Blog Posts

Open-ended STEAM projects for elementary to middle schoolers

Posted by Corinne Pachl on July 19, 2022

On a scale from Tinkerer to Instruction Follower, I’m severely the latter. I do believe that anyone and everyone is a maker, but I’m the kind of maker who can make anything as long as I have a set of directions. Sewing pattern? I can assemble a new dress. Recipe? Boom, I have scratch-made cinnamon rolls a day later. Walk me through writing code? Sure, I’ll make that robot solve a maze ASAP.

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Topics: IDEAS & INSPIRATION, STEM, Engineering, Activities, Hands-on Learning

Make your camp/summer learning program planning easy

Posted by Molly Underwood on May 03, 2022

Summer is on the way! And that means camps are right around the corner. When we think of a summer camp, we picture pitching a tent or sitting around a campfire roasting s’mores or maybe kayaking across the lake. But, what about learning? Just because the school year is over, that doesn’t mean learning must come to an end too.  

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Topics: Middle School, BEYOND THE CLASSROOM, Camps, STEM, Hands-on Learning

Can you dig it? National Plant a Flower Day is March 12

Posted by Corinne Pachl on March 04, 2022

A couple of my bucket list items are to walk among the tulips blooming in Amsterdam, to picnic under cherry blossoms in Japan, and to see the brilliantly colored bougainvillea and jacaranda blooms all over Madeira, Portugal. What do all these things have in common? Flowers!

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Topics: Middle School, Elementary School, IDEAS & INSPIRATION, Science, STEM, Social and emotional learning, Hands-on Learning

Force of Attraction: How magnets attract and repel

Posted by Crista Cunningham on February 11, 2022

We’ve all heard the term opposites attract. While this can be true of your valentine, we’ll just stick to a topic we can all agree on: SCIENCE!

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Topics: IDEAS & INSPIRATION, Science, STEM, Activities, Hands-on Learning, Art

The future is Fusion: Your next-gen dragster blank

Posted by Corinne Pachl on February 09, 2022

The world of education has evolved significantly over the years, yet Pitsco’s CO2 dragsters have remained a constant since the 1970s. Since its beginning, Pitsco’s dragster assortment has always offered two types of wooden blanks: balsa and basswood.

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Topics: IN THE CLASSROOM, Middle School, Competitions, STEM, TSA, Dragsters, Activities, Drafting