Author Archives: Sean Musselman

About Sean Musselman

Teacher Dad and Burlington MA Schools K-5 Science and Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator. NSTA Professional Development facilitator and author of "Think Like a Scientist: Investigating Weather and Climate" NSTA Kids ebook.

Lessons from “Virtual Pioneers”

This year has been a world of firsts for so many families, educators, and administrators. Personally speaking, August brought the need to shape shift from Science Specialist to Director of Burlington’s K-5 “Remote Academy,” a conglomerate of 40 educators from … Continue reading

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I Am a Scientist: Analyzing Handwashing Methods

With the school day schedule turned upside-down this year, Burlington elementary students are receiving their science instruction remotely via synchronous instruction by its grades 1-5 teachers. To kick off the school year, Wendy Pavlicek and I wanted to support our … Continue reading

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STEM on the Shelf Episode 1: Sketch to Stretch with Crystal Muise-Keating

Its been three months and a summer to remember (or not?) A lot of personal memories have been made keeping two little boys busy in the COVID-era while professional anxieties have mounted with each passing day. So it was extremely … Continue reading

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Got a STEM-themed picture book you love? Let’s talk.

As a kid, there are few picture books that stuck with me as well as, “How Much is a Million?” by David Schwarz. Specifically, the goldfish: How big would a bowl have to be to host one million goldfish? What … Continue reading

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Designing Family Investigations for Remote Science Learning

It has been eight weeks since our Burlington Schools were closed due to the spread of coronavirus through our community. What was once a temporary inconvenience as turned into a remote learning trial by fire for school district’s across the … Continue reading

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Creating VR Experiences: A Journey

On February 7th I walked out of a VR EdTechTeacher workshop a bit flummoxed. For the first time in a long time I felt over my head, swimming in exposure to half dozen new tools and apps and several new … Continue reading

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NSTA’s “Daily Do” and my eBook: Investigating Weather and Climate

The NSTA recently made the generous decision to open all of its NSTA Kids eBooks freely available on the web at nsta.org/ebooks. These digital, interactive readers are aligned to Next Generation Science Standards across K-5 grade levels and a great … Continue reading

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Empowering Student Empathy and Risk Taking through “The [Climate] Talk”

Climate change is hard and I don’t just mean teaching the science behind the overwhelming data supporting its existence, or even executing solutions designed to reduce or limit its effect on our global systems. I mean talking about it, like … Continue reading

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Weaving ‘Book Talks’ into Science, Weaving Science into ‘Book Talks’

View this post on Instagram Investigating an octopus’ suction cups during the Memorial Superfish aquarium field-trip preview program. A post shared by Burlington Science Center (@burlingtonsciencecenter) on Jan 24, 2020 at 11:52am PST   Over the past several months I … Continue reading

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Better Integrating “Keys to Literacy” Scaffolds and Strategies Across the Science Curriculum

Over the past several years our Burlington elementary educators have been inundated with changes. Besides the upending of our K-5 science and engineering curriculum classroom educators were introduced to “Keys to Literacy” a K-12 ranging program designed to boost student … Continue reading

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