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Sequencing Matters: How to Promote Long-Lasting Understanding of Physical Science for Middle Schoolers

By Carole Hayward

Posted on 2018-11-07

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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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: Structur

 

How Did an Ordinary Science Teacher Win an Award?

By Korei Martin

Posted on 2018-11-06

Dear NSTA Colleagues,

As a proud 18-year veteran of a Kindergarten classroom, applying for one of the NSTA awards in 2014 became “LIFE CHANGING.”  I am excited to share my story as an NSTA member whose passion for teaching Kindergarteners and science sent me on a journey of reflection and professional growth.

In 2014, I was selected as the recipient of the NSTA Shell Science Teaching Award. I still get goose bumps typing those words, even to this day.  I am still so humbled to have been chosen because I do not see myself as an outstanding educator.  I do what is best and right for the children in my classroom. My kindergarten students’ favorite part of our day is when I announce that it’s time for science!

How Did an Ordinary Science Teacher Win an Award?

I decided to apply for the Shell Science Teaching Award after I saw a link for it posted on one of our state list-serve e-mails.  I was hoping to become one of the finalists so I could attend NSTA’s national conference and learn some ideas to take back to my classroom.  Walking through the application process was one of the most reflective experiences I’ve ever had.  I examined my teaching from many different viewpoints and from the lens of many colleagues, friends, and parents of former students. One thing that is unique to the Shell Award is that when you are announced as one of the three finalists, a team from the Shell Award Selection committee comes to visit your classroom.  I worried about that day for a week or so and on the morning of the visit, I woke up and felt peace.  I literally walked through that day in what felt like a dream! I organized several groups of colleagues, parents, and administrators to speak with the Shell Award team members about me as a teacher and what happens in my classroom.  I cannot even put into words what it is like to hear all those people who watch what you do everyday speak about you.  I was completely overwhelmed at all the kind, beautiful, wonderful things they said about me! After the visit was over, I went home that evening and just sobbed; it was one of the MOST powerful experiences I have walked through as a professional.  It was LITERALLY life changing.

I never thought that I would be selected as the national recipient! I was brought to tears at school convocation when my Superintendent announced that I was the recipient of the Shell Science Teaching Award. 

After receiving the NSTA award, many new opportunities opened up to me—and still continue to arise. One highlight was being invited to be the keynote speaker at several different conferences to share my experiences as a science educator.  I was also asked to be a trainer for our state science kit initiative and to lead many professional development sessions in my own district as well as within my own state.  I was asked by our Department of Education to help write the K–2 science standards that children and teachers all over Indiana would be using. 

Through the years, I get to speak to principals and teachers from both the US and China about the importance of Science in the early childhood classroom and guide them through hands-on experiences that they can take back to their schools and introduce to their children. As a means to be more involved with NSTA, I’ve applied for NSTA positions: District Director and a Shell Awards team member. Currently, I’m the Elementary Director for our state Science association and have just submitted my application to run for Vice-President. Beyond the classroom, three museums in Indiana have invited me to sit on their executive boards and thereby influence the patrons who attend events and activities there. I have also served as a member of the Shell Science Teaching Awards team and have reviewed each application over the last 3 years from some incredible educators!

My professional network expanded along with the opportunities I shared above.  I thoroughly enjoy participating in chats on Twitter and help to host a chat for teachers on the first Tuesday of each month (#TeacherFriends) in which we discuss topics relevant to education. I also join in the #NSTAchat as often as I can and learn all about topics that are related to science education from some incredible educators. I communicate regularly with friends I have made through NSTA and have been invited to provide feedback on several of their books before they were published. 

Through all of these experiences, I was encouraged by colleagues and friends to apply for other NSTA awards and I was excited to receive the Robert E. Yager Excellence in Science Teaching Award earlier this year at the NSTA National Conference in Atlanta.

So, if you have ever thought about applying for an NSTA award, now is the time! I have grown so much as a professional educator because of the application process, and I can assure you that you will too. When you add in all of the opportunities that have been presented to me, I can truly say that receiving an NSTA award is LIFE CHANGING!

