Welcome to Newsletter 21!
>>Click Here for this week’s Newsletter<<
In our newsletter you will be introduced to a STEM topic and find a related-activity to work on during the week (please share your results with us!), as well as extensions to additional learning or games related to the field. In addition, you will find a Northeastern connection – something Northeastern is doing related to that field. This week’s topic: AI & Robotics. For a list of prior blog posts, see the blog index.
Resource Highlight
Learning about artificial intelligence may seem like a daunting task, but AI 4 All’s Open Learning makes the task easier for (high school) educators. It is a “free, project-based artificial intelligence education program, facilitated by community members, that gives students the tools to solve problems they care about using AI.” You’ll need to create a (free) account to access the curriculum, but the website has tons of resources and lesson plans, for example, “AI & the Environment.”
Getting into robotics and programming is actually quite simple (albeit potentially expensive). I personally am a fan of the Lego Mindstorms/Robotics space as it is Lego-based (of which I still have tons of pieces from my childhood) and it’s really well supported, both in terms of school programs (Latino Stem Alliances’s and EFA’s robotics programs in Boston), competitions (First Lego League), and support (Dr’ E’s Challenges, Mr. Hines’ LEGO Robotics’ Videos, Lego Engineering Challenges). The current upper-end model (for middle/high school students) is the Lego Mindstorms EV3 [Sets: Individ.|Education]), whilst for younger students I would use the Lego WeDo set. Besides Lego, there’s a ton of other robotics kits.
Web Resources for K-12 Students and Parents
In addition to the resource highlight above, which is tied directly to the Newsletter topic, we will also highlight two new web resources each week.
- Math For Love
Math for Love is a website created by Dan Finkel/Katherine Cook, who have created and offer free lesson plans, curriculum, games, and puzzles all about Math! Target audience is students and educators in elementary school, although there is some content for middle and high school. - Learning in Places
Learning in places is a “field based” science education curriculum (free downloads) that takes place in outdoor places, including gardens, for children in Kindergarten to 3rd grade and their families. Learn about and explore socio-ecological systems either in the classroom or with your family at home.
