After a number of years working in the science industry I have now become a teacher. Do you have suggestions for maintaining my skills in both education and science?
– B., Arizona

I like your plan to stay current and active in your former work! Here are a few suggestions:

Watch for professional development (PD) opportunities offered by industry.
Many industries and related organizations encourage teachers to keep current and offer workshops, field trips and other PD. They will often provide high-quality resources. I was fortunate to have attended PD in forestry, hydro electricity, atomic energy, medical imaging, agriculture, GIS, mining, and more! The information to attend these sessions is usually sent to local schools and distributed to staff. These industry-led workshops tend to fill quickly so enroll early.

Attend conferences.
Industries hold workshops at local and state conferences as well as NSTA area and national conferences which can be real boosts to your teaching.

Volunteer.
Many organizations look for teachers and summers can be an optimum time. I have served as an education specialist on various boards, learning a tremendous amount along the way. Consider volunteering at zoos, museums, university faculties, to help with their outreach programs, or other opportunities. You don’t have to be a tour guide—volunteer to do something totally unrelated to teaching. I once collected insects for a local nature center.

Become more active in teacher and science organizations.
Participating in local, state, and national professional organizations creates opportunities for you to expand your network and learn cutting-edge ideas. You can simultaneously hone your skills and help your professional communities by joining committees or taking on leadership roles.

Help organize science fairs.
You will work with many industry partners who will become resources and connections. Also, the bright, amazing minds of the fair attendees will astound you – further motivating you to keep current!

Hope this helps!

When Rebecca Olien set out to write Sound All Around, The Amazing Light Show, an NSTA Enhanced EBook⁺, she knew a thing (or 20) about elementary schoolchildren, the book’s target audience.

Olien was a classroom teacher for 20 years and understood that science education, for younger children, works best when it’s taught through fun and engaging storytelling. Her book follows Liz and Sam, who put on a magic light show to investigate what happens when light encounters different objects and surfaces.

In the first “act” of her book, Olien invites readers to question, observe and investigate the phenomenon of how some materials allow light to pass through it while others block it completely. Elementary school-aged students must use mathematical reasoning (scale and production) to analyze and interpret how both the size as well as the shape of shadows changes depending on the direction and distance from a light source.

In act 2, students investigate another phenomenon, reflection, as they study the effects of light bouncing from smooth, shiny surfaces. They are required to build explanations and create solutions as they assist the characters in the story, including a cat, to solve reflection puzzles by using mirrors to redirect the light beam.

“I kept asking myself how I could ‘show’ what happens when light interacts with different surfaces and objects,” Olien said. “How can I help the kids explore through inquiry? That’s very tricky because regular print books do not allow for that. Most are straight non-fiction and are very information-driven.”

Olien is no stranger to the publishing world. She’s a prolific author of science education books. One of the first things that she wrote was an article for NSTA’s magazine, Science and Children, about an inquiry-based lesson that she taught. Olien remembers her classroom as being “filled with so much laughing and so much fun.”

“My goal as a teacher was always to help my students to see science all around them–to be constantly seeing new things, learning and exploring,” she said.

“Science education has been a driving force in my professional life,” she added. “I just see sparks ignite in children when they learn something new. And as adults who teach them, we get to learn/see/rediscover it all over again through our students’ perspectives.”

Olien’s decision to become an NSTA Enhanced Ebooks⁺ author was exciting because the format aligns with how she would teach. The opportunity to write, “in a totally different way” was very interesting to her. “I got to be so creative in my approach to the subject matter. That made it necessary for me to think way outside of the box. The challenge was fun!”

Students who use Enhanced Ebooks⁺ like Sound All Around, The Amazing Light Show, are given the concept that they need to know/come away understanding. but teachers “cannot give them the information,” Olien said. “The students have to explore to find it themselves. They know the concept that they are expected to learn; however, the students have to explore the digital book to find the answers themselves.”  

Olien raved about the book’s 3D aspects.