Maybe an NSTA award isn’t in your immediate future, but you may still want to learn more about NSTA awards (and consider telling your teacher friends about them).  Applying for an NSTA award is not as intimidating as it may seem!  There is a friendly Awards staff ready to help answer any of your questions along with the countless recipients of past NSTA awards. You will learn about opportunities that allow you to grow as a professional and ways that you can become involved with NSTA in other ways.  I would also encourage you to apply for being a member of one of the awards selection committees for an NSTA award.  This is a great way to learn more about the criteria for each award and what the committee looks for in the application process.

Kristen Poindexter
Kindergarten Teacher

Indianapolis, Indiana

Twitter handle: @fuzzlady77

E-Mail: kpoindexter@msdwt.k12.in.us

Dear NSTA Colleagues,

As a proud 18-year veteran of a Kindergarten classroom, applying for one of the NSTA awards in 2014 became “LIFE CHANGING.”  I am excited to share my story as an NSTA member whose passion for teaching Kindergarteners and science sent me on a journey of reflection and professional growth.

 

Evidence, claims, and Media Literacy Week

By Peggy Ashbrook

Posted on 2018-11-05

Cover of Exemplar Evidence: Scientists and Their DataAs the author of the NSTA Press book Exemplary Evidence: Scientists and Their Dataelementary science educator and guest blogger Jessica Fries-Gaither has an excellent understanding of how scientists identify ideas that are supported by evidence. Exemplary Evidence describes the wide variety of what counts as data–from observations to measurements to lab results–and the many different ways that scientists collected, worked with and used that data. Fries-Gaither also wrote a book for younger children, the NSTA Kids book Notable Notebooks: Scientists and Their Writings. 

As Fries-Gaither tells students at the end of the book:

Data supports conclusions; it can change people’s minds;

It is used to build theories that help humankind.

Scientists all along have known this to be true: Data is powerful!

Now, what will yours do?

 Welcome Jessica!


November 5-9 is the 4th Annual U.S. Media Literacy Week, hosted by the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE). Celebrated across the United States (and in conjunction with Canada’s National Media Literacy Week), the goal is to highlight the importance of media literacy in education. NAMLE defines media literacy as “the ability to ACCESS, ANALYZE, EVALUATE, CREATE, and ACT using all forms of communication.” The organization shares that media literacy, “empowers people to be critical thinkers and makers, effective communicators, and active citizens.”

Logo of Media Literacy Week 2018

As early childhood science educators, we have an important role to play in the development of media literate students. The eight Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Science and Engineering Practices that guide our work with young children overlap with NAMLE’s definition of media literacy, particularly in Practice 7: Engaging in Argument from Evidence. In the primary years, this practice builds on prior experiences and includes comparing different ideas and representations about the natural and designed world(s). NGSS Performance expectations in this area for K-2 students include:

  • Identify arguments that are supported by evidence.
  • Distinguish between explanations that account for all gathered evidence and those that do not.
  • Analyze why some evidence is relevant to a scientific question and some is not.
  • Distinguish between opinions and evidence in one’s own explanations.
  • Listen actively to arguments to indicate agreement or disagreement based on evidence, and/or to retell the main points of the argument.
  • Construct an argument with evidence to support a claim.
  • Make a claim about the effectiveness of an object, tool, or solution that is supported by relevant evidence.

Young children are quite capable of engaging in such work; however, they need support and appropriate instruction to generate *claims and support them with evidence. As with students of any age, a thoughtful instructional sequence helps them to do so. You might choose to read aloud an excerpt from NSTA Press’s new book, Exemplary Evidence: Scientists and Their Data and discuss how scientists need to have evidence to support their ideas. I suggest reading about Maria Merian, who was able to make claims about the life cycle of insects using evidence she gathered while observing and painting insects over the course of time. You will also want to explain that a claim is a conclusion or an answer to a question (what you think you know). A claim must have evidence to support it, much like a detective would use clues to solve a mystery. 

2nd grader's paper with claim and evidence about what animals need to survive (food).After an introduction, students are ready to practice generating claims and evidence. We have asked students to watch short video clips of animals from Arkive, such as this video of an iguana eating a flower. Afterwards, ask students to make a claim about what animals need to survive, using evidence from the video. As you can see in the photo, this second grade student correctly claimed that animals need food to survive and used the video as evidence. This exercise can be repeated several times with different videos of animals, or firsthand observations of local animals in the schoolyard, helping students gain proficiency in generating claims and supporting them with evidence. As the year progresses, students can continue to support claims with evidence following hands-on investigations.

Supporting claims with evidence is a skill that transcends curricular areas, and you may soon finding your students using the language in other disciplines! How might this fit into your social studies instruction? Math? Language arts? The more opportunities we provide for students to think critically, the closer we are to achieving NAMLE’s goal of media literate students. 

*To learn more about claims, evidence, reasoning, and argument, see Eric Brunsell’s blog post, Designing Science Inquiry: Claim + Evidence + Reasoning = Explanation.

Cover of Exemplar Evidence: Scientists and Their DataAs the author of the NSTA Press book Exemplary Evidence: Scientists and Their Dataelementary 

 

Supporting Students With Disabilities in STEM

By Kate Falk

Posted on 2018-11-05

Jason, is this big enough?” My seventh-grade teacher asked me about the text on the whiteboard, in front of the entire class. Much to my horror, she continued to ask this repeatedly for what felt like the rest of the year. As a middle school student who had suddenly become aware of pretty girls and how big my glasses were, the last thing I wanted was to be asked constantly about whether I could actually see what was on the whiteboard. She had good intentions, but it was the first time I realized some people didn’t know how to deal with my disability.

The road from embarrassed seventh grader to earning a computer engineering degree, to Microsoft senior project manager, to an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)-Lemelson Invention Ambassador has not been smooth. We know that so many children lose interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) in early adolescence, and we lose many more young adults as they progress through our educational system.

I can attest to the fact that the pathway for children with disabilities is especially filled with obstacles. My success in STEM has made me acutely aware of this, so I am passionate about supporting an interest in STEM for persons with disabilities so they can leverage technology to become the world’s next STEM leaders and innovators.

I was born with ocular albinism, resulting in uncorrectable vision of 20/80 and 20/200. My parents worked extremely hard to get me the accommodations I needed to succeed, and very closely with teachers to ensure they knew how to work with me. Seventh grade was different because I had so many teachers that my parents couldn’t work as closely with them all. While teachers were “aware” of my problems, they had very different ways of handling my disability:

  • Those who over-accommodated. As I said earlier, these teachers constantly needed affirmation and often “coddled” me.
  • Those who under-accommodated. Often these teachers behaved like stereotypical “tough guy” physical education teachers who either didn’t think I needed help or perhaps thought I just needed to “toughen up.”
  • Those who got it “just right.” Teachers who talked to me before or after class, privately, and understood the social horrors of middle school could be exacerbated with a disability. They supported me, but had the same expectations of success for the rest of the class.

As adult and a parent, I’ve begun to appreciate all of the work and stress teachers experience each thankless day. (My sister has taught young students, so I’ve witnessed it all firsthand.) Preparing for everything involved in teaching—including helping students with disabilities succeed—is a job I can’t imagine doing, but I’m so appreciative of the top-notch teachers I had. Without their help, I never would have been able to pursue a STEM degree and career. However, we know students with disabilities are significantly more unlikely to simply graduate high school, much less pursue a degree or job in STEM. 

All students of all abilities can successfully learn STEM and pursue STEM careers. Though awareness of issues of diversity and equity related to gender and ethnicity has become more widespread, disabilities often are not part of the diversity and inclusion conversations. My goal in this blog post, and in life, is to encourage students to pursue STEM, parents to realize their children’s potential, and teachers to support and guide students with disabilities to pursue STEM degrees and careers.

Partnering With Parents

Generally, parents must be the ones to arrange accommodations for students with disabilities. I was extremely lucky to have my parents advocating for me to have larger-print books, low-vision tools, and help in the classroom. If a student appears to have a disability (physical or learning) and it’s unclear if they have any assistance, it’s best to reach out directly to the parents. 

As with many things, this can be a delicate process. Rather than assuming you know the answers, ask questions to see if the student has been evaluated by a specialist. For example, students with low vision  can be examined by specialists who can evaluate and prescribe based on their needs.

