Kirstin Milks
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drmilks.bsky.social
Kirstin Milks
@drmilks.bsky.social
1.7K followers 220 following 110 posts
High school science #teacher, futurist, maker, dad joke enthusiast. Communities of learning, innovation, empathy, and fun • 2025 prez #WeAreNABT • she/they • kirstinmilks.com #PlaceBasedScienceTeaching
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drmilks.bsky.social
Such fun for @sayuri-neko.bsky.social & I to be live on the airwaves at WPFW! Thanks for having us on #UMustLearn as we talked about the power of #PlaceBasedTeaching & how it can help us build a more hopeful & just future.

More: tinyurl.com/PlaceBasedScienceTeaching
October 26, 2025 at 4:58 PM
drmilks.bsky.social
Such fun to join my school's #STEM teams at #MCCSC's #STEAM night, where we ran an engineering design challenge! Thanks to our students for helping engineers of all ages flex their prototyping power 💪
(all photos posted with kid & parent/guardian permission)
#iteach #stemeducation #innovation
October 16, 2025 at 3:12 PM
drmilks.bsky.social
Our book is here! @sayuri-neko.bsky.social & I are so thankful to all of you who’ve been cheering us on!
Learn more at link in bio 💚
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#placebasedscienceteaching #placebasedlearning #scienceteacher #innovation #education #teaching #stemeducation #newbook
October 6, 2025 at 12:05 AM
drmilks.bsky.social
#ISTELive #ASCDAnnual is delightful - join @sayuri-neko.bsky.social and me for #PlaceBasedScienceTeaching tomorrow with our easy, ?-based framework for sparking #stemeducation that's relevant, rooted in community, and just plain FUN! See you Wed July 2, 11–11:30, HBGCC-Stars at Night Turbo Talk 💚
The ISTE Live and ASCD Annual photo booth is a delight this year - and we are delighted to be standing in front of it. Text reads SPARK JOYFUL LEARNING in vibrant, Texas-inspired font with stylized plants and animals all around.
July 2, 2025 at 12:32 AM
drmilks.bsky.social
Excited to be back in action w/ Whitney, bringing the joy of #PlaceBasedScienceTeaching to #ISTELive and #ASCD this week! See you Mon for tech & authentic #STEM and/or Wed for the power of place-based curriculum in transforming education for students AND their teachers 💚 @sayuri-neko.bsky.social
Place-based Teaching: Expeditions in the Schoolyard By: Kirstin Milks and Whitney Aragaki ISTE/ASCD Conference Wednesday July 2, 2025, 11:00 AM Field Experiences: Blending Digital Learning with Authentic Outdoor Education in Biology By: Kirstin Milks and Whitney Aragaki ISTE/ASCD Conference Monday June 30, 2025, 1:00 PM
June 29, 2025 at 4:44 PM
drmilks.bsky.social
On the #PAEMST blog today: innovation education, featuring my students!

So thankful to the PAMEST network for showing me how it's done - and to #SamsungSolve for supporting student change-making through #STEM innovation & #PlaceBasedScienceTeaching

📲 paemst.nsf.gov/blog/post/147
Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching Rewarding & Inspiring Great Teaching Since 1983 PAEMST Awardee leads Bloomington High School South to $125K STEM competition win In the span of a school year, a team of teenage scientists in Bloomington, Indiana, designed an athletic hearing-aid headband, pitched their invention on a national stage, and won a $125,000 prize package for their school. Kirstin Milks - a 2019 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching recipient - was the coach and mentor behind the team. Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is an annual contest that challenges students to leverage STEM to improve their community. The contest is multiphase: teams submit proposals and activity plans, work with Samsung employees to develop prototypes, and create videos showcasing their products. It culminates in a live pitch where finalists present their solutions to a panel of judges. "The goal is to honor and support student- led innovation," said Milks, who teaches AP Biology and introductory science at Bloomington High School South.
June 25, 2025 at 4:02 PM
drmilks.bsky.social
Today we celebrate the amazing class of 2025. It’s been a tremendous honor to be your teacher — thank you for sharing your wisdom, your courage, your empathy, and your wit with me (and next year’s students!)💜
Bulletin board that says “words of wisdom” - it’s a collective mural for students to share what they’ve learned with next year’s incoming students
May 31, 2025 at 12:49 PM
drmilks.bsky.social
I’m so thankful to get to work with students like these amazing young innovators 🥰 Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Read more in this article from The Herald Times:

Bloomington South team wins national #STEM competition for athletic hearing aid accessory

www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/news/e...
Seven high schoolers, one teacher, all smiles. The young women are holding their prototype
May 10, 2025 at 1:23 AM
drmilks.bsky.social
So proud of my student STEM inventors for winning a total of 🎉 $125,000 🎉 in technology for our school in #SamsungSolve for their sports accessibility device.

