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If 2020 taught us anything, it's that remote teaching is difficult, regardless of which format you use. To do it well requires training, experience, mentoring, and ongoing coaching and support. The speed with which districts needed to pivot to remote models and the massive scale of this undertaking often did not allow for administrators or teachers to receive the supports necessary to make the adjustment easier. Yet, everyone stepped up and did the best they could with the knowledge and resources they had. All educators need to be commended for their efforts during this challenging time.

For the last eight years, I have been designing remote and hybrid learning models, training educators in how to engage learners in these formats, and most recently, supporting K-12 schools with their implementation of remote learning during the pandemic . I made many mistakes when I first started, but over time, my colleagues and I developed some effective and practical methods for online and hybrid learning that can make the process easier.

Managing Our Cognitive Load

Teaching is a cognitively demanding profession. Pandemic aside, we are constantly thinking about a wide variety of elements within a given lesson (content, pacing, students' needs, behaviors). Our working memory is constantly on overdrive.

Now, add all of the new technical elements that hybrid teaching requires and you'll notice that we actually crowd out the normal lesson considerations in order to make space to think about all the technology we need to manage.

Unfortunately, we can only hold onto so much information at any given time. A common reaction when there are too many new technical elements to manage is to revert to more didactic forms of instruction. However, when we simplify the technical aspects, we can focus more on the teaching and learning processes as the remote teaching becomes less overwhelming. In a lot of ways, supporting good online teaching is about reducing teachers' cognitive load.

For example, not everything needs to be digitized in remote learning. Often, having students work with pen and paper makes the work more accessible, easier to manage, and it certainly reduces the cognitive load for the students and teachers. The concern with having students work with pen and paper is that teachers can't monitor the work. However, there are some easy steps you can take to make observing students' work with pen and paper possible.

Hold Up Work:

When students need to share their work, they can simply hold their paper up to the camera so teachers and/or classmates can see their work. If the paper needs to be visible for longer than a few seconds, teachers or classmates can take a screenshot and share the image with the rest of the group via screen sharing.

If the students need to turn in their work, the screenshots can be uploaded and shared with the teacher. The simplicity of this process takes the pressure off teachers to create digital workspaces for every activity they do with students. Students will also welcome a familiar medium.

Work Mode:

There is an assumption that when we are video conferencing, we need to keep the cameras focused on our faces. However, when students are working on paper, I want to see their work and not their faces. Work mode is what I call the position we put our devices in so that the camera is capturing the work and not the students. If students are using laptops, they just angle their screens down. If they are using tablets, they can select the rear-facing camera and turn their device around. The students' focus while in work mode should be on the work they are doing on paper. If they need to see their screen, they can simply switch the angle to make their screens visible.

The benefit of work mode is that the teacher can see all the students' work in real time. One teacher I trained in this method told me that she can observe more students this way than she can when she's in the physical classroom because she doesn't have to walk around in order to see different students. They're all right in front of her on the same screen.

Both of these tricks reduce the reliance on technology, so students and teachers are not having to juggle different apps and learning management systems. If I want to see my students' strategies for multiplication, pen and paper will get me that information faster and easier than setting up a Jamboard to capture the same idea.

Simplifying Hybrid Learning

One of the challenges with hybrid models is that there is such a steep learning curve with the technology, logistics, and facilitation. The problem is that teachers are often tossed right into that environment and they have to figure out everything at once. What follows is a progression of ideas that will help educators get started with hybrid teaching in a way that preserves their mental energy.

Stage 1 - Start Small

Hybrid learning classrooms do not need to be decked out like television studios with multiple cameras and microphones. In fact, you can run a successful hybrid classroom with just a laptop. If you begin with just the basic aspects of a hybrid learning classroom, you can get a grasp of the mechanics and essential elements. Consider the following basic setup from a training I recently conducted for high school teachers who were setting up hybrid basic spaces using just a laptop:

1. Position your laptop in front of the screen where online students will be displayed so that it replicates making eye contact whenever you look at your online students on the screen.

2. Decide on your main teaching spot and ensure you are visible to both online and in-person students. It's helpful to make sure you can easily see both groups of students as well.