Typically students will already have been evaluated by an ophthalmologist, but sometimes that isn’t enough. My doctor was one of the best eye surgeons in the country, but he didn’t believe in many forms of low-vision accessibility solutions. As a result, my parents didn’t know about all of the available technology until I was in 10th grade, technology that I could have used in the classroom to make life easier or to use to drive. It’s important for teachers to connect with parents early on and inform them of available resources.

Strong Expectations With Strong Support

As I mentioned, some teachers over-accommodated and had lower expectations for me. Ironically, I had more teachers expecting less of me than teachers who didn’t think I needed help. Remember that students with disabilities can accomplish any set of goals, but may need a different way to do so, such as having more time for tests or assignments, showing their progress in a different way , or receiving additional assistance.

One of the biggest mistakes is to steer students with disabilities to “easier” education pathways. If more students with disabilities pursue STEM and are given appropriate challenging assignments, they’ll pave the way for others in the future and may even change the world because of their unique abilities. I’ll share an example of this.

I met a young girl who was legally blind and wanted to pursue a degree in mathematics at Virginia Tech. After describing all the tough obstacles she had already overcome in high school, she asked me bluntly, “Do you think I’ll be able to get my degree?” I emphatically said, “Yes,” but allowed it wouldn’t be easy. Four years later, she earned her degree.

As professors and peers worked with her, they experienced math in a new way because of her. They learned calculus in three dimensions, and literally felt math in new ways as they experienced graphing with braille. This led to some incredible new ways to teach math and some breakthroughs for math theses that would not have happened without her.

Finding the Right Balance

Unfortunately, I don’t have an obvious answer regarding how much support to give students with disabilities. But I’ll conclude with one more higher education story about a professor who told another student who was blind that she couldn’t participate in a mountain climbing class. The professor did not want the student to get hurt, but after she pushed hard enough, she was allowed to participate. She fell and received many scrapes, but by the end of the class, she was moving the fastest of all the students and even participating in competitions. The professor observed, “I was both afraid I couldn’t help her be successful, and afraid of her failing. She taught me how to be a better teacher by realizing the easier road isn’t the road where we learn the most.”

I believe our future is bright because of amazing teachers, and I believe students with disabilities can change the world, especially in STEM. To succeed, they’ll need your support and encouragement to pursue hard work, but that’s not new to you: It’s exactly what you’re great at, and we can’t thank you enough for doing it all.

Jason Grieves, a senior program manager at Microsoft, empowers persons with disabilities by inventing solutions to help them change the world. Grieves believes supporting persons with disabilities to live, work, and play in new ways will allow a new generation to leverage technology to become the world’s next leaders and innovators. During his 10 years with Microsoft, he has introduced new accessible technology for persons with visual impairments; improved software typing on phones for everyone, including those with mobility impairments; and built innovative personal health and fitness solutions that energize people to change their lives and improve their health. He also spent a year at technology startup Katalyst developing a new technology to enable persons with visual, hearing, and mobility impairments to exercise smarter and more efficiently.

Grieves’ passion for accessibility and empowering others stems from his own visual disability. He was born with optic nerve damage in both eyes. Through a life-changing event—meeting a young girl who was completely blind—and with incredible support from his family and friends, he began helping persons with disabilities in high school. He spent one summer preparing a kindergarten teacher, computer, and classroom for a new student who had a similar visual impairment. When he saw the student successfully using the computer and learning from the teacher in front of the class, he knew he had found his calling.

Grieves currently holds 11 patents.

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


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Jason, is this big enough?” My seventh-grade teacher asked me about the text on the whiteboard, in front of the entire class. Much to my horror, she continued to ask this repeatedly for what felt like the rest of the year. As a middle school student who had suddenly become aware of pretty girls and how big my glasses were, the last thing I wanted was to be asked constantly about whether I could actually see what was on the whiteboard. She had good intentions, but it was the first time I realized some people didn’t know how to deal with my disability.

 

Acorns for fun in science

By Peggy Ashbrook

Posted on 2018-11-03

Acorns scattered on the ground.

