Hi, Social Media at NSTA? Oops, I mean #NSTA. Double oops, I mean #NSTA15. It’s all about the hashtag. Want to see what happened at #NSTA15? Well, go to Twitter, Instagram, or Vine and search the hashtag. Yes, there are pictures and funny videos being shared. However, there is much more than images and jokes. Sharing through social media can be powerful even if you only have 140 characters.

Twitter: Did you know some of the talks about the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are on iTunes? Thanks to David Grossman @tkSciGuy I now know.

Instagram can be used to document learning, share images with unlimited space for captions, and even record 15 seconds of video. Scott Sowers (cosmicdebris) got some awesome images from Chicago, like the one to the right.

Vine is a social media tool that can to time lapse-video and 6.5 second power clips. Check out this hypnotic jellyfish vine from EiC. Six seconds may not seem like a lot but check out what you can do.

• Demonstration of energy
• Egg in a bottle

As you can see from the social media posts above, connections, resources, and ideas are being shared. There is no limit to the potential of social media.

What about for education? Yes! Social media can be used to help teachers and students learn, communicate, and collaborate. As a science teacher I have found Twitter to be incredibly beneficial when trying to connect with experts outside the physical structure of the school. Students and I have connected with shark scientists, physicists, herpetologists, mammalogists, cancer researchers, microbiologists, and volcanologists. I can list a dozen more. It is  difficult for scientists to get out of the lab and visit the classroom. Especially if the lab, research location, or field site is thousands of miles away. Twitter can bridge that gap which can then lead to other options like video conferences through Google Hangouts On Air or Skype.

Once in a while these connections lead to more than just conversations. My colleague Tricia Shelton @tdishelton had a student receive funding from one of the science groups for a research project as a result of connections through social media. This particular connection was the result of a monthly Twitter chat called #SciStuChat—details at scistuchat.com. The second Thursday of each month we host an organized discussion with high school students and scientists. Student moderators write the questions for a chosen topic. Students and scientists join together to answer the questions. Scientists also help dispel misconceptions. Sometimes the conversations between scientists and students will continue the next day depending on questions students generate after the hour chat.

There isn’t a PG-rated app that can’t be used for education (i.e., every PG-rated app can be used in education in some way). Yes, a teacher might need to get creative but that is part of the challenge.  Twitter, Vine, Instagram are a few examples.

If you are skeptical go to twitter.com/search then look up some of the people on this list of scientists. After some investigation, if you feel Twitter might have value in your classroom or for you personally, then check out www.connectthinklearn.com/connected-educator-support.html for support. You can also visit www.ngsspln.com/ngsschat.html.

Author Adam Taylor teaches at Dickson County High School; reach him on Twitter @2footgiraffe.

To see more from the 2015 National Conference on Science Education in Chicago, March 12-15, please view the #NSTA15 Facebook Album—and if you see yourself, please tag yourself!

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

Future NSTA Conferences

2015 STEM Forum & Expo

• Minneapolis, May 20–23

2015 Area Conferences

• Reno, October 22–24
• Philadelphia, November 12–14
• Kansas City, December 3–5

Follow NSTA

Chicago. I have arrived.  One of us will not be the same after this. #NSTA15
— @porchdragon, March 11, 2015

NSTA conferences are where science teachers transform into learners for a week. This year the theme of transformation was ubiquitous–even the river turned green for a day! Keynote Neil Shubin walked us through the evolution of humans and brought out the Inner Fish in all of us. And an entire day was devoted to the Next Generation Science Standards, giving attendees a firm grasp on the amazing new ways science is learned and taught.

Who was there? Everyone from Bill Nye to the Geico Gecko. And they came from as far away as China and New Zealand. In fact, the day before the conference started, a team of international educators met for the 10th Annual NSTA Global Conversations in Science Education Conference.

If they couldn’t be there in person, teachers used their true super power (ingenuity) to find ways to join us virtually. They embodied one of my favorite quotes from the conference. Neil Shubin said “Science is Teamwork; Science is Collaboration.” And collaborate they did! A live #NGSSchat via Twitter brought together a strong professional learning network that included dozens of people, both in person and online.

One NSTA member was so dismayed to miss the conference that he defied all known laws of science and morphed into a 2D version of himself and allowed complete strangers to tote him from session to session. Flat Fred was popular, but who was attendees’ favorite celebrity of the conference? According to our survey results, it was Bill Nye, with the Penguin coming in a close second.

To read more about the social media sharing and virtual learning that happened at the conference, read what Adam Taylor (@2footgiraffe) has to say in his new blog post: It’s All About the Hashtag for @2footgiraffe.

Sticking with the theme of collaboration, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan came to meet with a panel of teachers. He said he was happy to be home in Chicago and told attendees: “You’re not just teaching, you’re transforming students’ lives.” And he turned into a learner for the day–attentively taking notes and listening as the teachers expressed their hopes for the future and shared the very difficult challenges they face daily in their professional lives.

Fascinating stories were everywhere last week. The New York Times declared Saturday, March 14, to be the Pi day of the century. NSTA TV captured the personal messages of many of our speakers, leadership, and sponsors. Watch here to see interviews with Bill Nye; Chandra James, Director of Science for Chicago Public Schools; the “100% of our kids are going to college” team at Seton Hall University; and other inspiring thought leaders in STEM education. Education Week reporter Liana Heitin wrote a great article about the NGSS representing “a shift from learning about something to figuring out something” (Teaching the Next Generation Science Standards With ‘Mysteries’). Not all the stories were told by humans last week, though. Not to be missed was an intrepid little dog named Schmitty the Weather Dog who braved the elements daily to report on the weather.

