students shape the learning experience. They may bring a challenge they want to solve based on their interests-a passion-based method. And students can choose team members and products to produce to solve authentic challenges. In addition, they may be allowed to pick sub-topics within the overall project or challenge, or questions they want to explore within the overall driving question.

Planning Questions

When teachers design STEAM projects, they need to leverage a backward design framework and begin with the end in mind. Here are some questions to consider in planning:

What two or more disciplines will be targeted and assessed?

How will students engage in real-world, authentic problem solving?

How will students help shape the learning through voice and choice?

What products will students create to demonstrate mastery of the content standards?

Mrs. Atkinson, an art teacher at my school, engaged students in a STEAM project to transform 2D images into 3D art pieces. In addition to integrating art content, she had students learning technology tools and skills such as using a laser cutter, which requires coding and program knowledge the students had to learn. The project also involved math content, which they needed to create their designs. And Mrs. Atkinson also focused on creativity and the design process. She allowed students voice and choice in their piece, and the overall project was a real-world situation in that it was a challenge artists actually face. She had students document their process in design journals that included reflections, images, and plans for the piece, and she used the journals to assess process and mastery of skills and content. This is an example of a STEAM project that is engaging and challenging.

High-quality STEAM education is high-quality project-based learning. While there will be attention to the disciplines embedded within STEAM, we must focus less on the content and more on the overall pedagogical implications for effective instruction, and use PBL to make learning happen.

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Both project-based learning and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) education are growing rapidly in our schools. Some schools are doing STEAM, some are doing PBL, and some are leveraging the strengths of both. Both PBL and STEAM help schools target rigorous learning and problem solving.

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As my students (and my own children) will attest, I spend a lot of time telling them to apply the skills and strategies they learn in school to the things they are passionate about at home in the real world. I implore them to actively create content using the learning strategies and technology tools introduced in class as opposed to passively consuming content as so many of their peers do for hours every day after school. For example, I encourage them to make their own video games instead of playing someone else's games after school every day. I suggest that they film their own How-To Videos and post them on YouTube just like the ones that are searched for and watched by millions of their peers. I often ask them questions like, "Do you have a strong opinion about this topic? Then write a blog post about it."

There are numerous ways to create and share in today's tech-obsessed world, and as teachers (and parents), I believe we must model and demonstrate how this is done. Our students need to see how easy it is to create and share content with an authentic audience. The power to do this is literally in the palms of their hands.

While many of my students get a glazed look on their faces as I rant about the benefits of actively creating versus passively consuming content, I am aware that I am making sense to at least some of them. I'm proud to report that my twins, Ava and Emma, are in the latter group. They surprised me last weekend when they wrote a blog post using the writing skills and strategies they learned in school to persuade me to purchase a trampoline. Ava and Emma wrote this persuasive post on an iPhone using Notes, then copied and pasted it into Kidblog (a blogging platform that I use with my 6th graders). Ava explained that they chose to post it on the blog because they knew that as a "tech guy," I loved the platform and they wanted to impress me. And they were right because I was blown away!

They accomplished so much of what I hope my students will do:

They wrote for a purpose, authentically. The idea came from them. It wasn't another artificial teacher-generated assignment.

This is an excellent example of real world application of knowledge (writing skills and technology tools).

It's content creation in it's purest form, and it made a big impact on their audience (me).

They had an audience (me) in mind, and a goal had been set and effectively executed.

They formulated a persuasive essay using the writing strategies they've learned at school and selected the digital platform by which to share it.

Click the image below to read Ava and Emma's persuasive blog post.

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Persuasive Blog Posts: My Twins Show How It's Done

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As my students (and my own children) will attest, I spend a lot of time telling them to apply the skills and strategies they learn in school to the things they are passionate about at home in the real world. I implore them to actively create content using the learning strategies and technology tools introduced in...

