KBLOG ALERT?

Opportunities and activities to assist students and teachers in the fileds of invention and space science.

KBLOG 37: Be THAT Inspiring Teacher: Two Different Shoes, Facts, Skills and INTANGIBLES

Teaching revolves around three things, facts, skills and the INTANGIBLES. The INTANGIBLES are not forgotten, they teach students about goodness, caring and determination. How can you make the intangibles your most powerful teaching skill?

The Challenge: How do you get fresh ideas for the next school year? A Solution: Read, Relax and Think.

I have had so much working on my KBLOGs. I am so grateful to all my subscribers. I decided to take a lot of the summer off from blogging. I have a lot of garden work and I am studying and preparing for an oral, practical and written exam to become a Master Beekeeper from Cornell University. I have to take the tests during the summer.

Combining a hands-on experience with a light-hearted competition is a great recipe to introduce the scientific method to students. I have students make and test foil boats so students can naturally find their way through the scientific method. Further details are found in KBLOG 35

Combining a hands-on experience with a light-hearted competition is a great recipe to introduce the scientific method to students. I have students make and test paper airplanes which is a gateway to a natural understanding of the scientific method besides being a lot of fun. Further details are found in this KBLOG.

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.

KBLOG ALERT?

Check out these timely amazing teacher/parent/student STEM Ed opportunities, the magic of ordinary people as inventors, NASA photo contest and properties of water in outer space.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.