Welcome to the Upcoming Events Page for the 2019-2020 School Year! Please check back periodically for updates, new programs and, events.
A few things to help you plan:
Take me to a CALENDAR VIEW!
What is an IC Challenge?
What is an Interactive Distance Learning Event?
Current Active Programs:
IC Challenges
This Challenge is closed for the school year.
USIP & Inspired Classroom Challenge September 23-November 25
The USIP& Inspired Classroom Challenge, set to kick-off around the International Day of Peace in September 2019, will combine teacher-led activities in the classroom, live virtual events with USIP experts, and original student research. By the end of the Challenge, young people from across the country will have researched and designed public awareness campaigns about peacebuilding issues they care about. Students successfully completing the program will receive a special Peace Day Challenge certificate from USIP.
The USIP-Inspired Classroom Challenge is open to educators and students in grades 6-12 located in the United States. This pilot is a new initiative from USIP’s Public Education Department, whose mission to serve the American people is grounded in USIP’s original mandate from Congress. The Public Education team engages audiences across the United States—from teachers and students to schools and organizations—providing educational programs and resources that show how international conflicts can be resolved without violence and how peace is possible.
Grades 6-12
USE CODE: V8KIX02O
This Challenge is closed for the school year.
MPG Mountain Lion Challenge
Join the MPG Ranch scientist and mountain lion trackers to learn more about ‘tracking ghosts.’ Students will learn about habitat, behavior, human impact and interaction and population of mountain lions in Western Montana.
GRADE LEVELS:
Elementary--Mountain lion natural history and habitat
Middle School--Carrying capacity and population
High School--Environmental conditions and management
MPG Golden Eagle Challenge
Join researchers from Raptor View Research Institute and MPG Ranch to explore information about habitat, migration, dangers, and mitigation surround the majestic golden eagle population of Western Montana.
GRADE LEVELS:
Elementary—Golden eagle natural history and habitat
Middle School—Issues surrounding golden eagle migration
High School—International and governmental policy concerns based on golden eagle research.
Mt FWP Sage Grouse Challenge OCtober-January
The 3rd annual MT FWP Sage Grouse IC Challenge is set to launch again in mid-March. Middle and High School students across the state last year tussled with conservation and land use issues surrounding sage grouse and posed their solutions. YOUR class can participate in this March-May in the MT FWP Sage Grouse IC Challenge. Students will choose to problem solve and will come up with unique, conservation-focused solutions taking stakeholder points of view into account around:
Sage grouse natural history and management
Stakeholder viewpoints
Habitat conservation and land use initiatives
Using data sets to make scientific inferences
Grades 6-12
Clark Fork Coalition: Snow and Tell Challenge November-March
The Clark Fork Coalition’s unique snowpack curriculum connects middle school and high school students to climate science, snowpack, and our regional water supply through developmentally appropriate applications of math, science, and technology. The program fosters an appreciation for sustainable use of Montana’s water resources by deepening the understanding of, and appreciation for, the sources of our rivers.
Grades 6-12
Museum as megaphone March-May
The Missoula Art Museum’s Museum as Megaphone challenge is a pilot program, offered in partnership with Inspired Classrooms. This program is housed on an interactive, virtual platform that connects students directly to visual art, artists, and arts educators at the Missoula Art Museum (MAM). MAM has the largest Contemporary American Art Collection in Montana. Contemporary Art is art being made now by living artists about the issues of OUR time. This program is FREE and promotes ART4ALL.
“Art is not just painting or sculpture, it can be anything you can create! Art can be made of anything, including your thoughts and ideas.”
Grades 5-8
Love the wild foundation April-May
Plastic straws, plastic bags, plastics in our oceans, micro-plastics….Plastics are a huge environmental challenge that impacts everyone. This year, Inspired Classroom is partnering with the Love the Wild Foundation to bring awareness to this issue and ask students to think critically and creatively about solutions to this issue. Look for this Challenge in the spring.
Grades 3-8
Interactive Distance Learning Events
MTWAC: Council in the Classroom: Global Conversations
Travel the world with the Montana World Affairs Council! This fall your students will have the opportunity to connect with people from around the world to discuss current events, explore new cultures and make connections. Between September and December, there will be five events-- you can register for one or all of them. Events last about 45 minutes.
September 11 @ 10 am: EcoViva: Youth Empowerment
October 10 @ 10:00 am: USIP Top Adviser for Asia and Africa: Michael Phelan
November 5 @ 10:15 am: The Iran Hostage Crisis: 40 Years Later What Really Happened with Ambassador Mark Johnson
Grades 6-12
Filmmakers in the Schools
Each year, BSDFF screens films in schools around the state. Visiting filmmakers have the unique opportunity to go into classrooms to present their films and engage students in discussion. Students are able to ask questions, voice opinions, and dive deeper into the content of each film.
The program reaches over 4,000 students in the Missoula area and beyond. Filmmakers visit schools all over Western Montana, from Seeley Lake to the Bitterroot Valley. BSFI also partners with Inspired Classroom to bring Filmmakers in the Schools to hundreds more students across the state of Montana via video conferencing and green screen technology.
Grades K-12
BSDFF: Native Filmmakers Initiative
An important part of the Big Sky Film Institute’s mission is bringing our global and educational stories to the next generation. Each year during the BSDFF we bring our quality programming into classrooms with our Filmmakers in the Schools program, which have special in-school screening of age-appropriate documentaries followed by a discussion with the filmmaker. A part of our NFI educational outreach program will be to bring Indigenous content and films from Native American filmmakers into classrooms, giving students the unique opportunity to dive in deeper into the content of the films by voicing questions and talking with the filmmakers themselves.
In partnership with Inspired Classroom, BSFI is working to become a resource for schools to gain access to educational films about American Indian culture and films produced by Native filmmakers. BSFI is acquiring educational content, including films with classroom guides and curricula, and working with educators to bring this content into classrooms across the state of Montana. During the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Native filmmakers will be featured in the Filmmakers in the Schools program, sending filmmakers to classrooms in the Missoula area as well as virtually via video conferencing technology, to discuss their films with middle and high-school age students.
Grades 4-12
Washington State Parks Foundation: Journey to the Parks
Join Inspired Classroom and the Washington State Parks Foundation as we virtually Journey to the Parks. Your elementary and middle school students will learn about the Columbia River Watershed, Orca Whales, key Washington state parks and more with enthusiastic educators.
Grades K-8
Other Inspired Classroom Projects
MPG Ranch: Chemistry in the Wild! On-demand
MPG Ranch employs scientists and researchers spanning everything from soils and lichens to mountain lions and birds. This year Inspired Classroom and MPG Ranch will team with researcher Mike McTee to deliver an on-demand and hands-on chemistry lesson geared for high school students! The lesson will be based on his work on soil contamination from skeet shooting ranges.
Grades 9-12
Bear Crossing the Road:
Last year, Inspired Classroom and Sinopah Wildlife Research published a book! Bear in the Bathtub, is a collaborative fiction and non-fiction children’s book about being curious in the out of doors and current bear research on thermoregulation in Yellowstone National Park. This year, the Yukon to Yellowstone (Y2Y) Foundation is partnering with this dynamic duo to create a new book based on wildlife road crossings. Inspired Classroom will be asking for student feedback, art, and creative wildlife crossing solutions. Look for information on this project in the fall.
Grades K-12
Golden Eagle Google Earth Project: Stories Eagles Tell
MPG, RVRI, and Inspired Classroom are excited to announce a collaboration with Google Earth Education. Explore golden eagle migration using a new Google Earth interface. This project could be used with the Golden Eagle IC Challenge or as independently.
Grades K-12