Language and the Power of Reframing
This lesson started out as a lesson in learning how to look at data and systems from new perspectives and turned into a mad lib of data synthesis. This was actually a great deal of fun and it is a new tool I will be using with students. The game is called “Coin Purse” for maximum absurdity and permission to be creative with language and the power of reframing.
Sustainability In Nature
In this class we gave each DNA strand (table) a beneficial mutation that would benefit the entire species (class). But one table’s mutation was bad for the other. The challenge was to optimize and use reason and democracy to decide what represented optimal sustainability in nature.
Recycle, Reuse, Reduce In Action
We worked today on a design challenge to encourage kids working with animals to be more aware of the necessity for hand washing, cleaning gloves, and being aware of potential pathogen vectors. Eight teams worked over four periods to design a solution that would help us all be better prepared and protected as we continue to explore sustainability and livestock. See what happened when kids put Recycle, Reuse, Reduce in Action.
The Rules For Engagement
This is a hybrid blogpost and slide entry for my proposed roundtable on my “Sustainability in Nature” class at Metro Schools this January. I have nine days to teach about sustainability, science, technology, engineering, math, farming, economics, discipline, and computer science. No big deal! This is the Rules for Engagement.
Did Dinosaurs Crow?
Today I brought in my rooster from Mezzacello Urban Farm as part of my sustainability in nature class at Metro Schools this week. To say they were mesmerized is an understatement. The look on their faces when that rooster crowed inside its cage - out of sight - was priceless. The kids had so many good questions and created some GREAT ideas for inventions that will make rooster-saurus safer!
Energy: From Stars to Stomachs
This is me and my intern, Marcus, teaching a classroom full of 6th and 7th graders the basics of Gravity, The Weak and Strong Atomic Forces, and the relationship between electricity and magnetism. We started with Google Maps to get kids to think about zooming in and looking at relevant and relative things with more thought. Then we zoomed in to the basics of our lesson.
Engineered Feed and Sustainability
This is a blog about molecular nutrition and biological markers for different species of animals. Students were tasked to research what the nutritional footprint of each species required and then pull different grasses, grains, fruits, and liquids. Then they built a matrix that could be dehydrated and stored for use later. This is engineered feed and sustainability.
DNA and the Internet
This is a blogpost of a presentation I gave to a group of middle school kids about the ways that DNA, data, information theory, and the internet are related. This was a surprising one!
My Friend, Gregor Mendel
I brought in three rabbits to Metro School today. The plan is to discuss genetics and epigenetics with students in the Sustainability in Nature program. We discussed how we imagined Greg Mendel discovered how the pea flowers could pass on color instructions via some mysterious mechanism.
Don’t Be Afraid, It’s a Chicken!
I brought in a chicken to discuss how animals and ecologies interact at Mezzacello Urban Farm. I brought in chicken #23 so they could get used to holding an animal and gaining confidence and competence in holding animals. Don’t be afraid, It’s a chicken!
Metro High School 2024 Intern
This is my Metro Intern for 2024. Their capstone was to design a series of three design challenges that focus on ecology, quantume effects, and biomechancs. They rocked it.