Student and Classroom Opportunities
K-8
- Missoula Butterfly House & Insectarium
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This is your reminder that scholarship applications for Title I schools for MBHI field trips open this Thursday, September 4, 2025, at 7:00 AM sharp.
Last year, scholarships were claimed within four days! So, if you haven’t marked your calendars yet, now is the time! We don’t want your students to miss out on the chance to experience the wonder and discovery of a field trip to the Missoula Butterfly House and Insectarium. We hosted over 150 field trips last year, and we can’t wait to welcome even more curious learners this year. Be ready to apply this Thursday morning to secure your spot!
About MBHI Field Trips
Detailed program descriptions can be found online (we are currently updating our website, and more information will be available soon). All programs are two hours long, feature exploration time, observation journals to document what students are discovering, engaging activities related to your program topic, and a chance to apply what they've learned in meaningful and exciting ways. We can accommodate up to 30 students at a time.
How to Apply for a Scholarship
Keep an eye out on your email for a link to our application at 7 AM on Thursday, September 4th, 2025! A limited number of scholarships are available to Title I schools (targeted or school-wide programs), so please get your application in early! We will follow up after you are scheduled with bussing scholarships, which will be available on an as-needed basis.
Not a Title I school, but still interested in scheduling a field trip?
Please fill out the Interest Form to let us know you're interested in scheduling a field trip. This does not commit you to a field trip. More information can be found online; we'll update that page as more pieces fall into place.
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- Nautilus Live - Ship to Shore Interactions:
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Looking for an exciting way to bring STEM to life in your classroom? Nautilus Live is offering free, live Ship-to-Shore interactions with their team of scientists and engineers currently conducting expeditions in the southwest Pacific Ocean.
These interactive sessions, lasting 30-60 minutes, are a fantastic opportunity for students to ask questions and engage directly with experts working aboard the ship. The Nautilus team is particularly eager to connect with Montana teachers before their season concludes in mid-December.
Learn more and schedule your session here: Nautilus Live - Ship-to-Shore Interactions
Don’t miss this chance to inspire your students with real-world science and exploration!
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From NASA EXPRESS:
NASA’s Climate Kids brings climate science to life with games, interactive features, and exciting articles.
Explore key concepts about Earth science, missions, and climate with "NASA's Earth Minute" videos.
Find tips for incorporating hands-on data collection activities into your programs with the GLOBE Observer: Toolkit for Informal Educators.
Peer into NASA's Earth Observatory to find images, stories, and discoveries about the environment and Earth's systems.
For even more Earth science resources, visit the NASA STEM.
K-12
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Help Scientists Search for Asteroids Around Dead Stars
Audience: Science enthusiasts of all ages
Do you ever wonder what the future holds for our solar system? The Sun will eventually become a dense, planet-sized object called a white dwarf. That means studying white dwarfs we see in the sky can provide a glimpse into our own solar system’s fate.
The Exoasteroids participatory science project lets you help scientists discover debris disks and asteroids around white dwarfs using images taken by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope. This data can provide clues into the formation and composition of other planetary systems in the universe.
- Visit the New MSTA Website and view all the upcoming events!
- Air Quality Flag Program. This program is funded by the Montana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Flags, onsite training, and educational materials are free. If you would like to get involved, contact mac.nollde@ontanahphc.org, (406) 763-1006.
- Bugs, bugs, bugs! Field trips, Classroom visits, Distance Learning, all available through Missoula Butterfly House, scholarships are available.
- Coding: CS Ed Week, Computer Science for Educators-resources
- EPA Region 8 (Mountains and Plains) offers virtual presentations to the general public, teachers and students on a variety of environmental topics. Presentations can be tailored for any age group and are offered during the school week. EPA also has lesson plans, activity books, pre-recorded presentations and games available. EPA Region 8 offers informal mentorships to young people who are interested in finding out more about environmental/conservation issues, projects and careers. Students are matched with a subject matter expert who can discuss with the students their environmental questions or career paths. Mentorships can be one-time visits, a phone call, virtual meetings or last a few months depending on the student’s needs/interests. Mentees can be of any age. Teachers or parents interested in finding out more about these offerings should contact Wendy Dew at dew.wendy@epa.govor 303-877-0428
NASA:
K-5
4-8
6-12
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Media Mavericks: Teen Media Making Clubs Visit our Website
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Start a Media Mavericks Club in YOUR Community!
