Keeping Up with the 21st Century

It is crucial that our learners become thinkers. The students we teach today are going to be taking jobs that do not even exist today. Employers will not be looking for a book smart individual who can spout off facts and dates. They will need employees who can think on their feet, collaborate with others, create new solutions, develop new ideas, and problem solve. As teachers, it is our responsibility to mold this type of learner.

With the endless ocean of information at our fingertips through the internet, this is one place that we need to take our students to learn. One engaging science website I found is Steve Spangler's Science Blog. http://www.stevespangler.com/tag/middle-school-science-fair-projects/
On this site, you can even sign up to get an email of the experiment of the week.

A topic that I decided to learn more about is sound. We spent some time during this class focusing on the properties of sound. I found it interesting, but it took a lot of exploring to finally grasp some of the concepts. I started thinking about things my students are interested in but don't know much about. I settled on sound because many of my students play instruments and/or are in our school musical which is quite a production with sound and lights.

Audible.com is a great site where you can download a program on your computer to create different sound bytes. We explored this in one way in class, but it can also be used to create podcasts or other recordings. Students can see the sound waves and create patterns in their recordings. They can also use this in reading to hear how fluid their voice is when reading out loud. Another idea is to use it across the curriculum, such as recording a radio show from the 1920's in social studies.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/activities/10/gasounds.html is an interesting site that helps you create a "sense of place" with sounds. At my house, it would be a mixture of crickets chirping, a dog barking, baby laughing, and cars speeding down the interstate. This is home!

Go to the following site to find out how the pitch and loudness of instruments can be altered. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/9_10/changing_sounds.shtml It is animated and fun for kids.