Memories of a Dog

It is important to realize that the bonds we form with animals have real meaning.  It is, at times, the only thing in life that seems to be normal and consistent.  Relationships with family members and colleagues can be stressful and challenging as we go through life, but it is relationships with animals, like dogs, that provide refuge from these trying times.

I loved my dog. She was a companion that I had great affection for and I respected her presence in my life.  She died the day before Thanksgiving this year and I still feel her presence in our home.  For over 13 years she was part of our family. Her influence on our lives was positive and heartening. She was our family, and we very much appreciated what she brought to us in love, loyalty and affection.  She is now missing from our lives every day. Life continues without her with us here at home.

I have often written and published in this blog about the need to protect living species. It seems like this calling for me, at times, is like shouting into the wind, which is unsustainable and seemingly futile. Except now when you equate it to the love of a dog, I feel it has more meaning. That life, with all its complexities and mysteries, is an endless struggle for relevance. Love for family and for the influences in our life has meaning.  It gives meaning to us.

I have turtles, fish and a gecko in my home.  I watch birds flying overhead, engage with backyard garden-marauding rabbits and I witness high dexterity squirrels. I see flocks of soaring geese and I watch ducks land gracefully onto nearby ponds. The environment we have been given supports all living creatures so they can live their lives. This includes humans and how we navigate through what we do in life. It seems that living is more conceptual than ever. To live means to have cognition and a sense of being that becomes increasingly viral as complexities manifest themselves. To have life means to have beaten back the chaos of the universe for a time and to hold your ground as the cosmic orchestrations of existence plays out around you.

I want to express my love for life on this planet and my concern for its fragility. The complexity of it all can be taken away in an instant and it is part of what it means to be human to acknowledge this and to see the need to protect and preserve life-supporting ecosystems everywhere.

 

 

 

PUBLIC EDUCATION IS DEMOCRACY

From the book, Why Fascists Fear Teachers, by Randi Weingarten;

“Public education is an idea as old as democracy and inextricably linked with it.  The radical idea that instead of being a nation that gives power and knowledge only to kings, we invest in education for all and the common good.

Fascists and autocrats fear what teachers do because they know their brand of greed, hierarchy, and extremism cannot survive in a democracy of diverse, educated citizens.”

Teacher pedagogy defines the vitality of learning experiences for students.  It is a foundational act of solidarity aligned with the beliefs of free people living within a democracy. 

Young minds experiencing learning opportunities in the classroom, that spur imaginative thought, will develop a zeal, within each student, to solve problems and think creatively.  Groups of students working on projects in the classroom can galvanize strong incentives to collaborate and cooperate on vexing issues and problems. Independent thought and collegial relationships are important outcomes that result when students work on project-based educational initiatives at schools.

Empowering students with a good education lends well to the boundless promise of a fulfilled life.  This gives students the potential and opportunity to reach their full capacity as citizens within our country.

Education leads to students being more resolute in their persistence to be engaged in critical thinking to solve real world problems.   Living a good life requires abilities of individuals to transverse nuances of life as we tread our way through the gray areas of the world with blurred boundaries. Education provides skill and abilities that are essential to the process of creating a society that addresses needs of the most vulnerable among us and creates equal opportunities for everyone.

Teachers need the support of the many shareholders in education such as parents, community leaders and administrative governance that can help enfranchise innovative and devoted talents necessary to get students to want to learn. The design and implementation of learning by teachers, taking place in creative learning environments, will produce outcomes that are rewarding to all students.

 

A Calling to Increase Learning Experiences in the Classroom: 

iEARN Project-Based Educational Initiatives.

(International Educational and Resource Network)

This week begins the Water is Life Project in iEARN (https://us.iearn.org/).

 It is scheduled to continue until the beginning of summer in June!

It is now an important time for teachers to commit time and effort of themselves and their students and become involved in this project.  The goal is to become involved in the methodology of doing this project by completing both the Introductions and Pathways posted in the project and obtaining achievable outcomes. The collaborative nature of this project will manifest itself as students share their ideas, analysis and solutions of real-world problems.

Commitment by educators to deliver scientific inquiry, as the means to construct learning experiences, does achieve greater understanding by students of fundamental concepts and increases in their development of analytical skills and abilities.

