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Teaching Abroad

By Gabe Kraljevic

Posted on 2018-10-05

I have thought about teaching internationally. Do you have any advice? How does it compare to teaching domestically?
—A., Iowa

 

I commend you for thinking about adventuring into the world! I haven’t taught internationally, so I consulted a few friends and colleagues to help put together some advice. Almost every person found teaching abroad to be an amazing experience filled with many fond memories. One of the easiest options is to apply to teach in an International School: https://goo.gl/5hwdpJ

This is their advice if you want to teach in another country’s school system:

Check certification and permits
Many governments will expedite the process for U.S. teachers who want to teach in their countries, particularly the English-speaking nations. Even so, get an early start on the certification and work visas paperwork required by most countries. In Canada, each province has its own certification. While part of the United Kingdom, both Scotland and Northern Ireland require separate certification from Britain and Wales. So, do some legwork to ensure you have everything in order. You may want to start here:
https://goo.gl/2BG1ZG

Remember, you’re the visitor!
A close friend, who taught in Australia, advises:
“Keep an open mind and be willing to look at things in different ways. The way other countries conduct business in their schools might be different from our own experiences in our country. Keeping flexible in your outlook goes a long way to fitting in.” One difference: Australian students are on a first-name basis with their teachers.

Many travellers have stories about having said or done something that they thought was innocuous but was shocking or inappropriate to the locals. Do some homework on the customs and norms of the country where you’ll be working.

Remember you will be the one with the accent! You may have to slow down, enunciate carefully and be prepared to repeat yourself. Although you may be a science teacher, being open to teaching English to non-anglophones may be an asset.

Hope this helps!

 

Graphic credit: Creative commons via Pixabay

I have thought about teaching internationally. Do you have any advice? How does it compare to teaching domestically?
—A., Iowa

 

 

Ignite The Spark of Curious Minds

By Kate Falk

Posted on 2018-10-03

With hurricane Florence bearing down on the Carolinas, I found myself in the Johnson Ice Rink on the MIT campus. I was there to be a mentor for the, IBM and other companies sponsored, 2018 HackMIT event. I was looking at more than 1,000 hackers from different schools around the globe that were actively brainstorming ideas with their teammates. As an IBM Senior Solutions Architect I was over joyed to be able to share my passion and expertise with the students as they designed solutions for natural disaster preparedness and relief.

We had many students ask about the details of this challenge and discuss the creative solutions they planned to build. I explained to them how the Internet of Things, voice recognition, visual recognition, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and Blockchain technologies worked. I was very happy to see enthusiasm about using technology to make a great impact in the development of humanities.

The event seemed to engage the students because it was set up to reflect the educational practices that science teachers know work well and that research has shown to be effective. Students engaged in a problem-solving task that was tied to a real-world problem they cared about. They worked in groups, were able to direct their own process, and had access to expert guidance.

Watching the students at HackMIT I felt like I was going back in time to my childhood. I saw myself sitting in my elementary school’s classroom. I was looking at a magical science project. A magnesium metal ribbon was burned and emitted a bright light. I still remember the moment I saw that beautiful light, which ignited my curiosity about science. That eventually led me to the technical career path to becoming a 3-time IBM Master Inventor and AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassador.

I realize it is very important to encourage kids to be involved in STEM projects, to develop solutions to meaningful problems starting from a young age, and to believe they can be successful scientists, engineers, and inventors. However, while teaching science projects in my community’s school I found that not all science projects are designed to meaningfully engage students learning and loving STEM and invention.

The very first science project I taught at school is called Color Changing Milk. This experiment is easy, fun, and hands-on, but I noticed there was no intuitive way to explain all of the complex chemical theory to a group of kindergartners. The experiment was designed to be fun, but what were the students learning?

To transform the project from a fun experience to an educational activity I did a lot of research and realized that I could leverage the similarity between Legos and chemical bonds to explain what was happening during the experiment. All of the students loved the way I transformed the project and were able to grasp some of the related scientific concepts. They all cheered and even wanted to invite me to become their science teacher.

My favorite moment then and now is when the students show that they understand the concept through fun hands-on experiments. Their eyes light up and they actively participate in the conversation. They look forward to every activity and they always ask when and what the next project will be. I see future Isaac Newtons, Thomas Edisons, and Albert Einsteins from all of these curious minds. 

I truly believe the next generation will be able to improve lives, if all students are given the opportunity to learn and love STEM and invention. Let’s ignite the spark of these curious minds!

Fang (Florence) Lu is a Senior Solution Architect and three-time IBM Master Inventor working at IBM Research. She has developed numerous software applications at IBM over the last 16 years, ranging from Enterprise Social Solutions to Healthcare Analytics.  Florence avidly mentors and encourages other IBMers to turn their ideas into patents by hosting workshops and information sessions, and loves to inspire early professionals as they start their careers in computing.

Lu is also an AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassador. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in partnership with the Lemelson Foundation manages the AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassador program, which celebrates the human face of inventors. Learn more about the program and the 40 Invention Ambassadors here.

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


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With hurricane Florence bearing down on the Carolinas, I found myself in the Johnson Ice Rink on the MIT campus. I was there to be a mentor for the, IBM and other companies sponsored, 2018 HackMIT event. I was looking at more than 1,000 hackers from different schools around the globe that were actively brainstorming ideas with their teammates. As an IBM Senior Solutions Architect I was over joyed to be able to share my passion and expertise with the students as they designed solutions for natural disaster preparedness and relief.

 

Combining Science and Civic Literacy

By Debra Shapiro

Posted on 2018-10-03

Students in the Citizen Science Institute, a magnet, alternative program housed at Marshall Middle School in Olympia, Washington, do scientific and civic investigations. These students are doing seasonal bird counts at the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually Wildlife Refuge in Olympia. Photo courtsey of Tom Condon.

