Summer of Content 2010 Winners

[tweetmeme]For the third annual Summer of Content effort, Curriki solicited premium content for Grades 6–12 in science, technology, and math, and for content in ELL / ESL for all grades.

This year, the Summer of Content Awards were granted to student-focused units that include support material for teachers. These activities, WebQuests, worksheets, quizzes, and games will engage students and help make Curriki a destination for students as well as teachers.

Thank you to all of our Summer of Content participants for helping to expand Curriki’s collection of free, high quality open educational resources!

Click on the links or images below to learn more about our winners and to explore new content.

Congratulations!

Tiffanie Blake

Grades 6-8 | Technology

Enhancing Student Led Parent/Teacher Conferences with Technology

Phillip Cook
Grades 11-12 | Science, Technology
Light Emitting Diodes

Joe Estephan
Grades 6-8 | Math, Technology
Skee-Ball Statistics

Sylvia M. Halsey
Grades 6-12 | Science
The Art and Science of Light and Color

Alexandria Lau
Grades 11-12 | ESL/ELL
How Do We Progress?

Jesse Mercer
Grades 6-8 | Math
The Game of Real Life: Using a Sims Family to Learn Pre-Algebra

Zachary Moore
Grades 6-8 | Science, Math
Hands-on Waves, Sound and Light
Project-based Pre-algebra
Games of Pre-algebra

Amudha Nagaramjan
Grade 3-5 | Math
Animath-e-Magic

Mickey Halsey Randall
Grades 6-10 | Science
Biomes of the World

A Home for the Seasons

Judith Scharf
Grade 6-8 | Math, Science, Technology
United States Census 2010

Michelle van Ginneken
Grade 9-10 | Science
Environment Webquest

Congratulations again to all of our winners!

@Curriki

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Photos by: Frerieke, Andres Rueda, Robert.Montalvo, jvc, isafmedia, aaronparecki, Jason Pratt, UOregon Conference Services, faith goble, _ltwp, David Jones, eiratansey, and Nicholas_T via Flickr Creative Commons

Press Release: Curriki Summer of Content

[tweetmeme]

CALL FOR K­–12 INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT FOR “SUMMER OF CONTENT” CHALLENGE

Recognizes Outstanding Teacher-Developed Curriculum

Publishing and Sharing ELL/ESL, Math, Science and Technology Units with Global Audience

CUPERTINO, Calif., June 8, 2010 — Curriki, a leading online community for creating and sharing K–12 open source curricula, today launched its third annual Summer of Content challenge open to all K­–12 teachers. Teachers who have developed an instructional unit focused on K–12 student-oriented content can submit an application to publish their coursework to a global audience, while receiving a cash award for their efforts.

This year, Curriki is soliciting premium content in science, technology and math for Grades 6–12, and in ELL / ESL for all grades. Applications are being accepted beginning today through July 9th 2010; letters of acceptance will be sent on a rolling basis, with final content due August 25, 2010. The final work must include a scope and sequence or table of contents, organized lessons with objectives, handouts and/or online activities for students and assessments.

• Outstanding 3­–4 week units of content will be recognized and rewarded. All awards will be made at the discretion of the Curriki review committee and based on the requirements described in the Curriki submission process available online.

2009 Summer of Content Recipients Focus on Diverse Topics

Last year’s recipients contributed valuable content to curriki.org that can be used or adapted by teachers across the world to enhance their existing curriculum. Among last year’s twenty recipients were:

• Judith Scharf, who teaches 7^th grade Computer Applications in Manhasset, NY, for her unit on Middle School Technology: Podcasting.
• Zachary Moore, who teaches Middle School science and math in Santa Barbara, for his lab work and in-class activities focused on Hands-on Electricity & Magnetism.
• Abigail E. Myers, who teaches 8^th grade English Language Arts and American history at PS/IS 499 in Flushing, NY, for her unit on Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.

Join Curriki.org Today for Free

Curriki is a hot bed of inspiring activities that change the world for the better; a place to collaborate, to create and to learn. To join forces with Curriki, please visit www.curriki.org. When you join Curriki (at no cost), you can find resources, contribute resources and connect with other educators.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT

Cindee Mock

Orion Marketing

Cindee.mock@orionmarketing.com

(650) 255-2975

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About Curriki

A not-for-profit organization with 120,000 members, over 35,000 learning assets and more than 1.6 million unique visitors per year, Curriki drives a broad agenda towards global educational excellence via open source peer-reviewed content, open access, and collaboration tools for teachers, students and parents worldwide. To learn more, please log onto www.curriki.org.

