Blog

Piloting the “Assessing Volcanic Hazards and Risk with Code” Module during COVID-19

This spring I had the opportunity to pilot the new online GeoCode tephra activities developed as part of the NSF-funded Visualizing GeoHazards and Risk with Code project with my 9th grade Honors Earth Science classes in Evergreen, Colorado. I’d been looking forward to the pilot for months, but only a handful of weeks before our […]

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Incorporating writing, data, and social justice in middle school classrooms

Three blocks with backgrounds of swirled colors representing flexible language use, expansive science repertoires, and contextual understanding of data

Twenty-five middle school teachers from Berkeley, Oakland, and the surrounding areas of northern California recently met online as part of a virtual professional learning workshop called “Telling Data Stories: Scientific Data, Student Experience, and Authorship for Social Justice in Middle School Classrooms.” The workshop was offered by the Writing Data Stories project, a collaboration of […]

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Infusing genetics with data science and three-dimensional teaching

Fast Plants seedlings

Let’s face it, three-dimensional teaching takes work. There are disciplinary core ideas (DCI), science and engineering practices (SEP), and crosscutting concepts (CCC) to pack in. A simple new tool may help biology classes reap the benefits of Next Generation Science Standards instruction with big payoffs. The 3D Teacher Moves Table, developed for a groundbreaking webinar […]

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Resisting Scientific Misinformation

Andy Zucker was a senior scientist at the Concord Consortium. Penny Noyce served on the Concord Consortium’s Board of Directors. Andy Zucker and Penny Noyce, both formerly associated with the Concord Consortium for many years, created a free one-week curriculum unit for grades 6-12 called Resisting Scientific Misinformation. The unit includes four short videos especially […]

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Alaska meteorologist Jackie Purcell helps Precipitating Change deliver the weather

Alaska snow

Our Precipitating Change project has been exploring the science of weather and weather prediction with students in Alaska. We’ve been assisted by someone many Alaska students recognize, Jackie Purcell, chief meteorologist at KTUU Channel 2 in Anchorage. Jackie gets around, and not just on television. At the Alaska State Fair, “I run into folks from […]

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Modeling the Taal Volcano in the Philippines

Taal Volcano

All volcanic eruptions are dangerous. Some are more dangerous than others. Volcanic eruptions range from slow, relatively gentle flows of lava to explosive eruptions of gases, ash, and rock. Our Visualizing Geohazards and Risk with Code project (GeoCode) challenges students to model tephra volcanic eruptions (tephra refers to all particles ejected explosively from a volcano, […]

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