3. Conduct a quick sound check by having a colleague join your video conference and make sure you can be heard clearly. If necessary, move closer to your laptop.

4. Once you have identified your ideal teaching spot, figure out how far you can move in all directions while still being on camera. Then mark the floor using tape (I recommend blue painter's tape, which is easy to clean up) to identify the boundaries.

This setup is inexpensive and won't break school budgets. Additionally, it allows teachers to run the video conference off their laptops just as they did while teaching fully remote classes, which frees up mental energy to focus more on teaching and learning.

Stage 2 - Add a Second Teaching Spot

Once teachers are comfortable with the basic model, they can begin to think about having another spot in the classroom where they can teach. This provides more mobility and another view of the classroom for the online students. After the second area is marked with tape, it is easy for teachers to move between both spots.

To make turning your laptop smoother, buy an inexpensive plastic Lazy Susan base and place it beneath your laptop. You can the turn your laptop smoothly and easily to capture other parts of the room.

Stage 3 - Add a Secondary Device

As teachers become comfortable teaching with one device and in other areas of the classroom, they can consider adding a secondary device such as an iPad or smartphone to have another camera as part of their system. To do this, you simply join your video conference with your secondary device. Do not connect the audio or you will create a feedback loop.

Having a smartphone or tablet as a secondary camera will give teachers greater flexibility and provide more access to the classroom for the online students. For example, if a biology teacher is conducting a lab where students are dissecting frogs, it is not possible for the online students do the actual dissection from home. However, if the iPad is positioned to capture a student's desk in the classroom, the student in class can be a lab partner for the students that are attending class online. That way, the online students can interact, ask questions, offer suggestions, and participate more in the process. Position the device in the area of the room that you want to capture, and when you are ready to teach from that part of the room, spotlight your secondary device so all students online see that camera instead of the one from your laptop.

You can also use the secondary device as a document camera. If you have a tripod, you can angle your device downwards to capture an area on a desk where you would place documents. If you don't have a tripod, you can use a milk crate positioned on its side. You can then place anything you want to display inside the crate.

Final Considerations

It is important to note that while a basic setup for hybrid learning takes some pressure off teachers, it also will not produce the best quality audio and video for students. In my view, the most important thing teachers can do is provide rich and meaningful instructional experiences for their students. I'll take an engaging lesson that's streaming from the teacher's laptop over a boring lecture in high definition any day.

Any additional equipment (microphones, cameras, secondary devices, etc.) are simply extensions of this basic model I described above and serve to make the audio and video better for the online students. Some of these upgrades do not overly complicate the management of hybrid learning. For example, if a teacher had an omnidirectional conference room microphone attached to their laptop, they could have the added flexibility of being able to teach further away from their laptop, but the rest of the setup is basically the same. Other upgrades have a steeper learning curve, like using a webcam that you pre-program to point to different parts of the classroom. In order to effectively use the equipment, teachers would have to learn how to program the equipment and operate it during lessons.

My overarching advice when it comes to supporting hybrid learning is to consider the needs of each individual teacher and have flexible plans that allow for some to ease into the technology and others to have access to tools and resources that will help them implement more advanced hybrid learning strategies. At the end of the day, engaging online lessons still come down to the learning experiences that teachers design. Remember, technology doesn't engage students. Teachers do.

All images and figures in the text of this post are courtesy of the author.

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If 2020 taught us anything, it's that remote teaching is difficult, regardless of which format you use. To do it well requires training, experience, mentoring, and ongoing coaching and support. The speed with which districts needed to pivot to remote models and the massive scale of this undertaking often did not allow for administrators or teachers to receive the supports necessary to make the adjustment easier.

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Choose humor in books, movies, podcasts!

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You Asked: Does Laughing Have Real Health Benefits?

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Laughter is great for you, and it may even compare to a proper diet and exercise when it comes to keeping you healthy and disease free.

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As adults and older teens are receiving COVID-19 vaccinations, opportunities to travel and socialize (possibly indoors!) are expanding. But the toll the pandemic has taken on our collective mental health won't simply disappear after a shot (or two) of vaccine, experts say, and may affect how you feel about resuming "normal" activities or being in proximity to other people-even if you're simultaneously impatient to get back out there.

