Advance
excellent teaching
with Annenberg
Learner.
In the
Spotlight for March
Curriculum Focus: The
Arts: Music to Students’
Ears
Current
Events
Found:
New Largest Prime Number
Russia
Takes a Meteor Hit
Warming
Trends Affect Hummingbird
Migrations
Connecting Learning with
Special Days
National
Grammar Day (March 4)
Pi Day
(March 14)
The Vernal
Equinox (March 20)
Notable March Birthdays
Albert Einstein (March 14,
1879)
Robert
Frost (March 26, 1874)
René
Descartes (March 31, 1596)
More March
Birthdays
Annenberg Learner
Announcements
New to Learner.org
Author interviews for In
Search of the Novel
Nuevos
Destinos now
streaming
Backstory of A
Private Universe
Annenberg Foundation
Update
Annenberg
Space for Photography
Presents
“War/Photography”
|
|
Curriculum
Focus: The Arts: Lessons that
are Music to Our Students’
Ears
 In
March, we celebrate Music in Our
Schools Month. Varying the way
we present lessons to students
helps keep the classroom
interesting and alive. Maybe you
are looking for ways to make
lessons resonate with students
identified as musically gifted.
(See The Learning Classroom:
Theory Into Practice,
session 4, “Different
Kinds of Smart -
Multiple Intelligences"
for information on Howard
Gardner’s theory of multiple
intelligences and how to apply
this information in the
classroom.) Or maybe you want
ways to tune up your lessons for
every student. The following
activities are examples of fresh
ways to engage students using
music.
Early
music provides an echo of
the past, allowing students to
connect to people, cultures, and
arts from long ago. Using The
Middle Ages interactive,
students test
their ears by determining which
of the instruments used by
medieval musicians match the
sounds they hear.
Elementary music specialist
Sylvia Bookhardt teaches
students about Renaissance
society in The Arts in Every
Classroom,
"Teaching
Music."
Going back to the ancient world,
Latin teacher Lauri
Dabbieri uses music in Teaching
Foreign Languages K-12 to
guide students in translation
and interpretation of
manuscripts and to make
historical connections to Roman
culture.
 High
school and college students can
study how the Greeks applied
mathematical thought to the
study of music in the video and
online text for Mathematics
Illuminated, unit 10,
“Harmonious Math,” section 2, The Math of
Time. Section 3, Sound and
Waves, looks at how sound
waves move through the air and
section 6, Can
You Hear the Shape of a Drum?,
asks if it’s possible to deduce
what object makes a sound based
on the frequency content of the
sound.
More resources for bringing
music into the classroom:
Exploring
the World of Music
Teaching
‘The Children of Willesden
Lane’
Neuroscience & the
Classroom, unit 3, “Seeing
Others from the Self”
|
|
Current Events
Found: New
Largest Prime Number
Curtis Cooper of the
University of Central
Missouri has found the new
largest prime
number. Discover
how mathematicians, going
back to Euclid and Mersenne,
investigate prime numbers.
Learn how prime numbers are
used for data encryption in
the video for Mathematics
Illuminated, unit 1, "The Primes."
Continue a mathematics
tradition begun by
Eratosthenes of Cyrene
(276-194 B.C.E.), also known
for accurately estimating
the diameter of the Earth
based on the shadow cast by
the Sun's light, by
searching for prime numbers
using grids. See Learning
Math: Number and
Operations, session 6,
“Number Theory,” part B,
Looking for Prime Numbers.
Russia Takes a Meteor Hit
On Friday, February 15,
2013, a meteor
exploded above Chelyabinsk,
Russia, injuring more than
1,000 people and blowing out
windows in the frigid Ural
Mountain town. The
chances of being hit by a
meteor or asteroid are slim,
yet very real to the people
in Chelyabinsk. It’s on many
minds now: when will the
next one hit and where?
For information about
meteors and their larger
asteroids, and their impact
on Earth, visit the
following Learner.org
resources:
 What
stories do the meteorites
tell us? Dr. Ursula Marvin
demonstrates how meteorites
are used to find clues for
the birth of our solar
system in Essential
Science for Teachers:
Earth and Space Science,
session
8.
How do astronomers study
swiftly moving comets and
meteors? Planet Earth,
program 6, "The
Solar Sea," includes
footage of astronomers
tracking the brief
appearance of a comet in
Earth's atmosphere.
What does a meteor look
like? See a photo of the 15
ton Willamette Meteorite in
The Habitable Planet,
unit 1, “Many
Planets, One Earth,”
section 2.
