All Research Innovation in Education Student voices From the classroom Students at work @CourtneyofAcera
Top five free actions to make schools better, and students happier
By Courtney Dickinson Kids often dread their return to school in the fall, and we – as adults – let them. Societally, we have made it a rite of passage to hate school, and we joke with students… Read More
Category: @CourtneyofAcera, AceraBlogPost, Blog, Innovation in Education, Research | August 13, 2019 | kerry
What I did on my summer vacation: the teachers’ version!
We love hearing about what students are up to over summer vacation, be it a cool STEM camp, a great trip with family, or time spent at the beach or in a park. And we’re equally interested in… Read More
Category: Acera News, AceraBlogPost, Innovation in Education | August 12, 2019 | kerry
Courtney Dickinson on what’s possible in education
Courtney Dickinson sits down with Allen Saakyan of Simulation Series to discuss why she founded Acera, her 10 Tools to Transform Schools, and her mission to help build the next generation of scientists, innovators, and leaders.
Category: @CourtneyofAcera, Acera News, AceraBlogPost, Blog, Innovation in Education, Uncategorized | July 23, 2019 | kerry
Creating a sense of purpose at school
By Courtney Dickinson I read an insightful piece in the Boston Globe this week on the link between happiness and having a sense of purpose. Simply put, people with a sense of purpose live longer, happier, and more… Read More
Category: @CourtneyofAcera, AceraBlogPost, Blog, Innovation in Education | May 23, 2019 | kerry
Biomes and Butterflies!
How do land and water ecosystems interact? How are their food webs structured? What role does a pollinator play? These are the questions studied by Acera students in Mr. Michael’s “Biomes and Butterflies” elective. The kids created their… Read More
Category: AceraBlogPost, Blog, from the classroom, Innovation in Education, Uncategorized | May 22, 2019 | kerry
Special Delivery: Science!
KIPP Lynn high school is among the first cohort of teachers to receive Acera’s free life sciences training, curricula and equipment, enabling biology students to edit a gene with CRISPR. This is part of our effort to reinvent… Read More
Category: Acera News, AceraBlogPost, Blog, Innovation in Education | April 4, 2019 | kerry
“Teaching by Tinkering” at Lowell Public Schools
More than 50 teachers across the Lowell Public Schools spent an afternoon with Alisha Collins, Acera’s SEEDS StudioLab Manager, for a lesson in “teaching by tinkering.” The teachers learned how to hack toys — a hands-on, creative, and… Read More
Category: Acera News, AceraBlogPost, Innovation in Education | March 29, 2019 | kerry
Acera to launch new cohort to reinvent high school biology
Acera’s Education Innovation Initiative is pleased to announce its second Life Sciences Change Agent Teacher (LSCAT) Workshop series! Download the workshop brochure. Acera trained its first cohort of high school biology teachers from across eastern Massachusetts in gene… Read More
Category: Acera News, AceraBlogPost, Innovation in Education | March 26, 2019 | kerry
Exploring the science of candy!
Watch as students in Ms. Alisha’s “Choreography of Matter” class discover how materials like sugar, cornstarch, and vinegar interact while making hand-pulled “dragon’s beard” candy.
Category: AceraBlogPost, Blog, from the classroom, Innovation in Education, Uncategorized | March 22, 2019 | kerry
Creative projects and tapping a sense of purpose leads to girls’ engagement in STEM
She rotates the table of projects, rapt. There’s a critter bot creation which moves with its robotics component, a 3D printed structure – customized by a young elementary peer – that lights up and looks magical, and an… Read More
Category: @CourtneyofAcera, AceraBlogPost, Innovation in Education | March 14, 2019 | kerry
Tech Hub enables students to emerge as community-minded technologists able to solve problems to benefit the whole school. More a philosophy than a place, Tech Hub can start as simply a cart in a cafeteria with one student fired up to be a knowledgable, technically skillful community member. Concurrently developing emotional intelligence skills and a wide array of technological abilities, Tech Hub members model and spread an attitude of fearlessness at using STEM tools to solve real problems.
Small children can understand big ideas, and computer science is no exception. Acera’s hands-on “Computers and Me” curriculum introduces early elementary students to computer science concepts, and is one example of many creative ways computational thinking and technical fluency can be developed throughout K-12 education, starting at age 5. Pilot-tested and ready to translate for adoption by public schools, these computer science learning approaches help students become facile and fearless.
What if math classes are organized based on what each student is ready to learn, rather than by age? This f
How can educators unleash the initiative and creativity inherent in all children? 
At Acera, we believe a school’s success can be measured far beyond its standardized test scores. How happy are its students? Do they feel a sense of purpose at school? Are they developing a capacity for perspective taking and problem solving? Can they stick to something even when it’s hard? Acera’s Education Innovation team is working to change how we measure education to include students’ wellbeing, habits of mind, and feeling of belonging at school.