— Here’s an online game that teaches the basics of natural selection “Who Wants to Live a Million Years.” I gave it a shot and found the game to be OK. Some folks who left comments there weren’t all that impressed, though. I’m guessing that if students are simply turned loose on the game without any teacher supervision or guidance then they won’t get much out of if it. But if used as a reinforcement lesson, it would be a fine learning tool.
— Here’s an interesting article about national goals for STEM education and how to measure progress toward those goals. NRC Calls for New Steps to Track Progress in STEM Education.
The National Research Council in a new report identifies a set of 14 “key indicators” to gauge progress in STEM education, including how much time elementary teachers devote to science instruction, the extent to which districts are adopting instructional materials aligned to the common-core standards in math and recent guidelines for new science standards, and the level of teachers’ STEM content knowledge.
The indicators are intended to serve as a framework for Congress and relevant federal agencies to create and implement a “national-level monitoring and reporting system.”
— This is an adorable short YouTube video “Dogs Teaching Chemistry.”
