Category Archives: Authentic Science in Schools

Informal Inference: Reframing Instructional Design for Data Literacy?

We collect and analyze data in order to make inferences. Sure, there are other reasons to collect data.  For example, every year I write down the date that the forsythias come into bloom in our backyard. No inferences there … … Continue reading

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John Van Dis on Student Centered Science

Next week, on May 6 (3:00 PM) and 8 (1:00 PM), John Van Dis will be offering a two-part series of workshops in which he will talk about approaches he has been using to support student-centered science investigations during these … Continue reading

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Making Students’ Thinking Visible While Apart

Schools in Maine shut down at the start of the third week of March. They will not reopen before the end of this school year. When the schools shut down, my teaching partner, Sarah Hooper, and I were working with … Continue reading

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Connecting Rural Schools to Forests and Communities

My friend and colleague Korah Soll runs an organization called Rural Aspirations. She has spent the last two years developing and launching a new program called the Maine Forest Collaborative (MFC) that aims to connect deeply rural schools to their … Continue reading

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A Great Day in the Mud: Seeing What is Possible

On Wednesday of last week I was reminded why I do what I do. Eighteen sixth and seventh grade students from the Edna Drinkwater School in Northport joined me in setting up experimental plots on a clam flat that will … Continue reading

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Taking the Measure

What did we find? That was the question that Sumner Memorial High School Students began to answer this past week as they analyzed the samples that they helped collect from John Small Cove on October 27.

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Bringing Authentic Science to Schools

Schoodic Institute uses the word “authentic” in its work with Sumner Memorial High School to describe science learning that addresses real problems and needs, where people outside the school want the data that the students collect. It is also authentic … Continue reading

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Science, Community, and Clams

It would be great if students had a chance to do science that matters. It would be great if students had first-hand experience with the work and concerns of their communities. It would be great if we didn’t lose so … Continue reading

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