Shawn & Troy talk about jokes, Museum Box, the Middle School Science Minute and more.

On Our Mind:

Museum Box

Interview: Dr. Monte Tatom

Advisory:

Etch-A-Sketch

http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-504784_162-10007223-4.html?tag=img

News:

When standardized test scores soared in D.C., were the gains real?

On the 2009 reading test, for example, seventh-graders in one Noyes classroom averaged 12.7 wrong-to-right erasures per student on answer sheets; the average for seventh-graders in all D.C. schools on that test was less than 1. The odds are better for winning the Powerball grand prize than having that many erasures by chance, according to statisticians consulted by USA TODAY.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-03-28-1Aschooltesting28_CV_N.htm

Resources:

Scumblr

Online index cards on a corkboard.

http://scrumblr.ca/

Zen.do

Still in BETA, but an interesting concept. The site turns notes into Flashcards.

From the site:

Students are asked to learn an extraordinary amount of information in a short period of time. When it comes time to review, we have to sort through book and lecture notes to determine what really matters and review it effectively.

As a result, we spend a lot of our study time figuring out what to learn and reviewing stuff we already know.

Start by doing what you're doing. Yes, that's right. Take notes in class (on your laptop) as you do normally.

Just one difference: Whenever you are writing down a concept, name, important date, etc. add a hyphen between a term and definition.

Now you're ready to dramatically optimize your studying. Study you're notes as flashcards. Indicate what you know and how important it is to you and that's all there is to it.

You learn. We optimize your time.

http://zen.do/

Web Spotlight:

Our educational system emphasizes spoonfeeding us knowledge rather than teaching us how to create knowledge

http://www.minddump.org/our-educational-system-emphasizes-spoonfeedin

NMSA News: