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"There is an intimate and necessary relation between the process of actual experience and education." ~ John Dewey, 1938
Children are natural-born scientists, testing life every single day. Teens are natural mad scientists, pushing the limits of what they know about their world. My goal is to facilitate confidence in the processes that enables us to discover our own answers and practice using the critical thinking skills that empower us to evaluate them.
Science is a triad of Discovery-Understanding-Communication. We will overlap Science, Math, English and Technology - a lot. Science is what we do to discover solutions (and many more new questions!), Math is the way we quantify why the phenomenon happened, English allows us to communicate what we've learned, and Technology allows us to access and communicate information. Class will encourage reading and writing skills, proper grammar, spelling and punctuation, as well as appropriate use of the internet, word processing and collaborative documents, spreadsheets, databases and more.
A brilliant breakdown of the synthesis of technology, science and literacy was created by my colleague, Kenneth Bennion. Check it out!
Teaching Philosophy
To teach is to inspire. To play is to learn.
Science, like life, is a process - not a destination.
7th Grade Core:
"How's it all put together?" The focus for 7th graders is on structure, from atoms to atmosphere, cells to systems, from DNA to reproduction, we will study the organization of life and how we classify organisms.
8th Grade Core:
"Ch-ch-ch-changes" The focus for 8th graders is on change, from our solar-powered planet to states of matter, from Earth's geologic history to the way energy moves molecules and mountains alike, we will study the forces of our world and get a lot of work done along the way.
Students are rewarded for curiosity,
care and quality. As I tell my students,
it does not matter if you know the answers
to the mysteries of the Universe if
you can't communicate them accurately
with others!