Chinquapin oak acorns, also spelled “Chinkapin.”

This fall there are an abundance of acorns falling from the oak trees in my area. Scientists study oak trees to understand possible reasons why some years larger amounts of acorns are produced than others. 

Acorns are free material for early childhood science explorations, with permission from the landowners. A nature walk among trees exposes children to new vocabulary in a meaningful context. “For example, as they learn the word acorn, they also learn that a variety of adjectives such as dark, ripe, rotten, and elliptical are suitable when providing detailed observations” (Arreguin-Anderson, Alanis, and Gonzalez).

The shapes of acorns vary from one oak species to another (see identification resources below) and make a wonderful addition to a sensory table (as long as your children are older than 3 years and are not putting objects in their mouths). After several weeks children may notice holes in the acorns and discover the tiny grub or caterpillar-like animals that emerged from the acorns. These are baby insects, acorn weevils, and provide an opportunity to wonder at this specific relationship of plant and animal.

As children use acorns at the sensory table, or as game pieces, in imaginative play, and in art explorations they will notice and sort acorns by attributes such as size, shininess, or the texture of the cup (“hat”). 

Acorns roll but not in the same way as marbles—something to discover when setting up ramps for rolling. Spinning an acorn is easier when a stem is added to make it into a spinning top. Make a hole by pushing a nail or awl into the top after the cup is removed, on the opposite side from the small point on the bottom. It is easier to poke a hole in the tops of some acorns than others. 

Do all acorns float? Or do they sink? The cupula or cup of an acorn makes a tiny boat. 

You might find that some of the acorns you gather are already growing a root. Plant them in soil to grow a tree or put them into a clear container or bag to watch the root and sprout growth.

Read about the way other educators engaged children in examining acorns in these two articles from Science and Children:

“Methods and Strategies: Using Acorns to Generate an Entire Alphabet” by Maria Guadalupe Arreguin-Anderson, Iliana Alanis, and Irasema Salinas Gonzalez. Science and Children 53(6): 76-81. February 2016

“Planting Deeper: Outdoor experiences challenge children’s misconceptions about the needs of plants” by Ana Maria Caballero and Nermeen Dashoush. Science and Children 55(2): 56-61. October 2017

A few tree identification web sites:

Department of Natural Resources Madison, Wisconsin Division of Forestry. Forest Trees of Wisconsin: How to know them.  

https://dnr.wi.gov/files/pdf/pubs/fr/FR0053.pdf 

The Maine Forest Service. 2008. Forest Trees of Maine. https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/publications/handbooks_guides/forest_trees/index.html 

Oaks in particular:

https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/publications/handbooks_guides/forest_trees/pdf/Oaks.pdf 

Stein, John, Denise Binion, and Robert Acciavatti. 2003. Field Guide to Native Oak Species of Eastern North America. USDA Forest Service

https://www.fs.fed.us/foresthealth/technology/pdfs/fieldguide.pdf 

Texas A&M Forest Service. List of Trees. 

http://texastreeid.tamu.edu/content/listOfTrees/index.aspx?t=O 

York, Harlan. 100 Forest Trees of Alabama. Division of Forestry, Alabama Department of Conservation. http://www.forestry.alabama.gov/TreeIDIndex.aspx?bv=5&s=1 

Acorns scattered on the ground.

Chinquapin oak acorns, also spelled “Chinkapin.”

 

Ed News: In America’s Science Classroom, The Creep Of Climate Skepticism

By Kate Falk

Posted on 2018-11-02

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This week in education news, fewer foreign students are choosing to study at U.S. universities; Alaska school district grows fresh food for school lunch program and supports local employment; Missouri Governor signs STEM education and computer science bill; to become readers, kids need to learn how the words they know how to say connect to print on the page; new analysis unveils that several states don’t consider teacher effectiveness in layoffs; and school leaders must create schools that empower teachers to grow and have meaningful collaboration.

Why Foreign Students Diverting From America Is A Problem

All the media attention these days around global trade tensions is missing a potentially longer-lasting looming danger to U.S. competitiveness: Fewer of the world’s “best and brightest” are choosing to study at U.S. universities. Read the article featured in Forbes magazine.