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21 st Century Educational Technology and Learning

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Welcome to this first post in a series that promotes student inquiry in PBL and STEM. This series is dedicated to helping educators create a student-centered Driving or Investigative Question... which is so important in STEM and PBL. You will discover multiple resources and ideas in this series, along with some great ideas for finding student success in student owned inquiry. In this first post, I would like to build the idea of what makes a Driving or Investigative Question important in student centered learning, and how it can uncover important standards. Before reading, please take a moment to subscribe by email or RSS, and also give me a follow... on Twitter at mjgormans. I promise you will find some wonderful information coming your way in the posts that follow...So sign up now and please pass this on with a retweet. Also remember you can book me for a conference or your school district with workshops that are informative, engaging, and practical. Check out my Booking Page and as always... thanks so much! Mike Gorman (https://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/)
Quick Notes
A big shout out to EdTech Magazine for recognizing this blog on its 2017 Honor Roll. That is quite a compliment from such an amazing publication. I especially appreciated the following quote, "On his blog, Gorman shares what he has learned with a focus on how tech enables project-based learning." Check out this wonderful magazine for some great K12 educational articles,

I will be presenting at PBL World in California in June. If you happen to be at the conference please stop by and say hello. I enjoy meeting my readers. As a National Faculty at BIE (BUCK Institute) I recommend the amazing resources and experiences provided by BIE.

I am also presenting at Alan November's BLC in Boston in July. I have three pre-conference workshops that you may want to register for. They include; One-Half Day PBL Splash, Full Day PBL Starter; and a One-Half Day Technology Workshop dedicated to amplifying standards and process using Technology. I will also have three concurrent session during the main conference. As a member of Alan's Team all year, it is a lot of fun to meet so many people from around the world at his summer conference in Boston. Learn more at the conference master classes page.
Driving Questions Part 1: Building Student Inquiry in Project Based Learning and STEM
I really like Diving and Investigative Questions. In fact, I like them so much more than Essential Questions. You might ask... why? I think it just might be my affection for the revised Bloom's Taxonomy. You may remember that in the revision the different levels of Blooms were changed into action. In fact, I strongly believe that learning is a verb and is based on action. Take away the word "Question" and both Driving and Investigating are wonderful verbs loaded with action.

The word "Essential" standing alone is only a word devoted to describing... a colorful but inactive adjective. Another reason I am fond of "Driving and Investigative Questions" is they allow students to work together in the amazing process of divergent thinking. As students bring this process around to identify answers and ideas that finally converge, they are suddenly back on the path to even higher order divergent thinking. It is amazing to watch students become aware that answers can bring on even more questions. Seems to me that it is a lot as if the students are moving up Bloom's Taxonomy.

I believe that both DQ and IQ allow students to take part in real inquiry and research. If the question is Google-able then it probably is not deep inquiry. Now, using advanced Google skills to find answers that create more questions fits the bill for rigorous standards. Literacy that is built to comprehend, analyze, compare, contrast, and make meaning of nonfiction across the disciplines is essential. Be certain to take a look at the verbs in the standards educators must facilitate with students. These verbs really do provide some great inquiry action that can be found on the super highway of Driving Questions. As students approach the standards in this way inquiry leads to understanding and assimilation of new knowledge. Those educators striving to meet the demands of Webb's Depth of Knowledge will appreciate using these questions and verbs to promote authentic learning.

Last, I like "Driving and Investigative Questions because there are so simple, that they can also be difficult to construct. Let me explain. The Driving Question or Investigative Question in Project Based learning and STEM can be often the hardest concept to get across to teachers. Even after a workshop devoted to PBL... questions will come across my email asking for help in constructing and refining the Driving or Investigative Question.
Writing The DQ and IQ's For Student-centered Learning In PBL, STEM, and Inquiry
Why are driving and investigative questions so difficult to create? Perhaps it is the powerful and simple concept they ride upon in a world where teachers have been taught to use so much of their "educationese language" Educators must work at being aware of the important standards in their content area without blurting them out. It is at this point that educators come across that often talked about idea of "uncovering, not covering", the standards. Educators are so often told to practice this methodology, but are seldom told how to do it. This is the power of the Driving and Investigative Question and its importance in PBL and STEM. It must be simply stated so that students can uncover the content standards themselves. It should not give away the contents standards which students may not really care about. It should engage the students and create wonderment through relevance to their world. It should drive them to an investigation to "uncover the standards" through carefully planned PBL and STEM.

Best of all, the teacher facilitates this learning experience by addressing both content and student success skills. The additional bonus of building important (success) 21st-century skills is a natural outcome. In order for students to "uncover the standards", they will need to communicate, collaborate, think critically, and provide creative thought.
Examples Comparing an Essential Question to a Driving or Investigative Question:
Example 1

EQ: Can you describe a typical food chain for the herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores in the deciduous forest biome.

DQ/IQ: How can we as authors write a restaurant storybook menu for animals that live in the forest?

