Show Summary:

Claire sits down with Sharon Boese, a dynamic STEM educator from McKinney Christian Academy in Texas, to explore what hands-on, inquiry-based science education looks like in action. Sharon shares what a typical day in her classroom entails - from guiding 8th graders through Earth and Space Science to inspiring younger students in the school’s K–5 STEM enrichment program.

We talk about how to balance multiple class preps and design unique experiences to prevent repetition across grade levels, and integrate creativity and rigor through project-based learning. Sharon also gives us a peek inside her students’ engineering notebooks and explains how documentation supports problem-solving and reflection. Whether you’re a fellow teacher looking for classroom inspiration or simply curious about how STEM education comes alive, this conversation offers practical insights and plenty of passion for learning.

About Sharon Boese: Sharon Boese is currently an eighth grade science/STEM teacher and an Elementary School STEM Coordinator at McKinney Christian Academy in McKinney, Texas. She has a great passion for all things space and constantly encourages her students to reach for the stars. Sharon is happily married to Michael, an environmental engineer. They have three sons who all have no choice but to love the nighttime sky. All are Eagle Scouts who earned the Astronomy and Space Exploration merit badges! Sharon hopes that one day one of her sons will become an Astronaut!

Credit: NASA Directory | Solar System Ambassadors - NASA Solar System Exploration

Links from the Show:

Related The STEM Space Podcast Episodes

128. Preparing for the New Science Standards in Texas

131. How to Scaffold Engineering Design in K-12

105. Explaining the 3 Stages of STEM

Vivify STEM Blog Posts

How to Start an After School STEM Club

Understanding a Framework for P-12 Engineering Learning

Not all STEM is Equal: 3 Stages of STEM Education

10 Tips for Managing a STEM Classroom

Vivify STEM Lessons

Intro to Coding: STEM Distance Learning Activity

Building Bricks STEM Challenge Mats - GROWING BUNDLE!

STEM by Grade Level

Bridge Engineering STEM Challenge

FREE! - Engineering Design Teacher Slides (editable)

FREE! - Editable Budget Sheet for Engineering Design Challenges

Tower STEM Challenges

Design a Car Engineering Design Challenge | 1st Grade STEM Discoveries

Sailboat STEM Challenge - K-5 or 6-8

Simple Machines Toy Factory STEM Challenge

Other STEM Resources

NASA Space Exploration Educators Conference (SEEC)

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) | Texas Education Agency

Vivify STEM Space Library - free (Explorer Library) and paid (STEM Space All-Access: ALL Vivify lessons, PD, videos, and MORE) options

Vivify Scope and Sequence

Sphero Bolt+ | Sphero Education

Tinkercad

THE STEM SPACE SHOWNOTES

THE STEM SPACE FACEBOOK GROUP

VIVIFY INSTAGRAM

VIVIFY FACEBOOK

VIVIFY X

VIVIFY TIKTOK

VIVIFY YOUTUBE

Show Summary:

In this episode, Claire shares her recent discovery of a backyard superfood – the Black Soldier Fly! She and Natasha discuss how this creature plays a key role in ecosystems involving efficient decomposition, nutritional livestock feed, and even in future space habitats. Learn why you may want to get involved, too!

Links from the Show:

Related The STEM Space Podcast Episodes

197. You Should Build a Rocket… Seriously (Part 1)

199. Chickens and Rockets (Part 2)

Vivify STEM Blog Posts

Design A School Garden STEM Project

Go on a Mission to Mars!

Vivify STEM Lessons

Design a School Garden: STEM Project Guide

Build a Colony on the Moon or Mars

Other STEM Resources

All About Black Soldier Flies | Grubbly Farms

The Urban Farm Podcast

Dr. Jeff Tomberlin | Texas A&M

Transforming Waste into Wealth: Black Soldier Fly Frass Explained | Flybox

Quick Tips

THE STEM SPACE SHOWNOTES

THE STEM SPACE FACEBOOK GROUP

VIVIFY INSTAGRAM

VIVIFY FACEBOOK

VIVIFY X

VIVIFY TIKTOK

VIVIFY YOUTUBE

VIVIFY BLUESKY

Show Summary:

In this episode, Claire shares how she tells her story to inspire students and realistically see themselves achieving their dreams. Hear about her recent outreach day teaching about rockets using a home-built 8 foot tall model and of course an update on her chickens. Also get a taste of how STEM teachers can address the social emotional learning of their students. Natasha and Claire may not agree on the method of doing so. Tune in to hear more!

