T³ Europe EduBlogs

Ready for Back to School? Teachers Share How They Prepare

Posted 04/08/2023 by Sónia Reis

How are you getting ready for the start of the school year? In addition to curriculum obligations, you’re probably looking for fun ways to show students the beauty of math and science. In this blog, nine teachers share how they are preparing for the 2023–24 school year.

Flying Like Leonardo Envisioned … In the Classroom!

Posted 14/04/2023 by Ian Galloway

Did you know you can fly a Tello drone using Texas Instruments graphing calculators? This new feature allows you to bring flying to the classroom. Using flight and drone technology offer many opportunities for delivering the curriculum. In addition to building math skills, teachers could work on centre of gravity, Newton’s Second Law, air resistance, Bernoulli’s Principle, or ethical issues around drone use. And how about the fact that da Vinci invented three flying machines like the drone 500 years ago?

March 14: let’s celebrate Einstein’s birthday

Posted 10/03/2023 by Ian Galloway

If there is one equation known by the public, it is E=mc². Created in 1905, the theory of Special Relativity has transformed our understanding of the Universe and the way it works. In that same year, 1905, Einstein explained the photoelectric effect by declaring that energy was quantized, for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize.

Will It Float? Turning the TI-Innovator™ Rover Into a Robot-Boat

Posted 23/01/2023 by Sónia Reis

Science teacher Alexandre Gomes likes to think “out of the box,” and nothing pleases him more than to tinker with a device to make it do something more than what it was designed for. Why not turn the TI-Innovator™ Rover into a floating measuring station, for example? Gomes and five of his students at the Portuguese Oliveira Júnior school put their sailing caps on and adapted the device for movement on water.

Smart Irrigation With the TI-Nspire™ CX Ecosystem: “Students See That Mathematics Is Actually Very Useful”

Posted 29/08/2022 by Carlos Coelho

The motivation and enthusiasm of the students at Molelos Secondary School in Tondela, Portugal, were the driving forces behind the Smart Irrigation project using the TI-Nspire™ CX Ecosystem. But it was maths teacher Olga Pestana who put the wheels in motion.

T³ Europe Tips for Your Summer Break

Posted 01/07/2022 by Sónia Reis

The summer holiday is here! You’ll probably be looking forward to recharging, and you might also be looking for some good ideas for inspiring books, websites, videos or podcast series. We asked five education specialists and T³ instructors to share their favourite content and how they will spend their free time in the summer. Hope you find something inspiring!

Temperature: What It Means and How We Measure It

Posted 10/06/2022 by Ian Galloway

Almost nothing happens in the universe without there being a difference of temperature between two places. This suggests that most energy changes are associated with a temperature difference.

How To Use Real-World Environmental Issues in Class

Posted 02/06/2022 by Jessica Kohout (@MrsKohout)

For World Environment Day, get your students problem-solving on real-world environmental issues.

7 Ways Educators Can Use Robotics in Their Classes

Posted 05/05/2022 by Harshal S. Chhaya

Robots are not just for robotics classes. They can enhance math, science and history, increase student confidence with technology and prepare them for 21st century careers.

The Heartbeat of STEM

Posted 06/04/2022 by Jessica Kohout

Are you interested in introducing your students to coding but are not sure how? Read about this heart-pounding STEM project that will get your students excited about programming.

Top 5 T³ Webinars From 2021

Posted 11/02/2022 by Sónia Reis

The start of a new year is the perfect time for setting new goals and prepping for the next few months of classes. Perhaps your goal is a large, year-long project, or maybe it’s a small, daily habit that you’d like to implement. Either way, one of the best ways to keep yourself motivated is by having a list. If professional learning is one of your goals, we’ve put together a list to help you get started. Here are the top 5 most watched T³ Webinars from 2021. These sessions are all free and available on demand. So, watch these recordings on your schedule and at your own pace!

Infrared Radiation and the James Webb Space Telescope

Posted 11/02/2022 by Ian Galloway

The James Webb Space Telescope has reached Lagrange point 2, one and a half million kilometers away, and is getting ready to explore the cosmos in the infrared part of the spectrum. Expansion of the universe means that after 15 billion years the light emitted by the earliest galaxies has stretched so that it is now in the infrared part of the spectrum. In this blog we focus on the discovery and use of infrared radiation.

