If you were with the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) in Washington, D.C. last week, you would have been part of the most exciting and productive Congress of the year! In Georgetown, about 145 representatives of chapters, state organizations, affiliates and NSTA governance met to spend “quality time” breaking down walls at the National Congress on Science Education (NCSE). What walls? Those that might exist among educators, those that define where and when we teach science, the ones that create barriers to a literate citizenry, and especially those mental barriers that might keep us from imagining great accomplishments in the near future.
In every hall, over endless great snack breaks, on the streets and in the parks the group smashed preconceptions. State to state sharing ruled! How do you create a new style of conference? How can social media support membership retention? What are the legal and ethical guidelines for association management? NCSE had sessions for every need. There were also updates on NSTA’s Strategic Planning process and building program, as well as updates on the state of publishing and STEM in the “age of NGSS.”
This year was the first Congress at which the Robert E. Yager awards were presented. Five outstanding teachers gave short presentations on their educational philosophies, highlighting both creativity and diversity in STEM education. They were supported so that they could mingle with other attendees and contribute to the rich mix of ideas that would come out of the meetings.
A Congress is also a voting body; in each Congress there are forums focusing on the issues that are most important to the NSTA membership. The initial topics are first proposed by an elected team (four from Congress, and four from the NSTA Council). Any delegate can propose issue forums as well. This year, the forums concentrated on STEM implementation partnerships between formal and informal educators, and assessment in the light of NGSS.
The latter two topics generated recommendations for action by the NSTA Board of Directors. At a Congress, these resolutions go through several voting stages: by Congress, Council, and then Board. In the process, it is common for a resolution to take a different form as it goes “up the chain.” Resolutions urging the Board to develop both contacts and tools for partnerships with informal educators resulted in long discussions at both the Council and Board levels. With whom do we “talk” as an organization? What new opportunities for interactions exist?
Here’s an example: An existing network of Earth science/STEM educational groups was researched, and at the urging of Congress, NSTA delegates will take a more active role in this group. Both Council and Board discussed what resources NSTA had to make partnerships more productive. Turns out we have a lot, but they may not be as easy to find as we’d like because the NSTA Learning Center is getting truly massive. Because of the activism of Congressional delegates, new links and bundles will be available to members in more accessible formats.
The topic of assessment also turned out to be as hot as the DC weather last week. We asked first if there are good resources already available to assess the practices and crosscutting concepts of NGSS? How do educators in adopting and non-adopting states influence the development and use of assessments, to make sure that the three-dimensional learning in NGSS is reflected? Is it time for a “timely” policy statement by NSTA? The Congress said “yes,” but the council and Board said: “Let’s find out.” They assigned a research project to the appropriate NSTA Standing Committee, and asked for an answer soon.
What do science teachers do after long days of learning and legislating? Explore science, of course. The group was hosted by Smithsonian Institution at Q?rius—an interactive collection of (mostly) hands-on artifacts and learning objects with wonderful potential for inquiry. “What does a cockroach smell like?” (Vanilla) “Can you fold an origami passenger pigeon?” (I failed, but many others succeeded.)
The “meta” discussion that this series of Congress actions stimulated was about where and when NSTA Position Statements are used. NSTA currently has a list of perhaps a dozen potential position statements needing development or revision. Each requires months of work: research, development, and a series of reviews by committees, membership, council, and board. The ultimate product is the result of the cooperation of many professionals.
There are various levels and perspectives on position statements. Some are specifically designed as tools that science teachers can use. A document on safety, the importance of science at the elementary level, or what kinds of assessment are appropriate for a given purpose might be used at the local or Board level to argue for best practices. Other topics for position statements, like “poverty” or “diversity” might represent the best thoughts of talented science education leaders but might have less potential for impacting a specific local or state debate.
Check out our current list of position statements on the NSTA website and let me know your thoughts. How can these position statements be useful to you? How have they been useful to you in the past? Send your response to juliana_texley@nsta.org and watch for a major survey on this topic later this summer.
And finally, check your calendar. NSTA’s next Congress is scheduled for Omaha, Nebraska the second week of July, 2015. Can you be there?

