This week in education news, Amazon announces new Amazon Future Engineer initiative; research project at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is exploring the use of flipped teaching in STEM courses; NASBE implores states to focus on the lowest-performing students in ESSA plans; music matters to STEM students; 2016 National Teacher of the Year elected to the U.S. House of Representatives; environmentalists are hoping that Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson will bring science back to the House science committee when she takes over as chair in the next Congress; the U.S. Department of Education will continue to focus on plugging “leaks” in the STEM education pipeline; research finds small benefits to small classes; and personalized learning has a big problem.

Amazon Future Engineer Program Expands STEM Access to Low-Income Student

As computer science jobs continue opening with too few college graduates possessing the necessary skills, Amazon announced Thursday its Amazon Future Engineer initiative, which will help “inspire, educate and train children and young adults from underserved and low-income communities to pursue careers in computer science,” according to a news release. Read the brief featured in Education DIVE.

STEM: What’s Holding Females Back?

While the 20th century saw women stride ahead in their participation in education and the workforce, there are still gender differences apparent in some areas of education. In particular, females do not enroll in higher mathematics, science, or ICT, or move into STEM-based careers to the same extent as males. Read the article featured in Teacher Magazine.

Researchers to Explore Flipped Teaching in STEM Courses

A research project at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is exploring the use of flipped teaching in STEM courses. Supported by a $598,402 grant from the National Science Foundation, the three-year project will help STEM faculty at SIUE and St. Louis Community College implement flipped teaching in their courses and examine both faculty and student experiences with the method. Read the article featured in Campus Technology.

NASBE Urges States to Focus on Lowest-Performing Students in ESSA Plans

While most states are taking advantage of the Every Student Succeeds Act’s (ESSA) flexibility to use academic growth measures as part of their accountability systems, only nine states are applying a separate growth measure to the lowest-performing groups of students, according to a new policy brief from the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE). Read the brief featured in Education DIVE.

Why Music Matters to STEM Students. Yes, STEM.

Full self-disclosure — I’m a “bandie!” In junior high school, band provided me with a safe haven during the challenging years of adolescence. Band was essential to my emerging identity and to building my self-confidence. But wait, didn’t I become a physics teacher, and then a teacher educator in a teaching program focused on STEM? Double yes. Read the article featured in Study International News.

In Historic Win, Nationally Recognized Teacher Jahana Hayes Elected to U.S. House

Jahana Hayes, the 2016 National Teacher of the Year, has won her race for a U.S. House seat, representing Connecticut’s 5th district. A former high school history teacher and current district administrator, Hayes, a Democrat, will be the first black woman from the state to serve in Congress. Read the article featured in Education Week.

All Eyes on Top Democrat to Bring Science Back to Science Committee

Environmentalists are hoping that Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) will bring science back to the House science committee when she takes over as chair in the next Congress. Johnson, if elected chair, will be the first woman with a degree in a STEM field to hold the position since 1990. Read the article featured in The Hill.

U.S. Department of Education Fulfills Administration Promise to Invest $200 Million in STEM Education

The U.S. Department of Education announced that it has not only fulfilled but surpassed President Trump’s directive to invest $200 million in high-quality STEM, including computer science, education. In total, the Department obligated $279 million in STEM discretionary grant funds in Fiscal Year 2018. Read the press release.

Despite Popularity with Parents and Teachers, Review of Research Finds Small Benefits to Small Classes

Small classes are very popular with parents. Fewer kids in a room can mean more personal attention for their little ones. Teachers like them too. Fewer kids mean fewer tests to mark and fewer disruptions. Read the article featured in The Hechinger Report.

What Does Personalized Learning Mean? Whatever People Want It To

Personalized learning has a big problem. Inside America’s schools, the term is used to mean just about anything. Algorithm-driven playlists? Grouping students based on digital data? Letting teens design projects based on their personal interests? Adaptive software that adjusts to each student’s skill level? Customized activities to help kids develop a growth mindset? Read the article featured in Education Week.

Stay tuned for next week’s top education news stories.

The Communication, Legislative & Public Affairs (CLPA) team strives to keep NSTA members, teachers, science education leaders, and the general public informed about NSTA programs, products, and services and key science education issues and legislation. In the association’s role as the national voice for science education, its CLPA team actively promotes NSTA’s positions on science education issues and communicates key NSTA messages to essential audiences.

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

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I am hoping to have “word walls” in my classroom for subject areas. What would be some beneficial words no matter the age level for the science classroom?  — H., Iowa

Great idea! I have always maintained that teaching science is also like teaching a new language to students. Working on vocabulary to use when communicating scientifically is important and should start at an early age.

In conjunction with words highlighting cross-cutting concepts, I believe that it would be ideal to have actions, skills, processes, and terms that span across all topics and disciplines of science on your word wall. Check your curriculum documents and you’ll find many such words.

