Who is The Happy Scientist?

Who is The Happy Scientist?
Rob Krampf’s lifelong love of science began when he was five years old. Like many five year olds, Rob was obsessed with dinosaurs, and decided that when he grew up, he wanted to be a scientist and dig up dinosaur bones. He never outgrew that obsession, and it led him to a career in museum education, and eventually to digging dinosaur bones with some of the top paleontologists, but that was only the beginning.

Even as a child, Rob’s love of science blossomed far beyond dinosaurs, ranging from kitchen chemistry to exploring pond water through a microscope. His family supported and encouraged his scientific adventures, putting up with smelly chemistry experiments, escaped pet lizards, and several hundred of pounds of rocks stored under his bed.

While studying geology in college, Rob volunteered in the Collections and Education Departments at the Memphis Pink Palace Museum. This quickly developed into a real job as a science educator, and eventually Science Services Coordinator. During his thirteen years at the Pink Palace, Rob had the pleasure of working with (and learning from) some of the most amazing educators he had ever met. He wound up teaching lab and field classes in geology, biology, chemistry, and physics. This included everything from digging dinosaurs bones in South Dakota to studying Gray Whales off the coast of Mexico, from mapping caves in Tennessee to standing barefoot in a pan of water with million volt sparks from a Tesla coil jumping from his fingertips.

In 1987, Rob was ready for new challenges, and went into business as an independent science educator. Rob put together "Watt is Electricity", a traveling high voltage program designed to show students and adults that science could be exciting and understandable. Living on the road, he toured the country full time for seven years, looping from Key West, Florida to Seattle, Washington. Along the way, he researched and developed new programs on Lightning, Combustion, and Energy, combining the excitement of dust explosions and setting my hand on fire, with understandable explanations of how and why the demonstrations work.

By 1994, Rob was again ready for new challenges, and took a job at the Museum of Science and History in Jacksonville, Florida. A job that started with outreach programming and program development quickly lead to a position as Director of Education and Collections. While it was exciting to "hold the reins", it meant giving up most of his teaching time in favor of meetings and paperwork.
By 1997, Rob was more than ready to leave the meetings behind, and get back to work as an educator. With a home base in St. Augustine, he started working with Florida Power and Light (now FPL). They contracted with him to present my Electricity and Energy shows at schools across their service area, about half the state of Florida. Visiting as many as 180 schools a year kept Rob busy, but it also gave him plenty of opportunities to develop the hobby of nature photography in the Everglades and Florida's wetlands.

In 2006, another adventure came Rob’s way in the form of science videos. While the live performances are lots of fun, he realized he can only be in one place at a time, and demand far exceeded his abilities. It also meant presenting his most popular programs over, and over, and over. Through video, Rob found a way to reach a much larger audience, and the freedom to develop a stream of new programs, often on a weekly basis. 

The challenge of learning the art of video production has been almost as exciting as the new teaching opportunities it has presented. Today, Rob does most of his work as a "lone wolf" producer, traveling with his wife, Nancy to find new science adventures to share. It is a wonderful life, and it makes him a very Happy Scientist.

Britannica Online School Edition K-12

Britannica Online School Edition K-12 gives teachers and students instant access to four complete encyclopedias that ensure consistency with classroom topics and age-appropriate language. This unique database also offers high-quality online learning materials that are developed by teachers and curriculum experts. Designed for all levels of learning, Britannica Online School Edition K-12 offers students a gateway to the vast resources of Encyclopædia Britannica.

In addition to the vast trove of information in Britannica Online School Edition K-12's four unique encyclopedias, we also feature thousands of magazine and journal articles from EBSCO, an Internet Guide with editor-selected Web sites chosen for their relevancy and educational value, teacher resources, videos, multimedia, interactive lessons, and thousands of images and illustrations that help bring subjects to life. If you would like to learn more about Britannica Online School Edition K-12, view our Guided Tour.

Titles that are award-winning; content that is curriculum aligned and recommended by teachers and industry leaders; information that teachers, professors, and librarians are confident using and sharing: this is what constitutes the Britannica Difference. With Britannica, you teach with confidence; they know for sure.

Students and educators can access their Britannica Online subscriptions through mobile devices including the iPhone and Blackberry. Simply have your institution's username and password ready for authentication, and you'll have anytime, anywhere access to Britannica!


