Science for All

WA Only: PEI FREE Field Experiences Workshop

Posted on March 9, 2022 | Leave a comment

I have had the pleasure of learning with the talented folks at Pacific Education Institute (PEI) for several years now. I’ve even had the honor of collaborating with them on developing materials and delivering professional development. So I wanted to take the opportunity to push out information for a FREE workshop series from PEI on Designing High Impact Field Experiences. I highly recommend any professional learning from PEI. Unfortunately I’m already booked on one of these evenings, otherwise I would see you there.

Information:

Online via Zoom
March 16th and March 29th via Zoom with 2 hours of asynchronous work
Zoom sessions 4-6pm
6 STEM Clock Hours
Click HERE for more information and to register

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FREE Webinar: Pedagogical Commitments for Climate Justice Education

Posted on February 2, 2022 | Leave a comment

The Climate Teacher Ed Collaborative (@ClimateEdTools) is hosting multiple monthly FREE online webinars. The first is titled Pedagogical Commitments for Climate Justice Education on February 11th, 2022 from 11am-noon PST. Dr. Fikile Nuxalmo and Pablo Montes will be sharing about their NSTA publication on Pedagogical Commitments for Climate Justice Education. I just signed up and hope to see other colleagues there too.

If you are interested you can register HERE.

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Tech Boy

Posted on February 2, 2022 | Leave a comment

I don’t talk about it much on this site but I’m not only a huge science education nerd, I’m also a huge everyday nerd. I read and collect graphic novels and comic books. I watch anything Marvel, DC or Star Wars related and I definitely enjoy playing video games.

So when I recently stumbled on a STEM-focused comic book that was authored by a young person- I was intrigued and knew that I had to share it here.

Thirteen year-old DeJuan Strickland also enjoys video games and comics. He noticed that there were only a few superheroes that looked like him. He noticed that there weren’t many comics that explicitly connected to STEM…so he created his own superhero comic and character- Tech Boy!

You can hear DeJuan talk about his vision and his project in the news clip embedded below. You can order your own copy (or even a classroom set) of Tech Boy HERE. It also sounds like DeJuan has been hard at work and has another comic coming soon…so keep your eyes open for more from DeJuan.

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Posted in design/engineering, equity & diversity, middle school, Picture Books, STEM

Have You Seen the Latest STEM Teaching Tools?

Posted on January 25, 2022 | Leave a comment

If you are someone who follows this blog then you most likely are already a fan of the brilliant STEM Teaching Tools site. If it’s been awhile since you’ve visited stemteachingtools.org then I highly recommend heading there now. The last several Practice Briefs are powerful (not that the previous ones were not) and tackle some important topics in equity-focused science instruction. Here are a few of my favorites to get you started:

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Posted in equity & diversity, K-12 General Science, NGSS, Science teacher Professional Development, STEM

All the Feelings Under the Sun: How to Deal with Climate Change

Posted on December 31, 2021 | 2 comments

All the Feelings Under the Sun: How to Deal with Climate Change by Leslie Davenport is a book written for kids that is designed to help them examine and work through their feelings and emotions about our changing climate. Just looking at the chapter titles gives a sense of what this book is about:

Introduction
Chapter 1: How We Know What We Know
Chapter 2: The Earth is Heating Up
Chapter 3: Everything is Connected
Chapter 4: Eco-Justice
Chapter 5: Making the World Healthier Together

In my work with classroom teachers it is common to hear a certain amount of hesitancy in engaging students (especially younger students) with learning about climate. The thought being that the content is too heavy and overwhelming. This book might be a great resource for thinking about how to tackle learning about climate head on with a solution-oriented frame and also dealing with our feelings about it.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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Posted in Books, climate science, elementary

BSCS: Limited Time FREE Access to Videoverse

Posted on December 30, 2021 | Leave a comment

As an educator of preservice teachers and a consultant working with inservice teachers I’m always on the lookout for FREE quality videos of science instruction. There are some entities that have great videos but they are now behind a subscription wall (I’m looking at you Teaching Channel). So when I saw that BSCS was offering FREE subscriptions for their BSCS Videoverse platform I quickly jumped on it.

Now, I will admit that I have only signed up today so I haven’t had time to give the videos a thorough review but I’m encouraged by the mix of videos at multiple grade bands. Videos are organized by different practices and instructional moves such as Revealing Student Ideas and Using Models and Representations. There are also places where multiple short clips from the same lesson have been collated together for viewing.

To sign up click HERE and then you’ll be directed to enter your name, email and make a password. If you enter the code FREEACCESS you will not need to enter any credit card information.

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Posted in K-12 General Science, NGSS, Video

NSTA Sensemaking Toolkit

Posted on December 30, 2021 | Leave a comment

The National Science Teacher’s Association (NSTA) has a collection of sensemaking resources called the Sensemaking Toolkit. You will find resources on “what is sensemaking?” along with tips and links to multiple resources on phenomena, student ideas, science ideas, and science and engineering practices.

One of my favorite tools here is the Single-Point Rubric for Sensemaking Lessons. View HERE as a Google Doc. This rubric can help us evaluate our sensemaking lessons to make them more powerful experiences for students.

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Posted in NGSS, Science teacher Professional Development

River Runner Simulation

Posted on September 7, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here’s a fun simulation for a Tuesday. Visit River Runner and then click anywhere on the map to place a single raindrop. The simulation then shows you where the raindrop ends up. Enjoy.

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Talk Science: Resources for Empowering Conversations about Climate Change

Posted on August 31, 2021 | Leave a comment

Talk Climate is an ambitious set of resources designed to empower schools, homes, communities and workplaces to engage in productive conversations about our changing climate.