Hundreds of eyes watched guest science teacher Phillip Craig, Director of NII Explore, hold up a jar of soil to the camera as he asked the excited Grade 1 and 2 students what soil is made of.
The replies came fast and furious: “Dead bugs!”, “Sand!”, “Leaves!”, and “Poop!”, which unsurprisingly turned the remote class into a screen full of giggles.
With this most unusual school year coming to an end, NII Explore’s second week of Science in the Classroom programming is underway, according to a media release from the Nuclear Innovation Institute (NII). The goal of the program is to help lighten the load of teachers by bringing fun, interactive STEM learning to more than 180 classrooms remotely across Bruce, Grey and Huron counties.
Covering the Ontario science curriculum, the programming includes topics such daily and seasonal changes, soil, conservation and energy, space, and heat. Teachers receive lesson plans on these topics as well as take-home assignments to extend the learning with their students.
The program is sponsored by Bruce Power and features three two-week sessions that run until the end of the school year for students from Kindergarten to Grade 8. And while the classes are already at capacity, with more than 5,000 eager participants, parents and teachers can explore many of these lessons at nii.ca/explore or on the NII Explore Instagram account @NIIExplore.
“We know that this has been a long year for everyone, teachers and students alike, so we are just happy to help where we can and bring some excitement into science class,” said Craig. “The world is a pretty cool place, helping students explore it and make these discoveries, all while having fun, has been great to see.”
Also presented to classrooms around the region is the free NII Explore Coding in the Classroom program. Since March 2020, NII has delivered coding classes to more than 1,400 students, initially as an extra-curricular offering and this year to classrooms across Bruce and Grey counties.
The program supports Grade 2 through 8 curriculum goals of patterns, problem-solving and literacy education, helping rural students learn foundational skills that are key to working in a digital economy.
While coding may seem daunting at first, NII Explore staff have created a space where coding can be explored in a fun, easy-to-understand way, even for those who have never taken part in coding education before.
“My students loved the coding classes," said Kincardine's Huron Heights Public School's Grade 4 teacher Jennifer McKellar. "They were very engaged. Some tried to rush ahead and didn't wait for instructions as they were so enthusiastic and confident."
