Dear MSA Colleagues, I hope you have all enjoyed a wonderful summer. For those of you working with students of any age this fall, I wanted to remind you about the 82 episodes of Every Rock Has a Story <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl0Zrg9JFh5o4SPg94veh0w> and encourage you to explore them for use with your students. The best place to start is THIS EPISODE LIST <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RdXAYFa6GTM3VFrXT-R97T2pOoCZNkg1/edit?gid=1234328097#gid=1234328097> which is a searchable Google Sheet with all 82 episodes listed. Search for episodes by topic, rock, location, or co-host. This is the easiest place to see what's available to suit your particular needs. Second, take a look at our growing EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES <https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1upopaSncm1mwqDyO_IYxJt3VE081nAVP> folder. There you will find handouts, rock images, templates, and sample lesson plans (mostly for K-6). Here are few suggestions from me based on age range: *For K-2*: The 44 episodes of Season One are the best place to start with your youngest learners. They are fun, short, simple, silly, and very much geared towards a young audience. Then, feel free to move onto later seasons... try out Episode 54 <https://youtu.be/Qo3_my1PUko> and then Episode 76 <https://youtu.be/6G3NkDNt1Xg> to see us look inside a real dinosaur egg! *For 3-6*: Seasons 3,4 have the best production value for more discerning eyes and online video critics; both seasons were nominated for a New England Regional EMMY Award. They also include exciting travel to labs and field sites around the world. Some topics are slightly more advanced. Seasons 2,3,4 all have diverse co-hosts and children <https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1upopaSncm1mwqDyO_IYxJt3VE081nAVP> so your students can better see themselves as scientists. *For 7-12*: While ERHAS wasnt made with grades 7-12 in mind, the content is valuable and can introduce, recap, or provoke a discussion. Tell your class that you are showing them a video for elementary school kids... this will disarm them and help them relax while digesting the content. Ask them to see if they can extract, explain, or write up the key messages from any episode. Episodes on themes like climate change, energy, outer space, or earth resources (find them by topic in the episode list!) might be especially useful to spark broader conversation. *College*: I use these videos in my college classes. You can do what I describe above for 7-12. Then I ask them to write a reflection on what they took away. These reflections can lead to classroom conversation that can lead into, or recap, a particular class topic or lecture. I have also had my students make their own video on a topic they choose. Many of the episodes show how rocks and minerals are relevant to topics that most students would see as separate. These episodes are intended to show the myriad connections that integrate our planet together through rocks and minerals. I am still working on the future of ERHAS and hope to have news later in the Fall. For now, I hope you continue to enjoy ERHAS and find them useful in your educational mission. Feel free to send me questions or feedback as always. Best Regards, Ethan ************************************ Ethan Baxter Associate Dean for the STEM Disciplines Professor, Earth & Environmental Sciences Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences Boston College Phone: 617-552-1124 Email: ethan.baxter@bc.edu Website: https://sites.google.com/bc.edu/ethan-baxter Every Rock Has A Story on YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl0Zrg9JFh5o4SPg94veh0w> Pronouns: he/him/his ************************************