It’s the end of the school year, but for me, it’s more than that – it’s the end of an era. I’ve taught my last “real” group homeschool class (and there’s just one more regents review study session). It’s a strange feeling – I’m massively excited about my new job teaching science in a lovely … More The end of the year
I just watched this video showing a scale model of our solar system, and I think it’s fabulous. I’m definitely using it with my Earth science classes.
My elementary class that is studying food chemistry is approaching the end of the unit. The students learned to test foods for starch, glucose, protein, and fat. They built paper molecules showing highly simplified structures for each of these types of molecule and they wrote short essays talking about what foods they would bring with … More Elementary Science: Reflections on Food Chemistry
This morning I got an email from NSTA (National Science Teachers Association) about how science teachers perceive and teach climate change. They linked to a worthwhile article in Science that reports on how American teachers are addressing this topic. The short version is that science teachers are mostly pretty well informed about climate change and … More Global Climate Change
In my most recent middle school STEAM class, we were working on bridge building. There were some absences, so it was a small class, but here they are showing off their final products, just before testing commenced. I actually took this photo for the homeschool yearbook, so it’s particularly unfortunate that not everyone was present, … More Middle School STEAM: Straw Bridges
In recent class, I introduced my students to the concept of pollination syndromes, partly as a way of exploring an ecological concept and partly as a way of seeing an example of how science actually works. We started by reading a rather nice article on the topic. This particular class is engaged and enthusiastic, so … More High School Biology: Pollination Syndromes
One of the ideas I introduce with middle school and (especially) high school biology students is that our sensory organs and brain work together to create our perception of the world around us… but our perceptions are limited by our equipment and may not always fully or accurately reflect reality. Diving deep into this topic … More Biology: Taste Perception, Evolution, the Nervous System, and Fun
I’ve been thinking about differentiation in my classes a lot lately. I’m writing up this case study of a Regents-level Earth science class that I’m currently teaching as a way to think things through. I’d love feedback and suggestions, so if anyone reading this has thoughts, please don’t hesitate to leave comments. The Students There … More Case Study in Differentiation
I just got this email, and I feel very proud of my student. It’s probably too small to read easily on your screen, so here’s what it says: Jessie, I just wanted to let you know that XXX did amazing on the test (!!). he was in the 99% in BOTH tests. In qualitative he … More SCAT Tutoring: Success!
I’m currently teaching a middle school STEAM class and as part of that I’m incorporating math games into the curriculum. I’ve been very happy with how this has been going. Students are fully engaged in both playing the games and finding mathematical patterns to describe winning strategies. Furthermore, all of the students are able to … More Minimester Musings: Math Games
Ms. Mathisen's Science Class 