Students Love Baby Birds!
A Carolina wren nested in my daughter's bike helmet, so we haven't been biking for a couple of weeks. Instead, we have been entering our data into The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's NestWatch project. And suddenly we're spotting nests everywhere. The website is chock-full of information, including a search feature for what birds might be in your area and where they would be likely to nest.
Here's a Fun Summer Project: Win an award!
If you have some down time this summer, consider applying for a teaching award. You could apply for a Fulbright Fellowship and travel the world, or apply for one of many NSTA awards. I'll especially point out the Shugrue Award for Elementary Teachers. This award is based on submitting one remarkable lesson plan.
Great Phys. Sci./ Chem. Resource
The American Chemical Society has put together an entire, free, course for middle school chemistry. This course walks step-by-step through activities, readings, and videos (some of which are also in Spanish). It's excellent. In my research, failure to grasp the "particulate nature of matter" was a huge problems for students struggling to read about topics from osmosis to convection currents to reactions. Try this.
