In April, lower school science teacher Shital Ashar made the most of the distance learning format by teaching from various spaces at her home via Zoom. For a lesson on seed anatomy, she had students dissect a bean seed to learn about its various parts. She then demonstrated how seeds could be used to make a delicious salad while students made their own. “Kids were super excited and prepared with ingredients that I had listed on the group space,” Ashar said.

Some days later, Ashar took advantage of the favorable weather to teach another unit on plants, this time dipping a stick of celery in colored water to show students how water moves through plant tissue. “We then learned about types of roots, with examples,” she said. “Students also illustrated roots and examples in their science lab notebook.”