Out front of Lopata House at Washington University in St. Louis, an elaborate game of tag is underway. A group of high school students are zig-zagging through their peers to grab candy from a designated area without getting stuck with a Post-it note. Inside the building, students in classrooms are creating marshmallow towers and playing […]
A recent recognition of the Institute for School Partnership’s mySci curriculum is especially rewarding for Jeanne Norris. That’s because it comes from her peers. The EQuIP Peer Review Panel for Science (PRP), of which Norris is a member, has identified mySci’s middle school Module 5 Waves as a high-quality lesson and unit designed for the […]
Washington University’s Institute for School Partnership continues to grow with the addition of four new members to its team. INSTRUCTIONAL SPECIALIST Victoria Engel credits having great science teachers for igniting her love of science. Specifically, she remembers a sixth-grade teacher who got her involved in a science fair. “I really enjoyed conducting my own research […]
It’s midday at the Missouri State Capitol and the pizza line snakes around the third floor rotunda. A sure sign that it’s not business as usual in Jefferson City. March 2 was STEM Day at the Capitol which drew nearly 50 exhibitors and many more students and educators. A smiling Elizabeth Petersen mans the STEMpact […]
Whether you’re 6 years old, 16 or 64 you surely have a favorite childhood book. We’re talking about the books that brought you up, with worn-out pages and a creased spine; battered and loved. The National Education Association is marking the 20th anniversary of Read Across America this year. This annual reading motivation and awareness program calls for […]
Last weekend, Washington University hosted the 7th annual St. Louis Area Brain Bee (SLABB) in Rebstock Hall on the Danforth Campus. The Brain Bee is an international neuroscience competition for students in grades 9-12. This year, 55 students from 44 high schools around the St. Louis region participated in the SLABB. The event featured hands-on […]
With great care, Paul Markovits unravels a child-sized t-shirt and dangles it before a packed room of teachers. It reads “ECLIPSE ’79,” and was worn by his 4-year-old daughter when Markovits’ young family witnessed the last total solar eclipse visible in the continental United States. That was nearly 40 years ago on February 26, 1979, and […]
When David Kirk was leaving for college, his father had some parting words for him – professors would try and teach him about evolution and he wasn’t to believe a word they said. The advice wasn’t completely unexpected. Kirk’s dad was religiously ultraconservative. Kirk, professor emeritus in the Department of Biology in Arts & Sciences at […]
For Joanna Das, sharing her love of the arts with high school students and encouraging their creativity has always been important. As a graduate student, she went against her professor’s advice and decided to teach a Saturday dance class to high school students at the Museum of the City of New York. Her professor thought […]
“It’s OK to be smart, and it’s actually really cool,” Jeanne Norris says. The curriculum coordinator with the Institute for School Partnership at Washington University is sitting at a table typing away on her laptop adorned with a sticker that says, “Be The Nerd.” “I consider myself a standards wonk,” she says. “Nothing makes me […]