Eclipse Facts Sheet
Describes how a solar eclipse happens when the Moon moves between the Sun and Earth and about different types of solar eclipses, eclipse safety, and eclipse activities.
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]]>Summer’s here, and while the sun is blazing, so are the opportunities to keep young minds shining bright! Whether you’re a teacher sharing resources with families or a parent looking to keep the learning spark alive, we’ve rounded up six opportunities from our Corporate Partnerships that turn summer into a season of discovery!
From hammering at Home Depot to swinging into STEM with LIV Golf, these activities are brain-boosting adventures that will keep that learning spark alive throughout the summer!
Junior Fire Marshal® Training Academy
Equip students with vital fire safety and prevention skills, empowering them to protect their families. The Junior Fire Marshal® Training Academy offers K–3 students an exciting opportunity to delve into fire safety essentials and earn their Junior Fire Marshal Certificate. This program features a collection of standards-aligned classroom resources designed to make learning both fun and impactful.
Build, Learn, and Explore This Summer with Home Depot Workshops!
Home Depot’s free, hands-on Workshop Days are a fun and engaging way for kids to keep building their skills all summer long. From hammering to painting, each project sparks creativity and introduces STEM concepts in a playful, practical way. The free in-store kids’ workshops are held on the first Saturday of every month, 9:00 AM local time, while supplies last.
Plus, explore a trove of digital resources at Science Fair Central to keep the discovery going. Whether you’re crafting in-store or learning online, have kids grow, create, and learn together this summer!
LIV to Learn: Keep Minds Bright All Summer
Where curiosity meets adventure — on and off the golf course! Whether you’re exploring the wonders of science, diving into digital creativity, or unlocking new golf skills – LIV to Learn, a collaboration between LIV Golf and Discovery Education, keeps young minds active and engaged.
This program turns summer into a season of exploration with backyard experiments and virtual field trips. With resources that blend sports, STEM, and real-world learning, LIV to Learn helps students stay sharp while having fun — because learning doesn’t stop when the bell rings, it just gets more exciting!
Verizon’s Immersive Explorers: Your Summer Learning Hotspot
As we wrap up the school year, we’re excited to highlight the Immersive Explorers program, in collaboration with Verizon. This initiative uses immersive techniques, ready-to-use activities, resources, and professional development materials to create interactive and engaging learning experiences.
The program goes beyond traditional teaching methods, encouraging active participation, critical thinking, and real-world application of knowledge. It’s a great opportunity for students to experience next-generation education.
Keep Curiosity Cool with Media Literacy Bundles!
How do you determine what’s real or reliable online? With the Digital Citizenship Initiative’s new Media Literacy Bundles, you’ll empower learners to evaluate information critically and share responsibly. From fun activities like Digital Detectives to lessons like Going Viral, there’s something for every grade level.
Help create informed digital citizens today.
Virtual Field Trips: On-Demand and Perfect for Summer
Summer is a fantastic time to explore our on-demand virtual field trips for engaging and educational experiences. Whether you’re looking to dive into history, sports, science, or art, virtual field trips offer a convenient way to learn and explore from the comfort of your home.
Check out our most recent VFTs:
Don’t Let the Learning Drift Away!
As the days get longer and the popsicles melt faster, remember summer is the perfect time to explore, create, and grow. These programs aren’t just a way to pass the time—they’re a passport to new skills, big ideas, and unforgettable experiences. Whether it’s building birdhouses, exploring virtual worlds, or becoming a Junior Fire Marshal, there’s something here for every curious kid. So share these resources, spark some summer joy, and keep the learning wave rolling all season long.
Lindsey Davis
Lindsey Davis partners with leading brands to bring innovative educational programs to life. As a Senior Partner Marketing Manager at Discovery Education, she blends strategy, creativity, and collaboration to amplify learning experiences in classrooms across the country.
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]]>The post Shifting to Student-Centered Instruction appeared first on Discovery Education.
]]>The shift to student-centered instruction is well worth the effort.
Student-centered instruction and learning lead to greater rates of achievement and transferrable life skills for success in school and long after. The goal is to move beyond passive learning and help students become actively engaged through increased agency, hands-on and group experiences, and high—but completely realistic—expectations.
Benefits of Student-Centered Learning
Actively processing new material through thinking, discussing, investigating, and creating helps encode new information in student memories, forming the basis for deeper learning. Information, concepts, and skills are embedded by connecting prior learning, organizing knowledge, and creating. This also results in strengthened neural pathways which aid in future recall.
To facilitate these active processes, it’s important to step back from directing and let students take the lead. Encourage student agency through guided lessons. The bulk of the work lies in the planning stage rather than through lectures and student direction. Think ready-to-use activities and Studio Boards where students can investigate and collaborate to chase after information and demonstrate learning in creative ways. Teachers become facilitators and guides as students take ownership of their learning.
Lessons from the Science Community
We can draw from the science community when constructing lessons for student efficacy. The goal of the scientific community is to explain the world around us. And the scientific method relies on the precepts of description, prediction, explanation, and control. As students learn to take control of their learning, lessons can employ an inductive approach drawing on discovery rather than rote memorization.
Student Sensemaking
The scientific concept of sensemaking is one method worth exploring. Student sensemaking is simply deciphering how things happen and how the world works. The teacher’s job is to spark curiosity and guide students to figure things out for themselves.
As an example, a 6th grade math class is tasked with how to find the areas of parallelograms and triangles. In a teacher-centered classroom, the teacher lectures about the concepts and directs students on how to solve the equations.
In a student-centered classroom, teachers introduce an engaging activity that sparks the students’ curiosity leading them to ask questions, investigate, hold discussions, and eventually apply their knowledge. Student questions guide instruction and students are deeply involved in the learning process as they make connections across concepts.
Examples in Scientific Discourse
Students need time to make sense of the material at hand during the learning process. Rich and productive small and whole group discussions help solidify concept attainment and encourage them to think critically and creatively.
The first step is to define classroom norms for successful discourse—respect for others, participation by all, and the need to work toward a common goal are essential.
Productive discussions work best at specific stages of inquiry:
- Eliciting initial questions and explanations when encountering new information.
- Gathering and analyzing data and information. Guide students to accumulate data and then teach them to sift through the most relevant material.
