10/05/2026
"As a 7th-grade teacher, I want students to leave class thinking science is a fun way to explore the world. Middle school is when a lot of kids start to feel like science is hard, or that it isn't for them. Obviously, foundational content matters, but if they leave my class with one thing, I want it to be that science is fun and engaging. That's what helps them push through the harder stuff in high school and college. With that in mind, my units are intentionally designed to help them explore real science connected to their communities.
This past year, we partnered with an organization called WE ACT for Environmental Justice, who donated air quality monitors to our classroom. This allowed students to gain comprehensive fieldwork experience by capturing and analyzing air quality data across all parts of our school district, while connecting data to the history of redlining in those neighborhoods. I love inquiry work where students are actually doing science, asking questions, and observing phenomena right outside their school and homes. Once a kid sees the air on their block is measurably worse than the air a half mile away and that it's not an accident, they start asking different questions about their own health and the health of their community."
MƒA Teacher Talk: MƒA Master Teacher Pete Schoen teaches Biology at the Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School (MELS)