Ma/Sc Consultant Donna Morgan in a Mask

I’ve been teaching a long time (30 years) and this is the weirdest and most challenging back to school I have ever faced! The best way for us to get through it will be to collaborate, share ideas and support each other as much as possible.

I’m devoting the next 4 weeks to giving as much 1:1 support to teachers as I can, and to prepare some documents that will help you prioritize your teaching. Look for these things under New Curriculum Support and Burnaby Shares tabs above in the coming weeks.  Elementary teachers might find the Curriculum Backgrounders quite helpful.  These four-pager documents lay out the essential curricular understandings, vocabulary and then resources that you can use to teach the topics and competencies. In addition, there are lists of the resources available at the DLRC for you to use.

Contact me: donna.morgan@burnabyschools.ca or 604-760-6157

Get Outside with Looper Moths

As soon as the smoke clears, at least! We know that being outside allows us to distance and lowers the chances of viral spread. So this year might be a good one to move some of your science (and other lessons) outdoors. A group of Burnaby teachers in our local branch of the Environmental Educators’ PSA (EEPSA) has put together a blog with plenty of tips and tricks for outdoor learning.

The looper moth invasion this month offers us an opportunity to do some inquiry outdoors. Take a look at the two species of looper moths below. Then set your kids outside with some questions:

Phantom Looper Moth

Brown Hemlock Looper Moth

-Which species is more common in areas around your school? (The article linked below has a hypothesis about this)

-How can you survey/count/track this?
-Does each species prefer a different habitat?

-Do you have Hemlock Trees near your school?

– Are the loopers in greater numbers near hemlocks?

-Why are the loopers in such high numbers this year?

-Do the moths have different resting places depending on the temperature/time of day/weather?

-What can I observe about the moths without harming them?
-How are moths different from butterflies?

Have students generate their own questions about the moth and see if they can answer them by careful observation and study. They can also draw the moths and write about them.

You can find some background here. You can also consider contacting entomologists at the Forest Service, SFU or UBC.

Sometimes science pretends it is “neutral” or “objective”, when in fact we know that science, like all institutions in our society, is subject to bias and systemic prejudice. What is our responsibility to become anti-racist science teachers? If we believe that all students deserve an equitable education, and that the pursuit of science will be at its best when everyone has an opportunity to become engaged, then we must shift our practices to look at how we can be anti-racist.

In our classrooms, it isn’t just good enough to be fair and equal. White educators need to actively let our Indigenous students, black students and students of colour know that we understand the world is systemically biased against them, and that we are working to change that. We also need to support and uplift our Indigenous, black and people of colour colleagues.

Fortunately, we currently have some excellent resources to support us in this challenge. STEM teaching tools is has an excellent resource on Social Justice in Science.  US Educator Daniel Morales Doyle has an detailed podcast on the topic, that includes a shared Chemistry lesson. Also the NSTA’s most recent edition of Science and Children focuses on equity, and most of the articles are free on line.

If you are continuing to work on developing depth to the Indigenous perspectives in your science teaching, Knowing Home: Braiding Indigenous Science and Western Science by  Gloria Snively and Wanosts’a7 Lorna Williams from UVic is an excellent resource.

Finally, if you want an example of how you can use studies as part of social justice and science, consider using this piece from Science Friday with your students: Research Shows Peaceful Protest Depends on Police Behaviour.

We will be back in person with students as of June 1, and lots of teachers may be looking to taking their students outside. In June we will not be allowed to do the traditional field trips, but we can take students out into the school yard and to neighbourhood sites.

Transmission of COVID-19 is less likely outdoors, especially if you follow physical distancing rules. Outdoor physical activity makes our immune system more robust, and allows children to move more, play longer and sit less. Under our back to school protocols, we will not be embarking on any official field trips, but you may continue to use school grounds and nearby parks. Check with your administration if you have proper permissions for walking field trips to nearby parks. Burnaby has a website that allows you to check on all closures and precautions in parks.

I’ve put together How To Get Outside Safely in the COVID 19 Era with some precautions about getting outside and a list of links. By May 25, I will be posting some lesson ideas for what you can do outside. Also, don’t forget that our local chapter of the Environmental Educators PSA has the B-Outside blog that gives tons of ideas for outdoor learning.

Starting June 1, I’d be happy to come with you on a first venture outside. E-mail me at donna.morgan@burnabyschools.ca