Links from the Show:

Related The STEM Space Podcast Episodes

Related The STEM Space Podcast Episodes

197. You Should Build a Rocket… Seriously (Part 1)

198. An Engineer's Guide to Thoughts and Emotions (ft. Alison West and Audrey Gilfillan)

153. Don't Tell Your Kid to be an Engineer

Vivify STEM Blog Posts

How to Launch Rockets

I Didn’t Always Want to be an Engineer - Claire

12 Ways to Boost Social-Emotional Learning with STEM

How to Teach Growth Mindset and Failing Forward

Vivify STEM Lessons

Straw Rocket STEM Challenge

Upstairs Downstairs Brain Paper Circuit SEL STEM Activity

Astronaut Training: 4 Cs of STEM

FREE! - Engineering Framework Habits of Mind Posters

Astro-Rover Space Science & Engineering Design Unit

Other STEM Resources

Chickens and Cold Weather: How Cold Can Chickens Tolerate?

Mars Pathfinder Sojourner Rover - Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Decompile Your Mind: An Engineer’s Guide to Thoughts and Emotions(book)

Email us your questions!

THE STEM SPACE SHOWNOTES

THE STEM SPACE FACEBOOK GROUP

VIVIFY INSTAGRAM

VIVIFY FACEBOOK

VIVIFY X

VIVIFY TIKTOK

VIVIFY YOUTUBE

VIVIFY BLUESKY

Show Summary:

In this episode, Claire is joined by Audrey Gilfillan and Alison West, licensed professional counselors and embedded therapists in the College of Engineering and Applied Science at CU Boulder. Together, they bring extensive experience in college mental health, academic and career support, and community-based counseling. Audrey and Alison are co-authors of Decompile Your Mind: An Engineer’s Guide to Thoughts and Emotions and co-founders of Applied Wellness Initiatives, where they help educators, managers, and professionals integrate mental health awareness into their work and academic communities. Their shared passion is supporting young adults as they balance personal well-being with academic and professional goals in a fast-changing world.

Links from the Show:

Resources Mentioned

Decompile Your Mind: An Engineer’s Guide to Thoughts and Emotions (book)

Scaffolded Mental Health Support Model (article)

Applied Health Initiatives

Email us your questions!

Related The STEM Space Podcast Episodes

146. Is It Squishy? How to Build Engineering Intuition

153. Don't Tell Your Kid to be an Engineer

59. How to Motivate Students and Regulate Emotions in STEM

Vivify STEM Blog Posts

I Didn’t Always Want to be an Engineer - Claire

12 Ways to Boost Social-Emotional Learning with STEM

How to Teach Growth Mindset and Failing Forward

How to Integrate STEM into Your Gifted & Talented Program

Not All STEM is Equal: The 3 stages of STEM Education

Vivify STEM Lessons

FREE! - Engineering Framework Habits of Mind Posters

Astronaut Training: 4C's of STEM Middle School Unit

STEM Creativity Tools: 5 Activities to Boost Brainstorming Power

Design a Car Engineering Design Challenge

Upstairs Downstairs Brain Paper Circuit SEL STEM Activity

THE STEM SPACE SHOWNOTES

THE STEM SPACE FACEBOOK GROUP

VIVIFY INSTAGRAM

VIVIFY FACEBOOK

VIVIFY X

VIVIFY TIKTOK

VIVIFY YOUTUBE

VIVIFY BLUESKY

Show Summary:

In this episode, Natasha and Claire dive into Claire’s upcoming outreach presentation on rockets. As Claire builds a large-scale cutaway model to showcase each part of a rocket, they explore the value of hands-on learning, problem-solving activities, and tackling common misconceptions about rockets. Plus, stick around for a fun update on Claire’s chickens!

Links from the Show:

Related The STEM Space Podcast Episodes

194. Should You Be a STEM Expert?

147. When STEM Heats Up! Summer STEM Failures

82. How to Rock it with Rockets

119. Think Like A Scientist

Vivify STEM Blog Posts

5 STEM Activities for Fall & Halloween

How to Launch Rockets blog posts

Brick by Brick: Intro to Criteria and Constraints

Vivify STEM Lessons

Intro to STEM: Think Like a Scientist & Engineer!

Design a School Garden: STEM Project Guide

Straw Rocket STEM Challenge: K-3 or 4-10

Other STEM Resources

Walking on eggshells — Assessing anxiety in chickens

Pitsco Straw Rocket Launcher

Estes Rockets: Alpha III Launch Set

Rocket Parts - Glenn Research Center - NASA

Meet the Vivify Team

Subscribe to the Vivify Newsletter!

