green icon by .

Cool Green Schools

Category: STEM

  • Experiment Checklist: Control? Check, Independent Variable? Check

  • How can Students Learn Science Without Doing Science?

    The experiment we are running in most science classes is whether students can learn science without doing science. And this experiment is failing our students. Yes, you can get students to memorize the periodic table and fill in the bubbles on biology tests by studying books and doing worksheets. If you push them hard, you…

  • Students Test Their Schools

    Students Test their Schools Students at Patterson High School and Baltimore Polytechnic Institute are about to get new science and environmental health laboratories: their schools. Johns Hopkins and Cool Green Schools are partnering on a community research grant to provide three classes of high school students with mentors, testing equipment, and funding so they can…

  • Experiment You: Math and Science that Count

  • Science out of the Silos

         The New Scientific Breakthroughs:             How and Who   When we list our most important scientific breakthroughs, we usually note the discoveries of new evidence: ancient bones, DNA, black holes and medicines.  But could our biggest recent breakthrough be not what have found, but how we collaborate in our research? There is a…

  • What Happens When Students Test Their Schools?

  • If you want students to learn, let them test their schools.

    Every year our schools test students. And every year these tests show that students in Baltimore City Public Schools perform far below state averages on all subjects. If we want better results, we need to invert the equation. Students should test their schools. This changes everything. As students study their school, they become scientists, problem…

  • So.. Your Plan is to Move the School Closer to the Superfund Site?

    Ever discover something a little late into the process? “You aren’t eating those blackberries, are you?.. Didn’t you know this is a Superfund site?” The president of the neighborhood association was looking at me with concern as my blue stained fingers and lips were answering her questions all by themselves as I froze, wide-eyed in…

  • Real Life Lessons: Should Maryland Stop Smoking?

    There is a great STEM learning project in our air. Should Maryland stop smoking?