Books

School leaders and classroom teachers are looking for ways to integrate maker learning into their work in meaningful ways, but they simply don’t have the time, capacity or resources to review, synthesise or adapt existing models into their own school systems. The maker playbook offers a vision and the tools needed to streamline the process, including high-impact strategies you can put directly into action to foster an inclusive maker learning environment.

Our world hinges on storytelling, and the ways in which stories can be told are always evolving. Moviemaking in the classroom provides insight, inspiration and practical ideas to empower teachers in all content areas to implement moviemaking projects with their students.

Developing digital detectives offers easy-to-implement lessons for educators to support learners as they become digital detectives, looking for clues, questioning motives, uncovering patterns, developing theories and, ultimately, delivering a verdict.

Ethics in a digital world is designed to help students consider the systems and structures in which they spend so much of their time, guiding them in looking at the technology around them through a critical lens.

With this book, teachers get the guidance they need to help students engage in learning experiences that allow them to reflect on their level of knowledge and what they need to learn, while exploring topics that correspond with their interests. Readers will learn to guide students in creating tutorial videos, providing peer reviews, curating their own resources, participating in debates and more.

Uncovering student ideas about engineering and technology has the potential to help you take an important first step in teaching for understanding – and perhaps transform your teaching about STEM-related topics.

Show your students how amazing it can be to just ‘see what will happen’ when they blend biology, engineering and serendipity. Focusing on innovations sparked by accidental or unexpected observations, the case studies in this resource are a lively way to integrate engineering and experimentation into your biology classes. Middle and high school students will learn fundamental science processes while using their natural curiosity to explore ideas for new applications and products. They’ll also find out that small, plant-eating mammals called pikas helped scientists find new ways to survive extreme weather events and that algae can be used as airplane fuel.

Rev up robotics shows educators how to begin incorporating robotics in tandem with computational thinking into content area lessons or electives. Part 1 covers the basics, defining robotics and sharing real-world applications along with how to teach foundational skills for computational thinking and computer science. Part 2 shows robotics in practice within the context of content areas and features lesson plans mapped to academic and technology standards, including the ISTE Standards and the Computer Science Teacher Association Standards. Part 3 offers advice on pedagogy and teaching strategies backed by research from the learning sciences, and shares approaches to teaching robotics using project-based learning or as part of after-school clubs or robotics competitions.

Instead of drill-and-practice apps and worksheets, what if technology enabled exploration of mathematics concepts? Instead of screens for disconnected individual learning, what if technology fostered mathematical discourse and collaboration? Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching mathematics, what if we used technology to differentiate to meet students’ diverse needs? Technology has the power to support the teaching and learning of mathematics content at all grade levels, but the presence of technology is insufficient unless it’s paired with effective teaching practices and meaningful content. This book poses and unpacks the above questions and many more, with detailed classroom examples to illustrate practical strategies for integrating technology in the 6-12 classroom.

Make the future! Hands-on sustainability lessons for years 7 & 8 is a resource for secondary classrooms that gives real meaning to the idea of sustainability. Created in line with the Australian Curriculum: Design and Technologies, this book empowers students to make a tangible difference to the environment – and their future. Make the future! combines traditional skills and cutting-edge research to create authentic, purposeful activities that will show your students positive change is not just feasible – it is delicious, stylish, economical and fun!

In NOW Classrooms, Grades 6-8, authors Meg Ormiston, Lauren Slanker, Jennifer Lehotsky, Megan K. Flaherty, Janice Conboy and Whitney Cavanagh stress that real transformational school change focuses on robust teaching and learning, not the ever-evolving devices that may enhance that change. This book presents practical, classroom-tested lessons that grades 6-8 teachers and instructional coaches can use to prime students to actively learn and solve real-world problems. Sets of topical lessons progressively increase in depth and complexity for readers to choose from based on students’ needs. Using these lessons, grounded in the essential four C skills, teachers can connect technology to key learning-area outcomes and prepare students to succeed in the 21st century.

Classrooms today include a diversity of readers, and teachers are called upon to meet the needs of all learners. In particular, they must help students think critically and communicate effectively using visual, print and digital text. Personalized Reading highlights four different types of readers - the struggling reader, the reluctant reader, English learners and advanced readers - and presents ways to use technology tools to accommodate their different reading styles. The strategies and classroom-ready ideas in this book will help secondary educators incorporate technology to promote reading, critical thinking and digital literacy.