Alaska School District Grows Fresh Food And Supports Local Employment

At a few remote Alaska schools, produce ranging from tomatoes and squash to bok choy and cilantro is grown in greenhouses heated by wood-fired boilers. This provides fresh greens and vegetables for the school lunch program in communities where some residents have to drive two hours, one way, to the nearest grocery store. Southeast Island School District’s initiative has also increased employment for the remote communities it serves on Prince of Wales Island. The district hires local citizens and high school students to stoke the boilers during the long winter months. Read the article featured in District Administration.

Parson Signs STEM Education And Computer Science Bill

On Tuesday, Missouri Governor Mike Parson signed into law House Bill 3 at Grand Center Arts Academy in St. Louis and at Poplar Bluff High School in Poplar Bluff. Passed during a special legislative session called by the Governor in September, HB 3 deals with computer science, expanding course opportunities for high school students, creating a certification process for teachers, establishing a fund for any future public and private financial support, and developing curriculum standards. Read the article featured in The Missouri Times.

Tell Washington And The Universities That Innovation Takes More Than STEM

Presidents and professors, business leaders and tech billionaires have all stressed the need for innovation. They are right. Especially in a globalized world, this country needs to innovate continually in order to compete and maintain high living standards. These advocates almost always also claim that the innovation effort depends on getting more people into STEM subjects. In this, they are only partially right. STEM is necessary for innovation but seldom sufficient. Read the article featured in Forbes magazine.

Why Are We Still Teaching Reading The Wrong Way?

Our children aren’t being taught to read in ways that line up with what scientists have discovered about how people actually learn. It’s a problem that has been hiding in plain sight for decades. Read the article featured in The New York Times.

NCTQ: Many States Don’t Consider Teacher Effectiveness In Layoffs, Dismissals

Fewer than half of states require school districts to use teacher effectiveness data in decisions to dismiss teachers or issue layoffs, according to a new analysis by the National Council on Teacher Quality. Read the brief featured in Education DIVE.

Can We Design Schools Where Teachers And Students Thrive?

In order to fully support teachers as they mold students into tomorrow’s innovators, school leaders must create schools that empower teachers to grow and have meaningful collaboration, according to a new report from 100Kin10. Read the article featured in eSchool News.

In America’s Science Classroom, The Creep Of Climate Skepticism

Steve Vernon lives with his wife in a meticulously manicured country club community secured by watchmen in guard booths. He is also a leader of the Florida Citizens’ Alliance, a conservative, 20,000-member organization based in Naples that spearheaded a successful grassroots effort last year to pass the nation’s first state bill allowing residents to demand a public hearing on local school textbooks. With its passage, parents of students — as well as anyone living in a given district — can challenge the books a school is using to teach their community’s children. It was a seemingly parochial piece of civic legislation, but it was one with potentially great implications for science education in the United States. Read the article featured in Undark magazine.

New Report Says ‘Citizen Science’ Can Support Both Science Learning and Research Goals; Inequities In Education, Opportunities, And Resources Must Be Addressed To Meet Participants’ Learning Demands

Scientific research that involves nonscientists contributing to research processes – also known as ‘citizen science’ – supports participants’ learning, engages the public in science, contributes to community scientific literacy, and can serve as a valuable tool to facilitate larger scale research, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Read the press release by the National Academies.

The Importance Of Choice In PD

Despite coming to the profession with possible natural instinct and high-quality learning from their teacher programs, our most talented and dedicated teachers starve without continued education. Learning is their fuel. Read the article featured in Edutopia.

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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Helping Students Develop Perseverance

By Debra Shapiro

Posted on 2018-11-02

Tom Meagher, district STEM education coordinator for Owatonna Public Schools in Owatonna, Minnesota, shows students how to hold a Monarch butterfly before releasing it. “Finding, collecting, feeding, cleaning, and releasing live Monarch butterflies teaches students about scientific observation, collecting samples, recording changes over time, life cycles, and stewardship. Each step requires practice in perseverance,” he says. Photo courtesy of Dani Rypka

While some people use the terms “perseverance” and “grit” interchangeably, David Upegui, science teacher at Central Falls High School in Central Falls, Rhode Island, has a different view: “I am extremely fortunate to work in Central Falls (the most economically disadvantaged city in Rhode Island), where I teach some of the best students in our country. I have several strategies that I have [used] in the past, and also some potential warnings about the use of the ‘grit’ concept (perseverance is much better).”

