Student Access

How can we connect more students during this time and/or how should we move forward?

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Last week James Kapptie, a middle and high school tech trainer in Wyoming, contacted me about having a conversation on his blog about connecting students during this time. He posted the conversation we collaborated on through a Google Doc on his blog Our Children Are Calling and suggested I post it here as well. So … Read more

High Hopes Project – When we launch you can follow the flight live! Here’s how

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Find out more about this project here. Our launch has been delayed until June 5th and maybe not until the following week because of weather conditions. When we launch, a communications payload keeps us in touch with the balloon’s progress. Besides 2 SPOT Trackers that use satellite technology to pinpoint the balloons location once it lands (2 … Read more

High Hopes For Our Students and the World! Free STEM Project

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From a past High Hopes mission over 90,000 feet above Nevada. That’s Lake Tahoe on the left. At this altitude the balloon is in “near space” above 98% of the Earth’s atmosphere. Note the thin blue line of the atmosphere and the dark of space above. We’re launching the world’s “High Hopes” to the edge … Read more

Africa’s plastic bag ban seems to be working, and a STEM challenge idea

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My wife and I were fortunate to travel to Africa this past summer. Our itinerary included Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. We were notified by most of the listed countries when we applied for tourist visas that we were not to bring plastic bags into the country under penalty of heavy fines. This sparked … Read more

Helping Nevada’s Homeless – A 4th grade NGSS STEM Engineering Lesson – an introduction

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Last year I was part of a team funded by the Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation and Technology to provide the first Engineering Fellows Program for 5th grade teachers. The model learning sequence we started the program with was about the issue of plastic pollution, specifically how it effects the ocean. 5th grade students … Read more

Cardboard Automata Resource

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My friend Kevin Jarrett shared this easy to follow guide to Cardboard Automata from the Exploratorium in San Francisco. It’s a great FREE resource for getting started with making in a fun, creative way. You can easily get started with stuff you probably already have around the house or classroom. Kevin suggests: “Pro tip: print … Read more