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My eBook “Think Like a Scientist: Understanding Weather & Climate” is now available through NSTA Press. Learn more about this and other NSTA ebooks for the K-5 classroom here.
Tag Archives: engineering
EcoTarium Exhibit Engineering Challenge!
Before heading out for summer break, my partner Wendy Pavlicek and I put together a pair of videos designed to drive an engineering challenge for our Grade 2 students who will be investigating habitats next year. The challenge is designed … Continue reading
Posted in Classroom Activities, K-2
Tagged ecosystems, engineering, field trips, life science
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Beyond Toothpicks and Marshmallows: Engineering Earthquake Resistant Structures
I’ve been searching high and low for an earthquake engineering design challenge that gave students more control in planning and evaluating their earthquake-resistant constructions than the common “toothpicks and marshmallows” challenge often seen in primary and middle grades. So … Continue reading
Posted in 3-5, Classroom Activities, Digital Tools, NGSS
Tagged earth science, earthquakes, engineering, waves and communication
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Educators as “Curriculum Engineers”
I’ve been spending more and more time in elementary classrooms supporting and facilitating engineering units. One of the design process models we often use is the Museum of Science’s “Engineering is Elementary” design process, which asks students to “Ask, Imagine, … Continue reading
Integrating Engineering into Elementary Science Curriculum
For the fourth installment of the Science Center’s “Next Generation Science Methods” course we modeled with our elementary educators how to effectively integrate the grades 3-5 engineering standards into a 5th grade earth systems and human activity unit. Before beginning teachers … Continue reading
Posted in NGSS, Professional Development
Tagged 5E lesson sequence, earth systems, engineering, human activity
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Engineering Animal Enclosures
An introduction to classification has long been a staple of the fifth-grade curriculum in Burlington. But with a traditional classification test feeling a bit stale the teachers at Fox Hill looked to the Science Center for a way to spice … Continue reading
Engaging Students in SummerSTEM: Programming and Robotics
Today marks the end of a wildly successful pilot of the Burlington Programming/Robotics SummerSTEM camp, spawned after the well received “hour of code” earlier this year by me and Francis Wyman’s IT Specialist, Ben Schersten. With the focus on learning … Continue reading
Professional Development through Active Learning: "Harmless Holders"
When Science Center partner, Wendy Pavlicek and I sat down to review a survey completed by our Science Curriculum Council members, one glaring bit of information gleaned was that engineering practices were limited or not being adequately met at all … Continue reading
Real STEM integration with "Straw Rockets"
With over 90% of Fox Hill’s fifth graders on their annual trip to Bournedale a rare opportunity for “flexible scheduling” presented itself to classroom teacher, George Norman and I when contemplating what to do with seven students hoping for their … Continue reading
Posted in Classroom Activities
Tagged angles, engineering, forces, Grades 3-5, interdisciplinary
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Musselman / Science 