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Photo by: DerrickL via Flickr Creative Commons

Share what got you Hooked on Learning

[tweetmeme]“I don’t understand why you became a Math teacher. No offense, but its really dull: all you ever do in class is take notes!”

“What? No way! Don’t you remember Probability? Or Calculus? I had so much fun in those classes!”

“Fun? I don’t believe you.  Unless drills and pop quizzes are your idea of fun…”

“You never made board games in Math class? It was awesome: I still have the game we made! I used to play it with my friends after school, too.  And in Calculus we had accordions and piñatas to talk about integrals and derivatives. That’s what got me hooked on math.”

“Seriously? I wish I had those lessons when I was in school!”

How many times have you had conversations similar to this one?  Have you ever wished there was a way you could share the lessons and units that got you ‘hooked’ with the global education community? For the past two summers, Curriki has been giving educators just that opportunity, and a cash-award for their contributions. This summer is your chance to share the experiences that made you love learning.

Summer of Content

Curriki’s Summer of Content program gives educators the opportunity to share their best units with a global community of parents, educators, and students. Now, students worldwide will be able to experience the same great lessons that got you excited about your favorite subjects.

This year, the Summer of Content Awards will be granted to student-focused units that include support material for teachers. In other words, we are looking for activities, WebQuests, worksheets, quizzes, projects, and games that will engage students and help make Curriki a destination for students as well as teachers.

Apply by July 9th 2010.

For more information on the Summer of Content, and to learn how to apply, click here.

We look forward to reading your lessons!

@Curriki

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Photo by Kr. B. via Flickr Creative Commons.

A Summer of Opportunity

[tweetmeme]Summer is Almost Here!

Students everywhere are counting down the days ’til summer vacation: you only need to look at the doodles in their class notes or homework assignments to know the precise number of days, hours, and minutes until the school doors close and the beach opens.

Yet not all the grey matter devoted to quadratic equations, the Kreb Cycle, or Hamlet will be replaced with information on tides, fashion, and Fro-Yo. A great lesson will be remembered long after the leaves start to turn and the next year’s class lists are in the mail.

Have you given a lesson this year that your students will never forget? A lesson that had them buzzing about math during study hall, or gabbing about science in the lunch line? A lesson they will recall with delight, despite a summer of peeling sunburns or skate park wipe-outs?

A unit that has students chatting about class outside of class deserves to be shared with the global learning community, and this summer, Curriki is giving you the opportunity to publish your most memorable units to share with their world-wide network of educators and learners.

Summer of Content

Curriki’s “Summer of Content” Program is soliciting premium content for Grades 6–12 in science, technology, and math, and for content in ELL / ESL for all grades.

This year, the Summer of Content Awards will be granted to student-focused units which include looking for activities, web quests, worksheets, quizzes, and games that will engage students and help make Curriki a destination for students as well as teachers.

Share your best STEM or ESL/ELL units, and earn some cash so that you, too, can brush up on tides, fashion, and Fro-Yo this summer: though hopefully without running into your students 😉 – that’s another encounter they’ll probably never forget!

To learn more about Curriki’s “Summer of Content” effort, click here.

Applications are due July 9th with rolling admission.

We look forward to reading you amazing, engaging lessons!

@Curriki

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Photo by: seanmcgrath for Flickr Creative Commons

New and Noteable: Oceans Alive! and Other Elementary Ocean Activities

Teaching young students about the ocean is an exciting way to start your year since many children have spent time at these large bodies of water during their summer break. If they haven’t, learning about the ocean at a young age will encourage them to be better stewards of our earth.

Curriki Summer of Content award winner Melissa Webber has put together a fantastic unit titled Oceans Alive! which is geared for new teachers. It gives an overview of the oceans, introduces new vocabulary and provides hands on experiments to learn about density. In these eight lessons, students will gain an understanding of the basic scientific principles of tides, ocean zones, animal/plant life, and the food chain.

 

Other sites to visit to make your Ocean unit even better are:

• Ocean Writing Activities
• Mrs. McGowan’s First Grade Ocean Activities
• Attention All Beach Goers: The Ocean Needs Your Help!
• Experiments: Why Don’t Big Ships Sink?
• At the end of your studies, students always love to make fish prints on T-shirts or on rice paper. Here is a link that will show you how.

Have fun. Ideas are endless when it comes time to study the ocean!

Curriki

The image above was taken by 708718 and was originally found on Flickr under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.