Susan Hildreth, Institute of Museum and Library Services Director, blogged about STEM fun at the 2012 White House Easter Egg Roll, and about the new Let's Move! activity search engine created by Howtosmile.org for the IMLS Let's Move! Museums and Gardens initiative. The search engine includes hundreds of SMILE activities that get learners out of their chairs and moving while they're learning about STEM.
The Let's Move! national campaign and Howtosmile.org science education project have joined forces to get kids moving while they're learning about math and science.
Hundreds of Let’s Move! activities are getting learners out of their chairs to run, jump rope, dance, climb hills, bounce balls, and more as they explore science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). A special Let’s Move! activity search engine, created by Howtosmile.org, is now a front-and-center resource of the Let’s Move! Museums & Gardens initiative, part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign to solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation.
If the TV hit show “Dancing with the Stars” were about real astronomical bodies, it would fit perfectly in the teaching/learning category known as STEAM. STEAM uses the arts, including performing arts like dance, to engage children in math and science in new and creative ways.
Teaching Artists from the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts go into preschool and kindergarten classrooms to teach STEM concepts and skills. One activity they use starts out getting children moving or dancing freely to music. Then the educator adds an extra dimension—asking children to try different speeds, shapes, or patterns, or to use their motions to express something from the realm of science. The educator might ask, “How would you move if you were bubbles rising to the top of a glass of liquid, or a seed pod floating on the wind?”
First it was 6th grader Clara Ma who named the Mars robotic rover "Curiosity." Now an entire 4th-grade class has named NASA's new lunar satellites "Ebb" and "Flow."
The class from Bozeman, Montana won a nationwide contest to name the twin spacecraft, which are part of the Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission. GRAIL will create the most accurate gravitational map of the Moon ever made, providing details about the Moon's internal structure and composition. These discoveries will expand what we know about how Earth and its rocky neighbors in the inner solar system developed into the diverse worlds we see today.
What forces are "putting the squeeze" on Planet Earth? Science centers worldwide will help their visitors grapple with this complex question during public events connected with the international Planet under Pressure conference, March 26-29.
Check out a world map of conference-related events created in coordination with the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC).
Add science festival planners to the growing list of Howtosmile.org's biggest fans. In this "best tips" video for building successful festival booths, the Philadelphia Science Festival recommends Howtosmile.org for great activities and to "get your creative juice flowing." The video offers booth builders other tips too, such as: set up simple and accessible hands-on activities, involve 4-6 high energy volunteers, and go green—don't hand out too much printed material.
This year's Google Science Fair offers an added Science in Action prize, for "projects that champion scientific projects that make a practical difference in the lives of a group or community." Deadline for all entries to the Google Science Fair 2012 is April 1. The fair challenges students aged 13-18 to carry out a scientific investigation into a real-world problem or issue that interests them, through rigorous experimentation, recording and conclusions.
The Fair's Educator Toolkit recommends Howtosmile.org as a great STEM activity resource that draws on trusted sources, and can be searched by material costs, age range, subject matter and prep time. It's not too early to start looking for inspiration for the 2013 Google Science Fair!
Get your hands-on science, and your hands on a book, for Read Across America this year. Friday, March 2 celebrates the birthday of Dr. Seuss with reading events across the country. Howtosmile.org celebrates Dr. Seuss with activities featuring "oobleck" (also known as goop, gluep, flubber or slime). The name "oobleck" is borrowed from the Dr. Seuss Caldecott Honor book Bartholomew and the Oobleck.
Oobleck is an inexpensive, easy-to-make, non-Newtonian substance that behaves like a solid and a liquid. In the Planet Oobleck activity, learners not only make and test oobleck with different tools, they also design a spacecraft that could land on an oobleck-covered planet, take a planetary sample, and return to Earth. Learners can compare their designs with others online, and engineer a model spacecraft to test on their oobleck concoction.
Thinking about summer already? Bay Area Parent's Summer Survival Guide features Howtosmile.org activities that are inexpensive, challenging and fun—plus summer reading connections! With 90,000 print copies being distributed around the San Francisco Bay area, and an online version (see pp. 58-62), the free Bay Area Parent guide highlights SMILE activities that can be done outdoors or indoors and include arts and crafts, stories, a field trip, and both offline and online components.
Students in grades K-8 are invited to submit original artwork, poetry and short stories to the 2012 Humpback Whale Month Ocean Contest. Entries must be received by 12 noon on March 15. By participating, students become members of the NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries Ocean Guardian Kids Club.
Humpbacks are the Hawaiian state marine mammal. Even if you don't live in Hawaii, or near any ocean, you can find lots of whale information at the library, or online at websites like Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. At Howtosmile.org, you can listen to humpbacks' amazing underwater sounds in Identify Whale Songs, and use real humpback population data in Let's Count Humpback Whales to find out if humpbacks are endangered.
