May is for Makers
With our emphasis on hands-on math and do-it-yourself science, it's no surprise that howtosmile.org is a passionate fan of Maker Faire, the largest DIY festival in the world.
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Design Squad teams up with howtosmile.org
How many kids (not to mention adults) know how a teeter-totter works? How about a zip line? For all the technology that surrounds us in our daily lives, most of us are unclear on even the most basic of engineering concepts.
A mad scientist’s penny arcade: Exploratorium wins NSF Public Service Award
On April 4, word went out that the Exploratorium, a founding partner of howtosmile.org, had won the National Science Board’s 2011 Public Service Award. The National Science Board (NSB) is the 25-member policymaking body for the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Try this at home: Earth Day in symbols
Try this at home
Ask learners to write or talk about what Earth Day means to them. Then ask them to create their own symbol for the day. Provide art supplies—anything from paper and colored pencil to fabric scraps to (rinsed-off) stuff from the recycling bin.
For inspiration, here are a few Earth Day symbols that already exist.
Earth Day is almost here!
In just a few weeks, on April 22, millions of people around the world will celebrate Earth Day, a holiday meant to get people thinking about the fate of our one and only planet.
Math is the poetry of the mind
What, after all, is mathematics but the poetry of the mind, and what is poetry but the mathematics of the heart?
--American mathematician David Eugene Smith
Trash bag + vacuum = unforgettable lesson about the atmosphere
Feeling pressured? Not as much as you will be after climbing inside a 55-gallon trash bag and having all the air sucked out of it.
Cane Toads: The Movie
Some of our readers may remember that back in December, this blog had a flurry of posts on toads and frogs. One of them, 7 habits of highly effective toads, touched on the Cane Toad’s invasion of Australia.
Visiting Mexican scholar creates 3-D models to teach biology to blind students
Quick, picture DNA. Chances are you’ll call to mind a diagram you've seen meant to represent this microscopic 'blueprint of life:" twin helixes running in opposite directions and connected by horizontal bars.