Distance learning certainly has its challenges, but it’s also an opportunity to get creative and think outside the box.
Creative approaches to learning STEAM subjects – science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics – help students developing important skills such as critical thinking, innovation, and collaboration.
Below are ten STEAM activities designed to get your students’ creative juices flowing and log off the screen for some analog learning.
1. The Solar System as Muse
How it works: This activity bridges art, Earth and space sciences by having students use artistic elements to understand and portray the cosmos.
Materials needed: Drawing paper, drawing media (e.g. pastels, watercolors, crayons, markers or pencils), gummy erasers, Q-tips, cleaning wipes, fixative (optional).
Learn more: See lesson plans and downloadable materials here.
2. X-Rays and Anatomies
How it works: This simple activity gives students an inside peek at different animal skeletons and then asks them to turn that x-ray vision on themselves. Includes different lesson options.
Materials needed: Animal x-ray printouts (use links provided or find your own), paper, pencil, scissors, pretzel sticks and/or pretzel loops.
How it works: This activity helps children learn about electrical circuits, and by the end of the lesson they end up with a glowing card to light up someone’s day.
Materials needed: Card stock or construction paper, coin or AA battery, drawing media (crayons, markers, pencils), stickers (optional), tape (electrical or masking), scissors, LED or old holiday lights.
Learn more: See full instructions here. Note: this activity requires parental supervision.
4. Pipe Cleaner Constellations
How it works: Students use pipe cleaners and beads to learn about the stars, their names, and constellations. Includes several activity variations.
Materials needed: Book or website on constellations, beads, pipe cleaners, scissors, glow in the dark paint (optional).
Learn more: See instructions and optional downloadable materials here.
5. Clothespin Building Challenge
How it works: Kids get a primer on the fun of engineering by building structures out of simple, everyday materials. Includes five different options for building the tallest or strongest structure, as well as other engineering design challenges.
How it works: By collecting and experimenting on leaves in their own backyards, kids learn about the chemistry of leaves and why they change color in the fall. Includes lessons for younger and older students.
Materials needed: Leaves, rubbing alcohol, jars with lids, butter knife, large bowl, coffee filters, hot water, plates, scissors.
How it works: By finding and studying the living beings in their geographic locale (backyard, park, community garden, etc.), students gain an understanding of animal phyla and taxonomy.
Materials needed: Paper, pen or pencil, digital camera (optional), magnifying glass (optional).
Learn more: Lesson instructions and teaching prompts here.
8. Weather News Deep-Dive
How it works: By researching a single weather event in the news, students not only learn about weather events and impacts, but also the different ways the event is reported in news outlets and publications.
Materials needed: Copies of news stories (find your own or use those provided in-lesson), chart paper, markers.
Learn more: Lesson instructions and teaching prompts here.
9. Climate Postcards
How it works: Students learn about the world’s different climate zones and interpret data by using a creative postcard project.
Learn more: Download worksheets and lesson info here.
10. Ocean Studies: The Twilight Zone
How it works: This activity engages kids to learn about the fascinating creatures that live in the ocean’s “twilight zone” – the mysterious layer of ocean that lies between the sunlit zone and the dark abyss below.
Materials needed: Books/materials about twilight zone animals, drawing media (crayons, markers, pencils), a bucket, design materials (plastic wrap, straws, wax paper, etc.), paper, scissors, tape.
Just because we’re stuck at home doesn’t mean we can’t be creative. Many of the above projects are hosted on sites with lots of STEAM activities – take some time to look through and bookmark more lessons for later!
This article is furnished by California Casualty. We specialize in providing auto and home insurance to educators, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and nurses. Get a quote at 1.866.704.8614 or www.calcas.com.
Nothing says cold weather coziness like a warm, glowing fire in the fireplace. While indoor fires keep us warm and provide comfort, they can also pose hazards.
Follow these tips to keep your fireplace and chimney in safe working order.
