Cardboard Automata Resource
My friend Kevin Jarrett shared this easy to follow guide to Cardboard Automata from the Exploratorium in San Francisco. It's a great FREE resource for getting started with making in a fun, creative way. You can easily get started with stuff you probably already have...
High Hopes Balloon Launch May 28, 2019 – Update
In my last post I said I would update on the status of payloads and the recovery. The photo on the end of that post (also see below) showed the payloads hanging in a tree - that was all we knew thanks to Eric Wang - he snapped that photo and sent it to us to show he...
High Hopes Balloon Launch May 28, 2019 – What we know so far!
A highlight of our year is always working with a school or schools to incorporate STEM into launching a high altitude balloon (weather balloon) with student designed payloads attached to altitudes near or above 100,000 feet. Yesterday was no exception, AND we had the...
Announcing the Northern Nevada Science & Technology Festival
After much planning and collaboration a dedicated group of Nevada science and STEM educators and advocates are set to facilitate the first annual Northern Nevada Science and Technology Festival. Each night during the week of May 13th a different venue will offer FREE...
High Hopes Project HAB Launch 6/1/18
I'm going to try and catch up on some long past due posts about the High Hopes Project. Last June we launched from Virginia City High School in Nevada. I posted about the preparation for the launch which will give you good background on the payloads students designed....
What Happened to the Potential of Social Media in Education?
Dean Shareski posted this to Twitter (SM = Social Media): Read the thread of comments (it's worth a minute or 2) by following the link. I've written a bit about this before, and ironically that post from 8 years ago also involved Dean (Who'da Thunk?). Dean is right,...
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch – A 5th Grade Learning Sequence
I am part of a team that is facilitating the "Nevada Engineering Fellows Program" for 5th grade teachers in Nevada. The funding for the program came from the Nevada Governor's Office of Science Innovation & Technology. A major goal of the program is for teachers...
NSTA Position Paper on Elementary School Science
From the NSTA Position Paper on Elementary Science: "High-quality elementary science education is essential for establishing a sound foundation of learning in later grades, instilling a wonder of and enthusiasm for science that lasts a lifetime, and in addressing the...
Science Task Prescreen
In my work with teachers on assessing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) I find one of the toughest shifts for them to make is to develop tasks that are meaningful and really worth diving into. The NGSS are performance based standards that are very different...
Nevada – 5th Annual Statewide Recycled Art Contest
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)....