Kenneth King has been an NSTA member for 20 years. King started his career as a high school science teacher and used his NSTA membership for science lesson plans and activities in his classroom. When he became an education professor, however, he found that he relied on his NSTA membership even more for “good, contemporary ideas for activities and lab experiences.” King says that the NSTA journals help prepare his preservice students to teach science. He respects the role of the journals so much that he writes and reviews articles for them and recently served as chair of Science Scope’s Advisory Board.
King: I teach science methods courses, so I cover a lot of content, and I cover a lot of different grade levels. The NSTA journals are really valuable to me, because it helps to have somebody do the heavy lifting of finding materials that are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). In addition, the articles connect with what my students will need to know and what they will be required to do as science teachers, so I find the journals to be a great resource to prepare teachers.
As an example, I once did a project with my preservice students where they supported science fairs in local elementary schools. There isn’t much in a science methods textbook on science fairs. Those textbooks tend to be more theoretical, focusing on topics such as inquiry skills. I turned to the NSTA journals and found quality practitioner articles on how to manage science fairs and how to elevate fairs from just show-board experiences. The journals fill a niche that really isn’t filled by any other set of resources. They are grounded in effective pedagogy and research, but provide practitioner-oriented activities and ideas that have been vetted through a review process.
I still make use of a Science Scope article from a number of years ago called “Popcorn Possibilities.” I’ve been able to make use of that in my methods classes as a model of how to do performance-based assessment. I don’t copy the journal articles for my students, but I adapt them into lesson plans. I always share with my students that I got the resource from NSTA. I want to pique their interest and leave them hungry for more so that they’re more likely to become professionally involved with NSTA once they graduate. Students in my classes have to construct a unit of study. I encourage them to access the NSTA resources, which they can get through our university. Students learn that NSTA is a good resource for carrying out their activities and finding excellent teaching materials.
I look at NSTA materials differently than when I was a classroom teacher. As a classroom teacher, I would read the journals and say, “This is something I could do in the classroom or this is something that would help me.” Now, when I read the journals, I’m constantly finding ways to connect my preservice students to those materials. I want to stress to my students that even though they’ll be done with my class at the end of the semester, if they have a good resource like NSTA, then they will always have a friend to help them teach science.
Note from NSTA: What NSTA resources do you find helpful for preparing preservice science teachers? We’d love to hear from you in the comments section below. Not a member of NSTA? Learn more about how to join.
Jennifer Henderson is our guest blogger for this series. Before launching her freelance career as a writer/editor, Jennifer was Managing Editor of The Science Teacher, NSTA’s peer-reviewed journal for high school science teachers.