STEMvisions Blog

 "The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are." -- J.P. Morgan

Hello, my name is Tami McDonald. I am the Colorado Regional Coordinator for the Smithsonian Science Education Center LASER program. As a near native of Colorado, I am proud to be promoting inquiry science and excellent professional development locally. I believe the need to prepare our students to compete in an innovation-based economy is great. If kids are excited about science, technology, engineering, and math, their chances of solving future global problems increases.

English language learners (ELLs) are a population of students that is growing in the United States. Educators face the challenge of helping students learn English at the same time as grade-level science content. This can be especially challenging when working with newcomers. Newcomers, by definition, have been in the United States for two years or less and have little to no English proficiency. In addition, some newcomers are refugees who have had interrupted schooling and spent time in refugee camps. How do you successfully teach science content to these students?

On April 29, 2015, the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) had the honor and pleasure to host 14 visiting educators from Japan as part of the 2015 Japan-U.S. Teacher Exchange Program for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The program, sponsored by Fulbright Japan, is an exchange between Japanese and U.S. K--12 teachers aimed at strengthening ESD curricula in both countries. Now in its sixth year, the program sponsors 14 educators from Japan to travel to the United States in late April and 14 educators from the U.S. to travel to Japan in June.

As a member of Rhode Island's first team to participate in a National Science Resources Center (now the Smithsonian Science Education Center) Strategic Planning Institute (SPI), I was among a fortunate group of individuals. Through sheer timing and positioning we received a 5-year NSF grant to bring together all of the elements of the SSEC's LASER model. Evidence of our success is a present-day, robust K-8 science program that has sustained itself for 24 years and counting.

Back in the early 2000s, one of television's most popular shows was Fear Factor. This show pitted contestants against each other and their fears for prizes and the glory that comes from reality show exposure. Contestants typically submitted to close encounters with God's less cuddly creatures, were challenged to eat items not typically found in restaurants or grocery stores, and were submerged in liquids of dubious origin.

So, what does Fear Factor have to do with LASER? 

Over the past four years, the SSEC has immersed itself in a $35+ million U.S. Department of Education Investing in Innovation (i3) grant: the "LASER i3" project. With a full-time team of roughly 8, the SSEC has been implementing its approach to science education (the LASER model) in 125 schools across northern New Mexico, North Carolina, and Houston, Texas.

The following blog was written by LASER i3 New Mexico teacher and Site Coordinator Chrissy Romero. Ms. Romero teaches at Gonzales Community School in Santa Fe, New Mexico and has been an immeasurable asset to the LASER i3 project since the first summer of training in 2011. Ms. Romero has  demonstrated exceptional commitment to the program; she has supported and trained her fellow teachers, and she has been involved as both participant and faculty member at leadership development institutes. The SSEC would like to thank Ms.

Some professionals may be a little bit jealous that teachers get the summer off. Well, teachers don't necessarily get the whole summer off. Laser i3 school districts in North Carolina, Texas, and New Mexico are currently undergoing summer professional development that brings the teachers back into the classroom and puts them on the other side of the desk.

Halfway through the 2013-2014 school year, two third-grade students approached Atalaya Elementary School principal Diane Katenmeyer-Delgado and asked if they could start a science club. Principal Katenmeyer-Delgado, supported the idea but told the two girls that they needed a teacher to oversee the program. After only a few weeks, the girls had succeeded ... they convinced sixth-grade teacher Ms. Michels to take the lead.

In an effort to maintain momentum, 21 LASER i3 Phase 1 school teams from HISD took part in a two-day Implementation Institute (II), a follow-up to their 2012 II. The 64 administrators, teachers, and community members gathered together to revisit, reevaluate, and revise their five-year strategic science plans they developed roughly two years ago.

A Phase 1 school team

Doris Rivera has been a teacher for over 17 years, and she and her school are a part of the LASER i3 project. Ms. Rivera currently teaches 3rd grade at Tierra Amarilla Elementary, a school in rural Northern New Mexico with roughly 120 students. She has 12 students in her classroom. All of her students receive either free or reduced lunch, four are English Language Learners (ELL), and all fall within a wide range of academic ability. Tierra Amarilla is a pre-K through 6th grade school with one classroom per grade level. Thank you, Ms. Rivera, for giving us a glimpse into your classroom!

LASER i3 students had the chance to teach board members at McDowell County Board of Education's December meeting. Using the knowledge they gained over the past school year, West Marion Elementary fifth-grade students led a Motion & Design STC Unit lesson, while Old Fort Elementary fifth-grade students focused on Microworlds.

At the end of January, 82 administrators, teachers, and community members, representing 21 Houston Independent School District (HISD) schools participated in a five-day Strategic Planning Institute (SPI). As part of the LASER i3 project, participating Phase 1 & Phase 2 schools and districts have the opportunity to attend SPIs that are tailored to meet the unique needs of their regions.

Renata Crawley is a LASER i3 teacher at West Marion Elementary School in North Carolina's McDowell County Schools School District. Ms. Crawley has been a teacher for 23 years! Prior to her current position as a science lab instructor, Ms.

