STEM lessons – Page 2 – Clairbourn School News

January 13, 2020January 14, 2020

Empowering Middle School Math Students at Clairbourn

Clairbourn Middle School Math Teacher Rebecca Messler

Clairbourn School’s Middle School Math Teacher, Rebecca Messler, returned from winter break excited to share with her fellow teachers powerful ideas gleaned from the California Mathematics Council South Conference which she attended in mid-November of 2019.

This conference, offering hundreds of sessions and packed with several thousand math teachers, proved to be a power-house of great information! Messler attended eight sessions applicable to teaching middle school math. Highlights included presentations from two important thought-leaders in math education, Jo Boaler (a Stanford professor, research, and author) as well as Dan Myer (speaker, former teacher, and the chief academic officer of Desmos.com which, is Messler’s favorite math exploration and education support website).

At the Clairbourn staff development meeting in January, Messler chose to share with everyone the idea from the conference of incorporating “Rich Open-Ended Tasks” (ROET) into their teaching methods. She explained this simple concept can be easily implemented and produces stronger engagement and increased understanding of subject matter among students with differentiated learning styles.

November 13, 2019January 9, 2020

City of Hope Scientists and Current Clairbourn Parents Provide STEM Lessons to Third-Graders

Third-graders benefit from a hands-on science lesson provided by current Clairbourn parents Dr. Tijana Talisman and Dr. Ian Talisman.

Clairbourn’s community is unique among area schools because of our emphasis on parent involvement in the life of the school. Parent engagement can boost student success both academically and behaviorally, and according to the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL), “When schools, families, and community groups work together to support learning, children tend to do better in school, stay in school longer, and like school more.”

October 8, 2019January 9, 2020

Parachute Plunge – Clairbourn Preschool Teacher Skydives for Student STEM Lesson

Sayra Rubio, the preschool teacher at Clairbourn School, is willing to do whatever it takes to inspire her students! She recently completed her first skydive on Sunday, October 6, 2019, in order to give a first-hand account of the experience to her students and answer their questions about what it was like to descend to earth by parachute.

For over a month, preschoolers at Clairbourn have been involved in a STEM activity called “The Parachute Plunge” designed to teach the scientific principles that make parachutes work. Students learned about surface area, properties of materials, and air resistance/drag effect, all of which combine to work in opposition to gravity.

Parachute Plunge – Clairbourn Preschool Teacher Skydives for Student STEM Lesson
Sayra Rubio, the preschool teacher at Clairbourn School, is willing to do whatever it takes to inspire her students! She recently completed her first skydive on Sunday, October 6, 2019, in order to give a first-hand account of the experience to her students who are studying and building parachutes.

Clairbourn School’s preschool teacher Sayra Rubio took her first skydiving jump to inspire her students building parachutes for their STEM studies.