LEGO AT-ST - Move out with the All-Terrain Scout Transport (AT-ST)! Patrol the forests of Endor or the ice fields of Hoth with this all-new version of the Imperial scout walker. Features side-mounted weapons and an opening pilot hatch straight from the movies.
LEGO Star Wars All-Terrain Scout Transport
Education & Training
Friday, May 11, 2007
Toys&Game - LEGO AT-ST
Toys&Game - LEGO Clone Troopers Battle Pack 7655
The Clone Wars are on! When the Separatists attack, the Republic fights back with its legions of Clone Troopers.
Build your army with an assortment of battle-ready troopers, complete with a blaster turret and speeder bike!
Lego Star Wars Clone Troopers Battle Pack features 58 pieces.
Education & Training
Toys&Game - LEGO Mindstorms NXT
LEGO Mindstorms NXT - The next generation of robots! Create the smartest, strongest and most advanced LEGO® robot ever, in as few as 30 minutes! The new NXT Intelligent Brick, your robot's "brain," features a powerful 32-bit microprocessor and more memory, plus support for USB 2.0, Bluetooth and more! A highly versatile palette of LEGO TECHNIC® elements combines with state-of-the-art ultrasonic, sound, light and touch sensors in the next generation of intuitive robotics.
With included Quick-Start guide, easy-to-use software and step-by-step building instructions, beginners and experts alike can create humanoid, vehicle and animal robots that obey every command! Improved light sensors can detect different colors and intensities, while the new sound sensor enables robots to respond to sound patterns and tones. Robots can really "feel" with improved touch sensors, while ultrasonic "eyes" measure distance and movement.
Programming software is now available for both PC and Macintosh, plus with Bluetooth support, you can even command your robot from your mobile phone! LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT Includes: All-new NXT Intelligent Brick with 32-bit microprocessor, more memory and FLASH 3 Interactive Servo motors feature built-in rotation sensors to align speed for precise control New sound sensor reacts to sound commands, patterns and tones New ultrasonic visual sensor responds to movement Improved touch sensor reacts to touch and release Improved light sensor detects different colors and light intensities 519 specially selected LEGO TECHNIC elements for sturdy and durable building and improved functionality and movement 4 input ports, 3 output ports and 7 6-wire cords Matrix display Real sound speaker USB 2.0 and Bluetooth support Easy-to-use PC and Mac compatible interface Intuitive, icon-based drag-and-drop program "building" environment 6 AA batteries required (not included).
Education & Training
Toys&Game - LEGO Batman - The Batwing: The Joker's Aerial Assault
LEGO Batman - The Batwing: The Joker's Aerial Assault - "Stop The Joker and save Gotham CityÖ! When The JokerÖ and his henchman take to the skies, it's up to BatmanÖ and the Batwing to stop him! Launch the Batwing's missile at The Joker Copter and stop the villain from dropping laughing gas on the city of Gotham!
Open the Batwing's wings to reveal slide-out rockets! Launch the Batwing's missile at The Joker's hidden-weapons helicopter! Hit the spotlight to knock the ladder and the crooked clown from the air! Batwing's wings opens to reveal slide-out rockets! Includes stand for Batwing with flip-down ladder! Batman has lots of cool gadgets! Includes grey-suited Batman, The Joker and henchman minifigures."
Education & Training
Toys&Game - LEVERS SINGLE SET
LEVERS SINGLE SET - First, second and third class levels. 6-10 lessons for classroom learning. 62 elements including assorted beams, bushings and a weight element. 2 full-color building instructions - non-text. A storage box with sorting tray and lid. Benefits for the Teacher: Simple and in-depth introduction to levers. Efficient classroom management. Short preparation time. Benefits for the Pupil: Free open-ended activities. 62 piece set.
Education & Training
Toys - Sentence Maker
Sentence Maker - Learn how to build sentences, however serious or silly, with the Sentence Maker. If features eight different activities that teach subjects, verbs, objects, sounds, rhyming words and more.
A convenient built-in handle lets you take it anywhere. Requires 3 AA batteries. Measures 13" x 8.5". Ages 3 years and up.