Recent educational surveys, given to students in middle school and high school, have presented a need for teachers to deliver curriculum that explains concepts in more understandable ways, which leads to increasing the number of highly motivated students doing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).  Research has proven a direct relationship between inquiry-models of learning, within curriculum, and resulting increases in average grades achieved by students in the classroom.

Teachers who commit their time, effort and resources to involve students with iEARN projects will benefit by creating learning environments that are highly engaging and produce high-quality academic outcomes. There is no substitute for these hands-on collaborative learning opportunities delivered by teachers to students in the classroom.

I am looking forward to help orchestrate this effort to engage students in high-quality learning experiences within this international forum provided by iEARN.  I have years of experience conducting this effort in iEARN and I look forward to sharing my experience and insights to foster a tremendous learning experience for students around the world!

 

FREEDOM

Developing Sovereign Free People

To be sovereign and free means to be open to the needs of others.  It involves embracing an openness to new ideas and diverse thinking.  It means having an eye to see ways to improve life and to incorporate this thinking into living unpredictably, to have mobility in one’s life and have an insightful expectation for change. This is an advocation expressed by Timothy Snyder author of the book, On Freedom.

It is an extraordinary advocation for what makes us free.  The realization of our needs is a consequence of having critical thinking skills and abilities developed from the experience of excellence in education.  An education that develops investigative and analytical abilities, develops and open-mindedness for new ideas and a shared commitment for the protection and preservation of local ecosystems world-wide.

People in free societies have expectations for their own political, social, economic and spiritual discourse. An outcome of this discourse is the safeguarding of lives, preservation of resources and the delivery of a secure and prosperous future.

Education provides individuals the power to seize their chance for a better life for themselves and for those within their community.  Education develops a resistance to acceptance of bleakness.  The societal goal is to prevent the dissolution of values intended to prevent blaming victims and refuges for their own suffering.  Without sovereign thoughts of discourse by the populous, then solutions become nullified, and continual crisis becomes normalized.  It breeds contempt for others and fuels an unholy acceptance of climate catastrophe outcomes.

Climate catastrophe is not an inevitability.  It can be adverted by conscious action taken by sovereign and unpredictable people.  Educated people, with developed critical thinking skills, will enable individuals to acknowledge past catastrophes and create solutions more numerous than can be imagined. Our values can lead us into a prosperous future by first reflecting upon the past, then dealing with challenges of current realities and finally seizing the chance to develop a more fulfilling good life for everyone.

As this new school year begins, we face new challenges brought upon us by both internal and external forces.  As a society our ability to surmount these challenges and forge a more prosperous equitable future is dependent upon how we present education to our youth in the classroom.  The avenues available to educators to deliver learning opportunities must include a pathway to sovereignty.  This is the course of action that can deliver a lasting progressive impact on how we live, how we deal with each other and how we prepare ourselves for the future.

The vocation of teaching is the crucible from which a sovereign society can rise from and thereby seize the chance to make a better life for everyone.

 

The 2025 KidWind RECharge Academy

 

In the middle of July and summertime vacation, I joined a cohort of exceptional educators, to learn about wind turbines, solar energy and battery technology. The 2025 KidWind RECharge Academy provided the time and resources for teachers, from across the nation, to come together for one week of collaboration and share our love of science. Learning the mechanics of the KidWind program and its incredible learning opportunities for students is the primary goal for teachers attending this academy.

The beginning of the session dwelled into investigating designs of new green energy production systems and having discussions with several wind energy developers across the Midwest. Websites were presented that provide valuable information for delivering science curriculum that can be structured around conceptual understand, engineering practices and cross cutting concepts (Next Generation Science Standards Foundational Structure).

One of the field trips that I participated in, at a University of Minnesota research facility, was an exciting venture into the science of water flow research and the scientific process of unmasking quantitative analysis that leads to real-world applications. 

As part of this week-long session, several KidWind science kits and lesson plans were presented to teachers providing them with resources needed to implement green energy educational initiatives in school curriculums.

The opportunity to collaborate with other teachers is the hallmark of the 2025 KidWind ReCharge Academy. With such a wealth of experienced science educators at one location, this cohort provided an exceptional opportunity to share knowledge and understanding of teaching pedagogy and greater insight into the mechanics of the KidWind experiences in the classroom.  I have met with representatives from energy developers in the Midwest and discussed with them inquiries into potential sponsorship for KidWind projects into the future.