With “100% of students [at my school] receiving free or reduced-price lunch,” 80% Latino, and many the children of immigrants, Upegui maintains, “all the students are already ‘gritty.’ They’re survivors. That these students show up [at school] at all is amazing.”

Perseverance, however, “is having the faculty to look at academic challenges as a way to grow personally and gain power over the world,” says Upegui. In his classes, “students feel science is our language and knowledge…and a tool for empowerment. They understand that science can teach you how to question the world, and you can apply it to all aspects of your life. My students realize it’s not about one assignment or one test: It’s about tools to help them change the world.” Science, he emphasizes to students, “has built into it the ability of changing. Science isn’t static.”

Helping students persevere is “not training [them] to be managed by others, but to manage others, to be leaders,” Upegui asserts. Because many of his students “don’t see themselves in college, [they] need to be trained to be problem solvers and better citizens,” he says.

Upegui shares stories about the successes of former students, many of whom accomplished goals they once thought unimaginable including attending “Harvard, MIT, the Naval Academy.” He talks about scientists who overcame obstacles, such as Lynn Margulis, who was honored for her seminal work in endosymbiosis. “She was rejected 18 times until her research was published,” Upegui relates. “[I emphasize that] perseverance is something we all can develop: Work hard and work smart.”

Because some of his students are skeptical about their potential for success, Upegui says he carefully scaffolds challenging tasks “to help students have small successes first. I make them challenging enough so it’s interesting, but simple enough to be doable…

“When students work with [one another], they learn to rely on [one another] in a learning community. The students feel, ‘The responsibility to succeed is on all of us.’ Purposeful grouping and peer-editing assignments” can bolster that feeling, Upegui explains.

Dave Carlgren, physical science teacher at Renert School in Calgary, Canada, and his colleagues are taking perseverance through collaboration a step further. “Our science department is looking at a new evaluation strategy that involves students’ individual assessments also counting toward a ‘pod’ mark involving the individual marks of others. In this way, subcommunities of individuals may form that ‘look out’ for…one another. They can help other students in their pod study and prepare to do well,” he explains.

This idea came about because “we see a disconnect between what’s done in school and the way the world is,” says Carlgren. Often in the workforce, people “collaborate in support and aren’t competitive. We wanted to reflect this in classroom assessment and evaluation.”

Beginning this year in fourth- and fifth-grade physical science classes, students have been grouped into pods of four to five students for collaboration. This pod size is “large enough that there’s a significant impact of [grade] averaging, but not too large so that students can easily help one another,” Carlgren points out.

Grouping is based on teachers’ knowledge of students’ strengths and weaknesses. “We teach students over multiple years,” he notes, so teachers have had sufficient time to familiarize themselves with their students’ habits. Other factors in grouping are student communication modes, parental support, past success in science, students’ friends, homerooms, and “how often students will see one another during the school day, the more, the better,” Carlgren relates. Pods can change during the year, if needed, he adds.

“The pod effect” occurs “before the test or quiz,” says Carlgren. High achievers benefit from teaching the material to their peers, while struggling students “will have several students in their pod who can help them and provide different perspectives,” he reports.

Carlgren and his colleagues hope the pod arrangement also will discourage bullying. “We’re pushing the idea that all students have strengths. The pods allow students to focus on the academic side; we encourage them to help the bully and the bullied,” he explains.

So far, students have been “extremely supportive” of the pod concept and of their pod members, says Carlgren. By the end of the school year, the science department hopes to have this strategy incorporated in science classes in grades 4–9. “We hope students will become accustomed to helping others,” he observes.

The Power of ‘Yet’

Tom Meagher, district STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education coordinator for Owatonna Public Schools in Owatonna, Minnesota, works closely with more than 120 teachers to design and implement STEM lessons “grounded in [a] growth mindset [and] perseverance…When you approach learning through problem solving, teamwork, and challenges, there’s a whole different mindset: ‘We’re going to solve this together.’”

