Class CrunchLabs

01. The Challenge

From crafting exploding glitter bombs to designing backyard squirrel obstacle courses and engineering the world's smallest Nerf gun, Mark Rober has an unparalleled knack for getting kids "stoked" on science. Mark's lifelong aspiration has been to become a high school physics teacher, and now he's leveraging the resources of CrunchLabs to create classroom materials that empower both teachers and students to delve into three-dimensional science education that's both captivating and academically robust.

02. The Solution

Class CrunchLabs is pioneering the development of a cutting-edge supplemental science and engineering education resource tailored specifically for the Next Generation Science Standards. Our objectives for this resource are as follows:

• Cultivate and sustain students' enthusiasm for science and engineering both inside and outside the classroom through the implementation of 3-dimensional instruction.
• Foster students' understanding of the world around them through immersive "hands-on" and "brains-on" inquiry learning experiences.
• Integrate renowned and diverse personalities into the classroom to ignite students' interest in science learning and enrich their educational journey with digital tools and resources.
• Facilitate authentic and collaborative sensemaking among students through shared experiences and design challenges.
• Prioritize student questions, ideas, and experiences in our instructional approach while adapting learning strategies to accommodate diverse student needs.
• Establish a consistent and reliable schedule of "routines" throughout the entire curriculum to provide students with a predictable learning framework.
• Ensure that every lesson deepens students' comprehension of the anchoring phenomenon or design challenge.
• Present open-ended challenges within each unit, encouraging students to apply creativity and scientific reasoning by exploring multiple approaches and solutions, thereby nurturing critical thinking and innovation.
• Always offer our resource for free to teachers, allowing them to use and adapt it to suit their unique teaching contexts and preferences.

03. The Result

Spencer from STEM Ed Consulting has had the privilege of serving as the Director of Curriculum product for this project which launched at the NSTA National Conference in March of 2024. STEM Ed Consulting has been honored to help write curriculum resources; both teacher and student-facing, while collaborating with the entire CrunchLabs team to provide feedback on scripts and videos, STEM content, alignment to standards, and more. Class CrunchLabs plans to continue to develop and release new resources across the next few years until all of the MS NGSS Standards are complete.

Class CrunchLabs is still in Beta but continue to check back as more resources are developed and released.