- Refining models and explanations. At this point, constructive arguments are based on evidence, which enriches students’ understanding of the concepts.
It takes time to build the skills necessary for productive student-centered discourse, but eventually, students feel confident enough to conduct their discussions without your help—which is amazing to witness!
Student-Centered Approaches Can Be Life-Changing
We all use some iteration of the scientific method daily. Trial and error inform our daily efforts, from cooking dinner to creating a budget. However, excelling in our careers requires a skill base and attention to detail that transcends our everyday experience.
Allowing students to take ownership of their learning and discover and practice life-changing methods like sensemaking and productive scientific discourse helps prepare them for success in school and careers. Companies today expect their staff to think critically, have productive discussions, investigate thoroughly, create new systems, and solve problems. And we can help our students get there.
Watch Your Students Bloom
Shifting to a student-centered classroom increases student achievement and introduces fresh, newfound energy to classroom interactions. Engaging students with the help of student sensemaking strategies and examples from scientific discourse only add to the efficacy of your efforts. There’s nothing better than watching your students bloom into self-directed, capable individuals ready to take on the world!
About the Author
Rose Lattanze is an educational consultant and writer helping educators blend technology with instructional growth. She trained in Dr. Robert Marzano’s research-based instructional strategies, serving schools and districts as they transformed from teacher-based to student-based instruction. Currently, she writes about all things education for various EdTech companies. Read more >
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]]>The post Sparking Student Interest in Space appeared first on Discovery Education.
]]>Thanks to numerous events occurring this school year, it’s an exciting time for those of us that teach about space and space travel! From solar eclipses to developments in NASA’s Artemis programs, this school year offers unique opportunities to spark students’ interest in our galaxy.
Discovery Education has a wealth of resources to support educators teaching students about these events, as well as ways to add context to student learning by connecting scientific principles to space content.
Starting Your Space Exploration
Start your space lessons with the Explore Space: NASA’s Missions of Exploration Channel, where you can find fantastic resources on popular space topics. There are great introduction videos on the James Webb Telescope, the largest, most powerful, and most technologically challenging space telescope. Understanding how this technology is used can help students consider how galaxies are studied, and then they can view images captured by this amazing telescope! This channel also includes news on the Ingenuity helicopter, which is miraculously still going strong after recently completing its 59th flight in September 2023.
For younger students, you can introduce the excitement of space with fun animated segments such as Planet Cosmo and Earth to Luna! There are many ways to make your space lessons fun, exciting, and best of all, relevant! If you aren’t sure where to infuse space content into your science lessons, finding space-related events that are coming up and using these events to build context for your students can help the introduction feel meaningful.
The upcoming Artemis missions will create a ton of excitement as the four-astronaut crew was recently named and we are moving closer to the November 2024 launch date! Discovery Education has some terrific resources to share in the Moon Channel on the historic missions to the moon, such as The Apollo Project, as well as information about the moon phases from the DEmystified series, and an overview of the partnership with NASA and SpaceX in The Future of Space Travel.
The upcoming solar eclipses are other exciting space events you can connect into your lessons! An annular solar eclipse occurred on October 14, 2023, and a total solar eclipse will occur on April 8, 2024. The Solar Eclipses Channel has great resources, videos, and activities for students in grades K-12 that both describe the natural phenomenon of an eclipse.
Eclipses are unique solar events, and after the April 8 total solar eclipse, the next eclipse won’t occur over the United States until 2044! Discovery Education Experience has new resources to help students explore the wonders of this upcoming eclipse such as a video on How to Safely Watch a Total Solar Eclipse, activity to create a Pinhole Projector, and a video giving students a tour of NASA’s 2024 Solar Eclipse Map. NASA is also sharing a livestream so students can watch as the total solar eclipse moves across Mexico, the United States and Canada.
Additional Solar Eclipse Resources
Solar Eclipse Video Playlist
Videos in both English and Spanish explaining the phenomena of the "disappearing sun" and offering context about the total solar eclipse.
NASA's 2023 and 2024 Eclipse Map
Based on observations from several NASA missions, this map details the path of the Moon’s shadow as it crosses the U.S. during the annular solar eclipse in 2023 and total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.
Creating Relevant, Fun Learning Opportunities
Adding a short, creative project-based learning element to your lessons around these current events can bring some additional engagement and excitement, even for students who may not think they’re passionate about space topics. For example, you can incorporate TimePod Adventures to allow students to “visit” another planet’s surface or launch and fly a rocket in HOME: Impossible Field Trip, which can bring the space concepts of a lesson to life. The AR Adventure Kit offers fun ideas that pair with the state-of-the-art, life-size augmented reality featured in TimePod Adventures.
Gamification and animation can make any topic fun and offer students a chance to use new technology tools! By using a free tool like Animate with Audio in Adobe Express, students can research a mission, planet, moon, or other phenomena and then create their own cartoon guessing game just using audio. This is always fun because the games can be played outside of the classroom with friends, family, and future students for years to come!
Resources like these are only the start, as there are so many amazing videos, articles, interactives, and more to discover. Even virtual field trips like the Journey to the Extreme: Virtual Field Trip to Mars, which includes an interview with NASA astronauts and program executives about the Curiosity mission and the ultimate goal, a journey to Mars! Start with one space lesson around a current event and create interested students who want to blast off to further exploration!
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]]>The post Creating a “Cool” Career Studying Polar Bears appeared first on Discovery Education.
]]>The path to a “cool” career may be covered in snow or dusted with sand, but it certainly takes hard work! Finding ways for students to explore different career paths can help them determine their next step after K-12 education—and can help them figure out if they’ll need a scarf or a swimsuit to pack for their workday.
Here to share about her journey to a cool job (so cool it’s cold) is Alysa McCall, who works with Polar Bears International. She gave the DE team a behind-the-scenes look into her career path and offers advice to students considering ways they can turn their interest in animals into a career.