Education & Training
Friday, March 30, 2007
Playing and Winning the Scholarship Game
Education and Training
OK, you don't have a 4.0 GPA, you're not the senior class president, you can't throw a football fifty yards, and your SAT scores aren't generating letters or phone calls from Harvard, Yale or Princeton. So, you'll never qualify for a college scholarship, right?
Not necessarily. There are lots of scholarships, and other kinds of financial aid for which you might qualify. Some colleges may offer you academic grants with a GPA of 3.0 and SAT scores of 1000. Ashland University offers scholarships to twins. Many church affiliated colleges offer grants to students who are members of their religious denomination. And that's just the beginning.
If you are the son or daughter of a military veteran, if either of your parents work for a major corporation, if your mother or father is a member of a fraternal or civic organization, or if you are preparing for a career in a particular profession, there may be substantial scholarships for which you can apply, even if you're not a top student or student leader.
Are you good at writing essays? If you are, your writing skills may be the ticket to a scholarship. There is even a scholarship for students who agree to abstain from using tobacco and alcohol while in college.
You may even qualify for a scholarship because of where you live, your last name, your ethnic heritage or race, or a disease or handicapping condition you may have. Get the idea yet? There are all kinds of scholarships, grants, and financial aid programs out there. Some require economic need or have other restrictions, others do not.
You can search through hundreds of thousands of possible scholarships (free!) in more than twenty different data bases at http://www.college-scholarships.com. While you're there, you can sign up for a free email newsletter with articles on college admission, scholarship and financial aid programs, college survival tips, and income opportunities for college students.
At http://www.guaranteed-scholarships.com you’ll find scholarships given by individual college to all enrolled students meeting the listed criteria.
Student-athletes may visit http://www.college-athletic-scholarships.com to find the information needed to secure an athletic scholarship (or an opportunity to compete in a Division III or other non-scholarship program).
Don't forget your school counselor, as he or she can be a great source of information about local scholarship sources. In fact, most high school guidance offices maintain a list of locally based scholarships. Parents and students would be well advised to explore the range of scholarships for which they may qualify as early as the ninth or tenth grade so they can plan to meet the requirements of as many as possible.
You should be aware that many private colleges offer substantial scholarships and grants in order to be more competitive with lower cost public institutions and/or attract students who might otherwise enroll elsewhere. These monies are often offered to students with very little or no demonstrated financial need. In fact, many private colleges frequently "rebate" 30%-35% (or more) of their tuition revenue in the form of institutional financial aid. When these funds are factored in, private colleges may ultimately be little or no more expensive for some students to attend than public colleges and universities with lower published fees.
If you can demonstrate financial need, as established by your answers on the FAFSA
form at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ , you may want to apply to at least a few colleges which meet 100% of demonstrated financial need and do so with a reasonable proportion of gift aid to self-help aid (loans and/or work-study funds). Take note that although some relatively small number of colleges will meet the full need of all enrolled students, many more will be far more likely to meet or nearly meet the full need of stronger students.
To position yourself well to be a competitive candidate for scholarships, students should take the most challenging classes available, work diligently to learn as much as possible (not just to get grades), and get involved in co-curricular, community, charitable and/or public service activities. Here’s a good rule of thumb for all students; the more you have to offer the more you're likely to be offered.
Remember three words…research, research, and research. The more time you spend investigating scholarship opportunities, the more likely you are to find scholarships for which you may be eligible.
Don't let anyone discourage you. There are lots of people "out there," including some educators, who are inadvertently spreading their serious misconceptions about who may qualify for financial aid and what is required to do so. Most important of all, do not fail to investigate or apply to a college you like because you think it is too expensive. That is one of the most common and worst mistakes a family can make. Remember, you never know what kinds of scholarships and/or financial aid you might receive.
However, just like you should have "fall back" or "safety" colleges in case you are not admitted to your first choice institutions, you should choose and apply to colleges that will be affordable if you do not receive the financial assistance for which you hope.
Obvious as it may be, I feel obligated to remind you to pay attention to details and deadlines when applying for scholarships because so many students fail to do so. I could hardly believe it when an independent educational counselor who probably earns in the neighborhood of $1,000 for helping a student identify and gain admission to appropriate colleges asked (on an email list serve) how many words above the limit one of her counsulees could go on his college application essay. Don’t make the mistake that she did by assuming there will be no penalty if you “come close” to the requirements or are “only a few days beyond the deadline”. If you don’t pay attention, be prepared to pay for your mistakes.