THE STEM SPACE SHOWNOTES

THE STEM SPACE FACEBOOK GROUP

VIVIFY INSTAGRAM

VIVIFY FACEBOOK

VIVIFY X

VIVIFY TIKTOK

VIVIFY YOUTUBE

Show Summary:

In this episode of the STEM Space podcast, Claire chats with the Founder & CEO of Changemaker Education, David Richards. He shares his passion for love-based, personalized education that led to establishing a microschool for his own children. As an alternative to the outdated factory model of education, microschools tailor learning to the children that are being served. Tune in to hear how David turned his passion and problem solving into an organization to help others start their own microschools and learn how you can too!

About David Richards, Founder & CEO of Changemaker Education: David K. Richards is the Founder & CEO of Changemaker Education, a national network of affiliate love-based microschools and an incubator for founders who want to usher in a new paradigm for the future of education. He is also the host of the Changemaker ED“U” podcast. Previously, he was Founder & CEO of Growth Public Schools, and a founding teacher and leader with Summit Public Schools where he launched several innovative schools. In addition he serves as a leadership and life coach. David has worked in education reform for over 25 years as a teacher, principal, executive, and board member. He lives in Sacramento, CA with his wife and his two children, and holds a BA from UC Berkeley and an MA from Stanford University.

Links from the Show:

Related The STEM Space Podcast Episodes

59. How to Motivate Students and Regulate Emotions in STEM

193. Are You Manufacturing Engineers?

Vivify STEM Blog Posts

I Didn’t Always Want to be an Engineer

Astronaut Training and the 4 C's of STEM

12 Ways to Boost Social-Emotional Learning with STEM

How to Teach Growth Mindset and Failing Forward

Vivify STEM Lessons

Astronaut Training: 4C's of STEM Middle School Unit | Engineering Our Cosmos

Paper Football Math Activity: Ratio & Proportions with STEM Careers

Heart Rate Ratios & Graphing Activity

Wearable Device Sports Engineering Activity (Sports & STEM)

Brain Safety STEM Challenge: Design a Football Helmet

Other STEM Resources

Changemaker Education

Vivify STEM’s Story

Montessori Method

Changemaker ED”U” Podcast

THE STEM SPACE SHOWNOTES

THE STEM SPACE FACEBOOK GROUP

VIVIFY INSTAGRAM

VIVIFY FACEBOOK

VIVIFY X

VIVIFY TIKTOK

VIVIFY YOUTUBE

Show Summary:

You are in for a treat! Do you have someone in your life that is interested in video games or game development? Claire talks with Aaron Thibault, the director of The LIVE Lab which is a research lab at Texas A&M University in the College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts where students learn to create interactive learning experiences while getting real industry experience. Hear his story along with the impact that game-based learning can have on learning as well as some ways you as a teacher can bring LIVE Lab projects to your classroom.

About Aaron Thibault, LIVE Lab Director: Aaron Thibault is a game developer, educator and researcher who focuses on the innovation of game-based technologies that support learning and deep representations of people, environments and complex interactive scenarios. He was a key leader for the mega-franchise “Borderlands,” developed retention techniques and story pipelines for the first massive multiplayer game “Ultima Online,” and created the Digital Warrior game-based learning platform for the US Army as part of a joint TAMU-UT Austin “UXXI” digital transformation initiative. He organized and advised foundational research at his Digital Media CoLab including rtNEAT, a breakthrough real-time evolutionary neural network technique invented by Ken Stanley and an example of a core research invention that can only occur with support of a lab-based game development team. Aaron also helped start and managed the world’s first graduate degree program for games, The Guildhall at SMU, and is an ACM SIGGRAPH Pioneer and former IEEE virtual reality program chair.

About Texas A&M’s LIVE Lab: The LIVE Lab is a research lab at Texas A&M University in the College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts where students learn to create interactive learning experiences while getting real industry experience. With the help of subject matter experts and instructional designers, students collaborate to make high-quality digital learning experiences, touching on every aspect of professional development including design, concept art, 3D modeling, development and management.

Links from the Show:

Related The STEM Space Podcast Episodes

68. Game Based Learning with André Thomas

110. How to Implement Game-Based Learning ft. André Thomas

Vivify STEM Blog Posts

Best Free AI Tools for Educators

How to Teach STEM Through A Story

10 Must Have STEM Tools

Vivify STEM Lessons

Intro to Coding STEM Activity

Technology Choice Boards

FREE! - Using Geometry to Build a Safe Shelter!