Maintain, Clean & Inspect
Check your alarms – Before you light your first fire of the season, make sure your carbon monoxide and smoke detectors are working properly. For the former, use the “test” button on the unit; for the latter, see our testing and safety tips here.
Get an annual inspection – Hire a certified chimney inspector to closely inspect your chimney, fireplace, and/or woodburning stove, clean them and let you know about any needed repairs.
Keep it clean – Keep the hearth free of debris, decorations, and other flammable materials. Be sure to remove ashes after every fire – excess ash in the fireplace can reduce airflow for the next fire, which leads to more smoke.
Be careful with ash – When cleaning ashes, remember that they can stay hot for a long time – give them plenty of time to cool. When cooled, put them in a covered metal container and wet them down. Put the container outside and let sit for three days before disposing of it.
Burn Safely
Use a screen – Fireplace screens are metal accessories designed to prevent flying sparks and embers from starting a house fire. Always use one when burning a fire.
Consider fireplace doors – Slightly different from screens, glass fireplace doors are meant to help your fire burn better and produce more heat. They should be fully open when starting a fire and when the fire is burning strongly. After the fire dies down a bit, close the doors completely to minimize the amount of air going up the chimney.
Know your damper – Dampers are often confused with flues. The flue is the tube inside the chimney through which the smoke escapes. The damper is the device inside the flue that you can open or close. When starting a fire and while it’s burning, make sure the damper is open. When your fireplace is not in use close the damper to prevent warm air from escaping.
Make sure the fire’s really out – Never leave a fire unattended. Before going to bed or leaving the house, make sure it’s had plenty of time to die down and that it’s fully extinguished.
Be smart about what you burn – Only burn dry, seasoned wood, and kindling in your fireplace. Do not burn plastic, cardboard boxes, wrapping paper or trash, some of which can emit toxins into your home. And never burn your Christmas tree, as burning needles can easily send sparks spraying
Practice Fire Safety from the Outside In
Observe the 30-foot rule – That’s how far firewood should be stacked away from your home.
Install a chimney cap – This prevents snow, rain, and other moisture from entering your chimney and keeps out animals that may try to nest inside.
Prune branches – Make sure you’ve pruned any branches that are close to your chimney.
Remove dry debris – Your roof and chimney should be clear of pine needles, leaves, and other flammable debris.
For additional tips and an easy-to-print infographic on Chimney Safety click here.
The sooner you know that your fireplace and chimney are in tip-top shape, the sooner you and your family can enjoy evening fires, board games, hot chocolate, and all the rest that make winter so cozy.
This article is furnished by California Casualty. We specialize in providing auto and home insurance to educators, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and nurses. Get a quote at 1.866.704.8614 or www.calcas.com.
When daylight savings ends and our days become shorter, motorists will find themselves driving more often at dusk and in the dark.
As we turn our clocks back, it’s important to keep in mind that night driving is more dangerous than daytime driving – mostly due to reduced visibility and difficulty judging speed and distance. In fact, according to the National Safety Council, while we do only one-quarter of our driving at night, it’s when 50 percent of traffic fatalities occur.
Here are five ways you can stay safer on the roads at night.
1. Be Headlight Savvy
Proper headlight usage and maintenance will go a long way toward safe night driving. Remember the general rule of turning headlines on before sunset, and keeping them on for an hour after sunrise, which will help other drivers see you. Also:
Aim headlights correctly (ask your dealer or mechanic/repair shop to double-check them next time you’re in).
Make sure they’re clean.
Regularly test your high beams, low beams, running lights, turn signals, and brake lights.
On rural roads or other dark areas, use high beams. Dim them when you’re within 500 feet of an oncoming vehicle.
2. Slow Down and Give Room
Due to reduced visibility, drivers at night often need more time to both see other cars, pedestrians, and obstacles, and also to react safely. Give yourself the advantage by slowing down a bit and also giving yourself some extra room on the road.
Increase your following distance from other vehicles.
Allow more time for your journey.