"We've essentially been in training for a phobia," says David Spiegel, associate chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford School of Medicine and director of the Stanford Center on Stress and Health. Spending a year away from people and places for fear of contracting a deadly disease, he says, is like a how-to manual for acquiring an extreme fear. "When people start avoiding something, they then associate it as something dangerous or stressful. And the more they avoid it, the more anxious they get about it." Some of us have been more isolated than others, but as ordinary activities resume, any number of us may find ourselves feeling uncomfortable. "It's not entirely irrational by any means, but we now associate going outside, eating in a restaurant or getting on an airplane with danger."

'We can expect that people will remain anxious in a hypervigilant way for quite some time.'

We've also become more attuned to the threat of infection, says psychologist Emma Seppälä, PhD '09, science director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, who compares our resulting hypervigilance-trying not to touch the gas pump handle or cringing at the sound of a cough-to the way former service members remain on high alert after they've left the military, even in the absence of trauma. "I know many veterans who still locate exits whenever they enter a building or are keen observers of their environments for signs of danger. We can expect that people will remain anxious in a hypervigilant way for quite some time."

Which is why, even as you feel relieved and excited to socialize, you may also hesitate to be in groups or struggle to determine what's safe. Here are four tips from Stanford psychologists for easing reentry anxiety and bolstering your mental health.

Take it slow.

Treatment for phobias usually involves carefully programmed exposures, says Spiegel, so that you accumulate positive experiences with or around the source of anxiety. Even if your symptoms don't meet the clinical definition of a phobia, gradual reentry isn't a bad idea.

"I just advise people to recognize that we've suffered huge changes and reverses in our lives. Even as things get better, it's going to take a while [to get] back into something that's more of a semblance of normal life," says Spiegel. "Slide back into it in ways that are consistent with good health care and public health measures, and to the extent that you're able, take it at a pace that you're reasonably comfortable with. And don't expect to be completely comfortable, because you can't be."

Gradual transitions, like schools returning in a hybrid model (some days of in-person learning, other days remote), may feel easier since they allow kids-and adults-to dip a toe into the water rather than taking a plunge. But regardless of whether the pace of reentry is up to you, says Spiegel, remember that "more worry does not equal more safety."

Embrace the gray.

Safety protocols are relaxing, but you may find your brain is not. How long will the vaccines protect against infection? How well will they work against emerging variants? Is it safe to have a family reunion before all the kids have been vaccinated? Too often, the answer is we still don't know.

Not knowing doesn't sit well with most people, says Sarah Adler, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, because our brains are hardwired to want information when we're under stress. "When we're hyperaroused, we're in prime learning mode. That's actually how memory works-that's how we learn not to step in front of cars or to not do dangerous things."

When you're facing a threat, says Adler, your brain forces you to think in black and white. "That's what our fear instinct is for," she says. "It's to push us in one direction or another." This works great for urgent decision-making (such as what to do when you're in the path of oncoming traffic), but it's less helpful when you're trying to decide whether it's safe to go to trivia night. "When we're under stress, it forces us into those binaries instead of allowing us to really sit in the gray and make decisions based on the actual probability or the actual data, or think through what is the risk and can we mitigate that risk in a balanced way, rather than just making all-or-nothing decisions."

So when you're lying awake at 2 a.m. thinking about whether it's safe to go to that barbecue (Which should be outside, right? But people will take masks off to eat. And is your bestie vaccinated yet? Because she is definitely going to hug you-gah!), go easy on your poor brain. It's trying to gather data. When there are lots of unknowns, simply telling yourself that there's no more information to be had can reduce the amount of anxiety you're feeling, says Adler. "And, yes, it will come back when the next threat perception appears, but sitting in that gray area can help reduce the effects of that constant physiological arousal." Which may allow you to embrace-or at least tolerate-the space between safe and unsafe, and come up with a plan that works for you.

Keep Zooming, too.

Meeting with people remotely does help. "Is it exactly the same neurochemically as being in the room together? Definitely not," says Adler. "But it isn't nothing."

