iExploreScience: STEM in Elem
iExploreScience: STEM in Elem is for upper elementary teachers — especially grades 3–5 —who want to make elementary science and math more engaging, without adding more prep or overwhelm to their day. If you’re looking for practical ways to bring STEM and hands-on learning into your classroom while still meeting standards like NGSS, this podcast is for you.
Each week, you’ll get (ideally) short, (always!) actionable episodes (about 15–30 minutes) filled with classroom-tested ideas you can actually use. From simple STEM challenges and low-prep science activities to math routines, lab management, and neurodivergent-friendly strategies, everything is designed to help you keep students thinking, moving, and engaged—especially during the most challenging times of the year.
You’ll also hear honest reflections from real classroom experiences, with a focus on what works (and what doesn’t) in my 5th grade science and math classroom — no perfection required.
I’m Nicole, and I share practical, hands-on science and math ideas designed specifically for upper elementary teachers who want engaging, rigorous lessons without the overwhelm.
iExploreScience: STEM in Elem
14 Vertical Whiteboards In Science & Math
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Vertical whiteboards are all the buzz in math circles -- and whether or not you subscribe to the whole BTC framework, the boards themselves? Golden!! The good news is, it works just as well in science as it does in math.
In this episode, Nicole breaks down exactly how she uses vertical whiteboards in both her math and science classroom: what they are, why they work, and the specific ways she uses them for everything from complex word problems to building food webs to analyzing data in real time.
In This Episode:
- why vertical whiteboards let you see everything — who's stuck, who's off task, who's making the same mistake — all at once, without hovering
- how the erasability of a whiteboard lowers the stakes and gets reluctant students actually participating
- Nicole's step-by-step math problem solving sequence at the whiteboard — and how it builds habits that transfer to independent work
- science applications for vertical whiteboards
- how to start without spending a ton of money and without overhauling your whole classroom
If you've heard of Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl, this connects to that — but we're not doing a book review here. This is Nicole's unique strategy, evolved over four years of figuring out what actually works for her upper elementary math and science students!
📝 Want to go deeper? Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl is worth your time even if you're primarily a science teacher.
📬 Grab the Vertical Whiteboards Expectations Poster to support positive behaviors at the boards in this week's Substack post: https://iexplorescience.substack.com/
📬 Stay Connected
- 📰 Substack: https://iexplorescience.substack.com/
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- 💻 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolevantassel/