Newsletters | Newsletter Archive BLOSSOMS What's New? January 2012
   
 
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January 2012

What's New?

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MIT BLOSSOMS in Collaboration with Learning.com
Learning.comMIT BLOSSOMS is pleased to announce a major collaboration with Learning.com. Effective immediately, Learning.com is carrying the entire library of BLOSSOMS English-language learning videos at no charge to Learning.com users. Founded in 1999, Learning.com helps K-12 teachers and administrators improve student learning through curriculum solutions and assessments, delivered in their Sky on-line learning environment. Learning.com has major partnerships with public education in Florida, Colorado and Texas - with other states coming on board. Like BLOSSOMS, Learning.com is very STEM-focused. MIT BLOSSOMS joins Learning.com’s other collaborations for freely available on-line educational materials, including PhET, NASA, Discovery Education, American Museum of Natural History, the Khan Academy, and the Smithsonian.

New BLOSSOMS Lessons Arrive from Saudi Arabia
New VideosThe MIT BLOSSOMS project in Saudi Arabia, sponsored by Saudi Aramco and the Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz Science & Technology Center (Scitech), has recently contributed three new video lessons to the BLOSSOMS website: Counting Systems, available in both an Arabic and in an English subtitled version; How Does Biotechnology Help Clean Up the Environment, available in both an Arabic and in an English subtitled version; and The Disease of Our Time: Diabetes, currently just available in an Arabic version. We invite you to take a look at these excellent lessons.

MIT BLOSSOMS to Host STEM Newsletter
MIT STEM PalsAre you interested in issues of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education in K-12 schools? Would you like to be part of a community seeking solutions to the current global STEM education challenge? Beginning in February, MIT BLOSSOMS will introduce a newsletter committed to exploring these important issues. The MIT STEM Pals newsletter will feature only content from readers—news, ideas and opinions submitted by people from both the U.S. and abroad who recognize the significance of today’s STEM challenge. Sign up for the newsletter here.

Two Summer Professional Development Workshops for Teachers
The program, BioBuilder, will hold two training workshops that will prepare educators to bring biological engineering and synthetic biology into their classrooms and laboratories. One workshop designed for high school biology teachers, college instructors and Science Club leaders will be held at the University of California at Berkely in August. Read more. The second workshop for middle school teachers will be held at MIT, also in August. Read more.

Coming Soon to
MIT BLOSSOMS!

Mutant proteins to cancer drugs: science teamwork in action

ChartMy 10 Favorite Applications of the Pythagorean Theorem

Using genetics and DNA sequencing to help choose the right drugs for cancer patients

Meet an MIT BLOSSOMS Video Teacher
Melis Anahtar Melis Anahtar is currently an M.D. - Ph.D. student in Harvard Medical School’s Health Sciences and Technology Program. She completed her undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering with Biomedical Engineering from MIT in 2008, and her Masters degree in Integrated Immunology as a Rhodes Scholar from Oxford University in 2009. Read more about Melis here. Watch her MIT BLOSSOMS lesson: “Blood: The Stuff of Life”.
Favorite Math Applications Needed
The quadratic equation, the Pythagorean Theorem, matrices. These are three of the most famous math topics that all high school STEM students learn. Upcoming BLOSSOMS math modules will include these and more right from the heart of the high school curriculum. But, in BLOSSOMS tradition, our focus will not be on delivering standard content (we assume the teacher does that), but on using these concepts to help develop critical thinking skills and to show students the application of math to their world. You can help: Send us your favorite applications of these topics. You may see them in upcoming BLOSSOMS modules!