The Science Teacher's Playbook – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome to Episode 40 of The Science Teacher’s Playbook Podcast!

In this episode, we're breaking down the big shifts coming to Pennsylvania science education with the upcoming implementation of the STEELS Standards in July 2025. Whether you’re new to STEELS or still working through what it means for your classroom, this episode offers a practical, teacher-centered overview of how these new standards compare to the 2002 PA Science Standards—and why the change is such a big deal.

🔍 In this episode, you’ll learn:
✅ Why STEELS is a framework, not just a checklist
✅ How engineering practices are now a core part of science learning
✅ Why depth > breadth when it comes to content coverage
✅ How STEELS pushes interdisciplinary thinking across science, math, and engineering
✅ The importance of aligning to current scientific practices and ideas

👩‍🏫 You’ll also hear tips for how to get started now—even during this planning year—and why you don’t need to buy a new program to get started with STEELS. (Spoiler: The state hasn’t endorsed any curriculum yet. NONE!)

🔗 Resources mentioned:

• STEELS Standards Hub – PA Dept. of Ed.

• OpenSciEd – Free NGSS-Aligned Curriculum

🎧 Listen now and get inspired to take the first step toward a more modern, integrated, and student-centered approach to science teaching.

SHOW NOTES

What if we stopped treating leadership like a checklist and started thinking of it as an ecosystem? In this episode of The Science Teacher’s Playbook, Beth dives into her transformation from traditional leadership to Buildership, exploring how she stopped managing teachers and started cultivating a thriving learning environment.

Through insights from Stop Leading, Start Building by Robyn Jackson, Beth reframes leadership using an ecosystem model, where teachers, students, and professional learning thrive in a balanced, interconnected system. She breaks down her Science Department Buildership Plan, a 10-step framework designed to empower teachers, foster collaboration, and create a sustainable culture of growth—just like a thriving natural ecosystem.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why compliance-based leadership is like a fragile monoculture 🌾 vs. a resilient, biodiverse ecosystem 
• The four key stages of Buildership and how they mirror natural system
• How Beth’s 10-step Buildership Plan transformed her science department into a self-sustaining learning environment
• How to rewild your leadership approach by creating conditions for teachers to flourish instead of controlling them

Tune in now to discover how you can stop leading and start building a science education ecosystem that thrives!

Have thoughts or questions? DM Beth on Instagram @TheScienceTeachersPlaybook and share how you’re growing your own educational ecosystem!

Subscribe, rate, and review the podcast to help more educators cultivate lasting change!

SHOW NOTES

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You are listening to episode 30 of Ready, Set, Science! On today’s episode we will discuss my recent trip to PETE & C. I am going to review what I heard, learned and my reactions, good and bad. So are you ready? Get set. Let’s teach science!

SHOW NOTES

All the links:

Check out the website www.mrsbadessoteaches.com

Follow on social: 

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The links may be affiliate links. I earn a small commission from affiliate links to fund Mrs. Badesso Teaches. Thank you for your support!

You are listening to episode 32 of the ready, set, science podcast. On today’s show, we are talking all about the 5E model and how to use it in your science classroom. The 5E method of learning is a pedagogical framework commonly used in science education to engage students in the learning process through a series of phases that encourage active participation and critical thinking. The 5E model stands for Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. Each of these phases represents a key step in the learning process and is designed to help students build a deep understanding of scientific concepts.

SHOW NOTES

All the links:

Check out the website www.mrsbadessoteaches.com

Follow on social: 

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Welcome back to ready, set, science! Today we are going to focus on all things phenomena! I am so excited to get into this topic because it is one of my favorite ways to teach science. I love when students get to experience science and phenomena is the best way to do that. So let’s get ready to teach science!

SHOW NOTES

All the links:

• Check out the website www.mrsbadessoteaches.com
• Find all of the products mentioned in the show on my teachers pay teachers store: 

  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrs-Badesso-Teaches

• Follow on social:
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Resources:

• www.iexplorescience.com 

• www.sadlerscience.com

• www.thewonderofscience.com  

The links may be affiliate links. I earn a small commission from affiliate links to fund Mrs. Badesso Teaches. Thank you for your support!

Many people have a complicated relationship with failure, including me! How do we move away from teaching so kids can “get the right answer” toward teaching to  understanding the process? Why are we in a society where failure is a “4 letter word” and how do we get kids to break the cycle of always having to be right? Let's talk about making failure our FIRST ATTEMPT IN LEARNING. 

Show Notes

Thanks for listening!

Don’t forget to check out our website www.mrsbadessoteaches.com

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For generations, the scientific method has been the “go to” method for teaching real science in the classroom. But what it has really done, is take out the problem solving and thinking processes that are at the heart of science exploration.  In this episode we will explore the scientific method’s flaws and discuss better methods to help our students understand science for the real world.

Thanks for listening!

Don’t forget to check out the website www.mrsbadessoteaches.com

SHOW NOTES

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You are listening to episode 28 of the ready, set, science podcast. On today’s show, we will discuss homework. I feel like homework is such a debatable topic. Even in my teaching career there have been so many changes in what is and is not appropriate for students. So today, we are going to break it all down and discuss what is good homework and what is not good homework. So are you ready, get set, let’s teach science!

SHOW NOTES

Thanks for listening!

All the links:

Check out the website www.mrsbadessoteaches.com

Follow on social: 

Instagram: @MrsBadessoTeaches

Facebook: MrsBadessoTeaches

Sign up for our email list here: https://forms.gle/yb2imYRH3zC4PdXh7

The links may be affiliate links. I earn a small commission from affiliate links to fund Mrs. Badesso Teaches. Thank you for your support!

You are listening to episode 27 of the Ready, Set, Science podcast. On today’s episode we are going to discuss science education trends and whether or not those are valuable tools or more work than they are worth. You be the judge today, so are you ready, get set, let’s teach science!

SHOW NOTES

Thanks for listening!

All the links:

Check out the website www.mrsbadessoteaches.com

Follow on social: 

Instagram: @MrsBadessoTeaches

Facebook: MrsBadessoTeaches

Sign up for our email list here: https://forms.gle/yb2imYRH3zC4PdXh7

The links may be affiliate links. I earn a small commission from affiliate links to fund Mrs. Badesso Teaches. Thank you for your support!

You are listening to episode 26 and today we are going to talk about what to do when students have science misconceptions and how to help them break those to really understand science. So are you ready? Get set, let’s teach science.

Helping to break student misconceptions in science is a crucial part of effective science education. Misconceptions can hinder a student's ability to understand and apply scientific principles.

SHOW NOTES

Thanks for listening!

All the links:

Check out the website www.mrsbadessoteaches.com

Follow on social: 

Instagram: @MrsBadessoTeaches

Facebook: MrsBadessoTeaches

Sign up for our email list here: https://forms.gle/yb2imYRH3zC4PdXh7

The links may be affiliate links. I earn a small commission from affiliate links to fund Mrs. Badesso Teaches. Thank you for your support!