Consider doing UN SDG projects

 If you are looking for ideas for student projects, and having a wide variety of topics and options students can choose from, consider getting those ideas from the UN Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. In 2015, the UN published a list of 17 big issues and problems that affect every human being on the planet to some degree. Every country on earth signed on to commit to solving problems within these 17 goals, with a timetable of 2030. 

Students can choose from those 17 goals and try to think of local problems that fall within one or more of the goals, and then try to come up with their own solutions for the problem. Or a teacher can select one of the goals and have a class try to come up with a local problem and solution. These can be fun and rewarding, and unleash some creativity, research, and problem solving skills that may be able to actually help with a real-world problem, and in the process possibly help others who are affected by the problem. These types of projects often need science, math, and/or engineering to help generate solutions, so look for those aspects of problems you consider. If you have access to the Internet, perhaps consider using an AI such as ChatGPT to get ideas and develop them with an AI, which can be both helpful as well as provide some experience for students in the use of AI - a skill set that, whether we like it or not, today's students must have and be exposed to. 

Here is a spreadsheet of project ideas and topics my students have chosen over the last few years. We have had nearly 200 projects, by nearly 400 students, in nearly all 17 goal areas, from local to global scales. Many students have had their eyes opened by the range and scope of the problems that occur locally as well as in other parts of the US or world, that they never had thought about. Numerous students have gone to college and have looked for other ways to make a small difference by working on local issues...sometimes exposure to real problems, that affect real people, can change some students' lives to use those big, beautiful brains and hearts to do some good in the world at a really young age! 

Two new animated resources for Teachers and Students

  I am breaking out two new animated resources that are most useful for elementary teachers. 

The first is a STEM story I wrote some years ago, but just had the text. It is entitled Little Sue and the Rock, and is a story for children in grades 1-3. The goal is to introduce to younger children the concept of atoms, and what atoms are made of. It goes through electrons, and a nucleus, and then that a nucleus is made of protons and neutrons. But then it introduces the fact that protons and neutrons are made of still smaller pieces called up and down quarks! Quarks are typically unknown even to high school science classes, and therefore high school students, which seems silly to me since I think it is fundamental we present the most basic ideas of what the world is made of in simple, and accurate, terms. By the way, it is fun to encourage and challenge students to write stories that try to explain a science or math topic! 

The second resource has to do with Social-Emotional Learning, or SEL. Most schools in the country have made it a goal, at some level, to bring in more SEL to deal with some of the issues we've been dealing with with children and teenagers since the Covid pandemic, specifically mental health issues. But SEL has become politicized and is under attack in many regions of the country, and has begun to be frowned upon by many educators. The trouble is, the skills described and contained in traditional CASEL SEL are actually essential life skills any parent would want their children to be strong in, in order to have a healthy and successful life! I am proposing and pushing for a re-branding of SEL to EELS - Everyday Essential Life Skills needed for success! This is a short booklet with animated pages that introduce and define what the EELS are, and I ask all who are parents to decide if the skills shown are part of "left wing indoctrination", or if they are skills you yourself use every day of your life, and are skills any parent would want their kids to know and be strong in. I have yet to find anyone who does not want kids to be strong in the listed skills! 

What does EducAid do? It changes lives through education

 Here is an EducAid video from 2016. It provides the mission and purpose of the organization in Sierra Leone. 

STEM Education identified as the KEY to Africa's innovation & growth

 A UN report outlines how STEM education is necessary and the key to more innovation and growth in Africa. STEM is going to be the key to developing and implementing numerous issues around the world, identified through the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and this is especially true in Africa, where, unfortunately, too many of the world's poorest nations are located. This report calls for African governments to invest more in STEM education. 

The purpose of the SEE SAW Project has been to provide ideas for active, hands-on lessons and labs for science and math classes in Sierra Leone, and anywhere else that can make use of them. The lessons assume there is little or no lab space, little or no science lab equipment and supplies, and even a lack of training to teach science and math this way by teachers. This is to help change how teachers teach science and math, and to encourage them to use their own creativity to develop their own labs and active lessons and even research programs, and begin to form a generation of innovators, scientists, and creators, who can help solve major problems in their regions! This is the hope and goal. 

Note that, as far as research projects for high school level students, this site has hundreds of ideas for real research that does not require professional laboratories or equipment. 

Search Engines you may not be aware of...there's more than just Google!

Here are some search engines you may not be aware of, most for STEM research:

 www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free

Don't forget if you do use Google, it is best to use Google Scholar for academic work: https://scholar.google.com/ 

Sound Activity - Rubber band instruments, figure out what sound is and some characteristics of producing sound

 One of our physics activities is the rubber band instrument. Check out the video for it. I was reminded of this one when my daughter, who is in college and preparing to become an elementary school teacher, was trying to find ways of doing sound experiments with first graders. 

SEL in Schools Series, for all educators and schools to use

  My students know I am really into the inclusion of helping humanity into our physics classes, and also promoting the skills we ALL need and use every day of our lives, Social-Emotional Learning skills (SEL). It is to the point where ETHS, and most districts around the country, are promoting and including SEL into their district plans and goals. This is good news for everyone, and now the challenge is to all learn what SEL is (and is NOT), why we need it for our students, evidence that it works (otherwise it would be a waste of time and resources), and finally how it can be embedded within content courses. 

If interested, I have created a SEL in Schools series of slide decks and accompanying videos, as well as hundreds of examples of lesson ideas in all subject areas/departments for middle schools and high schools, in order to train teachers and staff, as well as build up 'buy in' among teachers when they see how possible and valuable it is to include SEL in lessons on a fairly regular and consistent basis. 

Note that STEM courses are often viewed as the most challenging to include SEL within, so there's a video just on the use of SEL in STEM classes. 

If you happen to view it and find it useful, please share with other teachers, administrators, schools, etc. All of it is free, and with the slides you can make a copy and then use it or modify to your needs, as you please!