The Trend to Blend: The Debate Over Online and Blended Learning

• March 22, 2011 by Terri Zezula

This month, eSchool News will come out with its annual Technology Counts report, and this year, one of the topics discussed will be blended learning. While the discussion continues as to how blended learning will affect education policy and vice versa, it is important that we all have a clear understanding of the concept so we might develop our own opinions and contribute effectively to the conversation.

According to the iNACOL National Primer on K-12 Online Learning by Matthew Wicks, blended learning is defined as “any time a student learns at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home and at least in part through online delivery with some element of student control over time, path, and/or pace.”[i]

While we all understand the benefits of traditional brick-and-mortar classrooms, the benefits of the online learning piece tend to be more debatable. Given its organic development over time, myths abound about what it is and how it works. Just a few cited in the paper above are that online learning is “teacher-less,” that courses are easy, that students spend all their time in front of computers, and that they work in isolation and thus don’t get the benefits of collaboration and socialization. In reality, quality online learning programs as well as blended programs are able address these issues, and Matthew Wicks does an excellent job of clearing the air.

Online and blended learning offers flexibility, opportunity and convenience, and because of these positives, as well as the simple fact that the public is demanding it, use is on the rise. While the Sloan Consortium estimated that in 2007-8 there were just over 1 million students in the US enrolled in online or blended programs, up 47% from 2005-6. Based on this growth, estimates are that over 1.5 million students were learning through such programs in 2009-10.[ii]

Clearly, the benefits are affordability, accessibility and convenience for students and educators alike.  Not only do online and blended learning models allow learning to take place outside of classroom walls and schedules, they make the opportunity of school a more realistic endeavor for those students whose family lifestyles and needs tend to impede the ability to adhere to a more rigid school day.

What are the costs to students as well as to the educational system? Financially speaking, the costs of operating online programs vs. brick-and-mortar programs are, interestingly, about the same. Efficiencies and online strategy gains by not having classrooms and learning facilities are balanced out by the cost of the technology required to run the programs.[iii]

Most importantly, we must take the responsibility to educate ourselves and develop as comprehensive a picture of online learning as possible if we are to contribute effectively to the conversation and ensure that we are advocating (whether for or against) and implementing these strategies as effectively as possible. Nothing less than our students’ futures are at stake.

[i] Wicks, Matthew. (2010). A National Primer on K-12 Online Learning, International Association for K-12 Online Learning.http://www.inacol.org/research/docs/iNCL_NationalPrimerv22010-web.pdf.

[ii] Ibid, p. 14.

[iii] Anderson, A., Augenblick, J., DeCesare, D., & Conrad, J. (2006). Costs and Funding of Virtual Schools, Augenblick, Palaich, and Associates. http://www.inacol.org/research/docs/Costs&Funding.pdf.

Related Reading:

Creating the Optimal “Internal” Learning Environment

Video Games: A New Perspective on Learning Content and Skills

Ok, So You Made a Mistake. But Look What You learned!

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Categories: Education Trends, Reading & Learning

Tags: blended learning, curriculum, digital natives, elementary school learning, innovation, middle school learning, technology in education

Why Time Matters in Learning

• March 10, 2011 by Bill Jenkins, Ph.D.

As the old verse goes, "to everything, there is a season." We all know that there’s a time to live, a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to reap. At the Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center (TDLC) at UCSD, they are pursuing a deep understanding of "a time to learn." Research at the TDLC is targeted toward achieving an integrated understanding of the role of time and timing in learning, across multiple scales, brain systems, and social systems. The scientific goal of the center is therefore to understand the temporal dynamics of learning, and apply this understanding to improve educational practice.

What are the practical implications for education of such research? According to the TDLC, "Learning depends on the fine-scale structure of the timing between stimuli, response, and reward. The brain is exquisitely sensitive to the temporal structure of sensory experience." (Read more about Why Time Matters at the TDLC website.) As educators, the better our understanding of the nature of timing in learning, the more effective we will be at designing and implementing optimal learning environments and situations. The site goes on to say, "By investigating the temporal dynamics of learning we can change the capacity of children to learn, as well as change the environment to aid in learning."

Learn more about the TDLC at their website, http://tdlc.ucsd.edu.