Example 2

EQ: How are measurement skills and our knowledge of math and geometry related to building a dream park with a given set of dimensions and budget?

DQ/IQ: In what way can we design, plan, and pitch a needed park for our community?

Example 3

EQ: What are the characteristics of the planets in our solar system in regard to atmosphere, surface, and composition?

DQ/IQ: How can we, as NASA scientists, write a proposal that recommends which planet should be explored by the next space probe?

Example 4

EQ: How can robots provide automation and use computer programs and code to deliver a given task?

DQ/IQ: Can we program a robot to ....?

Example 5

EQ: Can we name the various reasons that the American Colonies declared independence from England?

DQ/IQ: How might we write and produce a play that could be used today, or in our countries early history, to show why the colonies should declare independence?

Keep in mind that the Driving or Investigative Question may take on many names. The key point, is that it drives an investigation based on student owned inquiry. It really is the very first step in providing students that opportunity to not just answer the question, but come up with their own.
Next Post ... Driving and Investigative Questions Part 2: Defining and Refining The Question in PBL and STEM Thank you for joining me and I hope you found this information something you can use in your school and useful to share with other educators. As always, I invite you to follow me on twitter ( Booking Info - It is time to think about your school or conference needs. Are you looking for a practical and affordable professional development workshop for your school or conference? I have traveled the country delivering PD relating to technology integration, PBL, STEM, Digital Literacy, and the 4 C's. I have delivered hundreds of workshops and presentations. Check out my Booking Page . Please contact me soon if you have an interest. I am now almost booked through June and the rest of the 2017 calendar is filling fast. Its also not to early to begin thinking of 2018! Please take a look at my Booking Page to see how I could be part of your school PD or Conference plans. Thanks so much. Michael Gorman (mjgormans@gmail.com). ). Please give this post a retweet and pass it on to someone who will benefit. To ensure you do not miss a future valuable post or other resource covering PBL, Digital Curriculum, STEM, 21st-century learning, and technology integration please sign up for 21centuryedtech by email or RSS. Have a great week! Mike (https://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/

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Driving Questions Part 1: Building Student Inquiry in Project Based Learning and STEM

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Welcome to this first post in a series that promotes student inquiry in PBL and STEM. This series is dedicated to helping educators create a student-centered Driving or Investigative Question... which is so important in STEM and PBL. You will discover multiple resources and ideas in this series, along with some great ideas for finding...

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Australia's national stock exchange has a wealth of information and practical learning opportunities for students. This great site is easily navigated by following the simulated trading links. Information includes equities, derivatives, and fixed interest securities, and a host of market data including share prices, announcements, and investments. In Education, online classes and Teacher resources are very useful.

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Australia’s audiovisual heritage online

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Paul Byrnes on the evolution of Australian film comedy from the silent era to the 1980s

Cartoonist Warren Brown dusts off some fascinating artefacts from our cultural institutions

Lynden Barber profiles Paul Cox (1940-2016), the father of independent Australian art cinema

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Latest films and commentary on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online

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Paul Byrnes on the evolution of Australian film comedy from the silent era to the 1980s Cartoonist Warren Brown dusts off some fascinating artefacts from our cultural institutions Lynden Barber profiles Paul Cox (1940-2016), the father of independent Australian art cinema

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Environmental and climate change stories, films and activities

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Exploring climate change and sustainability in our environment.

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A wonderful site, this is full of innovative ideas in science. It is primarily aimed at visitors going to the museum, but has a plethora of online information. Includes lesson plans and interesting experiments to solve real world problems. PBL rich

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Education is at the heart of everything we do at The Tech. We encourage curiosity for science, engineering, math and technology in students on field trips, educators in our professional development programs, and families in our communities. We strive to ensure that everyone we serve has the opportunity to learn skills the future will demand. There are many ways to participate in and support our education offerings, which drive our mission to inspire the innovator in everyone.

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Education is at the heart of everything we do at The Tech. We encourage curiosity for science, engineering, math and technology in students on field trips, educators in our professional development programs, and families in our communities. We strive to ensure that everyone we serve has the opportunity to learn skills the future will demand.

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Although this huge, authoritative site is designed for multiple audiences, it is primarily organised into About Australian citizenship and Promoting Australian citizenship, each with clear links for further investigation. Information on Australian values, celebrations, citizenship criteria, and legislation, is useful and appropriate for secondary school use

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Google is a huge carbon neutral company, and most of this site reads like a resume for their environmentally friendly work. Using a friendly, personable tone and a mainly Q&A format, with lots of images and colour.

