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For traditional and homeschool STEM teachers and parents: Short to-the-point and easily applied STEM activities to enhance the curiosity and creativity of students. Help your students NOW to become innovators and inventors preparing them for life and exciting and meaningful careers in STEM.

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Richard Kurtz is an award-winning science educator, teaching in New York for almost 40 years. Originally from Toronto, Canada, he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Waterloo, where he also played college basketball. He trains teachers and works with homeschoolers to engage students in creative, dynamic learning as well running Advanced Placement Biology workshops as a College Board consultant. His workshops, which have a cooperative, fun, and relaxed atmosphere are geared to help teachers to creatively engage their students in “real” science. Richard has had extensive experience working with teachers, parents and students in developing hands-on science activities in biology, science research and inventing both in person and virtually. He is currently a semi-retired educational consultant who is passionate about helping teachers and parents learn and apply strategies to help their students unlock their potential as innovators. He lives with his wife , two dogs (Maya and Bear), and honey bees near a beaver pond in Hudson Valley New York

Contact Rich

rkurtz3@k12stemspace.com

KBLOG 33: Unleashing Creativity: Tips for Helping Students Birth Innovative Ideas: 4. The Frisbee, Windshield Wipers, Microwave and the Super soaker!
Richard Kurtz Richard Kurtz

KBLOG 33: Unleashing Creativity: Tips for Helping Students Birth Innovative Ideas: 4. The Frisbee, Windshield Wipers, Microwave and the Super soaker!

To most students, at first, inventing something seems like a huge and almost impossible mountain to climb. An effective way to help students on their invention journey is to have them explore the different routes that inventors of familiar products took to arrive at a successful product. This KBLOG highlights the invention of the Super Soaker, Microwave, Windshield Wiper and Frisbee.

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KBLOG 32: Unleashing Creativity: Tips for Helping Students Birth Innovative Ideas:  48 Hours of Problems and Dare to Invent
Richard Kurtz Richard Kurtz

KBLOG 32: Unleashing Creativity: Tips for Helping Students Birth Innovative Ideas: 48 Hours of Problems and Dare to Invent

A solution, based on an invention, is derived from a problem. Any invention or creative solution is born out of the ability of a person to recognize a problem. This KBLOG introduces an assignment to help students recognize problems, called Forty-eight Hours of Problems. For 48 hours students write down every challenge or problem that they or others encounter in their everyday lives.

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KBlog 31: Unleashing Creativity: Tips for Helping Students Birth Innovative Ideas: 3. Tumbling Toast, Cheerios and Spilled Coffee: The Unlimited Universe of Science Questions from Everyday Life
Richard Kurtz Richard Kurtz

KBlog 31: Unleashing Creativity: Tips for Helping Students Birth Innovative Ideas: 3. Tumbling Toast, Cheerios and Spilled Coffee: The Unlimited Universe of Science Questions from Everyday Life

Your students do not have to have a fancy lab, a huge budget, or high-end equipment to do great science. There are only two requirements. Those are the ability to observe and to be curious about what is observed. KBLOG 31 offers material to support student observation skills and curiosity.

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KBlog 30 :Unleashing Creativity: Tips for Helping Students Birth Innovative Ideas: 2. Obscure and Odd Books
Richard Kurtz Richard Kurtz

KBlog 30 :Unleashing Creativity: Tips for Helping Students Birth Innovative Ideas: 2. Obscure and Odd Books

No matter what the project or experiment is, it is important to offer students the guided opportunities to take ownership of a self-generated idea.  The educator’s job is to guide students and help them realize that all their questions have validity and with hard work and patience it is possible to find project ideas. This KBLOG is about finding obscure and odd books to help with idea generation.

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KBLOG ALERT: Project Invent: A Free Curriculum and a Fellowship Program for Educators
Richard Kurtz Richard Kurtz

KBLOG ALERT: Project Invent: A Free Curriculum and a Fellowship Program for Educators

KBLOG ALERT?

Facilitating an invention course involves creativity, innovation, teamwork, hands-on experience, independence, not being test driven, and fun challenges. I was amazed by what students could create and make real. I have been following a group called Project Invent for a while. They just came out with a free curriculum and fellowship opportunity that you may want to look at in this KBLOG ALERT.

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KBLOG 29:  Unleashing Creativity: Tips for Helping Students Birth Innovative Ideas. 1. Finding the Passion
Richard Kurtz Richard Kurtz

KBLOG 29:  Unleashing Creativity: Tips for Helping Students Birth Innovative Ideas. 1. Finding the Passion

There is always a collective groan when I tell students that they have to develop a science project or design an experiment. They DO NOT relish this “opportunity.” To them it is a burden not an opportunity. Inevitably because of my approach the burden evolves into the opportunity that I envision for them. This KBLOG examines one part of my approach, PASSION, an ingredient needed for new ideas.

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ALERT NOTICE: Beavers from Space! Dedicated to my Canadian Family and Friends
Richard Kurtz Richard Kurtz

ALERT NOTICE: Beavers from Space! Dedicated to my Canadian Family and Friends

KBLOG ALERT?

