SciFy: Science Collaboration Initiative For Youth
 
SciFy is a comprehensive guide that helps students create their first science fair–style research projects. It emphasizes scientific collaboration over competition and features pages that separate the components of research projects into manageable, fun steps. The resource is student-created, scientist-supported, and free for all users. SciFy is a subdivision of Sigma Xi, the international scientific research society.

Amplify Professional Development Courses

Revitalize science instruction in your K–8 classroom with professional development (PD) courses from Amplify Education. Led by curriculum experts from University of California Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science, the no-cost, on-demand PD courses address high-interest topics. Teachers receive a certification of completion after finishing each course.

• Establishing a Culture of Figuring Out in Your Next Generation Science Classroom focuses on cultivating curiosity and elevating student voices using the structures and content from phenomena-based, literacy-rich science curricula. 
• Lead With Phenomena and the Three Dimensions Will Follow guides teachers interested in shifting science instruction and classroom practices so that students are "figuring out" not "learning about."
• Leveraging Science to Accelerate Learning highlights an approach to teaching and learning science that not only meets state science standards, but also supports learning across all subject areas.  

Glaciers: Their Power and Mysteries in Shaping Our Landscapes 

Mark Goldner, middle level science teacher at Roland Hayes School in Brookline, Massachusetts, collaborated with Dr. Julie Brigham-Grette of University of Massachusetts Amherst to create a series of five short videos about glaciers intended for a middle or high school audience. The videos educate students about the beauty and power of glaciers while making connections between North American Ice Age geology and Arctic glaciers. In addition, these videos can help students realize that our actions with regard to greenhouse gas emissions are affecting the health of glacier systems that impact societies around the globe.

Teachers will find that these videos can provide an effective introduction, reinforcement, or review, of concepts connected to glaciers, glacial geology, climate change, and paleoclimate. The first video provides an introduction and overview of what glaciers are, how they move, and how glacial landscapes are left behind when they retreat. The next three videos explore specific features of glaciers: moraines, icebergs, and subglacial features. The last video is like a “detective story” that explores connections between the physical processes in a glacier system and the ecosystem around the glacier. The effects of climate change on glaciers are discussed throughout. The focus on glacial geology in the videos centers on New England, but is relevant to any location where the recent Ice Ages left their mark. 

NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative

NASA is offering a new round of opportunities for its CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI). CubeSats are a class of small spacecraft called nanosatellites. Developers can build CubeSats that will fly on upcoming launches. CSLI gives space access to U.S. educational institutions, informal educational institutions such as museums and science centers, minority-serving institutions, and certain nonprofit organizations. The initiative provides a low-cost pathway to conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations in space and enables students, teachers, and faculty to obtain hands-on flight hardware design, development, and build experience. TJ3Sat was the first CubeSat built by a U.S. high school, WeissSat1 was the first CubeSat built by U.S. middle schoolers, and STMSat-1 was the first CubeSat built by a U.S. elementary school.

CubeSat proposals must be submitted by November 15. NASA expects to make selections by March 14, 2025, for flight opportunities in 2026–2029, although selection does not guarantee a launch opportunity. Applicants are responsible for funding the development of the small satellites. Selected CubeSats get assigned a launch and deployment directly from a rocket or to low Earth orbit from the International Space Station. Once accepted, NASA mission managers act as advisors to the CubeSat team, ensuring technical, safety, and regulatory requirements are satisfied before launch. 

NASA TechRise Student Challenge

Now through November 1, students in grades 6–12 can submit high-altitude balloon experiment ideas under the guidance of an educator to the challenge. Sixty winning student teams will get $1,500 to build their experiment, a spot to test it on a NASA-sponsored flight, and technical support from TechRise advisors. Teams of all skill levels can apply; no experience is necessary. Challenge resources (including videos, slide decks, and educator pacing guides) can be found on the website.

NASA TechRise Educator Workshops, available between now and mid-October, provide an interactive opportunity for educators to learn about high-altitude balloons, explore the challenge with fellow educators, and learn how to use the free NASA TechRise resources to engage students in STEM by participating in the challenge.  A Student Virtual Field Trip (for individual students and classrooms), will take place on September 20 and will feature special guest speakers from NASA leadership and more. During the virtual field trip, students and teachers can submit a science or technology experiment proposal for a high-altitude balloon and participate in live Q&A.

Ecology Project International’s Free Virtual Professional Learning Workshops

These virtual workshops will introduce teachers to free, classroom-ready, NGSS-aligned lessons and storylines, and free professional development to help teachers connect the classroom to the environment. Teachers will hear about resources for biology, environmental science, Earth science, and leadership in grades 6–12. Choose from these workshops.

• Patterns and Predictions for Climate Change, September 26. This workshop will introduce participants to innovative teaching resources that help guide student inquiry through data analysis using an interactive app and free online resources.
   
• HIPPO, Hexagons, and Classroom Collaboration, November 21. This workshop will use EO Wilson’s acronym HIPPO and some hexagonal thinking to highlight the links among Habitat loss, Invasive species, Pollution, Human Population Growth, and Overharvesting.