Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age Lesson Plans

Take students to an era millions of years after the age of dinosaurs with lesson plans from educational outreach program provider Young Minds Inspired based on the new five-episode season of Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age on Apple TV+, which premiered on November 26. With hands-on STEAM and English language arts activities, students in grades 3–5 are challenged to determine measurements of Ice Age animals, create puppets, and practice scientific vocabulary and Earth history knowledge.

Energy! Community Research Guide

Produced by the Smithsonian Science Education Center, Energy! is a seven-part online research guide designed for middle and high school students to explore how communities can create a more sustainable future. Developed as part of the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals project, the guide helps students and teachers contribute to a more sustainable planet as they generate customized solutions for energy challenges in their own community. The guide helps teachers integrate inquiry-based science education with civic engagement and engages students in authentic science research. Students gain new perspectives through input from subject-matter experts across a range of energy topics, including sustainable sources of energy and sustainable practices in cooking, heating and cooling, transportation, personal energy use, and industrial energy use.

Primary Sources and Preservation

Preservation and conservation of primary source documents provide an interesting application of concepts students learn in chemistry and physics. An investigation of color degradation using primary source photographs from the Library of Congress (LOC) collection is one way to engage high school learners in the topic. In an activity described in the LOC’s blog Teaching with the Library, students observe two primary source images taken by photographer Toni Frissell in 1948—"Swiss Children” and “Boy With Dog and Large Lollipop”—and hypothesize reasons for their differences in coloration. After forming their hypotheses, the teacher provides supplies for students to design their own experiments to test their ideas, including different types and colors of paper, various light sources, water, thermometers, and other materials. Through experimentation, students may conclude that certain dyes fade faster than others when exposed to light. Students can extend learning and connections to chemistry and physics by researching why some dyes are more stable than others and what practices can be employed to avoid color degradation of photographs.

Robert F. Tinker Fellows Program

The program seeks to promote innovation, creativity, and cross-disciplinary conversations in educational technology for STEM teaching and learning. The fellowship brings individuals to the Concord Consortium to spark new ideas, tinker with novel technologies, cultivate outside perspectives, and provide opportunities for reflection on the consortium’s work. This year’s theme focuses on the application of innovations in artificial intelligence to transform teaching and learning. Proposals should address educational technology-related approaches in one or more of the following topics, or similar areas of research and scholarship.

•    Novel or out-of-the-box applications of LLM technologies for teaching and learning in STEM;
•    Applications of neurosymbolic or hybrid human-AI systems to augment STEM teaching and learning;
•    Radical visions or AI-first designs for STEM learning tools; and
•    Transformative applications of AI and machine learning for learning analytics or assessment of STEM teaching and learning.
  
The Tinker Fellows Program includes a total honorarium of $5,000. Apply by December 31.

Fund for Teachers Grants

Fund for Teachers, a national nonprofit, invites full-time teachers in the continental United States, Hawaii, and Alaska in public, private, and charter schools with at least three years of classroom experience to apply to design fellowships that enrich their careers, support student success, and strengthen schools and communities. Applicants must meet these requirements.

•    Spend at least 50% of their time directly providing instruction to students.
•    Intend to return to a classroom or teaching environment the year following their fellowship and demonstrate the ability to incorporate what they learn into their teaching.
•    Have at least three years of experience as a preK–12 teacher at the end of the school year.

Apply by January 22, 2026.

Summer Institute—LiftOff 2026: Moon to Mars: A New Era of Discovery

The LiftOff Summer Institute is a weeklong (June 22–26, 2026) training event at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, and is sponsored by the University of Texas Austin Center for Space Research. This year’s theme is "Moon to Mars: A New Era of Discovery." The program will focus on how NASA, commercial space companies, and research institutions are working together to shape the future of deep space exploration. Educators will hear directly from the scientists, engineers, and mission leaders advancing spaceflight technology and developing commercial platforms in Low Earth Orbit.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens currently employed as a grades 5–12 STEM educator, CTE instructor, or current preservice teacher. Apply by December 12.