Hands-On STEM Curricula: Make a Portable, Indoor Water Garden for $0-10
Plan B has been to make water gardens at home with whatever big, clear plastic containers I can accumulate and give these to teachers at the elementary school. Two more teachers requested water gardens for their classrooms this week. I thought I'd take photos while I make them, so teachers, homeschoolers (aren't we all?), and kids of all ages can see how easy (and inexpensive) it is to do.
SCBWI BookStop: Educational and Inspirational Holiday Shopping
The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators has posted their Holiday BookStop, and it features The Fate Of The Frog, which reinforces concepts (rhyme and meter, alliteration, camouflage, life-cycles) that your kids are learning in school, while also giving them the hands-on opportunity (and an easy one for their parents) to experience solar power and a "best stormwater management practice" (a tiny pond) right in their own backyard.
Slime Monsters: A Safe Halloween Craft Your Kids Will Love
Last weekend, my 8YO son and I volunteered at the VirginiaMuseumOfTransportation, one of many venues (including the ScienceMuseumOfWesternVirginia and local retailers) that participated in the Generic Magic Festival in Roanoke, Virginia. Of all the activities on offer, making slime 'Troll boogies' was, by far, the favorite. The museum was giving out eye balls as prizes for the scavenger hunt, so it was easy to convert our troll boogies to baby slime monsters, which double as super-cool Halloween decorations (just don't put on wood or walls).
Algae, Red Tide, and the Future of our Water (includes links to lesson plans)
Last Night's PBS News Hour story on the Red Tide that's killing millions of marine life off the southern Florida Coast is yet another harbinger of the dangerous stormwater neglect occurring in North Carolina and across America. Anyone who walks around my inner-city Durham neighborhood during a big rain event will quickly see how much our little municipality, alone, is contributing to the communal problem…
Machu Picchu and the Incas: Re-Learning What We Already Know
As a self-proclaimed water spirit and sustainable storm-water management advocate, I actually teared up when I saw the construction diagram of the vegetated terraces the Incas clearly used to manage more flash floods per annum than my stormwater-ridden city of Durham, NC, can imagine. At least in "progressive" areas, we now have 'rain gardens' and 'cisterns', though we employ these primarily to reduce pollutants…
A Letter to my Teacher, a Children's Book Review
Deborah Hopkinson and Nancy Carpenter’s picture book, A Letter to my Teacher, puts the mission of teaching squarely where it’s meant to be by appreciating the special teachers that have graced all of our lives, whether or not we’ve had children of our own. This is a must-give for that special teacher in your life. I bought a copy while on book tour with the illustrator (Stacy Fabbre) of my own children’s book this summer…
Inspiration at a Discount
Last Sunday, my teenage daughter and her younger brother walked to the Dollar General at Broad and West Markham near my home in Durham, NC, to buy some candy. When they went to check out, she thought she had left her wallet at home. They returned and we scoured the house; then she walked back to the DG, but they could find no wallet and none had been turned in…
Have Patience
You are a rational human being. Do not let another person's defensiveness make you defensive…
Teaching Physics to First and Second Graders: Sound waves
This post is particularly applicable to teachers, parents, and caretakers of second-grade children, as the links below address science standards required for 2nd-grade (https://www.ixl.com/standards/north-carolina/science)…
Children, Music, and Vegetables...
I hated practicing piano when I was a kid, but I am now convinced that learning music is as important to development as eating vegetables. If you have the resources, including getting awkward and asking about scholarships from local musicians/teachers, determine the instrument your child most enjoys and start lessons (group or individual) when they can sit still for 5 minutes. I promise neither of you will regret it…
Why You Should Have a Pond
Pond installation can be back- and time-consuming work, and a long-lasting one like mine can cost over $1000.00 (liner, pump, filter, rocks). But it doesn't have to be this way. You can purchase inexpensive, small-pond kits, or you can build a pond out of a plastic toddler swimming pool simply by…
DPS Having Trouble Finding Substitute Teachers
I sent the email below to Durham Public School board members today. If you live in Durham and agree, please follow suit.
Struggling Schools Benefit from Adding Arts to Learning...!?
In most cases, the day they enter first grade (sometimes earlier), public school kids' creative and experiential education ends, and worksheets and standardized testing begins. Fortunately, this is NOT the case at EK Powe and DSA (both public), where my kids go to school (in Durham, NC). But I know full well that we are an anomaly in a sea of schools that house American children for the majority of their lives between 5 and 17 years of age…
With the lack of public school funding, the need for school districts to facilitate (not just permit) PTA's is long overdue.
“We will need help from families, partner agencies, and communities,” states Durham Public Schools Superintendent Bert L’Homme’s February 5th commentary regarding DPS’s challenges in meeting the educational needs of low-performing students (LHomme_DN_Feb2017). By ‘help’, DPS means ‘We need you to keep your children in our schools.” I get that. But parents don’t want their kids in schools that don’t sincerely welcome parent involvement…
Advanced Reader's Copy: *Eddie the Electron Moves Out*
I received my ARC (Advanced Reader's Copy) of Eddie The Electron Moves Out (the sequel to Eddie the Electron) today! I got tears in my eyes when I read it - seriously. I can’t get over the incredible quality of every aspect of the book. Harry Pulver's illustrations are PERFECT…
Thought for the Day
It's easy to forget to thank these special people in our lives. I'm making a conscious effort to improve in that regard. The older I get, the more I appreciate how difficult it is to be more than is expected of you. Words of appreciation help. A lot. …
Fun Science: Easy Hands-on Chemistry Lesson
This is a picture of my 6YO son's “back-to-school Magic Crystals”, obtained after immersing dolostones in vinegar (with a little orange food coloring). I've never made mushroom crystals before, so we were both truly enthralled. Dolostones (which can be purchased from Educational Innovations) are dolomite rocks, which are primarily composed of calcium magnesium carbonate or CaMg(CO3)2…
Your Village
In organizing children’s events this summer, I’ve talked to several science museum directors and staff, mostly about how to ensure that people actually attend the events. It’s not a matter of young people wanting to be there. It’s a matter of their parents getting them there. Turns out it’s one of the biggest challenges for education directors across the country…
The Danville Science Center - A Unique Experience for Kids of All Ages
I spent last Saturday bonding with young people, pre-school through high-school, via my hands-on children's book readings at the Danville Science Center (DSC). While driving to Virginia from my home in Durham, NC, I worried that my kids, who accompanied me, would get bored in one place all day and would consequently interfere with my program and my sanity. Boy, was I wrong!
Middle- and High-School Strings Students Amaze at Animazement in Raleigh, NC, this Weekend
Yesterday, the Duke University String School's Youth Symphony Orchestra yesterday performed an Anime Symphony (entitled Space Brothers) at the 2016 Animazement Convention in Raleigh, NC. The symphony was written, designed and conducted by renowned Japanese movie composer and record producer Toshiyuki Watanabe, who flew in from Japan just for the event…