Inspiring Future Scientists in Chemistry

Inspiring Future Scientists in Chemistry provides high school teachers with over a dozen novel hands-on guided inquiry lab activities to use with their students. Each unit features a student and teacher version and is aligned to California state teaching standards. These labs will instill an appreciation for how chemistry is critical to decisions that we make in the ‘real world’ and ignite an interest in young students to pursue futures in the sciences.

Microdocs: The Short Attention Span Science Video on Ecological Sustainability

Stanford Marine Biologist Steve Palumbi created a series of 2-4 minute micro-documentaries about sustainability, featuring coral reefs from around the world. His lab then developed this website that provides additional resources for teachers and students, built around the videos.

Virtual Labs Interactive Media for Human Anatomy and Biology

The Virtual Labs Project, begun in 1998 with funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, provides creative online interactive media and on-line tutorials to help students learn difficult concepts in human biology. Modules on the brain, nervous system, immunology, organ systems, and more are available for download, along with game and quiz frameworks for teachers to add their own content.

Stanford Solar Center Resources for K-12 Teachers and Students

The Stanford Solar Center web site provides a collection of multi-disciplinary, interactive exercises and activities based on the Sun and solar science, most geared to grades 4-12. Each lesson or activity comes with study guides, worksheets and quizzes and all are aligned with the national science teaching standards.

The Center also offers solar spectroscopes for students to cut out and put together. These come complete with gratings, as well as instructions for construction and use.

Education Program for Teachers of Mathematics (EPTM)

The Education Program for Teachers of Mathematics (EPTM) is a new distance learning program offered by the Department of Mathematics  through the Stanford University Continuing Studies Program, and in cooperation with the Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY). EPTM courses use state-of-the-art multimedia technology to provide K-12 mathematics teachers with the opportunity to continue their education, and to deepen their understanding of mathematics.

This program consists of computer-based courses designed specifically for K-12 teachers of mathematics. Teachers can continue to supplement their mathematical education in a manner that fits their individual schedules.

Bringing Nanoscience and Nanotechnology into the Classroom

Nanotechnology, which makes use of structures 100 nm or smaller (1 nm is a billionth of a meter), is now part of our daily experience. Products ranging from electronics and cosmetics to sports equipment and clothing are increasingly dependent on nanotechnology, harnessing the benefits of novel properties that materials exhibit at the nanoscale. The past years have seen a steady increase in nanoscience research and resulting applications, which has started a rapid growth that will continue over the next decades and change the way we live. This site contains hands-on activities to engage K-12 students in exploration and scientific investigation. These activities, originally developed for teachers participating in CPN's Summer Institute for Middle School Teachers, are designed to help students learn about nanotechnology while supporting the California Science Content Standards. For teachers in the San Francisco Bay Area, CPN has also partnered with the non-profit Resource Area for Teachers (RAFT) to make available low-cost materials for some of these activities.

The Virtual Urchin Project

Gametes of sea urchins yield exceptional experiences in the classroom; teachers and students alike are riveted by being able to observe fertilization, cell division and embryonic development. The gametes are easy to use, the developmental stages are readily seen with the microscope and the rapidity of fertilization and early cell divisions allows the student to ask questions and obtain answers within the bounds of a normal classroom schedule. The utility of urchins for inquiry-based science is unrivaled.

The goal of this project is to make these remarkable embryos readily accessible through development of inquiry based lessons, available on an open access website. Students can then move beyond the early embryo, and explore how scientists study sea urchins to understand larval development and metamorphosis, community ecology, pollution in the marine environment and biological evolution.

What is Your Environmental Impact?

These activities were developed by middle school teacher Stephanie Ruzicka in partnership with Professor Michael Lepechs's Civil & Environmental Lab. Through a series of lessons, students will:

1. Evaluate their individual impact on the environment (Ecological Footprint).
2. Develop a basic understanding of sustainability research and life cycle assessment tools to improve the environment (PowerPoint lecture).
3. Participate in scenarios that show how product choices can affect the environment (Matching Game).
4. Propose an action plan for their school or community focusing on environmental awareness (Group Project).

Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC)

The Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, or KIPAC, is an independent laboratory of Stanford University based at SLAC in Menlo Park. It serves as a bridge between the disciplines of astrophysics, cosmology and particle physics. One of KIPAC's missions is to reach out to local communities and provide resources and tools for K-12 teachers, students and the general public. You can visit the site to:

• Schedule a tour for your students
• Ask KIPAC staff members questions about astrophysics and cosmology
• Request a guest speaker
• Schedule a showing of one of their presentations, including a 3-D movie that traces the development of the universe, from the birth of the first star to the formation of the galaxies.

 A “For Teachers” page is also under construction.

Squids-4-Kids

Squids-4-Kids provides an exciting hands-on way to engage students of any age. Squids-4-Kids supplies frozen specimens of Humboldt squid for use in educational activities at any level. These hands-on activities bring students to the excitement of marine biology and the importance of good ocean stewardship. Humboldt squid provide an outstanding teaching platform for discussing climate change, ecology, anatomy, physiology, oceanography and fisheries science. This outreach program is a collaboration between researchers at Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University and NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service in Santa Cruz, CA.

