Nov 22
We always start school with students on the day after Labor Day so this year our first day with students was Tuesday, September, 6. I wanted to start with a bang on the first day so I decided to have students experiment with making slime! It was a hit! Day 1 Students started by all …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2022/11/22/great-day-1-activity/
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/
Mar 11
Teaching the engineering and design process is all the rage in the classroom right now. We focus heavily on helping students identify a problem, conceptualize a solution that fits within given parameters, help them test their model, and then encourage them to modify their design based on the results. These are all very important skills …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2019/03/11/guest-post-communication-an-important-part-of-engineering-challenges-in-the-classroom/
Jul 11
I just read this article on Mindshift, Will New Standards Improve Elementary Science Education, and it made me think of something we teachers talk about often, the natural curiosity that kids come to school with when they first enter school. Something about the way traditional schooling is done to children strips that natural curiosity. In …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2018/07/11/ngss-and-enjoying-science/
Dec 19
This post originally appeared on the CORELaborate blog. I’ve written about the state of the Scientific Method in the NGSS era and I’ve also written about the DOING of Science. Both those blog posts are about how the NGSS is helping teachers to educate students not only in the content of Science but how Science …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2017/12/19/science-and-engineering-in-the-real-world/
Nov 21
The culminating lesson of the first STEM Robotics 101 unit was quite enjoyable for me and for my students. This post will show how that engineering challenge aligned to the engineering standards. The Next Generation Science Standard (NGSS) for Engineering, MS-ETS1 – Engineering Design, has four performance expectations for students (read this post to see …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2017/11/21/stem-robotics-with-faraday/
Sep 26
This post was originally published at CORELaborate! I participated in a webinar recently as part of my work with the Olympic STEM Pathways Partnership or OSPP. We focused on the dimension of the Next Generation Science Standards or NGSS known as the Science and Engineering Practices or SEPs. One of the things we discussed is …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2017/09/26/the-doing-of-science/
Jun 27
This post was originally published at the WA CORELaborate website. May 24 our Science Subject Area Committee (SAC) presented our plans for a new Science Curriculum Adoption. This is the third adoption in which I’ve played a role in the 20 years I’ve worked at Chimacum Middle School. I played a much bigger role …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2017/06/27/adopting-a-new-curriculum/
May 24
Originally published on the CORELaborate blog! Earlier this school year I volunteered to be part of our district’s Science Subject Area Committee (SAC) to come up with recommendations to the school board for a grades 6 through 12 Science adoption of new NGSS curriculum. The team was made up of two high school Science …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2017/05/24/what-about-robotics/
Mar 28
Chimacum Middle School 6th graders have been monitoring our neighborhood creek, Chimacum Creek, for the past 15 years! When asked to to develop an integrated STEM unit this year for our 6th graders I went to my fellow 6th grade teachers, the Humanities teacher, Ms. Langston, and the Math teacher, Mr. Meacham, and asked them …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2017/03/28/a-stewardship-stem-project/
I'm a Curipod Ambassador! :)
I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023, 2024, and 2025!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
