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 28, 2018 | Change, Cooperative Learning, Education, Inclusion, Literacy, Making, Messy Learning, Project Based, STEM, Student Access, Technology
I remember back in the day (or do people still do these?) when teachers in 4th or 5th grade tended to assign “the state” or “the country” report. Way too often the assumption was made that the students pretty much knew how to do these. The...
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 | Aug 12, 2018 | Digital Video, Education, Messy Learning, RECON, STEM, Student Access, Technology
UPDATE 8/15: Cloud cover and high winds made our participation impossible. However, some of the 50+ teams in the campaign were successful. This Tuesday night we have our next “community science” campaign to observe objects in the Kuiper Belt. This time the...
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...
