Contributed by Mike Portuesi Zoodles Engineering Team

When I’m not building new product features here at Zoodles, I’m very involved with Astronomy as a hobby. It gives me the opportunity to engage the public, especially young people, and share my excitement with astronomy and science in general. One of the joys of my work as a citizen science educator includes judging duties at the San Francisco Middle School Science Fair.

This year’s fair included 210 entries, pooled from the winning projects at twenty-nine schools across San Francisco. Around 30 volunteer judges with career experience in science and technical fields break into teams of three to four people to judge entries across three grade levels (6th, 7th, and 8th) as well as three categories (Biological Sciences, Behavioral and Health Sciences, and Physical Sciences).  I was the team lead judging 7th grade Physical Sciences, which included 22 entries.

Every year, I’m impressed by the thought and creativity that go into the projects, and this year was no exception.  Some of the more notable entries I encountered include:

Clouds in a Jar - inspired by the notion of catching and bottling a bit of ‘magic’, the student tried generating clouds in a jar with a crafty process involving water, a match and a rubber glove.

Can my Laptop Get Better Reception? – in this case, the student, wanting better wireless network connectivity for his computer, built radio antennas from cookie sheets, wire strainers and Pringles cans, and judged their effectiveness.

Singing Wine Glasses – The student investigated how liquids alter the sound produced when you run a finger over the rim of a wine glass.  The student experimented with not only the amount of liquid, but the viscosity, including such odd ingredients as almond butter!

Our team rated each project in three areas:

Methodology – Did the student come up with appropriate “controls”, or standards of comparison for the experiment? Was the experimental procedure sound?  I look for experiments where the student investigates the “whys”, or the science principles behind the experiment, rather than just demonstrates an effect or makes simple measurements (as in one project that simply timed the speed of popular web browsers).

Creativity – Is this an original, offbeat idea, or did the student pull the project from a book like “101 Science Fair Projects”? The most creative projects, like “Clouds in a Jar”, were motivated by a student’s real-life observation, which piqued their curiosity and spurred them to learn more through discovery.

Communication – How well did the student present his or her hypothesis, procedure, experimental data and conclusions?  Are the charts and graphs clear?  As judges, we value clarity and completeness over slick presentations produced with fancy graphics software.

Science Fair Do’s and Don’ts

A science fair project is a perfect way you and your child can have a rewarding, enriching experience together, and maybe produce one of tomorrow’s generation of scientists and engineers.

Here’s some ways you and your child can work together to produce a winning entry:

• Gently urge your child to come up with their own idea from real life that will motivate them and make them excited. These projects get the most time with, and discussion amongst, the judges.
• Photos are a great way not only to spice up the look of the project, but also to give the judges a real flavor for what the student really did.
• Let the child lead, and drive the direction of the project. You can assist the child with trickier bits, and suggest resources for more information, but don’t give them answers outright or do their work for them. Trust me: the judges can tell.
• Make sure your child provides proper credit where credit is due, if he/she includes materials from elsewhere or gets help with various aspects of the project. Judges always react positively to honesty, but will mark down projects where they suspect another’s work used without attribution.
• It’s okay to include background research in your final presentation, such as a report.  Even quoting Wikipedia works for me, if I have a feeling the child actually read and learned from it, rather than just hit copy/paste.  But make sure the background information is not the centerpiece of the offering. Judges want to see more than a book report, they want to see true creative, experimental effort on the child’s part.

One of the best ways to instill  a love of learning in kids is to find the teaching moments in everyday life, not just in school.  Well why not try the Olympics?

Recently we caught wind of an amazing partnership between NBC Learn and the National Science Foundation to create a project called Science of the Olympic Winter Games. Through the partnership, NBC Learn and the NSF have produced 15 short, engaging videos where Olympic athletes – many of whom are starring in the 2010 Winter Games – explain the mechanics behind their sport.

