Forget the guinea pig. How about adopting a 1,500-pound dairy cow for your classroom mascot? Don’t worry about finding a pen big enough to hold her. The photos and stories we’ll send you about her life on the farm will make her come alive for your students! The Discover Dairy “Adopt a Cow” program is an exciting, year-long experience for your classroom. Throughout the program, you’ll get an inside look at dairy farming and be paired with a calf from Triple H Dairy in Kentucky. You’ll find out what her name is, when her birthday is, where she lives, and how the farmer takes care of her. You’ll also receive progress updates, photos of the cow, live chats from the farm, activity sheets for your students, suggested lessons that follow Common CORE standards, and even opportunities to write letters to your calf! All updates are easily accessible via an online portal and app for Apple and Android. Registration for this school year ends September 15, so join the moo-vement now that has impacted 1+ million students across the globe! Visit www.discoverdairy.com/adopt to learn more about the free program. Discover Dairy is an educational series managed locally by the Dairy Excellence Foundation in partnership with The Dairy Alliance.

Contact Matti Coffey for more information at mcoffey@thedairyalliance.com!

The University of Kentucky’s Center For Appalachian Research in Environmental Sciences (UK-CARES) is excited to announce the 2^nd annual free UK-CARES Climate & Health Teachers (K-12) workshop that will be held virtually Weds., August 21, 2024, 4-6 pm ET.  The flyer (with registration link) and agenda are attached.  The workshop meets the Next Generation Science Standards.  Attendees will receive confirmation of 2-hours of professional development training.

 

This free interactive workshop will help answer the following questions:

 

• What does climate change look like in Kentucky?
• How does climate change influence human health?
• What can we do about climate change?
• What opportunities exist for incorporating climate and health content into classroom instruction?

 

Registration link: https://bit.ly/4cn6h1z

A FREE, virtual, two-hour professional development workshop about Climate and Health will be hosted on Aug. 21, 4-6 PM ET, for K-12 teachers in Kentucky. This workshop will help answer the following questions:

• What does climate change look like in Kentucky?
• How does climate change influence human health?
• What can we do about climate change?
• What opportunities exists for incorporating climate and health content into classroom instruction?

The workshop is hosted by the University of Kentucky’s Center For Appalachian Research in Environmental Sciences (UK-CARES) and is designed by and for educators. All Kentucky teachers (K-12) are welcome. The workshop content aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards. Register soon, space is limited. Attendees will receive confirmation of two hours of professional development upon completion of an online evaluation.

 

To register, contact organizer Kelly Kennoy.

KAEE's Outdoor Learning Symposium

Thursday, May 30, 2024 | 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM ET Northside Elementary School | Midway, KY 40347

The Outdoor Learning Symposium (OLS) is a one-day event designed for K-12 classroom teachers and administrators to attend as teams and leave better prepared to integrate environmental and outdoor education in their school setting. The day is filled with concurrent sessions tailored to meet the needs of administrators and teachers, in addition to team planning and networking time. Schools represented by a team of at least one administrator and classroom teacher can apply for a $250 mini-grant to support student-led outdoor learning projects.

Learn more about OLS, view the full schedule, and register at kaee.org/outdoor-learning.

Register Now

NSTA is proud to celebrate teacher appreciation week and we are honored to recognize educators nationally. Teachers play an essential role in nurturing minds, inspiring curiosity, and instilling a lifelong love of learning. Your efforts extend far beyond the classroom, influencing future generations and enriching our communities. Teachers, this week, we celebrate YOU!   NSTA leadership expresses appreciation for educators in this blog post from NSTA President Julie Luft and a special thank you video from NSTA CEO Erika Shugart.

