Dr. Ken Fleming is the heart behind Science Between the Pages—a science educator, curriculum designer, teacher, and coach passionate about helping children and families discover the wonder of science.
Ken has been teaching science in and around the Bryan/College Station community since 2009. His passion for understanding how people learn science led him to pursue graduate study at Texas A&M University, where his research focused on how informal science educators design exhibits and experiences that help families learn science together beyond the classroom.
Today, Ken serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor of STEM Education at Texas A&M University, where he prepares current and future educators to teach science through hands-on, meaningful learning experiences. His work bridges research and practice, with a particular interest in helping teachers create learning experiences that are engaging, authentic, and accessible to children and families.
After completing his doctorate, Ken spent four years coordinating a statewide, grant-funded research project focused on literacy-infused science teaching and learning. His work included developing and delivering professional development for science teachers, providing live instructional coaching to educators across Texas, developing evidence-based approaches for supporting families as they learn science together, and mentoring graduate and undergraduate researchers.
Through Science Between the Pages, Ken brings this experience directly to families and educators through science classes, camps, curriculum, and coaching. His goal is simple: to help make science something children don't just study, but something they experience, explore, and enjoy.
When he's not teaching or creating science experiences, Ken enjoys being an active homeschooling dad and spending time with his wife, Nicole, and their family.
Nicole never thought she would be a science teacher. She grew up in public school where the extent of her science education was reading a text book and defining and memorizing terms. She never knew there was another way. It wasn't until she noticed her husband scurrying off to work with odd materials like paper clips, string, chocolate (he doesn't eat chocolate), ice, marbles, bouncy balls, paper helicopters, sand and soils sparked her curiosity.
He was teaching fifth grade math and science at a local public school. When she asked him why he needed all those materials, he would tell her that it was for their science class that day. They would make paper helicopters, find the melting point of chocolate, roll marbles, and test bouncy balls. She was instantly enthralled!! She wanted to go to his science class! As new homeschooling parents, Nicole was inspired to offer similar hands-on science experiences to her children. What was an unexpected surprise to Nicole was that other parents wanted that same experience for their children too. This is what led Nicole to start teaching science to elementary-age children at the Community Homeschool Center.
Nicole's new science learning and teaching journey started in 2012 and as her oldest daughter grew and they continued to have more children, Nicole offered more and more science classes. One of Nicole's favorite things about teaching at the Community Homeschool Center is the freedom to teach topics that she is interested in and to share her excitement about God and His creation with so many families in the Brazos Valley. This flexibility has given her the freedom to give credit for all these wonders to our magnificent God and Creator.
As Nicole continues to teach, she has been encouraged by finding God's fingerprints in everything that she discovers and her desire to learn more grows. What a testimony! Like many, the science learning experiences that Nicole grew up with were evolution-based void of any mention of a Creator God. It's amazing to see how having a relationship with God through Jesus Christ as her Savior has opened up her eyes to see the wonders of His Creation and drawn her into a deeper relationship with Himself. Praise the Lord!
Nicole continues to teach elementary science classes at the Community Homeschool Center and God has faithfully always filled her classes. Her heart's desire is to teach the next generation of scientists to love the Creator and from there know about His Creation. This will heal so many broken pieces in the scientific community today. Please pray with them for God's Kingdom to come to the scientific community.
Teaching science is a delicate balance between embracing the chaos, mess, and unpredictability of doing science and slowing down long enough to recognize those extraordinary aha! moments of discovery.
We believe those moments matter.
When a child notices a pattern they have never seen before, asks a question that makes everyone stop and think, or suddenly understands how two seemingly unrelated ideas fit together, we catch a glimpse of the wonder woven into God's creation. Science gives us opportunities to observe that creation carefully, explore how it works, and respond with curiosity and awe.
We live in a world filled with predictable patterns that exist within remarkably complex systems.
Consider something as familiar as the Sun rising in the east and setting in the west. The pattern is so dependable that we rarely stop to think about it. Yet that simple observation is connected to the rotation of Earth, Earth's orbit around the Sun, the changing length of daylight throughout the year, and the systems that make life on Earth possible.
Science helps us move from noticing to wondering.
We observe what we can see, measure, and investigate. We look for patterns and relationships. We develop explanations for what we observe and continually test those explanations against evidence.
But science also raises questions that go beyond observation. What do our observations mean? How do we explain what we cannot directly see? What assumptions shape the explanations we construct?
