# Summary:

Join us this episode as Nadine chats with Tom McFadden, aka the Rhymbosome, all about creativity in the science classroom! Tom shares his experience with music and science, and how he’s translated those passions through meaningful work with students all over the world. His latest project, Rhymewit, lowers the barrier to introducing creativity and lyrics into any science or history classroom. Listen all the way till the end of this episode for a special surprise from Tom himself 🤓.

## Listen To Podcast Here:

__Spotify:__

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__Anchor:__
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## This Show is Hosted by: 

Inspirit, the 3D STEM learning platform, revolutionizing virtual science learning everywhere!

## In This Episode We Cover:

- Tom’s impressive background with music and science- from a kid who re-wrote Weird Al Yankovic lyrics to a Fulbright recipient in New Zealand

- His history of making music videos- he initially wrote all music videos for college students. But now his song writing theory is- if you aim for middle school, you’ll land in the general public. 

- Tom’s experience with Nueva School: Avant-garde! There are no bells, no letter grades, they write narrative evaluations for students. They pride themselves on interdisciplinary curriculum.

- Tom’s love for NGSS- the shift from “students will know XYZ...” to emphasis on content, but also 1) on how scientists approach the world and 2) cross cutting concepts- providing a lens on how to approach the world.

- The pandemic has only made Tom value more design thinking instruction and SEL!

- Bringing an interdisciplinary lens and authentic self to the classroom inherently lends itself to creativity

- Tools like Rhymewit can provide an easy, structured and scaffolded opportunity for creative science and social emotional learning to take place in the classroom.

## Hot Takes:

”'You do this random meaningless work and I’ll give you this A' shuts people’s brains off to the wonder and excitement and passion for learning. I think a lot of kids when they get to college and beyond, who came up in that transactional system just become really lost.”

## Links from the Show:
- __[Weird Al Yankovic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22Weird_Al%22_Yankovic)__

- __[Rhymewit](https://rhymewit.com/)__

- Tom’s Youtube channel: __[Science with Tom](https://www.youtube.com/sciencewithtom)__
- Part of Tom’s masters thesis: __[Fossil Rock Anthem music video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClJ5lwl_wM0&feature=youtu.be)__ 

## Guest’s Handles:

__[www.sciencewithtom.com](http://www.sciencewithtom.com/)__

YouTube: __[https://www.youtube.com/sciencewithtom](https://www.youtube.com/sciencewithtom)__

Twitter: @SciencewithTom

Facebook: __[facebook.com/sciencewithtom](http://facebook.com/sciencewithtom)__

IG: __[https://instagram.com/sciencewithtom](https://instagram.com/sciencewithtom)__

Learn about exploring creativity in science with Tom McFadden!

Exploring Creativity in Science with Tom McFadden, Educators of the Metaverse Podcast Episode 7

Tom McFadden - Educators of the Metaverse Podcast 

Exploring Creativity in Science with Tom McFadden | EOTMP Episode 7

Here at Inspirit, there’s no one we love more than teachers. They work tirelessly and selflessly to do one of the most important jobs we can think of: teaching and shaping a new generation. That’s why the first week of May is one of our favorite weeks of the year–Teacher Appreciation Week 2022! Personally, we don’t think a week is enough (52 would be ideal in our opinion), so to make the most of it, we celebrated with five full days packed to the brim with teacher love. Here are some of our favorite highlights:

Our [#edutwitter](https://twitter.com/inspiritvr) teachers participated in fun challenges to win gift cards like describing their funniest story of the year in 5 words or less:

![teacher appreciation week story twitter 2022](//images.ctfassets.net/4yflszkpcwkt/5s7qvzpldvoC6Yd6AB40Cb/dfa3c130051eab2ef93726b9000ac2e3/Screen_Shot_2022-05-17_at_3.09.25_PM.png)

*[Source (top)](https://twitter.com/BeaulieuBio/status/1521131653766262784)*,
*[Source (bottom)](https://twitter.com/gm8585/status/1521231641695473664)*

We also had some great meme entries to describe teachers’ science classes:

![teacher appreciation week meme](//images.ctfassets.net/4yflszkpcwkt/3HxmkeQi1HBfqRDQW3f198/de398b3926c7daeffd07359036000584/New_Project.jpg)

*[Source](https://twitter.com/floydtheteach/status/1521493264465027080)*

As the #1 fan of educators everywhere, we care a lot about what they think. So, to top the week off, we invited science teachers to describe [Inspirit](https://www.inspiritvr.com) in one word. These were some of the entries we got: 

![teachers we're your #1 fan word cloud](//images.ctfassets.net/4yflszkpcwkt/3nnvvBB8L3u4Xlrq79ebS5/8b03e300f9b453f06be8e86dc164ae30/wordcloud.png)

The response absolutely thrilled us, and after interacting with so many incredible teachers, we'd like to close Inspirit’s Teacher Appreciation Week with some thoughts that will stay with us until next time! 

__1. YOU are inspirational!__

Over the past couple of years, teachers have worked tirelessly to give their students quality education while providing support through an endless sea of unprecedented and emotionally taxing worldwide events. Through zoom lectures, critically low levels of engagement, and a steep drop in morale, they didn’t give up. The strength, perseverance, and dedication shown by teachers in their work is something we should all aspire to.

__2. YOU are creative!__ 

We’re constantly in awe of the different methods teachers use to make learning easy, effective, and fun for their students (the creativity necessary to make a high schooler engage with Great Expectations is truly impressive). We saw so many examples of innovation and inventiveness in the content teachers produced using Inspirit’s tools for their classrooms.

__3. YOU should be appreciated year-round!__

Teachers are far more than just educators for their students. They’re also mentors, motivators, supporters, coaches, counselors, guides, and friends. They teach children not only curriculum but also kindness, patience, persistence, honesty, integrity (and the importance of regular handwashing). Teachers selflessly take on the responsibility of shaping a generation and teaching them not only to learn, but also to love learning—and for that, they deserve to be loved, recognized, and appreciated every day of the year. (They also have an exceptionally high tolerance for high schoolers’ anatomy jokes).

So, from the very bottom of our hearts here at Inspirit, thank you to educators everywhere. We couldn’t do it without you!

*If you’d like to explore the chance to be a paid content creator with Inspirit this summer, check out this link [here](https://www.inspiritvr.com/creators)! (The application takes less than 2 minutes).*


Here's how we celebrated one of our favorite weeks of the year, Teacher Appreciation Week 2022!