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Classroom Paleontology

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You too can bring real-life paleontology into your classroom. What's even better? Your students get to keep the fossils they find! In 2018 I met a local paleontologist in Charleston, SC. I immediately knew I wanted my students to be able to meet him. In the fall of 2019, we were able to welcome this paleontologist to campus where he fully immersed my students in local geologic history and paleontology for two days. It was great! We started planning for next year's visit while he was still on campus! And then COVID... His business closed and the plans for our school year were up in the air. I started to get worried that we wouldn't be able to hold this on-campus field trip in 2020. We started school in person and luckily, our school population stayed healthy! In this crazy school year, we were still able to bring a paleontologist to campus and allow my students to complete an immersive experience to help them be excited about science! We had lots of procedures in place and m
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Must-Have Classroom Items & Decorations

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Peek Inside My Classroom I love decorating my classroom. This room has been a process and changes throughout the year, but here is a list of some of my favorites and must-have items for the classroom! BRICK WALLPAPER - Red Brick Color: this was super easy to put up and completely changed the feel of the room! TRICERATOPS HEAD - This is just one of the MANY dinosaurs I have on display in my classroom, but it is definitely my favorite! It was very easy to hang up, there is one screw in the wall and it has stayed up for over a year now. LETTERBOARD - I couldn't find the exact one, but this links to one that is the same size and has the same letters! (yes I changed this the second I could get back into my classroom so I wouldn't forget😂) DRY ERASE CONTACT PAPER :  I LOVE THIS STUFF!  I covered my countertops and cabinets with dry-erase contact paper. The counters serve as an additional workspace for my students and I use the cabinets to draw diagrams, give instructions for station
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Create a Rover: Planet Research Project

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Create a Rover STEM Planet Research Project Okay, let's be honest here. I love my subject area, that's one of the many reasons I teach sixth-grade. However, I HATED the traditional planet research project. There is a reason for every project, every activity, and every lab and I understand that,  BUT  learning about our solar system should be so much more fun! That's when I created the rover component and it was such a hit with my students. They were so much more engaged and dedicated to this project.  When I first had the idea, it was very different from the final product, and I was sure to let my students know that. We discussed, at length, the difficulties that can arise when we create something from scratch. I loosely modeled our process after the LAUNCH Cycle. Read more about it here ! I read this book last summer and teaching the design process seemed less complicated and fun! PROJECT OVERVIEW:  Students will still complete the traditional planet research with an end g
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