This online workshop: Conceptual Change: How New Ideas Take Root? is based on ideas presented in Good Thinking! an original animated series developed by the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) and FableVision Studios as a professional development resource for K-12 science educators. Research over the past 30 years has documented what teachers have known from experience that students do not come to class as “blank slates”, but most often with a diverse set of ideas, concepts, and mental models that they have already developed from their life experiences. These ideas are called preconceptions, which are student ideas constructed before having formal instruction. Students use their own rules and mental models to make sense of their observations, and to explain phenomena that they encounter every day. One of the critical and ongoing challenges for educators across all grades is to discover students’ understandings and their mental models about phenomena, and when these models are based on misconceptions to provide opportunities for students to develop new understanding based on scientifically accepted concepts. The activities in this workshop are designed to help teachers identify student misconceptions and understand their thought process, and to provide strategies that can lead students to develop sound reasoning and to experience conceptual change. The format and organization of the workshop are designed to allow individuals to successfully complete the online learning activities independently as a self-paced class, without the need for outside input or feedback. At the same time, this format was designed to flexibly fit into PLC meetings, PD workshops, or any time that you and your colleagues can meet to absorb some new ideas and discuss your experiences as educators. While the students in the Good Thinking! classroom are identified as being in the 5th grade, the pedagogical strategies are relevant to all levels of instruction. Common Abbreviations in the Text § Science and Engineering Practices (SEP) § Crosscutting Concepts (CCC) § Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) § Framework for K-12 Science Education (Framework) § Nature of Science (NOS) § Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC)

This course is designed for participants who have already taken SNAP Course 1 (Performance Assessment in the NGSS Classroom) or who have extensive experience using the NGSS Appendices E, F,and G and with analyzing the dimensions of a performance assessment. In order to receive a Statement of Accomplishment at the end of this course, you must complete all of the reflections and assignments (the required tasks are indicated on the course outline and they can be identified by having a note about the possible number of points asssociated with them). There are also questions embedded throughout the course that are prompts for your group to discuss and in those cases one team member can enter a response for the whole group.

This education and teacher training course has been developed to train teachers to use design thinking in the classroom to find creative and innovative solutions to everyday community problems. It is based on Cooper Hewitt’s innovative classroom activity called Design in the Classroom as well as on our national workshop series, Smithsonian Design Institute . In this version of the course, you will define design and learn how it can be many things to many people. You will also learn the stages of the design process and work through each stage to create a design solution to a real-life community problem. Finally, you will take design into your own classroom by discussing how design thinking can be used to address required curriculum, evaluating existing design-based lesson plans, and creating a design-based lesson plan for your students.

This online workshop: “Fired up about Energy ” is based on ideas presented in Good Thinking! an original animated series developed by the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) and FableVision Studios as a professional development resource for K-12 science educators. In this workshop, we’ll analyze a video in which Ms. Reyes is introducing her students to the concept of energy. Energy is a very important concept in science. The NGSS K-12 Science Framework identifies Energy as one of major disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) in physical sciences and it is also identified as one of the crosscutting concepts (CCCs) that can be used to connect all science content areas together. Because energy is such a common idea in many parts of our lives, the term energy is often used in many ways, which creates confusions and misconceptions about energy. However, it is important to remember that fundamentally all energy is the same. Energy can exist in many forms or types and can be transformed or converted from one form to another. Conservation of energy can also be a confusing concept. Students start by learning that energy is always conserved, even when it is converted from one form to another. Then later, they also learn that every time there is an interaction in a physical or biological system, that some energy is lost from the system. Both statements are true, the total energy is always conserved even if some energy in a specific system dissipates into the environment due to heat loss or other interactions. Understanding this concept hinges on understanding and clearly defining what is in the system and what counts as the outside environment. This workshop looks at the scientific concept of energy and at some of the challenges of helping students build a more complete understanding of energy as a property of a system.

Teachers , don't miss this special opportunity to learn with four Smithsonian museums from hom e ! Register for this 14-week course and join a n online community of educators for an immersive exploration of teaching with museum objects and works of art. Museum educators will explore connections among their collections and model teaching strategies that participants can implement with their students, whether online or in the classroom. Participants will discover how to teach with museum resources to engage students in deeper thinking and support content learning across disciplines. They'll learn to use the Smithsonian Learning Lab to curate digital resource collections, and share lesson ideas among a new network of colleagues. Which Smithsonian Museums Will You Learn From? National Museum of African American History and Culture National Museum of American History National Portrait Gallery Smithsonian American Art Museum Who Should Enroll ? Teachers of all subjects and grades are welcome to register. The program content will be most readily appli cable to humanities teachers . What is Required of Participants? The course is self-paced, designed to be taken over the course of 14 weeks, with one to two hours of content assigned per week. Participants are expected to view all recorded video sessions and respond to reflection prompts using a discussion board. Participants will also be expected to create a digital resource collection using the Smithsonian Learning Lab .