Wind turbine designs were constructed and tested in a wind tunnel as teachers hoped to optimize electric energy output and win a staged competition.  The stakes ran high as teachers turned their imagination into construction of wind turbine units delivering joules of electric energy from the mechanical motion of spinning blades and rotating generator. Wind energy was transformed into electric energy which can be used to run motors, produce light and charge batteries!  I now have access to wind turbine websites related to developed wind energy projects across the Midwest.  This information provides me with the means to solicit funds to support local KidWind projects in schools where I teach and for teachers that I mentor.

The solar energy presentations, at the KidWind ReCharge academy, dealt with establishing project-based learning environments that involve the use of solar cell technology and engineering designs. The goal is to transfer solar energy into the lighting of homes, making heat energy and running electric powered machines. Solar energy learning opportunities are designed to stimulate interest and inquiry thereby sustaining an openness by students to learn.

The development of solar lab experiments includes the physical aspects of conducting solar energy activities and dwelling into the physics of energy transformation.  Data analysis, by students involved in solar energy, results in the interpretation of graphical presentations which add to students’ skills and abilities in solving problems.  This can lead to students developing a “reason”, in their minds, to want to lean.

Fundamentally, the motivation of students helps provide the means to actively participate in project-based science experiences in the classroom, but the “wanting” comes from a more deeply embedded “reason” held by learners for participation in the first place.  

Understanding the benefit of knowledge gained from wind turbine research operations helps to model the physics needed to support engineering.  Maximizing power output, given the deluge of environmental and mechanical influences, is the primary challenge in wind turbine engineering.  Graphical presentations of output data provide crucial support to scientific analysis.  Students involved in KidWind come to appreciate these many factors impacting the production of electrical energy and they work, with the data, to draw out conclusions from experimentation and focus upon the need to maximize electrical energy output in joules!

The final day of the KidWind RECharge Academy was filled with presentations from wind turbine engineers, nuclear energy specialists and battery science curriculum experts.  The knowledge and understanding of energy producing systems was enhanced by this expert testimony. I believe that this opportunity of learning will produce tremendous educational dividends in the classroom. 

It has been a remarkable gathering of teachers bringing to the cohort a wealth of experience and commitment to real learning of science.  This program helped to both advocate and applaud teachers for their vocation as instructors and mentors to our youth.  The rarity of this type of professional development experience, for science teachers nationwide, is a testament to the need for more investment in science education along with greater commitment to preparing our youth for the challenges of a technological advanced future.

It’s been a truly rewarding time for everyone this week. I am very thankful to the leadership of KidWind for providing such an incredible event.  As teachers, we will utilize what we have learned and more effectively implement energy curriculum initiatives in the classroom. This process will lead to the development of problem-solving abilities in our youth with a lasting impact upon society into the future.

 

It is still all about project-based learning opportunities in the classroom

Project-based learning in the classroom includes inquiry and requires the dissemination of scientific facts and logic.  This is the basis and foundation for progressive learning in our school in the 21^st century.  Project-based science teaching is a driving force in curriculum, because it helps to solidify experiences, increase understanding and develop skills and abilities in the minds of students.

Given the media driven high-tech cultural and societal environment, the response by teachers grasping for the attention of students’ minds in the classroom becomes more challenging than ever. Students’ overall focus, in the classroom, on presented learning opportunities are at low levels.  Even with modern learning experiences implemented by teachers, such as digital real-time presentations, global interactions, in class- video creations and presentations and researched and collaborative peer driven projects, it is still a challenge to inspire and motivate students to want to learn.  The staggering wealth of alternatives that students’ attention can pursue as individuals is mind numbing.

Project-based science education is the solution to this vexing problem. To experience science in the classroom is to be given the opportunity to experiment and rationalize outcomes.  A desired learning opportunity presented by teachers encourages independent thinking and rewards critical thought.  Project-based models of learning provide this necessary wealth of scientific endeavor through collaboration, cooperation and measured experimental research leading to greater student engagement and understanding of important concepts and principles.

Cooperative and collaborative involvement with schools and peers across the planet, within academic digital platforms provided by iEARN (international educational and resource network), are essential resources that help build relationships from abroad, while providing real meaning to the work completed by students in the classroom.

Within this project-based learning environment, students focus upon relevant issues within their learned discipline.  Sharing experiences, ideas, completed work and plans of action create learning opportunities that are well suited to the development of the skills and abilities needed for success in the 21^st century.  Projects dealing with designing and constructing rockets, building wind turbines, designing green infrastructures for cities and advocating for regenerative agriculture are just some components in the mix of possibilities for projects in school.  Outcomes of these projects include prototype artifacts and detailed written accounts of learned experience. 

