As student inquiry becomes a primary focus of social studies and science instruction, educators across the nation are designing lessons that challenge learners to ask and answer their own questions. Asking effective questions is a critical authentic skill, yet it can be challenging, especially for learners new to the inquiry process. Continue reading Strategy Share: Using Immersive Stimuli to Drive Student Inquiry
I circumnavigated Iceland on expedition as a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow in July 2017, not long after the announcement that the United States planned to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation. Back home in the U.S. at that time, there was a lot of political debate about involvement in the agreement and the value of combating global warming at home. Meanwhile in Iceland, I came face to face with the effects of global warming as we visited spectacular landscapes threatened by the warming climate. Continue reading Strategy Share: Exploring Climate Change with Google Earth
The following post was written by 2017 Grosvenor Teacher Fellow Ali Farlow-Troy, a middle- and high-school science and physical education teacher in Toronto, Ontario, after her expedition to the Arctic. The Grosvenor Teacher Fellow Program is a professional development opportunity for pre-K–12 educators made possible by a partnership between Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic Education. Hanging off the bow of a ship called the National Geographic Explorer, watching a polar bear guide … Continue reading Strategy Share: Building Empathy Through Virtual Immersion
Loris Chen designed a unit that guides her eighth-grade students through an exploration of smartphones. Students follow the product life cycle from beginning to end, discovering what raw materials are used, how they are sourced, and how sustainable they are. The project culminates with students producing videos to share their ideas for improving smartphone sustainability. Continue reading Educator Spotlight: Investigating the Stories Behind Smartphones
I’ve been a huge advocate for the use of online digital mapping the classroom ever since Google Earth was released as a desktop version back in 2006. Since then, Google has made sincere efforts to improve the quality and ease of their mapping, so that now I can say with confidence that you do not need to be a Google Earth Guru to use it … Continue reading Three Ways Google Mapping Can Help You in the Classroom
