On Friday, I was so pleased to be able to return to one of my favorite days of the year, High-Interest Day at Brookfield Elementary School. This is a day where I have been able to bring the concepts of physics to k-5 graders. You may be asking yourself, "Elementary students doing physics?" YES! Not just experimenting, but understanding the concepts behind the physics of electricity and sound. This is a very special day I have had the opportunity to be involved in since 2017. So, how are we able to bring the concepts of electricity and sound traditionally taught to high school 11th and 12th graders to the elementary level? There are a few keys 1) make it a hands-on experience 2) remove the mathematical calculations and make it practical. In the past, I had the luck of bringing a handful of my physics students with me to guide the elementary students through the concepts that they had learned over the course of the year. But in my new role as a Teaching and Learning Speciali
My spring break is filled with little jobs I like to accomplish. One of those jobs is switching over the garage from winter to summer. See in Wisconsin, we truly have 4 seasons. Every year there is around a 100 degree difference between our coldest winter weather to our warmest summer weather. We get feet of snow in the winter and dew points above 70 in the summer. Every spring break, I am excited for the great garage switch over. The snowblower gets packed up and put in the back and the lawn mower gets pulled out an put in the front. The problem is though, the grass is never ready to be mowed over spring break and many times we haven’t seen the last of the snow for the year. This year we got several inches of snow shortly after the break so I had to undo my work just to get the snowblower out. Yet, I still find myself sticking to this yearly plan despite the fact that the weather doesn’t comply with my plan. A few years ago during a technology refresher for our school gradebo