Want a brighter future? Support youth innovation!

More: news.samsung.com/us/samsung-a... #EduSky #STEMed #Innovation #SolveForTomorrow
Three very happy young women clutch each other and an award from Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Test reads: National Winner, Bloomington High School South, Bloomington IN. Photo shows three high school girls talking on a stage. Text reads Rising Entrepreneurship Winner: Bloomington High School South, Bloomington Indiana, with a photo of three smiling high school girls in front of a digital display of school names
April 30, 2025 at 10:28 AM
drmilks.bsky.social
So proud to be able to show our kids how many people are fighting for their future! Our letter-writing station collected 50+ letters from K-12 kids helping teach our elected state officials why school funding is urgent and essential. Thank you @istamembers.bsky.social ❤️
Two kids in red look over a “Red Sea” of hundreds and hundreds of educators and community members fighting for fully funded public schools at the Indiana Statehouse Indiana State Senator Hunley joins K12 students at a letter writing station
April 14, 2025 at 5:08 PM
drmilks.bsky.social
Happy news in the midst of uncertainty: this headline's a great way to describe our #SamsungSolve national finalist project - from our school newspaper: www.bloomingtonsouthoptimist.org/19849/news/s...

So excited to head to the national pitch event with these amazing students in just a few weeks!
Seven very happy high schoolers, all young women of color, stand together smiling holding an invention prototype against a happy blue sky. Text reads THE OPTIMIST (this is our school newspaper) and NEWS - STORM SHIELD: NEW ATHLETE AUDIO ARMOR
April 9, 2025 at 10:24 PM
drmilks.bsky.social
Three cheers for my school’s amazing youth innovators who are on their way to nationals in the student Samsung Solve For Tomorrow competition in just a few weeks! Read more about their transformational innovation journey here: news.mccsc.edu/2025/04/02/b... #EduSky #STEMeducation #PBL #Innovation
Two very happy students hold up lawn signs announcing they are national finalists in this year’s Samsung Solve For Tomorrow competition Seven students pose happily in the sunlight, with the middle student holding a prototype accessibility device to support people who wear hearing aids as they play sports!
April 2, 2025 at 3:22 PM
drmilks.bsky.social
#PlaceBasedScienceTeaching was so fun to present with @sayuri-neko.bsky.social at #NSELA2025 this morning! What a great community 💜Excited for #NSTA2025 and the @corwinpress.bsky.social book coming this September! 🌱
Whitney Aragaki and Kirstin Milks stand smiling in front of the NSELA signage at the annual conference in Philadelphia
March 26, 2025 at 11:51 PM
drmilks.bsky.social
#PlaceBasedScienceTeaching is on the road this week! @sayuri-neko.bsky.social & I are giving ✨four talks✨ to launch our book, coming this fall w/ @corwinpress.bsky.social.
Visit our website to learn more, including where to find us at #nselaPhilly25 & #NSTASpring25!
💛 tinyurl.com/PlaceBasedSc...
We're presenting! #PlaceBasedScienceTeaching NSTA National Conference in Philadelphia, March 26-29
March 24, 2025 at 2:31 AM
drmilks.bsky.social
Today is #NationalGirlScoutDay, and we are celebrating 112 years of #GirlScouts! I could not be happier to serve as a troop leader, service unit co-manager for our area, cookie rally lead, and camp volunteer. Proud to walk in our #FoundersFootsteps 💚
Juliette Gordon Low in full uniform pins an award on a Girl Scout.
March 12, 2025 at 6:07 PM
drmilks.bsky.social
I have to tell you, #SXSWEDU was incredible. Thanks to everyone who made it great. It was such a delight to celebrate the power of friendships, #GirlScouts, human innovation, and the vision of the future I share with @sineadbovell.bsky.social
Two very happy people who have never met but love each other‘s work in front of the SXSWEDU 15 year anniversary banner Two happy friends from Bloomington, Indiana, reunited after over a decade! Sinead Bovell on stage The Girl Scout panelists, posing happily for photos on the SXSWEDU stage
March 9, 2025 at 5:00 PM
drmilks.bsky.social
My wise, funny, courageous mentor and forever friend, @stanfordeducation.bsky.social science education professor Jeannie Lythcott, passed away this week. I am in the classroom because I had a hunch I would enjoy it, but I am a teacher in large part because of Jeannie. Mentoring can be everything 💜
Jeannie, speaking with passion and ferocity at a youth voting event Text reads: how are you today? Better for seeing you. Jeannie Lythcott, 1939 to 2025.
March 6, 2025 at 3:23 AM
drmilks.bsky.social
I still have a few mentor spots left - will you be at #SXSWEDU and want to take creativity and authentic problem-solving in education to the next level? I’d love to connect!
www.sxswedu.com/news/2025/rs...
Text reds: March 3-6 Austin TX I'm going to SXSW EDU
February 20, 2025 at 9:20 PM
drmilks.bsky.social
Hey Indiana teaching friends - the # Armstrong award at Indiana University School of Education is a fantastic experience! Please consider applying: education.indiana.edu/community/aw...
Text reads IU Bloomington School of Education: meet the 2024-2025 Armstrong Teacher Educators. Photo is of the medal: it's golden and reads "Martha Lea and Bill Armstrong Teacher Educator"
February 18, 2025 at 3:21 PM
drmilks.bsky.social
Excited to share the 💰FREE💰 annual issue of @nabtbio.bsky.social's journal - this year with a paper from a team I love! So many good ideas in this issue for life science teachers in K-12 and higher ed to try 💚

