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To Parents and Colleagues

There has been a burst of energy for curating, creating, and distributing resources and opportunities to support learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with regularly scheduled programming. We’ve created a digest of what has come through Washington STEM’s inboxes during the past week. As remote learning continues, we will provide additional resource lists as we find them.

Please note that we work with a diverse set of partners, and these opportunities and events are not tailored to any particular audience or partner. Please review each opportunity to decide if it’s relevant to your needs.

— Cheers and be well!

Upcoming Programs and Webinars

Happening in April

4/14 School’s Out Washington: Quick Connections Webinars (every Tuesday)
When: Tuesdays at 2:00 pm PST
Where: Join them live on Zoom

School’s Out Washington’s Quick Connections are short, live, and recorded webinars to highlight specific resources, youth development strategies, and real-time stories from programs supporting youth, families, and communities in the time of COVID-19. All webinars will be recorded and available to watch anytime on the School’s Out Washington Vimeo Channel. Be sure to follow their Vimeo Channel to get all the great content!

 4/14 Washington Teachers of the Year on the State of Education during COVID-19

When: April 14, 3:30 pm PST
Where: Zoom Webinar

In this webinar, Washington state Teachers of the Year Amy Campbell (2020), Robert Hand (2019), Mandy Manning (2018, and the 2018 National Teacher of the Year), Camille Jones (2017), and Lyon Terry (2015) will share what they are hearing from students, parents, and colleagues in their community. They will offer insights on education during COVID-19 and answer your questions. Moderated by League of Education Voters Communications Director Arik Korman.

4/14 Solutions to Reduce Global Impacts: A Green Chemistry Workshop for Science Teachers

Who: Washington State Department of Ecology and Washington Science Teachers Association
What: A virtual workshop on bringing green chemistry into your classroom.
When: April 14, 2020 9:00 am-12:00 pm PST
Where: Zoom Meeting (currently wait-listed – check back for openings)
Cost: $5. Plus an optional $20 for 3 STEM clock hours.

Want to learn how to increase the sustainability of your high school lab and classroom while building your understanding of green chemistry? Ready to learn from a professional green chemist and classroom teacher? Need ways to earn your STEM clock hours? Just looking for some time to reflect on updates to your curriculum? Don’t miss this workshop!

Saskia Van Bergen and Johanna Brown will guide you through green replacement labs, lead demonstrations and have you work along at home. You’ll be given time to work the investigations into your own curriculum and be able to communicate with your peers.

4/15 Virtual Lunch and Learn: Ethnic Studies

When: April 15, 2020 12-1:30 pm
Where: Zoom Meeting

The Equity in Education Coalition, Racial Equity Team, and The Coalition of Immigrants, Refugees, and Communities of Color have organized monthly Lunch and Learns on topics that disproportionately impact children and families of color. This month we will be discussing Ethnic Studies. We will discuss the importance of ethnic studies in our curriculum, especially for students of color, and the benefits ethnic studies would serve all students.

This is an opportunity for community members from different fields and communities to come together to talk about a topic that affects so many of us. We hope you can join us and input/grow your knowledge on this controversial topic.

Please make sure to register prior to the event. This event is open to all, and we encourage you to attend!

Panelists include:Roger Rigor (Educator, Seattle Public Schools), Harium Martin-Morris (Member, Washington State Board of Education), Julieta Altamirano-Crosby (Commissioner on Hispanic Affairs), and Alexandra Manuel (Executive Director Professional Educator Standards Board-PESB).

Happening in May

5/4-5/8 Survive the Sound

Get ready to compete in this year’s salmon race! Survive the Sound is back for its 4^th year, delivering an engaging online experience with plenty of learning opportunities. This is NGSS-aligned for grades 3-5, but educators have adapted the activities for all grade levels. Pick a fish, join a team, and see whose team has the most surviving fish at the end of the 5 day migration (May 4-8). Each funny-looking fish avatar represents a real fish tracked as part of Long Live the Kings’ research to save salmon. Before the migration in April, you can explore the activities and videos with your students at SurvivetheSound.org/classroom. Will your fish survive the Sound? Also open to individuals and families regardless of classroom participation.

OTHER RESOURCES

Resources for Undocumented Communities / Recursos para Comunidades Indocumentadas 

This is a spreadsheet of nationwide resources for undocumented students and families curated by Betancourt Macias Family Scholarship Foundation. The list includes links to organizations, programs, and companies that offer support regardless of a person’s citizenship status.

Math 4 Love Math Conversations at Home and follow up “Ask how many ways?”

School is canceled, you barely leave the house, and you have a child you’re trying to help learn math. You’re going to be having more math conversations than you used to. Let’s talk about how to make them as joyful and productive as possible. See additional quick and effective resources from Math 4 Love at the top of this page, and subscribe for more!

With Schools Closed, Kids With Disabilities Are More Vulnerable Than Ever (5 min read)

As the vast majority of schools in the U.S. have transitioned from the classroom to the computer — teachers and administrators have struggled to offer learning to special needs students.

Phenomena for Next Generation Science Learning – Virtual Science Education Resources

In this difficult time facing COVID-19, lots of us (including parents now being asked to become teachers) are now required to make the shift to at-home, virtual, or online education methods. Because of this, we wanted to do our part to share some resources around bringing phenomena into our homes and local communities. While these materials are in early pilot stages, we hope that sharing these will help educators nationally who are working hard to create equitable opportunities for ALL students in science.

These are a mix of online and downloadable resources that help students investigate a problem or question — not standard worksheets! This is what the Next Generation Science Standards are all about. For educators trying to figure out ways to reach students with limited or no internet/tech access, these could be printed and mailed home.

League of Education Voters COVID-19 Resources Page

Find our state broken down into geographic zones. Find your zone and you will find an exhaustive list of food banks and other support for your local community, including district-by-district meals, internet/tech, childcare, and distance learning guidelines. Our staff is working double-time to grow this list with distance learning and other opportunities. Check back here frequently.

Staying Grounded when Teaching Remote

Staying Grounded when Teaching Remote is a webinar series to support educators to stay grounded in the best practices of science teaching and learning while they shift to remote learning during school closures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This series focuses on routines and elements of storyline instructional models that are central to OpenSciEd, inquiryHub Biology, and NextGen Storylines materials. These webinars are a collaborative effort of the University of Colorado, The Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas, and OpenSciEd.

We hope you can join us but we know that schedules may be chaotic. All sessions in the series will be recorded and the recordings, slides, and the guidance resources developed through the webinars will be shared here.

OSPI Guidance for Continuous Learning

To slow the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Washington state, Governor Jay Inslee announced on March 13 that all public and private K–12 school facilities in the state were to close through April 24. On April 6, he extended the directive through the remainder of the school year. Although school facilities are closed to traditional in-person instruction, education must continue. The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction’s (OSPI’s) guidance is grounded in compassion, communication, and common sense rather than the traditional compliance measures all are familiar with in the educational community. Our schools are the backbone of our democracy and structures, routines, and ongoing learning opportunities will create the calm connection our students and families need at this critical time in our state.