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In the 14th episode of The Schoolyard Podcast, host Nancy Chung sits down with Dr. Erica Colón, founding father of Champions for Science and @NittyGrittyScience, to debate the advantages of incorporating real-life occasions into educating. Dr. Colón and Nancy share sensible ideas and tips for leveraging these occasions to have interaction college students and foster important pondering.
The Power of Real-Life Events
By connecting classroom studying to present occasions, lecturers can create a dynamic and interesting studying atmosphere. Students profit from a deeper understanding of the themes and develop a curiosity that extends past the classroom.
One instance Dr. Colón shares is the upcoming photo voltaic eclipse. She encourages lecturers to benefit from this uncommon occasion to have interaction college students in hands-on studying. By offering college students with photo voltaic glasses and exploring sources reminiscent of these discovered by NASA, lecturers can create a memorable expertise that sparks curiosity and fosters a love for science.
Overcoming Challenges
Dr. Colón acknowledges that some lecturers could also be cautious of hands-on studying as a result of considerations about planning however encourages lecturers to begin small. By incorporating easy experiments and actions, lecturers can create significant studying experiences with out overwhelming themselves or their college students.
She additionally emphasizes the significance of making an attempt new experiments and actions, even when they don’t go as deliberate. By modeling resilience and problem-solving, lecturers can train college students helpful life expertise and create a protected house for exploration and studying.
Citizen Science and Technology
Dr. Colón recommends utilizing citizen science apps that permit college students to gather real-world information to be used by scientists. By collaborating in these tasks, college students not solely interact in genuine scientific analysis but in addition develop a way of possession and contribution to the scientific neighborhood.
Additionally, Dr. Colón encourages using expertise to offer college students with immersive and interactive studying alternatives, whereas additionally emphasizing the significance of balancing expertise with hands-on experiences to make sure a well-rounded schooling.
Unforgettable Lessons
Dr. Colón shares a private anecdote a few discipline journey to Costa Rica that remodeled her perspective. While the plan was an thrilling journey to see volcanoes and rainforests, it was the easy expertise of seeing squirrels for the primary time that left a long-lasting impression on her college students. This highlights the ability of real-life occasions, even the seemingly mundane ones, in creating unforgettable studying moments.
These real-life occasions are game-changers for each lecturers and college students. They create participating and related studying experiences that foster important pondering and curiosity. Dr. Erica Colón’s insights and sensible ideas present helpful steering for educators seeking to make studying come alive of their school rooms.
About Dr. Erica Colón
Dr. Erica Colón is a National Board Certified Teacher with over twelve years of educating expertise in sixth by twelfth grade secondary science, together with Physical Science, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, and Marine Science. In 2008, Erica earned her Master’s in Educational Administration however shortly realized her ardour was working with science lecturers. Erica returned to earn her Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction in 2011. Through one in every of life’s surprising turns, she based Nitty Gritty Science, LLC, and has reached tens of 1000’s of science lecturers throughout the globe!
In 2020, a world pandemic modified the course of historical past, shortly altering our each day lives in all facets, and within the scope of schooling, it modified how lecturers taught and college students realized. Everywhere, educators confronted pandemic-driven distant studying that they needed to navigate on their very own virtually in a single day. Looking for tactics to help science lecturers, Dr. Colón gathered science educators, communicators, and discipline scientists to be taught from each other, share concepts, and assist one another persevere by the struggles of added workloads. In doing so, she introduced collectively a workforce of champions! Champions For Science continues as an educator’s convention collection the place extraordinary leaders, creators, and innovators in science schooling come collectively to give attention to crucial matter—our college students—the long run CHAMPIONS FOR SCIENCE!