STEM Everyday

Send us Fan Mail

Colleen McDaniel was a biology and AP environmental science teacher in Houston, TX, and is now the Biology & Environmental Science Educational Technology Specialist at Vernier Science Education. Colleen also enjoys activities like birding and hiking, and loves taking her Vernier data collection devices when she heads out to look for birds.

For more than 40 years, Vernier has empowered educators with top quality data-collection technology and innovative experiments. Their high-quality sensors, experiments, and resources are an important part of any classroom or laboratory and enable  students to explore science in new ways.
Find ideas, and support on their website.

Connect with Colleen & Vernier:

• Website: Vernier.com
• Vernier's Twitter: @VernierST
• Vernier's YouTube: youtube.com/verniervideo
• Colleen's Twitter: @birdeenmcdaniel
• Colleen's Instagram: @birdeenmcdaniel

Chris Woods is the host of the STEM Everyday Podcast... Connect with him:

• Website: dailystem.com
• Twitter: @dailystem
• Instagram: @dailystem
• YouTube: youtube

Get Chris's book Daily STEM on Amazon

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Darrell Wakelam is an experienced artist and educator who has spent over 30 years working creatively with children and young people. He travels all over the UK providing exciting art workshops and training sessions for schools and other educational establishments. He mainly focuses on exploring 3D sculptural work, using simple everyday materials to create amazing, accessible artwork. He also creates lots of wonderful, easy-to-follow art projects on his website darrellwakelam.com and social media accounts which have led to the creation of his latest book 'Art Shaped '.

Connect with Darrell:

• Website: darrellwakelam.com
• Book: Art Shaped 
• Twitter: @darrellwakelam
• Instagram: @darrellwakelam
• YouTube: @darrellwakelam5597

Chris Woods is the host of the STEM Everyday Podcast... Connect with him:

• Website: dailystem.com
• Twitter: @dailystem
• Instagram: @dailystem
• YouTube: youtube

Get Chris's book Daily STEM on Amazon

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Jason McKenna is the director of global educational strategy for VEX Robotics. An educational strategist with 20 years of experience teaching in elementary classrooms, Jason ensures VEX Robotics’ educational STEM solutions align with global educational standards and fulfill educators’ needs. His new book What STEM Can Do for Your Classroom describes how teaching STEM education in his elementary school changed his classroom and his life, improving his students’ and his own approaches to problem-solving, collaboration, and general motivation to learn. Offering examples, tried and tested classroom projects, and collaborative strategies, this innovative resource opens up STEM education in K–6 classrooms in exciting and expansive new ways.

To keep his finger on the pulse of society’s needs, Jason travels the world to meet with parents, educators, and key government stakeholders and discuss the challenges of preparing students for a contemporary, knowledge-based economy. He develops and implements research-based STEM education solutions that use differentiated instruction and assessment to further student learning.

Jason holds a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from California University of Pennsylvania (now PennWest California). He received his undergraduate degree in elementary education from Geneva College. He is also a Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy certified master instructor.

Connect with Jason:

• Website: jmckenna.org
• Twitter: @Mckenna72
• Book: What STEM Can Do
• Vex website: vexrobotics.com

Chris Woods is the host of the STEM Everyday Podcast... Connect with him:

• Website: dailystem.com
• Twitter: @dailystem
• Instagram: @dailystem
• YouTube: youtube

Get Chris's book Daily STEM on Amazon

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

No matter where you live in the world, the need for people to fill STEM careers is an urgent need. Many governments are looking for ways to encourage kids to build STEM skills, and educators are the avenue to make that happen.

Jonathan Stancek is a math, engineering and physics teacher at the Design and Technology Academy at Roosevelt High School in San Antonio, Texas. Jonathan chose to leave his first career managing chemical inventories for a military aircraft maintenance site due to a desire to provide students with a strong foundation in math and science, much like his teachers did for him. Jonathan encourages students to study real-world situations that challenge STEM professionals every day because solving these problems can have a lasting impact and really change the world. He also looks for areas that students are already interested in to inspire them to learn more about the infinite opportunities available in a STEM career.

John was selected for the DoD STEM Ambassador Program to help share the resources available through  dodstem.us with other educators around the country. DoD STEM Ambassadors collaborate to create and curate remote learning and digital materials such as lesson plans, learning activities, and creative engagement approaches to be shared with educators. 

Ambassadors are carefully chosen by the Department of Defense STEM Education Consortium (DSEC) and DoD STEM based on their commitment to working with students who have been historically underrepresented in STEM or are military connected. 

Learn more at dodstem.us

Learn more about the programs mentioned in the podcast:

• https://dodstem.us/meet/ambassadors/
• https://www.nms.org/
• https://www.nms.org/Our-Programs/Teachers/AP-Courses/Military-Mission.aspx 

Chris Woods is the host of the STEM Everyday Podcast... Connect with him:

• Website: dailystem.com
• Twitter: @dailystem
• Instagram: @dailystem
• YouTube: youtube

Get Chris's book Daily STEM on Amazon

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Dustin Goldie isn't your typical STEM teacher. He transitioned from a HS Social Studies classroom into a position created by his district to put employability front and center for students. His combination of practical and curricular connections has helped build the KHS Employability program into a model for connecting STEM and career readiness.
Dustin is a teacher at Kings High School in Kings Mills, Ohio, and enjoys his cattle raising side hustle.