Share this FREE Downloadable Poster!   Size Options: 24 x 36 18 x 24 11 x 17 8 x 11

For those of you celebrating Black Hole Week, I wanted to share a free lesson on stellar evolution. It has a really cool simulation that allows students to model stellar life cycles by creating stars of varying masses and following them through their life cycles. It also tracks the stars on an H-R diagram as they evolve and charts changes in chemical composition. I’ve included some screenshots below.
Lesson details can be found here: https://infiniscope.org/lesson/17

 

 

About Us

Infiniscope is a NASA-funded project that is transforming Earth and space science education and empowering educators through the creation of high-quality adaptive digital learning experiences, educator professional development, a community of practice, creative tools for designing digital content, and a robust set of educator resources.

Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.

Kind Regards,

Sina Kirk

Marketing & Communications Manager

Center for Education Through eXploration

School of Earth & Space Exploration

Arizona State University

Tempe, AZ  85287-1404

Sina.Kirk@asu.edu

Every year up to $2,000 is available through our Corcoran Educational Grant for proposals regarding education on native fishes, their habitats or their conservation, including but not limited to:

-Producing and distributing educational materials (books, brochures, posters, displays, video, Internet resources, etc.)

-Stream surveys with education as a primary goal

-Lecturing expenses

-Nature center displays

-School materials and displays

-Field and laboratory supplies

-Teacher training workshops to introduce teachers to core concepts, and any materials/displays that may be developed

Here is a link to the NANFA Corcoran Educational Grant website- https://www.nanfa.org/corcoran.shtml  Our main webpage is- www.nanfa.org

 

For the 2024 cycle, the proposals are due March 31.

The KGA is hosting a webinar called “StoryMap Fundamentals” on Tuesday, 2/27 at 4pm central time. The webinar will explain what storymaps are, share resources for storymaps you can use in your classroom, and describe the full StoryMap Fundamentals Educator Training. Registration is required for this event. Email Jason Minnick at Jason.minnick958@topper.wku.edu, with your name, email, phone number, school name, grade level you teach, and the subject you teach. The webinar will be offered through zoom. We are offering 1 hour of professional development for attending the webinar.

The Esri ArcGIS Online Competition for Middle and High Schools is underway this spring. This is an opportunity for students to use their geographic information systems (GIS) skills to create a storymap about Kentucky and a chance to win $100 for their entry. Winning KY entries will be forwarded to the national competition. You can find out more about the KY competition on the KGA website: https://www.kgalliance.org/2024-arcgis-online-competition.html . You can find out more about the national competition on the Esri website: https://agoschoolcomp-education.hub.arcgis.com/?rsource=https%3A%2F%2Fesriurl.com%2Fagoschoolcomp .

An all-expenses-paid professional learning opportunity for 10 select middle school science teachers Apply Now Seeking middle school science teachers who: Enjoy the creativity in teaching Are eager to share ideas with colleagues Are excited about networking with peers from across the U.S. Would like financial and academic support for great ideas The National STEM Scholar Program works to inspire the creativity and passion of middle school science teachers, ten of whom will be selected for this prestigious program. The next set of Scholars will be hosted by The Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science and The Center for Gifted Studies from May 26 - June 1, 2024, at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Scholars will engage in minds-on, hands-on science activities; connect with speakers and thought leaders in STEM education; learn with skilled science educators, and develop a creative Challenge Project for classroom implementation. Each Scholar will receive a Chromebook and funding for Challenge Project supplies and materials. National STEM Scholars will share midpoint progress with their colleagues while attending the National Science Teachers Association annual meeting in April 2023. Mentoring will be provided throughout the year by Western Kentucky University faculty. All expenses, including travel costs, materials, mentoring, and Challenge Project supplies will be covered by a grant from the National Stem Cell Foundation. If you have questions, please call 270-745-6323 or email thomas.clark@wku.edu.   Learn more & apply at wku.edu/gifted/nss

Hundreds of students huddled around do-it-yourself robots, circuitry models and miniature ziplining ninjas for the first day of Green River Regional Educational Cooperative’s STEM-a-THON.

Stations aimed at teaching robotics, coding, physics and science filled Knicely Conference Center on Tuesday along with around 750 students from 30 different schools across Kentucky.