Meet Alysa McCall
Director of Conservation Outreach and Staff Scientist
Alysa lives in Whitehorse, Yukon. She has a Bachelor's of Science (Hon.) in Animal Biology from Thompson Rivers University and a Masters of Science in Ecology from the University of Alberta where her thesis focused on the polar bears of western Hudson Bay. She gained hands-on experience with polar bears from multiple fall and spring field seasons in Tuktoyaktuk and Churchill and has been heavily involved in tracking Hudson Bay polar bears, as well as coexistence efforts. She also spearheads Polar Bears International's Tundra Connections webcast program. Prior to joining Polar Bears International's staff, Alysa volunteered for several years in multiple capacities, including being a panelist on the Tundra Connections program and assisting with the Polar Bear Tracker. She is passionate about science education and polar bear conservation and is dedicated to ensuring that future generations inherit a healthy planet.
The Journey to Polar Bears International
I am the Director of Conservation Outreach and Staff Scientist for Polar Bears International. Most of my current work is around polar bear conservation, with a focus on how to coexist safely with them as they spend more time on land. Working with the Arctic and polar bears is very interesting—did you know that the Arctic Sea’s ice acts as the world’s air conditioner? It helps regulate and cool climates around the world. I always feel lucky to work with such an important part of our planet!
From a very young age, I have loved animals and was fascinated by them. Growing up we had all sorts of wildlife around, and black bears were often in my yard during the summer. I knew I wanted to work with animals, but I had many different ideas for careers when I was young. I wanted to be a pony trainer and Dairy Queen cake decorator, which evolved over time to wanting to be a biologist (though I did also briefly decorate cakes for a while). I found out that being a biologist was a great way to turn my fascination with animals into a job!
I am still amazed every time I go into the field to see polar bears. I also love watching people's reaction when they see their first polar bear—it's so fun, every time!
Alysa McCall
Director of Conservation Outreach and Staff Scientist for Polar Bears International
I studied biology and ecology at my university, held a bunch of different jobs, and then decided to attend graduate school. When I was looking for a graduate school, my mentor/supervisor Karl encouraged me to apply to the polar bear lab in Edmonton. It was not on my radar before that suggestion, because I was more focused on small mammals. But I’m so glad it worked out!
During graduate school, I eventually volunteered with Polar Bears International. After I completed my thesis, PBI hired me as the first Canadian on staff!
Advice for Aspiring Scientists
If you have set your sights on a future career in science, my best advice is to get as much hands-on experience as possible.It doesn’t need to be directly related! I worked in animal care, tracked toads and mice, did insect surveys, and learned about plants along my journey to Polar Bears International. The more knowledge and experience you have, the more skills you can bring to a team, and the more confident you’ll be when you’re ready for that next big step in your career.
Additionally, a lot of work opportunities and projects are shared from people you’ve worked with in the past, so being easy and helpful to work with can go a long way. It’s important to make good impressions (like chipping in by doing dishes when you’re living with colleagues in the field) to ensure you get invited back!
The work of a scientist may not be as glamorous as a movie star, but for me it’s the most fulfilling because I get to do what I love and for the greater good!
Each day, students explore scientific concepts, historical facts, and mathematic equations—but how often do they look ahead to consider how these skills fit into their futures? Highlighting different careers in the classroom can help students connect the dots between what they think is “cool” and what could become a “cool career.” Discovery Education’s Virtual Field Trips, videos, and learning resources help make career exploration easy to implement into your existing lessons!
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]]>The post Making the Move to Digital Resources appeared first on Discovery Education.
]]>Trying something new in your classroom can feel invigorating, but also opens many questions: How does this compare to what I’ve been doing before? Will it make things easier or more complicated? How will it impact my students?
For Stacie Trebes, middle school teacher at Sahuarita School District, trying something new meant stepping out of her comfort zone and going digital. What she discovered was a new level of engagement with students and a refreshing take on teaching science. Read on to hear Stacie’s story of introducing Discovery Education Science Techbook to her middle school science classroom.
Meet Stacie Trebes
Stacie Trebes, an esteemed educator in the Sahuarita Unified School District, brings over a decade of teaching experience to her current role. Her journey in education began as a substitute teacher, which laid the foundation for her teaching career. Stacie spent her first four years teaching second grade and later made the transition to middle school, where she began teaching science. It has been six years now in middle school, and she is thoroughly enjoying her time teaching science. Stacie finds fulfillment in working with middle school students, emphasizing the value of hands-on lab experiences that bring life to their learning.
Besides having a blast in the classroom, Stacie Trebes enjoys spending time quality time with her family, which includes her husband and three children. She also enjoys reading, crafting, gardening, and writing children’s picture books
Stacie's Inspiration
I was inspired to become a teacher after my sister became a teacher! Seeing my sister’s work and how she connected with her students led me to join education. I’ve worked as a substitute and as a full-time classroom teacher. What inspired me to teach science was getting to explore all different aspects of science throughout the year. It’s so fun—you can teach a little bit of what you like, but then easily add things that you may not know as well. It ends up being super engaging because not only do the kids learn about a wide variety of topics and learn to love science, but the teacher also ends up loving the subject!
Teaching Science Before Science Techbook
Before Discovery Education, we had outdated textbooks that we used occasionally, but I would have to dig through websites to find supplemental materials to use in my lessons. I would hunt through a ton of sources and find things to go along with the old textbooks or create lessons entirely from scratch. With Discovery Education, everything is all in one place—right at your fingertips! I don’t have to search for lessons, texts, videos, and resources, so it’s a huge timesaver. It’s also great that the content is at the kids’ fingertips!
Introducing Digital Resources
When I heard about the research study occurring in my district, I wanted to test how effective I was at delivering digital resources. I also wanted to see how well the kids received the information from online sources and determine the actual impact of Science Techbook on my lesson planning and teaching.
Before seeing the resources, I thought that Science Techbook was going to look like a traditional textbook or workbook on a screen. I thought the students would read passages and then answer multiple-choice questions—I didn’t realize that the lessons would include videos and hands-on learning or expect such a high level of student engagement! The best surprise was that these resources can also be accessed at home. If the students’ families are curious about what they are learning, the students can show them the exact lesson we worked on, which has helped parents and families connect to our school and feel more involved in the learning process.
Discovery Education's Impact
When we were first introduced to Discovery Education, the DE team held Professional Learning sessions that explored the product from both the teacher and student perspectives. The support didn’t stop there! After those initial live sessions, they gave us ways to keep in touch, like through the help button in the platform, and they continued to check in to help us be successful in the classroom. As time passed, they added even more lessons and resources, so the DE team had another refresher course to help break down the new improvements.