People who feel connected to others have lower rates of anxiety and depression, higher self-esteem and many other markers of mental health, says Adler. There's no objective clinical definition or threshold in the research for what counts as connection, she says-if you feel it, it counts. "It's actually your subjective sense of feeling connected to others rather than any sort of reality of being connected to others. If you've ever felt really lonely in a crowd or a group of your friends, you [know that you] can feel disconnected or connected regardless of how many people are actually around you." So even as you start seeing some loved ones in person, remember that you can still keep up those virtual check-ins with the rest of your crew.

Practice gratitude.

Three times more positive things than negative things happen to us every day, says Seppälä. But our well-documented negativity bias means we focus more on the bad stuff. And in a year filled with trauma and loss, who can blame us? Still, it can help to simply notice when your perspective is negative, she says. Then try to take note of a positive thing.

In many ways, says Seppälä, the pandemic year has set us up for a greater experience of gratitude. "We are going to avoid taking our loved ones and friends for granted when we see them. We will appreciate them more." And each new freedom we gain as restrictions ease, she says, "will make us much more appreciative of things we formerly took as a given."

Charity Ferreira is a contributing editor for Stanford. Email her at stanford.magazine@stanford.edu.

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As adults and older teens are receiving COVID-19 vaccinations, opportunities to travel and socialize (possibly indoors!) are expanding. But the toll the pandemic has taken on our collective mental health won't simply disappear after a shot (or two) of vaccine, experts say, and may affect how you feel about resuming "normal" activities or being in proximity to other people-even if you're simultaneously impatient to get back out there.

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Warning: this is a DENSE resource!

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To display during class conversations

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Self-Assessment and Planning Too

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Welcome! In light of the COVID 19 pandemic and school closures, we have worked with our partnering districts to create and curate distance learning resources for students.

The following resources were developed by district science TOSA teams and the Portland Metro STEM Partnership (PMSP) Physics, Chemistry, and Biology Councils. These Councils represent curriculum development leads and master HS teachers from Beaverton, Hillsboro, and Portland Public. Thank you, district science leaders and PMSP Content Council leaders, for developing this set of distance learning resources for high school students!

Background: The Patterns High School Science Sequence is a three-year course pathway and curriculum aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The sequence consists of freshman physics, sophomore chemistry, and junior biology courses.
Looking for the in-person materials to use during hybrid teaching?

NGSS alignment information for each unit can be found on the first page of the virtual resource google documents.

Student materials are available to the public. Teacher materials, such as answer keys, require permission and verification that you are an educator to maintain security for the answer keys.

Students may use either the virtual resource or the print resource. There is no need for students to access both.

Timeline - We will update the pdxstem.org website as resources in development become available.

Print Resources - A 20-page (10 sheet) packet will be produced for each unit. Numerous Portland Metro STEM partner districts plan to print these resources and distribute them via nutrition centers during the school closure.

Click Here

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HS Science Distance Learning Resources - Portland Metro STEM Partnership

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Welcome! In light of the COVID 19 pandemic and school closures, we have worked with our partnering districts to create and curate distance learning resources for students. The following resources were developed by district science TOSA teams and the Portland Metro STEM Partnership (PMSP) Physics, Chemistry, and Biology Councils.

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Oregon’s regional STEM Hubs are coming together to bring engaging, hands-on science and engineering learning ideas to educators across the state!

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Oregon's regional STEM Hubs are coming together to bring engaging, hands-on science and engineering learning ideas to educators across the state! Hands on science can be challenging to do during distance learning, these bites are designed to help. Each "Bite" can be done at home, in a classroom, or in a program space. Bites primarily use simple materials that families already have or can readily acquire; we know how hard it can be to get specialized materials to students.

The STEM Bites are organized by grade band (K-2, 3-4, and 5-6). The collection includes explorations of our environment, engineering challenges, science investigations, observations and more! We will add new Bites to the website monthly throughout 2021.

Try one Bite with your learners, or try them all!