These questions are especially important for us because we believe that observing God's creation and understanding scientific explanations are not enemies of faith. They can be invitations to deeper wonder.
As a Christian science educator, I have often taught in settings where faith could not be incorporated directly into the science curriculum. In those environments, I focused on helping students become careful observers, thoughtful investigators, and discerning thinkers. I wanted to give students the tools to understand what science can reveal while leaving room for them to wrestle with the deeper questions of meaning and purpose.
Science Between the Pages gives us the freedom to take that philosophy a step further.
Here, we don't simply have to make room for conversations about God. We can intentionally create learning experiences that celebrate His creation and proclaim His excellencies.
One of the most powerful ways children learn is by exploring the world alongside the people they love.
That is why books have always been an important part of our approach. A good story can spark a question. A question can lead to an investigation. An investigation can become a conversation around the dinner table, a walk through the backyard, or an afternoon spent building, testing, observing, and wondering together.
We began intentionally weaving picture books, both fiction and nonfiction, into our science classes at the Community Homeschool Center. Read-alouds became an especially meaningful part of our classes for younger children, giving families a shared story from which to launch scientific exploration.
That approach eventually led to larger community experiences.
In partnership with the Children's Museum of the Brazos Valley, we created Science in the Hundred Acre Wood, an event that paired eight beloved A.A. Milne stories with interactive STEAM demonstrations, make-and-take activities, and faith connections. We have continued to build on that idea through experiences such as Science of the Sabbath, which explored the scientific benefits and purposes of rest, and 12 Days of Science, which paired hands-on STEAM activities with the gifts from the familiar Christmas song.
These experiences reinforced something we already believed:
Families don't need to separate learning, faith, and fun. They can discover them together.
The name Science Between the Pages reflects this idea. A book can be the beginning of a scientific adventure—but it doesn't have to be the end.
We want to help families move between the pages and into the real world.
A story about weather can lead outside to measure the wind.
A book about animals can lead to an investigation of adaptations.
A story about engineering can lead to designing, building, testing, and redesigning.
A question from a child can become the beginning of an investigation the whole family explores together.
This is why our programs are built around active participation rather than simply delivering information. We want children to observe, question, investigate, create, communicate, and reflect.
Science Between the Pages brings this philosophy to life through science classes, camps, curriculum, and coaching.
Our experiences are designed to help children and families:
Explore real scientific phenomena through hands-on investigation
Ask meaningful questions and develop explanations based on evidence
Connect ideas across science, mathematics, literature, engineering, and everyday life
Learn together as families, teachers, and communities
Cultivate wonder at the complexity, order, beauty, and creativity found in God's world
Grow as thoughtful learners who can distinguish between what we observe, what we infer, and what we believe
Our long-term dream is to create a family science center filled with interactive exhibits, programs, and experiences where children and adults can explore real scientific phenomena together—and where that exploration points us toward the God who created them.
Until that day, we are bringing that vision to life wherever we can: in classrooms, homes, parks, churches, community spaces, camps, books, and hands-on investigations.
Science is already happening all around us.
Finding Room for Science is a podcast exploring practical ways to make space for meaningful science learning in everyday life. Dr. Ken Fleming shares ideas, stories, and conversations that help parents and educators move science beyond worksheets and textbooks and into homes, classrooms, communities, and the world around us.
Together, we explore how curiosity, observation, good questions, hands-on experiences, and a biblical perspective can help families and children discover the wonder of God's creation.
Practical professional learning for people who want to teach science well.
Science Between the Pages workshops equip educators and homeschool parents with practical strategies for creating engaging, hands-on science experiences. Workshops can focus on topics such as inquiry-based learning, science and literature, STEM integration, scientific modeling, designing investigations, using everyday materials, and helping children develop scientific thinking.
Each workshop combines research-based ideas with practical activities participants can immediately take back to their classrooms or homes.
You don't have to figure out science teaching alone.
Science Between the Pages offers personalized coaching for educators, homeschool parents, and organizations looking to strengthen their science learning experiences. Coaching can help you plan lessons and units, develop hands-on investigations, integrate science with literature and other subjects, improve student engagement, or develop a larger science education program.
Whether you need help with one lesson, an entire curriculum, or a new vision for science learning, coaching provides a thought partner with experience in science education, curriculum development, teacher preparation, and informal learning.