3-Bullet Thursday [Email Templates. Curiosity. Modeling Evolution]

• Do you send a similar type of email to students, parents or colleagues constantly? Click here to learn more about creating "Canned Response" email templates.
• Curious about Curiosity? Click here for an excellent recent review of the research literature on Curiosity in The Atlantic featuring the work of Wiliams College Professor Susan Engel, best known for her lecture: The Hungry Mind: The Origins of Curiosity
• Interesting in bringing STEM to your life science class? In my 9th grade Biology class last year we leveraged the Lego Mindstorm system to conduct an Evolution simulation. Students play three rounds of Robot Sumo which model three generations of reproduction. During each round resources are removed and students are challenged to reconstruct their robots to leverage the structures of the winners from the previous generation. "Limited Resources" of legos, code "gene mutations" were a few of the techniques used to model the process.

[8 Awesome Inquiry Lesson Cycles!]

cross posted at www.cyclesoflearning.com

Ramsey Musallam teaches science and robotics at Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California, with the aim of fostering inquiry-based learning environments fueled by student curiosity. He presents widely on sparking student curiosity and teaching with technology. Musallam is a Google Certified Teacher, a YouTube Star Teacher, and a Leading Edge Certified Teacher. Watch his TED talk here and read his blog at www.cyclesoflearning.com.