“There is so much interactivity and manipulation that the students themselves control. “Students can enter into the environment with the characters. They become part of the book and that’s very engaging.”

Olien emphasized the benefits of each Enhanced Ebook⁺ being accompanied by “a really great teacher guide!” that takes educators through all parts of the NGSS standard that is being utilized as well as fun classroom activities. Students can seamlessly transition from independent online learning to hands-on group projects that the teacher can lead the students through, thus bringing the Enhanced EBook⁺’s learnings to life.

Never one to let grass grow underneath her feet, Olien said that she is already at work finalizing another Enhanced Ebook⁺.

“And two more are on the way!”

Learn more about NSTA’s Enhanced Ebooks⁺.

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Anyone who teaches middle school students knows they have a lot of energy, and a lot of hot air. Why not put it to use? In this activity, students will be challenged to modify a simple plastic balloon racer to travel farther and faster. Students begin by asking questions and making observations to understand how the racers work. Racers can be found here.  Find and print my student form here.

During the activity, students make three separate modifications to improve distance and speed. Once they’ve completed the activity, students will debate the possibility of wind-powered cars and wind turbines as a local energy source.

Introducing students to the engineering design process early in the year is exciting and engaging. This activity is much more than a simple design challenge, which often doesn’t give students the opportunity to make revisions. In this learning experience, students are encouraged to explore many of the science and engineering practices to grow their understanding of force and motion and engineering content. Their learning is enhanced by providing opportunities for them to argue with evidence as they debate the pros and cons of using wind-powered cars and wind turbines as a local, renewable energy source.

This learning experience is very relevant, as the conversation about using wind power is actually occurring in their community.

This is just one way of engaging students in the practice of asking questions early in the year. After each modification, I challenge students to ask themselves at least two questions about their work: What went well? What is something else you could try? What suggestion would you like with the class? How does this process of modifying an original design apply to the real world? In what types of careers might this process be used regularly?

Shannon Hudson is a science teacher at Crawfordsville Middle School in Crawfordsville, IN. She currently teaches four levels of science classes, including sixth- and seventh-grade advanced science, sixth-grade inclusion co-teaching, and seventh-grade regular science. The school’s adopted curriculum allows for integrated, modified problem based learning (PBL) instruction.

Hudson has a Bachelor’s degree from Purdue University, with a concentration in elementary education, junior high science, and gifted and talented education, and a Master’s degree in Education from Indiana Wesleyan University. Hudson has taken many courses throughout the years at a variety of universities to further her studies in science education. 

This article was featured in the September issue of Next Gen Navigator, a monthly e-newsletter from NSTA delivering information, insights, resources, and professional learning opportunities for science educators by science educators on the Next Generation Science Standards and three-dimensional instruction.  Click here to sign up to receive the Navigator every month.

Visit NSTA’s NGSS@NSTA Hub for hundreds of vetted classroom resources, professional learning opportunities, publications, ebooks and more; connect with your teacher colleagues on the NGSS listservs (members can sign up here); and join us for discussions around NGSS at an upcoming conference.

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

Future NSTA Conferences

2018 Area Conferences

• Reno, October 11–13
• National Harbor (MD), November 15–17
• Charlotte, Nov. 29-Dec. 1

2019 National Conference

• St. Louis, April 11-14, 2019

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First graders love when fall comes to Kansas. It’s a magical time when lots of events are occurring in their environment, and I take full advantage of their natural curiosity. We begin the school year with a mini science unit featuring corn and agriculture. Every year in May, my class plants a few corn kernels near our flower garden. By the time school starts in the fall, the corn stalks stand out among the flowers.

As we water the garden, students start asking questions. How did the corn get here? Is it ready to pick? How high it will grow? Do we get to pick it? That is all I need to get the unit rolling!

I try to bring authentic items into our classroom whenever possible. These items become part of the phenomenon that I use to start lessons and to pique interest in a subject. With this particular unit, we first watered our plants, and the next day, I brought in 6 giant cornstalks donated by a local farmer. These cornstalks had the root balls attached and were in seed sacks. 

