Billy Almon was a keynote speaker at the 2025 Idaho STEM Conference in Meridian Idaho on July 30-August 1st, 2025.

Billy's bio: Over the last 10 years Billy has been traveling the globe exploring how biological strategies can be used to inspire solutions for humans, a concept known as Biomimicry. Billy is also the co-host of Little Giants, a tv series on Animal Planet. For more than a decade Billy worked as an Imagineer for the Walt Disney Company, where he honed his talents as a storyteller, inventor, futurist, and world-builder. He has a Bachelor of Architecture from Howard University and a Master of Science in Biomimicry from Arizona State University. In addition to his strong storytelling efforts, Billy also uses insights from biology to highlight ideas for space exploration.

Learn more at his website:Billy Almon, The Astrobiofuturist | STEM, Space & Biomimicry Speaker

Hi and welcome to the Inspiring Science Teachers' Podcast. My name is Chris Stoker and on this show, we love to interview teachers and pick their brains for some of the great lessons and ideas they've developed for teaching science.

For this episode, Becky and I interviewed Lingpei Zou, a middle school teacher in Rigby Idaho. Lingpei has an interesting story of coming to this country from China. She now teaches in a dual emersion program and gets to teach robotics on Fridays. Lingpei shares was got her excited from attending the NSTA national conference a few months ago in Philadelphia. Here are some great quotes from the keynotes: "embrace your 1% uniqueness" and "Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge." She shared many things that resonated with her from the sessions and the vendor exhibits. But for me the biggest thing was she got us excited about continuing to learn as adults and to take every opportunity to attend a local conference. Let's jump into it.

I was recently looking over some curriculum we had written for a middle school science about waves, and I wondered why this standard was so different from how we have traditional taught the subject.  It seemed to focus on a different part - more on how the waves interact with and move through a material. Then it dawned on me, this standard is really about material science.

For this episode, Becky and I chat with two experts in this area, Becky Heckman, a teacher leader and materials science camp trainer from Ohio and Dr Mike Hurley, a professor in the Micron School of Material Science & Engineering at Boise State University.  We discuss what material science is all about, why it's important in our modern world, and what careers opportunities it prepares students to tackle. We also discuss an awesome camp teachers can attend to receive valuable training on how to integrate more hands-on investigations into your science classrooms.

For this episode, Becky and I interviewed Jaime Clark, an 8th grade earth science teacher in American Falls.

Jaime shared an engaging activity with rocks and minerals, what intrigues her about metamorphic rock, and a great science fair event she runs each year that involves the elementary, the high school and the community.

Jaimie also talked about how much better she has become at training students to work in groups and being vulnerable with kids about what you don't know as the teacher. 

This is good stuff, so let's get to it.

For this episode, Becky and I interviewed ReBekha Lulu a former elementary teacher and now the STEM Hub Coordinator for Southwest Idaho. ReBekha shared a great lesson involving 3D printing, a new Student Leadership program in STEM for 6-12 graders, and upcoming STEM convenings throughout the state.

There are two things that ReBekha said that I really loved. The first came as she was giving us her definition of STEM--she said it's all the skills we want our students to do in Life.  I really like how she famed that. And the second came  when I asked her how a teacher can get started with doing more STEM--she said to start with a lesson that really lights you up already, and work to add something STEM related that makes it even better. I love it when teachers give us a small nugget of advice that makes it easier to get started. And I think you're going to love a lot more of what she had to say, so let's jump in. 

For this episode, Becky and I interviewed Gina Kwid, a 2nd grade teacher and a STEM enthusiast!  Gina shared a great milkweed experiment she did with her kids, talked about the importance of networking, and summarized that STEM skills are really about being a thinker.

This year Gina was recognized as state finalist for the national Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Congratulations Gina!! Of these finalists, our state superintendent of public instruction Debbie Critchfield said, “This award highlights Idaho educators who have gone above and beyond in opening doors in STEM for our youngest learners. These remarkable instructors have created a space for students to explore STEM topics with comfort and curiosity."

I love that last phrase-explore STEM topics with comfort and curiosity-and feel like that is a great description of Gina's style with her students.  Let's jump in.

This episode marks the podcast's two years anniversary and I'm very happy with how things have gone.  My goal was, and still is, to simply share the good stuff from those who are in the trenches, you all who are continually learning and improving your craft every day in classrooms.  I wanted to showcase regular teachers who are doing inspiring things and that would hopefully encourage and inspire us all to keep up the good and challenging work we do every day in our profession.

For this episode, my colleague Becky and I interviewed Dr Cecila Gillam, a high school science teacher from New Orleans, LA. We had a great conversation as she shared a favorite lesson about the water crisis and students building prototypes of devices to create clean drinking water, the importance of hands-on science, the need to diversify our portfolio of ed tech tools, and removing barriers for getting more underrepresented students into STEM courses. Cecelia is what I would consider an amitious teacher, but is also keenly focused on building relationships and empowering students. Let's jump in.

For this episode, Becky and I interviewed Tanya Elmer, a high school chemistry teacher and the president of the Idaho Science Teaching Association. She shared about her "Famous Chocolate Lab"  which is an engaging activity that helps students better understand intermolecular forces.  She also talked about what she's learned about leadership and the importance of getting involved.  My favorite part though was when she shared a poignant teacher memory about a difficult student named Justin.  Years later, he came back to visit her and when she heard his story, she turned to her student teacher and said, "We don't do this because we love Chemistry, we do this because of kids like Justin".  It's a great reminder for us all and I know you'll want to hear it, so let's jump in.

For this episode, Becky and I interviewed Andrea Baerwald, the Science Coordinator for the Idaho Department of Education. We had some great conversations about professional development, getting involved with state-led committees and using the state science coaches.  She also shared a favorite lesson called "Outrageous Organisms" that grew from a fun and engaging activity to became more of an anchor phenomenon that was re-visited multiple times throughout the year. And that came about because of a great collaborative relationship with her teaching partner. Andrea's insights and optimism are refreshing and left me feeling motivated to a better job communicating to teachers the great things that are happening in our state.

For the kickoff to season 3, I interviewed 4 teachers (Jacob, Allyson, Jeff, and Britton) at the annual STEM conference held this year in Coeur d'Alene Idaho. We chatted about what they felt inspired to do from the conference and/or what inspires them in general. They shared some great takeaways and insights. And I think you'll find this particularly interesting: two of them are team teachers and married! Also as a first on the show, we'll be playing some student clips, which I'm excited for you to hear.