LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

CEU courses open for enrollment

The Civil Rights Movement in Context
Investigate the precursors to the Civil Rights Movement, its leadership, its opposition, and its legacy, including lesser-studied events of the movement and primary sources.
Take this course: Begins February 2.

From the education reference

hands-on activities
Instructional activity in which students actively work with and manuipulate materials and objects in order to study a concept or solve problems.
service learning
Intentional combination of community service objectives and learning opportunities that benefits both the recipient and provider of the service. Student service learning projects should be structured to link learning tasks to self-reflection so that they enrich learning, strengthen communities, and teach civic responsibility.
discovery learning
Learning that takes place, not through instruction, but through examination, analysis, or experimentation.
cooperative learning
Instructional method in which students work together in small, heterogeneous groups to complete a problem, project, or other instructional goal, while teachers act as guides or facilitators. This method works to reinforce a student’s own learning as well as the learning of his or her fellow group members.
collaborative learning
An umbrella term for the variety of approaches and models in education that involve the shared intellectual efforts by students working in small groups to accomplish a goal or complete a task.
learning contract
An agreement between a teacher and a student regarding how that student will achieve specified learning goals or objectives.
learning disability
A discrepancy between expected achievement and observed achievement, also known as "unexpected underachievement."
Dimensions of Learning model
Model of learning developed by Marzano et al (1988) that links content area knowledge, metacognition, and critical and creative thinking with a taxonomy of thinking skills and thinking processes.
project-based learning
Teaching approach that engages students in sustained, collaborative real-world investigations. Projects are organized around a driving question, and students participate in a variety of tasks that seek to meaningfully address this question.
problem-based learning
Model of instruction in which the teacher poses an authentic problem for student resolution. PBL may be one among many strategies in a classroom or an entire curricular and instructional approach. In the course of problem-solving, students work cooperatively in groups to learn content and skills related to real world problems. The teacher acts as a facilitator to learning.
digital game-based learning
Instructional method that incorporates educational content or learning principles into video games with the goal of engaging learners. Applications of digital game-based learning draw upon the constructivist theory of education.

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CareerStart lessons: Grade eight
This collection of lessons aligns the eighth grade curriculum in math, science, English language arts, and social studies with potential career opportunities.
Format: (multiple pages)
The end (for now)
In The First Year, page 4.5
I was a first-year teacher, driving to school and thinking about a thousand things I should have done yesterday and a thousand more that required my attention as soon as possible. If I hadn't needed both hands on the steering wheel, I would have started adding...
By Kristi Johnson Smith.
MarineQuest
Ocean education and marine environmental education programs providing "hands-on, feet-wet, high-tech" experiences for K-12 students.
Format: article/field trip opportunity
Discovery Place and the Charlotte Nature Museum
Discovery Place offers hands-on activities in all areas of science for students at both the Discovery Halls and Charlotte Nature Museum.
Format: article/field trip opportunity
The Cradle of Forestry in America - The Birthplace of Forest Conservation in America
The rich history of the Biltmore Forest School combined with the diverse Pisgah National Forest offers students a unique educational experience at the Cradle of Forestry.
Format: article/field trip opportunity
Neuseway Nature Park, Planetarium, and Health and Science Center
A rich resource for Lenoir County, this center provides free health, astronomy, and nature and environmental experiences to school groups.
Format: article/field trip opportunity
Blue Planet Water Environmental Center
A hands-on environmental education center which focuses on water and waste water treatment.
Format: article/field trip opportunity
Port Discover
Students will enjoy visiting this new hands-on science and health center which is geared to the pre-k to fifth grade curriculum.
Format: article/field trip opportunity
Northampton County Museum
Exhibits focus on the history of the Northampton County area from the prehistoric to the present.
Format: article/field trip opportunity
CareerStart lessons: Grade six
This collection of lessons aligns the sixth grade curriculum in math, science, English language arts, and social studies with potential career opportunities.
Format: (multiple pages)
Reviving traditional arts
In East from India: Cambodia and Southern Vietnam, page 20
Here, three female palace dancers wearing silk costumes perform in Phnom Penh. The young women dancing in unison have their left feet raised with upward toes, their left arms gesturing forward, and their right hands on their hips. Each one wears a differently-colored,...
By Lorraine Aragon.
Crossing a Cravasse
Ciprian Popoviciu's climbing partner, Vance Cook, crosses a crevasse on the ice falls of the Khumbu Glacier at Mount Everest in April 2008. Climbers use ladders to cross crevasses. It is dangerous and climbers must use both hands on the guide ropes to keep...
Format: video/video
Boy participating in the International Farm Youth Exchange program examining cows in Craven County, North Carolina
Boy participating in the International Farm Youth Exchange program examining cows in Craven County, North Carolina
In this black and white photograph, a boy stands with his hands on his hips in a field observing his cattle.
Format: image/photograph
The Icefalls of Mount Everest
The Icefalls of Mount Everest
Carefully holding with both hands on to two parallel guide-lines, Ciprian "Chip" Popoviciu, wearing a red helmet and yellow-topped boots, uses a ladder to cross a deep crevasse in the notorious Icefalls of Mount Everest. His ladder is lying horizontally between...
Format: image
Somerset Place (NC Historic Site)
Located on the banks of Phelps Lake, Somerset Place is a representative antebellum plantation offering a view of life during the period before the Civil War. It became one of North Carolina's most prosperous rice, corn, and wheat plantations.
Format: article/field trip opportunity
Historic Edenton
The Historic Edenton website is provided by North Carolina Historic Sites and contains a brief introduction and history of the town as well as a listing of special events.
Format: article/field trip opportunity
Grooming
Grooming
This black and white illustration is the cover of a pamphlet on grooming that was issued by the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service in 1939. Under the title, “Grooming,” sits a fashionable and svelte young woman who is posing with her...
Format: image/illustration
Cape Fear River Watch
Offer several opportunities for environmental education and community development which include hands-on experiences for field trip groups.
Format: article/field trip opportunity
State 4-H club dairy demonstration
State 4-H club dairy demonstration
This black and white photograph from the 1940s shows students in a tiled building watching a North Carolina State 4-H Club dairy demonstration. They are seated in the foreground in wooden chairs looking at a calf standing on straw in an open pen. The instructor...
Format: image/photograph
Birds spotted on a Port Discover adventure
Birds spotted on a Port Discover adventure
A group of birds poses on a dock for a group of children on a Port Discover bird-watching adventure. Port Discover is a hands-on science and health center for northeastern North Carolina, geared towards students from kindergarten to fifth grade. Volunteers...
Format: image/photograph