Would You Rather ...?

John Stevens presents this website that ask students to pick one of usually two options and justify their answer.   Most of the posts have a Personal Finance feature to them but there are some from other subjects.   To see the site click here.

Gen Nano - National Science Foundation Contest

This is the second post of the day.  Yeah.  I thought I would give students that like contests the weekend to brainstorm.  From the National Science Foundation website, "The competition asks middle and high school students to use scientific research to drive or equip an original superhero. Students can envision science that is grounded in current research but not yet possible, allowing them to learn about the potentials and limitations of real-world science and technology.

A complete entry consists of two components: a written section and either a short comic or a 90-second video. Entrants should introduce their superhero, demonstrate how they incorporated scientific research into their superhero's story and explain how it drives them on their mission. Winners will be chosen from both the middle school and high school categories."

This is only for US students, sorry.  To see the contest website, click here.

The Brain Scoop

 

The Brain Scoop with Emily Graslie  at the Fields Museum in Chicago is VLOG on her Youtube channel.  She is the Chief Curiosity Correspondent for the museum.  Sickest job ever.  If you think you could use the Field Museum (this is a huge museum of natural history) in class  than definitely check her vlog out.  To see it click here.

Iron in Cereal

You can use a magnet to show that there is iron in your cereal.  From Steve Spangler's website "Many breakfast cereals are fortified with food-grade iron (chemical symbol: Fe) as a mineral supplement. Metallic iron is digested in the stomach and eventually absorbed in the small intestine. If all of the iron from your body were extracted, you’d have enough iron to make two small nails."  To see the website click here.

Emojis in your classroom

I am highlighting two history teachers emojis writing projects.  However, you could have your students use the ideas in probably any course that you want your students to do some writing or as a review of some unit or book.
The first is from Lance Mosier

The next is from Carol Stobb's twitter on the Treaty of Versailles

Lastly this comes from Matt Podbury's twitter (click here  to see the pdf)

401 Prompts for Argumentative Writing

The Learning Network on The New York Times has updated their 200 Prompts for Argumentative Writing to 401.  You may want to have your students go to their site and follow the links on each prompt to an article that might get your students ideas to write about.   You could bring your class to the library lab to do this.   Just click here.  Alternatively you can print out a pdf list of all 400 and just the title might of one of these 400 might be enough to get them going and you will not need access to the computer lab in the library.  Click here for the pdf.

Origami DNA

Discover more about DNA, genes and genomes, and the implications for our health and society.  This website has videos, lots of paper based activities, interactives and a glossary.  

One paper activity that I really like is the origami DNA.  This hands-on activity allows you to create your own paper model of a DNA double helix.  Watch the video below.  Click here to go to the website.