Science teacher Jaime Schneider has earned a reputation for herself. Students come to her class expecting something phenomenal, and she’s happy to deliver. Where else in the building can a seventh grader get a chance to set methane bubbles on fire or generate mystic-looking fog with dry ice and a bucket? “I always start with […]
Roughly 22 years into his career, Brendan Kearney knows one thing for certain: teaching science is his jam. “I’ve always loved science, and teaching the subject ignited my passion,” says Kearney, who teaches science – and only science – to third, fourth and fifth graders at Glenridge Elementary in Clayton. For the next school year, […]
Making science lessons memorable and engaging for students involves not only extensive planning, but also the tolerance and time for mess in the classroom. When I think of science, it’s always messy. There’s really not an easy way to engage students in science without allowing for this chaos. Having taught 5th grade at a STEM […]
Rachel Ruggirello, associate director of the Institute for School Partnership at Washington University in St. Louis, is the 2022 recipient of the Outstanding Administrative Support Award by the National Science Education Leadership Association (NSELA). The award is given annually to honor one educator who is working outside the classroom at school, district and city/county levels […]
To the 80,000 parents — um, make that students — who will compete in the upcoming St. Louis Science Fair, Washington University in St. Louis senior Sam Martorana offers this advice: Follow your passion, not the rubric.“Science fair projects can be stressful for the entire family,” said Martorana, who has led multiple workshops for parents […]
From the playground to the pool to the ballpark, science is all around us. Through Everyday MySci activities, the Institute for School Partnership at Washington University in St. Louis helps parents nurture their child’s natural sense of curiosity, wonder and discovery. The debut 30-second video, Everyday MySci: Introducing Plant Life, shows parents how a walk […]
It’s the moment of reckoning exclaims an excited Kathleen Dwyer as she hands two Chinese youths the makings for s’mores. Turning the treat over in their fingers, the boys eye the dessert with some suspicion. “Ready?” asks Dwyer, a chemistry teacher at Maplewood–Richmond Heights High School. “Try it. It’s beautiful,” she says. Slowly the boys bring […]
Natalia Cantu attaches electrodes to a cockroach leg and taps its spiky hairs with a paintbrush.The neurons in the leg fire rapidly in response, appearing as sharp peaks and valleys on her smartphone. Cantu, who teaches ninth-grade biology in Edinburg, Texas, is in her second year of Washington University’s Master of Science in Biology for […]
Sara King was six years old when she started working in the fields. Born to migrant workers in Mexico that resettled in west Texas every summer – the pattern played out until she was 18. “It wasn’t easy,” recalls the now American citizen. “I would miss school. We would be out from May to September. […]
I see red! I see green! I see purple! Sporting virtual reality headsets, a group of seventh-graders from Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls, are sharing the different colors they see as they take a virtual tour of brain cells. “I haven’t experienced anything like this before,” Cailyn McGraw says. “Seeing the cells and the cells […]