The 2013 New Jersey Science Convention was held last week.  I volunteered at the registration area, so I had the pleasure of chatting with friends who I worked with over the years.  I had lunch with three of them who had just attended a session they were very excited about.  By the end of lunch, they had given everyone at the table a mini-version of the session about a FREE tool teachers can start using with their students immediately.  Their enthusiasm was contagious and understandably so.  The tool is SOCRATIVE, a student response system, sort of like the old clicker systems, but much better.  The teacher creates the questions, selecting from several formats, in advance or on the go, and releases them one-by-one during a lesson.  The students input their answers on smartphones, tablets, or laptops, and the teacher can see all of the responses immediately.  There is even a game format available for teams, and the teacher can also print reports of all the responses.  I wish I was in the classroom this year, because I know I would be using this tech tool a lot.  Visit http://www.socrative.com/ to find out more.  Don't miss the Support Materials blog.

Over 1000 adults in the continental USA took this test.  How did they do?  How well can you do?  Visit the Smithsonian site to find out.