These are blogs about Science or about the Science we do in my classes.
Sep 02
As I ponder how to begin this new school year amidst a more infectious strain of the coronavirus, I am thinking back to all the wonderful work my students did last year. I linked their different projects on the following Google Slide to share with the Ocean Guardian Schools program that we are a part …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/09/02/environmental-stewardship-student-projects/
Aug 22
On July 29, 2021, PocketLab hosted the ScIC6 Science is Cool Unconference that focused on esports and game-based learning (GBL)! On Dec 31, 2020 I wrote about a contest for teachers to submit lessons incorporating Fortnite Creative hosted by Epic Games and about the lesson plan that I submitted that got second place! Because of …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/08/22/fortnite-in-science-class/
Apr 24
Part of our outdoor science education program includes learning to identify benthic macroinvertebrates. Macros are good bioindicators of stream health because they can spend up to two years living in the water in their nymph and larval stage! The scud pictured here is a macro that has some tolerance to water pollution so even though …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2021/04/24/macro-identification/
Dec 29
I’ve been taking 6th graders to our little stretch of Chimacum Creek to gather water quality data since 2001! In all those years we’ve seen our stream flow go from pretty low to really low. In all those years, we did have one year where after some major rain the water level went from ankle …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/12/29/flooding-event/
Dec 28
The first week of school I sent home all my Ocean Guardian School project information, permission slips, and photo release forms. Once I got all the permission slips, which I had to have them all because I could not send kids anywhere while the rest of us left the room, I was able to start …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/12/28/outdoor-education-during-a-pandemic/
Apr 30
I just heard of these FREE STEM video lessons from Dr. Erica Saint Clair. She has been running free online Science classes, and starting next week the online video classes have a Harry Potter theme! Sounds like so much fun! The Harry Potter series starts this Monday, May 4, as Week 8 of the Homeschool …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/04/30/stem-meets-harry-potter/
Mar 02
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) separate the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) from the Cross Cutting Concepts (CCCs) and from the Science content known as the Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs). Those three distinctions, the DCIs, CCCs, and SEPs are what the NGSS refer to as the three dimensions of Science. It is our job …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/03/02/science-or-engineering/
Feb 18
The Pacific Education Institute (PEI) has an amazing website full of fantastic resources. Just mousing over the Our Work menu item displays various resources for any Science, STEM, or Elementary teacher looking for environmental ideas for their curriculum. And if you are a grant writer or considering writing grants to get materials or equipment for …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/02/18/amazing-environmental-performance-tasks/
Feb 17
The STEM Teaching Tools website has some great briefs that I’ve seen at several NGSS workshops I’ve attended in the past bunch of years. I’ve even shared some in workshops I co-facilitate because they’re so cool so I thought I’d share the resource here. Clicking on the PD Modules link in the menu shows some …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/02/17/helpful-stem-tools/
Dec 05
On October 15, 1997, the Cassini Orbiter was launched from Cape Canaveral. Cassini explored and collected data on Saturn, including gathering data on Saturn’s moons. Cassini found 20 moons that had never been discovered before, according to Carnegie Science, bringing Saturn’s moon total to 82 moons! The NASA Spacecraft ended its 20-year mission by crashing …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2019/12/05/naming-saturns-newly-discovered-moons/
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I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023 and 2024!
