Blogs

Getting acquainted ...

Welcome. Glad you stopped by. This isn't so much a "blog" as a place for me (and you if you're interested) to keep track of what I'm currently up to on Serendip. In reverse chronological order below are teasers to things I'm thinking about that are relatively well developed. Click on them for more details, and to get to forum areas where you can add thoughts to help both of us think more.

(See also read more, posting responses, other Exchange creations, my Serendip home page)


Welcome to Brain Stories

Curious about the brain? About behavior and experiences/feelings, your own and other people's? There's lots on Serendip to help you think about such things, and to encourage you to develop new understandings and new questions about them, including a whole section on Brain and Behavior and another on Mental Health. And, of course, there are new observations being made all of the time, reported in professional journals, newspapers, magazines, books, and on the web.


What's New on Serendip?

Welcome to Serendip, a place to explore. I'm Ann Dixon, a co-founder and webmaster. For more about me, please visit my home page

This blog is the place where periodically I'll post links to new discussions, exhibits, and interactive programs on Serendip. Enjoy!


Comments and Experiences of K-12 Summer Institute

Coming into this institute, I had the impression that our weekly meetings were for discussing different approaches to education and how we can present this during the 2-week workshop. However, I was surprised to find that the workshop resembled very much like my 2nd semester course in Neurobiology and Behavior with Paul. I was very curious about how this lecture would relate to education since I had previously approached the course as solely a neurobiology class. I was astonished how approaching science as a “sum of observations” and a continuous loop related to education as well. At the same time I was wondering why I had not seen the connection earlier.


Stress and Coping

What follows is the beginning of an outline for a class on understanding and dealing with stress for a course I and others teach for 10th graders. Teacher tips are listed in red, throughout the document.

		Stressed,Stressed, Everyone's Stressed- What's the Big Deal about Stress???!!!

Unit Objectives: To define stress; to clarify the primary types of stress; to identify how stress effects us; to distinguish between good and bad stress; to learn to distinguish between positive and negative ways of coping with stress; to learn additional positive ways of managing stress.


Class Goals and Structure

    Class Goals and Structure

   b            

 

 


Multiple Intelligences

Multiple Intelligences 

 

Gardner's Eight Areas of Intelligence

 


Another source for interactive net-based learning.

We are admonished as teachers in the 21st century to have our students "utilize technology" in their learning. Normally, this means to have the students learn by doing work using computers and the Internet. Sometimes this seems to complicate the learning process unnecessarily by bringing into the process an additional variable. I'm feeling more and more, tho, that our kids are so much more comfortable online than they are offline. As a result, they may be easier to reach if they are engaged online during the learning process. That's one reason I like Webassign. It is non-threatening and (to a degree) non-judgemental (at least emotionally).


Brain and Behavior Summer Fun Next Year's Learning

What I plan to do next school year!

I plan to use the creative ideas of my cognitive unconscious and my I -function combined to help my students become more creative, while having fun in their learning adventure. I plan to use "Scratch" for an introduction to a unit on Ecology along with the interactive games. Eventually, I would like my students to create a comic book of "Scratch in the Environment."

  buget stockphoto.com/freeimages/environment/pics/outlet.1815.jpg

http://budgetstockphoto.com/freeimages/environment/pics/outlet1815.jpg


Project

link to scratch project: http://scratch.mit.edu/users/chenderson