Jo’s Top Picks

• HowToSmile — science, math, and more tied to standards. Some materials in Spanish. Includes materials from multiple other repositories, such as TeachEngineering. Searchable by standard or subject — search “engineering” and “computer science” explicitly as they are not on the topic pages. Highlights cost per student, time, prep time, learning time.
• Intel’s Design and Discover — my daughter loved this as a rising 8th grader in a middle school day camp with the Girl Scouts (field trip: Pirates of the Caribbean, assignment: look for all of the simple machines). Intel now offers a whole community structure for supporting educators.
• Resource Area for Teachers — this non-profit has a long history of selling kits of cheap and found (or scavenged from donors) materials for activities described in their “Idea Sheets” which explicitly relate the activity to science concepts. Most materials can be found locally at school supply, dollar stores, or scavenged from home. Many activities suitable for informal environments.

Focus on Computer Science

• Vicki Davis blogs on 15 ways to teach students coding over at Edutopia, updated March 2015. A good job covering resources by age range.
• Google’s Computer Science Custom Search is here.

Open Source Community for K-12 Curricula

• A sort of wikipedia of curriculum at Curriki.org 

Non-profits offer free stuff, may sell related services

• NISE Network — An network of info on nanoscale science, engineering and technology keyed to informal environments
• The Concord Consortium collection of resources includes software such as Molecular Workbench and more.
• PBS science programs come with companion websites and resource repositories (some in Spanish):
  • PBS for teachers
  • PBS Design Squad for kids, parents, educators
• National Association for Amateur Radio  (as in Ham Radio) has classroom resources and PD. If the cell phones fail …
• The Buck Institute Project-Based Learning resources include rubrics, a checklist for program design phase, and student activities

Do you have a favorite resource repository? Let me know!

Respectfully submitted,
Jo Oshiro
jo@oregoncsta.org

Update: featured image