Be a(n extra) defensive driver, as others may be intoxicated or driving erratically.
Watch out for pedestrians and wildlife. For the latter – collisions with deer are most common at dusk or at night, usually October through January (see our 30-second video on what to do if you hit a deer).
3. Give Your Car’s Interior a Once-Over
A little extra attention inside your vehicle can greatly affect how you see and react to things outside your car.
Clean the windshield – inside and out – removing all streaks, smudges, and fogginess.
Clean the other windows as well to reduce glare and condensation.
Use your car’s defroster or heater to prevent your windshield from fogging up.
Dim your dashboard lights so controls are still visible but not distracting.
Use visors to shield the glare of outdoor street lighting.
Avoid using cabin lights as much as possible when driving at night.
4. Stay Alert
Two big risks on nighttime roads are drunk driving and drowsy driving. Always remember and stay alert for other drivers who may be impaired due to alcohol, fatigue, or distraction. For yourself, never drive intoxicated and use the tips below to keep yourself alert.
Take breaks if you need to – get out and do jumping jacks, shake out your limbs, stretch, take some deep breaths.
If you’re on a long trip, try these things to stay awake: coffee or caffeinated drinks, windows rolled down for fresh air, talking, or singing to yourself.
5. Be Kind to Your Eyes
You can take steps, both in the moment while night driving, and in the longer term to take care of your eyes so they can take care of you on the road.
Make sure you get your eyes checked regularly, which will alert you to any vision changes. If you wear prescription lenses, you may need a different prescription at night.
Make sure your glasses are anti-reflective.
Never wear dark or tinted lenses for night driving.
To protect your eyes from drying out, aim your car’s vents away from your eyes.
Keep your eyes moist by blinking regularly, especially if you wear contact lenses.
Don’t look directly at oncoming headlights; instead, look at the road marker to your right until the car passes.
Finally, avoid two-lane highways at night if possible, as they’re especially dangerous. This and the other tips above will help you stay stress-free and safer during nighttime driving.
This article is furnished by California Casualty. We specialize in providing auto and home insurance to educators, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and nurses. Get a quote at 1.866.704.8614 or www.calcas.com.
Halloween may look a little different this year, but that doesn’t mean your family has to miss out on all of the fun!
If you plan on staying in this Spooky Holiday Season, get your kids excited about Halloween again by enjoying these 10 fun and safe stay-at-home Halloween activities.
Host a Family Pumpkin Carving Contest
Have each member of your family carve a pumpkin early in the night and set them up in your living room with a fake candle inside, so you can watch them glow while you continue on with your other Halloween activities. You could even hand out prizes or ribbons for the best pumpkin.
Go Indoor Trick-or-Treating
Set a different kind of candy in each room of your home and let your kids dress up and trick-or-treat to each room to get all of the different kinds of candy to fill their baskets. You can even invite close family (not a large group) to help you join in on the fun!
Make a Homemade Scary Movie OR Reenact Your Favorite Halloween Scene on TikTok
Have the whole family dress up and get in on the action. Act out a scene based on your Halloween costume or find your favorite scene from a Halloween movie, grab some props and your phone to capture it all, and let the fun begin! This is an easy tradition that you could start to do yearly and then watch them every Halloween.
Make Some Scarily Delicious Treats
Popcorn balls, Monster Cookies, Edible Slime, Frankenstein Guacamole, Jack-o-Lantern Taco Dip, Eye Ball Pretzel Rods; we have all these spooky treats and MORE on our Pinterest Board, “Easy Halloween Treats” check them out and see what you and your family want to have on Halloween night!
Have a Halloween Candy Scavenger Hunt
Hide candy all throughout your home (be careful it’s not in the reach of your pets) and in your backyard. Have your kids put on their costumes and go candy hunting! This is a fun alternative to trick-or-treating and could be done at day or night, as long as flashlights are available.