Today, Encyclopædia Britannica serves teachers, librarians, and all ages of students better than ever before. The youngest students can reinforce what they're learning in the classroom with the Britannica Discovery Library or the new online Britannica Learning Zone. Science teachers will want to introduce the new Britannica Illustrated Science Library to their middle school students. And the Compton's 2008 edition is a stunning update to this award-winning product that belongs in every library. And the list goes on. Encyclopedia Britannica

Educational Resources for all ages

Khan Academy - free world-class education for anyone anywhere

Learn almost anything for free.

A free world-class education for anyone anywhere.

The Khan Academy is an organization on a mission. We're a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere.

All of the site's resources are available to anyone. It doesn't matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. The Khan Academy's materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge.



With a library of over 2,400 videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and 180 practice exercises, we're on a mission to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace.

How it works for students

Students can make use of our extensive video library, practice exercises, and assessments from any computer with access to the web.

Complete custom self-paced learning tool
A dynamic system for getting help
A custom profile, points, and badges to measure progress

Coaches, parents, and teachers

Coaches, parents, and teachers have unprecedented visibility into what their students are learning and doing on the Khan Academy.

Ability to see any student in detail
A real-time class report for all students
Better intelligence for doing targeted interventions

Over 2400 videos

Our library of videos covers K-12 math, science topics such as biology, chemistry, and physics, and even reaches into the humanities with playlists on finance and history. Each video is a digestible chunk, approximately 10 minutes long, and especially purposed for viewing on the computer.

"I teach the way that I wish I was taught. The lectures are coming from me, an actual human being who is fascinated by the world around him."
—Sal

A world of exercises, with help along the way

Practice math at your own pace with our adaptive assessment exercises. You can start at 1+1 and work your way into calculus or jump right into whatever topic needs some brushing up.

Each problem is randomly generated, so you never run out of practice material. If you need a hint, every single problem can be broken down, step-by-step, with one click. If you need more help, you can always watch a related video.


I'm a teacher, coach, or parent, how do I start using the site with my student(s)?
First things first: you need an account, and you need to be signed in on the Khan Academy. So, sign in or sign up. Once you've got an account you can actually start getting students to add you as their coach.

The next step: every student that you want to coach needs an account as well. Students over 13 can sign up for Google or Facebook accounts immediately.

If your students are under 13:

You currently have two options: you can sign your school up for Google Apps for Education, which will help you provide each student with a Google account that can be used with Khan Academy, or you can have your students' parents individually create accounts for each student on either Google or Facebook. We are constantly working to improve this situation, but that's the best we've got at the moment (sorry!).

If you already have Google Apps for Education accounts but aren't able to use them to sign in on the Khan Academy, you might need to upgrade your account.

Clicking "Get started" should take you through the process to finish the upgrade. Khan academy

Once this is done, each student will need to identify you as their coach. There are detailed instructions and screenshots on the Coach page

Lexile® Measure ? reader measure from a reading test or program.

What is a Lexile® Measure?

A Lexile measure is a valuable piece of information about either an individual's reading ability or the difficulty of a text, like a book or magazine article. The Lexile measure is shown as a number with an "L" after it — 880L is 880 Lexile.

A student gets his or her Lexile reader measure from a reading test or program. For example, if a student receives an 880L on her end-of-grade reading test, she is an 880 Lexile reader. Higher Lexile measures represent a higher level of reading ability. A Lexile reader measure can range from below 200L for beginning readers to above 1700L for advanced readers. Readers who score at or below 0L receive a BR for Beginning Reader.
A book, article or piece of text gets a Lexile text measure when it's analyzed by MetaMetrics. For example, the first "Harry Potter" book measures 880L, so it's called an 880 Lexile book. A Lexile text measure is based on two strong predictors of how difficult a text is to comprehend: word frequency and sentence length. Many other factors affect the relationship between a reader and a book, including its content, the age and interests of the reader, and the design of the actual book. The Lexile text measure is a good starting point in the book-selection process, with these other factors then being considered. Lexile text measures are rounded to the nearest 10L. Text measures at or below 0L are reported as BR for Beginning Reader.