Rather than have a list of words on the wall for students to memorize, developing your wall should also be an excellent learning activity for your class. Have them brainstorm the words they believe should be on the wall after some readings or activities on the nature of science. Depending on the grade level, you could have groups present or make a case to include each word. The wall does not have to be static. Add to it as the year passes. To bolster terminology specific to some topics, you could create a temporary word wall alongside your cross-cutting words.

Words I believe cut across all disciplines and could be used and taught at almost any age (in no particular order and by no means exhaustive):

Hope this helps!  

Photo credit:  Science Scope

This month’s blogs feature questions sent to me by students of Michael D. Bechtel, EdD, assistant professor of science education, Biology Department of Wartburg College, Iowa. As part of their coursework they were asked to connect to professional learning communities and many of them found resources on the NSTA website – including this blog. Many thanks to Dr. Bechtel and the up-and-coming teachers of Wartburg College for their insightful questions!

Graphic credit: Wartburg College [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Happening right outside the nation’s capital, NSTA’s 2018 National Harbor conference on science education will take place November 15–17.

If you’ve ever attended, you know that the best thing about the conference is that there is so much to choose from—and you also know that’s the most challenging thing about attending an NSTA conference—so what do you do? One way to make the best use of your time is to consider sessions devoted to your content area. The place to begin is with a keyword search of the session browser for National Harbor. Browse below to find ideas for your content area, and see all conference details here.

Biology

Into biology? Put the keynote speaker on your schedule right away!

Mireya Mayor
Primatologist and National Geographic Explorer
WILD ABOUT SCIENCE: My Journey from NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer
Thursday, November 15, 2018
9:15–10:30 AM
Maryland A-D, Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center

Join Mireya Mayor for a morning of adventure, as this one-time Miami Dolphins cheerleader shares how she went on to earn a Fulbright Scholarship, discovered a previously unknown species of mouse lemur, and earned her PhD, proving there is more than one path to success. As an advocate for science and education, her passion is both inspiring and contagious.

Here are a few more sessions you may want to target:

• Facilitating Student-Created Field Studies in Your Local Environment
• 3-D Natural Selection
• NSTA Press Session: Argument-Driven Inquiry in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics: Lab Investigations for Grades 9–12
• Exploring Life Sciences and Climate Change in Antarctica to Develop Scientifically Literate Global Citizens
• Easy Modeling Techniques for a Life Science Classroom

Chemistry

Looking to bond with other chemistry teachers? Join us for Chemistry Day on Friday, November 16, sponsored by the American Chemical Society. Look for their name on presentations.

Want more? Search the session browser using the keyword “chemistry,” and find the events that are right for you. Here are a few you may like:

• NGSS for Struggling Learners in Chemistry
• Chemical Evolution of Earth for High School Chemistry and Earth Science Classes
• Solids: The Neglected “State” of Chemistry
• Kinesthetic Chemistry: Get Your Students Up and Moving
• NSTA Press Session: Argument-Driven Inquiry in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics: Lab Investigations for Grades 9–12

Next Generation Science Standards

Whether your state has adopted the Next  Generation Science Standards (NGSS) or you’re personally committed to 3D teaching and learning, you’ll find a lot at National Harbor when you browse the scheduler. Here are some you may want to attend:

• More Than a Lesson—What an NGSS Unit Looks Like
• Blended Learning in the Elementary Science Classroom: Transitioning to the NGSS Using Individualized Learning
• NSTA Press Session: Instructional Sequence Matters—Structuring Lessons with the NGSS in Mind
• Grounding STEM Education Programs in NGSS Practices
• Advancing Scientific Literacy with Lesson Plans that Meet the CCSS and NGSS

Physics

Physics teachers: Join us for Physics Day on Friday, November 16. And throughout the entire conference find events that are right for you. Here are a few you may like:

• Cars: Science Lessons That DRIVE Science Concepts
• ASEE Session: Make and Code…Together
• Exploring the Science and Engineering Practices
• Energy Explorations at the Primary Level
• Local Ice Rinks Are a STEM Wonderland and Feature Newton’s Laws at Play—Year Round!

STEM

STEM stars will want to put this featured speaker on their schedules:

Heidi Schweingruber
Director, Board on Education, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 
Becoming Scientifically Literate: Insights from Research on Learning and Teaching
Thursday, November 15, 2018
2:00–3:00 PM
Maryland C, Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center

Join Heidi Schweingruber for great insights. Science is a way of knowing about our world. In a society where science and technology now touch nearly every part of our lives, it is critical to understand the processes and practices of science and to become critical consumers of scientific research. Drawing on studies from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Heidi’s talk focuses on exploring what scientific literacy is and the kinds of learning experiences students need to become more scientifically literate.