Have a Scary Face Painting Contest
Buy some Halloween face paint and have each member of your family choose what scary creature they would like to look like. Print out the photos and get to painting. Whoever painted the person’s face that looks the most like their scary creature, wins a prize.
Play Halloween-Themed Games
Halloween Charades, Toilet Paper Mummies, Bobbing for Apples, Pumpkin Patch Stomp, Pin the Tail on the Black Cat; there are all kinds of games that you could tailor to the Halloween-theme for your family. For more ideas, check out these games from Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom.
Throw Your Own Monster Mash
Can’t go to a Halloween party? Throw your own! Make some space in your living room, get some spooky décor, set out foods and drinks, get on your costumes and play some spooky tunes (Here’s our free Halloween Spotify Playlist) and let the party begin.
If you live in an area where it is possible to set up a tent and a bonfire (or a fire pit) in the backyard, have the whole family sit around the fire telling scary stories and making s’mores, and then camp under the full moon. If you do not, improvise by going camping in your living room! Set up a blanket fort, turn on a scary show, and make s’mores in the microwave.
If you live in an area where families will still be trick-or-treating, but you are choosing to stay in; don’t forget to leave a basket of candy at your door. This way you won’t have to continue to answer the door and be in close proximity of anyone, but trick-or-treaters can still get their candy.
Have a spooky and safe Halloween!
This article is furnished by California Casualty, providing auto and home insurance to educators, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and nurses. Get a quote at 1.866.704.8614 or www.calcas.com.
We have amazing employees at California Casualty. The Employee Spotlight is a new series aiming to highlight those talented individuals that make up our successful company culture and community. From human resource recruiters and learning and development trainers to claims adjusters, marketers, customer support specialists, partner relations, sales representatives, and beyond; each week, we’ll highlight a new team member, so you can get to know us better and see how our employees make us who we are as a company.
This edition of the Employee Spotlight will feature Customer Service Representative, Matina Schmelz
Matina has been with us for 8 and 1/2 years and works in our Arizona office.
Let’s get to know Matina!
What made you want to work as a Customer Service Representative for California Casualty?
For me, family is always first – so the location, hours, and competitive pay and benefits matched the criteria I needed. Once I interviewed I knew this was where I wanted to be for a very long time!
What is your favorite part about your job?
I love talking with our customers! I love hearing their stories and servicing all of our audiences; the Educators who teach our children, the Police who keep my family and neighborhoods safe; the Firefighters who do so much more than fight fires, and our Nurses work long hard hours –all of our customers put others first before themselves in their work and, so I am happy to put them first. The best part of this job is knowing I’m protecting the people who protect me!
I can honestly say I love my job here. I’ve done customer service for over 30 years and here the difference is that the employees and customers that we work with daily are the best people on the planet!
What have you learned in your position at California Casualty?
I’ve learned that each of us truly do bring a set of tools and experience to the table, we can accomplish things we never knew possible. I can be very technologically challenged, but over the last 8 years, I’ve learned I can survive technology! Thanks to my coworkers, their patience, and the many tricks and tips they share, I have been able to get through so many new systems… I’ve learned to be patient with myself!
What are your favorite activities to do outside of the office?
I love staycations, getting pedicures with my daughter, BBQ’s and golfing.
Some of my other hobbies include doing home improvement projects, painting, and watching movies.
I also love moving furniture around, cleaning, and organizing!
Anything else you would like the audience to know about you?
I am blessed with a wonderful family; my loving husband Joe and two amazing adult children. Our daughter is currently attending the University of Arizona and is focused on her future career as a Veterinarian. Our son is a Firefighter and is always busy with projects! He just completed making his own kitchen cabinets and is now rebuilding a truck. They are both incredibly talented and amaze me with their strengths and determination and talents. I am so proud of them both. And to complete our family, we enjoy our German Shepherd and two fun-spirited cats!
If you want to learn more about Matina or are interested in a career at California Casualty, connect with her on LinkedIn! Or visit our careers page at https://www.calcas.com/careers