How is mathematics used to
describe the unpredictable
behavior of planetary bodies
moving in space? Mathematics
Illuminated, unit 13,
“The
Concepts of Chaos,”
looks at how philosophers
and scientists such as
Newton have attempted to
explain planetary motion,
including how two bodies in
space affect each
other.
What’s the worst-case
scenario? Rediscovering
Biology, unit 12, “Biodiversity,”
details the impact of a
ten-kilometer-wide meteor on
Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula
65 million years ago,
believed to have led to mass
extinction of the dinosaurs
and other animals.
Warming Trends Affect
Hummingbird Migrations
 For
over a decade, volunteers
have contributed spring
migration sightings of
ruby-throated hummingbirds
to
Journey North.
These data were recently
analyzed by biologist Jason
Courter of Upland University
in Indiana and his
colleagues, and the findings
were published in the
scientific journal of the
American Ornithologists
Union. "A project of this
magnitude would have been
impossible without the
contributions of thousands
of Citizen Scientists
throughout North America -
we particularly thank
observers from Journey
North for their
faithful reporting of
hummingbird arrivals for
more than a decade," says
Courter. A detailed
migration study description
is posted on the Clemson
University Blog entitled,
"Warming trends bring
earlier migrating
Ruby-throats; will flowers
and small insects stay in
sync?"
For the original study and
blog, a summary of the
findings, and what these
findings could mean for
other migrating species, see
the Journey North Web site.
You and your students can
participate in Journey
North’s ruby-throated
hummingbird research. Visit
the Journey North
site to learn about how to
contribute data as citizen
scientists.
|
|
Connecting Learning with
Special Days
National Grammar Day
(March 4)
"I never made
a mistake in grammar but
once in my life and as soon
as I done it I seen it." -
Carl Sandburg, from the poem
"The People, Yes"
Grammar is a
topic with many rules and
more jokes. Get tips from
well-known writers and
expert educators on making
grammar lessons fun and
functional. The poet Carl
Sandburg celebrates the
loosely grammatical
vernacular and John Ashbery
challenges readers'
expectations by taking
liberties with grammar. See
American Passages,
unit 10, “Rhythms
in Poetry,” and unit
15, “Poetry
of Liberation.”
 "Usage and
Mechanics," workshop 5
of Developing Writers: A
Workshop for High School
Teachers, reviews
effective strategies for
teaching grammar. See a lesson
plan for using more
active verbs and hear thoughts
on revision and grammar
from writers Maxine Hong
Kingston and Ruthanne Lum
McCunn.
Dave
Barry (aka Mr.
Language Person) provides
humorous views on grammar
and Andy
Rooney quibbles on
word choice and usage in News
Writing: Interviews.
Workshop 8, “Teaching
the Power of Revision,”
of Write in the Middle:
A Workshop for Middle
School Teachers, is
“where the magic happens”
according to teacher Velvet
McReynolds.
Explore sentence syntax as
it relates to math and
patterns in our Teacher's
Lab, Patterns in Mathematics
Syntax
Store.
Psycholinguists have found
that children don’t learn
languages by simply
imitating what they hear and
that grammar and patterns in
language are hard-wired in
the brain. Learn how
children build language
skills in Discovering
Psychology, program 6,
"Language
Development."
Pi Day (March 14)
Celebrate the value of pi,
approximately 3.14, with the
following resources:
 We
usually consider pi to be a
universal constant, and it
can be, but that depends on
which universe we are
talking about. Mathematics
Illuminated unit 8, "Geometries
Beyond Euclid,"
explains why in a discussion
on curvature and
higher-dimensional
space.
Session 7, “Circles
and Pi,” of Learning
Math: Measurement
investigates the properties
of pi and its relationship
to the measures of a
circle.
What do carpets have to do
with pi? See practical
applications of pi in the
Math in Daily Life
interactive. This section of
the interactive demonstrates
its value in home
decorating.
Elementary students use
string and tape measures to
approximate the value of pi
in the lesson "Round
About Pi."
The Vernal
Equinox (March 20)
 Spring
is approaching quickly and
that means changes in
daylight, temperature, and
animal and insect behavior.
Track how seasonal changes
in sunlight
affect the entire web of
life with Journey North,
a Web-based program for
exploring seasonal
change.
A
Private Universe
investigates why even
Harvard and MIT graduates
can remain uninformed on the
most basic facts of science.
The program looks at
celestial movements, the
seasons, and how these are
taught in school.
What causes
the changes in daylight and
ultimately Earth’s seasons?
Find out in workshop 7, “Sun and Seasons,”
of Science in Focus:
Shedding Light on Science.
