Thinkfinity

Room: Media Center 1 Contact: david_solon** //**at**// **iu13.org**
 * Presenter: Dave Solon** [[image:thinkfinity.png width="289" height="195" align="right" link="http://thinkfinity.org/"]]
 * Time: 9:30 - 10:15

Description of Presentation
[|Thinkfinity] is an online web portal (sponsored by Verizon) that is a one-stop shop for K - 12 educators, students, and parents looking for educational resources. It is FREE, easy to use, has no login or password, and offers over 55,000 resources including lesson plans, maps, worksheets, interactive games, calendars, video clips, audio clips and many others. Thinkfinity is partnered with nine of the most prestigious educational associations in the nation and all materials submitted for acceptance in Thinkfinity must first be reviewed and approved by a panel of educational experts.

Science Specific Partners:
[|Science NetLinks] [|National Geographic Xpeditions]

**Your Task for this Session:**
====Think about a subject or concept in your classroom that tends to be one of the toughest for your students to grasp. Your task is to find a lesson, interactive, or media resource to help increase student engagement. Please share that resource link with your fellow teachers under the headings below:====

Science Lessons
Thinfinity is a search engine that has partnered with educational partners: ARTESEDGE, EconEdLink, EDSITEment, Illuminations, Literacy Network, Verizon Foundation, ReadWriteThink, Science NetLinks, Smithsonian’s History Explorer, Xpeditions. There are different interfaces to choose from: Educator, student, parent and afterschool You can browse by theme or subject. There are a variety of resources. There is a parent resource tab to assist parents in helping their children. The afterschool tab provides resources for after school support for students. To search in Thinkfinity the search box can be found on the right hand side of the main page. You can search for keywords, subject, resource types such as a full lesson or an interactive resource. When looking at the search results a star with and S means that there are standards aligned to that particular resource. You click on the star and choose the state and then you will be shown which standards are aligned for that state to that resource. There is a 21st century skills tab that provides information on the connection between Thinkfinity and the 21st century skills. To get started with searching the group was asked to think about a subject or concept that tends to be a tough one for your students to grasp. The members of the group were asked to find a lesson, interactive, or media resource to help increase student engagement and share that with your fellow teachers on the wiki.
 * Blogging**