Profile | NSTA

Caryn Meirs
Half Hollow Hills CSD
NY

I have an absolute dream job working in a fantastic district where I teach in an ICT Earth Science Classroom and in the Special Education Department small group resource setting. I am lucky to see some of my students two or three periods each day. Afterschool I am the advisor to our FIRST FTC Robotics teams and the Class of 2018 - enough to keep me busy all year long! My home life is equally busy - I am like most of us a lifelong learner - or as my husband would say - learning junkie - and practically live on my laptop for work, professional development and fun. If the laptop is off then I am outside - camping, jogging, gardening, on a hike or in my kayak. I would love to find more time to travel, cook vegan food and curl up with a good book. One day!

Public Collections
Recent Public Collections by Caryn

Claims Evidence Reasoning High

10 Resources

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Pumpkin Science

(Mostly) elementary resources for pumpkin, fall and halloween science.

11 Resources

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Forum Posts
Recent Posts by Caryn

Tue, Dec 09, 2014 7:40 PM in Special Education

Hi there - Thank you for sharing the resources Sue! I am teacher with certification in Special Ed, Gifted Ed and Earth Science. I love co-teaching and am half of an ICT partnership that teaches Regents Earth Science in New York. I have taught science for gifted and talented elementary students and developed and presented curriculum as a push in and pull out for all populations at the elem...

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Tue, Nov 11, 2014 6:23 PM in Charlotte Danielson's Framework Domains

Hi James - My district has used the Framework for the past 8 years, going through revisions and the recent alignment with common core and NY APPR standards. One thing that helped a lot was professional development time spent going through the rubrics together. Practice scenarios were presented, administrators explained why one box (represented a domain sub section and proficiency level) was chos...

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Tue, Nov 11, 2014 5:48 PM in Written in the Stars: Winter is Coming

Thank you for posting this Matt! We try to time our astronomy unit to the winter stargazing months just so we can have the best viewing - even if it means chilly weather. I've attached two collections of NSTA resources I use with my classes here as well.

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Reviews
Recent Reviews by Caryn

Teaching Through Trade Books Collection

Tue, Sep 02, 2014 6:51 PM
Teaching with Trade Books Sampler

This collections has everything you need to get started using trade books in your classroom. It has articles for integration that span from elementary to high school, and there is good information to adapt from each. There are also links to the Outstanding Trade Books articles which are wonderful resources.

Graphing the Past

Tue, Jul 29, 2014 6:56 PM
Inspire Students to Inquire About the Past

Renee Clary and James Wandersee write about a fantastic project in Graphing the Past. They have put together a set of useful resources (available on the NSTA website) along with well researched rationale and lesson plans. The project addresses student weaknesses in generating and interpreting graphs which the authors point to a a common problem in their classes and one that is unfortunately seen by many of us. The lessons outlines provide a good foundation, well paced skills progression and a culminating project that provides for differentiation and individual choice. I can't wait to see the results from my own students using this high interest, individualized project!

Using Powers of 10 to Help Students Develop Temporal Benchmarks

Tue, Jul 29, 2014 6:19 PM
Making Large Numbers Meaningful

This well written article is a must read if you teach anything related to geologic timescale. The way that Ms. Schwartz reconciles the use of relative scales with the absolute magnitude of the numbers is easy to understand and classroom ready. The time benchmark chart is worth a look on its own, but it is just one of many resources here. Presented this way, students will be able to make connections to their own lives, and should be better able to deepen their understanding of the concepts because it has become relevant.

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