These are my thoughts about college counseling, science, and the environment.
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Good morning! Today I’m doing a little site maintenance, incorporating as many digital resources as possible into the various science pages on my website. The resources include simulations, videos, and activities created by other teachers and educational institutions. Instead of linking this blog post to a bunch of bookmarks I’ve saved over the years, I’ll…
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Good afternoon! Today I’ll share a few of the resources I use to teach the fundamentals of physics. One of the most fun aspects of teaching physics is that it lends itself to so many entertaining and engaging activities and demonstrations in class. Along with chemistry, physics is probably the most hands-on science I teach;…
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Good afternoon! I’m back with another set of bookmarks for students and teachers. Because I’ve taught the IB Environmental systems and societies course for several years, this set of online resources is closest to my heart. Some of these links are here simply because I think they’re cool or fun. Many may also be applicable…
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Hello again! As with my last post, this one is dedicated to sharing the random assortment of helpful bookmarks I’ve collected over the years. Like the first part of my bio resources, these are in no particular order, unless you consider where they fall in my browser’s drop-down menu some kind of order. Without further…
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Good morning! Over the past few weeks, I’ve been updating various pages within my website, and as I work, I keep encountering all these different websites and digital resources I’ve bookmarked over the years. My bookmarks bar is organized by broad scientific subjects: astronomy,biology, chemistry, ecology, and physics. I’ve also got a folder dedicated solely…
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Today is the second day of the 2016-2017 school year, and for the first time since early in George W. Bush’s administration, I’m not in a classroom. I have self-identified as a teacher for so long that I’m not entirely sure what to think of this situation. Part of me feels like I’m still on…
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I’ve been in Tanzania for 8 years, long enough to get a feel for the seasons here juse south of the equator. In most years I expect a few weeks of rain in October or November, wit’s a more substantial rainy season from February through late May or early June. 2016 has been a little different. The short rains…
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I’m back in Dar after another incredible week at the Emau Hill camp in Amani Nature Reserve, where I got to spend several days hiking in tropical forests, chasing chameleons and tree frogs at night, and exploring the tea estates surrounding the forest reserve. I owe a big thanks to Roy Hinde and his staff…
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We are rapidly approaching one of my favorite things about my job: the Extended Studies Program, or ESP. ESP is our school’s “week without walls,” when students and teachers leave the comforts of classrooms and campus and travel to different parts of Tanzania to learn about and experience the people and ecology in those locations.…
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Since I’m on paternity leave in Madrid and not sleeping for more than 90 minutes at a time, I’m going to take a break from the blog for a few weeks. I’ll return to MrKremerScience.com once my family is resettled in Dar and the second semester is underway. Take a genuine break from school: don’t study…
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Greetings from Madrid! I’m writing with some big news – my family got an early Christmas present when our son Aaron was born 7 weeks prematurely on Wednesday the 18th of November. I’ve attached a picture because that’s what all proud new parents do. Because he was so early, he can’t leave the intensive care unit…
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Well, the first few weeks of the school year are in the books, and if you’re anything like me, you’re a little overwhelmed by all the ‘stuff’ you need to know to survive modern schooling. I’m not talking about content knowledge. I mean the ‘how to’ of navigating the virtual side of 21st-century education. At…
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In my classes, I make extensive use of the collective genius of humanity hosted by YouTube. There are literally millions of creative, intelligent people producing astounding, beautiful, insightful, helpful content online FOR FREE! (To be fair, there are also millions of people producing crap, but that’s a subject for another post.) I subscribe to a…
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Welcome – or welcome back – to another exciting year of learning about science! After recharging my internal batteries on an extended safari with my dad and brother, followed by a couple of weeks in Italy with my children and my mom, I’m energized for the upcoming school year. It’s time to get started on what should…
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Good morning! It’s been a long time since I contributed anything to this blog apart from some tweet links, but I have good reason to return: My grade 10 students have finished the latest iteration of their Genius Hour projects. They chose between biology and physics and were given 20% of all lessons to work…
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In honor of International Women’s Day, I am focusing today’s lessons in grade 8 science on the many contributions of women to the field of astronomy. We start with an overview, courtesy of The Woman Astronomer, with stories of women from Hypatia of Alexandria and the “Harvard’s Computers” to Debra Fischer and Jill Tarter. Students will examine…
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Good afternoon. I just returned to Dar es Salaam from our school’s Extended Studies Program (ESP) – a “week without walls” – in Amani Nature Reserve of the East Usambara Mountains of Tanzania. The 8th-grade students who accompanied me got to experience one of my favorite parts of this country, a location rich with endemic…
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Good morning. Yesterday I posted a video made by one of my students about the sustainability of food resources because I thought it was a good example of what students can create when given creative latitude in the classroom. Then one of my fellow science teachers mentioned Tom McFadden, a science teacher who’s earned quite…
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My 8th grade classes developed independent projects focused on the role of plants in society, and I received a wide variety of products from them, from posters to presentations to animations. The one I’ve embedded below is a particularly solid example of the kind of work young people are capable of doing when given the…
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Good morning. During one of today’s lessons, I received an email from a student asking the question above. As a science teacher, I’ve encountered this question before, usually when we study evolution, but my response applies equally to other fields of science – not just biology. I think it’s important to remind students and families…
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