Other STEM Resources

Aaron Thibault | LinkedIn

Texas A&M LIVE Lab

A&M-developed calculus video game helps students pass, pursue STEM careers

Variant: Limits Educational Trailer (YouTube)

Variant: Limits (game)

Train game

Prisms game

Study: Learning Exponential Functions With Immersive Virtual Reality: Outcomes of a Randomized Controlled Trial as Part of the Prisms NSF SBIR Phase II Project

The Stanley Parable game

Cortopia and Beyond Frames Wands Alliances

Quick Tips

THE STEM SPACE SHOWNOTES

THE STEM SPACE FACEBOOK GROUP

VIVIFY INSTAGRAM

VIVIFY FACEBOOK

VIVIFY X

VIVIFY TIKTOK

VIVIFY YOUTUBE

Show Summary:

Natasha and Claire outline a new STEM curriculum that will be available for free through Space Club. Claire details her process on creating the science labs and engineering design challenges in the curriculum including representing accurate science content. Unsurprisingly, she learned that turning to the subject matter experts is the best way to ensure quality science and engineering content to ensure the science informs the engineering design. From chicken coop design to exploring ocean worlds, this episode is filled with inspiration and resources for your STEM program!

Links from the Show:

Related The STEM Space Podcast Episodes

90. We Launched a Weather Balloon

103. Teaching Light & Breaking Misconceptions

Vivify STEM Blog Posts

How to Teach STEM Through A Story

Finding Student Sparks

Weather Balloon Launch

Teaching Space Inspires Youth

Vivify STEM Lessons

FREE! - Space Club Mission to Moon or Mission to Mars

Engineering Our Cosmos 8th Grade Curriculum

Mission to Moon or Mission to Mars Curriculum

Other STEM Resources

Space Club - completely free!

NASA Dragonfly Mission

NASA Cassini Mission

SwRI Kelly Miller

Email us your questions!

THE STEM SPACE SHOWNOTES

THE STEM SPACE FACEBOOK GROUP

VIVIFY INSTAGRAM

VIVIFY FACEBOOK

VIVIFY X

VIVIFY TIKTOK

VIVIFY YOUTUBE

VIVIFY BLUESKY

Show Summary:

Natasha and Claire dive into the often-overlooked role of manufacturing in STEM education, exploring how it connects to engineering and real-world applications in the classroom. Along the way, they catch up on the back-to-school happenings from the humor of kindergarten drama to the challenges of STEM burnout and strategies for managing it. Tune in to hear why manufacturing matters, how educators can integrate it into their teaching, and why it’s more relevant than ever for preparing students for future careers.

Links from the Show:

Related The STEM Space Podcast Episodes

69. Can My Baby Do STEM?

4. Why You Should Teach Space

130. Amazing K-12 Space Projects ft. Juan Nolasco

Vivify STEM Blog Posts

The ABCs of Kindergarten STEM

Teaching Space Inspires Youth

Vivify STEM Lessons

Alphabet STEM Challenges Bundle - Kindergarten STEM Unit

Intro to STEM: Think Like a Scientist & Engineer!

STEM Careers BINGO - K-5 or 5-12

Other STEM Resources

Vivify TikTok: Baby Stem - Extracting DNA From Fruit

Dad Tries to Teach a Life Lesson | Ragdoll - Series 3 | Bluey (clip)

San Antonio Manufacturing Association

YouTube: How Things Work | NatGeo Kids

Subscribe to the Vivify Newsletter!

THE STEM SPACE SHOWNOTES

THE STEM SPACE FACEBOOK GROUP

VIVIFY INSTAGRAM

VIVIFY FACEBOOK

VIVIFY X

VIVIFY TIKTOK

VIVIFY YOUTUBE

Show Summary:

In this episode, Natasha and Claire kick things off with their latest animal adventures. But the real focus is on helping STEM teachers gear up for the new school year. They break down the top things you should be doing right now, including how to strategically approach your curriculum planning and what supplies you’ll want to stock up on before the school rush hits. Whether you’re a veteran teacher or new to the STEM classroom, this episode packs in practical tips to help you gear up for a great year ahead!

Links from the Show:

Related The STEM Space Podcast Episodes

191. What STEM Teachers Should Do In the Summer

96. Chat with a Chemist ft Dr. Danna Freedman

148. AI Tips for Teachers ft. Lauren Kelly

Vivify STEM Blog Posts

A Search for Life: Astro-Rover STEM Challenge

Best Free AI Tools for Educators

Scientific Method vs. Engineering Design Process: Which is used in STEM learning?

Vivify STEM Lessons

Astro-Rover Space Science & Engineering Design Unit

FREE! - Explore the Universe: Star Party Astronomy Scavenger Hunt

FREE! - Host a Classroom Debate

Other STEM Resources

SETI Institute

The Drake Equation

The Fermi Paradox: Where are all the aliens?

Von Neumann Probes

The Berserker Hypothesis: The Darkest Explanation Of The Fermi Paradox

THE STEM SPACE SHOWNOTES

THE STEM SPACE FACEBOOK GROUP

VIVIFY INSTAGRAM

VIVIFY FACEBOOK

VIVIFY X

VIVIFY TIKTOK

VIVIFY YOUTUBE