Are you passionate about amplifying student voices? Do you see storytelling and media making as valuable tools in your classroom or library? Do you want to engage teens in projects that inspire civic engagement and teach real-world skills? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you should start a MEDIA MAVERICKS CLUB!
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Media Mavericks & KQED Youth Media Challenge Media Mavericks Showcase Page
Students are prompted to create a variety of media, including short film, mini-documentary, podcasts, infographics, photo essays, editorial cartoons, and more, in response to prompts that fall into three categories- persuasive commentary, informational, and first-person narrative.
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Educator Toolkit: Educator Toolkit Educators who want to introduce their students to an authentic audience for their media have a vast assortment of resources to support their endeavors. The Educator Toolkit is a great place to start your journey!
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Story-Maker: Story-Maker Expand your toolbox to include the powerful learning platform developed by Student Reporting Labs, Story-Maker.
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KQED Teach: KQED Teach Access free workshops and self-paced courses on media-making, and implementing and assessing student media projects.
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Participation is free, and no prior experience or expertise is necessary to implement highly-engaging, relevant, and valuable media projects in any educational setting. Students and their supportive educators who submit media to the Youth Media Challenge will receive a signature Media Mavericks Hoodie and other assorted swag.
Ann Bernard, our Youth Media Specialist, is here to guide you through the exciting journey of media production! Have questions or need advice? She's ready to help you get started, she can be contacted at ann.bernard@montanapbs.org or 406-994-6192
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Re: Ideas for making learning more relevant (and providing perspective on current issues)
Teacher Leaders in Montana History Cynthia Wilondek and Dylan Huisken (former MT Teacher of the Year) led a dynamite professional development workshop a few weeks ago on "Connecting Past to Present." They created a Google Doc with links to many resources and lesson plans. I'll only highlight a few here.
- In the 2023 case Held vs State of Montana, kids sued the state of Montana over not doing enough to prevent climate change, claiming that the state's inaction violated the Montana constitution's guarantee of a "clean and healthful environment." You can use this as an entry into discussing Montana's 1972 Constitution.
- Digitized newspapers are a great way to research the history of current events, for example, the closure of a local business or bridge.
- There have been a number of recent articles on trying to document all of the students who died at Indian boarding schools and returning the remains to their communities. This obviously connects to a study of the boarding school era.
- Discussions of dark money in politics today tie nicely with a discussion of the Clark-Daly feud, fight for the state capitol and decision to pass the direct election of senators after William A. Clark successfully bribed his way into the U.S. Senate in 1899.
- NASA Graphing Global Temperature Trends for 5-12
- Climate Emergency Feedback Loops, 5 short Climate Change videos with curriculum guides, as seen on PBS
- PBS LearningMedia: Grades: 6-12
9-12
- Lemelson-MIT is collaborating with the California State Railroad Museum to present "Rail Innovation in Action," a free, online program that will explore topics in transportation, environment, problem solving, and more. Please forward to students you know and others that can help spread the word.
- The California State Railroad Museum is thrilled to introduce another year of Rail Innovation in Action, a free virtual program for high school students nationwide created in partnership with Lemelson-MIT. We invite you to join our cohort of future rail innovators!
Applications are open until September 22, 2025 and the program runs on Saturdays from October 18 to December 13, 2025 (off for Thanksgiving weekend). No prior knowledge of railroading is necessary—all students need is curiosity and a passion for innovation. Priority may be given to low-income, traditionally marginalized communities. More details and information about the program can be found at www.californiarailroad.museum/RIA.
Our fall 2025 theme is Community Impact where students will be exploring real-world, human-centered issues that shape a community’s relationship with the railroad industry, in the past, present and future.
