by Emily Starr | Nov 15, 2023 | Featured Post, Lesson Ideas and Teaching Tips
In my professional learning session, K-8 Science and Engineering Everyday? Yes! Hooray!, one of the strategies I share with teachers to add more scientific thinking to their daily schedules is to use phenomena as bellringers. Reclaiming those first 10-15 minutes of...
by Emily Starr | Jun 26, 2023 | Featured Post, Lesson Ideas and Teaching Tips
This summer, I’ve been planning a little bit of time each day to help my boys practice “thinking scientifically.” I’ve shared some of the activities we’ve been doing on StarrMatica’s Facebook page, and I’ll continue to share ideas with you throughout the summer. I...
by Emily Starr | Mar 2, 2023 | Featured Post, Lesson Ideas and Teaching Tips
Questioning is one of the weakest areas of science instruction for a majority of teachers. Even when a lesson is otherwise well-designed (ie: high quality curriculum) fewer than one in five lessons incorporate questioning that is likely to move student understanding...
by Emily Starr | Oct 6, 2022 | Featured Post, New Text Discovery
The leaves are changing colors here in Iowa and pumpkin-spiced everything has exploded in town – seriously, in my house we have pumpkin scented hand soap! If you are anything like me as a teacher, I flipped the calendar to October and began looking for ways to...
