Beetles Project Tales from the Field Archives

Tale from the Field: Engaging and Managing Students Applied to Teen Outdoor Experiences

May 23, 2018: Tales from the Field

Xander Tartter, a former field instructor with San Joaquin Outdoor Education and Walden West Outdoor School, now runs BOLD & GOLD, an outdoor leadership program for the San Francisco YMCA. Here, he shares how some of the key concepts and strategies in the BEETLES Guide to Engaging and Managing Students in Outdoor Science apply to […]

Tale from the Field: Inter-Institute Collaboration on Professional Learning for Elementary School Teachers

April 6, 2018: Tales from the Field

Sarah Johnson of Wild Rose Education and Sara Monson of Walking Mountains Science Center are both based in western Colorado. They attended two different BEETLES Leadership Institutes– in August and December 2017, and had heard of each other prior to the Institute. Sara Monson had grant funding from the EPA to facilitate a daylong workshop […]

Paige Marley, Jamee Puccio, Camp Tyler Outdoor School

Tale from the Field: After a Leadership Institute

January 15, 2018: Tales from the Field

When Jamee Puccio and Paige Marley returned to their organization after participating in the BEETLES August 2017 Leadership Institute, they got right to work using some of the resources they’d been introduced to. Jamee wrote to us to share her experience and we thought she so perfectly articulated the combination of excitement for improvement and […]

Tale from the Field: Birding on the Trail

December 2, 2017: Tales from the Field

By Ian Gledhill At Shady Creek Outdoor School, it is not uncommon to have a kid screaming with delight when they identify a bird. Birding is fun because birds are pretty, it’s science, a competition, and just like Pokemon, you gotta catch ‘em all. We teach that birds are nature’s storytellers, and we give kids […]

Repost: One Teacher’s Journey Towards Implementation

September 12, 2017: Tales from the Field

We couldn’t help but share this inspiring story from Kirsten Franklin on the Ten Strands website. Kirsten has worked with several projects at the Lawrence Hall of Science, including BEETLES, BaySci, and our most recent partnership with ChangeScale to create Environmental Literacy Plans with school districts that offer every student cohesive opportunities to learn in […]

Tales from the Field: Letting the Messy In

April 21, 2017: Tales from the Field

By Claire Maguire (Note from BEETLES: We’re incredibly grateful for the feedback provided to us by SCCOSS Naturalists and others as we were developing this activity. The story below illustrates some of the potential pitfalls of engaging students in investigations, but also the magic when one can “let the messy in”. It also illustrates the […]

Tales from the Field: Using Games

August 25, 2016: Tales from the Field

The following is an exchange between two program leaders currently using BEETLES Professional Learning Sessions and the BEETLES team. The most effective use of games is a topic that regularly comes up at BEETLES institutes and workshops, and that we hear in many other science education settings. Read on to hear some of our thoughts […]

Tales from the Field: How YMCA Camp Seymour Started Revising Curriculum

May 4, 2016: Tales from the Field

Jill and Becca left the BEETLES leadership Institute in August of 2015, inspired, full of ideas, and ready to implement new professional learning sessions at their staff training only two weeks away. Jill had an immediate opportunity to implement BEETLES with students herself, loved the results, and became even more excited. For two weeks they […]

Kids participating in BEETLES activity at stream

Content vs. Process: A False Dichotomy

March 1, 2016: Tales from the Field

The following is an exchange between a program leader currently using BEETLES Professional Learning Sessions and the BEETLES team. The content vs. process “debate” is one that folks have raised many times in BEETLES institutes over the last four years, and that we hear in many other science education settings. You can bet it will […]

Tales from the Field: Getting Better at Letting Go

July 5, 2015: Tales from the Field

by Amelia Rosenman The first time I led NSI: Nature Scene Investigators, it was a total flop. We were studying a piece of scat on the trail – which usually is pretty exciting! The students kept looking at me with “Am I doing this right?” expressions on their faces. Some just got bored and literally […]