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 The mole concept pervades all of chemistry. Since most quantitative chemical calculations are based on this concept, an understanding of the mole is essential to the study of chemistry. A new BLOSSOMS lesson is designed to help students understand this difficult concept by using concrete examples and analogies that are familiar to the students and by conducting simple and fun activities. After this two-part lesson, students should understand the concept of "amount of substance" and "mole" and will be able to explain why these two concepts are important and how they link the invisible micro-world to the observable macro-world. This new lesson, in concert with two other BLOSSOMS lessons, How Big Is a Mole? Do We Really Comprehend Avogadro’s Number? and Stoichiometry, provide high school teachers with a unit on this fundamental chemisty topic that is both comprehensive and also highly accessible due to the BLOSSOMS unique active learning pedagogy. Watch this new lesson here.
 BLOSSOMS is partnering with the Technion’s Learning Technologies Group to develop, implement and evaluate a model for technology-enhanced project-based learning (PBL) that will promote social constructivist teaching, scientific thinking and motivation towards STEM-related careers. This joint project will explore an integrative approach for effective utilization of two complementary online environments for project-based learning - MIT BLOSSOMS online video lessons and Technion’s AugmentedWorld. AugmentedWorld is a location-based social networking platform, built on a geographical information system. It is designed to facilitate project-based learning by: generating and uploading real world problems; generating inquiry questions; creating dynamic information points on digital maps; and providing online peer-assessment within a community of learners. It is an open and flexible system that allows users to generate their own contents and add layers of information via text, images, and videos. The goal of this joint global education project will be to develop an online learning model that can facilitate STEM education involving real world, real-time scientific research with expert scientists and fellow students from diverse nationalities.
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 In January, the Boston Globe published an article about a new BLOSSOMS lesson on "Deflategate" that examines the Gay-Lussac Gas Law at the heart of that football controversy. Several other online publications also wrote about this BLOSSOMS lesson, including articles in Education Week, Bostinno and USA Today. In March, Education Dive and a few other publications had articles about BLOSSOMS’ new partnership with a charter school in Fall River, MA. Then in May, Edtech Digest published a guest column about MIT BLOSSOMS by Professor Dick Larson.
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 Twelve teachers from Universidad Tecmilenio campuses scattered throughout Mexico will be filming their new BLOSSOMS video lessons over the next few months. This partnership, which began in August 2016, has involved these Tecmilenio teachers in the 6-step process of BLOSSOMS video lesson development. The Mexican lessons cover a wide range of topics, including among others: the physics of music; how GPS works; Positive Psychology; and genetically modified organisms. These lessons will be on the BLOSSOMS website in Fall, 2017. Over the past several years, Universidad Tecmilenio has subtitled into Spanish a large number of BLOSSOMS lessons and used them in their high school curriculum.
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