In the February 2009 edition of the TDLC newsletter, On Time, the Center announced the development of Educators Networks tasked with translating the latest findings in neuroscience research into classroom practice. The networks will be "made up of exemplary classroom teachers who will advise and provide information to TDLC scientists on areas that are ripe for research in the classroom." For further information about these groups or to suggest individuals for participation, contact Doris Alvarez at dalvarez1@cox.net.

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Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Education Trends, Reading & Learning

Tags: how children learn, innovation, learning environment, motivating students, time and timing

Unlocking the Potential of English Language Learners

• January 18, 2011 by Peter Carabi

A few weeks back, I contributed a blog entry that provided some information on how Scientific Learning programs are implemented around the world via our Value Added Representative (VAR) partners.

Today, I want to discuss one such VAR in particular, our friends from BrainMaps, based in Shanghai, run by the husband and wife team of Tiffany and Rick Lee.  BrainMaps currently has a total of seven owned or affiliated centers, and it focuses on helping children generally between the ages of 6 and 12 more rapidly acquire English reading and oral fluency skills.  Over the next three to four years, BrainMaps plans to have over 50 centers throughout the People’s Republic of China. Perhaps more so than in any other non-English speaking country, the benefits of English proficiency for the Chinese are very concrete in economic terms.  English proficient professionals will on average earn over 50% more for the same job than their less proficient colleagues.

The Lee’s bring years of experience to the practice of English learning, having been heavily involved in the Wall Street Institute (a global network of English learning centers) prior to their association with Scientific Learning.  What drew them to our programs was the strong research base, the proven results, and the sharp contrast between our methodology versus the typical “content” approach of the competition.  Amongst a large collection of international, regional and local competitors in the after-school ESL market in China, BrainMaps is unique in providing a brain-fitness/cognitive skills approach to English learning. 

Children at a BrainMaps center begin with three to four months of intensive Fast ForWord use, usually beginning with the Fast ForWord Language program.  This is followed by 26 weeks of use of the Reading Assistant product, which includes an innovative 45 minute direct group instruction session each week with a teacher using an interactive whiteboard to provide guided reading activities around a Reading Assistant story.  This session is followed by a student “recital” period, where, gathered in front of the parents who have arrived to fetch their child from the learning center, the child reads a selected Reading Assistant story.  Parents can see and hear the difference from week to week.  This kind or vivid progress, augmented by the Progress Tracker reports showing gains on Words Correct Per Minute (WCPM) as well as improved comprehension scores, is what gives parents and the children themselves confidence in the BrainMaps method.  After the 26 week period, the child reverts to another Fast ForWord program for two to three months, followed by another 26 week cycle of Reading Assistant, and so forth.

There is a rich vein of Chinese culture at play in the development of the BrainMaps instructional model.  According to the Lee’s, their learning model is similar to the steps required to become a Kung-fu master.   For Kung-fu mastery, there are three “must have” criteria, activating Ren-du acupuncture nodes, strengthening the inner chi-gong (internal energy), and intensively practicing the kung-fu formations.  For the non-native speaker to learn English effectively, the analogous steps are to first unlock the learning potential, and then, in a sense, construct the English brain.  Proper use of Fast ForWord products helps to address these two criteria.  Finally, enriching the English knowledge comes about through use of Reading Assistant software, as well as via the Fast ForWord Reading programs.

BrainMaps branding includes the phrase, Powered By Scientific Learning, and we are proud of our association with this innovative use of our programs to help Chinese learners master English, putting them on a path for future success.  The Lee’s welcome visitors who may be passing through Shanghai, and they can also be reached at rick.lee@brainmaps.com.cn.  Or, feel free to contact me at pcarabi@scilearn.com.

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Categories: Brain Fitness, English Language Learners, Family Focus, Fast ForWord, Progress Tracker, Reading Assistant

Tags: academic success, accelerate learning, brain training, child reading development, improving reading skills, innovation, language learning, literacy, reading comprehension, Scientific Learning VARs, technology in education

5 Insights from our Recent Brain Fitness Webinars

• January 6, 2011 by Carrie Gajowski

As we look ahead to the 2011 webinars and get ready to hear more experts in the field of brain fitness and education, I wanted to take a moment to review the 2010 webinars and share the top 5 points of the webinars that I am still thinking about today.

