Link to my planning worksheet for my STEM Research Project

It is found here

Blog: Work/Work Balance

Going in to the spring for me is a bit terrifying. I have a ton on my plate normally, and grad school adds to that significantly. However, I realized this week after a particularly bad moment of panic that if I don't teach well this semester, what is the point of getting my degree in the first place? The funny part was that once I was accountable for grading and planning well, the rest of my work fell into place and made me feel so much better about life in general. I told my coworker about this on Friday, and we came up with the term "work-work balance" (as opposed to work-life balance). As much as we laughed about this, there was some significant truth to it. I need to find time during my day to do both my grad school and my planning and grading. I also realized that it is much more beneficial for me to get to school early (6ish) to get work done because by the end of the day I am too tired to do anything productive. I am glad that I have figured this out, but I am a bit disappointed that it took me this long to get there. The effects have been great. In just a week, I have a better rapport with my classes, they are more focused, and I feel that the students are better able to be challenged during the day to reach their full potential.

STEM Issues

During this week, we were assigned to research a random topic regarding issues in STEM. Of all of the topics, the one that interested me the most was community-based STEM projects. Recently in my classes, my students have been looking at concervation and global warming. Specifically, the students have been looking at the personal or  "grassroots" impacts that a decreasing biodiversity or climate change can have on one's life. Using community-based educational opportunities for my students in these scenarios would be incredibly useful to the area, and would build empathy with students and, ideally, their parents. I have found that there are still a number of students and their parents that push  back against a number of environmental issues. However, when I change question from "how does this impact the planet?" to "How would you feel if this was happening in your back yard?" the conversation shifts. To that end, if I were able to get kids and parents involved in ways that could build awareness that a lot of this stuff IS happening in their backyard, it could drive a number of points home. I also think the idea of using a combination of education and service could be so useful in countless ways that really speak for themselves. Students could address food deserts in neighborhoods by helping start community gardens or could clean up the wetlands down by Port Covington, which would build a sense of belonging and pride in their communities.