It is my goal to foster deeper engagement and opportunities for students to take charge of their own learning with high quality, engaging, and relevant tools.  Homeschool Science is where you can find resources designed to help teachers promote understanding of science concepts and development of hands-on science skills.

Science Logic Curriculum  is an inquiry based, hands-on science curriculum I have written for middle level students (logic stage). Each unit incorporates background information, literature connections, and suggested long-term projects.  The units can be used independently or combined for a complete academic year curriculum.  The order in which the units are taught is very flexible.  You may wish to focus upon one discipline each year.  Alternatively, you may prefer a multidisciplinary approach and thereby select one unit from each discipline.

Science  in Action is the category I use to share our homeschool science endeavors.  Here, I will also share current stories on cutting-edge technologies, advances in science, and current events.  In doing so, I will provide suggestions of engaging activities for kids to explore the concept at home. These may include experiments to do, articles to read, and science fair projects. I will also share posts that illustrate how we integrate nature study into our homeschool.  Please share your comments on what you find important in the changing world of science or suggestions of topics you are interested in exploring.

I use the Science Resources category to share with you the many print and online resources designed to help teachers promote understanding of science concepts and development of hands-on science skills.  I hope to feature both a science product and a How To post at least once a month. In addition, I will share grant and scholarship opportunities when possible.  In the future, I hope to feature guest bloggers in an effort to build the science learning community.  If you would like to be featured as a guest blogger or have knowledge of grants and awards, interactive games and products, and/or curriculum that you feel I should highlight, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Service Learning or Citizen Science has always been a major component of my classroom – in the public school classroom and today as a homeschool mom.  Through service-learning, young people use what they learn in the classroom to solve real-life problems. They not only learn the practical applications of their studies, they become actively contributing citizens and community members through the service they perform.  I encourage you to share with us the experiences and service learning endeavors with which you have taken part.

I love teaching and sharing my passion for science with others.  My mission is to provide you with the tools and inspiration to engage your students in meaningful, hands-on science and service learning experiences through tangible curriculum, shared resources, and real-world contexts.

I have thereby partnered with The Heritage Institute to help educators like you make a difference in the lives of young people. Thus far, I have created three online courses for adults, designed to help educators develop comprehensive curriculum and materials for use in the classroom.  

Each one of the courses provides opportunity to learn the material first hand through field studies and hands-on investigations.  Reading assignments and reflective essays provide ample opportunity to thereby put together lesson plans and activities for your own students. 

My Online Science Courses for Adults

ALIEN INVADERS

You and your K-12 students can do something about the harmful, invasive non-native species growing in your community, back yard and school grounds. In some cases these plants take over important habitat for wildlife while reducing the diversity and quantity of native plants. In this course you can integrate lessons on the cultural, historical, ecological and economic impacts of invasive species and create grade-appropriate action projects for your students. This is an online science course designed for teachers.  University credit is available.

Testimonials

This class went beyond my expectations.  The interaction with the resources specialists, the field observations and the extended research needed to be done opened for me a new perspective regarding invasive species and their effect over our local and regional ecosystems. I also was immersed in an array of scientific topics related to invasive, native and exotic species that otherwise I wouldn’t think profoundly about, wouldn’t take the time to dig into, or wouldn’t dare to approach on my own.  

~ Voichita Morariu, High School Biology teacher

NATURE JOURNALING IN THE CLASSROOM 

A nature journal is your ticket to a deep exploration of the world around you.  A nature journal is a place to record your encounters with the natural world — from the everyday to the sublime. Field sketches, regardless of the degree of artistic talent with which they are rendered, force us to look closely and observe nature as it really is. Simply put, nature journaling is the regular recording of observations, perceptions, and feelings about the natural world around you. The recording can be done in a wide variety of ways, depending on the individual journalist’s interests, background, and training.  This course will help you to integrate nature journaling into your K-12 art and science curriculum. This is an online science course designed for teachers. University credit is available.

Testimonials

I expected to learn some techniques and methods for teaching the subject in a more organized, school setting.  What I learned was what I expected to learn plus a lot more.  The reading assignments were full of good ideas and much of it was thought provoking and insightful.  I feel that I got a lot more out of the books than I expected.  The other exercises were great also, pushing me beyond where I was, in my understanding of the subject.  I believe that I’m much better educated about nature than I would have been, had I not taken the course. 

~ J.L. Fottrell, artist and geologist  

Please feel free to suggest future courses. If there is enough interest, I am willing to design courses specifically to the interests of you and your children.