But, do it right and you have a great chance of getting some scholarship and or financial aid help. Good luck.
About the author:
Dan Rosenfield is a university dean who creates educational websites as a hobby. Among his sites is
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Saturday, February 24, 2007
Start right now..........
Start right now.......... The most difficult thing in every task is to start. You are lost in a whirlpool of ideas, but nevertheless, you can't choose the most appropriate to embody. Do you experience such situations? I presume , you do as most of people.
The same relates to starting work on your college term paper, the fact of getting a low mark or being excluded from the college makes the start-off even more loathsome and daunting. Leave alone all your fears and doubts. Free your mind and remember another philosophy or psychology term paper or even term paper research don't mean a doomsday .
Here we will share some supportive tips to help you overcome this stressful and tense process of completing your term paper.
The starting point is easy - collect the information on the chosen topic. Fortunately now you have so many sources of information at hand, that you will have no great difficulty in finding sufficient information even on the rarest subject.
Use the library and its archives, surf the net, look through articles in the magazines, bury yourself in books. As you see there are a lot of options, choose the most suitable for yourself. Your next step is to put together all these rather diverse publications, from extremely learned to popular ones, and connect them logically. Mind that your college term paper should be written in consistent style.
Now you can play with your data, inserting each fragment of it in its correct place.
While you are doing it, you have already coped with another significant task - you got rid of useless and irrelevant information.
Moreover, as you are structuring your future masterpiece, you are gaining a clear idea of the image of your final product. In simple words, you almost have a completed plan .
Some resources recommend start working on your college term paper from outlining its contents. But we think that this is no universal instruction. You will compose your plan after numerous manipulations with your text with much less effort. Besides, it is more than evident that you are not always to find information on every aspect you mentioned in your outline.
During the stage of arranging the whole text I also advise you to create a special document , where you will note down all the used references and literature not to torture yourself with the thoughts about the origin of this very quotation afterwards. All the further work is so-called " polishing" your college term paper before you can proudly call it your final product. Your aim at this level is to make your content coherent, homogeneous and rather brief. You will have to leave out some paragraphs, to paraphrase most of them and to add linking passages, to check on spelling, grammar and punctuation, to make a conclusion of your own and to structure it according to the established standards and that is the end!!!
Our attempt here is to show you that writing college term paper is not that terrifying. Because there always will be people who are sincerely enthusiastic about helping you in it.
Learn more about writing college term papers, philosophy or psychology term papers or term paper research at one of sites providing college term paper help - http://www.superiorpapers.com.
About the author:
Learn more about writing college term papers, philosophy or psychology term papers or term paper research at one of sites providing college term paper help - http://www.superiorpapers.comSusan Kassel has been working as the leading editor at Superiorpapers.com for more than three years. She possesses extensive experience in writing psychology and philosophy research papers and essays.
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Learn Your Family Language to Connect With Your Roots
There are lots of reasons why people learn a foreign language - love, business, travel, hobby, necesity etc., but one reason that seems to pop up more and more is to connect with their roots. Many learn in order to speak with or write to relatives still using the language, others learn just to make a connection with their ancestry, to immerse themselves in their own heritage.
How many people have a grandmother from 'the old country' who still speaks with a heavy accent, or an aunt who speaks more in her first language than English? Or how about some newly arrived cousins still struggling with English? Even if your family has been speaking English for generations, the vast majority of people whose native language is English have ancestors from other countries and communities whose native language was not English. Many of us still have a fascination and an affinity with things associated with that 'old country.' As an example, I see many people who have a Cead Mile Failte plaque outside their front door. It means "a hundred thousand welcomes" in Irish Gaelic, and is a proud declaration of their heritage, as well as a warm welcome into their home.