For resources for Women’s
History Month, the Boston
Massacre (March 5, 1770),
Brain Awareness Week (March
11-17), and National
Wildlife Week (March 18-24),
see the March
2012 update.
|
|
Notable March Birthdays
Albert
Einstein, physicist (March
14, 1879)
 See
Mathematics Illuminated,
unit 8, "Geometries
Beyond Euclid," for a
discussion of Einstein's
General Theory of Relativity.
Also see unit 5, "Other
Dimensions," for a
discussion on time as the 4th
dimension.
Appreciate the scope of
Einstein's impact on physics
and related fields with The
Mechanical Universe...and
Beyond. In
particular, watch program 25,
"Kepler to Einstein," and
program 43, "Velocity and
Time."
Get a simple explanation of
Einstein's famous equation in
Science in Focus: Energy,
workshop 3, "Transfer
and Conversion of Energy."
Robert Frost, poet
(March 26, 1874)
 American
poet Robert Frost showed in
his work that nature is the
clearest window into human
personality. Poets (including
Frost himself) and academics
read and comment on his poetry
and life in Voices &
Visions, program 5, “Robert Frost.”
What are the poetic
characteristics of Frost’s
work? See American
Passages, unit 10, “Rhythms
in Poetry.” Ask
students to write a Frost-like
poem in which they describe a
job and think about the
relationship between
physical work and reflection.
René Descartes,
mathematician and
philosopher (March 31, 1596)
René
Descartes was the first to use
algebra to solve geometry
problems. Use Cartesian
geometry, or coordinate
geometry, to solve the
distance between two points in
Learning Math: Geometry,
session 6, part C, “Applications
of the Pythagorean Theorem.”
Descartes’ Law of Conservation
of Momentum is the idea that
the total quantity of motion
in the universe is fixed, that
if one thing slowed down and
came to rest, another had to
speed up and start moving.
This law is the focus of The
Mechanical Universe,
program 15, “Conservation
of Momentum,” which
answers the question “What
keeps the universe ticking
away until the end of
time?”
For additional March
birthdays, including Robert
Lowell, Gerardus Mercator, and
Tennessee Williams, see the March
2012 update.
|
|
Annenberg Learner
Announcements
New to Learner.org
How
does a writer learn about
point of view? Writer Daniel
Keyes, author of Flowers for
Algernon, says “by learning
about love… Part of my job as
a writer is to see things
through the eyes of other
people.” Check out the new
Authors’ Notes sections on the
resource page for In
Search of the Novel.
In these interviews, writers
Orson Scott Card, Daniel
Keyes, Leslie Marmon Silko,
and many more share their take
on the qualities of good
writing, how they learned to
write, and the importance of
research and editing.
Buenas Noticias! Nuevos
Destinos, a
continuation of the popular
Destinos Spanish-language
series now streams free from
Learner.org. Nuevos
Destinos is designed for
courses in which less video
and a specific pedagogical
focus are needed.
The Backstory of A Private
Universe: More than 23
years ago video producers
asked new Harvard graduates
some basic science questions
and got surprising answers.
That footage became A
Private Universe, a
documentary that is still used
in education classes today.
Now you can learn how the film
was conceived and created from
its developers and from those
who championed it through the
production process. You’ll
also see what became of the
bright middle school student
in the film, Heather.
See A
Private Universe, 20
Years Later.
|
|
Annenberg Foundation
Update
Annenberg
Space for Photography
Presents “War/Photography”
WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY:
Images of Armed Conflict and
Its Aftermath is a new
photography exhibit at the
Annenberg Space for
Photography in Los Angeles,
organized by The Museum of
Fine Arts, Houston. The
exhibit runs from March 23
through June 2, 2013.
The exhibit encompasses over
150 images going as far back
as 1887 through present-day
and is arranged by themes
presenting both the military
and civilian point of view,
including the advent of war,
daily routines, the fight
itself, the aftermath, medical
care, prisoners of war,
refugees, executions,
memorials, remembrance, and
more. There are many
iconic images in the show such
as Joe Rosenthal’s Old
Glory Goes Up on Mount
Suribachi, Iwo
Jima and Alfred
Eisenstaedt’s V-J Day,
Times Square, New York.
© Louie Palu;
U.S. Marine Gysgt. Carlos “OJ”
Orjuela, age 31,
Garmsir District, Helmand
Province, Afghanistan, from
Project: Home Front (2008)
Keep up with news and
information about the Annenberg
Foundation by
subscribing to one or more of
the Foundation
newsletters.
|
|
|
Sign up to
receive messages highlighting
the news, events, and
programming of Annenberg
Learner, as well as ideas for
using our resources in the
classroom.
|
|
