Salem Five Philanthrophy

Salem Five Bank has two philathropic outlets: The Salem Five Charitable Foundation and The Heritage Salem Five Charitable Foundation. The former makes small donations (usually $50 to $1000) and considers requests on a rolling basis.

"The Heritage Grant Program will award grants with a minimum value of $5,000, to non-profit organizations that support education, health and human services, youth programs, affordable housing, and community development. To qualify for a Heritage Grant, the non-profit organization must be located in the communities of Salem, Marblehead, Beverly, Peabody, or Danvers, Massachusetts." There are two deadlines a year for this program. The application deadline is March 19, 2010 for spring awards and September 17, 2010 for fall grants.

Free US Gov't Resources for Educators

FREE -- Federal Resources for Educational Excellence -- is a site run by the U.S. government that collects teaching and learning resources from dozens of federal agencies. It is organized by subject area: Arts & Music, Health & Phys. Ed., History & Social Studies, Language Arts, Math, and Science. Here are a few sites I found through FREE:

• Amazing Space -  Classroom resources based on the Hubble Space Telescope's discoveries
• World Wise Schools - From the Peace Corps. Offers a way for classrooms to connect with Peace Corps volunteers and to view information posted on the website from volunteers. Also provides lesson plans, podcasts, and insights into global issues. Try the Peace Corps Challenge Game.
• Read.gov - from the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress

Natural Disaster Graphics on BBC Site

The BBC has a nice set of interactive graphics to show how various natural disasters work:

• Hurricanes
• Tornadoes
• Earthquakes
• Volcanoes
• Tsunamis

Good Books Cheap!

A couple of local sources for inexpensive books this week and next....

The Used Book Superstore in Danvers (near Market Basket) is having a 50% off sale on Tuesday, April 21. If you want to get that great discount though, you have to bring in a coupon that is only available to subscribers of their email newsletter. Sign up by Saturday 4/17 and you will get the coupon.

Barnes & Noble is running Educator Appreciation Days April 10-18. Educators get a 25% discount if you have the card.

Field Trip Grants

Target will take Field Trip Grant applications starting on August 1, 2010.

According to their site, $4 million was awarded this school year to educators nationwide to fund 5,000 field trips. Peabody, Salem and many cities in Massachusetts were among the recipients.

Making the Most Out of Science Museum Field Trips

The NY Times Learning Network has an article and lesson plan about making a field trip to science museums, and even uses a trip to the Museum of Science in Boston as an example! There are suggestions for before and after activities as well as ideas for creating a sort of museum scavenger hunt for students. There is an accompanying article, The Thrill of Science, Tamed by Agendas.

Earthquake Information

USGS California-Nevada Real Time Earthquake page shows a map of recent quakes in California and Nevada - all 2000+ of them! Try clicking on United States to see the rest of the country - look how quiet New England is - or go to the World view. The M5+ list shows the location of all recent magnitude 5 and above earthquakes.

The Weston Observatory, run by Boston College gives real-time seismograph displays in New England. While this region is not known for its quakes, we do have them. There's a nice article, Why Does the Earth Quake in New England? It turns out that there are different evolving theories. " Unlike the situation for many plate boundary earthquakes, it is not at all clear whether faults mapped at the earth's surface in the Northeast are the same faults along which the earthquakes are occurring."