In one video, figure skater Rachel Flatt practices her routines in front of a phantom camera that captures her motion at rates of up to 1500 frames per second.  Sports science professor Deborah King then breaks down each of Rachel’s moves – from her quadruple toe loops to her basic spins – explaining concepts like angular momentum, vertical velocity, and other laws of motion.  Deborah even uses the spinning chair in her office to demonstrate the concepts herself!

The dynamic videos, which you can watch at NBC Learn, use the thrill and competition of the Winter Olympics to teach physical concepts like the air lift in ski jumps, the forces involved in a hockey slapshot, and the careful design behind ice skates, snowboards, safety gear, and even the suits athletes wear.

Pair these videos with their accompanying lesson plans at Lessonopoly.org, and you’ve got a slew of amazing science lessons in your back pocket.  Elizabeth Rhodes, the developer of the curriculum, said her hope was that kids would watch the Olympics and realize,

“Science isn’t something that’s in a book; it’s out there on the ice, it’s there with the skiers, it’s in the hockey and curling.”

When the Olympics are over, the learning doesn’t have to stop there.  Thousands more math and science lessons can be found at Lessonopoly.org, an ambitious project supported by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation that lets teachers share their materials and make them freely available online.

Read more about this partnership in the San Jose Mercury News article, “Students learn the science of Olympics.”

With the end of fall comes parent teacher conferences, and many parents have just experienced, or are nervously anticipating, one of the few chances they have to sit down with their child’s teacher and hear how their child is doing in school.

In her article “Preparing for the Parent Teacher Conference,”  long time teacher Diane Milne mentions a number of helpful ways to ease your nerves and communicate or understand everything you’ve been wanting to know about your child in half an hour.  We’ve boiled her thoughts down into 8 basic tips:

1. Write your questions down beforehand, in prioritized order.
2. Touch not only on your child’s academic performance at school, but their social well being.
3. Ask how you can help your child do better in school.
4. Be honest when the teacher asks you questions in return.
5. Even when you disagree, keep an even temper and do not accuse or insult the teacher.
6. Work towards a solution that involves both of you.
7. Be willing to share what is going on in your child’s home life that may affect his time at school.
8. End on a note that makes the teacher feel supported and appreciated.

Supporting your child’s education extends beyond his or her teacher – there are also a number of ways to support your child by supporting their school, their local community, and other parents.  Read what the PTA (Parent Teacher Association) suggests as 100 Ways to Help Your Child and School Succeed.

Still left in the dark?

Of course, no matter how effective your parent teacher conference is, half an hour with the person who spends 30 hours a week with your child will never feel like enough.  No matter how well intending, busy parents plus busy teachers make for a *very busy* combination.   The result?  You start to feel left in the dark.  Increasingly disconnected from what your child can or can’t do, what they like, or what they’re good at.  You start to battle this constant worry that you’re not doing enough, this guilt that you’re not there every time your child learns something new.

It was this feeling of helplessness, and our desire to empower parents to be part of their child’s development, that drove us to create many of the Parental Features on Zoodles.

Our hope is that the weekly email updates, the vibrant graphs and pictures, and all the powerful controls we afford you, will help you feel more like a participant in your child’s learning journey.  Whether in school or at play, your child is growing every day, and we don’t want any parent to feel like they might be missing out.

Do you remember those long hours you spent in 3rd grade tracing the loops of your p’s and q’s? The slow cramp that developed in your hand as you clenched your #2 pencil?

Well we’re happy to say those days are gone.  A recent article by the Associated Press pays tribute to the waning use of cursive in schools.  “Cursive writing may be a fading skill, but so what?” the article is titled.  Even at Zoodles we’ve been forced to consider the value of learning cursive – we keep track of games that teach Penmanship, but we’ve yet to encounter any!  Meanwhile, the number of Zoodles games teaching Typing and Computer Literacy continues to increase.  Check out a few below!

Despite our company “meh” on the death of cursive, we still thought of some neat activities you can use to help your child start practicing their handwriting, with or without the loops.

Wipe Clean Activity Books

We heard this one straight from the moms!  Roger Priddy’s developed cardboard books that little kids can write on using dry erase markers!  It’s the perfect activity for tracing letters and learning to love books – just make sure your little ones know which books to write on!