Not everything new had to be experienced in Chicago. Four NSTA Press books were unveiled at the conference–The Power of Questioning: Guiding Student Investigations (by Julie V. McGough and Lisa M. Nyberg); The BSCS 5E Instructional Model: Creating Teachable Moments (by Rodger W. Bybee); Reimagining the Science Department (by Wayne Melville, Doug Jones, and Todd Campbell); and Earth Science Success, 2nd Edition: 55 Tablet-Ready, Notebook-Based Lessons (by Catherine Oates-Bockenstedt and Michael Oates). Those onsite got to meet the authors and be the first to page through these gems; but they’re available to all and have free chapters you can review.

Extending the Experience

The exhibit hall, a perennial favorite, turned ordinary educators into STEM stars. They came, they played, they tested new products, and they walked away enthused, their minds bursting with smart ideas and their arms loaded with goodies. In her advice for first-time attendees, NSTA’s Miss Mentor recommends bringing an empty suitcase to take home exhibit hall swag–and she was right; giveaways ranged from bird feeders to t-shirts.

Some of these changes happen on the scene, when people see themselves in a new light. But some of the long-term projects that attendees connect with at our conferences (such as ExploraVision, eCYBERMISSION, and the Chevron-supported NSTA Administrators Initiative) are the result of strong, forward-thinking partnerships forged by strong ties with the community, government, and corporations.

Who is responsible for this mind-blowing extravaganza? A hard-working conference staff at NSTA to be sure. But the secret sauce comes from the local committee, sponsors, organizers, conference planners, and the many other people who work for more than a year in advance to bring together sessions and speakers that will meet the needs of science teachers.

Want to help us improve the process? Growth and transformation are something we want to foster continually, so we invite attendees to take a moment to fill out an evaluation of their session(s). Follow these instructions, and once you’ve evaluated your session(s), you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a Kindle!

What was your favorite part of #NSTA15 Chicago? Please leave us a comment and let us know!

To see more from the 2015 National Conference on Science Education in Chicago, March 12-15, please view the #NSTA15 Facebook Album—and if you see yourself, please tag yourself!

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

Future NSTA Conferences

2015 STEM Forum & Expo

• Minneapolis, May 20–23

2015 Area Conferences

• Reno, October 22–24
• Philadelphia, November 12–14
• Kansas City, December 3–5

Follow NSTA

Once a month each three-year-old and four-year-old class at the Arlington Unitarian Cooperative Preschool (AUCP) spends the morning on a fieldtrip at a local natural area. The lead nature teacher arrives and spreads out a large tarp and a few sleeping bags as a place for their morning meeting. On this occasion the ground is cold and wet with melted snow. The classroom teacher and assistant and the school director are there. Parents arrive to stay and co-op (assist the teachers) or to drop off their children. Everyone is wearing insulated boots, warm pants, jackets, hats and mittens and the children have brought snacks in their backpacks. The nearby heated nature center with bathrooms opens in an hour.

The lead teacher begins by passing around photos from this class’ last visit, a month ago when the weather was warmer and the children waded in edge of the creek. The group talks briefly about their previous experience, looks at the temperature (32*F) and settles in to hear a book. After the story is over the children choose a direction and walk off in small groups attended by adults in a 2 children to 1 adult ration. I followed an adult with a pair of children who wanted to walk on the paved trail downstream to the location where they had waded the last time they were here. Along the way they read the text from a children’s book, Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner. The text is on posters, illustrated by children from the local elementary school, and displayed on signs along the trail.

The children walk carefully on the frost-slippery trail, find sticks and poke at remnants of ice but can’t dislodge it. When they reach their destination, they find it hard to throw stones with mittens on. Only a few stones make it into the water, rippling the surface. All along the trail the adult and children talk about what they see and hear—the story, ice, trees, the water moving over stones and a few bird calls. The children begin walking back and meet another small group of children with an adult at a place where the creek goes under the trail. Larger chunks of ice lie broken up on the trail here and the children work hard to dislodge them, carry them to the edge of the trail and throw them into the flowing creek. I hold my breath, thinking that the effort of heaving a large chunk of ice will carry a child over the edge too. The adults stand close by but not close enough to catch the child, and they don’t give any warnings. Splash, the ice is in the water, floating away, and the child is not. The drop is less than a foot, the water is less than a foot deep, the child has a backpack full of dry clothes and the heated nature center is a short walk up the trail. If the child did fall in, there are enough adults that the others could continue their exploration while the wet one got quickly changed. Getting wet on a cold day is not part of the plan but there is a plan in place in case it happens.

Back at the tarp, children who are hungry have broken open their snack bags and the adults are serving warm cider. After refueling, there are rock piles to clamber over, bathroom breaks to take and other paths to take. You can read more about this program, and the resources they link to about “forest kindergartens” and nature play for children.

The director describes how the school was so inspired and transformed by what they learned from the documentary, “School’s Out: Lessons from a Forest Kindergarten” that they implemented what they call “Timber Tuesdays” for a few classes. Their 3-year-olds, and two mixed-aged classes of 3, 4 and 5s, rotate each week and spend their class day outside. Instead of dropping the children off at school, the parents drop off at a local nature center and they spend their 3-hour day outside regardless of the rain, cold, snow etc. They are hoping to expand their program next year!