Fast Plants
These special plants are super fast – they grow from seed to plant in 35 to 40 days. This speed makes them perfect to use in the classroom as models for hands-on investigative science. The Web site guides teachers on how to use the activities in the classroom, and students can find links to share their research results and check out other activities. Fast Plants were developed at UW–Madison in the plant research program. First used by research scientists in the laboratory, they are now used in classrooms around the world. The Wisconsin Fast Plants Program is a science education/outreach program for teachers that develops instructional materials, offers workshops, promotes networking, and collaborates with other educational initiatives.
Food for Thought: The Cookie Analogy
Food for Thought: The Cookie Analogy introduces the topic of heredity to high school students by using the familiar to explain the unfamiliar. The familiar in this case is cookies and cookie recipes – the unfamiliar is genetics concepts, including phenotype and genotype. The familiar becomes a model that is used to help students understand concepts that are often difficult to learn without using highly technical terminology. The activity also can be used to help students learn terms that may be commonly used, but are often misunderstood. It can be easily adapted for other grade levels or to include other topics.
Freedom's Journal
The Wisconsin Historical Society has digitized the first African-American owned and operated newspaper published in the United States, Freedom's Journal. The Journal was published weekly in New York City from 1827 to 1829. Freedom's Journal provided international, national, and regional information on current events and contained editorials declaiming slavery, lynching, and other injustices. The Journal also published biographies of prominent African-Americans and listings of births, deaths, and marriages in the African-American New York community. Freedom's Journal circulated in 11 states, the District of Columbia, Haiti, Europe, and Canada.
Fun with Forensic Chemistry Camp
The Department of Chemistry's Institute for Chemical Education (ICE) offers an afternoon laboratory program in chemistry for middle school students entering grades 6–8. Fun With Chemistry Camp is designed to stimulate scientific curiosity through demonstrations, experiments, and hands-on activities. Campers will learn how to gather evidence, apply forensic science techniques, and employ the scientific method to solve daily mysteries and crimes.
Games, Learning and Society Conference
This annual summer conference in Madison is designed to foster substantive discussion and collaboration among academics, designers, and educators interested in how video games – commercial games and others – can enhance learning, culture, and education. The conference features speakers, discussion groups, and interactive workshops that focus on game design, game culture, and games’ potential for learning. The event is sponsored by the Academic Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Co-Lab and the UW–Madison School of Education.
Geology Museum
Mastodons, saber-toothed cats and sharks, oh my! Visitors to the Geology Museum will see exhibits of rocks, minerals, meteorites, a fluorescent mineral black light display, a walk-through model of a Wisconsin limestone cave, and fossils, including the skeletons of dinosaurs, a shark, a mosasaur, a mastodon, a saber-toothed cat, and the flying reptile Pteranodon. Guided group tours for all ages and backgrounds are available upon request. The Web site has information on tours and galleries of minerals and fossils; museum activities for kids, parents, and teachers; and outreach programs. The museum is open to the public throughout the year and is handicapped accessible. It is easily reached by city bus. Admission is free.
Give Water a Hand
Give Water A Hand is a watershed education program designed to involve young people in local environmental service projects. Following steps in the Give Water A Hand Action Guide, youth plan and complete a community service project to protect and improve water resources. Program activities are presented in two publications – the youth Action Guide and the Leader Guidebook (for youth leaders and teachers). These easy-to-follow, illustrated guides show how to organize and carry out effective action-oriented projects. The program is sponsored by the Environmental Resources Center.
Global Studies K-12 Outreach
Global Studies aims to help educators integrate global content into the curriculum and to increase students' awareness of global issues in order to prepare them for citizenship in an increasingly interconnected world. The program's Web site includes links to its global environmental education curriculum for social studies and science teachers, World Ecosystems Beyond Borders (WEBB). Each unit compares environmental issues faced by Wisconsin communities with similar issues faced by communities abroad. The Global Studies Web site also includes summer teacher workshops, one-day workshops, recommended global education resources, and much more.
Global Studies, Teaching, and the Curriculum
Available for the first time in the fall of 2007, this program offers either a 24-credit master's degree for teachers or a 12-credit advanced studies certificate for special students. Both options will allow participants to critically reflect on major issues facing the world today and to plan new approaches to curriculum and instruction, from early childhood through secondary levels. Coursework is designed to accommodate teachers' work schedules, with classes in the late afternoon, evenings, or on weekends. The program has been developed by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education, in cooperation with the UW-Madison Global Studies Program.
Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
Grandparents raising grandchildren have an important responsibility because the children they are raising face unique challenges. This series of nine fact sheets is designed to help grandparents learn more about what to expect and where to turn for support. The series is tailored specifically for grandparents raising young children (birth to age 8). Topics include understanding children's behaviors, the importance of close relationships and open communication, and maintaining contact with parents. The series was developed by the University of Wisconsin–Extension.
Grandparents University
The Wisconsin Alumni Association® and UW–Extension Family Living Programs offer Grandparents UniversitySM each summer. This two-day workshop is a chance for children (recommended ages 7–14) and their grandparents to come together and learn from each other in a dynamic atmosphere at the UW–Madison campus. Over the course of two days, participants will share hands-on learning activities, attend a tailgate party and take part in evening recreation, stay in one of the university dormitories, earn a "degree" in one of the offered majors, and enjoy their time together.
Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC)
The mission of GLBRC Education & Outreach is to inform a variety of audiences about bioenergy research, energy concerns, and sustainability issues affecting our planet. The center's goal is to broaden the understanding of current issues in bioenergy for the general public, and students and educators at the K-12, undergraduate and graduate levels. It places a strong emphasis on the use of critical thinking, quantitative reasoning and systems-based logic. Because bioenergy research and development are extremely important contemporary issues, Education & Outreach uses a variety of programs and events to present research from GLBRC labs in a way that is accessible and interesting to a broad array of audiences. The center's resources and projects include inquiry-based bioenergy classroom activities for K-12 education, libraries of information on bioenergy, energy and sustainability, bioenergy-focused materials for undergraduate and graduate levels, summer undergraduate research programs, summer research experience for teachers, and public speaking engagements.
Great Lakes Online
Great Lakes Online, the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Web site, is a rich resource of Great Lakes information. Wisconsin Sea Grant is a statewide science program working toward the sustainable use of Wisconsin's Great Lakes resources. Its Web site explores topics such as cool science, diving, fish, frogs, glaciers, shipwrecks, underwater exploration, and zebra mussels. It provides resources for teachers and parents, as well as great information for students.
Group Tour Office - UW-Madison
Campus visits can be customized for groups of many ages and areas of interest. Office staff can recommend attractions, build a tour itinerary, and provide trained tour guides for each visit.
This Web site does not have a separate category for "children's" or K12-suitable tours. There are many, however.
Harappa: An Ancient City
Ancient Harappa, founded over 5,000 years ago, was one of the world's first cities. Harappa.com is an excellent K–12 teaching resource for South Asia's past. The objective is archaeological – literally, in the case of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, and metaphorically, in the excavations of early modern media from the period of colonial British Rule, also called the British Raj period. Half of the Web site is dedicated to the ancient city of Harappa and other Indus civilization sites. The other half deals with the other end of Indian and Pakistani history, through early media – especially photographs and film as well as lithographs and engravings.