2025 Kansas KidWind Informational Webinar

Event Date: Wednesday, November 20, 2024 - 04:00 PM 

 Are you interested in learning more about the 2025 KidWind Challenges in Kansas? Our upcoming webinar will provide an overview of the logistics and rules, what to expect at the events, who is eligible to participate, how to prepare your students for the challenge, and what's new for 2025. We will also allow time for questions. The event will be recorded if you're unable to attend, so please register regardless! We will send a follow-up email to all registrants with a link to the recording and slideshow. 

Register for the webinar: https://kansasenergyprogram.org/events/2025-kansas-kidwind-informational-webinar 

SeedMoney Challenge
Applications are open for the SeedMoney Challenge, a 30-day crowdgranting competition open to public food garden projects of nonprofit groups, including schools. No previous online fundraising experience is needed. The SeedMoney Challenge can help your project raise the funds it needs to flourish. Participating projects receive 100% (i.e., 0% fees) of what they raise, whether they reach their funding goal or not. In addition to the funds they raise, projects compete for 432 grants ranging from $100 to $1,000. The more a project raises, the larger the grant it qualifies to receive. Apply by November 12.

On November 15, all funding campaigns whose applications were submitted on time and fit the criteria will go live. On December 15, the 30-day challenge period ends. Your campaign will be able to keep whatever it has raised even if it hasn’t managed to reach its funding goal.

NOAA’s Teacher at Sea Program
 
Through this program, preK–12 formal and informal educators and college/university instructors can join National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists aboard an ocean research vessel as a member of the science team. Teachers have sailed on NOAA surveys monitoring our nation’s fisheries, measuring physical and chemical ocean trends, and charting unknown regions of the seafloor. Participants return to their classrooms with firsthand accounts of what it’s like to live and work at sea, illustrated by photos, blogs, and lesson plans. Past Teachers at Sea have taught math, literature, history, social studies, art, and music in addition to science.

Interested educators can preview the application starting on November 1. Applications will be due on December 2.

Summer Project Ice Professional Learning Course
The American Meteorological Society invites applications from K–12 teachers to participate in its summer 2025 Project Ice teacher professional development course, offered as part of the National Science Foundation/Oregon State University (OSU)-led Center for Oldest Ice Exploration (COLDEX). Teachers will be selected competitively from across the country, with a focus on those educating underserved students. Participants will engage in a graduate-level, multi-week hybrid course in paleoclimatology and ice core science that includes a workshop at OSU in Corvallis, Oregon, where they will engage with COLDEX scientists and visit the OSU ice core lab and Marine Geology Repository. 

Some support for travel, lodging, meals, and tuition will be provided for about 24 selected teachers. The course’s online portion will take place May 27–June 21, 2025, with the on-site residence experience scheduled for June 22–28. For program information and to apply, visit https://www.ametsoc.org/index.cfm/ams/education-careers/education-program/k-12-teachers/project-ice/how-to-apply/. The application deadline is November 8. For more information, contact Project Ice staff at amsedu_workshops@ametsoc.org.  

OpenSciEd Elementary Units Released

https://www.openscied.org/curriculum/elementary-school/ 

K - Sun Energy

1 - Light Waves

2 - Earth's Land & Changing Shape

3 - Forces &  Interactions

4 - Collisions & Energy Transfer

5 - Ecosystems & Matter Cycling

Green Schools Campaign
Green Schools Campaign, a program of The Climate Reality Project (a nonprofit organization involved in education and advocacy related to climate change), is a youth-led, intergenerational campaign bringing together community members of all ages. The Green Schools Campaign is developing the leadership and grassroots organizing of young people to spearhead initiatives to transition their schools and communities to 100% clean energy. Currently, Green Schools Campaign is working with students ages 13 and older, as well as teachers who wish to provide support. 

Teams of students and teachers in local school districts who are interested in running electrification/clean energy campaigns are welcome, as are those looking for general support and training on doing climate advocacy at their schools. As part of the campaign, members will have access to specialized advocacy skill-building workshops and small-group campaign team coaching from Climate Reality staff. Register on the Green Schools Campaign website. For answers to specific questions, e-mail youthprograms@climatereality.com.

Planting Science

PlantingScience is a Student-Teacher-Scientist partnership founded in 2005 by the Botanical Society of America. This no-cost program facilitates mentoring relationships with real plant scientists and teams of three to five students in grades 6–12 classrooms. Through asynchronous online conversations, the scientists provide support and encouragement as students design and carry out a plant-focused scientific investigation in the classroom. Teachers will receive free materials that will provide the content information needed, along with support from the participating scientists. 

The next session will run from February to April 2025. Your class can start their projects anytime during the session, as long as they can finish their projects before the session ends. Earlybird applications are due by December 15; the final deadline is January 15, 2025.