I spent the spring of 2012 like most soon-to-be college graduates-- trying to evaluate what life after college lectures and late night study groups actually entailed. A full-time "grown-up" job? Getting a Master's Degree (in who knows what, it's just the thing to do nowadays, right)? Or, what was rapidly becoming more of a reality, being unemployed with a liberal arts degree in my back pocket. As the question, "what do you plan on doing after you graduate?" became a daily inquiry from friends and family, I was frantically searching for anything that sparked my interest.

Dr. Robyn M. Gillies is a professor in the School of Education at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. For over 20 years, she has researched the effects of cooperative learning on students' learning in science, mathematics, and social science content areas at the elementary and secondary levels. She has researched inquiry-based science in the classroom and has published her findings in many international journals, including the International Journal of Educational Research, Pedagogies: An International Journal, and Teaching Education. The extent of Dr.

Recently the Professional Services Division at the SSEC sat down for the second of our new Journal Club meetings. Building off of our last discussion of the SSEC's "LASER" (Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform) model, we read Christopher L.

Last week SSEC's Professional Services Division held our first Journal Club meeting. The Journal Club serves as an internal Professional Learning Community (PLC) to keep the Professional Services staff up to date with current research in the areas of professional development, educational policy, standards, and scientific literacy, just to name a few! As this was our first meeting, we decided to start at the beginning with the SSEC's seminal text Science for All Children.

A little over two years ago, more than 90 participants from the seven LASER i3 North Carolina districts gathered in Greensboro, NC for an intensive 5 1/2-day Strategic Planning Institute (SPI). During their time together, seven district leadership teams created comprehensive strategic plans aimed at transforming science education in their districts.

Hi. My name is Inez Leibman, and I am the New Mexico Regional Coordinator for the NSRC LASER i3 program. I was born and raised in northern New Mexico and have spent most of my adult life here. My background is in elementary education and educational leadership. I spent seventeen years teaching -- three in an urban private school setting and fourteen in a rural public school. I spent the majority of my teaching career working with Limited English Proficient and "high risk "students. I saw the challenges faced by students growing up in poverty and difficult living situations.

Hi! I'm Kim Ottosen, the Houston Regional Coordinator for the NSRC LASER i3 program. That's a long title for what I really do -- information hub, professional badger, and barrier reducer. In a grant this size with so many complexly integrated parts, I find myself doing things I never imagined I would do and I'll bet you do too.

The following blog was written by first-grade North Carolina teacher Tiffany Kramer. Tiffany provides some time-saving strategies and insight that may help other LASER i3 teachers. Thank you, Tiffany, for sharing with us!

After attending our first week of LASER i3 training in 2011, my 1st grade team was very excited about the engaging lessons the kit provided, but we also wondered how much time it would take. It seems like every teacher's schedule gets tighter every year. We wondered how we would find time to set up, teach the lesson, clean up, and make use of student notebooks. 

Welcome to Houston! It's the middle of July, we're in our second-to-last week of training (there are six total), and our staff and trainers are not nearly as exhausted as we thought we would be at this point in the summer.

A group of volunteers gather for quick photo.

As many of you are done or winding down with the school year, we wanted to ask...how was it? We think ours was pretty good based on some of the feedback we got from students:QUOTE-I-learned-so-much-about

Happy summer, everyone! This is our favorite time of year because we get to meet and work with so many teachers!

We just finished our first week of LASER i3 Professional Development (PD) in Santa Fe, New Mexico! 86 science teachers, representing 17 schools and 12 districts joined us June 3-7 at Gonzales Community School for five intense days of PD.

Teachers spent the first half of the week diving deep into science content as adult learners. From first grade teachers exploring biological systems to sixth grade teachers revisiting physics formulas, participants were challenged as they became the student in inquiry-based discussions and activities.

When parents first approached Four Oaks Elementary School principal David Pearce about starting an after-school science club, the North Carolina parents estimated that 40 students would be interested. Shortly after Students learn about animal peltsannouncing the new science club, more than 160 students signed up. The anticipated small gathering of a few students quickly turned into nine separate groups: five K-2 Green Kids' Clubs, two 3-5 Green Kids' Clubs, and two Engineering Clubs.

Our LASER i3 grant looks at the impact of the LASER program on the STEM learning of over 75,000 students in North Carolina, New Mexico, and Houston. How do you evaluate the impact of something so enormous? What evidence for success are we seeing so far? Check out the video recorded and edited by our own Program Assistant, Dana Bulba

Imagine this... it is early morning, and teachers, curriculum coaches, district staff, trainers, and facilitators from all over the country are gathered in a single room. During the weeks of February 25th and March 4th, 53 regional representatives from New Mexico, North Carolina, and Houston, TX, joined by Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) staff and contracted trainers, gathered in Oakland, California for an intense four-day, 30 hour training hosted by WestEd and the SSEC: the 2013 LASER i3 WestEd Facilitation Academies.

Our publisher Carolina Biological has this wonderful video we would like to share of a teacher working on science with her 1st grade students. Notice the emphasis on student questions in this video...as the teacher says, the students are well on their way to being great scientist.

In addition to science, the students get a chance to use math and math vocabulary while perusing their own questions. Who wouldn't want to be a student in this wonderful classroom?

Has this ever happened to you? You're talking about a science topic with your class and they are captivated (Go You! You are such an awesome teacher!). They are asking tons of questions: Can animals see colors we can't? How do we know? Is the color blue that I see the same as the color blue that you see? How can we tell?