Author Archive
Behind the Scenes at Asombro: Planning for a New Year By Stephanie Bestelmeyer “Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar, you present a new place for ideas and progress.” -Charles Kettering I was recently talking with a long-time Asombro donor who asked me an interesting question: When there is…
The More Things Change, The More They Remain the Same By Rink Somerday Humans have a funny way of putting meaning on numbers. Some numbers are “big ones” like a 25th anniversary or a 50th birthday. Some are a coming of age, like that first year of the teens or finally becoming an…
Closer to Home: Place-Based Education & Connection By Dakota Dominguez At Asombro, we offer engaging, place-based science education programs, but what does “place-based” really mean, and why is it a worthwhile way of framing science education? The concept of place is one of those that is at once simple and intuitive but, at the…
Matter and Energy: Around and Around in the Chihuahuan Desert By Stephanie Haan-Amato Doesn’t everyone want to go back to high school again? We do! The Asombro staff is excited to head into all of Las Cruces Public School high schools this year with a brand-new lesson about energy and matter cycling…
My Journey as a 2018 NAAEE Community Environmental Education Fellow By Ryan Pemberton In February 2018, an application came across my desk to be a part of the North American Association for Environmental Education’s (NAAEE) Community Environmental Education (EE) Fellowship program. As I read through the program requirements and goals, it became abundantly clear…
Helping New Mexico be STEM Ready! By Rachel Szczytko In July of 2018, New Mexico officially implemented a whole new set of science standards. The NM STEM Ready! Standards turn old science teaching upside down. The Standards, which are made up of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) with an additional six New Mexico-specific…
Refueling My Passion for Really Good Science Education By Libby Grace Three years ago, I was a frustrated middle school science teacher. Having just completed Teach for America in Chicago, I found myself shocked at the status of science education in public schools. A lack of resources, and optimism, made meeting the needs…