We used Science Techbook in our lessons on a weekly basis and found that the ease of using the platform was a great perk because the students quickly grasped how to find their lessons. I also realized that Discovery Education helps steer lesson planning in the right direction. It has state standards and clear learning objectives, and there are pieces to help teachers check for understanding, like assessments or exit tickets. It truly has all of the components of a good lesson!
“I knew Discovery Education’s digital resources would help strengthen students’ technology skills, but the lessons also require them to use critical thinking, data analysis, and other cross-curricular skills. I’ve seen a lot of science and social studies lessons where the students use their Language Arts skills, because students are reading and writing about history and science topics!”
- Stacie Trebes, Sahuarita Unified School District Teacher
- Stacie Trebes, Sahuarita Unified School District Teacher
All the resources have rigorous activities to strengthen academic skills, and they also require active participation. I’ve found that the students are really engaged from start to finish—they’re reading, they’re watching videos, and they’re interested in the curriculum. The lessons are fast paced and the students enjoy them, so the hour goes by quickly!
One surprising result of using Discovery Education was that the increased student engagement led to fewer behavior issues. Even though they have their own devices, they’re not roaming around on different websites. They’re engaged in the activities and involved in the lessons.
Lightbulb Moments
Discovery Education helped me create a heartwarming, memorable moment for my class—we had just learned about how cancer cells develop and how researchers work to fight cancer. After the video, one student raised her hand and said, “My grandma and mom both had cancer, and they both survived. This is the type of technology that worked for them!” She went on to share that this video and her personal experience had inspired her. I’m hoping that she’ll carry that inspiration into a potential career path in medicine!
These videos and lessons can connect to students’ lives and experiences. As a science teacher, the content of your lesson very rarely connects back to the family. Many families are glad their students are enjoying science class, but Discovery Education brings a new level of personal connection to their content.
Advice to Other Educators
When you’re trying any new digital resource, take time to explore it! Exploring Discovery Education to see all of its components helped me find a wide variety of resources to use in my lessons! You’ll click on one page and there’ll be another interesting page or video—it’s almost never ending. There’s so much material that taking your time to explore the videos, assessments, and support options is the best way to become comfortable before implementing the new resources. Also, take advantage of the DE team—make sure you reach out! If you have questions, they’ll get back to you, and if they don’t know the answers, they’ll find them for you.
It’s easy to feel the weight of all the different tasks we balance as teachers, but reaching out to other teachers for advice and tips can help. When we first started using Science Techbook, there was another teacher who I noticed did more with the resources, so I asked her for help! She showed me the assessments she was using, explained how to use the different videos in my lessons, and helped me find ways to create video questions for my kids. After that conversation, I was able to go back and try something new, knowing I had someone in my corner to help when I needed it!
Whether it’s a new strategy, a new resource, or an entirely new digital curriculum, trying something new could help streamline your lesson planning and re-energize your students! With support from other teachers or a curriculum partner like Discovery Education, implementing something new in your classroom is easier than ever.
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]]>The post Giving Students a Voice with SOS Strategies & Science Techbook appeared first on Discovery Education.
]]>I have used Discovery Education for several years, and the gradual change to invoke students' voices has revolutionized my classroom for the better.
I have witnessed the steady improvement in my students’ writing based on “feeling” to evidence. Students apply methodical thinking and evaluation like scientists and engineers to address abstract problem solving and reflect on issues with peers to develop solutions. The key component aiding my students in this process has been the scaffolding and open questioning found in DE Science Techbook and SOS Instructional Strategies.
Cultivating Collaboration
Science Techbook introduces real-world phenomena that students can use their past experiences to connect to, helping them relate to the overall topic. For example, the Physical Science Unit in the 8th Grade Techbook introduces the concepts of energy through waves to produce sound with wireless speakers. My students were familiar with wireless speakers, they use them all time, but they started to pause when they had to think about the “how and why” the wireless speaker worked. This moment of reflection led to deeper thinking and collaboration that then sparked personal curiosity through questioning from the material.
When combined with collaborative strategies like the SOS Placemat Activity, students were able to bring their initial models and thoughts to a small collaborative group (which also helps greatly for students with performance anxiety). Through Placemat, they first explained their individual models of how the wireless speaker produced the music from the cellphone. Then, they deliberated in a one-group consensus model after sharing and troubleshooting with peers. This allowed my students to express themselves comfortably, raising their confidence, not only in science, but in their voices.
Creating Classroom Culture & Building Critical Skills
Students tend to shy away from writing due to fear of being wrong or ostracized for thinking a specific way. The strategies from DE, such as Four Corners or Tweet Tweet, help alleviate those concerns. I have seen students become emboldened when they realize their responses are in line with others, and it’s amazing to see the sense of camaraderie created among the class.
This level of support blends seamlessly when it comes to written expressions of understanding like constructing explanations. Once a safe space was created with students, I introduced another SOS strategy, Quick Conference, in tandem with Science Techbook concepts. I modified it to allow students to confirm or clarify their claims and supporting evidence. The questioning allowed my students to reflect in that moment why they used the chosen evidence by explaining to peers their reasoning and thought process. When it was time for revision and closing thoughts, my students used that time to develop their reasoning based on their interviews with other students. It is a great aid to helping students build critical skills, better understand the science lessons they’re learning, and really see the bigger picture for themselves.
DE Science Techbook and SOS Instructional Strategies go hand in hand. They’ve turned my classroom into a forum of healthy discussions and empowered learners. My next plan is to expand these methods to involve parents, reinforcing the concepts learned in class and transferring them to their home and daily lives. Wish me luck!
About the Author
In addition to being a DEN STAR, Jacquelyn Freeman, teaches 8th grade science in Maryland and has a Master of Education in Educational Technology. She also serves as a Curriculum Writer, developing curricula for secondary education based on NGSS and student-centered learning strategies, as well as an 8th Grade Science Chair where she leads a team focused on creating innovative, research-based teaching strategies to encourage critical thinking in the classroom.
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]]>The post Engaging STEM Activities to Extend Learning appeared first on Discovery Education.