Interesting, exciting and timely educational material often catches my attention. This includes upcoming webinars and science competition announcements. When I do find any time-sensitive material relevant to helping educators and their students I will pass those on in my KBLOG ALERTS. GeneLab for High Schools

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KBLOG 26: The AI Elephant in the Classroom:  Part 5: Five Very Practical Ways K-12 Educators/Parents/Homeschoolers Can Use AI Right Away!
Richard Kurtz Richard Kurtz

KBLOG 26: The AI Elephant in the Classroom:  Part 5: Five Very Practical Ways K-12 Educators/Parents/Homeschoolers Can Use AI Right Away!

ChatGPT has resulted in a lot of discussion among educators about what the effect of AI will have on education. The concerns are immediate and serious as the use of AI by students and educators is accelerating in both negative and positive ways. In this KBLOG I followed the paper written by Mollick and Mollick, 2023 and came up with five of my own prompts for an Advanced Placement Biology class. The ChatGPT output is fascinating and helpful.

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KBLOG 25: Ten Practical Ways to Enhance the Buzz and Fun in Your Science Classroom
Richard Kurtz Richard Kurtz

KBLOG 25: Ten Practical Ways to Enhance the Buzz and Fun in Your Science Classroom

When I started out as a teacher, it was a struggle. I was not connecting to the students; most did not care about the course material. This inevitably led to discipline problems. I eventually realized there are innumerable ways of shaping a group of students so that they want to be in your classroom, are interested in learning, are respectful of the teacher, and fellow classmates. In this KBLOG I offer ten fun examples on how to create a top-notch classroom environment where students want to be. are ten other examples. — K12STEMspace: Teaching STEM to Your Children & Students

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KBLOG 24: Not Exactly Your Average Take Out Lunch
Richard Kurtz Richard Kurtz

KBLOG 24: Not Exactly Your Average Take Out Lunch

Educators and parents check out “science take out”, a company that produces inexpensive, practical, relevant and hands-on life science kits for k-12 students. These kits solve many practical problems for teachers and parents who want to make science real for their students.

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ALERT NOTICE: GeneLab for High Schools (teachers and students): Free Virtual Summer Experience (application due NEXT WEEK)
Richard Kurtz Richard Kurtz

ALERT NOTICE: GeneLab for High Schools (teachers and students): Free Virtual Summer Experience (application due NEXT WEEK)

KBLOG ALERT?

Interesting, exciting and timely educational material often catches my attention. This includes upcoming webinars and science competition announcements. When I do find any time-sensitive material relevant to helping educators and their students I will pass those on in my KBLOG ALERTS. GeneLab for High Schools

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ALERT NOTICE: Climate Change Contest/Authentic Data and Phenomena/minipcr:CRISPR
Richard Kurtz Richard Kurtz

ALERT NOTICE: Climate Change Contest/Authentic Data and Phenomena/minipcr:CRISPR

KBLOG ALERT?

Interesting, exciting and timely educational material often catches my attention. This includes upcoming webinars and science competition announcements. When I do find any time-sensitive material relevant to helping educators and their students I will pass those on in my KBLOG ALERTS. DataClassroom Science Fair Spectacular

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KBLOG 21: The AI Elephant in the Classroom:  Part 4: Trying out Prompts and Playing with ChatGPT, (AI)! BUT IS IT TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?
Richard Kurtz Richard Kurtz

KBLOG 21: The AI Elephant in the Classroom:  Part 4: Trying out Prompts and Playing with ChatGPT, (AI)! BUT IS IT TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?

We cannot prevent our students from using it and I do not think we would want to. OpenAI’s artificial intelligence ChatGPT and tools like it will get more common, more advanced and penetrate our lives more and more. ChatGPT is by far the fastest growing app in history. It has one hundred million monthly users and has only been around for two months. We must start to figure out how we as educators can use this tool to help our students, I am sure our students will be helping us too. I test some ideas out in this KBLOG

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KBLOG 20: The AI Elephant in the Classroom:  Part 3: Will ChatGPT Force Educators to Walk the Walk, not just Talk the Talk?
Richard Kurtz Richard Kurtz

KBLOG 20: The AI Elephant in the Classroom:  Part 3: Will ChatGPT Force Educators to Walk the Walk, not just Talk the Talk?

Changing direction to a more student-centered environment has been a slow process, with stops and starts and inconsistent application across disciplines. Even with the obvious and not so obvious classroom challenges of AI, it just may be the push needed for educators to properly implement student-centered learning where critical thinking, creativity, problem solving skills and real-world learning opportunities abound. This KBLOG POST points out some possibilities that are emerging.

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KBLOG ALERT: DataClassroom Science Fair Spectacular (Feb. 7, 23)
Richard Kurtz Richard Kurtz

KBLOG ALERT: DataClassroom Science Fair Spectacular (Feb. 7, 23)

KBLOG ALERT?

Interesting, exciting and timely educational material often catches my attention. This includes upcoming webinars and science competition announcements. When I do find any time-sensitive material relevant to helping educators and their students I will pass those on in my KBLOG ALERTS. DataClassroom Science Fair Spectacular

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