I put them and a few flower plants in our activity area and didn’t mention them. The kids had plenty to say and were excited as they attempted to make sense of what we would do with both of these plants. As they observed, I wrote down the questions they asked. The next day, we used those questions as the springboard to our discussion about their experiences with corn and flowers. Then we donned our lab coats and safety goggles and formed small groups to pull apart the cornstalks and flowers to compare and contrast their parts.

I always encourage my young scientists to ask questions like “I wonder why…?” “I wonder if….?” “I wonder what…?” When students are encouraged to begin their questions with “I wonder,” it adds to the subject’s relevance. I believe that by asking questions about their world, children become more engaged in defining problems and seeking answers.

After we shared all of our findings, we recorded our thoughts and wonders in our journals. The big questions of the day were what the names of all of the parts were and what they were used for. Students defined their own problems, and that led to some class labeling and deep discussions about why corn had all these parts and where could we find more information.

We used books like Corn by Gail Gibbons, Corn Is Maize by Aliki, From Kernel to Corn by Robin Nelson, and Corn (All About Food Crops) by Cecelia H. Brannon. We also used https://kscorn.com and http://ksagclassroom.org as resources. I find that by introducing vocabulary after we explore the phenomenon, these words are more easily understood and applied, as they have more meaning at this point. Our first-grade curriculum asks us to examine how plants use their parts to survive, grow, and meet their needs.  My first graders asked those same kinds of questions and were able to determine the answers in various ways.

It was now time to put our newfound corn knowledge to use. My students realized that even though we have cornfields all around us, they didn’t really know that much about corn. To solve that problem, we wrote a class book titled Coconut Loves Corn in which a little monkey has tired of eating bananas and wants to move to Kansas to learn about and eat different kinds of corn. The book is amazing, and we published it on large paper and mounted it on signboards that will be placed around our outdoor school’s walking trail.

We hope to encourage all Bentwood Elementary students to read our story and learn interesting corn facts while they walk the trail. To promote our book, we created a brief description that will be read during morning announcements. Of course our blurb begins with the question, “Have you ever wondered why so much corn is grown in Kansas?”

Do you incorporate agriculture in your science lessons? If so, I’d love to hear your ideas. I love sharing and getting new lessons for my classroom. Comment below, and let’s be “amaizing” together!

Next Gen Science Standards

Nancy Smith is a first-grade teacher at Bentwood Elementary School in the Olathe Public Schools district in Overland Park, Kansas. Her enthusiasm for science is evidenced by the many engaging activities she plans for her students, from building chicken playground equipment to hosting mini science expos to starting a flower tire garden. Smith is a National Board Certified–teacher who received the 2016 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. She is passionate about using the environment as a springboard to learning.

This article was featured in the September issue of Next Gen Navigator, a monthly e-newsletter from NSTA delivering information, insights, resources, and professional learning opportunities for science educators by science educators on the Next Generation Science Standards and three-dimensional instruction.  Click here to sign up to receive the Navigator every month.

Visit NSTA’s NGSS@NSTA Hub for hundreds of vetted classroom resources, professional learning opportunities, publications, ebooks and more; connect with your teacher colleagues on the NGSS listservs (members can sign up here); and join us for discussions around NGSS at an upcoming conference.

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

Future NSTA Conferences

2018 Area Conferences

• Reno, October 11–13
• National Harbor (MD), November 15–17
• Charlotte, Nov. 29-Dec. 1

2019 National Conference

• St. Louis, April 11-14, 2019

Follow NSTA

With the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), teachers are wondering how to teach their students to do the science and engineering practices (SEPs). Some SEPs, such as carrying out investigations and analyzing data, are a natural flow from the old science standards. Many, however, are new for both students and teachers. For example, the practice of asking questions and defining problems is something we have not required our students to do before: the questions or problems were already asked or defined for the students to answer. How can we move both our own practice, as well as our students’ thinking, from the canned version of questions and problems to asking their own thoughtful questions about a phenomenon, and defining problems based on a scenario?

