About

I’m a middle school science teacher in California, working in a suburban school. I want to get students fired up about science with fun, inquiry, issues, food, fun and project based learning. It’s serious fun though, not interested in just playing.

But how to balance student choice with classroom chaos? How to do meaningful projects and open-ended experimentation within a traditional, 45 minute period? And how to be flexible but not so flexible that I lose my mind? What will shake my cool 8th graders out of their urgent conversations into creative problem solving? About science issues, although hey, objectivity and a logical systematic approach to problems in their lives might be really effective too. I suppose that’s the  point – that they come away understanding how science is powerful in real life

This is a log of my imperfect attempts to balance the dilemmas and address the questions above.

The “Take Action Project” of the blog title is pbl curriculum I developed with help from my colleague Karen Snelson, my project-manager husband Kurt Sunderbruch, and my non-profit executive friend Anne McCarten Gibbs. It’s in it’s 4th year now, where students take informed and effective action on a science-related issue of their choice. This inquiry based project runs within a traditional school schedule, taking about 20 lessons spread over a semester. TAP supports content standards and teaches critical thinking and work-place skills.

The “Problems with Oil” Project is the follow-on from TAP, developed for 8th grade physical science students. It’s been logged for the implementation year. This year we are tweaking it and improving it.

Curriculum materials are available at the blog pages ____. Professional development options are also available to help with successful implementation.

Sue Boudreau