Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

I didn’t learn how to teach reading in my teacher prep program

Key points:

  • As students continue to struggle with reading, it is critical that teachers receive structured literacy training in teacher preparation programs
  • Literacy serves as the foundation of learning, and families should be involved in this learning process
  • See related article: How to support reluctant readers with literacy strategies

After 14 years in education, I consider myself to be a good reading teacher. Unfortunately, the path to getting where I am today was a long, frustrating journey.

Growing up, as the child of two teachers, education was in my blood.…Read More

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3 essential tools to make elementary science easier

Key points:

  • Interactivity and engaging resources can make science more approachable
  • Elementary school teachers need easy-to-use science tools that will grab students’ attention

During my time as a kindergarten teacher, I learned three major lessons about our youngest learners’ relationship to science. Specifically, I learned that elementary school students are predisposed to being excited to learn about their world, are naturally curious about how the world of nature works, and benefit highly from learning about the STEM/STEAM-related professions they might someday consider pursuing.  

My current role as a PreK-12 science curriculum specialist affords me the opportunity to work alongside a variety of elementary school teachers as they plan engaging lessons and activities for their students. Often, I hear that science is set aside for various reasons. While I recognize the critical importance of developing math and literacy mastery, we must ensure our elementary level learners are well-rounded and prepared with the scientific skills needed for future success. So, I see it as part of my role to provide the teachers I serve with easy-to-use resources and instructional supports they need to easily “sneak” scientific concepts into their lesson.…Read More

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4 ideas to consider when designing a STEM lab

Key points:

  • STEM labs are engaging environments that encourage exploration
  • With the right tools and supports, students develop and grow 21st-century skills

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is focused on developing students’ skills and connecting these subject areas, preparing them for future careers and the real world. It’s a key area of teaching worldwide and thousands of schools are now investing in learning spaces specifically designed to support STEM–called STEM labs.

What is a STEM Lab?…Read More

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From inspiration to impact: Attracting women to STEM

Key points:

  • The bottom line: Representation matters
  • Encouraging a passion for STEM from a young age will keep more women in STEM

The number of women working in STEM jobs has increased 31 percent over the past decade, but women continue to be outnumbered by men in some of the fastest-growing and highest-paying jobs—including roles in engineering, computer science, and the physical sciences. Although women make up half of the total U.S. college-educated workforce, they only represented 34 percent of the science and engineering roles in 2021, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Not only is it important to see more women fill STEM jobs from an equity standpoint, but there is also a lack of professionals to fill the demand for future STEM roles, projected to grow by 11 percent over the next decade.…Read More

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Georgia’s Glynn County Schools Renews Multiyear Partnership Supporting Science Instruction in K-5 Classrooms

Charlotte, NC — Georgia’s Glynn County Schools (GCS) today announced the renewal of its multiyear partnership with Discovery Education supporting the district’s youngest learners. The renewal of this partnership ensures students and teachers in the district’s K-5 classrooms will continue to use the company’s award-winning Mystery Science service to explore the natural world and more deeply engage in science instruction. Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports instruction wherever it takes place. 

Located in Southeastern Georgia, Glynn County Schools’ dedicated staff of more than 3,600 professionals serves more than 12,000 students in 21 schools. Driven by their vision to create 21st century learning environments that offer opportunities for all students to pursue higher education and develop skills that meet workforce needs while producing informed, conscientious, and productive citizens who give back to their community, GCSS fosters a culture of continuous assessment and improvement.  

This year, following a careful review of the district’s usage and success with the Mystery Science service, school administrators elected to renew the partnership with Discovery Education that brings Mystery Science to GCSS’s K-5 students. By doing so, the district will continue to create hands-on instructional experiences that engage students and build their capacity for success for both the remainder of their career at GCSS and beyond. …Read More

Illinois’ Geneva School District 304 Renews Longterm Partnership with Discovery Education Supporting Science Education

Charlotte, NC — Illinois’ Geneva School District 304 (Geneva CUSD 304) today announced it has renewed its multi-year partnership with Discovery Education supporting science education in grades K-5 through the year 2026. This continued collaboration ensures K-5 students and teachers districtwide will continue enjoying access to Discovery Education’s award-winning Mystery Science service, which is helping drive deeper engagement in science instruction. Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports instruction wherever it takes place. 