STEM, STEAM, Maker Spaces—they’re everyone, and National Harbor will be no exception. Browse the sessions to find your favorites. Here are a few samples:

• How to Implement STEM and NGSS into Your Classroom Through the Use of NSTA Competitions
• STEM on a Budget: Leveraging University and Community Partnerships
• Find the Fund$ for STEM: Grant Writing 101
• STEM Design Challenges in a Diverse Inclusion Classroom
• Taking STEM Outside
• NSTA Press Session: Engage Your Students: Designing Meaningful STEM Lessons

Pro Tips

Check out more sessions and other events with the National Harbor Session Browser/Personal Scheduler. Follow all our conference tweets using #NSTA18, and if you tweet, please feel free to tag us @NSTA so we see it!

Need help requesting funding or time off from your principal or supervisor? Download a letter of support and bring it with you! National Harbor support letter

And don’t forget, NSTA members save up to $95 off the price of registration. Not a member? Join here.

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

Future NSTA Conferences

2018 Area Conferences

• National Harbor (MD), November 15–17
• Charlotte, Nov. 29–Dec. 1

“Dive into Three-Dimensional Instruction” Workshop
National Harbor, November 16–17, 2018

2019 National Conference
St. Louis, April 11–14

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Beginner, as well as veteran, middle school science educators will find what they need to reimagine the teaching of physical science in Patrick Brown’s new NSTA Press book Instructional Sequence Matters, Grades 6-8: Structuring Lessons With the NGSS in Mind. The book guides its readers on how to make simple shifts in the way they arrange and combine activities to help their students construct knowledge using POE (Predict, Observe, and Explain) and 5E (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate), two popular approaches to structuring lessons.

Science educators who are new to the profession can use the model lessons so that they have research-based strategies to improve student learning during their first years of teaching. Experienced teachers who find their lessons not influencing students as much as they intended can benefit from some simple reorganizing techniques that Brown lays out.

“Regardless of the level of experience, from novice to expert teacher, educators can read, implement, and dissect each model lesson to help reflect on how the sequence of science instruction promotes long-lasting understanding,” he says.

Brown, the executive director of STEM and career education for the Fort Zumwalt School District in St. Charles, Missouri, is known for his scholarship on instructional sequences to teach science. He describes his book as his “journey to translating the NGSS into practice,” one of the first challenges that most science educators face when implementing the new standards.

Drawing heavily on research about effective professional development that “highlights the important role of active learning in context and explicit reflection on practice,” Brown wrote this book to help educators understand why the order in which they structure their lessons is so critical; what planning considerations are needed to become an “explore-before-explain” teacher; and how to do three-dimensional learning and translate the NGSS into practice.

The book’s content stretches across 10 chapters and is linked to research experiences, including working with students, teacher preparation, and professional development. Each chapter builds on the one that precedes it.

Research shapes the content in Chapter 1, which takes readers through some emerging ideas about the intellectual abilities of students and the implications for instructional sequence.

If teachers want to produce more powerful learning experiences for their students, then practice must be grounded in current research on teaching and learning, Brown says. “What we know about students’ intellectual abilities and knowledge development is much different from what it was 20 or 30 years ago.”

The key components of the POE and 5E instructional models are discussed in Chapter 2. Brown includes activity boxes to help teachers reflect on their current hands-on practices and how they might be sequenced to support even higher levels of learning.

Chapter 3 describes three-dimensional learning, the integration of science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core content—all of which are critical to promoting science literacy. Brown takes readers through each of the dimensions and includes activities to help teachers reflect on the lessons they are teaching and their connections to the NGSS.

Not sure where to start? In Chapter 4, Brown acknowledges that tackling your first 5E lesson “may seem daunting.” He offers guidance on how educators can create their own lessons that translate the NGSS, and he also presents activities that he’s used in his own practice as well as with preservice teachers and current teachers to design effective 5E units.

Model lessons for putting the explore-before-explain mindset into action—that use either the POE or the 5E instructional model—are included in Chapters 5-9 with illustrations that explain how both models easily support the NGSS. Science educators can teach lessons about heat and temperature using an investigative demonstration, investigate change using the invisible test tube demonstration, address students’ misconceptions of circuits, and more.

Brown begins the final chapter of his book by explaining that effective explore-before-explain teachers must integrate what they know about instructional activities, content, and learners “in a very intricate and organized matter.” He guides educators who are ready to take on this mission through five necessary steps. He also outlines what educators can do to support their colleagues and develop collaborative teams that are interested in developing POEs and 5Es into practice.

Effective teaching, Brown reminds readers, is about working smarter not harder. “Reflecting on and experiencing exploration before explanation instructional sequences opens up opportunities to construct a theoretical model for classroom lesson design so that all students gain higher levels of science literacy.”

Check out a sample chapter, “Teaching About Heat and Temperature Using an Investigative Demonstration.” This book is also available as an ebook.

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