Category: About Us
Three international students will spend the summer coding for our open source projects. Through Google Summer of Code (GSoC), they’ll earn stipends from Google, plus get a coveted GSoC t-shirt and certificate.
Paul Horwitz has written a chapter of the book “Multiple Representations in Biological Education,” edited by David F. Treagust and Chi-Yan Tsui, and published by Springer Verlag. The chapter, entitled “Evolution is a model, why not teach it that way?,” describes our Evolution Readiness learning activities and research about their use with fourth grade students.
Our SmartGraphs project team conducted additional experimental research this fall. Nearly three dozen eighth and ninth grade physical science teachers in Pennsylvania used SmartGraphs activities with 75 different classes. One finding that has emerged quickly is that teachers were very satisfied with the online activities.
Dr. Pendred “Penny” Noyce served on Concord Consortium’s Board of Directors from 1997 to 2012. She was instrumental in launching the Virtual High School as an independent nonprofit and became chair of our board in 2008 to lead the presidential search committee.
MOOCs are all the rage. However, don’t worry if you don’t recognize the acronym. It popped up only last fall, when Stanford offered—free of charge—a graduate-level course in artificial intelligence. Over 160,000 students from 190 countries signed up, defining what is quickly becoming a new genre in online education: the Massive Open Online Course or MOOC.
What might the climate of the future be like? Students explore this question in the High-Adventure Science curriculum unit “Modeling Earth’s Climate.” And in the October issue of The Science Teacher, Amy Pallant, Hee-Sun Lee, and Sarah Pryputniewicz describe the systems approach to the curriculum.
Cynthia McIntyre, Trudi Lord and Paul Horwitz describe the Evolution Readiness curriculum in the October issue of Science & Children, which focuses on hard-to-teach concepts. The computer-based and hands-on activities help fourth grade students learn the big ideas of evolution.
Energy2D, an open-source, interactive energy simulation tool, is now available for free download. Install the first stable version of Energy2D as a desktop app and create high-quality simulations that run in Web browsers for heat transfer, fluid dynamics, geoscience and more.
Andy Zucker argues that we must transform schools to make them more engaging and effective. In “Using Digital Tools to Help Transform Schools” in the spring 2012 issue of AdvancED Source, Zucker notes that digital tools serve as an important means, not an end to transformation.
We’re delighted to announce that we were awarded a Smaller Business Association of New England (SBANE) Innovation award. The Concord Consortium was selected from 268 innovative companies and joins the “Circle of Excellence” with past winners, including Staples, PictureTel, Ben & Jerry’s, Brooks Automation, Direct Tire, Genzyme, Nantucket Nectars, Imagitas!, Aurora Imaging Technology, and iRobot.