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Sustainability is part of everything we do at Google. We are committed to renewable energy, efficient operations, and using data and information to help with issues like deforestation, overfishing, and air pollution.

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Discussions, podcasts, live feeds, shared literature and rich experiencal texts.
So many topics, so little time!

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Welcome to the Wheeler Centre

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Join us for live and digital conversations, debates, readings, performances and more with some of our finest local and international writers and thinkers.

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The Wheeler Centre acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Centre stands. We acknowledge and pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their Elders, past and present, as the custodians of the world's oldest continuous living culture.

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The Wheeler Centre is Melbourne's home of books, writing and ideas. Join us for live and digital conversations, debates, readings and performances.

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These interrelated video clips and interactive tools are designed to help students understand the real world applications of algebra. Video links to audiovisual segments covering algebra applications in the fashion, music and video game industries. Each segment provides background information on the industry and then presents industry related challenges for students. The videos, such as Math in music, are professionally produced and should stimulate thought and discussion among students. TheTeachers link contains a 30 minute video of a sample lesson and also provides lesson plans which incorporate the challenges. Easy navigation and high quality vision and sound make this an effective and engaging tool for teachers to place algebra in a highly relevant context for students. P. Hannan

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Straightforward and making good use of headings, this site has plenty of health information grouped into age related tabs such as Teenagers and Children and families. Exploring Early Childhood students will find that the latter has useful information for early childhood on exercise and eating. Within each age group, topics such as Healthy eating and Active living contain numerous articles related to that age range. Articles are well written and useful for student researchers. Tip sheets are presented in five languages. Information on topics such as the benefits of Walking is not limited by the site's Victorian origin. This is a fantastic site, presenting the latest information in an appropriate style for schools. Students and teachers of PDHPE will find this site useful in many aspects of the syllabus.

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Investigating the history of medicine, this website will readily engage Stage 5 Science students and Stage 6 Biology students. Easily navigated, using a simple search function, topics are presented under the headings People, Objects, and Techniques and technologies, which includes advanced medical science. Subtopics within each area of study aid more detailed research. Colour and black and white images, animations, models, and diagrams complement the written information. Many classroom activities, multimedia games and discussion topics are available, as is the opportunity to create individual resources using the instructions provided.

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Packed with detailed information on food safety, this straightforward site is very easy to navigate. The Food standards code can be downloaded and students may use the Nutrition panel calculator to create their own nutrition panels when studying labelling. What's in food is a comprehensive look at many issues, such as genetically modified foods, irradiation, and food allergies. Fact sheets can be printed and Media releases accessed. Students will find relevant information for the Food Technology Stage 6 Content: The Australian food industry, Food manufacture, and Food product development. Hospitality students would benefit from visiting the site for the Units of competency: Follow health safety and security procedures and Follow workplace hygiene procedures.

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ALL the stuff

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Search Results - School libraries resource reviews

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Editors' note summarises content, with a little analysis, and is a logical place for teachers to assess the worth of the site. This issue will change in September. Currently amongst the site's best reading is a Joyce Carol Oates memoir, and V. S. Pritchett's storyBlind love.

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Providing a practical service, this site gives students five ways to ask a librarian a question, with particular reference to resources available through the State Library. The instant messaging trial could have strong appeal for students. Ask online takes users to the helpful choices of For students and How it works.
GREAT BECAUSE: It provides a link to external resources for students. If your school library is limited in a type of resource, students can gain access to it. The state library has an option to join the library and read or access resources remotely.

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Find out how you can use the Library's collections including how to request, where to collect and return items.

Learn how to request, collect and use original material and rare printed material from the Library's special collections.

Search through the Library's rich collections and catalogue

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Find out how you can use the Library's collections including how to request, where to collect and return items. Learn how to request, collect and use original material and rare printed material from the Library's special collections. Search through the Library's rich collections and catalogue

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This site provides a free signup with option to donate. It includes Short Story narratives, non-fiction, poetry and even photographic text.
GREAT BECAUSE: It is relevant to our digital classroom as they aim to 'advance literary art in the digital age'.
It also intends to link writers and readers all over the world. A good connective tool for PBL.

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Narrative Magazine | Writers, Fiction, Poetry, Storytelling, Nonfiction, Art

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A renowned modern library of fiction, poetry, essays, and visual art by celebrated and emerging artists, provided free to readers.