Fidgit spinners are in the hands of so many students these days. I have to stipulate to students that unless "I have papers that indicate you need a fidget device" that they need to be put away. I feel like a broken record. They have become a distraction in so many classes. The original purpose of a fidget spinner was to help students with attention issues in focusing. However, they have become a toy to many students. With all of my lessons I want them to be applicable to the

I am a self proclaimed geek and nerd. I own my nerdiness. So, it comes as no surprise that I love Star Wars. I love that pop culture has created Star Wars Day on May the 4th. Its awesome, and I will be 90 in a nursing home still using the May the Fourth joke. Just wait. I am passionate about bringing science to life and relating it to my students lives. While breaking down the physics of superhero and sci-fi movies can reduce the enjoyment of watching those movies, I have fou

I recently have become enamored with ESRIs Story Maps. I have always been a mapper. I conducted many areas of geologic mapping as an undergrad and worked with creating GIS maps as a consulting geologist. I even created a GIS based map of our maple trees for our "maple sugar conglomerate". To say mapping is a passion is an understatement. I have framed maps in my living room. So, when I read the ESRI tweet about Story Maps, I was all over it! I immediately saw a use for it i

One of my many hobbies is genealogy. I have been researching my family tree since 2001 ans am the self professed family historian for both my and my husbands families. In the last two years, I expanded my research to my husband's family lines. My husband is Irish and Finnish on his paternal lines and Eastern European on his maternal side. After conducting Ancestry DNA tests, I was contacted by an administrator of a Facebook group that focused on descendents from a particula