The idea behind The Lexile Framework for Reading is simple: if we know how well a student can read and how hard a specific book is to comprehend, we can predict how well that student will likely understand the book.
When used together, Lexile measures help a reader find books and articles at an appropriate level of difficulty (visit Find a Book ), and determine how well that reader will likely comprehend a text. You also can use Lexile measures to monitor a reader's growth in reading ability over time.

Lexile Measures Help Readers Grow, and Help Parents and Teachers Know

Teachers and parents can best serve a student's literacy needs when they treat him or her as a unique individual, rather than as a test score or a grade-level norm or average. The reading abilities of young people in the same grade at school can vary just as much as their shoe sizes. However, grade-leveling methods commonly are used to match students with books.
When a Lexile text measure matches a Lexile reader measure, this is called a "targeted" reading experience. The reader will likely encounter some level of difficulty with the text, but not enough to get frustrated. This is the best way to grow as a reader—with text that's not too hard but not too easy.

When you receive a Lexile measure, try not to focus on the exact number. Instead, consider a reading range around the number. A person's Lexile range, or reading comprehension "sweet spot," is from 100L below to 50L above his or her reported Lexile measure. Use this Lexile range in our Find a Book search. And don't be afraid to look at books above and below someone's Lexile range. Just know that a reader might find these books particularly challenging or simple.

If a student tackles reading material above his or her Lexile range, consider what additional instruction or lower-level reading resources might help. Ask him or her to keep track of unknown words, and look them up together. Or take turns reading aloud to each other to chop up the reading experience into smaller portions. Likewise, you can reward students with books that fall below his or her Lexile range for an easier reading experience.

What is a Lexile measure?
There are two kinds of Lexile measures: the Lexile reader measure and the Lexile text measure. Students receive a Lexile reader measure as a score from a reading test - it describes his or her reading ability. Books and other texts receive a Lexile text measure from a software tool called the Lexile Analyzer - it describes the book's reading demand or difficulty.
When used together, these measures can help match a reader with reading material that is at an appropriate difficulty, or help give an idea of how well a reader will comprehend a text. The Lexile reader measure can also be used to monitor a reader's growth in reading ability over time. Lexile helps readers grow, and helps parents and teachers know.

When a Lexile text measure matches or is in the range of a Lexile reader measure, this is called a targeted reading experience. The reader will encounter some level of difficulty with the text, but not enough to get frustrated. This is the best way to grow as a reader - reading text that's not too hard but not too easy.

What can I do with my Lexile measure?

You can easily find "just right" books either for school or for pleasure reading. You can also easily know when a reader might need a little help, or a little more challenge.

When you receive your Lexile measure from a test, try not to focus on the exact number. Instead, consider a reading range around the number. A young person's Lexile range, or reading "sweet spot," is from 100L below to 50L above his or her reported measure. Use this range in our Find a Book search. And don't be afraid to look at books above and below someone's Lexile range. Just know that a reader might find these books particularly challenging or simple.

If a student tackles reading material above his or her Lexile range, consider what additional instruction or lower-level reading resources might help. Ask him or her to keep track of unknown words, and look them up together. Or take turns reading aloud to each other to chop up the reading experience into smaller portions. Likewise, you can reward students with easy reading just as adults like to grab a couple of pulp novels to read in the beach chair.

Where can I receive a Lexile measure?

MetaMetrics does not publish tests that report Lexile measures. Neither is there an online test on our Web site. Instead, we partner with state departments of education and test publishers to create assessments or link existing assessments to report Lexile measures. Currently, students can receive Lexile measures from many different tests and reading programs.

What is the relationship between grade equivalents and Lexile measures?

There is no direct correspondence of a specific Lexile measure to a specific grade level. Within any classroom or grade, there will be a range of readers and a range of reading materials. For example, in a fifth-grade classroom there will be some readers who are ahead of the typical reader (about 250L above) and some readers who are behind the typical reader (about 250L below). To say that some books are "just right" for fifth graders assumes that all fifth graders are reading at about the same level. The Lexile Framework for Reading is intended to match readers with texts at whatever level each individual reader is reading.

