by Meredith Martin | Apr 13, 2015 | Science, STEM
My sixth grade students are learning about DNA and genetics this trimester, and we’ve got a bunch of great labs lined up. Last week we started with a simple and fun activity, making edible DNA. The students used Twizzlers, colored mini-marshmallows, and...
by Meredith Martin | Apr 13, 2015 | Link Soup, Presentations, professional development, resources, STEM, webinar
This weekend I presented a webinar for SimpleK12 on one of my favorite topics – STEM. They asked me to share my favorite fifteen free STEM web tools, which was a struggle for me because there are so many awesome resources out there. I finally managed to narrow...
by Meredith Martin | Mar 31, 2015 | Chromebooks, hardware, Science, STEM
My 6th grade students are learning about cells in science this trimester. This year, thanks to a successful Donor’s Choose project, I have five digital microscopes to share with the kids. I was blown away by how excited they were to look at the slides of plant...
by Meredith Martin | Mar 26, 2015 | STEM
Thanks to a successful Donors Choose project, I received ten Ozobots this week. These disgustingly cute little robots are very simple and very engaging. Basically a dome on two wheels, the Ozobots use optical sensors to follow colored paths either on paper or on an...
by Meredith Martin | Mar 24, 2015 | resources, Science, STEM
This week I started our first Grade Level Challenge. Our fifth grade students will be designing Mars Landers to safely land people (a raw egg) on Mars (the playground after being tossed off the school roof). This is one of my favorite memories from elementary...
by Meredith Martin | Feb 19, 2015 | Common Core Standards, How-To, Math, resources, STEM
Learn about levers and angles with this fun siege engine activity perfect for Halloween! Students will construct simple catapults with craft sticks and rubber bands, and compete to see who can launch a candy pumpkin the farthest. Includes NGSS and CCSS, teacher...