]]>STEM is once again a hot topic in classrooms across the country, and it’s all because the rapidly growing career fields. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, STEM careers are expected to grow by 10.8% by 2031! That’s why teachers everywhere are focused on building exciting STEM lessons and engaging activities that introduce students to future STEM careers. Even with summer in full swing, STEM learning doesn’t have to stay in the classroom. Read on to find a fresh take on extending STEM learning during the summer months!
A Tribute to Dr. Robert Corbin, a Great Mind of STEM Learning
Dr. Robert Corbin was an evangelist for STEM instruction and was one of the most highly sought after speakers on STEM education in the world. He began his career in museums and academia, then joined the Discovery Education team where he helped lead the development of ground-breaking STEM professional learning. Dr. Corbin’s passing is a tremendous loss, but he will be fondly remembered and honored in STEM instruction around the world. This post features some of Dr. Corbin’s many innovative ideas for STEM instruction, and we hope you think of him as you bring STEM to your students!
Create Lightbulb Moments
A strong STEM lesson asks students to consider deep, real-world questions and collaborate with others to arrive at answers that create real lightbulb moments. To narrow the focus of your lesson, reflect on topics that are relevant to your students or your community and pose a question around it. Consider what’s top-of-mind for students during the summer, or ask students to suggest a topic to learn about! Once you select a topic, introducing it with an engaging video can be a great way to spark student thinking and questioning.
After introducing the topic of investigation, allow time for student discussion. Dr. Corbin frequently recommended trying the A-E-I-O-U strategy to help students organize their initial thoughts, interests, and questions as the topic is introduced. After sparking their interest, encourage students to think big—and ask as many questions as they can—as they start thinking about the content.
Time to Investigate!
Next, move past introductions and into an investigation! Get students actively learning, creating, and trying new things with a hands-on activity related to your concept of study. The investigation portion of a lesson should challenge students to construct something new, make observations, and answer their own questions through exploration.
Discovery Education Experience has many ideas for STEM activities on a variety of topics, and the Learning at Home Channel provides ideas for these investigation-style activities that require minimal supplies but inspire major moments of student learning! Even while students are inflating balloons or poking water-filled sandwich bags, they can learn about scientific phenomena, practice engineering principles, and experiment with their own questions and ideas.
Once a STEM investigation activity is completed, provide another time for student discussion by debriefing with your students. What questions were answered by this activity? What questions do students still have? Help students balance and organize their discussion by guiding them with an SOS instructional strategy to help encourage collaboration.
Extend Learning with Career Connections
Extend your students’ STEM learning even further by forging connections between the activities and students’ options for the future. Highlight various STEM Careers to show students how the type of fun, interesting work they completed can apply to their future. Check out the STEM Careers Coalition to help students explore STEM careers based on their own unique interests using an interactive career finder tool and find standards-aligned resources to help build the next generation of solution-seekers. Explore more careers with profiles that include a variety of skills, such as technical writing or sports statisticians, with the STEM Careers Channel! This channel offers resources that help students can visualize themselves as STEM workers who seek solutions to real-world problems, enhance technological innovations, and communicate their findings to wider audiences.
Take the next step in creating a new, engaging STEM learning experience by helping your students continue them over the summer! When it comes to preparing students for their futures, STEM is top of mind for many educators due to its rapid growth and increasing career options. Sparking early interest in STEM is essential to getting students to enter these careers after graduation, and making STEM learning exciting can be a great way to help students consider new options for their future. To help your students extend their STEM learning past your classroom walls, consider connecting with your students’ families and sharing a few engaging activities students can complete in small groups or at home!
In Remembrance of Dr. Robert Corbin
Dr. Robert Corbin was an evangelist for STEM instruction and was one of the most highly sought after speakers on STEM education in the world. He often expressed gratitude for the opportunities Discovery Education afforded him to positively impact education, and he will be greatly missed. In the words of his colleague, Discovery Education’s Senior Director of Teaching & Learning, Brad Fountain:
“My friend, Dr. Robert Corbin, is missed by everyone who knew him from his students, colleagues, family, and friends. Robert was an incredibly caring, thoughtful, and passionate person who made everyone around him better. His plenitudinous vocabulary sent many of us scurrying to the internet to look up words after every conversation and I know he enjoyed generating that reaction. He would talk to anyone about virtually anything and make you feel comfortable and welcome. I know that in spite of his passing those who knew Robert are feeling his challenge to be a better person today than we were yesterday. Robert, you are and will be missed every day!” – Brad Fountain
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]]>The post Developing Disciplinary Literacy Across Core Subjects appeared first on Discovery Education.
]]>If we want students to learn biology, why not teach them to think, read and write like biologists? If we want them to learn history, shouldn’t they learn to think, read and write like historians?
Approaching core subjects from this perspective is at the heart of disciplinary literacy. Now more than ever, it’s become vital that educators instill literacy skills grounded in real careers, creating students with an expert’s eye for real-world materials, regardless of the medium.
Content-area reading uses generic reading strategies, regardless of the text that’s being read. But disciplinary literacy is a way of approaching text with the reading strategies employed by experts in a given field— experts have specialized ways of thinking, talking, and writing.
Introducing Multiple Perspectives is Key
Historians require the lens of multiple perspectives, reading between the lines of several writers to arrive at their conclusions. Mathematicians seek absolute answers, first and foremost, using abstract reasoning and pattern recognition to make their findings. Scientists employ analytical skills to parse the validity of data in research reports, finding logical links between various findings before formulating their hypotheses.
These experts don’t just rely on one resource. Their expertise is contingent on their own observations, along with the perspectives of others, expressed across several media types. Likewise, the days of using a single textbook as a teaching resource are over. Educators must begin using new types of resources in the classroom, including digital content and media to immerse students in real-world reading, writing and thinking.
The disciplinary literacy approach to reading reinforces the new era of teaching, which welcomes multiple resources and multiple media types, to help students form a grounded understanding of a subject that even experts would respect. Just recently, a superintendent said, “the combination of media integrated into the informational text makes students want to read.”
The hallmark of any focus on literacy — disciplinary or otherwise — is instilling the need and the desire to want to read.