In Rail Innovation in Action students will:
● Hear from experts in the field
● Interact with industry professionals
● Engage in activities and virtual tours
● Discover exciting career paths
● Work together in small teams with peers to propose a new railway innovation/invention
● Present their innovation projects to family and friends
Apply today and spread the word! For questions and comments, please reach out to STEM Museum Educator, Alondra Moreno (amoreno@csrmf.org) or Special Projects Manager, Carly Starr (cstarr@csrmf.org). We value your input and look forward to hearing from you!
About the Lemelson-MIT Program: For over 20 years, the Lemelson-MIT Program, within the MIT School of Engineering, has been helping educators provide invention education programs to students with incredible results through our InvenTeam Grants Initiative, curriculum development for all grades, and especially our PD workshops.
Visit lemelson.mit.edu to learn more.
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NASA’s GeneLab for High Schools (GL4HS) program offers 12 weeks of on-demand training sponsored by NASA’s Ames Research Center. GL4HS immerses students in space life sciences with a specific focus on computational biology and omics-based bioinformatics research, the science of collecting and analyzing complex biological data such as genetic codes.
Application Deadline: Thursday, May 15
Program Dates: June 2 – Aug. 29
Contact: arc-gl4hs@mail.nasa.gov
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The Montana Aerospace Scholars (MAS) is a two-phase program for high school students to take part in an extracurricular experience that immerses them in aerospace-related activities. MAS is offered through NASA partnerships with the Montana Learning Center at Canyon Ferry Lake and the Northwest Earth & Space Sciences Pathways program.
Phase One is a remote portion where students will make an introduction video and complete a research essay. These assignments help students build general space technology and career knowledge while allowing them to develop skills such as problem solving, creativity, proposal writing, and critical thinking.
Students who pass Phase One will be invited to the in-person experience at the MLC campus, Phase Two. They will work as a team to plan a detailed mission to either the Moon or Mars, depending on their program. Other activities provided at this residency include learning how to fly a plane, engaging in engineering challenges, partaking in aerospace-industry tours, and interacting with NASA personnel. Students will also spend time observing objects in the night sky at our state-of-the-art observatory, featuring the largest public access telescope in Montana (weather permitting).
If you have any students who are interested, please encourage them to apply! This program is FREE. Applications are due by March 1st.
A description of the program, a FAQ document, and the application can be found here:
https://montanalearning.org/apollo50/ [montanalearning.org]
If you or students have any questions, contact Executive Director Ryan Hannahoe at MontanaLearningCenter@gmail.com.
- NASA Future Temperature Projections Unit
- High School, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) offers free, innovative classroom products. These online learning resources form the foundation of a global civics curriculum, empowering young people with the essential knowledge, skills, and perspective to be responsible citizens, take on the challenges of global competition, and steer through partisan rhetoric and disinformation. Review their resources that could be used in a science classroom. For more information contact Lori Matza, lmatza@cfr.org.
- BioInteractive: High School Science Curricular Materials
Conferences and Professional Learning
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OpenSciEd Web Seminars at NSTA for Fall 2025
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All4Ed's Future Ready Schools is offering a full scholarship for your district team to participate in the AI Leadership Bootcamp —a twelve-week virtual cohort designed to help you lead with clarity and turn AI potential into classroom impact.
There is no cost to your district.
Facilitated by Dr. Adam Phyall and Carl Hooker, this unique opportunity is open to a limited number of district teams—apply now to be considered.
Grounded in the AI by Design Guide, this action-oriented experience will equip your team to move from ideas to implementation with confidence and purpose.
Your Team Will:
- Draft or finalized AI policy
- Develop procedures to support ongoing innovation
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Create a district-aligned roadmap for responsible AI integration
Who Should Attend:
Superintendents, CTOs, CAOs, Curriculum Leaders, Instructional Coaches, and other members of district leadership teams (6–8 people recommended per team).
