School closures in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic led to kids asking pertinent questions about why they were not in school, especially some students suffering financial hardship. Virtual classrooms became the mundane venues for students to piece together the pandemic puzzle and unpack unseen inequities. This article examines disparities that…

Genetic engineering is taught in biology--but as a scientific tool and not as a means to explore engineering design. Yet, given the clever behaviors and patterns that can be found when examining living systems, biology classes seem well positioned to teach foundational engineering design principles (Kuldell 2007). This article examines a new,…

In this article, the author describes the "Be your own groundhog" project in her grades 9-12 Earth and environmental sciences courses, in which students use citizen science databases to research the physical changes that signal the arrival of spring. This project starts with a simple question, "When will spring spring?" This goes beyond the…