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Welcome to STEM Bites! Oregon's regional STEM Hubs are coming together to bring engaging, hands-on science and engineering learning ideas to educators across the state! Hands on science can be challenging to do during distance learning, these bites are designed to help. Each "Bite" can be done

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A/B Partners Protocol for Critical Thinking

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A/B Partners Protocol for Critical Thinking

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Science Lessons that Tap into Student Curiosity About COVID-10

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Science Lessons that Tap into Student Curiosity About COVID-10

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Some students aren't just wearing masks to class; they're experimenting on them.

Inspired by the daily use of masks during the pandemic, fifth-grade students at New Albany Intermediate School in Ohio set out to measure the effectiveness of different mask types and brands by their ability to prevent droplet transmission. Using black lights, food coloring, and a range of mask brands, students learned how aerosol particles travel, how masks work to mitigate transmission, and how different types of masks offer varying levels of protection, says teacher Pete Barnes.

Barnes's students aren't the only ones using the pandemic as a teachable moment-educators all around the country have been developing lesson plans to help students make sense of the unprecedented time in history and take appropriate precautions to protect themselves, even as students increasingly return to in-person schooling.

"Kids think and talk about the pandemic all of the time, so it's important they get accurate information based in science," says Barnes. "When they research [the pandemic] on their own and perform experiments, they have deeper levels of understanding and ownership over topics that otherwise just seem scary and unpleasant."

Though educators may be worried about inundating students with doom and gloom, weaving real-world context into lessons, especially during challenging times, can make students feel that their learning has more purpose and relevance. Additionally, having children explore their fears and unanswered questions can help them cope with feelings of uncertainty and instability, common during the pandemic, say psychologists. Just be careful not to dismiss or minimize their concerns outright, and give students the opportunity to opt out or choose other activities if learning about the pandemic is too much to bear.

"It's not helpful to remove all mention of current events from the classroom, and... it's also not helpful to spend all day, every day, engaging in heavy conversations," writes Alex Shevrin Venet, a trauma-informed expert. "The key here is balance."

The Science of Protecting Yourself

Mask testing: Before they launched into their experiments, Barnes says, students had their own opinions-and preferences-on masks but were curious about testing out what they'd heard from adults outside of class.

In one experiment, students put green food coloring in their mouths, exercised for two minutes while wearing masks, and then used a black light to spot how much food coloring transferred to the outside of their masks. This helped students understand how germs penetrate their masks and determine which cloth mask would be best for exercising.

Another group of students tested three different mask types (N95, surgical, and cloth masks) by spraying colored water on the inside of the mask. They found that the N95 mask was most effective at stopping the water from going to the outside; surgical masks ranked second, and cloth masks were third. In doing so, students "fulfilled standards related to scientific inquiry, data collection, forming hypotheses, and drawing conclusions," says Barnes.

Wash your hands: Stephanie Kearney's students happened to be knee-deep in a science unit on microbes when the pandemic hit last year. To investigate infectious diseases, they attempted to diagnose a fictitious patient based on symptoms, says Kearney, who teaches seventh-grade students at Penn Alexander School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her students added COVID-19 as a potential cause of illness but ultimately determined that their patient had the common cold.

The project ended with students collecting data from scientific journals about the effect of hand hygiene on infectious disease risk, which they then used to determine the best method of handwashing. They shared what they learned in public service announcements (PSAs), which were posted around the school buildings. While the activity was originally planned for in-person instruction, students were still able to collaborate with their peers from a distance using digital tools like Jamboard, says Kearney.

Social distancing: As states reopen schools for in-person learning, teachers and students are gearing up for ways to safely return to the classroom. Second-grade teacher Melissa Collins of John P. Freeman Optional School in Memphis, Tennessee, says her students are working on a project called "Flatten the Curve." After hearing a doctor present information on social distancing, students were tasked with thinking about ways to socialize with their friends safely, like using FaceTime or having air hugs. To show what they learned, they could make a skit, write a poem, or create a prototype.

Nanobots and Gizmos

Attacking the virus: At Coppell Middle School East in Texas, science teacher Jodie Deinhammer developed an engineering activity called "COVID Nanobots," where her seventh-grade students designed a nanobot, or a microscopic robot, that mimicked a human cell but was able to attack and kill the coronavirus. Students familiarized themselves with COVID facts, considered which cell organelles their virus-buster would use to imitate real cell behavior, and sketched out a rough prototype of the nanobot on their iPads. In developing their nanobot concept, students answered questions such as "How does the nanobot get energy?" and "Is the nanobot cell more similar to a plant, an animal, or a bacteria cell?"