—Author Juliana Texley is the 2014–2015 President of the National Science Teachers Association and Chairperson of the 2014 Congress Planning Committee

I have a love-hate relationship with golf. Growing up on a midwestern farm, “green” was spring and summer. Today, “green” has very different meanings. Do I want to land my approach shot onto a perfect one? Sure I do (not that it happens all that often). But I think twice when I play on one of Florida’s winter courses (no afternoon downpours) or on a desert course any time (by definition, less than 10 inches of rainfall per year). I see fresh water as the sought-after commodity of the future.
One of the things about the USGA that I’m most enamored with is their commitment to environmental stewardship because slightly more than half of the world’s golf courses are in the United States. While Science of Golf: Course Setup focuses on the tee-to-green setup of Pinehurst No. 2 so that both the men and the women could play the U.S. Open there, the backstory was “what is the course going to look like” to both the player and the viewer AND what is its impact on the environment. Course architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw paid attention to all that when they returned Pinehurst No. 2 to Donald Ross’s original design. That backstory sparked the NSTA-developed lesson plan, which addresses just one aspect of the USGA’s Do’s and Don’ts of Affordable Golf.
The 20 videos in the Science of Golf series, developed by the partnership of NBC Learn, USGA, and Chevron, are available cost-free on www.NBCLearn.com. The lesson plan linked below each of the videos provides an editable document, so you can make them your own to fit your ever-changing class list at the beginning of the year. Please leave comments below each posting about how well the information worked in your classrooms. And if you had to make significant changes to a lesson, we’d love to see what you did differently, as well as why you made the changes. Leave a comment, and we’ll get in touch with you with submission information.
Video
SOG: Course Setup discusses how Pinehurst No. 2 will be set up “firm and fast” to make it a complete examination of both men and women golfers’ abilities.
STEM Lesson Plan—Adaptable for Grades 4–12
SOG: Course Setup describes how students might design a solution to a problem about how golf courses are set up. It also provides ideas for STEM exploration plus strategies to support students in their own quest for answers.
Image of Native grasses surround the 18th fairway at Pinehrst No. 2. courtesy of ncsuweb.
You can use the following form to e-mail us edited versions of the lesson plans: [contact-form 2 “ChemNow]

The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) offers a growing collection of resources around the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). While many of our products and services to date more generically target the whole K–12 spectrum, we do have resources designed specifically for elementary school educators.
NSTA’s upcoming full-day virtual conference (August 6 from 10 am to 6 pm EDT) on literacy and NGSS—Connecting Literacy and Science With NGSS and Common Core—will be particularly helpful to elementary teachers, who may be under the greatest stress to incorporate both the Common Core and NGSS in their classrooms, and includes an elementary-focused breakout session.
This fall, NSTA will continue the NGSS web seminar series with sessions dedicated to the new standards by grade level. The first, on September 17, will discuss kindergarten standards. Succeeding web seminars will tackle 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. Additional details will soon be available on our website.
In addition, NSTA Press has produced a number of books on the NGSS. The most elementary-specific of the collection is Science for the Next Generation: Preparing for the New Standards. Other key resources are Introducing Teachers and Administrators to the NGSS: A Professional Development Facilitator’s Guide, Translating the NGSS for Classroom Instruction, The NSTA Reader’s Guide to the Next Generation Science Standards, and The NSTA Reader’s Guide to A Framework for K–12 Science Education.
The NSTA Learning Center, which offers just-in-time, just-for-me professional learning models, also includes materials that support the NGSS. These can be by grade band and include e-chapters, e-articles, archived NGSS web seminars, and more. Plus, NLC-moderated community forums include both elementary science and Next Generation Science Standards, as well as STEM, general science and teaching, and more.
Finally, the Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy is a unique learning experience designed for elementary teachers in grades 3–5 that focuses heavily on the NGSS scientific and engineering practices. The Academy helps teachers improve student learning experiences by enhancing grade appropriate mathematics and science content knowledge; demonstrating the interrelationships between scientific inquiry and mathematical problem solving; using the math tools to build understanding and connections to science concepts; and modeling “best practices” in teaching and learning. Registration is now open for the 2015 Academy.
A comprehensive list of NSTA resources on the Next Generation Science Standards—which include videos from our National Conference in Boston, a full archive of our NGSS web seminars, books, journal articles, handouts, and more—is most easily accessed via the NGSS@NSTA Hub.