When describing strategies for encouraging perseverance, Meagher points to Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck’s work on growth mindset and her TED Talk, The Power of Yet. “When a student says, ‘I don’t get it,’ the teacher responds, ‘You don’t get it yet. What’s our next step?’,” he explains. “This provides a path to grow and expand their knowledge. I find it helps with our teachers, too,…to help them grow out of their own comfort zones.”
To help students develop perseverance, Meagher discourages teachers from “labeling students according to how they perform on tests. Life’s not a race.” Developing student perseverance begins with teachers recognizing, for example, that for a kindergartener to successfully do leaf rubbings and find and sort leaves, “fine motor skills are needed. Some students aren’t experienced in this, so we need to teach them the fine motor skills, plus [things like] sorting and identification,” he maintains.

Often students who are used to getting things right the first time need help developing perseverance, Meagher observes. “They had to learn to change the way they think. [The less-gifted] students were more diligent, more strategic problem solvers.” He found pairing the two types helped the advanced students learn perseverance and allowed the less-gifted students to get help with reading.

Meagher also advises, “Don’t give students specific roles in groups, like notetaker. Just give them the assignment and say, ‘It’s up to you to figure it out.’ They will determine their roles [naturally].” Educators need only step in “when strong personalities are involved,” he suggests.

Rather than presenting challenges to students as things to work on, Meagher suggests teachers present challenges as opportunities for practice. “Students see this as building skill,” he explains.

This article originally appeared in the November 2018 issue of NSTA Reports, the member newspaper of the National Science Teachers Association. Each month, NSTA members receive NSTA Reports, featuring news on science education, the association, and more. Not a member? Learn how NSTA can help you become the best science teacher you can be.

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

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Tom Meagher, district STEM education coordinator for Owatonna Public Schools in Owatonna, Minnesota, shows students how to hold a Monarch butterfly before releasing it.

Shifting to the NGSS: Professional Book Study for Elementary School Teachers

Are you an elementary school teacher working to enhance your knowledge and understanding of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)? Register to participate in the Shifting to the NGSS: Professional Book Study, taking place in February-March, 2019!

Are you an elementary school teacher working to enhance your knowledge and understanding of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)? Register to participate in the Shifting to the NGSS: Professional Book Study, taking place in February-March, 2019!

Are you an elementary school teacher working to enhance your knowledge and understanding of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)? Register to participate in the Shifting to the NGSS: Professional Book Study, taking place in February-March, 2019!

Are you an elementary school teacher working to enhance your knowledge and understanding of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)? Register to participate in the Shifting to the NGSS: Professional Book Study, taking place in February-March, 2019!

Come along on a tour of the wonderful world of birds and their beaks. This book is the story of a child and two grown-up friends on a jaunt across their yard, in a park, past a pond, and through the pages of a photo album. Like them, you’ll find you can figure out what birds eat by the shape of their bills—and why some have beaks like straws, pouches, or even daggers. Also like them, you’ll have all kinds of questions about amazing birds—from house finches to hummingbirds to great blue herons—that use their own built-in tools for eating.
Come along on a tour of the wonderful world of birds and their beaks. This book is the story of a child and two grown-up friends on a jaunt across their yard, in a park, past a pond, and through the pages of a photo album. Like them, you’ll find you can figure out what birds eat by the shape of their bills—and why some have beaks like straws, pouches, or even daggers. Also like them, you’ll have all kinds of questions about amazing birds—from house finches to hummingbirds to great blue herons—that use their own built-in tools for eating.
Click here to view video of Exemplary Evidence

Celebrate imagination! This NSTA Kids book has been selected for the Children’s Book Council #ImaginationCelebration Showcase! Full book list: Imagination Celebration Showcase

Named an Outstanding Science Trade Book for Students K-12!
Click here to view video of Exemplary Evidence

Celebrate imagination! This NSTA Kids book has been selected for the Children’s Book Council #ImaginationCelebration Showcase! Full book list: Imagination Celebration Showcase

Named an Outstanding Science Trade Book for Students K-12!
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