Check it out! 👇 nabt.org/files/galler...

#EduSky #WeAreNABT #ITeachBio #Biology #EcoEvo
Photos of animals from the Galapogos, with an image of Dawin in the middle. Text reads "Happy Darwin Day" with a quote from him: "endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." Green DNA image next to text that reads NABT: National Association of Biology Teachers
February 15, 2025 at 2:38 PM
drmilks.bsky.social
@mammalssuck.bsky.social is a national treasure.
So thankful to learn from her w/ @nabtbio.bsky.social & @ncse.bsky.social in honor of #DarwinDay!
It's so impt for teachers to remember the power of story & art in learning and in who are are fundamentally.
@mmmletsgo.bsky.social #2025MMM #WeAreNABT
ART for Socially Learning about Nature For tens of thousands of years, humans have created artistic representations of animals -physical & behavioral traits -predator-prey dynamics -life history stage(s) -animal group composition -correlated with faunal availability Katie Hinde Humans are Storytellers & Storylisteners Anatomical, neurobiological, cognitive, and cultural capacities for language, cooperation, & control of fire afforded human social groups extended hours of socializing & a "virtual world of the imagination, ritual and stories" -Polly Wiessner, 2014 Katie Hinde Image: Fisher Family at Nighttime Campfire with Turbulent Sea bv Jakob Philion Hackert 1778
February 13, 2025 at 12:35 AM
drmilks.bsky.social
Why yes, we did have a Superb Owl over here #SuperBowl #owl #maker #family
An owl made from a grocery bag. This one is a learned scholar, holding a book he’s written: a comprehensive survey of owldom. His wise bespectacled eyes peer at you beneath sarcastic-yet-kind eyebrows An owl made from a grocery bag. This one is a fierce warrior with tremendous eyebrows in a deep V and flame-colored wings outstretched. Although it is a highly unusual trait in owls, this one also has a mouthful of snarling teeth.
February 10, 2025 at 1:20 PM
drmilks.bsky.social
Hey, here's happy news: For the third year in a row, my #SamsungSolve students are STATE CHAMPS! 🎉

Their student-led #PBL #STEM design helps people exercise with #HearingAids, which are expensive and can be damaged or lost easily, especially by #StudentAthletes.

Next stop: #SFT_US_2025 nationals!
Samsung Solve for Tomorrow: Meet the 2024-2025 State Winners. Photo of seven smiling students, all women of color, with the school corporation logo and a prize ribbon icon and the amount the smiling students have won for their STEM-informed solution: twelve thousand dollars!
January 29, 2025 at 4:03 PM
drmilks.bsky.social
It’s a little Educating for Environmental Change reunion! Such fun to work on AP Science updates with these knowledgeable, open-hearted professionals dedicated to a brighter, more sustainable future 💚 #Ed4EnvChange has several workshops this winter: education.indiana.edu/about/p-12-s... #Climate
Three smiling teachers on a conference room with chart paper stuck to the wall.
January 24, 2025 at 11:25 AM
drmilks.bsky.social
#MLK
"We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail April 16, 1963
January 21, 2025 at 12:05 PM