“Each discipline has unique ways of asking questions and solving problems. Similarly, each discipline has unique expectations for the types of claims that are made and the way those claims are supported. These differences play out in the ways that texts are written and in the demands those texts place on the readers. For these reasons, we can say that each discipline has its own discourse community, a shared way of using language and constructing knowledge.” [1]
Disciplinary Literacy and State Standards
Although there is much debate about the purpose or primary job of schools, most who work in education would agree that an important purpose of a school is to develop literate individuals. The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts[1] identify the capacities of a literate individual as follows:
- They demonstrate independence.
- They build strong content knowledge.
- They respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline.
- They comprehend as well as critique.
- They value evidence.
- They use technology and digital media strategically and capably.
- They come to understand other perspectives and cultures.
These broad statements about what it means to be literate led the standards’ authors to decide that developing literacy in students is a joint responsibility that English Language Arts (ELA) teachers share with content area teachers. And while the foundational skills associated with literacy are infused in the K-5 ELA standards, the more specialized disciplinary literacy skills are listed in the Grades 6-12 Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects[2]. The standards that ELA teachers are responsible for teaching are listed under the following headings:
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Reading: Literature
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Reading: Informational Text
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Writing
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Speaking and Listening
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Language
Content area teachers are also expected to teach standards related to reading informational text and standards related to writing. Because research has shown that experts in a field have specialized ways of thinking, talking, and writing about information that separate insiders within the field from the general public, the authors of the standards want content area teachers to teach students the specialized knowledge and skills that readers and writers use within the content area or discipline. In an article in the Harvard Educational Review[1], Cynthia and Timothy Shanahan present a model of literacy development that includes three stages.
They argue that until recently, secondary (grades 6-12) educators have not focused enough attention on helping students master the discipline-specific ways of reading and writing that are characteristic of the content area that the teacher is teaching. Instead, the literacy focus in secondary classrooms remained on the intermediate literacy skills that are common to many disciplines, such as previewing the text, activating prior knowledge, using graphic organizers, and summarizing the text. While these skills are necessary and have a definite place in the secondary classroom, literacy instruction that fully prepares students for college, careers, and adult life also includes a focus on the more specialized literacy skills of each discipline. When students are asked to think, read, write, speak, and listen like an expert in the field, they develop the insider knowledge needed to succeed with intellectually challenging tasks.
Applying Real-World Behaviors to Bridge Literacy Across Subject Areas
By studying professionals working within a discipline, researchers recognized that the way historians read, write, and think is different from the way scientists or mathematicians use literacy skills within their work. A broad body of research on adolescent literacy development[2] suggests that while the literacy demands of school and the workplace have increased over time, the way we approach teaching literacy skills has not changed enough. The thinking and reasoning skills that individuals need to thrive in 21st century daily life and professional careers are developed as content area teachers focus on teaching both the content of the field of study and the specialized literacy skills associated with the discipline.
The standards for Grades 6-12 Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects do not replace subject area standards, but instead complement them. These standards require teachers to use their content area expertise to help students master the challenges of thinking, reading, writing, speaking, and listening in the various subject areas.
Disciplinary Reading and Writing Skills
In keeping with the standards, the focus of disciplinary reading and writing should be on the following:
Disciplinary Reading Skills
- Key Ideas and Details
- Citing Evidence from Text
- Central Ideas, Details, and Summary
- Craft and Structure
- Vocabulary
- Text Structure
- Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
- Text Features
- Author’s Point of View, Fact or Opinion
- Comparison
- Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
Disciplinary Writing Skills
- Text Types and Purposes
- Argument Writing
- Informational/Explanatory Writing
- Production and Distribution of Writing
- Clarity and Coherence
- Attention to Task, Purpose, and Audience
- Writing Process and Revision
- Use of Technology
- Research to Build and Present Knowledge
- Generating Questions and Conducting Research
- Gathering Relevant Information
- Drawing Evidence
- Range of Writing
Let’s take a brief look at the literacy demands of selected subject areas outside of ELA and think about how teachers develop students’ thinking, reasoning, and communication skills by emphasizing the specialized way that experts in that subject area approach some of the focus areas listed above.
Thinking, Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening in Social Studies
Extensive work has been done on elucidating the skills historians and other social scientists use to do their work. Broadly speaking, historians study documents and other artifacts from the past to develop and communicate an understanding of what was occurring at a particular time in history. They are keenly aware that documents:
- Present an incomplete picture of an actual event.
- Represent a particular point of view.
- Reflect the thinking and perspective of the author.
Historians want to know more than what happened in the past. They also want to understand why certain events happened. Why did people do what they did? How does what happened in the past connect to and inform the present? What does the past tell us about what might happen in the future?
Key ideas in the Grades 6-12 Literacy in History/Social Studies standards for reading include:
- Analysis and Summary of Primary and Secondary Sources
- Meaning of History/Social Studies Words and Phrases
- Description and Analysis of Text Structure
- Identification, Comparison, and Evaluation of Aspects of Text that Reveal Author’s Point of View
- Integration of Visual Information, Quantitative and Qualitative Information, and Multiple Sources
- Analysis of Author’s Claims
- Comparison of Treatment of Topic in Primary and Secondary Sources
The writing standards do not differ by content area, but assume that the writing will be specific to the content of the discipline. The following is a sample of expectations from the writing standards. These examples are for students in grades 6 to 8.
- Introduce claim(s) about a topic or issue, acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically.
- Develop a topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples.
- Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) drawing on several sources and generating related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
Many social studies teachers address the literacy standards as they teach social studies content by structuring their classes with a focus on social science inquiry and asking questions. They present students with primary source materials and guide students to ask important questions related to the documents they are reading. The Stanford History Education Group has developed a free online curriculum entitled, “Reading Like a Historian.”[3] Each lesson in the curriculum is focused on a central question and includes a set of primary source documents. Students are expected to investigate the set of documents using historical thinking skills like sourcing, contextualizing, close reading, and corroboration.
Students using the Stanford materials improved their reading comprehension, historical reasoning skills, and factual recall.[4] A major strength of the Stanford materials is that they provide a model that school districts and individual teachers are using to develop additional instructional materials. The historical thinking skills listed above certainly help students who wish to become historians, but they also provide students with reasoning skills that serve them well in a wide range of situations.