These projects make learning real for students.  It motivates them to want to learn more. Students can share what they have achieved with receptive peers worldwide. Students involved with this international cooperation and collaboration project will cherish this experience of creating and presenting new ideas and new ventures with students in other countries.

Climate change is the one big issue that can galvanize cross-disciplinary involvement helping to solve problems.  Tackling this issue requires the synthesis of conceptual understanding learned from physical science, life science and earth science.  This one big environmental issue transcends academic discipline and generations.  Each train of thought fostered by students from a multitude of science disciplines produces specific and unique solutions to this multifaceted problem.  Incorporating climate change into the science curriculum is now needed as a foundational emphasis in science education in America. It is the one issue that threatens human continued existence on Earth.  It is the one big issue needing a multitude of thought from massive numbers of people to grasp the meaning of staggering human engagement and then to act upon it!

The school year curriculum, scope and sequence, should frame the concern and issue of climate change for each area of scientific study. Each age group can apply their experience and abilities and bring it to the classroom to solve problems.  The ability to deliver the mechanics of problem solving using scientific inquiry and investigation is strengthened from this highly focused real-world and intrinsically collaborative way to learn in the 21^st century classroom.

The driving force in learning is dependent upon student motivation.  Tapping into the minds of students and their involvement with science education, in their lives, is the real challenge for educators today.  Couching learning environments around stimulating learning opportunities is the most important skill and ability that teachers can bring into the classrooms of schools.  This is why education is a vocation because the pursued cause is real and the outcomes sometimes seem marginal, but perseverance and resiliency are always constant.

 

 

 

 

 

EARTH DAY CELEBRATION AND SCREAMING DINOSAURS

It is that time of year where students at St. Thomas the Apostle School reflect and take account of our position on this planet as a species, just out of the 100,000-year-old caves, now finding ourselves on the brink of global upheavals.  Earth Day is a celebration of life on planet Earth.  It is a call to action for humanity to work to protect and preserve local ecosystems (air, water and soil) worldwide.

On Earth Day, students, K-8, advocate to all society the imperative to protect and preserve the existence of, as Carl Sagen once described our pale blue dot in the galactic cosmos.  A picture of Earthrise, taken by the crew on the Apollo 8 spacecraft, dramatizes our position on a beautiful lifeful planet. The sight of Earth hanging in the blackness of eternal space is an exclamation on this call to act.

Earth day brings to the forefront the need for action to help protect plant and animal species from extinction and to mitigate climate-changing upheavals that tax the ability of living organisms to survive.

Screaming dinosaurs is the metaphorical presentation of the consequence of inaction by humans and continued status quo with respect to climate change. Screaming dinosaurs were eliminated, as a species, on Earth due to dire environmental consequences caused by volcanic activity and an asteroid striking the planet.  Expressed in a student play production called Screaming Dinosaurs, is the impact of carbon dioxide emissions on Earth's ecosystem and the parallel outcome of Earth dominating species (dinosaurs and humans) being wracked by climate change.  The one and only difference expressed in this play is that humans have brought this wrath upon themselves. Dinosaurs had climate change served to them, and they had to deal with unstoppable consequences.  Humans, in our day and age, have a choice.

So, with advocation as the overriding theme of the day, on Earth Day students will proceed through a litany of activities and challenges designed to spark enthusiasm and to galvanize a sense of responsibility to help save our world. 

Technology, research and critical thinking are driving forces in learning environments, and it produces tremendous positive outcomes in children’s lives.  Success for this day is reflected in the upswell of laughter, participation and achievement in the many challenging staged events. The measures of success, expressed by students involved with Earth Day merit reasoned thought and collaborative efforts.

On Earth Day the sight of screaming and excited children taking on new challenges and enjoying the benefits of a life-fulling ecosystem is in sharp contrast to the remains of once screaming dying dinosaurs on a forsaken planet. On Earth Day we can both acknowledge what has been given to us and we can commit to help preserve this God-given gift of a life-giving planet for future generations of plants and animal species on Earth.

Pale blue dot:  Earth

from nearly the edge of the solar system (3.7 billion miles away from Earth)

Earthrise taken by Apollo 8 Astronauts as they circled the moon on Christmas day 1968.