by Brian | Nov 14, 2025 | Change, Cooperative Learning, Education, Making, Messy Learning
The “Test and Punish” era of education mainstreamed by the “No Child Left Behind Act” of 2002 is ongoing, but because of initiatives like STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) room has been made for some important curriculum pieces to return. Ironically we...
by Brian | Oct 28, 2021 | Education, Making, Messy Learning, Project Based, STEAM, STEM, Student Access, Teacher Access, Technology
During my classroom experience with “hands-on” project/problem based learning I would often hear from colleagues, “The product is not as important as the process.” I think there is truth to that, but during my years of observing / facilitating numerous projects I...
by Brian | Oct 21, 2021 | Blogging, Brian Crosby, Education, Messy Learning
June 24, 2020, that is the last time I posted here. Well over a year ago! That was not the plan. That date happens to coincide with the fact that after 32 years as a classroom teacher (mostly upper elementary and middle school grades) and 8 years as the “STEM Learning...
by Brian | Jun 24, 2020 | Uncategorized
Pyramid Lake, Nevada on the right, Lake Tahoe in upper left from about 27,000 meters (90,000 feet). Note the thin blue line of Earth’s atmosphere and the dark of space above. Despite weather and other conditions that delayed the 2020 launch of the High Hopes...
by Brian | Jun 3, 2020 | Blogging, Brian Crosby, Education, Project Based, Student Access, Teacher Access, Technology
Last week James Kapptie, a middle and high school tech trainer in Wyoming, contacted me about having a conversation on his blog about connecting students during this time. He posted the conversation we collaborated on through a Google Doc on his blog Our Children Are...
by Brian | Jun 3, 2020 | Cooperative Learning, High altitude ballooning, High Hopes Project, Messy Learning, NASA, STEAM, STEM, Student Access, Teacher Access, Technology
Find out more about this project here. Our launch has been delayed until June 5th and maybe not until the following week because of weather conditions. When we launch, a communications payload keeps us in touch with the balloon’s progress. Besides 2...
by Brian | May 28, 2020 | Education, High altitude ballooning, High Hopes Project, Inclusion, Messy Learning, Project Based, STEAM, STEM, Student Access, Teacher Access, The High Hopes Project
From a past High Hopes mission over 90,000 feet above Nevada. That’s Lake Tahoe on the left. At this altitude the balloon is in “near space” above 98% of the Earth’s atmosphere. Note the thin blue line of the atmosphere and the dark of space...
by Brian | Oct 24, 2019 | Uncategorized
This post was inspired by a conversation on Twitter initiated by Dave Quinn and responded to by “DesignMakeTeach” about the value of taking time away from a project and then coming back to it: Along the way Gary Stager added: Coming back to learning after...
by Brian | Oct 2, 2019 | Change, Coding, Cooperative Learning, Digital Video, Education, Inclusion, Making, Messy Learning, Project Based, Reform, STEAM, STEM, Student Access, Teacher Access, Uncategorized
My wife and I were fortunate to travel to Africa this past summer. Our itinerary included Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. We were notified by most of the listed countries when we applied for tourist visas that we were not to bring plastic bags into the...
by Brian | Sep 5, 2019 | Change, Cooperative Learning, Education, Making, Messy Learning, STEM, Student Access, Teacher Access, Technology
Last year I was part of a team funded by the Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation and Technology to provide the first Engineering Fellows Program for 5th grade teachers. The model learning sequence we started the program with was about the issue of...
