On June 1, 2018, new committee, advisory board, and panel members begin their term of office in service to NSTA over the next three years. As they do so, I would like to welcome each of them on behalf of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) leadership, staff, and members, for their willingness to step forward, serve, and advocate for science education. Each of them will bring unique and needed perspectives to committee work at a time where promoting the importance of science education is both needed and necessary.

As these new volunteers step into their new roles, other members who have served on committees and boards just finished their terms on May 31, 2018. To them, I say thank you for your service; NSTA and the entire science teaching community has been made stronger by your participation.

(Please see the chart below for the names of those newly joining committees and those who are rotating off.)

Together, We Advocate for Science Education

In April 2017, the nation joined together in a collective and symbolic movement to March for Science.  Knowing the value of science for our future and the need for science education to help get there, NSTA joined this movement as an official partner in both 2017 and again this year.  With this official position, science teachers who prepare students to study science became vocal advocates and part of the one million people worldwide who gathered together with the understanding that “I Stand for Students, I Stand for Science”.

Recognizing the need and desiring to continue to promote the importance of science education, the theme I selected is “Together, We Advocate for Science Education” and will be the focus of efforts over the next year.

By combining our efforts and voices, we as a community of science educators will be able to better voice both the accomplishments and needs of our students, the importance of science education as a pathway to future scientific discoveries, and the importance of teaching with a three-dimensional approach that enables students to utilize real world strategies.  By advocating together, we can express a clear message.

Speaking Out for Science Education

Efforts to pursue this initiative are well underway. The National Congress on Science Education which will be held in Little Rock, AR will bring together state and chapter leaders along with other advocates for science education as we spend three days working on the theme: Speaking Out for Science Education.  Topics that will drive discussion within focus groups and become the work of state chapters and/or NSTA in the coming year are:  Developing Leaders and Advocates for Science Education, Building Collaborative Relationships to Further Science Education, and Elevating the Status of Science Education.

Advocacy takes many forms and that is demonstrated during our upcoming regional conferences. Our fall regional conference planning committee members have been hard at work throughout the past year and have incorporated the need to be advocates into either a strand at each conference or the conference theme.  

• At the fall conference in Reno, NV one strand will focus on Developing Persistence: The Power of Experience where participants are encouraged to learn from your peers’ experiences in persisting as they negotiate the terrain of facilitating science learning for the next generation. 
• According to the Framework, “Arguably, the most pressing challenge facing U.S. education is to provide all students with a fair opportunity to learn” (p. 282). Those participants heading to National Harbor, MD will be reminded of this in many ways from the overarching conference theme that Science Education: A National Priority to a strand theme that identifies the need for Monumental Challenge: STEM Equity, Diversity, and Advocacy via
• And to round out the conferences for the fall, the theme for Charlotte, NC is Energize Science: Educate and Engage all of which help to move the field of science education forward.

Turning to the National Conference on Science Education in April 2019, those that head to St. Louis, MO will be reminded that advocates continually have Science on My Mind.

These are but a few examples of how the theme of Together, We Advocate for Science Education will be featured in NSTA events and initiatives over the next year.

I invite each and every one of our members to join the new committee members, existing committee members and all of the NSTA leadership in advocating for science education and using your teacher’s voice to identify both the accomplishment and needs of our students and also to inform schools, districts, states, and our nation about the importance of science education for our future.

NSTA President Christine Royce is a professor in the teacher education department and co-director for the MAT in STEM Education program at Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. Follow Royce on Twitter @caroyce.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

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