TL;DR: Exploration taps into a student’s natural curiosity. It provides a way to use the content vocabulary authentically. Exploration encourages sharing and further discovery. It’s a great way to intentionally structure your instruction for your students. Beginning of the Year It is the beginning of the school year and students are returning to classrooms full of hope, excitement, and nervousness. … Read More
Episode #178: Stephanie Ryan
Dr. Stephanie Ryan, Ph.D. is a chemist, a boy mom, and a social media influencer who enjoys using her background to create superior educational products and content. Although an academic at heart, Dr. Stephanie is passionate about learning through play. She can be found helping young kids explore the fascinating world around them. Over the years, Dr. Stephanie has taught science to … Read More
Summer Reflections: Best Practices
TL;DR: Relationships you build with your students go beyond the classroom. Research-based best practices are worth the extra effort. It is not enough to know your content, you have to know how to teach it. As I write this blog, it is mid July, and for me, that is the sweet spot during the summer. Enough time has passed to … Read More
Graphic Organizers
TL;DR: Graphic organizers can increase creativity and can serve as a mastery checkpoint. Graphic organizers can increase understanding of complicated concepts and are fun to make! I love using graphic organizers in my classroom. The structure and organization provided by a well-crafted graphic organizer can make complicated concepts appear simple. This is important when teaching about science topics that can seem … Read More
Can Learning Science Help Close Covid Learning Gaps?
TL;DR: Learning new skills or content is hard, and COVID has made it even harder. But learning science can help. When learning something new, information enters our working memory system, but often isn’t stored in long-term memory. Passive learning strategies (like re-rereading material) do not help us retain information, but retrieval practice does. Retrieval practice involves the recollection or resurfacing … Read More