Category Archives: Middle School

Evolution Featured at Tennessee Teacher Conference

While socio-cultural forces continue to pressure teachers not to talk about evolution through intimidation and confusing laws, many science teachers remain committed in the face of adversity to helping each other teach their students the scientific consensus of evolution as … Continue reading

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Two Days of STEM Fun: Over 100 Middle School Students, Teachers & Parents Visit NIMBioS

NIMBioS hosted two events for middle school students last week that resulted in over 100 students, parents and teachers visiting the institute. On the agenda were fun activities to inspire students to pursue higher education in science, technology, engineering and … Continue reading

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Tennessee Environmental Educators Connect Biodiversity & Probability

NIMBioS showcased its “Measuring Biodiversity with Probability” at the Tennessee Environmental Educators Association Conference last week in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The conference drew 114 environmental educators from across the state to a day and a half of sessions … Continue reading

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Girls in Science Campers Quantify Smokies Stream Biodiversity

For the fifth year, the NIMBioS Education and Outreach Team headed to the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont in June to help Girls in Science campers analyze stream biodiversity data using mathematical biology concepts. During the week-long resident camp, the 24 girls, … Continue reading

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Middle School Girls Have STEM Adventures!

In elementary school, 74 percent of girls say they are interested in math and science classes, but women make up only 26 percent of the STEM workforce. Finding ways to retain girls’ interest in STEM to close this gap is the … Continue reading

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Prizes for Young Scientists: Mold Growth and an App Predicting Seizures

Congratulations to this year’s winners of the Junior and Senior NIMBioS Prizes for Research at the Interface of Mathematics and Biology, presented annually at the Southern Appalachian Science Engineering Fair, held at the Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville. This year’s Junior … Continue reading

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Biology in a Box Aligned to Mathematics Common Core

Teachers of K-12 looking for hands-on, memorable enrichment activities for teaching the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics need look no further — the alignment for Biology in a Box is now complete and published online. Forty-five states, the District … Continue reading

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Teaching Science in a Climate of Denial at Tennessee Teacher Conference

Social controversy surrounding certain scientific theories poses a great challenge for teaching science in the United States — up to 60 percent of U.S. high school biology teachers report capitulating in some way to antievolution pressure, reports one study. NIMBioS and … Continue reading

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Middle School Teachers Take STEM Thinking Outside the Box

Middle school science teachers from across East Tennessee were introduced to inquiry-based activities at the intersection of math and science during several training workshops this fall. NIMBioS Associate Director for Education & Outreach Suzanne Lenhart and Education & Outreach Coordinator … Continue reading

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NIMBioS Hosts SHADES Girls in STEM Workshop

NIMBioS hosted area middle school girls this month for SHADES, an interactive one-day workshop in science and engineering. Girls did many fun and interactive STEM activities including T-shirt chromatography, building model sinkholes, using Geiger counters, creating genetic code bracelets, and … Continue reading

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