Thinking, Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening in Science
The traditional science class has included a number of assignments that appear on the surface to replicate the kinds of reading and writing that scientists do. Students read laboratory investigations to prepare for labs. They develop lab reports to tell about experiments they conducted in class. However, many science educators have worked to eliminate the need for students to struggle with the literacy demands of science laboratory work because they wanted to focus on laboratory skills and the science content.
Well-taught science classes have always emphasized collecting and analyzing data. Students have been taught that scientists respect data; they spend time developing powerful representations of data such as graphs and charts; and they value being able to replicate an experiment and get data that is similar to the data collected by other scientists who did the same experiment. But science classrooms have not always emphasized the literacy skills that are an integral part of the work of scientists.
In their professional work, scientists…
- Read research reports that include abstracts, section headings, figures, tables, diagrams, drawings, photographs, reference lists, and endnotes. Often scientists do not read the entire document, but only the parts of the report that are of special interest.
- Use technical vocabulary which often contain Latin or Greek roots. The vocabulary terms sometimes have one meaning in everyday discourse and a different and highly specialized meaning in science.
- Use categories and taxonomies that represent abstract ways of thinking that are not typically captured in everyday thinking.
- Analyze research reports of scientific findings through the lens of scientific reasoning. Key questions they consider include the following:
- What are the functions of the investigation—to explore, check previous results, test the explanatory power of a theory? The functions of the investigation will influence how the reader evaluates the evidence presented.
- What data has been collected and how has it been analyzed? Is the data appropriate to the questions and conclusions reached?
- What are the trade-offs of the research design, weighing what we can learn from experiments with controlled conditions versus what we can learn from naturalistic or direct observations?
- What are the logical links between data, findings, previously related research and widely accepted theory?
- What are potential sources of bias that may influence the findings and recommendations?[5]
Key ideas in the Grades 6-12 Literacy in Science and Technical Subjects standards for reading include the following:
- Analysis and Summary of Science and Technical Texts
- Following a Multistep Procedure
- Understanding Symbols and Key Terms
- Analysis of Text Structure
- Purpose of Explanations and Procedures
- Integration of Information Presented in Diverse Formats
- Analysis and Evaluation of Reasoning and Evidence Presented in Text
- Comparison of Findings from Varied Sources
Although the writing standards are the same as for history/social studies, they assume that the writing will be specific to science and technical content. The following is a sample of expectations from the writing standards. These examples are for students in grades 9 to 10.
- Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly supplying data and evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience’s knowledge level and concerns.
- Introduce a topic and organize ideas, concepts, and information to make important connections and distinctions; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
- Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to manage the complexity of the topic and convey a style appropriate to the discipline and context.
- Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively and integrating information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
Engaging students in well-designed scientific inquiry in the classroom allows them to develop the skills and thought processes of scientists. Helping students identify areas of interest within science and then working with them to conduct in-depth research over time lets them gain detailed insight into how knowledge develops. Teaching students how to question evidence and the logic of others helps them develop a set of skills that serve them well beyond the science classroom. For example, these same reasoning skills can be used in making personal health decisions, in making financial decisions, as well as in making decisions related to civic and political issues.
Thinking, Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening in Math
During the first year of their Carnegie-sponsored research on disciplinary literacy, the Shanahans (see footnote on page 1) worked with experts in history, mathematics, and chemistry to understand more about the specialized literacy skills of each discipline. The mathematicians in the study emphasized the importance of reading and re-reading text. They spoke to the importance of specialized vocabulary and understanding that the meaning of symbols may change depending on the context. Mathematicians also spend much of their professional time reading and interpreting graphs, charts, and tables.
A major goal of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics is to ensure that students spend time thinking about and solving worthwhile mathematics problems. The goal is to have students develop the habits of mind of the mathematician. The Standards for Mathematical Practice[6] identify eight skills that teachers at all levels should seek to develop in students. The standards state that mathematically proficient students:
- Make sense of problems.
- Persevere in solving problems.
- Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
- Construct viable arguments.
- Critique the reasoning of others.
- Use appropriate tools strategically.
- Attend to precision.
- Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
In the mathematics classroom, students should have opportunities to address the standards for Grades 6-12 Literacy in Science and Technical Subjects, but the emphasis should be on the mathematics practices. Mathematics educators see practices 1 and 6 as reflecting overarching habits of mind of the mathematician. Many see practices 2 and 3 as practices that all contributing members of the mathematics community use on a regular basis as they communicate with others. They see practices 4 and 5 as being particularly relevant to how people use mathematics in many work settings, while practices 7 and 8 relate more closely to the work of theoretical mathematicians.
When students work with rich, real-world problems, they have the opportunity to use and develop many of the mathematics practices. The modern mathematics class requires students to collaborate and work with others to solve problems. Teachers give students opportunities to discuss different approaches to the same problem and ask them to think and talk about whether the answer makes sense in a real-world setting. Students also discuss whether or not their approach yielded a correct answer. Was the approach efficient? Can it be generalized, and will it work for all numbers? Why or why not? Through rich discussion, students develop mathematical thinking and reasoning skills as well as the ability to critique their own reasoning and the reasoning of others. Again, the reasoning and thinking skills serve students well in a wide range of settings and situations.
Karen Beerer
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]]>A 2018 study by the International Journal of STEM Education found that when students had the opportunity to participate in STEM activities, they were engrossed in the learning and inspired to think about potential real-world applications for the concepts they explored. Encouraging students to research topics, apply critical thinking skills, and generate solutions to real-world problems can help bring new meaning to what students have learned.
Cross-curricular STEM projects allow students to represent their learning in exciting ways, while also connecting the concepts studied in different subjects. And along the way, they can make (and learn from) mistakes! Here to share her ideas for creating cross-curricular STEM projects is DEN STAR and Louisiana teacher, Mindy Kernahan.
Extending Learning with STEM Projects
STEM projects can create relevant learning experiences by encouraging students to explore local problems within their community, while practicing cross-curricular skills. For instance, a science teacher may propose a STEM project centered on investigating and developing solutions related to a local invasive species affecting their local environment. Students can conduct research, propose solutions, and develop criteria for testing their proposed solutions. While these project steps are related to a scientific process, they also require students to practice reading, writing, and math skills and ultimately, make a difference in their community.
