ASE: High School Equivalency Preparation

Source: NPR Technology Entries (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

NPR's "All Things Considered" airs its series called "All Tech Considered" which explores the sometimes daunting—always-changing—world of technology. If you are baffled by your cell phone, or your students are wondering what their kids mean when they say they are tweeting on Twitter, All Tech Considered explores many of these areas and could be of help. Try sending your students here to look up information that interests them. Not all stories have an audio component, so look for ones that have "Listen to the Story" or the word "podcast." Podcasts of many of the archived shows are downloadable and the segments are usually under 10 minutes.

Source: Create Monthly Calendars Tool (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

Flickr Toys, also known as Big Huge Labs, is the Website for doing creative, fun projects with digital images that the user uploads, or by using Flickr images, Photobucket images, or entering the URL (Web address) for an online image.

By uploading a photo, a wide range of special effects can be added, including adding a museum-style matte, making a jigsaw puzzle from a photo, making a mosaic from several pictures, adding photo frames, giving a photo a Warhol effect (a la Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe pop art—see sample below), transforming a photo into bead art, making a cube of photos, making a photo collage, and creating a pocket-sized photo album.

For literacy, ABE, and other classes, the site's other image tools can be used as the bases for writing and speaking assignments. The types of projects both instructors and students can do using the site are numerous.

For this activity, have students make a monthly calendar with a class photo.

Source: The Biology of Skin Color (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

Students watch and analyze the HHMI BioInteractive video The Biology of Skin Color to explore how human skin color evolved as an adaptation to varying levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation around the world. Through discussion, guided note-taking, and collaborative activities, students examine the roles of melanin, vitamin D, folate, genetics, and natural selection in human variation.