How viruses spread: Jennifer Sweaks, a biology teacher at Allen High School in Texas, developed a multitiered lesson plan that reflected the progression of the pandemic. In the early weeks of the module, Sweaks's students learned about epidemiology by doing research on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) websites.

In addition, they completed an interactive simulation called Gizmo (this lesson was free, with an account), focused on disease spread, and explored the transmission and treatment of HIV using research studies by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. To incorporate multimedia, Sweaks created lesson plans on TEDEd that showcased how viruses jump from animals to humans and how funding for virus monitoring programs-and the lack thereof-have impacted global efforts on curbing emerging diseases.

Putting it into perspective: In a module designed by Heather Milo, instructional specialist with the Institute for School Partnership at Washington University in St. Louis, and middle school science teacher Mary Bueckendorf of Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls in St. Louis, Missouri, students shared their own experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic and the questions they had about the virus. Students then embarked on a quest to find out about pandemics of the past, how the coronavirus spreads, and how the spread can be contained. They also critically evaluated media and public health information about the virus and used social media to amplify preventive measures to reduce transmission.

The lesson has since been shared with local teachers in the entire St. Louis region, and one district even added a virtual field trip to the module where students watched a COVID test being performed in real life while having the opportunity to pose questions to the chief operating officer of the St. Louis County Department of Health.

The Antidote to Misinformation

Combating misinformation: Stephanie Toro, a former teacher and now an assistant professor at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, has been teaching her students how to read and interpret data with a focus on the misinterpretation of science around COVID-19. Her students analyzed both popular articles and more scientific articles from magazines like Scientific American, using a guide that helped them determine how scientific the articles were.

Toro asked students to examine the data presented in the articles separately, arrive at a conclusion themselves, and then compare with the narrative in the article. Having designed this lesson years ago, Toro has modified the selection of articles to make it appropriate for middle school and high school, and to fit whatever topic is timely-in this case, COVID-19.

Effective vs. ineffective treatment: In later modules of Sweaks's multilesson plan, students explored the research on hydroxychloroquine, a medicine used to treat malaria and autoimmune disorders, which was briefly touted as a possible drug to prevent and treat COVID-19. Students read the results of controlled studies on the medicine in a TEDEd that Sweaks created that included a video about a couple who drank fish tank cleaner, believing it could prevent the coronavirus. To round out the module, Sweaks included a lesson on ecology that emphasized how protecting wildlife habitats could help prevent the next pandemic.

Vaccines and the future: Biology teacher Oshen Wallin teamed up with her coworker Leslie Schoof at Madison High School in Marshall, North Carolina, to help students conduct research about COVID-19 based on the questions they had about the virus, including what the vaccine trials entail and how the different COVID-19 vaccines work. Through the project, they learned how to conduct proper research and identify and analyze reputable, unbiased sources.

Working with school nurses and the county library system, students at Madison High then summarized what they learned and developed a website to display their information. The students even went on to present their research to the school superintendent, and they have plans to present to the school's administration.

"The goal is to distribute their research to the community and beyond in hopes to inform others about COVID-19 with reputable information and possibly help save lives," adds Wallin.

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Science Lessons That Tap Into Student Curiosity About COVID-19

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Some students aren't just wearing masks to class; they're experimenting on them. Inspired by the daily use of masks during the pandemic, fifth-grade students at New Albany Intermediate School in Ohio set out to measure the effectiveness of different mask types and brands by their ability to prevent droplet transmission.

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How to Plan for Hybrid Teaching and Learning

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How to Plan for Hybrid Teaching and Learning

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How to Plan for Hybrid Teaching and Learning | Common Sense Education

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Learn 6 key considerations for a blended model of in-person and remote instruction.

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4 Questions Designed to Make Hybrid Science Classes More Equitable

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4 Questions Designed to Make Hybrid Science Classes More Equitable

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Online and in-person students can still learn the basic concepts behind lab experiments with the right supports

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Online and in-person students can still learn the basic concepts behind lab experiments with the right supports.