Program Details:
Making Sense of Science PD from WestEd: Differential Effects of Three Professional Development Models on Teacher Knowledge and Student Achievement in Elementary Science
Global Exploration for Educators Organization (GEEO) applications for travel grants are open for Sri Lanka
NOW Montana STEM Summer Institute (July 28-30) is open for registration
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Register for Lemelson MIT Workshops this summer:
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Lemelson-MIT Administrators Workshop June 11 & 12, MIT Campus, Cambridge, MA
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Lemelson-MIT Educators' Workshops, July 15 & 16, Tustin HS, Tustin, CA
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Lemelson-MIT Educators' Workshops July 22 & 23, MIT Campus, Cambridge, MA
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National Council for Geographic Education: NCGE Around the World Peruvian Amazon opportunity
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Join us, become a member in the Montana STEM Ecosystem!
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Supercharge Your Classroom
Supercharge Your Classroom with Montana Field Science Data is a free, self-paced course for educators that consists of five modules. Through these modules, educators will learn to incorporate datasets from authentic Montana research projects into their own classroom. The Supercharge Your Classroom course is sponsored by Montana NSF EPSCoR and was originally taught by Montana Partnership with Regions for Excellence in STEM (MPRES) educators Chris Pavlovich and Bill Stockton through the Montana Office of Public Instruction's (OPI) Teacher Learning Hub.
Getting Started: The Supercharge Your Classroom course takes educators through research-based approaches to complete an applicable product, a unit or lesson, for their classroom. Each topic is composed of a building background knowledge portion and an inquiry portion. These steps are designed to mimic best practices in the classroom of inquiry and explicit instruction. By progressing through the modules below, educators will deepen their understanding of Montana research and better refine their end product. Simply click each module title below to access content.
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After you have completed this course, please share your feedback and we will send you a free STEM kit for your class! If you'd like your survey responses to be anonymous, please email smrc@montana.edu to let us know you have completed it; otherwise, you can include your name, email and shipping address on the survey. Thank you! Give us your feedback here
- Interested in teaching about Climate Change? Climate Generation is a nonprofit providing interdisciplinary climate change educator professional development. Register for their newsletter and learn more!
- Teacher Learning Hub Science Foundation:
- Be prepared for the new science assessments, become an expert on the NGSS and Montana Standards with the Science Foundation Hub Courses. These courses take you step by step through the depth of the new science standards for a rich and deep understanding of this instructional conceptual change. Courses marked with an asterisk offer a sample lesson/unit within it.
- More Self-Paced Science Courses:
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Place-based Education: Your Local Watershed STEM inquiry will guide you through problem-based learning with real-world authentic data. Engage your students in their community and see an exemplar curriculum that meets standards!*
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Exploring NASA with Inquiry: Earth and Space Science lessons and activities reinforced with NASA website!*
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"Backpack Science" Inquiry Activities: Mapping: Hands-on mapping activities and resources that can be integrated into science class, as well as, other disciplines!
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Science Fair 101: Using Science Fair Projects in your Classroom: Using Science Fairs in the classroom to meet MT Standards and 3 Dimensional learning!
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New Montana Science Assessment This course presents an overview of the New Montana Science Assessment that was implemented in 2022 and provides guidance on how to best prepare your students for the science assessment by teaching you how to access and administer preparatory materials in your classroom. There are many opportunities for you to engage with the content and actually test out the practice questions before you introduce them to your students. Student-facing videos are included.
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Teaching Elementary Literacy Skills In Science This course explores current research in Science and Literacy and gives examples of what that looks like within a fifth-grade classroom. At the end of the course, you will have a deeper understanding of the current research , its implications, and methods of implementing Literacy within Science Instruction. Enjoy!
- Are you missing Walt's Science eBlast? I know I have been, and was so glad to see it back up and running as of January 2022! However, in order to get back on the list please follow these steps:
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Go to NSTA (nsta.org)
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If you have an account, login and skip to step 9
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Click "Join" in the top right
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Scroll down and click "Create a Free NSTA User Account"
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Click "Continue and Complete Your Profile to Get Started"
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Enter our Name, Email and Password, click "Continue"
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Complete the form, click "Continue"
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Select your Areas on Interest, click "Get Started"
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In the top right click "menu" and then "My Account"
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Click "Manage Subscriptions"
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Select the "Montana Science Matters Listserve" is the one you want to subscribe to, click "Save"