Writing on Foggy Windows

Whether it’s on the mirror in your bathroom or the window by their carseat, nothing’s more fun than tracing letters on foggy surfaces!  Take advantage of these magical moments by encouraging your child to write their name or draw some animals.  Both improve fine motor skills!

Put Old Checkbooks to Use!

Nothing talks louder than money!  Let your children practice their handwriting while filling out old or fake checks to themselves.  Some parents even use “checks” from “The Family Bank” as rewards for good behavior!  Whether or not the activity’s tied to rewards, most kids will just have fun playing grown-up.  Writing checks not only gets in some good practice writing numbers and letters, but it even sneaks in some *cursive* when they get started on their signature!     If you prefer not to use old checks, here’s a link to some printable check templates for kids.

It’s our job to find the best educational content on the web.  Period.  For a lot of parents it can be a struggle to sift through everything that’s out there and come back with fun, engaging games that – to top it all off – are at their child’s grade level.  Since we’ve already been doing that work, we thought we’d share some of the best stuff we’ve found.  While Zoodles features hundreds of math games from across the Internet, we’ve highlighted four of the best websites for teaching math.  Our hope is not only to clue you in on what kinds of games your child’s been playing on Zoodles, but to give you a chance to explore them on your own.  Each of these sites have tremendously beneficial sections that for security or technical reasons can’t be featured within the Zoodles browser.  Read about them below and see why they’re worth checking out yourself!

1) FactMonster

The best thing about FactMonster is that it creates animated storylines and characters that give context around each of the math concepts being taught. For budding mathematicians just learning to count, Big Count Bayou features a fox, a moose, and some frogs who recruit your child’s help in counting, adding, and grouping animals in the bayou. For higher grade levels, Cowboy Math teaches kids how to crack codes on vaults using complex addition and multiplication. Fraction Cafe asks kids to help build pizzas for Frenchy using different amounts of toppings. Baseball Geometry motivates kids to listen to the Coach as he draws up a game plan involving angles, and then to answer some geometry questions to earn at-bats! Each of the animated storylines have distinct sections that teach progressively harder math concepts.

Why you should check it out:
Because the games are designed by the popular curriculum publisher Pearson Digital Learning, the math concepts are also paired with printable flashcards and activities for parents to supplement the activities with.

2) Arcademic Skill Builders

Arcademic Skill Builders focuses less on teaching math concepts and more on improving the speed and ease of doing mental math. What’s great about Arcademic Skill Builders is that they situate this practice in highly engaging arcade-like games that involve racing or some other form of competition. Each of the games can also be tailored specifically to your child’s level, as you can set the range of numbers to be used in the problems.

Why you should check it out:
They have the unique quality of embedding math problems into online Multi-Player games, which further engages kids who are motivated by competition. While Zoodles does allow kids to play the single-player games, we have blocked access to the multi-player games for safety purposes. If you don’t mind having your child interact with others online, the multi-player games are definitely worth checking out!

3) Funschool

Funschool is an amazing website if only for the high quality of animation used in their games. While Funschool also features games in other subjects, their math games are extremely popular with Zoodles users. Among the most popular are games you might recognize: Addition Attack, Fishin Mission, and Cannon Math!

Why you should check it out:
Of the 34 math games that Funschool offers, Zoodles only includes 7 in the Zoodles browser because of technical incompatibilities.

4) School Time Games

Last but not least is School Time Games. What makes School Time Games unique from the other sites is that its games focus more on the abstract concepts involved in mathematical thinking, rather than the procedural concepts more commonly taught in school. Its games – listed both under Mathematics and Puzzles – hone skills like spatial reasoning, logical thinking, strategy, and memory. The graphics aren’t as great as some of the other sites, but the games can keep you going for hours!

Why you should check it out:
Like the others, School Time Games focuses not just on fun games, but on fun educational games, and brands itself as “wholesome learning fun for kids.” What we’ve found is that many of its games are wholesome learning fun for adults too!