BLC17

I started this program when I became concerned that teachers in the lower elementary grades were not able to find time to teach science. Infused throughout the NGSS standards are skills that involve DOING science: wondering, observing, collecting data, making sense of your observations. Younger students are natural scientists, and by the time they arrive in 5th grade, many of them have lost that sense of natural curiosity. It is my belief that educators need to provide a venue for these scientific skills to flourish in the lower grades, not lie dormant until the students arrive in biology or chemistry classes in the upper grades. The Science Buddies program took off, and has now morphed into the Steam Engines Collaborative in our district, where teachers from all grades and subjects provide mentoring opportunities for the students to collaborate. Watching students of all abilities, from special education to enrichment, take on the role of teacher is a wonderful and progressive view on the direction that education is going in where there are no borders and personalized learning is the goal for every student.