I was recently appointed K-12 science department chairperson. Our professional development budget is slim, but I’d like to do something other than the generic “sit-and-git” presentations we’ve had in the past. I’ve heard about using social media and other online resources for professional development. I’m open to any other ideas, too. Where should we start?
—Lauren, Lowell, Massachusetts
This is a chance to tailor professional development (PD) to the needs of your science teachers, rather than trying to fit your colleagues into one-size-fits-all events (especially since elementary and secondary science teachers may have different needs). First, ask your administrator for state or local PD requirements and the district views on independent study and teacher-directed activities. Find out what types of pre-approval and documentation might be required for nontraditional or off-site activities.
Then ask the science teachers to examine the curriculum to identify science topics in which they need background knowledge or cutting-edge topics and instructional strategies for which they would like more information. Examine areas in which your students are struggling. You have a chance to identify specific areas of need, such as inquiry, lesson design, notebooks, formative assessments, laboratory procedures, safety, reading/writing in science, inclusion, technology integration, or classroom management. The Next Generation Science Standards could certainly be a focus area. NSTA has a variety of resources to help teachers learn about and use them. (See the NGSS@NSTA hub.)
The result of your survey should be individual or group goals reflecting your teachers’ needs. You and the teachers can then find or develop PD activities to meet those goals and describe how you will chart the progress toward meeting them, including teacher logs of their learning. Giving teachers ownership of the content and structure of their PD will improve their buy-in to the process, although those who have had negative experiences in the past may still be skeptical.
This kind of personalized PD will require as much (if not more) work than traditional workshops and presentations. Rather than putting together an extensive list of unrelated events, be sure your activities are connected to your identified needs and goals:

• Teachers active on social media such as e-mail lists, blogs, discussion forums, and Twitter (check out NSTA’s Social Media Dashboard) can post requests for lesson ideas, recommend video clips and websites, share textbook reviews, or add suggestions for classroom management. Thanks to the quick thinking and generosity of our colleagues, teachers can get a wealth of just-in-time replies to their immediate needs. Some Tweetchats and discussion threads are tailored to specific issues and can be used throughout the year (#nsta and #scichat are two that I monitor regularly). NSTA has Community Forums and e-mail lists that have many suggestions and resources from our colleagues, just in time.

• The resources at the NSTA Learning Center can also be a part of your plan. It would be easy to incorporate these into your goals, and many are free to NSTA members. The resources include Science Objects related to content, online web seminars (many other professional organizations charge for these), journal archives, the option to create and share resource collections, and free book chapters.

• Reading the K-12 NSTA journals—The Science Teacher, Science Scope,and Science & Children—is an easy way to stay current on both pedagogy and content, and your membership includes online access to all of them, including the archives. Teacher book discussion groups can take advantage of NSTA journals articles, book chapters, and other publications.

• Think outside of the traditional workshop box to consider action research projects, independent study, presentations by your own teachers, online courses, conferences, collaborations with other school districts whose teachers have similar needs, and collaborations with professional scientists or university staff (both online and in person). Or try your own version of the Iron Science Teacher.

• Consider informal science activities, including field trips to local science museums, nature centers, zoos, or parks. Many of these may offer PD sessions and their staff can be valuable resources.

There may be times when everyone will need the same training. For example,if the school is implementing new software for attendance, grading, or communications, then all teachers and staff need the training and subsequent updates. Other science-related topics—such as safety or updates on regulations and policies are important enough to require periodic training events for all.
Work with your administrators to design a format for reporting not just the PD topics and the hours but also a discussion of how these activities have improved teachers’ content knowledge and instructional skills. Invite administrators to your events and into the classrooms to see the results.