1. We have learned more about the brain in the last 10 years than in the previous 100 years (Eric Jensen, 7 Discoveries From Brain Research That Could Revolutionize Education).
2. The frequency of autism is increasing. It used to be 2 to 5 for every 10,000.  Now research suggests 1 in 110 live births with more cases of autism happening in boys (CDC Report in 2009) (Ann Osterling, Autism: What is the Latest Research?).
3. The repeated practice of texts helps build fluency.  Have students read poetry out loud, sing songs, and do cheers and chants.  (Dr. Timothy Rasinski, Teaching Fluency:  The Neglected Goal of the Reading Program).
4. Students today are part of a global community and need to prepare to be global researchers and global communicators (Alan November, Creating a New Culture of Teaching and Learning).
5. We used to be able to teach education as a top-down model. Education is not something to do to students but rather with students.  It is critical that we learn how to engage with students, listen to them and help them find their passion in life (Marc Prensky, Engage Me or Enrage Me: Educating Today's ‘Digital Native' Learners).

Check out our webinars page for recorded webinars and to learn how you can subscribe to a podcast.  Subscribe to this blog to receive the 2011 webinar schedule in your inbox, coming soon!

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Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!

Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Education Trends, Reading & Learning

Tags: autism, brain plasticity, child reading development, digital natives, early learning, fluency, innovation, learning to read, motivating students, technology in education, webinar

The Inspirational—Remarkably Human—Child Prodigy

• October 21, 2010 by Sherrelle Walker, M.A.

Why are we so fascinated by people like Akrit Jaswal, IQ 146, who performed his first surgery at seven years old; or Kim Ung-Yong, IQ 210, who attended university at age four and received his doctorate in physics at age fifteen; or the precocious Adora Svitak, who has become an accomplished writer, poet, teacher and humanitarian by age twelve?

We have interests and passions just like they do. Still, their abilities allow them to pursue their passions and achieve fantastic success at speeds most of us reach only in our dreams. While their talents and unique minds set them apart from the general public, they represent the best of us, with incredible abilities to learn, process and utilize information and skills. When we look at these individuals, we see life trajectories jumping effortlessly from success to success ad infinitum.

One branch of research into prodigies asks the question: What gives them these abilities? While the scientific basis is still not entirely understood, the Society for Neuroscience, in its briefing, Glia: The Other Brain Cells (September 2010), suggests that part of this capability might lie in a very high density of glia cells which support synaptic function and, ultimately brain plasticity. Studies of Albert Einstein's brain in the 1980s revealed a high density of glia cells "especially in the association cortex, an area of the brain involved with imagination and complex thinking."

Another branch of research asks another question altogether: Why is it that child prodigies often do not necessarily grow up into the out-of-this-world adult successes that we imagine they would? According to Ellen Winner, Boston College professor of psychology and author of Gifted Children: Myths and Realities, child prodigies rarely grow up to become adult geniuses. Interestingly, their young minds seem to be able to master knowledge that has already been discovered, but that does not always come with the ability to create, which "requires innovation, rebelliousness, dissatisfaction with the status quo (What Are Child Geniuses Like As Adults? (ABC News, 2005)."

Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of Blink, Outliers and The Tipping Point, summed it up when he said, "What a gifted child is, in many ways, is a gifted learner. And what a gifted adult is, is a gifted doer. And those are quite separate domains of achievement." (See APS Observer, August 2006) In Outliers, Gladwell argues that most so called geniuses (but not these types of prodigies) became experts in their fields by early and intense exposure and practice in areas that they would later excel in; his guesstimate is that it takes about 10,000 hours to become an expert. Somehow, with their mental abilities, these prodigies do what they do without Gladwell's time investment.

Research aside, they represent amazing talents, and we are right to find inspiration in them. Adora Svitak does possess that restlessness and dissatisfaction; these are the minds that I find most interesting. Through watching someone like Miss Svitak learn and succeed as she matures, I am constantly inspired to take my own learning and my own successes, and see how I can use them to make the world a better place.

Learn more about child prodigies in these articles:

• What Are Child Geniuses Like As Adults? ABC News, 2005
• 10 child prodigies (who actually ended up doing something), CNN Living, December 10,2007)
• The Myth of Prodigy and Why it Matters, Observer, Association for Psychological Science, August 2006

Finally, do take eight minutes and thirteen seconds and watch Adora Svitak's February 2010 TED talk. You will be inspired.

