Within 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 suggestions and tips for leveraging these occasions to interact college students and foster important considering.
The Energy of Actual-Life Occasions
By connecting classroom studying to present occasions, lecturers can create a dynamic and interesting studying surroundings. College students profit from a deeper understanding of the topics 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 interact college students in hands-on studying. By offering college students with photo voltaic glasses and exploring sources equivalent to these discovered by means of 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 resulting from 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 attempting new experiments and actions, even when they don’t go as deliberate. By modeling resilience and problem-solving, lecturers can educate college students invaluable life expertise and create a protected house for exploration and studying.
Citizen Science and Know-how
Dr. Colón recommends utilizing citizen science apps that enable 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.
Moreover, Dr. Colón encourages the usage of know-how to supply college students with immersive and interactive studying alternatives, whereas additionally emphasizing the significance of balancing know-how with hands-on experiences to make sure a well-rounded schooling.
Unforgettable Classes
Dr. Colón shares a private anecdote a few subject journey to Costa Rica that reworked her perspective. Whereas 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 considering and curiosity. Dr. Erica Colón’s insights and sensible suggestions present invaluable steerage for educators trying to make studying come alive of their school rooms.
About Dr. Erica Colón
Dr. Erica Colón is a Nationwide Board Licensed Trainer with over twelve years of educating expertise in sixth by means of twelfth grade secondary science, together with Bodily Science, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, and Marine Science. In 2008, Erica earned her Grasp’s in Academic Administration however rapidly realized her ardour was working with science lecturers. Erica returned to earn her Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction in 2011. By means of one in every of life’s sudden turns, she based Nitty Gritty Science, LLC, and has reached tens of 1000’s of science lecturers throughout the globe!
In 2020, a worldwide pandemic modified the course of historical past, rapidly altering our each day lives in all points, and within the scope of schooling, it modified how lecturers taught and college students realized. All over the place, educators confronted pandemic-driven distant studying that they needed to navigate on their very own virtually in a single day. Searching for methods to help science lecturers, Dr. Colón gathered science educators, communicators, and subject scientists to study from each other, share concepts, and assist one another persevere by means of the struggles of added workloads. In doing so, she introduced collectively a crew 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 deal with a very powerful matter—our college students—the long run CHAMPIONS FOR SCIENCE!
