Bay Area Wonders Volume 5!

This year's fifth-grade Bay Area Wonders anthology is published — read the digital book here! The illustrated essays, a poignant blend of memoir and natural history writing, are inspired by Aimee Nezhukumatathil's World of Wonders. Learn more about my wonder essay curriculum in this blog post. The curriculum fosters scientific curiosity, celebrates local biodiversity, and affirms student identities. Fellow educators, consider implementing this integrated project in your school.

826 Valencia Partnership

I am thrilled to have partnered with the San Francisco Mission chapter of 826 Valencia, a nonprofit organization supporting student writers in underserved communities. I adapted my wonder essay curriculum into a workshop series that I co-facilitated with 826 Program Manager Kendra Lappin this spring. All the student work was anthologized in a printed chapbook --read the digital book here! It was such a pleasure working with the student authors, and I look forward to future collaboration.

Illustrated Graphs

​For this project, 5th grade students analyze climate data sets. Then, they incorporate an actual graph line into an original watercolor depicting a specific impact of climate change they research. The data art was inspired by the work of science communicator/artist Jill Pelto. Enjoy the beautiful examples below— can you spot the line graphs?

I wrote a blog for NOAA called "Sci-Art Lesson Share: Illustrated Graphs" if you want to read some thoughts on the intersection of science and art.

Podcast Guest Appearance

Science Scope Article on Plankton

One of my aims as a teacher is to show students how art can be used in service of science communication. I had such a fun time talking to Chessie Craig as a guest on her Mutualisms podcast to discuss this intersection of art and science! Listen on the Apple podcast player or wherever you get your podcasts.

I have a featured article in Science Scope (January 2019, Oceans Issue) called "The Microscopic World of Plankton." Science Scope is the middle school journal of the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA). The article describes a series of activities for students to investigate plankton and better understand plankton's role in aquatic ecosystems. Students can engineer a plankton net out of household materials, observe plankton specimens with a microscope, and construct a visual model of an aquatic food web!
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Click here to read the article.
Click here for a Plankton Primer info sheet.
​Click here for the Plankton Activity Cards.