What does it really take to shift a science classroom from covering content to helping students make sense of phenomena? In this episode, Chris Stoker talks with Emily and Jamie about the lessons they learned while leading an Idaho Science Teaching Association book study on Ambitious Science Teaching (AST).

Practical tips discussed about AST strategies:

• they force students to think more deeply
• they work k-12 and you can start off small
• they raise state test scores

link to Idaho Science Teaching Association book study page

For this episode Becky and Chris interview Branzell Porchia, STEM Program Manager, and Amanda Paterson, Computer Science Program Manager with WDC + STEM.  They have a great passion for connecting  teachers and kids with stem resources in our state.  Two take aways: 1) the big impact we can have on students when we give them powerful learning experiences and 2) the vast number of opportunities that Idaho offers to help prepare students for STEM and the workforce.

Resources links:

Idaho STEM Action Center https://stem.idaho.gov/

Next Steps Idaho https://nextsteps.idaho.gov/

Launch Scholarship https://nextsteps.idaho.gov/launch

STEM Diploma Scholarship https://stem.idaho.gov/stem-id/

Learning Blade https://stem.idaho.gov/learning-blade/

Code.org https://code.org/en-US

EngineeringbyDesign https://www.iteea.org/engineering-bydesign

Idaho Science and Engineering Fairs https://stem.idaho.gov/idsef/

Hour of AI https://stem.idaho.gov/csedweek/

ISTEM https://stem.idaho.gov/istem/

In this episode Chris shares 4 things he would do if he were jumping back into a classroom to start February. These are ideas that would hopefully help when your class (or you) are starting to drag before spring break.  They are 1) stop explaining so much, 2) simplify and streamline, 3) protect your energy, and 4) double down on what works.

In this episode, Chris interviews 5 students about the Idaho EcosySTEM Student Ambassador program. Through this program, students in 6-12th grade engage in hands-on projects, participate in industry tours, and build collaboration and leadership skills while making a meaningful impact in their school and community. It is modeled after the Chief Science Officer Program. Learn more here .

In this episode, Becky and Chris interviewed Carrie and Camp, two educators from the New England Innovation Academy (NEIA) near Boston.  They are doing some great things with students, and we are excited to share the conversation with you.  Even though they teach are a small innovative school, almost all of their ideas could be implemented in any school setting.

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.