Challenges From Space: The James Webb Space Telescope and Lagrange Points

Posted 01/02/2022 by Ian Galloway

On January 23, 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope reached its destination. This highly complex instrument is taking advantage of a cosmic location discovered by Euler and Lagrange more than 200 years ago. Read on to see how you can incorporate this into a classroom activity to calculate the Lagrange points.

Sharing Inspiration 2021: Energy — the Elephant in the Room

Posted 06/12/2021 by Ian Galloway

The last session of Sharing Inspiration 2021 took place days after the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) had finished in Glasgow. Effectively, this was the T³ contribution to the debate on climate change and sustainable development.

Students Should Free Themselves From Pen and Paper, and Start Learning By Doing

Posted 17/11/2021 by Sónia Reis

With 25 years of teaching experience, Alexandre Gomes is practical about the role of technology in education. The physics and chemistry teacher, and T³ Europe instructor, believes that technology education in schools must evolve from theory to practice. "You need students to free themselves from pen and paper and to actually start learning by doing. And learning by doing, using Texas Instruments technology, makes perfect sense.”

Have an AWEsum Fibonacci Day!

Posted 12/11/2021 by Ron Lancaster, Associate Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto

Imagine a moment — let’s call it an awe moment — when something took your breath away, caught you off guard or surprised you. Now imagine an encounter with mathematics that left you awestruck. Read on to find out three awe moments to share with your students.

Exchange and Cooperation: Value of the T³ Teacher Network

Posted 30/10/2021 by Stephan Griebel

The history of the T³ teacher network is a history of cooperation on many different levels. It is about cooperation between individuals as well as between institutions across national and ‘content’ boundaries.

Computational Thinking and Coding in the Classroom – Sharing Inspiration 2021

Posted 30/09/2021 by Ian Galloway

On Sept. 16, close to 150 people logged in for the third quarterly Sharing Inspiration conference 2021, Computational Thinking and Coding in the Classroom. Four teachers gave presentations of the coding they were carrying out in the classroom and the way in which it impacted student thinking.

Best Practice From France: How To Start Programming With BBC micro:bit and TI Handhelds

Posted 06/07/2021 by Ludovia, article originally published in Ludomag.com

Programming and teaching students how to code are an important part of the transformation of education in France. Four years after the start of this process, and a global pandemic later, two observations can be made that are also valuable for other countries in Europe. Firstly, teachers are willing to take up the challenge, but they are still very much in need of support. Secondly, numerous projects have been launched with the help of new tools to support both teachers and students to understand these new concepts. Among these tools, BBC micro:bit is popular, as is the TI-Innovator™ Hub and the robotic vehicle TI-Innovator™ Rover.

Discover Yoga’s Flexibility in Math Class

Posted 09/06/2021 by Curtis Brown

It was a stressful school year to say the least! To help you and your students exhale, while learning (or teaching) a thing or two, we have partnered with two of our favorite math educators. Perry High School teachers Ashley Meinke and David Olszewski will introduce you to math yoga. So, grab a yoga mat, some comfortable clothes, a water bottle and let’s celebrate International Day of Yoga by exploring yoga’s flexibility in math class.

Computational Thinking for all students Dutch Leo Kanner school

Posted 13/05/2021 by Koen Stulens

The aim of the Computational Thinking strategy at the Leo Kanner secondary school in Leiden is to teach children to approach problems logically and to use digital tools to solve them. To this end, the school organised a pilot programme using TI-Nspire™ CX technology. “An important plus is that you learn the basics of computational thinking through this technology,” says teacher Zeno van der Zalm. “We started small, but we are now in the phase where we are involving more teachers and subjects in the trajectory.

STEM Education for a Sustainable World – Sharing Inspiration 2021

Posted 10/05/2021 by Ian Galloway

April 22 was Earth Day and was also the second quarterly Sharing Inspiration conference 2021. Aptly, the theme was "STEM Education for a Sustainable World." More than 100 people logged in to listen to a keynote speech from European Commissioner Vladimir Garkov and STEM stories from the classroom.