As teachers, many of us may believe we need students to be proficient at this skill immediately! But realistically, we need to move slowly when teaching them these new skills so that students can move toward proficiency over time. NGSS implementation will not happen overnight, nor will teachers and students excel at these new skills without ongoing learning and practice. So how do we give students the practice that they need?  And what can we do to help them learn these new skills effectively? 

Initially, teachers will need to learn the skills required by the SEPs, if they have no experience with them. Training to help teachers learn about the pedagogical shifts required with NGSS implementation is available from NSTA and state science teacher organizations. Once teachers have some experience with these new skills, they can start teaching them to their students. Teachers can leverage their own experiences in practicing and learning the new SEP skills, using similar practices with students that they experienced as learners.

In my classroom, I have used several different methods to help students acquire the skill of asking questions and defining problems. One method I use with my first-year biology students is to scaffold the process for them and provide tools to help them develop their skills. Some scaffolds I have used include modeling the practice, using sentence frames, and asking them guiding questions to lead them to developing their own questions.

For example, at the start of the year, I ask many questions about a phenomenon, modelling good questioning practices. After a while, I start asking the students questions like these: What do you wonder about this? What questions do you still have? What could you do to find out more about this? These questions help focus students on what they still need to answer to solve the problem and help them begin asking their own questions.

Sentence frames—providing students with a few sentence stems to help them begin to generate their own questions—are often helpful. You can generate some stems of your own for each SEP, or use some questions that focus on a given crosscutting concept (CCC). For example, in biology, we are studying ecosystems, so I can prompt with these questions: What are the system’s boundaries? Or how might energy and/or matter flow within this system?

These prompts can help students formulate additional questions to further explore the phenomenon they’re investigating. What other methods might you use to help students become proficient with the SEPs and CCCs?

Heather A. Wygant has been teaching secondary science for 21 years, primarily in high school.  She has taught biology, geology, physics, chemistry, oceanography, and AP Environmental Science. She also served as a Teacher on Special Assignment for science and math and helped her district implement the NGSS over the past three years. Now back in the classroom, she is continuing NGSS implementation. Wygant holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geosciences and a second master’s degree in science education.She is currently pursuing a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction STEM, with a research focus on NGSS implementation.

This article was featured in the September issue of Next Gen Navigator, a monthly e-newsletter from NSTA delivering information, insights, resources, and professional learning opportunities for science educators by science educators on the Next Generation Science Standards and three-dimensional instruction.  Click here to sign up to receive the Navigator every month.

Visit NSTA’s NGSS@NSTA Hub for hundreds of vetted classroom resources, professional learning opportunities, publications, ebooks and more; connect with your teacher colleagues on the NGSS listservs (members can sign up here); and join us for discussions around NGSS at an upcoming conference.

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

Future NSTA Conferences

2018 Area Conferences

• Reno, October 11–13
• National Harbor (MD), November 15–17
• Charlotte, Nov. 29-Dec. 1

2019 National Conference

• St. Louis, April 11-14, 2019

Follow NSTA

Connecting with other educators who share my interests and help me expand them is one of the benefits of writing for NSTA’s journal and blog. Guest blogger Tom Lough is a contributor to Science and Children and has taught science and science education classes at many levels. He is now a science education consultant in Round Rock, TX.  

Welcome Tom!

Like many, I have unbounded enthusiasm for the 2018 August issue of Science and Children! Well done, NSTA! Did you read the Early Years column, titled “Making Sense of Their World”? Young children soak up their experiences and observations of the world around them, and ask all sorts of questions as they try to put everything together.

The second part of the column reminded me of an activity we are doing with five classrooms at Caldwell Heights Elementary School in Round Rock, TX, observing the apparent motion of the sun.  These rooms all have south-facing windows, meaning that the sun shines into each room all year long.