One great way to make a clear cross-curricular connection is by proposing, generating, and testing solutions found in novels or historical events that are being studied in English Language Arts or Social Studies class. The novel A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park could certainly lead to a STEM project after reading and discussing the novel Students can investigate and develop solutions that ensure access to water for all communities, which aligns to the content of the novel, a social/community application, and a scientific study. All great makings of a STEM project!
Discovery Education offers fantastic resources to guide and support educators in incorporating cross-curricular STEM activities in the classroom. For example, the STEM Unplugged video series highlights ways that professionals develop solutions to problems and provides skills that students can apply in all facets of life. The STEM Forward Channel and the Future U. by Boeing Channel both make it easy to incorporate interactive and hands-on STEM activities, with virtual field trips and real-world career profiles that can be used in an exploration phase of a new project.
Assessing Student Progress
Cross-curricularSTEM projects can create innovative ways to assess student learning. Using rubrics for outlining and assessing specific criteria within the STEM project can help students have a clear understanding of what skills will be assessed and guide teachers in giving clear feedback. Additionally, peer- and self-reflections allow students to take ownership of their learning and reflect on areas where they are thriving and consider areas where they may need help. Student-created project portfolios give students an opportunity to practice organization skills while assessing their participation and learning. Throughout the school year, there are times to use traditional tests to assess mastery but using projects as unit assessments bring something new to the learning cycle!
Whether it’s a mini-skills lesson or an integrated learning project, incorporating STEM activities into cross-curricular projects keeps students engaged and building knowledge in all subject areas.
Mindy Kernahan
Mindy Kernahan earned a Master of Education in special education with a focus on gifted curriculum and instruction from Southeastern Louisiana University. She is currently in her third year as a Talented and Gifted Teacher for primary and middle school students at multiple schools in Louisiana. With eleven years of experience as a classroom teacher, she taught in the academically gifted setting and served in multiple leadership roles to develop curriculum aligned to gifted learners’ needs in multiple subject areas as well as participated as a member of multiple schools’ leadership teams. Additionally, Mindy implemented a service-learning project with fourth grade gifted students in science through the Joe W. and Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation in collaboration with Lake Pontchartrain Conservancy and Mandeville Public Water Works. Most recently, she participated as a member of the Believe and Prepare Science Collaborative for the 2022-2023 school year, was a Coastal Fellow for the 2021-2022 school year, and is currently a DEN STAR and a member of the Louisiana Science Teachers Association and the National Marine Educators Association.
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]]>The post Bringing ‘Non-STEM Letter’ Teachers into STEM Teaching appeared first on Discovery Education.
]]>No matter how many times we say STEM is “strategies that engage all minds” it is still viewed as simply science, technology, engineering, and math. How do we include ‘non-STEM letter’ teachers in STEM lessons to showcase the strategies that really do engage all minds? How do we increase their confidence in using project-based learning and inquiry? Here to share her ideas for bringing teachers of all content areas into STEM lesson planning is DEN STAR and middle school science teacher, Karen Clark!
Karen Clark
Karen Clark teaches middle school science in North Carolina. This is her 20th year teaching, and she’s been reaching out to other subject area teachers long before it became the thing to do. Karen has helped lead her school to the National Green Ribbon certification and is a key member of two accreditation teams for her school. She is also the author of a recently published children’s book, Justin’s Tea Party.
This is my 20th year teaching middle school science, and I always made it a priority to look for ways to connect my class topics with other teachers. While I found it challenging sometimes to connect with teachers in other subjects, I’ve discovered two promising ways to bring Social Studies and English Language Arts teachers into STEM planning conversations!
1. Reach Out!
The first step to collaborating is simply reaching out! Flexibility and a willingness to compromise from all teachers is essential. It can be challenging, but it is worth it to create lessons where students can make connections and thrive where they didn’t before. Simply ask what Social Studies and English Language Arts (ELA) teachers will cover in the next quarter and see how you can connect to it or have further planning conversations.
My own daughter hated to read, and last year her first required book was Wonder by R. J. Palacio. Along with the reading, her ELA teacher had students design and create a paper mâché mask. They had to wear it in public for at least an hour and write about how it felt, connecting to the main character of the book. This year they are making these masks in their STEM class to free up ELA time, which helps the ELA and STEM teachers collaborate and unify their plans. The science teacher is also involved by having the students design their own lab to test paper mâché recipes!
Shortly after this unit we noticed my daughter reading in the car, or while sitting at her brother’s baseball game. It was amazing to see the switch flip! I truly believe her new interest in reading is due to her making a connection to a subject with which she felt comfortable.
2. Search for New Connections
Where are these possible cross-curricular connections? Everywhere! While bringing together two different subjects with unique sets of standards can seem overwhelming, start by considering where there is natural overlap in the topics of study.
For example, I connect my study of evolution and conservation with the Spanish teacher’s coursework. In Spanish class, students look at differences and similarities among islands in the Galapagos and create presentations in Spanish for cruise ship passengers visiting the islands. In my class we study how these islands use conservation principles and how their animals have evolved.
In Social Studies, they study Asian cultures and the importance of tea for trading, so in my class we can build on that! I designed a lab to learn about making tea and determining what makes the ‘best’ cup of tea. This lab goes well with my standards on understanding diffusion and chemical reactions!
There are so many ways to create seemingly small connections between all content areas, and over time, they can grow into larger projects and learning moments. One great example is the study of ancient Egypt where students get to build a sarcophagus. One year some creative kids wrote an ancient Egyptian funeral song when they “interned” our chicken legs in the school garden!
Another great example is when the 8th grade students read The Martian by Andy Weir. They design a lab about heat retention and specific heat capacity so the main character can keep his potatoes warm in emergencies. Building on what students are studying in other classes helps me reinforce concepts in my class and make sure my lessons are relevant!
This school year, when you’re supervising the playground or helping with car line, talk to your co-workers about what they’re teaching! That quick conversation could lead to an open line of communication for new collaborative, cross-curricular lessons!
The post Bringing ‘Non-STEM Letter’ Teachers into STEM Teaching appeared first on Discovery Education.
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