Illustration of the new children’s book has begun at the Waukesha STEM Academy charter school. Above one of 18 art classes is working on their drawings for “Ruby the Red Worm’s Dirty Job”, and below students investigate live worms in a composting bin. It has been a privilege to work with this school. The kids have been overwhelmingly energetic and creative.

Here is a cool Backyard Adventure. A fun mini-expedition helping students and parents become modern argonauts. Third in my series of Backyard Adventures is Kitchen Composting.

ASSIGNMENT: Your adventure, should you choose to accept it, is to build your own compost bin at home or school. This is a great way to recycle your scraps and reduce your eco-footprint by eating more local food.

Example: See Ruby the Red Worm and the picture below of students studying red worms. Now research the online resources for building your own compost bin and using the compost to fertilize your garden.

Backyard Adventures. Cool fun mini-expeditions helping students and parents become modern argonauts. Second in my series of Backyard Adventures is The Final Frontier.

ASSIGNMENT: Your adventure, should you choose to accept it, is to find a star-gazing adventure right in your own backyard.

Example: Watch this video of the ultimate backyard adventure. A father and son send a HD video camera into space on a balloon, and used an iPhone as a GPS tracking system. It reminds me of when I was a kid, my dad and I made time-lapsed photos of the stars to track the orbit in across the night sky.

Introducing Backyard Adventures. Cool fun mini-expeditions helping students and parents see the world with eyes of wonder. First in my series of Backyard Adventures is the Photo Safari.

ASSIGNMENT: Your adventure, should you choose to accept it, is to find something you’ve never seen before. You may need to think like you’ve never thought before. Search where you’ve never searched before. Take a photo of your unidentified object. Bring your photo to school and discuss with the classroom what they think it might be.

Example: What do you think is pictured above? I’ll give you a hint. I found it slithering across the road in Humboldt Redwoods State Park in Northern California. Use the internet and type in some keywords and see if you can find a matching image and its name.