Kaylee Crowder, a consultant at GRREC, said the event strives to introduce young students to concepts in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — in ways that anyone can connect with.

“We know that a lot of times, our STEM experiences are reserved for our Gifted and Talented students or reserved for after-school activities,” Crowder said. “We also know that research shows that students with disabilities are just as successful in the STEM industry.

“We wanted to give an opportunity to not only model inclusion for our teachers but to give the students an idea of what STEM could look like for them.”

Crowder said students with learning disabilities often miss out on opportunities or struggle to keep up with traditional instruction. The second-annual STEM-a-THON is, in many ways, designed for them.

Before attending, students with disabilities were paired with another student to help “empower them to their full potential,” Crowder said.

Attendees were greeted with a variety of stations to explore STEM topics and a “playground” filled with robotic games and physics models that teach tangible lessons in engaging ways.

Numerous corporate and community partners helped fund and run the event.

Savannah Denning, a GRREC special education consultant, said the event is also a way to “merge what we’re doing with K-12 with what the workforce is looking for.”

“We want to bridge the gap between what kids are getting in school and what they need to be ready in a workforce,” Denning said.

Denning added that these events also help combat misconceptions about people with learning disabilities being capable workers.

“When we see neurodivergent kids, they pick up on patterns very differently and far more easily than neurotypical brains do,” Denning said. “So when we think about coding, robotics, those patterns just click for them and their brains, and we just want to make sure we highlight that.”

Carrie Cox, education and community outreach manager at the National Corvette Museum, manned a booth next to an eye-catching Corvette on display as up-and-coming engineers ogled the interior. Behind her, students slid toy cars across a long table with differing surfaces to model the impact of terrain on speed.

Cox said their attendance is part of the museum’s growing educational program, which also includes a new gallery that opened in April with interactive exhibits and videos.

“We definitely want to show off that (a Corvette is) a cool car, but it’s also math, science, technology, engineering, robotics, it’s all the things,” Cox said.

Cox said the mission of any museum is educating, but ironically, educational programs like this can sometimes be an afterthought. She said since the gallery opened, the museum has taken more hands-on approaches to better engage young students who visit.

She added that young people today tend to be less interested in cars as a whole, a fact they hope to change through their programs while also encouraging the next generation of designers, engineers and manufacturers.

Trooper Daniel Priddy, public affairs officer for KSP Post 3 in Bowling Green, helped show off some of the department’s latest tech, from drones with cameras to fingerprint scanners to 3-D modeling software to reconstruct accidents and crime scenes.

Priddy said almost none of that technology existed when he began. Now, it sometimes seems like young students know the technology better than he does.

“They’re going to have a leg up on anybody that didn’t grow up on this technology,” Priddy said.

He added that on top of potentially jumpstarting a child’s interest in a law enforcement career, their booth was a chance to interact with young people outside of an emergency.

“A lot of the times when we show up, it’s a bad day for the kids and the family — it could be a house fire or collision or anything like that,” Priddy said. “This is a little different, we can actually interact with them and let them see some of the tools that we use.”

Chelsea Keene, a 5th-grade teacher at Park City Elementary in Barren County, and Ronnie Atteberry, a special education teacher at Park City Elementary, brought students to the event for the first time this year and said each was beyond excited to be there.

“They’re really excited about the hands-on opportunities,” Keene said. “I had one student before we left who said, ‘I can’t wait to get there and actually do things.’ ”

Keene and Atteberry help co-teach math at Park City and said it’s often difficult to incorporate hands-on lessons due to time and resource constraints. They said students with learning disabilities especially struggle with “getting things on paper” and need lessons like those at STEM-a-THON.

“We’re so accustomed to everything having to be on paper that we forget that these hands-on experiences are where they learn most,” Keene said. “I think opening the door to make them realize that they can succeed just as much as anyone else.

Even if they can’t put it on paper, they can still show what they know, and I think that’s a really big thing for them.”