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Categories: Reading & Learning

Tags: accelerate learning, arts, cognitive skills, creativity, early learning, Innate abilities, innovation, intelligence

Register Today for our Fall Webinar Series!

• September 16, 2010 by Carrie Gajowski

Alan November, Eric Jensen and Bill Daggett will be joining Scientific Learning for the Fall Webinar Series starting on Wednesday, September 22^nd. The webinar series is designed to help educators understand how the latest developments in educational technology and neuroscience can inform teaching, accelerate learning and improve student achievement.

The webinars will begin on Wednesday, September 22^nd with Alan November, a speaker, author, educator and leader in educational technology. His session is titled, “Creating a New Culture of Teaching and Learning.” During this live session, Alan November will show how a powerful new culture of empowered teaching and fearless learning is emerging and how access to more timely information and communication tools can empower educators to focus on the individual learning needs of their students.

Eric Jensen, an educator, author and expert in connecting neuroscience research with practical classroom applications, leads the second webinar on Tuesday, September 28^th. Titled “7 Discoveries from Brain Research That Could Revolutionize Education,” this session will explore cutting-edge discoveries in brain research that have real-world implications for educators. Jensen will describe specific strategies on reinventing the learning process and connecting games and tools, which educators can use to improve student achievement.

The fall webinars will conclude in December with a presentation by Dr. Willard Daggett, CEO of the International Center for Leadership in Education and an expert on school improvement initiatives. His session is titled, “Our Changing Education Landscape.” Additional details will be available in early October.

The webinars are provided free of charge. For more information and to register for the sessions, please go to: www.scilearn.com/webinars.

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Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!

Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Education Trends

Tags: academic success, accelerate learning, Alan November, ayp, brain plasticity, brain training, cognitive skills, Eric Jensen, how adults learn, how children learn, innovation, science, technology in education

How Does Learning Coach Technology Work?

• August 31, 2010 by Valerie Beattie, Ph.D

Scientific Learning’s Reading Assistant software helps students develop their reading and fluency skills. Have you ever thought about the technology that was used when building this software? When students sit down in front of the computer and begin their session, what is going on “behind the scenes” as Reading Assistant presents students with a passage to read, records their reading and then gives them a quiz at the end of a passage in order to evaluate comprehension of the material? Let’s take a look at how the software is designed.

Reading Assistant software is unique in its ability to listen along and help students as they read out loud and it uses technology to provide a quality Guided Oral Reading experience for students. This guided oral reading practice is crucial to developing reading fluency. Scientific Learning uses a combination of speech recognition technology and knowledge of the reading process to provide this Reading Verification capability.

The Sphinx open source speech recognition system from Carnegie Mellon University is integrated into Reading Assistant and processes the user’s reading. We have enhanced this software to meet the needs of the education market by adding acoustic models for children’s voices and acoustic models for regional dialects. We have also added the capability to adapt to the user’s voice and speaking rate, detect off-task speech, and detect audio issues so that these can be corrected if possible.

Techniques and analysis based on knowledge of the reading task are combined with the core speech recognition system to enable “Reading Verification.” The reading verification enhancements fall into three categories. Timing analysis identifies the hesitations and dysfluent pauses in a student’s reading. Pronunciation error analysis looks for specific mispronunciations, or partial pronunciations, of words. Word categorization allows the system to treat words differently, depending upon their importance in a given text and whether they are new vocabulary. Finally, Reading Verification analysis as a whole guides a user interface designed to promote fluency, by minimizing interruptions and distractions while at the same time providing help when it is needed.

The performance of Reading Verification is optimized using our extensive automated testing capability. Settings, techniques, and acoustic models are tested and adjusted using recorded audio from hundreds of product users. The goal of this optimization is to identify reading errors, but at the same time we must not disrupt fluency. Therefore we do not want to stop a student on an acceptable reading of a word. In the classroom environment, the Reading Verification process must accommodate a wide range of voices (such as different accents) as well as variable audio conditions (including background noise).

Reading Assistant provides essential one-on-one feedback during guided oral reading to develop a student’s reading skills. We use a combination of speech recognition technology and expert knowledge of the reading process to deliver this capability. Our unique ‘Reading Verification’ technology has been awarded three patents so far, with additional applications in process.

Learn more about the Reading Assistant software and the results students have achieved using this innovative software.