Each day, Geneva CUSD 304’s teachers, administrators, and staff seek to educate the nearly 5,500 students they serve within an environment that encourages the desire to learn and meets the unique academic, personal, physical, and social needs of each child. In 2016, district educators selected Mystery Science to support hands-on elementary science instruction and foster within each student a love of science. Today, Mystery Science continues to fulfill that mission as it helps district students develop into complex, creative thinkers. 

Mystery Science, which joined the family of Discovery Education services in 2020 and is a winner of SIIA’s Best Science Instructional Solution CODiE Award for Grades PK-8, provides K-5 educators simple-to-use, open-and-go, hands-on lessons that inspire students to love science. Each lesson begins by posing a question commonly asked by young students. Students then explore these questions through interactive videos featuring real-world visuals fostering a sense of wonder and actively supporting student engagement in the accompanying discussion prompts.  …Read More

The Earth Prize 2023 Winners Announcement


On Monday, April 24th, The Earth Foundation held a fully virtual event, The Earth Prize 2023 Awards Ceremony, to announce the winner and runners-up of its USD 200,000 environmental sustainability competition for teenagers. Over 1,270 student teams registered from over 1,000 schools across 116 countries and territories for the 2023 edition of the competition.

Team Delavo, made up of four young women – Yagmur, Avjin, Damla and Irmak from Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey – was proclaimed the victorious recipient of the USD 100,000 grand prize that comes with The Earth Prize 2023 Winner title. The prize money will be split evenly between the team members and the educational institution with which they registered for the competition, Bahçeşehir Koleji Fen ve Teknoloji Liseleri (Diyarbakir Bahcesehir College for Science and Technology High School).

Inspired by the problem of water scarcity from droughts in the Tigris River basin where they live, the team’s winning idea is the “ECaundry” device, which addresses the fact that 20 gallons (75 liters) of toxic waste water from every load of laundry in the world’s washing machines contaminate the soil and groundwater. Once the ECaundry is hooked up to the machine its integrated hollow ultrafiltration tubes and carbon filter treat and reuse laundry waste water, thus conserving more than 90% of it.…Read More

Can we make STEM more accessible for girls?

Are girls really underrepresented in STEM? Yes. 

In the U.S., the workforce is pretty evenly split between men and women, but in STEM fields men make up 73 percent of the workforce to women’s 27 percent. Why?

It’s easy to want to find a well-meaning solution for this disparity, or even to brush it off as unimportant. But achieving a gender parity in STEM fields (particularly computer science, engineering, and programmers, among others) isn’t just a feel-good social justice crusade. The number of open tech jobs far outpaces the population of traditionally qualified candidates—data projections have pointed to a global shortage of 85 million tech workers by 2030.

It’s not a matter of encouraging girls to pursue STEM programs just for the heck of it, to prove they can and earn a good paycheck—it’s a matter of graduating enough highly-skilled workers to meet economic demand.

Still, the imbalanced statistics for the genders in STEM are damning. What can K-12 schools do to play their part in preparing the next generation for a talent-hungry workforce?

…Read More

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How a middle school teacher grew students’ math scores despite pandemic challenges

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

As a senior at Indianapolis’ Ben Davis High School, Jacob Gregory enrolled in an Exploratory Teaching program. He thought of it as an easy way to leave school for a few hours, but it ended up sparking “an unknown interest in teaching,” he said. 

Today, the sixth grade math and science teacher at McKinley Elementary School is a quiet rock star. The school’s sixth grade growth scores in math are at nearly 58 percent, meaning more than half of the students met their individual growth targets on the state’s ILEARN test.…Read More

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