by Brian | Sep 5, 2018 | Change, Education, Making, Project Based, STEAM, STEM, Student Access, Teacher Access, Technology
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about a 5th Grade Engineering Fellows Program I am co-facilitating here in Nevada. We are kicking off the program soon with a lesson on plastic waste in the ocean (follow the link above to see a video and more that explains the issue)....
by Brian | Aug 29, 2018 | Change, Cooperative Learning, Education, Inclusion, Messy Learning, Project Based, Reform, STEAM, STEM, Student Access, Teacher Access, Technology
Yesterday, I wrote a piece about assuming students have collaboration skills and building class culture. These vital learning pieces were greatly deemphasized and cut (even ridiculed as a waste of time) during the last 15 years or so of school “reform.” I...
by Brian | Aug 22, 2018 | Education, Literacy, Messy Learning, NASA, STEM, Student Access, Teacher Access
Had to post this. As someone who delivers professional development in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) this study’s findings don’t surprise me (link to the study YouGov site). Science and social studies and a raft of other subjects...
by Brian | Aug 21, 2018 | Blogging, Change, Digital Video, Education, Field Trips, Making Connections With Blogging, Messy Learning, STEAM, STEM, Student Access, Teacher Access, Technology, Total Eclipse
A year ago today I was very fortunate to be part of a NASA sponsored team launching high altitude balloons in Idaho to record data about the total eclipse. Meantime back in northern Nevada where I work, thousands of students and members of the general public were...
by Brian | Aug 17, 2018 | Education, Making, Messy Learning, Project Based, STEM, Student Access, Teacher Access, Technology
I’m currently involved in designing a 5th grade inquiry experience aligned to NGSS – I’m actually part of a team of 3. I volunteered (or was volunteered, not sure) to design a Plastic Gyre that 5th grade students will then design a system to collect...
by Brian | May 21, 2018 | Change, Education, High altitude ballooning, High Hopes Project, Messy Learning, NASA, Project Based, STEAM, STEM, Student Access, Teacher Access, Technology, The High Hopes Project, Twitter
NOTE: If you’d like to be part of this project you and your students can send us their “High Hopes” for their school, community and the world and we will launch them up high to 100,000 feet where they will be released to slowly drift down to the...
by Brian | Dec 14, 2017 | Coding, Education, Inclusion, Making, Messy Learning, STEM, Student Access, Teacher Access, Technology
Late last school year I met up with the folks at Breadware to determine if their Internet of Things (IoT) Development Kits could be a nice fit in local high schools. They were a local “start-up” company and they were willing to loan their kits to local...
by Brian | Dec 5, 2017 | Bee-Bots, Change, Coding, Education, Inclusion, Messy Learning, STEAM, STEM, Student Access, Teacher Access, Technology, Wikis
Last spring I was able to purchase, thanks to some unspent funding from a grant, 3 Bee-Bot “Hives” – they are about $600 each – each “hive” includes 6 Bee-Bots, a charging plate and a yellow backpack for transporting them. With time...
by Brian | Dec 1, 2017 | Education, High altitude ballooning, High Hopes Project, Messy Learning, Project Based, STEM, Student Access, Teacher Access, Technology, The High Hopes Project
We finally managed to launch a balloon this fall. It’s been in the works for well over a month, maybe two. Weather and scheduling finally came together and we launched on Tuesday, November 28, 2017, from Virginia City High School’s football field (in...
by Brian | Oct 12, 2017 | Change, Education, Making, Messy Learning, Project Based, STEAM, STEM, Student Access, Teacher Access, Technology
A few years ago (2015) my wife and I were in Christchurch, New Zealand, and we came upon this hands-on Da Vinci Mechanics Exhibit at the Canterbury Museum. I’d meant to share a post about it when we returned and I was reminded of that when I came across the...