A small craft mirror glued to a south-facing windowsill.

A spot of reflected sunlight on the classroom ceiling.

Instead of observing the sun directly, we are using a small craft mirror glued to a south-facing windowsill to produce a reflection on the classroom ceiling. As soon as the mirror was installed and the spot appeared on the ceiling, the effect was immediate on the children. They were mesmerized by the bright dot. They couldn’t take their eyes away from this new classroom visitor. After a few minutes, someone said, “I think it’s moving!” They were hooked! 

If you decide to try this, from this point on you can expect many questions from the children. It is not necessary, or even preferable, to answer them. Rather, invite them to continue their observations and see if they can find their own answers. Encourage journaling, sketching, or photographing as ways to document their observations. Then they can search for patterns more systematically. 

There are many advantages to this particular activity. One of the most important ones is safety. There is no need to look directly at the sun. Second is its simplicity. Just glue the mirror in place and step away. No moving parts, no further assembly required. And then there are the many different patterns.

Children will be quick to point out the obvious patterns, including when and where the dot appears and disappears each day, which direction it moves across the ceiling, and the degree to which the sky is cloudy or clear. 

As the weeks and months go by, they might notice that the path of the daily movement changes. During the fall months, the path gets farther away from the window, and during the winter/spring months, the path is closer to the window. Older children might figure out that this has something to do with the height of the sun in the sky at different times of the year, which, in turn, is related to the tilt of the earth’s axis.  For example, children might choose to photograph the dot each week. It won’t be long before the movement of the path is obvious, especially if the ceiling is patterned or if it has a grid of tiles for easy reference. 

Can you spot the mirror on the windowsill and the reflected sunlight on the ceiling?

Within this simple activity is an unexpected level of complexity that can be uncovered with the addition of a simple action by the teacher or other adult. Select a convenient time of day somewhere between 11:00 and 1:00, and use a push pin or piece of tape to mark the location of the dot on the ceiling at that same time once or twice per week. You will need to be consistently punctual about this, down to the minute. Don’t worry, though, because your “little alarm clocks” will remind you! (And use a safe stool or ladder.) 

 Over the course of the school year, the marks on the ceiling will trace out part of a pattern called the analemma, which is the apparent path of the sun in the sky as seen at the same time each day for a year. (To trace the full analemma, someone would have to come in during the summer months to continue marking the dot position at the appointed time.)

The analemma is a pattern that has been known for hundreds of years, and was printed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on globes some time ago (see photo). Shadows of outside objects outdoors, such as the school flagpole, could also be used to generate an analemma. 

Who knew that something as simple as gluing a mirror to a window sill could produce such a wide range of effects and invite so many questions? 

Note that if you do decide to trace the analemma, be alert to when Daylight Savings Time comes and goes. We suggest keeping the same observation time, so that the children can see the curious effect of the change in path. In other words, if you had selected 11:30 AM as your “dot time” prior to the time change, continue using 11:30 AM after the change, even though the sun will be in a different location. 

Resources

An example of the type of mirror, https://www.joann.com/big-value-mirrors-1-inch-round-25-pc/10232692.html 

Lough, T., & Vanover, C. (2014, October). Find your School’s Analemma. Science and Children, 52(2): 55-59.

This week in education news, Missouri Senate passes STEM awareness legislation; NSF awards 5 diversity grants under its new INCLUDES initiative; U.S. Congress pledges $71.5 billion in education funding for fiscal 2019; new framework developed to help define high-quality project-based learning; Arizona program instructs teachers on how to bring more engaging STEM lessons into their classrooms; and NSTA president discusses her ideas on science literacy and education at the World Conference on Science Literacy in Beijing.

Alternative Sentencing Courts, STEM Awareness Program Pass Senate

Legislation that expands alternative treatment courts and STEM education was finally passed by the Senate and sent to the governor. Many jobs that require training in STEM subjects — science, technology, engineering and math — are not being filled because schools are not training enough people, said Sen. Doug Libla, R-Poplar Bluff. Read the article featured in The Missourian.

