Backed by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the Common Core Initiative Standards which are intended to provide clarity and consistency to student learning countrywide are scheduled to go into effect in the 45 states presently committed to them in 2015 (Five states, Alaska, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia are not participating at this time).
Is it possible to teach “thinking outside the box?” (Pun intended! Our RobotsLab Box is an invaluable tool for inspiring innovative and creative thinking!)
According to an Adobe Systems survey the answer is yes.
Why isn’t it happening then?
We here at RobotsLAB.com love our electronics devices with all our hearts and we believe in them with zeal, but we recognize that without committed teachers they are nothing but inspired gadgets.
I found this test on the Washington Post Blog. It was originally given to Eighth Graders in Bullitt County, Ky in 1912. For what it is worth, I was impressed with what a fourteen-year-old kid had to know in that less-than enlightened day and age. Was a passing grade required to move on to the ninth as in today’s much-maligned end-of-the year tests? Don’t know; the blog didn’t say.
Before STEM Learning came along with its host of cool gadgets to inspire young people to undertake careers in science there was only math and passionate math teachers to bridge the interest gap. Jose Valdes was one of those passionate teachers, one of the best.
Teaching in East San Jose in the late 1980’s, this expatriate Cuban became disgusted with the number of bright Latino kids having trouble with math and dropping out of school. He decided to do something about it.
Who doesn’t like seeing Optimus prime fight Megatron? Or one of the robots in “Pacific Rim” use an oil tanker to fight one of the monsters? Well controlling a robot, large or small, involves the use of cosines, among other mathematical equations. However, cosines, like quadratic equations and vectors, are hard to understand using just a math book. Unless your students are really interested in figuring out how tall buildings are, they may not care to learn how cosines factor into things like designing and building a roof. RobotsLAB solves this problem by stripping down the concept of cosines to their core functionality, giving the students something physical (and pretty cool) to look at and makes the concept easier to understand.
The educational technology (#edtech) industry is booming, but how do you know what technologies are good and which are subpar? Once a month we feature a piece of technology from an outside company that is making life easier for teachers. This month we are focusing on an app that makes scoring multiple choice exams easier, using any smart device with a camera.
The bubblesheet app from MasteryConnect allows you to scan in and score your multiple choice bubble sheets using your tablet, smartphone or webcam. First take a blank 
answer sheet and create a key. Then enter your answer key into the app by either scanning it or uploading it as a document (word, pdf, etc.). Continue scanning your students answer sheets until the entire pile has been captured. After you’ve done that, you can either enter the information into your gradebook manually, or export it if you have the paid version of the app, which creates a much cleaner, organized work area.
Quadratic Equations are one of the more abstract mathematical concepts for high school students. Even if you can remember and solve the formulas, it’s hard for teens to think about how quadratic equations could ever help them in their future job, or even how they could save a life. It is the main goal of the RobotsLAB BOX to help bridge the gap between concepts and what they truly mean in a world that doesn’t revolve around white boards and exams.
Florida and Texas passed laws no longer requiring proficiency in Algebra 2 in order to graduate. Based on a recent federal report roughly one quarter of all high school students do not take Algebra 2 or its equivalent, however those fundamental math skills are needed to pursue STEM careers.
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