Conduction, Convection and Radiation

With the help of simple, teacher-led demonstration activities, students learn the basic concepts of heat transfer by means of conduction, convection, and radiation. Students then apply these concepts as they work in teams to solve two problems. One problem requires that they maintain the warm temperature of one soda can filled with water at approximately body temperature, and the other problem is to cause an identical soda can of warm water to cool as much as possible during the same thirty-minute time interval. Students design their solutions using only common, everyday materials. They record the water temperatures in their two soda cans every five minutes, and prepare line graphs in order to visually compare their results to the temperature of an unaltered control can of water.

Material Type: Full Course

Author: Mary R. Hebrank

Global Nomads Group: Global Citizens in Action: Civic Engagement Curriculum (Semester-Long Program)

Global Citizens in Action is a civic engagement curriculum that focuses on cultural exchange, media literacy, and global citizenship. Through exploring the driving question, “How do we, as youth, engage our communities to create positive social change?”

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Case Study, Full Course, Interactive, Lecture, Lesson Plan, Student Guide

Author: Global Nomads Group (GNG)

Embracing Diversity and English Language Development (ELD) in Your Program for administrators

This course for Administrators provides knowledge and skills in supporting diverse families and enhancing English LanguageDevelopment (ELD) across expressive and receptive language domains for school-age children who are English Language Learners (ELL) or have other learning and language barriers. Administrators learn about  key standards and best practices and explore strategies to implement improved practice, creating a shift in policies and programmatic culture to embrace and support diverse learners, welcoming non-native English speaking families and enhancing the ELD progress of students who are learners of English.

Material Type: Full Course

Authors: Elise Scott, Susan Vinovrski

Preschool Learning Standards and Guidelines

This course is designed to early childhood education professionals with the knowledge and skills to teach each content area according to the preschool learning guidelines, or state standards. This module as part of the course on the preschool learning experiences will explain each part of the standard and give examples of how to teach the standard within an integrated curriculum. Through presentations, online resources, readings, and assignments students will gain knowledge of the components of each area: mathematics, English language arts, science and technology/engineering, the arts, and health education, and history and social science. The last module will cover the content of the Early Childhood Program Standards and how to incorporate those standards into daily practice.

Material Type: Full Course

Author: Angi Stone - MacDonald

Bridges to STEM Learning for Grades K-8

This course provides knowledge and skills in supporting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) infusion throughout Out-of-School (OST) environments. Educators learn to support STEM skill development through active, engaging, and fun approaches to each topic, while aligning to the MA-CF and engaging best practices such as ULD and TC/PBL.

Material Type: Full Course

Authors: Elise Scott, Susan Vinovrski

The Music That Shaped America, Lesson 4: Surviving the French and Indian War With Music:The Story of the Cajuns

In this lesson, created in partnership with the Association for Cultural Equity, students trace how the French and Indian War led to the Acadians' displacement and their resettlement in Louisiana by examining historical maps and reading excerpts from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie. In addition, students will examine historical documents and ethnographic film clips from the Alan Lomax Collection to consider how music and dance has been a way for the Acadian/Cajun community to preserve their cultural and genetic lineage, even in the most perilous of circumstances.

Material Type: Full Course

First Note Music Program on YouTube

The First Note music curriculum is made up of 30 complete multi-cultural lessons broken down into 4-5 separate videos for each lesson. The program incorporates proven methods of music instruction developed by Carl Orff (Orff Schulwerk), Emile Jacques Dalcroze, Zoltan Kodaly and others. Video teaching tips are also included. The program is a standards-based music program for use in Kindergarten and 1st Grade classrooms. Best of all, it's designed to be facilitated by all K-1 school teachers, and as an aid to all music instructors.

Material Type: Full Course, Lesson

Author: Childrens Music Foundation

Guidelines for Improving Math Materials for English Learners

These Guidelines for Improving Math Materials for English Learners (the Guidelines) were developed to provide specific guidance to developers of mathematics content on key areas of English language development that must be embedded across a curricula, in units, and in lessons so that English learner students (ELs) can access and engage in grade-level content.

Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: English Learners Success Forum

What Does Text Complexity Mean for English Learners and Language Minority Students?

This paper addresses the implications, for ELLs, of the new standard's requirement that students be able to read and understand complex, informationally dense texts. The authors discuss the types of supports that learners need in order to work with complex texts. They also provide a sample of what academic discourse involves, using an excerpt from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail. They demonstrate how English learners can be provided with strategies for accessing complex texts, such as closely examining one sentence at a time. The authors argue that instruction must go beyond vocabulary and should begin with an examination of our beliefs about language, literacy and learning.

Material Type: Reading, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Authors: Charles j. Fillmore, Lily Wong Fillmore

Language & Life Sciences: Mapping the Human Genome

Rather than focus on the scientific details of this discovery, this chapter gives an overview of the important concepts related to DNA's initial discovery and later research conducted in this field. Teachers can use the lesson plans and materials to help students understand these fundamental concepts and gain a command of the vocabulary necessary to discuss them. Given the amazing advances in biological research and the new knowledge that has become available to human beings about their own biological makeup, it is important for students to know basic concepts related to DNA research and the human genome project. This following lesson provides a basic introduction to this topic in an interactive fashion.

Material Type: Lesson Plan, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: Donna M. Brinton, Christine Holten, Jodi L. Nooyen

Teachers as Content & Knowledge Creators: Understanding Creative Commons, OER, and Visual Literacy to Empower Diverse Voices

This module was created in response to an observed need by BranchED and the module authors for efforts to increase the recognition, adaptation, and use of open educational resources (OER) among pre- and in-service teachers and the faculty who work in educator preparation programs. The module's purpose is to position teacher educators, teacher candidates and in-service teachers as empowered content creators. By explicitly teaching educators about content that has been licensed for re-use and informing them about their range of options for making their own works available to others, they will gain agency and can make inclusive and equity-minded decisions about curriculum content. The module provides instructional materials, resources, and activities about copyright, fair use, public domain, OER, and visual literacy to provide users with a framework for selecting, modifying, and developing curriculum materials.

Material Type: Module

Authors: Kimberly Grotewold, Karen Kohler, Tasha Martinez, LisaL Kulka

BURN THE (TEXT)Books!

Sample module from Alabama A&M University

Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: Takisha Durm

Teaching with a Trauma Informed Perspective

This module provides a overview of the power of teaching with a trauma-informed lens. The content was created by the faculty members at the following institutions: Chicago State University, Olive-Harvey Community College, South Subrurban College and Prairie State College. The module was designed to be added to the child development course or other introdcutory educationals course that are taken by education majors. The module was developed by Dr. Ty Jiles, Chicago State University, Professor Mario Wright Olive Harvey, Dr. Donna Walker, South Suburban Collge and Dr. LaTia Collins, Prairie State College.  The module is designed to enhance the instructional skills and confidence for pre-service teachers and teacher candidates at minority-serving institutions. The module offers a multicultural narrative as it relates to trauma-informed teaching practices and includes the following: 1) Engaging all students in the learning process, 2) Classroom environment, 3) Planning instruction and learning design for all students, 4) Developing as a professional.  

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Case Study, Textbook

Author: Ty Jiles

Foundations of Gifted Education

This resource provided information about Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory. this theory provides insights into the eight different levels of giftedness that students could possess and provides an explanation of each level. Additionally, there is information from the National Association for Gifted Children and a video introduction from Howard Gardner about his multiple intelligence theory.

Material Type: Module

Authors: Shauna Mayo, Faye Bradley, John Blackwell