Learn more about Dustin:

• Twitter:  @khsjobtraining
• Listen to Dustin's Workforce Development Podcast

Chris Woods is the host of the STEM Everyday Podcast... Connect with him:

• Website: dailystem.com
• Twitter: @dailystem
• Instagram: @dailystem
• YouTube: youtube

Get Chris's book Daily STEM on Amazon

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Andrea Mango is currently a STEAM teacher in New York, helping her students and others in her school see that being flexible helps build STEM skills. 
While teaching STEAM lessons to K-2 students, she started to realize that planning 45 minutes for an activity didn't work. Kids would get into the lesson, and their excitement for learning ended up making the lesson last all day. This helped Andrea as she moved into a STEAM Teacher position, building a level of flexibility into every lesson.

Learn more about Andrea:

• Twitter: @AndreaMango1 
• Instagram: @flexible_educator_steam_stem

Resources Andrea mentioned:

• YouTube Mark Rober: @MarkRober
• YouTube Matty Benedetto: @UnnecessaryInventions

Chris Woods is the host of the STEM Everyday Podcast... Connect with him:

• Website: dailystem.com
• Twitter: @dailystem
• Instagram: @dailystem
• YouTube: youtube

Get Chris's book Daily STEM on Amazon

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Athena Brensberger is all about science communication for the non-scientist.

Athena's goal is to popularize science and scientific awareness to all people, not just those fundamentally drawn to sciencey readings, content, and career-paths, etc. She believes the more people that adopt a scientific perspective and approach to things in their own lives will begin transforming the world around us.

Athena Brensberger advocates for space exploration through her platform Astroathens. People can find DIY space demos, rocket launch coverage, and going behind the scenes at events around the world! She’s worked with NASA, SpaceX, ESA, Curiosity Stream, Seeker and many more as a correspondent on all things astronomy and rocket science. With a background in astrophysics and fashion, Athena’s mission is to show that space is within all of us, no matter what industry you are in, and curiosity about the physical world lies in everyone. Her research includes work on proto-planetary disks and low mass stars, which was conducted at the Hayden Planetarium as NASA-sponsored research with mentorship by Dr. Liu and Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. Her work in fashion includes a 10-year international modeling career working for brands like, Yves Saint Laurent, Kohls, Macy’s, DKNY and is currently
signed to Wilhelmina Models, NY. After giving her first research presentation on stage, she fell in love with communicating science to both the scientist and non-scientist. 

Learn more about Athena:

• Website: astroathens.com
• YouTube: youtube.com/@astroathens
• Instagram: instagram.com/astroathens
• Twitter: twitter.com/AstroAthens
• Supressed Science on Curiosity Stream YouTube
• Arm & Hammer STEM Project Website

Chris Woods is the host of the STEM Everyday Podcast... Connect with him:

• Website: dailystem.com
• Twitter: @dailystem
• Instagram: @dailystem
• YouTube: youtube

Get Chris's book Daily STEM on Amazon

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Trey Moore has been painting and drawing as long as he can remember. In addition to his artistic endeavors, Trey has leveraged his Bachelor of Environmental Design degree into a successful career as a design and engineering instructor in North Carolina.

Learn more about Trey:

• Website: treymooreart.com
• Twitter: twitter.com/tr8moore
• Instagram: instagram.com/tr8moore/

Chris Woods is the host of the STEM Everyday Podcast... Connect with him:

• Website: dailystem.com
• Twitter: @dailystem
• Instagram: @dailystem
• YouTube: youtube

Get Chris's book Daily STEM on Amazon

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

EarthEcho International is getting ready to launch the third edition of OurEcho Challenge. In this national STEM competition, teams of students aged 10-15, guided by a teacher or mentor, are challenged to address the decline in biodiversity by identifying threats to natural resources in their communities and developing innovative solutions. To learn more, please visit ourechochallenge.org.   

The competition will kick off this year with a FREE 24-hour teach-in on November 2-3. To register for the teach-in, go to: https://www.accelevents.com/e/u/checkout/ourecho-challenge-24-hour-biodiversity-teach-in0/tickets/order

(Learn more about EarthEcho in Episode 193 featuring Philippe Cousteau Jr. & Stacey Rafalowski) 

Kasey Gaylord-Opalewski is the Programs Manager at EarthEcho, and has been designing, developing, and coordinating innovative digital programming for non-profit organizations since 2002.

Learn more about EarthEcho:

• Website: earthecho.org
• Facebook: facebook.com/earthecho  
• Twitter: twitter.com/earthecho 
• Instagram: instagram.com/earthecho

Chris Woods is the host of the STEM Everyday Podcast... Connect with him:

• Website: dailystem.com
• Twitter: @dailystem
• Instagram: @dailystem
• YouTube: youtube

Get Chris's book Daily STEM on Amazon

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Libo Valencia is a mathematics educator in New York with over a dozen years of experience. Libo is a passionate teacher who strongly believes that understanding mathematics can help all students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills that can be utilized outside the classroom.
His upcoming book Math Play on CodeBreaker Publishing will provide any educator practical ideas for expanding a child's perspective of math beyond assignments to engagement.
Libo is known for his use of different technologies to engage his students and bring math concepts to life. He currently teaches at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, CUNY Lehman College, and Mercy College. As a mathematics educator, he has taught a wide range of subjects, from remedial algebra classes to upper-level calculus. Libo holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics, a Master of Arts in Pure Mathematics, and a Master of Science in Educational Leadership.

Resources mentioned during the episode:
Desmos: desmos.com
Geogebra: geogebra.org
Article for Math Assoc of America: engaging-students-with-a-desmos-art-project

Connect with Libo :

• Website mathplay4all.com
• Twitter: @MrValencia24
• Blogs by Libo: blog.savvas.com/contributors/libardo-valencia/
• Follow ideas for #MathPlay on Twitter

Chris Woods is the host of the STEM Everyday Podcast... Connect with him:

• Website: dailystem.com
• Twitter: @dailystem
• Instagram: @dailystem
• YouTube: youtube

Get Chris's book Daily STEM on Amazon

Support the show