People of Irish ancestry living outside of Ireland (the U.S., Canada, England, New Zealand, Australia etc) often study Irish in order to make some connection with their ancestry, even if only to learn how to pronounce Cead Mile Failte or all those interesting looking place-names in Ireland. Celtic place-names have a peculiar tendency to last, even long after their original inhabitants have moved on and been replaced by people speaking different languages. Continental Europe has many such names, perhaps owing to the unique qualities of the Celtic people embodied in their languages. To quote John Millington Synge - "There is no language like the Irish for soothing and quieting."
We often come to a time in our lives when we think about who we are and how we got here, and a lot of that was determined by our ancestors long before we were born. When combined with the needs and goals in our present lives such as business, travel and caring for our family this can become a powerful incentive to learn a second language, particularly a language which we already have a connection to.
The concept of family or community does not have to exist only in the present. There is a wonderful quote by Christopher Ricks which sums this up nicely - "When a language creates, as it does, a community within the present, it does so only by courtesy of a community between the present and the past."
In some small way, learning our heritage languages can open the door to understanding what kind of people our ancestors were and ultimately gaining a better understanding of ourselves. What better way to define who we are in the present than by reaching back into the past and learning more about our ancestors that got us here.
About the author:
Ron is a long-time language enthusiast, exploring Spanish, French, Swedish, Esperanto and others. Learn more about studying a language on your own at Language Learning Advisor This guide for self-study language learners has reviews and recommendations of language learning methods and products, links to online learning resources, learning tips to maximize your study time and effectiveness and articles on language learning.
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Essential Parenting Lessons for Enriching Your Child’s Education
“We have a science project due in two days and I don’t know when I’m going to get the time to finish it.”
“I did research on the internet for the social studies report until midnight last night.”
“We wrote the spelling words ten times before they were finally right.”
“I made flashcards for all of the multiplication and division facts in preparation for the big math test.”
Do you think the above comments are from students, committed to working hard to get good grades? Unfortunately, not. These are just some of the things I hear from parents who enable their children to take short cuts in school or who are too heavily invested in their kids’ homework and school assignments. Parents who feel the need to do the work for their children aren’t helping their children. “We” do not have a test or a project due, the son or daughter does, so why is mom or dad doing the work?
As a professional educational consultant and owner of a busy in-home tutoring service, I hear these comments at least three times a week from the clients I visit. My job as a tutor broker is to match qualified tutors with students. To make the best match possible, I meet every student and parent(s) in their home to get a better idea of the students’ academic needs, as well as personality and learning style. I interview the student, with the parent present. We talk about school, the subject in which they need tutoring and their study habits. What I discover is an increasing number of parents are more stressed out than the kids because they are doing the work for their children instead of teaching them good study skills and independence.
It is difficult to break the bad habit of doing too much for your children, however, the following suggestions might help:
1) Realize that not all kids have the potential to get straight A’s. Some parents believe that if their kids don’t get all A’s there is something wrong. Absolutely not true! A well-rounded student is one who tries their very best scholastically and is involved in social activities as well. Not everyone can achieve a 4.0 average. There is nothing wrong with a passing grade in all subjects, regardless of whether it’s an A, B or C.
2) Keep your expectations realistic. If your child is doing all of their homework every night, studying to the best of their ability and taking school seriously but not pulling all A’s, it is possible that they are just not capable of living up the high expectations you have for them. If one excels in reading and is less talented in math, accept that. Not everyone can be excellent in every subject.
3) Make sure your child has a healthy mixture of academics and other activities. A child who gets all A’s at the cost of having no friends or social outlets is definitely going to suffer for it down the road. When colleges look at a student’s academic record, they also look at extra curricular activities, volunteer work, involvement in sports or the arts. Grades and test scores are important, but so are being able to balance the good grades with a well-rounded lifestyle.
4) Teach your child early on to be independent when it comes to school work. In the primary grades, it is important to help your youngster establish good study habits. Sitting with them and guiding them through homework assignments, explaining or reading the directions to them is perfectly normal and acceptable. By third grade, they should be able to do their homework with much less involvement from you. Checking it over for them and pointing out errors for them to correct is a good habit. By fourth grade, homework should be reviewed by the parent. If there is a mistake, for example, suggest that they review their work again because you found three mistakes on pages one and two. Let them find the errors with limited guidance from you. Fifth grade and onward, they should be totally on their own.
