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TEAP Online Newsletter |
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Volume 4, No. 1 - January 2006 |
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Dear Technology Educators & TEAP Members,
Welcome
to the 1st Edition of the TEAP-Online
Newsletter for 2006! First and foremost I
would like to apologize for the gap on
newsletters. With my first child on the way
I have been trying to learn to manage my
time in a whole new way. These newsletters
will likely become bi-monthly from this
point forward, with important information
coming along by itself as it becomes
available. If you are interested in joining
a more interactive Listserv with TEAP,
please check out our TEAP-Online YahooGroup.
This has been available for quite a while
now with light activity. Without further ado
please enjoy this month's information
Game Maker 6.1
Did you get a chance to check out the Game Maker session at the 2005 Conference? Check this out for more information on a great piece of software.
http://www.cs.uu.nl/people/markov/gmaker/
Have you ever wanted to be able to design computer games, but didn't want to spend countless hours learning how to become a programmer? Then you've come to the right place. Game Maker is a program that allows you to make exciting computer games, without the need to write a single line of code. Making games with Game Maker is a lot of fun. Using easy to learn drag-and-drop actions, you can create professional looking games within very little time.
The Children’s Engineering & Design
Technology Workshop
(Taken from Bill Bertrand’s e-Newsletter...
now available monthly at TEAP-Online!)
The International Technology Education Association’s Technology Education for Children Council (TECC) invites you to participate in a special workshop being held in conjunction with the 2006 ITEA conference. This hands-on workshop has been developed for K-5 elementary teachers (any subject areas) or other interested in planning and designing elementary-level technology education experiences.
The workshop consists of three separate sessions, each taught by an experienced presenter involved in children’s engineering and design technology. Nutcrackers, Scissors, and Nail Clippers: Making Meaning from Mechanisms, presented by Gary Benenson, will explore how everyday devices work and describe mechanical principles and how mechanisms can be used to develop systems concepts. “It’s Supposed to Work!” will be presented by Jim Nicholson and stresses simple solutions that will ensure student’s success using tools, materials, and supplies to design and build solutions. Technology in the Elementary Classroom: A Balancing Act, offered by Kim Weaver, explores the world of engineering and design through interdisciplinary technological problem-solving activities.
The Children’s Engineering & Design
Technology Workshop is limited to 48
participants. Pre-registration is required
(by
eCYBERMISSION
eCYBERMISSION is a web-based science, math and technology competition for 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grade teams. Your team will propose a solution to a real problem in your community and compete for regional and national awards. eCYBERMISSION challenges you to explore how science, math and technology work in your world.
This program is sponsored by the US Army. Army leadership has long recognized the fundamental importance of science, math and technology to our global competitiveness and especially our national security. Army leadership has also acknowledged a decrease in the number of students interested in science, math and technology careers nationwide and the ever-growing need to remain globally competitive in these fields.
Check out their website, www.ecybermission.com, for more information. Registration for this year is over, but you can always plan ahead for next year!
Go Engineering! e-Newsletter
From ITEA:
Plan ahead quickly, National Engineers Week
is coming up February 19 – 25, 2006.
Check out the EWeek Web site for ideas,
contacts, and materials. This is a great
opportunity to strengthen the bond between
your Tech Ed program and your local
engineering professional community. And get
great information that your students need.
And you can subscribe to this free
newsletter:
Go Engineering! goes out to
thousands of K–12 educators, reaching into
America’s classrooms to promote the
importance of engineering and technology
education and explore the many ways that
engineering and technology can help teachers
meet the challenge of making mathematics and
science come alive for students.
Forward Go Engineering! to your
colleagues!
NATIONAL ENGINEERS WEEK LAUNCHES NEW
PROGRAM FOR 2006
National Engineers Week 2006 will
launch an extensive outreach to middle
school teachers this year, entitled
"Connecting Educators to Engineering."
The new program will target up to 10,000
middle school teachers with a coordinated
push to train engineers to directly interact
with educators, provide needed learning
materials, and create an online forum for
educator and engineer interaction...
Read the entire article at:
http://www.engineeringk12.org/educators/go_engineering/news.html
ITEA Conference 2006 in
This conference should be the biggest and
best in years. Located in the beautiful
Great Sites Online
As we remember those brave astronauts who
have given their lives in pursuit of the
extending humanities reach to the stars, I
thought is appropriate to put together a
number of NASA related links.
NASA Explorer Schools
http://explorerschools.nasa.gov/
NASA EXPLORER SCHOOLS NASA's challenging and exciting missions provide unique opportunities for engaging and educating the nation's youth. Air travel, space flight, the exploration of the unknown, and the discovery of new, mysterious, and beautiful things are all endeavors that hold an intrinsic fascination for teachers and students.
The Mars Exploration Rover Mission Classroom
http://origin.mars5.jpl.nasa.gov/classroom/
On this website, you can participate in four major programs:
(1) Imagine Mars - which helps students to understand science and technology through the arts, letters, and humanities. (2) Mars Student Imaging Project - allowing your students to use a camera on NASA’s Odyssey orbiter to take images of Mars and analyze it. (3) Mars Robotics Education Program - which is a program in development that aligns with technology-education standards specifically. (4) Mars Educator Workshops - which offer professional development opportunities for teachers.
Aerodynamics In Car Racing
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/Racecar/
Aerodynamic efficiency is the goal of all
race car designers. It is the most important
element in developing a competitive race
car.
NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/main/index.html
Great website concerning the direction NASA plans to go in the future. Contains great videos and information on the next generation spacecraft under development along with other news and media.
Yahoo! Groups
Please consider joining one of the
TEAP-Online Yahoo-Groups. These services
provide members with the ability upload
files, and chat using Yahoo chat services,
as well as providing another form of
communication for your the members of our
association. To join please visit the group
websites at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TEAP_Online/
and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TEAP-Connections/