Families, Friends, and Fellow Educators:

The school year has ended for Boston Public Schools! I have done some packing up and cleaning out in the Science Makerspace, and will now make sure I rest, reflect, and get ready for this upcoming school year in the next few months.

That being said, now is the time for your Young STEAM Inventor to continue being immersed in engaging and authentic learning experiences. This does not have to happen in a summer camp classroom. There are many ways to provide these experiences for your student:

• Explore the resources on this website. My Resources page links to several apps that are great for young children to practice important skills, such as literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving. You can download the website one-pager for my top picks on educational websites and products for STEAM, such as LEGO Steam Park.

• Sign up for newsletters or local calendars for events. Magazines such as the Boston Parents Paper highlight several local (and oftentimes FREE events) that you can Upcoming events include the “Summer Solstice: Night at the Museums” festival at the Harvard Museums in Cambridge; the Day of Portugal Festival at Boston City Hall Plaza; and “Free Fun Fridays” at participating museums.

• “Travel” as much as you can. The best learning experience can sometimes be through travel. I traveled and lived abroad in the Middle East as a child, and a lot of the lessons I learned and memories I made are still with me to this day. This is not feasible for all families, but luckily, the Digital Age makes accessing these intercultural experiences much more possible. The London School of Economics recently published an article “Kids on Earth: Travelling the world to understand the 21st century” on how videos and other technologies can help facilitate learning about other worlds. Old-fashioned book reading is also a great way to tap into this. Please check out this list of Afro-Latinx books from elementary school to young adult on SocialJusticeBooks.com, in addition to this list of over fifty multicultural teenage book titles on Colours of Us.

Of course, there are many more ways that I did not list here. Still, I hope that you are able to seek out these particular resources for your student and can share their experiences with me!

All the best,

Alicia

Science and Engineering

• Asking questions and defining problems.
• Developing and using models.
• Planning and carrying out investigations.
• Analyzing and interpreting data
• Using math and computational thinking.
• Constructing explanations and designing solutions.
• Communicating information.

Art, Literacy, and Science

• Using art as a form of expression and investigation through STEAM
• Sequencing and counting stones (mathematical skills) after close readings of Diane Alber books (literacy skills)

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Life Science Concepts

• Observing and communicating that animals and plants have things they need to survive.
• Recognizing that all plants and animals grow and change over time.

Earth and Space Science (Grade 1)

• Using and sharing observations of weather to describe patterns.
• How plants and animals can change the environment.
• Gathering information/data about weather forecasting to prepare for, and respond to different types of weather — both here in the United States, and in other countries of the world.

Physical Science

• Grade 1 – Investigating and recording ideas in their scientific journals that different kinds of materials can be a liquid or solid.
• K0/K1 and K2 – Comparing the effects of different strengths or directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object (Balls and Ramps Curriculum)

A project that I have been working on with PBS Twin Cities has recently won an award! Hero Elementary won a Presenter’s Choice Award at the “2019 STEM For All Video Showcase: Innovations in STEM Education” held May 13-20.

I am extremely excited because I was tapped into the project after showing much enthusiasm for it during a presentation by PBS Twin Cities at MIT. We will be piloting Hero Elementary at the East Boston EEC in Fall 2019.

Here is some additional information about the project, as well as a video you can watch that explains the program:

Tweny-two years ago, Deborah Meier founded the Mission Hill School, a small Boston Public School located in Jamaica Plain. She hired me to teach at Mission Hill, which was noble because that founding year was also my first year as a teacher. Both Deborah Meier and Dr. Theresa Perry have been my mentors throughout my years of teaching. They both honored and encouraged my out-of-the-box teaching and willingness to take risks in education, in addition to the importance I placed on families, communities, and democracy. Because Deborah and Theresa believed in me, I was able to grow and to make mistakes, knowing that they would both catch me when I fell. These are the same values I instill in each of my students at the East Boston Early Education Center. I also continue to use the “Mission Hill Habit of Mind and Work” in the Science Makerspace. 

Please take a listen to this recent Ethics in Education Network podcast featuring my mentor, Deborah Meier. She talks about what makes a good school and building and maintaining trust and mutual respect.

For my readers who are educators:  I hope you enjoyed National Teacher Appreciation Week last week and truly felt appreciated by someone in a special way! The work that we do is very important, and so I wanted to be sure to share some resources that teachers and families can use to keep enriching the lives of young students.

On STEM Education

1. The Captain Planet Foundation recently launched a new app to promote environmentalism. Download it today from the App Store and Google Play!
2. 8 Eye-Opening Ways Kids Benefit From Experiences With Nature by Christopher Bergland for Psychology Today
3. The Value of Tinkering by Aaron Schomburg for Scientific American
4. How To Pick a Great Educational Science Toy by Ben Newsome for Fizzics Education
5. Girl Scouts Add 30 New Badges in Robotics, Science and Engineering by Nicole Lyn Pesce for New York Post 
6. Will K-12 Students Be Ready For the Technology of the Future? by Kelly Konrad for EdTech Magazine
7. What Really Keeps Girls of Color Out of STEM? by Emilio Pack for Education Week
8. Study Confirms Project-Based Learning Has a Positive Impact On How Students Learn Science and Math by Dr. Kerry Speziale for DefinedSTEM

On Early Childhood Education

1. We Need to Make Kindergarten Engaging Again by Dr. Christopher Brown for Psychology Today
2. Best Children’s Books Of the Year by Bank Street College of Education
3. The 17 Picture Books of 2019 That You Need on Your Child’s Shelf by Alessia Santoro on Pop Sugar

I hope you are enjoying your April Vacation thus far! With the week winding down, I wanted to make sure I provide my readers with some additional recommendations for having a fulfilling week.

It’s a Celebration

The Cambridge Science Festival is an annual celebration of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) in our lives, particularly here in the Boston area. This 10-day festival ends this upcoming Sunday, April 21, so be sure to check out their Events Calendar to find out which events you should attend with your young student!

National Poetry Month 2019

April is National Poetry Month! Check out this list of multicultural books of poetry curated by Colors of Us. Also, please visit the Colors of Us website for recommendations on multicultural books, multicultural toys, and multicultural clothing.

Speaking of Book Recommendations

Early this month, the A Mighty Girl blog published an article entitled “The Mother-Daughter Pilot Team Breaking the 30,000-Foot Glass Ceiling Together”. Do read this article to learn more about these women’s stories, and to get book recommendations for children’s books about pioneering female pilots. Subscribe to the A Mighty Girl newsletter to receive emails about blog articles and other updates.