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Categories: Reading Assistant

Tags: innovation, technology in education

Video Games: A New Perspective on Learning Content and Skills

• July 22, 2010 by Sherrelle Walker, M.A.

Being in the business of e-learning, I am fascinated by video games. No, I’m not a big player myself, but they amaze me for what they can do in terms of teaching and learning. While their primary goal may be to entertain, the core of what they do is perform a continuous process of teaching, simulated practice and assessment, all while engaging learners in learning from worlds rich with content and experience.

As teachers, we’ve always looked to various types of non-interactive content to engage and instruct students. Prior to the 20th century, we depended upon print. In the 1970’s, I remember cassette tapes and film strips coming into the classroom. In the 1980’s, it was video cassettes. Now, we show DVD’s and online video.

Today our digital native students are looking for the kind of interactivity that they experience in their lives outside of school—and that includes the video games that they play. But what skills and experiences can students gain through interactive gaming environments?

• Learning to try. According to James Gee of Arizona State University, the essence of gaming is that, by its nature, it integrates learning with embedded assessment. With textbooks and lectures, a learner gains knowledge by reading and hearing about subjects. In simulated environments, learners experience situations and content first-hand. They attempt solutions, experience failures and learn from mistakes to proceed to higher levels. They are rewarded for pushing the envelope.
• Thinking about the big picture. In A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink discusses six different senses essential for success in our age, one of which is "symphonic thinking," or the ability to see the big picture of situations, manipulate multiple variables and add invention to solve problems. In today’s rich and detailed game environments, players must successfully learn to do exactly that to achieve the goals of the simulation.
• Collaborating and cooperating. With the introduction of online video games, successful achievement of objectives requires communication and collaboration amongst multiple players. In today’s world, these are clearly skills that one needs to achieve success.

While the so-called edutainment market is small, educators and entrepreneurs alike are in the process of bringing the true educational value of computer games into the classroom.

Is the shift going to be rocky? Absolutely. As an example, look at the debate around a "historical action" game called Six Days in Fallujah and the mainstream discussion that has taken place on NPR and in Newsweek. Will this genre of game become a new form of documentary? If contextualized appropriately by a teacher, can this breed of games represent a serious way for students to experience the civics, political science or world history first-hand? After considering that, check out Games for Change, an example of a new breed of online games for teaching and learning a wide variety of topics with significant human impact. This is a challenging and productive debate, one that will take the marriage between computer games and the instruction of content and skills to the next level.

Edutopia recommends many resources for further exploration of the value of computer games in education, including:

• Let the Games Begin offers a wonderful perspective on the educational value of games.
• Schools Use Gaming for Learning and Assessment (video) presents an overview of the benefits of computer gaming simulations.
• In Big Thinkers, Professor James Gee (mentioned above) discusses the opportunities and advantages that gaming provides for learning and assessment.

What role do you think video games should play in education?  Share your perspective on our Scientific Learning Facebook page!

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Categories: Education Trends, Family Focus, Reading & Learning

Tags: assessments, decision making, digital natives, innovation, learning environment, learning through play, motivating students, novelty, play, social studies, technology in education

Nevada Department of Education: Fast ForWord is a “High-Gain Program”

• July 21, 2010 by Melissa Agocs

The Nevada Senate Bill 185 (SB 185) funded districts to purchase and implement innovative and remedial educational programs, materials, and strategies specific to their academic needs. 

The Nevada Department of Education commissioned the Leadership and Learning Center (LLC) to conduct an in-depth evaluation of the programs that had been purchased with SB 185 grants.  Their 2010 Interim Report includes a review of the performance of Fast ForWord products.

To quote from the Report….“Emphasis was placed on measuring student growth toward academic proficiency and mastery using state and local assessments… The analyses were completed as a result of extensive site visits, phone interviews, and an examination of two-year sets of school cohort achievement data for Criterion-Referenced Tests (CRT) for grades three through eight and High School Proficiency Exams (HSPE) for grades nine through twelve.” 

The Report closely examined CRT results at Goolsby Elementary School (which implemented Fast ForWord across all grade levels).  They concluded that each year of Fast ForWord implementation resulted in an increase in the percentage of grade-level proficient students. To quote the Report, “CRT data indicate a statistically significant increase in Reading and Writing proficiency levels…   CRT data indicate that Reading increased from 67% to 82% proficient, [and] Writing increased significantly from 55% to 82% proficient… from 2006 to 2008.”

