It’s amazing how comfortable you can be at an NSTA conference, even in a city you’ve never visited before. Even the floors are just like home! That guy lying down looks so peaceful, don’t you think?

Just taking a break after a full schedule of sessions and a reconnaissance of the exhibitor’s hall. The conference center is a very large venue, but somehow it doesn’t seem as hectic as some. It even seemed that the registration area was running smoothly. There are lots of places to sit and relax, plan a schedule, chat with friends (I ran into one of my professors from grad school here!), or grab a snack. We teachers are used to eating in 10 minutes!
One wonderful feature of the new Boston Convention and Exhibition Center is that there is wireless service throughout the whole building! I was in a session earlier that mentioned a website, and right after the session I could take a look at it. The presenters, I’m sure, appreciated the fact that they did not have to pay extra for Internet access.
Another cool feature is NSTA’s Professional Development documentation project. Many conferences have agreements with local universities to provide graduate credit for conference attendance (as this conference does), but NSTA is providing another option for those who need to document their attendance. If attendees complete a session evaluation form and include their names and badge numbers, in a few weeks NSTA will have a “transcript” available online with the names of the sessions and the times. So we don’t have to keep a diary or try to remember what we did when we get home. By going to the NSTA website, attendees can get this documentation to share with their schools or for their personal records.

Be sure to check out the conference blog this week. Use the tab at the top of the page for first-hand accounts of the sessions, exhibitors, speakers, and the overall impressions of being a national conference!

According to the NSTA conference website, there are over 1400 presentations and workshops (not counting other special sessions and happenings)! I was finding it hard to visualize this until this evening when I picked up my hard copy of the conference program (I should say programs – plural). There are four volumes, one for the events on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday/Sunday, plus another volume devoted to the exhibitors! The events are arranged by time slot, but they are also cross-referenced by subject and conference strand. There’s also a list of presenters, so you can look for someone in particular (and it’s really a thrill to see your own name there!). I can’t imagine all of the work that goes into organizing a conference of this size. I’m going to settle in now and pick out what I want to see tomorrow. So many topics and so little time!

Why are we studying this? What good will this do me? I know there are teachers who enjoy the challenge of students’ asking questions such as these and others who consider these questions to be disrespectful or distracting (and from some students they may be!). But I must confess that I was a questioner in school. If we were studying a new topic or doing an activity, I needed to know what the point was. It really didn’t matter to me what the teacher said the point was, as long as I could see that there was a point, beyond getting a grade or doing something for a test. And, regardless of the subject, if the point involved anything creative, I was hooked!
Some students find topics in science to be inherently interesting. The teacher could read from a textbook, and these students would still be interested. But for other students, teachers need to help students to see how the content is relevant. And even if students aren’t particularly interested in a topic (my own high school economics class comes to mind), the teacher can hook the students with personal anecdotes, interesting questions, cooperative activities, hands-on projects, trade books, or multimedia. The focus of this issue of Science Scope is on how to make science relevant.
The article Volcano Resumes shows how students can be engaged by a new twist on the typical “report.” In addition to the websites suggested by the author, the SciLinks keywords volcano or ring of fire can help students get started on their websearch. Students could also use websites to find volcano pictures for the resumes. And if the students would plot the coordinates on a map, they could see the “ring of fire” concept.
Who hasn’t an idea for an invention? I saw a quote today that said “If necessity is the mother of invention, laziness is the grandmother.” Middle-schoolers may relate to that! Problem Solving with Patents adds another dimension to the topic of inventions by looking at the patent process. Go to SciLinks and enter the keyword inventor to look at the inventive process through websites such as Invention Dimension from MIT with a searchable archive of inventors and a handbook for patenting an invention. You can also use the keywords Alexander Graham Bell or Thomas Edison for sites on these important inventors.
For information related to Bumpy, Sticky, and Shaky: Nanoscale Science and the Curriculum use nanoscience as keyword in SciLinks. Two of sites in this topic could be of interest to students: Introduction to Nanotechnology and Nanokids.
Investigating your own neighborhood and reporting the observations to a national database can be both relevant and authentic (two buzzwords in one sentence!). In addition to the projects described in Wanted: Citizen Scientists (Project Feederwatch, Bird Sleuth, and Monarch Watch), I recently heard of Project BudBurst, in which students, gardeners, and other interested folks observe flowering plants in their gardens, schoolyards, and lawns and then enter the observations into a national database to help scientists study the effects of climate change through the timing of flowers and foliage. The site has lots of ideas and resources (use the “Participate” link to get to the teacher resources).
Going on a Science Trek shows how students can demonstrate what they are learning in creative ways. I’ve seen a lot of lessons where the objective stated that the “students will be able to create a PowerPoint” (or diorama, poster, report). But in a science course, creating a report or exhibit is not really the objective. The PowerPoint, diorama, report, or poster is a way for students to communicate what science concepts they are learning. And this article makes this point with lots of ideas! What can be more relevant than providing many ways for students to use their creativity to solve a problem and communicate the results?

All of these articles this month reflect Isaac Newton’s work on forces and motion and the application of these principles to our daily lives – from seat belts and amusement parks to tools and trains. Check out additional web resources available in SciLinks. Use the keyword “Newton” for sets of websites on Newton’s Laws and biographies of Sir Isaac.

Who would think that juggling could be a great way to teach these principles? The article Juggling Makes Physics Fun does just that. I can just see a team-teaching class with the physical education teacher! Wouldn’t it be interesting as a teacher to learn a new skill along with the students? I’m sure that most of my students would be better at this than I would be! But that’s OK – I can work with them on the physics. The authors mention inviting a local juggler to class to demonstrate. But if that’s not possible, there’s always YouTube! Some of the videos there are not what I’d use in class, but here’s one on juggling that is appropriate for the classroom. Another good resource is How Juggling Works from the How Stuff Works website. I find the ads on the HSW site to be very distracting, so I’ve provided this link to the print version, which still includes the graphics and additional resources.

For more resources on roller coasters, in addition to the trade books and activity in Teaching Through Trade Books, check out the Science Teacher posting for this month. These resources may be a little advanced for elementary students, but they have good ideas and background information. And secondary teachers may want to check out this article, especially there are inexperienced students in their classes!

The article Using Simple Machines to Leverage Learning has more than a clever pun in its title! The diagrams that illustrate levers and the activity are terrific, but what really intrigued me was the authors’ use of a KLEW chart. I’ve used KWL graphic organizers (Know, Want to know, Learn), but my students seemed to have trouble with the Want to know segment. Many of them just didn’t know enough about a topic to express what else they wanted to learn! But this chart – What do we think we Know, What are we Learning, What is our Evidence, and What else are we Wondering (KLEW) looks like an excellent way to for students to organize their thoughts during a lesson or unit. It looks perfect for science, regardless of grade level! If you’re like me and haven’t seen these KLEW charts before, they are described in the February 2006 issue of Science and Children.

The article Simple Machines in the Community describes how students in the Philippines found examples of simple machines, and the article has simple activities to investigate each type. For more ideas, go to SciLinks and enter the keyword simple machine. Here are a few of my favorites: Simple Machines takes students on a virtual tour of a house and garage to find examples of simple machines. The site has explanations of why the tools are simple machines, and there is a comprehensive teacher’s guide. Inventor’s Toolbox has brief descriptions of simple machines and a “Gadget Anatomy” page that shows how simple machines can be combined into more complex ones. Marvelous Machines is a teacher site with many activities geared for third-graders (or third-graders at heart!).

And if your students have more questions about maglev trains after you try the activity in Can Trains Really Float? , go to SciLinks and enter the keyword “maglev” for more resources.