The year two-thousand and fifteen was a HUGE one for the Digital Learning program at the California Academy of Sciences. We’ve had a lot of changes, pivots, sad goodbyes, and successes over the past twelve months that are important to acknowledge. Farewell, Christine / Welcome, Jeff! Over the summer, we bid a fond farewell to …
On Saturday, we held the end-of-the-semester showcase for our Digital Learning TechTeen program. Creating these “stand and deliver” moments for our teens is one the best parts of my job. Youth showcases are a great way to see what your students are getting out of your program, in their own words. It is a way for all the …
This week, I had to quickly come up with a more interactive way to teach our TechTeens about genetic engineering, since they had chosen a topic for their next blog post on creating genetically modified pets. I don't have a background in microbiology or genetics, so was a little stumped. In a pinch, I threw …
Conversation with Alex, one of our TechTeens : Alex: Why does it have to be a "competition" when you have us make stuff? Me: It's to motivate you to do your best. People like competitions. Alex: But we already work hard, whether you make it a competition or not. Besides, you always give the winning team …
I love teaching teens about intellectual property. I get a lot of puzzled looks whenever I say this among other educators, but it’s true. Teens are so much more media-savvy than I was as a young person, since their lives are so immersed in media wherever they are. They are constantly consuming music, photos, videos, digital games …
The California Academy of Sciences just launched Flipside Science, a youth-powered series designed for K-12 classrooms that inspires solutions-based thinking about the environment. I'm super proud of the work that our Academy youth Spurgeon, Ice, Darrah and Madeleine put into these videos, as well as our incredible visualization studio team that produced the videos. …
The New Learning Times, a publication of the Teachers College at Columbia University, did a nice profile about me recently. I’ve reprinted some it below. See the complete piece by George Nantwi at their site. How did your educational trajectory and past professional experience shape your current work? I have a wide-ranging and circuitous educational …
We’ve completed two outreach events we’ve organized as part of the 2015 Philippines Verde island Passage expedition. It has been a really remarkable experience getting to connect with local Filipinos to educate them about marine biodiversity and environmental sustainability. Our first outreach event was for a group of about 60 high school teachers at the …
Today is the first of four outreach events that Meg Burke, Lindzy Bivings and I will be leading all around the Batangas area. I’m nervous and excited about sharing about science, biodiversity, and sustainability for people on local communities in the Philippines! Our first stop today is a training for about 60 teachers at the …
Welcome to my new blog, RangerRik.com! This is where you will find my thoughts and activities from my work as a digital learning educator and program developer at the California Academy of Sciences. This is also where I am going to share out lots of the awesome work, tools, approaches, conversations and events happening …