With that said, we have a more detailed explanation and a chart available that shows Lexile ranges from actual test scores across the nation in each grade. Please keep in mind, the "Reader Measures" column of this chart is not to be taken as recommended ranges. This is simply where young readers are reading. And know that students scored above and below these ranges as well -- the ranges in the table are the middle 50% of students in each grade

Click here to visit:  lexile

BrainPOP - animated, curriculum-based content that engages students

Founded in 1999, BrainPOP creates animated, curriculum-based content that engages students, supports educators, and bolsters achievement. Our award-winning online educational resources include BrainPOP Jr. (K-3), BrainPOP, BrainPOP Español, and BrainPOP ESL. In June 2011, we launched GameUp™, a collection of top free online game titles that tie right in to curriculum. All of our resources are supported by BrainPOP Educators, our teacher community now more than 135,000 members strong and featuring free lesson plans, video tutorials, professional development tools, graphic organizers, best practices, groups and forums, and much more.

Ideal for both group and one-on-one settings, BrainPOP is used in numerous ways in classrooms, at home, and on mobile devices, from introducing a new lesson or topic to illustrating complex subject matter to reviewing before a test. Content is mapped to Common Core, aligned to academic standards, and easily searchable with our online Standards Tool. Uniquely suited for 21st-century learning, all products are fully compatible with interactive whiteboards, learner response systems, projectors, Macs, and PCs. No downloading, installation, or special hardware is required.

BrainPOP was conceived by Dr. Avraham Kadar, M.D., an immunologist and pediatrician, as a creative way to explain difficult concepts to his young patients. Today, we host more than 11 million visits to our web sites each month. We take pride in our in-house team of educators, animators, and writers, who produce and continually improve BrainPOP, incorporating valuable teacher and parent input. We are aided by diverse group of educators who serve as our Academic Advisors.

BrainPop

To start exploring BrainPOP Jr., BrainPOP, BrainPOP Español, and BrainPOP ESL, register for our Free Trial. BrainPOP Educators and GameUp are always free.

Kid Blog - fun and safe for all

Kidblog is different
Kidblog is built by teachers, for teachers, so students can get the most out of the blogging process.
Kidblog meets the need for a safe and simple blogging platform suitable for elementary and middle school students. Most importantly, Kidblog allows teachers to monitor and control all publishing activity within the classroom blogging community.

If you've tried (perhaps with limited success) other blogging platforms like Blogger, Edublogs, or Wordpress.com, you'll notice the Kidblog difference immediately!


Kidblog is Safe

Kidblog's advanced privacy features put safety first:
•Teachers have administrative control over all student blogs and student accounts.
•Your students' blogs are private by default - viewable only by classmates and the teacher.
•For "semi-public" blogs, set up guest (e.g. parent) accounts that require a password to view students' posts/comments.
•Comment privacy settings block unsolicited comments from outside sources.
•Kidblog does not collect any personal information from teachers or students.


Kidblog is Simple

Kidblog helps your students focus on what's important:

• No advertising of any kind.
• Simple login menus allow students to select their name from a list of students in the class, eliminating the need to memorize usernames.
• Clutter-free design means your students will spend less time fussing with widgets/options and more time publishing.
• Central blog directory and simple navigation links make it easy for students to find classmates' blogs.

Go to KidBlog and sign up today.

Fun for all.

FunBrain - free educational games, online books, and comics

About Funbrain

Since 1997, kids, teachers, librarians, and parents have enthusiastically turned to Funbrain for its free educational games, online books, and comics. Funbrain, created for kids ages preschool through grade 8, offers more than 100 fun, interactive games that develop skills in math, reading, and literacy. Plus, kids can read a variety of popular books and comics on the site, including Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Amelia Writes Again, and Brewster Rocket.

Teachers and librarians can confidently encourage students to use Funbrain during their free time in class, assured that kids will enjoy an educational, safe online learning experience. Funbrain's games help students build on what they have learned in class and acquire new skills in reading, math, and problem solving.

Parents can trust Funbrain to deliver a fun and safe experience for even the youngest children. The Playground helps parents introduce their preschoolers to the Internet and teaches them how to manipulate the mouse and keyboard. Selected by FamilyFun magazine in its September 2010 issue as one of the top ten websites for kids, Funbrain is committed to providing a safe gaming environment that bridges learning and entertainment.

Funbrain never collects personally identifiable information from kids. For more information please see our Privacy Policy.

Funbrain is published by Family Education Network, a part of Pearson, the education, services and technology company. Pearson's other primary operations include the Financial Times Group and the Penguin Group.

Go to : FunBrain
Have Fun....