This graph summarizes the main conclusions from the Report. The red bars represent programs that were found to have undetermined effects or low gains. Blue bars indicate high-gain programs, in which students made high gains according to the LLC standards. The green bar represents Fast ForWord, which was also found to be a high-gain program. In fact, the Report concludes that Fast ForWord products increased student reading achievement by an average of 22.2 percentage points, which was the largest average impact of all programs reviewed in the Report. The percentile scores shown in the graph represent an analysis of data from one to multiple schools using the specified product. In the case of Fast ForWord products, data from three schools were included in the analysis.

For more information, please see the Educator Briefing on this study as well as any of our 200+ additional reports on Fast ForWord results.  If you have questions about any of our research studies, please contact us.

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Categories: Education Funding, Grants, and Stimulus, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning

Tags: academic proficiency, academic success, accelerate learning, child reading development, elementary learning, elementary school learning, improving reading skills, increased test scores, innovation, learning to read, middle school learning, Nevada, remedial education, SB 185, struggling readers, struggling students, student reading growth, technology in education, writing

Meet our Science of Success Microgrant Recipients

• July 1, 2010 by Norene Wiesen

We asked members of the WeAreTeachers.com (WAT) Brain Research Microcommunity to submit ideas for keeping their students’ brains fit.  All entries were reviewed and voted on by the WAT community for a chance to receive one of five Science of Success microgrants.  We received over 178 entries, and are pleased to share the five peer-selected winners and their project proposals for promoting brain fitness in the classroom:

1) Jason Dietrich, Illini Central High School: Engineering in the Classroom with LEGO NEXT and Carnegie Mellon Curriculum
The purpose of this project is to engage students in open-ended design problems using current technology in robotics research and college academic work. Activities involved in this project will challenge students to develop critical scientific inquiry skills and apply these skills in technological design. Specifically, students will: Write programs for the LEGO NXT Intelligent Brick using LEGO Mindstorms Educational Software 1.1 [Powered by National Instruments Lab View Software]   Full proposal.

2) Don Sarazen, H.B. Rhame Elementary School: Are They Really "Double Stuffed?"
My idea is to have my students remove the cream from a regular Oreo cookie and a Double Stuf Oreo cookie, measure the mass of both cream samples, and determine if a Double Stuf Oreo really has twice as much cream as a regular Oreo. They will do this using triple beam balance scales and electronic scales that measure to the nearest tenth of a gram. Description: My students will then write letters to report the results of their investigation to Kraft Foods, the company that makes Oreos.  Full proposal.

3) Melissa Wlodarski, Eggers Middle School: Brain Yoga...starting our day the SMART way!
Description: Science has proven that completing certain activities every day will help keep our students minds sharp, and improve memory. For this program, students will participate in various "brain yoga" activities during their homeroom period each morning. These activities will include: activating pressure points, which are proven to increase energy and improve attention span (particularly good for students with ADHD), writing activities, and various right brain/left brain activities to start the day.  Full proposal.

4) Gail Feely, Caldwell Elementary: Growing Algae in the Classroom, an Alternate Energy Source
My students will learn about algae as a unicellular living organism and also as an alternate energy source. We will set up a controlled photo bioreactor in which to grow algae. I have met with a local alternate energy team who is willing to work with my students in building a photo bioreactor made of PVC pipe. I think this will be an amazing experience for my students as well as the local team. It will be a trial and error project to find ideal growing conditions to reproduce algae.  Full proposal.

5) Lynn Farr, Martin Elementary: What's the Matter: Weekly class for hands-on science fun
Description: I would like to provide EVERY student from grades K-5 in our school the opportunity to explore matter through hands-on science fun. After a 6 week instruction period on grade-level science standards, students will participate in a "make-and-take" project supporting lessons and concepts learned. Ideas include: Lava lamp, blubber, rocket, sedimentary rocks... Full proposal.

Each winner receives a FlipVideo™ camera or an iPodNano® to capture their project in action. Congratulations to all!

All 178 entries can be viewed in the WAT's Scientific Learning Teacher Grant page.

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Categories: Brain Fitness, Education Funding, Grants, and Stimulus

Tags: ADHD, attention, creativity, elementary learning, elementary school learning, health and well being, high school learning, innovation, memory, science, teacher impact, technology in education, writing