WIRELESS AND MOBILE NEWS

Just in time for the new school year, Verizon Thinkfinity has launched a back-to-school feature that uses engaging educational resources to help teachers get students excited about their return to the classroom.

From resources using football to teach geometry, to lesson plans on the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow," to a podcast that highlights what a crew might experience during a 520-day trip to Mars, teachers will find a plethora of free, standards-based resources in the new Thinkfinity Back-to-School Feature.

Verizon Thinkfinity (www.thinkfinity.org) is a comprehensive educational website that contains tens of thousands of free educational resources to make learning fun and improve educational achievement. Parent-friendly resources, in-class activities and homework help can be found quickly and searched by grade level, keyword or subject. In addition, Verizon Thinkfinity also offers literacy resources to assist adult learners

The robust Back-to-School feature contains dozens of educational resources crossing nine academic disciplines. Among the resources included in the Back to School feature are:

• Figuring in Football - Students examine geometric figures on a football field and search for congruent and similar figures in this lesson from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Illuminations. 
• 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' - In this lesson from the National Endowment for the Humanities' EdSITEment, Students explore Washington Irving's Halloween classic and ponder the mystery of what happened to Ichabod Crane. 
• Mars 500 Mission - Students listen to a podcast and learn about a crew of six volunteers who have embarked on a simulated 520-day mission to Mars. Students discuss the technological challenges, as well as the practical challenges faced by the crew as a result of being so closely confined for a long period of time. The resource was created by the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Science NetLinks. 

The Back-to-School feature is part of the newly expanded Verizon Thinkfinity. Other new features on Verizon Thinkfinity include:

• An online Thinkfinity Community where parents, administrators and teachers can share ideas, ask for assistance, discuss the topics of the day, and connect with colleagues and experts across the country.
• Social networking tools.
• Newsfeeds on the latest educational news.

In addition, Verizon Thinkfinity continues to offer a comprehensive professional-development program that allows teachers to sign up for free online or face-to-face training, such as the Captivate Students With Thinkfinity webinar at http://www.thinkfinity.org/webinars