You go girl! The experiences of women in STEM

Posted 12/04/2021 by Sónia Reis

What can we do to empower girls in secondary school to opt for a STEM focus in their education and career? In a world where scientific and technological solutions are desperately needed, we cannot exclude half the world’s talents. We need girls and women! Our T³ teacher network understands the importance of motivating girls to pursue STEM. Four T³ instructors and two students from Europe share their experiences with gender issues, classroom methods and STEM education.

A safe TI-Rover touchdown on earth

Posted 05/04/2021 by Hans-Martin Hilbig, Ian Galloway

On February 18, 2021 billions of people from all over the world held their breath when NASA’s Perseverance Rover landed safely on Mars. This event inspired Hans-Martin Hilbig, a retired engineer and T³ instructor to stage a TI-Rover landing on Earth, using his DIY drone.

How I performed lab experiments during lockdown

Posted 18/03/2021 by Fernanda Neri, physics and chemistry teacher, Escola Secundária de Amares, Portugal

How can my students work on the lab experiments that are mandatory in the Portuguese curriculum during lockdown? As a physics and chemistry teacher I would like to share my experiences of switching to virtual lessons because of the global pandemic. Learning by doing is important to me; this is how students get a true understanding of physics and chemistry. When I get the chance, I sneak into a lab to use practical examples to explain scientific concepts, even during my regular classes. When I didn’t have these options during lockdown, I worked on solutions with the help of TI-Nspire CX technology.

Happy birthday to us! T³ Europe - 25 years old and still young

Posted 18/03/2021 by Stephan Griebel

In 2021 we are celebrating the 25th birthday of the teachers' network T³ - Teachers Teaching with Technology. At the end of the 1980s, the first graphing calculators appeared on the market. Two professors for math education, Bert Waits and Frank Demana, realized that the real potential of graphing calculators lay in the educational opportunities. Within a decade the developing new didactic possibilities excited many teachers and the T³ network was founded.

Applying Research in STEM Classrooms Concretely - Sharing Inspiration 2021

Posted 05/02/2021 by Ian Galloway

In 2021, our biennial conference Sharing Inspiration will go virtual. For the first time Sharing Inspiration also offers year-round activities for teachers, such as quarterly conferences and monthly webinars. On January 21, the first of these quarterly conferences was held. Read a report on this conference which focused on ‘Applying Research in STEM Classrooms Concretely.’

What do climate protection and Internet challenges have in common?

Posted 20/01/2021 by Dirk Ritschel

To enthuse others, you must yourself be enthusiastic. Anyone who comes across Frank Liebner – be it in his classroom or as part of a teacher training programme – can see his passion for his subject, chemistry. However, for him, the highpoint is not the show effect of an experiment. His goal is to train students to reproduce and analyse scientific phenomena, for themselves, to eventually improve their overall understanding. And for him that means encouraging as many other teachers as possible to hand over the reins in the classroom to the students, so they can make their own discoveries.

Hope’s understanding of heat and hope for tackling climate change

Posted 01/12/2020 by Ian Galloway

Understanding heat is central to understanding global warming. Let me introduce an experiment that was first conducted in the 18th century and is still fun to do with your chemistry class or integrate in a STEM-project today.

Physics project: students sprint towards sustainable waste solutions

Posted 23/10/2020 by Sónia Reis

Separating out metal, developing greener ways to collect waste, fishing plastic out of water, washing glass and compressing domestic rubbish — these are the sustainable waste solutions which the students worked on. Using scrum, they were able to work independently, and this gave them the freedom to solve problems. “It’s challenging for both teachers and students,” said physics teacher Cathy Baars, who devised the project, “because the resulting product is not fixed.”

It Is Okay to Rely on Technology

Posted 14/09/2020 by Stephan Griebel

Every student has the right to receive proper education according to their individual abilities, talents and gifts. The individualization of education has been made even more challenging during the coronavirus lockdown, and collective distance learning made this aspiration close to impossible to realize. I witnessed teachers taking on the challenges imposed by forced home schooling, reinventing their teaching style in no time to make the best of the situation despite the constraints. Even though the situation was far from ideal, these teachers deserve our admiration and support for the months to come. As of September 2020, we already know the coming months will remain challenging.

