LASER

The following blog was written by first-grade North Carolina teacher Tiffany Kramer. Tiffany provides some time-saving strategies and insight that may help other LASER i3 teachers. Thank you, Tiffany, for sharing with us!

After attending our first week of LASER i3 training in 2011, my 1st grade team was very excited about the engaging lessons the kit provided, but we also wondered how much time it would take. It seems like every teacher's schedule gets tighter every year. We wondered how we would find time to set up, teach the lesson, clean up, and make use of student notebooks. 

From the mountains to the sea, North Carolina boasts of rich cultures, varying businesses and industries, and diverse geographies. More than 50 years ago, North Carolina began a transition from a manufacturing and agriculture-centered economy to a global economy driven by science and technology. At the center of this movement is the Research Triangle Park (RTP), one of the most beneficial public private partnerships in our history: a model for research, innovation, and economic development that utilizes key stakeholders across the state.

I spent the spring of 2012 like most soon-to-be college graduates-- trying to evaluate what life after college lectures and late night study groups actually entailed. A full-time "grown-up" job? Getting a Master's Degree (in who knows what, it's just the thing to do nowadays, right)? Or, what was rapidly becoming more of a reality, being unemployed with a liberal arts degree in my back pocket. As the question, "what do you plan on doing after you graduate?" became a daily inquiry from friends and family, I was frantically searching for anything that sparked my interest.

Some professionals may be a little bit jealous that teachers get the summer off. Well, teachers don't necessarily get the whole summer off. Laser i3 school districts in North Carolina, Texas, and New Mexico are currently undergoing summer professional development that brings the teachers back into the classroom and puts them on the other side of the desk.

Hi! I'm Kim Ottosen, the Houston Regional Coordinator for the NSRC LASER i3 program. That's a long title for what I really do -- information hub, professional badger, and barrier reducer. In a grant this size with so many complexly integrated parts, I find myself doing things I never imagined I would do and I'll bet you do too.

Hello, my name is Katie Gainsback and I am the coordinator for NSRC's Building Awareness in Science Education initiative. I just got back from my first trip to Texas and first time working with Houston ISD. It was an overwhelmingly positive experience. I was inspired by educators, administrators, and community members who took time out of their hectic schedules to work toward improving science education for all students.

Hi. My name is Inez Leibman, and I am the New Mexico Regional Coordinator for the NSRC LASER i3 program. I was born and raised in northern New Mexico and have spent most of my adult life here. My background is in elementary education and educational leadership. I spent seventeen years teaching -- three in an urban private school setting and fourteen in a rural public school. I spent the majority of my teaching career working with Limited English Proficient and "high risk "students. I saw the challenges faced by students growing up in poverty and difficult living situations.

How do we prepare students for a world where the answers aren't always waiting for them in the back of the book?

In an age of standardized tests and even tests that prepare you for standardized tests, answers, especially that one, single, right one, seem to take on an inflated importance in our classrooms. Those right answers and those tests certainly have a place in our children's education. But where do questions go?

Are you interested in science? Are you good at things? Do you like to work with nice, smart people? Is money useful for you in your pursuit of goods and services? Yes? Oh good, we're looking for you!

Make a list with fellow science teachers about what might be difficult about a particular science topic.

Time to work together with colleagues can be rare, but a conversation you might consider having with your colleagues is: what is it that makes science, or better yet, specific science topics, "hard".