What NSF’s New Diversity Grants Say About Attempts To Help Minority Students

Ted Hodapp has spent the past 5 years helping boost the number of minority students pursuing U.S. graduate degrees in physics. But Hodapp, who works on education and diversity issues at the American Physical Society in College Park, Maryland, knows the society’s Bridge Program will at best make only a small dent in the nationwide dearth of blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans working in all science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. He wanted an opportunity to show that Bridge’s approach—which starts by encouraging graduate schools to de-emphasize scores on the standardized GRE entrance exam in the student selection process—could work in other STEM disciplines and, in doing so, promote the value of diversity in U.S. higher education. Read the article featured in Science magazine.

Science Fair’ Documentary Makes Its Own Statement About Young Science Whizzes

That other film, “Science Fair,” produced by the National Geographic Society, opens in one New York City theater Friday and in other cities throughout the fall. “Science Fair,” directed by Cristina Constantini and Darren Foster, follows several groups around to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, meeting them in their home states or countries, watching as they nervously prepare to explain their projects to the judges and interact awkwardly with their peers, and waiting for the payoff—the awards presentations. Read the article featured in Education Week.

Appropriations Bill Sets Aside Over $71B For Ed, But Is It Enough?

A group of lawmakers from the U.S. House and Senate finalized a massive appropriations bill Thursday that would pledge $71.5 billion in education funding for fiscal 2019. But as school districts wait for President Donald Trump to sign the bill into law, many struggle, especially in the face of a new school year, to fund the bare necessities. Read the article featured in Education DIVE.

Defining High-Quality Project-Based Learning

A growing number of educators around the world believe that project-based learning (PBL) is an important instructional approach that allows students to master academic skills and content knowledge, develop skills necessary for future success, and build the personal agency needed to tackle life’s and the world’s challenges. Many districts are either already using PBL or are on the verge of using this approach in classrooms. Educators can find a wealth of resources on how to plan for and get started with PBL, but until recently, there were far fewer resources on what the outcome of high-quality student experiences ought to look like. Read the article featured in eSchool News.

Igniting Students’ STEM Interest Begins With Education Their Teachers

A program in the Arizona Science Center trains teachers how to bring more engaging STEM lessons to their classrooms. When 3rd grade STEM teacher Amanda Roum went to camp this summer, instead of playing games and learning archery, she developed a science curriculum. And after five days at the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix, she took that curriculum, along with the materials she needed, back to her classroom at the Tartesso Elementary School in Buckeye, Arizona — just in time for school to start in August. Read the article featured in Education DIVE.

World Conference On Science Literacy In Beijing: Talk By Christine Anne Royce

Christine Anne Royce, President of the US National Science Teachers Association, talks about her ideas on science literacy and education during the World Conference on Science Literacy in Beijing. Listen to her interview with China Daily.

Beyond STEM: Why AI Demands Higher-Level Skills

There is plenty of discussion about the need for STEM skills as the gateway to employment opportunities (and for employers, staffing requirements) in the artificial intelligence-enhanced economy ahead. But emphasizing STEM skills may not be enough — there needs to be a greater emphasis on the way people interact with each other and manage their workplace challenges. Shirley Malcom, for one, sees a need to recalibrate the educational system to not only teach STEM, but also lead and succeed in digital organizations. Malcom, head of education and human resources programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, says creating a workforce ready for the challenges of an AI and digital future requires teaching people to think differently. Read the article featured in Forbes magazine.

Cash-Strapped Teachers Are Getting Up Early To Tutor Students In China

Newhouse is one of the more than 60,000 American and Canadian tutors who work for VIPKid, a Beijing-based online English-tutoring company. Frustrated with their salaries and looking for second jobs they can work around school hours, some U.S. teachers have turned to teaching Chinese students online for a source of additional income. Peak tutoring times in China line up with early-morning hours on the East Coast and in the Midwest. 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.

Follow NSTA