This education course has been developed for educators and education leaders. It explores deep learning by bringing together the most up-to-date research from cognitive psychology, contemporary educational theories, and neuro-scientific perspectives. Deep learning encourages students to become creative, connected, and collaborative problem solvers; to gain knowledge and skills for lifelong learning; and to use a range of contemporary digital technologies to enhance their learning. To facilitate deep learning, teachers will learn how to employ a diverse range of powerful teaching strategies and authentic learning activities to assist students to become independent thinkers, innovative creators, and effective communicators. Throughout each module, suggested learning experiences are provided for school or system leaders who seek to engage with deep learning practices across their organisation. In this way, the course is differentiated to cater to both individual learners and to groups. This course has been funded by Microsoft and is part of the Microsoft K-12 Education Leadership initiative developed to provide resources to K-12 school leaders around the world as they address the unique needs of their schools in a changing educational and technology landscape.

It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you need to write in a complex style to express complex ideas. In fact, complex writing styles can obscure meaning and tire your readers. This short course is aimed at students at tertiary institutions, and contributors to academic publications. It will help you to articulate complex ideas with clarity and meaning. The first week of the course focuses on developing a structured writing process, appropriate for your intended readership. We discuss when to write, the importance of a golden thread, the main principles of drafting a research report, and different abstract patterns. The second week zooms in on the principles of paragraph and sentence construction. You will learn ways of writing that enhance clarity and engage your readers.

Interested in earning a certificate at no cost? Enroll to audit this course, and we’ll send more information about this opportunity shortly before the course begins. Communities have always wrestled with the multiple purposes of education: to train young people for careers, vocations, and college; to prepare them for their roles as citizens; to develop habits of reflective, ethical adults; and to create a common experience in a pluralistic society while meeting the needs of individual learners. As the world changes and grows more complex, returning to these important questions of purpose can help guide schools in their growth and strategic change. To ensure our schools are effective, we need to routinely reimagine what the high school graduate of the future will need to know and be able to do. The artifact that communicates these ideas is called a graduate profile. Making explicit the capabilities, competencies, knowledge, and attitudes for secondary school graduates, and inviting key stakeholders like students and community members to be engaged in the process, can help you and your school to focus your vision of success and drive school innovation efforts. Instructor Justin Reich and the course team from the MIT Teaching Systems Lab look forward to guiding teachers, administrators, community members, and others passionate about improving secondary school in the process of designing a graduate profile. Over four weeks, you will reflect on the purpose and goals of secondary school, as well as desirable characteristics for graduates. You’ll learn how schools have benefited from a graduate profile development process and begin the process yourself.  You’ll learn more about your own context, its values and beliefs. You’ll leave the course with a shareable artifact that communicates a vision of a multi-faceted secondary school graduate. This course has been authored by one or more members of the Faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Its educational objectives, methods, assessments, and the selection and presentation of its content are solely the responsibility of MIT.

“Leading Change: Go Beyond Gamification with Gameful Learning” instructs school leaders and teachers on tools and strategies to support gameful learning in schools. Developed in partnership with Microsoft, this education course aims to transform teaching and learning at all levels through explorations of how the features that make video games great learning environments can be used in formal learning environments to increase learner engagement on a local, regional and global scale. By creating classroom learning environments that support learners’ senses of autonomy, competence and relatedness, school leaders are able to promote actively engaged and resilient learning. Gameful learning is a new way to conceive curriculum and assessment that provides concrete support for personalizing learning for every student. You will learn to design gameful learning environments and apply a systematic framework that leads to enhanced intrinsic motivation and engagement for students. This course has been funded by Microsoft and is part of the Microsoft K-12 Education Leadership initiative developed to provide resources to K-12 school leaders around the world as they address the unique needs of their schools in a changing educational and technology landscape.

Fake news and misinformation pose an urgent challenge to citizens across the globe. Multiple studies have shined a light on people’s difficulty in distinguishing truth from fiction, reliable information from sham. As we approach the November 2020 election, we can expect our screens to be flooded, even more so, with digital content that plays fast and loose with the truth. With educators from around the world and faculty from MIT and Stanford University, you will learn quick and effective practices for evaluating online information that you can bring back to your classroom. The Stanford History Education Group has distilled these practices from observations with professional fact-checkers from the nation’s most prestigious media outlets from across the political spectrum. Using a combination of readings, classroom practice lessons, and assignments, you will learn how to teach the critical thinking skills needed for making wise judgments about web sources. At the end of the course, you will be better able to help students find reliable sources at a time when we need it most.