5) Help your child establish a homework routine and provide a quiet place for homework. Some kids come right home and do their homework immediately. Others need to wind down and do it right before dinner. Others are productive after dinner. Tune in to your child’s most productive time and try not to deviate from an established schedule. They will get so much more done if homework time is defined for them. As they get older, changes will probably need to be made to accommodate other activities. The key is consistency. Provide the right environment for homework and studying. If you have children who are toddlers or younger, be mindful that it is distracting for a brother or sister to try to concentrate if the television is blasting or the other kids are being loud.
6) Communicate with your children’s teachers. Know what is happening in class and what is expected to be done at home. Be sure to attend back-to-school night and all parent-teacher conferences. Get to know the teachers and establish clear lines of communication with them. Be aware of how and where homework assignments, quizzes and tests are communicated to the class. Many teachers utilize a school website to post assignments, etc. Check the site regularly and ask to see the completed work. For older students, DON’T correct it, but instead make sure it’s done neatly! Know when the exams are and when big projects are due. This way, if your teenager informs you they are heading to a friend’s soccer game and you know a big exam is the next day, you can inquire as to whether they have studied. Knowing what is happening in a class is very empowering for a parent.
7) Encourage your student to think for themselves. Provide a dictionary, thesaurus, calculator and any other tools they may need to do their work. By fifth grade, if your child is still asking you how to spell words, they haven’t learned how to be independent. When my fifth grader asks me “How do you spell ‘special’?” I reply, “I don’t know, how you spell special?” She gets infuriated, but she knows I won’t tell her and she begrudgingly looks it up in her dictionary. I could have given her the answer, but then she would always ask me and not learn to do it on her own. After all, I’m not the one who has to take the spelling test or write the book report, she is.
If your child is consistently confused and always has questions about school work, your antennae should go up. One of three things is happening:
a) They are not asking questions in class when they don’t understand. Shyness, embarrassment, or drawing attention to oneself by asking a question is the most common reasons for not asking. Encourage your child to speak up and that it is “OK” to not know the answer to everything. Chances are if your child has a question, others in the class have the same one and are also too embarrassed to ask.
b) They are lazy or something else is going on that you may not know about. When any student, regardless of age and grade is over their head, it is common to just shut down and tune out. To this kind of student, there is no point in taking notes because they don’t get it anyway, so why bother? Homework is too confusing for them; they have scored poorly on every test, so why try? It is also possible that something else is bothering them. Have they recently changed schools from elementary to middle school or middle school to high school? Some kids don’t handle transition well. Has their group of friends changed? Have they suddenly become loners or too social? Tune in to your students’ behavior and talk to them about it. Elevating their self-esteem will do wonders and is often the cure for the lazy syndrome.
c) It is possible they might have a learning disability. A child who has struggled since the early grades might have a learning disability. For example, if your sixth grader is still reading at a third grade level or your ninth grader hasn’t mastered his math facts, there may be a legitimate problem. The best thing to do is talk to the school first. You have a legal right to ask for your child to be tested by the school. Unfortunately, due to budget cuts in education nationwide, this process is not always as easy as it should be. Talk to your pediatrician and ask for a referral for a qualified psychologist who specializes in learning disabilities.
Teaching your child to be independent will result in a much healthier relationship between you and them and a much more peaceful home life. I have heard from so many of my clients who have not fostered independence in their children that homework time results in tears, screaming and a general sense of rebellion and indignation from their children. This can be avoided by setting your children up to be winners – and that doesn’t mean straight A’s, it means they are capable and willing to do their best and you are capable and willing to accept the results.
Laurie Hurley is the Founder & President of Bright Apple Tutoring Service, Inc. based in Southern California and Home Tutoring Business, available for purchase in the U.S. and Canada. If you are looking to begin a tutor referral service in your community without the high cost of buying a franchise, contact Home Tutoring Business, http://www.hometutoringbusiness.com at 1.805.376.0033.
About the author:
Laurie Hurley is available for media interviews, discussions on education and home-based business opportunities such as starting a tutor referral business. Contact her at http://www.hometutoringbusiness.comor http://www.brightappletutoring.com1-805.376.0033
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