Laboratory Science for Broadened Scientific Inquiry (LABSci)

The aim of Laboratory Science for Broadened Scientific Inquiry, LABSci, is to develop a science laboratory curriculum for middle-school and high-school students that are experiencing a non-traditional education environment. These labs were created with the restrictions of a hospital school classroom in mind, but are also suitable for bedside, homeschool, and other environments.

The LABScI outreach project is a partnership between Dr. Andrew Spakowitz’s research group in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, and the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital School.

Public Health Advocacy Curriculum

The teacher-led Public Health Advocacy Curriculum is comprised of ten modular lessons that combine classroom- and community-based experiential activities that teach students about the broader context of health and provide opportunities to advocate for improved health conditions in their communities. Through inquiry-based activities and real-world projects, students practice academic skills (e.g., critical thinking, problem solving) and apply their learning to their personal circumstances. The curriculum is easily modifiable and adaptable; lessons can be taught independently or collectively and in intact classrooms, after school clubs, health academies, or academic enrichment programs. This curriculum is freely available to the public.

K-12 Lab at Stanford Design School

Design Thinking is a methodology that teaches children to creatively solve problems in their lives. We believe that creative confidence comes from repeated practice using a human-centered creative process to solve problem scenarios called design challenges. After using the process on these challenges, children will have another tool, the design thinking process, to apply towards solving real life problems.

We hope you use this space to find and share resources to teach design thinking. This is still a working prototype, so feel free to explore and change.

Sea Urchin Embryology

The drama of fertilization and development is explored by laboratory modules using sea urchin eggs and a website developed by teachers and Stanford researchers.

SPICE Multidisciplinary Curriculum Materials on International Themes

The Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) develops K-14 multidisciplinary curriculum materials on international themes that are available to teachers around the world. SPICE has produced over 100 supplementary curriculum units on Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the global environment, and international political economy. SPICE also offers a series of seminars for middle school and high school social studies, world literature, and language arts teachers.

Alliance for Innovative Manufacturing

Stanford’s Alliance for Innovative Manufacturing (an affiliate program involving the School of Engineering and the Graduate School of Business) has developed an introductory website for kids and adults showing how various items are made, from jelly beans to cars, from denim to airplanes. It covers over 40 different products and manufacturing processes, and includes almost four hours of manufacturing video targeted towards non-engineers and engineers alike. Think of it as your own private online factory tour, or a virtual factory tour, if you wish.

Stanford Continuing Studies

Stanford Continuing Studies offers a broad range of courses in Liberal Arts & Sciences, Creative Writing, and Professional & Personal Development. Courses are designed to cultivate learning and enrich the lives of adults in the Bay Area. Courses are primarily taught by Stanford instructors and are open to everyone.

Stanford Engineering Everywhere (SEE)

Stanford Engineering Everywhere is an online portal offering ten courses from Stanford’s School of Engineering— including the three-course introductory sequence in Computer Science— free of charge.

ClassX

ClassX is an interactive lecture streaming system developed in the Electrical Engineering Department at Stanford University. Different from conventional video players, ClassX allows users to pan and zoom according to keep focus on their region of interest in the video.

Watch lectures from a number of Stanford courses in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Business. ClassX Mobile in the beta testing phase currently; more courses/lectures will be offered eventually.

EPGY Summer Institutes: Middle School Program

The EPGY Summer Institutes Middle School Program consists of three two-week sessions for gifted students going on to 6th or 7th grade. Students live on campus, experiencing academic enrichment, a taste of college life at Stanford, and the opportunity to meet others with similar interests and abilities.

EPGY Summer Institutes: High School Program

EPGY Summer Institutes are 3- or 4-week residential programs for gifted and highly motivated high school students. Students live on campus over the summer and focus on a course of study.

EPGY On-Line Classes for Gifted K-12 Students

Stanford's EPGY offers on-line, self-paced classes in math, physics, computer programming, English, and music theory to students ages 5 to 18 with very high academic abilities.

EPGY On-Line Middle and High School

This is a fully accredited, diploma granting, online independent school (grades 7-12) situated at Stanford University within the Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY). The school offers online courses designed for academically gifted students during the academic year and two- and three-week residential programs at Stanford over the summer.

Quake-Catcher Network

The Quake-Catcher Network is a collaborative initiative for developing the world's largest, low-cost seismic network by utilizing sensors in and attached to internet-connected computers in homes and schools. With your help, the Quake-Catcher Network can provide better understanding of earthquakes, give early warning to schools, emergency response systems, and others. The Quake-Catcher Network also provides educational software designed to help teach about earthquakes and earthquake hazards. Interested in participating? Download the software and join the network!

Folding@Home

Folding@Home is a distributed computing project -- people from throughout the world download and run software to band together to make one of the largest supercomputers in the world to help calculate how proteins fold (or misfold). Folding@Home uses novel computational methods coupled to distributed computing, to simulate problems thousands to millions of times more challenging than previously achieved. Every computer that participates brings the project closer to its goals.