- Puzzlemaker
- Lesson Plans
- Featured Content
- The Road Ahead: Energy Solutions
- Read to Succeed
- Water Planet Challenge
- Hub for Teachers
- Turf Mutt
- All About Computers
- Science of Everyday Life
- Energy Balance: 101
- Explore the Blue
- Web 20.10
- Siemens STEM Academy
- Understanding Epilepsy
- ReadyZone H1N1
- Think Green®
- Classroom Emergency Preparedness
- New Teacher Survival
- WebMath
- Clip Art
- NASA at 50
- Kathy Schrock's Guide
- Brain Boosters
- Curriculum Center
- Learning Adventures
- Worksheets to Go
- Parent Corner
- Science Fair Central
- Discovery Student Adventures
- Contests & Grants
We live in a time of rapidly changing technology, increasing globalization, and serious environmental issues affecting the planet. We need a new generation of thinkers in our schools and in the workplace to help solve problems.
New digital tools enable students to take charge of their learning. With their hands on a whiteboard or laptop keyboard, they are engaged in active learning rather than passive response mode. Explore solutions below.
MODULE ONE: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
What is a critical thinker? How do you teach students how to think on top of everything else you have to do in the classroom? Find answers and engaging lessons here.
Article: Connecting the Dots
Grades K-5 Lesson Plan: Review Your Resources
Grades 6-12 Lesson Plan: Rate Your Resources
MODULE TWO: Communication and Collaboration
Communication and collaboration go hand in hand. In terms of 21st century skills, they’re vital and relevant in all subject areas. The use of multiple media opens up multiple possibilities for enhancing academic subject matter—while building communication skills at the same time.
Article: Critical Skills in an Interconnected World
Grades K-12 Lesson Plan: Skyping: Real-time, Real-world Connections
Grades 2-8 Lesson Plan: Online Globetrotting
MODULE THREE: Creativity and Innovation
Creativity today is about coming up with original ideas, inventing new products and technologies and solving complex problems in an increasingly complex world. It's about thinking outside the box, coloring outside the lines, and turning conventional ideas upside-down.
Article: Color Outside the Lines
Grades K-12 Lesson Plan: Saving the Planet, One Story at a Time
MODULE FOUR: Digital Citizenship
Whether online or offline, the themes of good citizenship remain the same: respect others, respect yourself, respect rules and laws, respect the rights of all.
Article: The Three R's: Rights, respect and responsibility
Grades K-5 Lesson Plan: Create a Digital Citizen Guide
Grades 6-12 Lesson Plan: Wiki Project: An illustrated "Dos and Don'ts" guide to digital citizenship