As the Covid-19 pandemic descended upon the globe this past spring and moved our classrooms into online spaces, teachers of all subjects had to quickly redesign instructional delivery and assessment of student work. This challenge, coupled with the various ways school has been structured for pandemic teaching-fully remote, fully in person, or a hybrid system-has forced teachers to continually innovate and devise ways to make sure students have meaningful experiences that still allow them to engage in a learning process that sparks wonder.

Science teachers have challenges here, such as courses that require students to interact with content in a hands-on manner-think visual arts, music, or culinary arts. Like fine arts courses, science classes do involve a performative element in that lab work requires students to demonstrate some degree of skill mastery tied to content.

Bringing the Science Lab Home

For science teachers, whose classes typically include discovery learning, collaborative work, and lab investigations, the challenge became how do we replicate this in a home environment? We also had to find ways to ensure that what we were crafting for our students to do was equitable for everyone-we wanted to minimize the inequity that comes with teaching in a hybrid system such as ours as much as possible.

As I worked with my team at the beginning of the school year to tackle these problems, we asked ourselves the following four questions.

1. What is the goal of the task we want students to complete? When designing learning for students, regardless of where they are doing the learning, it's critically important that expectations for learning be clear and concise. For us, this means aligning our instruction to the AP Biology learning objectives. Because our live instruction time with our remote learners is highly limited, we found that we had to be quite lean in designing the work we did with students and that the learning objectives helped us to focus specifically on what it was we needed our students to know.

Additionally, making sure that the instructions for the task are clear is also important. Students learning at home may have an adult helping them, so the clarity in your expectations needs to be impeccable to allow that adult helper to understand what the student is being asked to do as well. We accomplish this by having clearly stated directions, reviewing these directions with students in Zoom calls, and fielding questions about the directions during synchronous learning times as well as afterward via email.

2. What are the skills that students will need to master to complete this task? When we discovered that our time with students would be limited to 45 minutes of synchronous instruction, not only did we have to design instruction to be lean, but also we had to shift the focus from content delivery to skill introduction and reinforcement. The content we teach our students can be easily googled, but what students do with that content is more important. That's where we as instructional guides get to shine-showing students how they can use the content to demonstrate mastery of a skill.

For example, my students are assigned brief content-heavy videos to watch as class prep. Then, while we are learning together, I show them through bellwork exercises, which are completed during the first five to 10 minutes of class, how to use that content to solve problems and to support claims about data and other evidence gathered from observation, and how to use the science they know to justify what they've observed. We spend a lot of time doing this as practice work so that students build their confidence and ability before being assessed on something more meaty.

3. How will students accomplish the task? Like nearly all other teachers, my team and I had to invest a great deal of time retooling the activities and labs that we normally do with students. Because nearly 80 percent of our students selected remote learning, we also had to create experiences that were as equitable as possible while preserving the essence of what we wanted students to learn. We accomplished this in two main ways:

1. Most of our lab experiences were delivered through Pivot Interactives and various online simulations. Because students were assessed on science practices and not physical execution of the lab itself, we have found these two solutions to be successful for us so far in terms of skill reinforcement and assessment.

2. For the wet lab we did this past semester, we assembled at-home lab kits for our remote learners to pick up from campus. We utilized alternative assignments for those students who either did not come to pick up the kits or elected not to, due to their families' sheltering in place. In-person learners completed the lab in class, utilizing social distancing protocols. Both groups of students still learned the same basic concept underpinning the lab-interrupting signal transduction in cells-and still had the opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the science practices being assessed.

4. How can the task be assessed to measure learning? What assessment of student learning looks like now compared with last fall is quite different. As a team, my colleagues and I have tried to devise assessments that focus on mastery of skills with content as the vehicle. We chose this route because our course has a high-stakes test at the end of it-the AP exam. We had to think about how the assessments we designed for students would measure learning but also look like what they would see in May when sitting for the AP exam.

While the method of assessment has varied-student-designed lab investigations done at home, Flipgrid video submissions, Google Slides presentations, and model constructions with reflective writing-the underlying goal has remained the same: assess the skills that students must master to demonstrate learning in our content area.