Survey shows online teaching here to stay in new school year

Posted 03/08/2020 by Sonia Reis (@soniaraquelreis)

The shift to online education creates new requirements and European teachers point out various things that could help to improve online teaching. For example, 55% of teachers said they need better IT equipment and 50% said they require software solutions. Some 47% said they would like training to learn or improve their online teaching skills. It was clear too from several open questions that teachers would like more online teaching materials, videos and ready-made activities to share with their students.

Portuguese students win trip to NASA with wheelchair project

Posted 17/07/2020 by Sónia Reis

A final school year project to develop a wheelchair controlled by head movements won five Portuguese high school students the trip of a lifetime to NASA earlier this year. The ‘Telepathy Physics’ project used motion sensors connected to the robotic vehicle Rover and took first prize in a national science competition initiated by the University of Lisbon. “The students were so motivated to help their fellow pupils with disabilities,” says teacher Alexandre Gomes. “At the same time, this real-world problem also helped deepen their interest in maths.”

Talking to machines – my thoughts on sustainability, technology, and Python

Posted 07/07/2020 by Ian Galloway

How should we ‘talk’ to machines? What language do they speak? Can they speak our language? Whatever means of communication is chosen it is now clear that for the first time in history we have the capability of ‘talking to machines’. That is to say that machines are no longer something we simply use but something we control. Herein lies the danger. If humans forget how the machine functions the machine itself will no longer be able to sustain itself in the event of breakdown.

My new school project: controlling a fighter jet with a handheld

Posted 06/07/2020 by Ludovic Duchenne, Maths and computer sciences teacher Lycée Touchard Washington, Le Mans

Wouldn’t it be a cool school project to write code to control a plane? And would it not be even cooler to do this for a military fighter jet like the French Rafale? I thought of developing this activity – while reliving the movie Top Gun in my head – as early as 2018. The coronavirus lockdown was a good opportunity for me to finally start working on the project. I was keen to get back to school after lockdown to surprise my computer science and technology students with a very different end of the year activity!

Education is key for a sustainable future; join in developing content!

Posted 02/07/2020 by Stephan Griebel

STEM education can play an important role in creating a sustainable future. Understanding issues relevant to sustainable development requires mathematics, including statistics and programming. To help facilitate this, an ambitious new project has been set up by T3 Europe involving content co-creation. We want to design classroom activities and content with STEM and sustainability in mind. That’s why we are calling on teachers to develop activities for this T3 Europe STEM sustainable development project.

Programming the TI-Innovator Rover inspires Finnish and Portuguese exchange students

Posted 24/06/2020 by Carlos Coelho

Coding and TI technology were at the heart of a successful exchange trip by several Finnish students to the Ermesinde High School in Portugal. The Portuguese and Finnish students worked side by side programming their own TI-Nspire handhelds. They were able to instruct the robotic vehicle Rover to follow a course and avoid obstacles using its distance sensor.

Join our successful T³ Europe Webinar Program!

Posted 26/05/2020 by Ian Galloway

Since the start of the corona crisis, the T³ teachers' association has developed webinars so you as a teacher can continue to work remotely on your professional development. The free T³ Europe webinars are designed for T³ instructors and lead teachers enhancing their knowledge about effective use of TI technology. The webinar series has got off to a good start. Since April 2, 2020 registration ran at more than 180 for the three with about 50 people logging in to listen at each session.

Top 5 Tips for Transitioning to Virtual Teaching

Posted 14/04/2020 by Erica Schiller

Richard Snow is a T³ Instructor and an expert in distance learning. He was the first educator to use TI graphing calculator emulator software while teaching students in an online environment. For the past 15 years, he has been teaching remotely and is sharing his top tips. Snow got schooled in communication skills when he went to visit a community of his distance learning students in person. His students were truly remote — only accessible by plane. Once he flew in, he enjoyed doughnuts and conversation with them. One student’s comment struck a chord: “You don’t seem nearly as mean in person as you do online.”

Tropical storm leads to STEM project on La Reunion

Posted 06/04/2020 by Marthe Pariset

“Combining math with real-world challenges through a ‘learning by doing’ approach is very rewarding. Sometimes teachers don’t get involved with STEM projects because they are not experts in all the different fields. But it is quite normal not to understand all the theory before starting a project. You learn on the go. I know from experience that finding a solution to a problem together with your students is very motivating!”

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