If a teacher decides to adopt a project based learning (PBL) approach, even the Gold Standard Project Based Learning unit, the most comprehensive tier of PBL strategies, starts with a simple question: What’s the content that teachers will use to...
Part two: A Deeper Dive Please refer to Part 1 of Kurt’s post, where he shares an in-depth look at the Get Outside with NGSS workshop! We have a unique opportunity in 2017 to invigorate public education; specifically, to elevate...
History and Development of the Get Outside Workshops In early 2012, the California State Board of Education was on the brink of adopting the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)—standards that would radically change how teachers would approach teaching science to...
At the beginning of the San Mateo Environmental Education Learning Collaborative (SM ELC) workshop, Dr. Gerald Lieberman asked us who didn’t feel comfortable or knowledgeable applying the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The majority of teachers in the room raised...
Mention frog mucus to a group of tenth-graders and you might expect to hear a collective “yuck.” To a class of sophomores from Kearny High’s School of Engineering, Innovation and Design in San Diego, the slimy substance on frogs’ skin...
Last week I attended ChangeScale’s 2nd Annual Environmental Literacy Congress. Beyond just learning from the presentations, I had a true ‘aha’ moment when I looked around at all the different organizations being represented and realized that environmental literacy is not...
(This is part two of teacher Julie DiMaio’s blog. In part one Julie describes her participation in the San Mateo Environmental Learning Collaborative summer 2015 teacher institute. In part two she shares the outcome of her work and the impact...
Note: This part one of a two-part blog post by guest author Julie DiMaio I can’t begin to describe the sense of responsibility I feel being “THE science teacher” at my school. Mind you, this is not an official title,...
We looked around, startled to hear an unrecognized female voice rise into Yosemite’s still wintertime forest. My class and I were three days into our trip and far from the few casual hikers that populate the valley floor in wintertime....
My kids are environmental superstars! There is something very special about teaching students about decomposers in my 4th grade classroom and then watching them excited to be a part of the Green Team. They work very hard teaching other kids...