To make science learning accessible for remote learners, engaging in intentional planning with a lens focused on equity and skill development is key.

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4 Questions Designed to Make Hybrid Science Classes More Equitable

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Online and in-person students can still learn the basic concepts behind lab experiments with the right supports. As the Covid-19 pandemic descended upon the globe this past spring and moved our classrooms into online spaces, teachers of all subjects had to quickly redesign instructional delivery and assessment of student work.

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Free lessons and materials

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The Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation provides free curriculum, resources and training to K-12 educators. The program promotes using agriculture to teach science, math, history, nutrition and other subjects across existing curriculum. We are currently offering a variety of online resources to meet distance learning needs. Follow the link below to the e-learning lab!

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The Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation provides free curriculum, resources and training to K-12 educators. The program promotes using agriculture to teach science, math, history, nutrition and other subjects across existing curriculum. We are currently offering a variety of online resources to meet distance learning needs.

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May 8 - 16

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Welcome to the 7th annual STEM Week Oregon, a state-wide movement to raise awareness, celebrate and engage in activities involving Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. This year, we are thrilled to partner with ReMake Learning Days Across America for the first time!
STEM Week Oregon 2021: Design, Invent, Inspire!

Celebrate ​STEAM and community learning with all Oregonians! Daily prize winners will be drawn for registrations, and featured STE(A)M Activities will be highlighted on STEMOregon.org.
Oregon STEM hubs have partnered with national leader ReMake Learning Days Across America to supercharge STEM Week Oregon 2021! ReMake Learning Days brings national partners such as Common Sense Media, PBS Kids, Noggin, Learning Heroes and 16 regions together to create the world's largest hands-on learning festival for youth and families across America. The festival celebrates in and out-of-school educators for the work they do with students pre-K through 12th grade.

We are kicking off the 7th annual STEM Week Oregon early this year with our first ever Kick Off Event! During this one hour virtual event participants will be introduced to innovative and exciting ways to remake and reimagine learning through STEM. Participants will hear from Talent City Maker's program director, Allison French, and have the opportunity to participate in small group conversations focused around this year's STEM Week. We are excited to kick off STEM week early this year and introduce our first micro-grants that are available to STEM Week event hosts through our exciting new partnership with Remake Learning Days Across America.
We are excited to announce micro-grants up to $250 for event hosts to help reach underserved youth and families. Please click button below to register and apply! Join us for a new theme each day! Make-It Monday Take Apart Tuesday What Are You Wondering Wednesday? Think About It Thursday Field Trip Friday Sounds and Shadows Saturday Soaring Sunday Click on each day for suggested Challenges, Activities, and Virtual Career Exploration and Field Trips. Register for each day you participate in! Printable PDFs Available in English Click Here Printable PDFs Available in Spanish Click Here TEACHERS: Click here for the Daily Challenges converted to SeeSaw format! More STE(A)M activities of all kinds? Go Here
Want to see the whole week's challenges?

Oregon STEM Week traditionally celebrates all things STEM, plugged and unplugged, but this year we encourage you to think outside the box of STEM-as-tech and engage in all the ways STE(A)M impacts your world- observing nature, exploring the physics of balls and Frisbees and birds, getting your hands dirty in the garden or discovering the science of food in your kitchen.
Represent your city, school, organization!
All you need to do to participate is sign up! Let us know what you are doing: with your family, your class, your neighborhood. Participate in daily themed challenges and submit photos and videos of your work to our Celebrate STE(A)M Gallery, or do your own thing and tell us about it! STE(A)M is all around us- explore it! All entries are eligible to win prizes! More activities = more chances to win!

Registered activities will appear on the map daily. All events are virtual and the pins on the map represent the school or organization hosting the STEM Week events only (please do not show up at the physical address!)

Note: Map automatically updates every five hours.

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STEM Week Oregon, May 8th - May 16th, 2021

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Welcome to the 7th annual STEM Week Oregon, a state-wide movement to raise awareness, celebrate and engage in activities involving Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. This year, we are thrilled to partner with ReMake Learning Days Across America for the first time! STEM Week Oregon 2021: Design, Invent, Inspire!