Edison U. Ratio Smart: Teaching Thinking Skills

Backup, Rewind: Benjamin Bloom and Thinking Skills

2010-04-05T08:38:00.001-07:00

Backup, Rewind: Benjamin Bloom and Thinking Skills Okay, okay I finally gave in to my adult creator. She says I have to teach the who, what, where, when, why and then how of thinking skills before I can dive into the fun activities. I think she is under the assumption that sometimes adults are fuzzy on what thinking skills are. Just in case she’s right, (How am I to know? I’m just a kid.) I’ll

Rotten Bananas: Sharing Your Data

2010-03-29T05:16:00.001-07:00

Edison here, I’m ready to look at the banana experiment or concluding scientific thinking. When we last looked at scientific thinking we set up the rotten banana experiment. By now you should have had time to try it. Now it’s time to look at sharing your data (information.) Clarity is the goal when sharing your data. No matter how brilliant or groundbreaking it is, if you can’t clearly

Math Puzzle: Area and Perimeter

2010-03-17T16:14:00.000-07:00

Prepare to have your brain pop out and light bulb turn on as you check out this wonderful puzzle at Dr. Mike's Math Blog. It deals with area and perimeter. I won't give it away, (and it isn't my puzzle.) Go check it out at Dr. Mike's Math Blog. To go there just click on Dr. Mike's Math Blog. Hope you enjoy the puzzle as much as I do. Let me know how it works with your students. Drop a line to me

Science and Rotten Bananas

2010-03-13T13:31:00.001-08:00

Science and Rotten Bananas: Ugh! Hopefully, you’ve spent your week observing your world. I did. I discovered I have an interesting problem too. Rotten Bananas… I love bananas as long as they’re greenish. I can stand them if they are yellow and no black stops. Once the peel turns brown, forget it. It’s time for the garbage can. Do you see a question coming? I hope so because that is the first

Scientific Thinking: Why is the Sky Blue?

2010-03-08T17:33:00.001-08:00

Scientific Thinking: Why Is the Sky Blue? If you love to ask questions, then you’re on the road to scientific thinking. You guessed it, scientific thinking is thinking like a scientist thinks. In fact there is a special name for the way a scientist thinks. It is called the scientific method. Since science fair time is rapidly approaching or maybe it’s just speed by, I thought we should look at

Thinking Blocks

2010-02-27T17:12:00.001-08:00

Thinking Blocks: Visuals Models for Math Problem Solving One excellent resource to develop your deductive reasoning skills when it comes to the dreaded math story problem is Thinking Blocks. Thinking Blocks is an interactive website that develops algebraic reasoning by creating visual models. This is a website you’ll definitely want to check out. Below you’ll find an overview of the site.

Math Detective: Story Problems - Ugh

2010-02-20T14:26:00.001-08:00

Math Detective: Story Problems - Ugh Oh no, the dreaded word, story problems. They might be the greatest fear in school, even more than public speaking. (The fear of heights doesn’t count because school usually doesn’t involve high places.) Math story problems don’t need to be feared. All you need to do is apply your detective thinking skills to tackle the problems. Grab your detective badges

World Math Day

2010-02-13T13:22:00.001-08:00

World Math Day: This post is not about thinking skills, at least that isn’t the point of this post. The point is to share with you a great opportunity, the World Math Day. World Math Day is March 3, 2010. Actually it starts on March 2nd in the United States, early in the morning and last for 48 hours as their website states, as long as it is March 3rd anywhere in the world the competition is on

Detective Thinking Activity

2010-02-09T15:11:00.001-08:00

Detective Thinking Activity: Sudoku Puzzles One way to work on your detective thinking skills is to play Sudoku. If you’ve never played, watch out. It can be addicting. To play you must make careful observations as you look for clues to place the pieces in the Sudoku puzzle. Clues can be found in boxes, vertical lines or horizontal lines. Make sure you check each clue carefully. If you jump to

Websites Detective Thinking

2010-02-05T18:51:00.001-08:00

Websites: Detective Thinking Here are a few websites to practice your detective thinking skills. CSI games from PBS – Think you have the makings to become a crime scene investigator? Then check out the CSI games at PBS. Scroll about midway down the page to play CSI: Hat Snatcher, CSI: Tugboat Thug or CSI: Sneak Squeak. By the way, these games are a blast. You collect clues and analyze them.

Detective Thinking: Books

2010-01-30T14:04:00.001-08:00

Detective Thinking: Books Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? (Also use other books in the series) Age: 4-7 years old Activity: With limited clues to observe children guess what’s on the next page. Writing/Drawing Extension: Write new version of the book. Focus on what clues would be best to describe a new animal, everyday object, activity, place etc. Use your imagination. Just don’t forget

I Think Therefore

2010-01-30T10:09:00.001-08:00

I Think Therefore… If you completed the sentences with “I am” you fell for one of the oldest tricks in solving a mystery, the red herring. Now grant it you did not have all the clues. Just remember from here on, that a great detective collects all the clues and then thinks. Thinking is the key to becoming a great detective. In fact Blue of Blue’s Clues has a special chair just for thinking.

C.S.I.: Collecting Sources of Information

2010-01-23T17:54:00.001-08:00

C.S.I.: Collecting Sources of Information While a detective is detecting many clues will appear. How is one detective supposed to remember it all? Because everyone knows, the smallest clues are usually the most important. Maybe robots should just do all the detecting. At least they could remember everything. Not, you are smarter than a robot or computer because you can learn. So far

Observation, Observation: What Do You See?

2010-01-18T13:43:00.001-08:00

Observation, Observation: What Do You See? You've had several days to ponder what detectives use to make observations. Maybe you thought of a magnifying glass, a microscope or a telescope. You may have even said eyes. Those are the typical responses of my elementary school friends. Now it is time to stretch your brain and theirs. Let's move beyond the oblivious. When we observe things we

It’s Elementary: Deduction

2010-01-02T07:56:00.001-08:00

It's Elementary: Deduction What makes Sherlock Holmes, Sam Spade, Adrian Monk and Blue of "Blue's Clues" fame such great detectives? They know the key to being a great detective. That is knowing the characteristics of deductive reasoning or thinking like a detective. Grab your magnifying glass, detective shield and deerstalker hat we're on the hunt for detective thinking. One of the essential

Ready, Set and Go....

2009-12-30T07:43:00.000-08:00

We're almost ready to start our great thinking skills adventure. So grab you're tools. Deductive reasoning or thinking like a detective is coming soon.Essential Questions for Today: What tools do all detectives use?What does a detective do?Sign up and post your responses. Answers are coming soon.

Edison U. Ratio Smart

2009-12-29T07:38:00.000-08:00