Why should teachers blend science with civic literacy? Because “happiness comes from being part of something bigger than yourself…Students get to understand and research community issues…[and] serve as ambassadors in the community,” asserts Tom Condon, who co-teaches the Citizen Science Institute (CSI), a districtwide magnet, alternative program housed at Marshall Middle School in Olympia, Washington. CSI involves about 60 students in grades 6–8 in rigorous scientific and civic investigations that help them “become experts who can teach other students,” Condon contends.

“We do field investigations, not field trips. Students tend to think of field trips as days off,” maintains Matthew Phillipy, who co-teaches CSI with Condon. “We work really hard. By eighth grade, students have done about 50 different investigations,” Phillipy reports.

For example, students worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to track the endangered bull trout, which are native to the Northwest. “We used an idea from a Science Scope [article] about tracking endangered species using GPS [the global positioning system],” says Condon. Students explored the impact on the bull trout of a dam built in the 1940s to control floods on nearby farmland. “Dams impede their migration paths,” he notes.

When students tracked the trout, amazingly “one fish showed up at a local saloon,” Condon recalls. “Dan Spencer of [FWS]…talked about how the tracking worked and why the fish appeared near the saloon, 100 yards from the river.” Students had to weigh the benefits of the dam to farmers versus its effect on the trout. “They experience science in the field and being part of the solution,” he emphasizes.

CSI students complete two STEAM-posium (science, technology, engineering, arts, math) and civics research projects each year. Projects include a written paper and oral presentation. “We invite scientists to see what students are learning,” says Phillipy.

“The sixth graders have less experience with getting in front of people and talking. By eighth grade, they’re much more confident talking to audiences” as a result of their three-year CSI experience, notes Condon. “They serve as leaders and mentors to the younger students.”

The civics projects can focus solely on social issues or integrate science. Phillipy recalls a student with a learning challenge who couldn’t always recognize colors. “To her, it was a social issue because she was less accepted by the other students,” he explains. For her project, “she pulled in the science” by discussing what happens with the brain’s synapses with this condition, he relates.

Students find that “if you can tie in the science, it makes your arguments more relevant because you can back your opinions up with the facts,” according to Phillipy.

CSI students “learn how to behave in society. Our eighth graders leave us civically minded and understand how science works,” Phillipy relates.

The Value of Water

“I lead a series of Water Workshops with Friends of the Chicago River [a nonprofit advocacy organization working to improve the health of the Chicago River system]…called Teens H2O,” says Linda Keane, professor of architecture and environmental design at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). She established Teens H2O for students ages 11–14 because “when the water cycle is introduced in second grade, [the material] doesn’t go deep enough [for students] to understand how water gives us life…I wanted to get [Chicago-area] students to understand—[in a way that’s not always possible in school]—that we are on the Great Lakes Basin, [which provides] 84% of the surface freshwater for the United States,” she explains.

In addition, the teen years are “critical years to capture students’ [interest] before they graduate,…especially for the two-thirds of students who are not going on to college,” Keane maintains.

Once students apply for or are chosen by teachers for Teens H2O’s free workshops, “we meet them at designated places [in] downtown [Chicago]—the McCormick Bridge on the River Walk, The Chicago Line Cruise Boat Company, or SAIC—and start our water workshops. Each site has different activities,” Keane relates. Workshop themes are “Water and Me” (SAIC), “Freshwater and Lake Michigan” (The Chicago Line Cruise Boat Company, which provides an eco-cruise for the students), and “Life On, Along, Above, and Below the River” (McCormick Bridge on the River Walk).

“At first, we talk about what we need to live. Students sometimes forget air, but almost always think of water, as Chicago is on Lake Michigan. They take it for granted,” she observes, “but many of the students have never been on the river.”

Students use water interactives, simulations (water cycle, watershed, water pollution), and games (water equivalencies) to study water’s role in society. For example, they can calculate the relationship among water, energy, and climate change using WECalc (www.wecalc.org) or simulate improved water infiltration by replanting prairies, wetlands, and forests with WikiWatershed (https://wikiwatershed.org). “In WikiWatershed, they can see a map of Chicago and see the effects of heavy rainfall,” Keane points out. The workshops access material from NEXT.cc (www.next.cc), a free e-learning website Keane co-founded and directs that provides informal learning opportunities for students and teachers to explore project-based learning (PBL).

Students learn key principles in water quality and conservation while conducting field research outdoors and creating place-based projects. “We want to engage students as citizen scientists, [without them thinking they] have to be hydrologists,” Keane contends, although “we mention and they think about [science, art, and design] careers in the workshops as well. As citizens, they can do water testing and contribute” to the health of water sources.

“We show that everyone pollutes the water because of what they do. Students learn what kinds of garbage come from what businesses and why it needs to be addressed. Students learn about the role green roofs play in storm water management.” Many students, she adds, “never had thought of caring for water before or how special where they live is in relationship to freshwater.”

Most of all, they experience “science used as advocacy to make change. Helping people help others is a passion most scientists have,” Keane emphasizes.

Healing From Harvey

“A year ago, Hurricane Harvey devastated our community, flooding 16,000 homes, 3,300 businesses, and [a high school in Kingwood, Texas]. I won a grant from our district’s education foundation to coordinate a district-wide PBL on learning about, restoring, and protecting the Lake Houston Watershed. Eighteen teachers and 13 campuses in our district signed up to participate, with more teachers and students asking to participate as [we publicize] the project,” says Kathleen Goerner, secondary science coordinator for Humble Independent School District (ISD) in Humble, Texas. “People are trying to understand how [the devastation] happened and how to prevent it from happening again,” she explains.

Residents also tried to grasp why certain decisions were made, such as the opening of the floodgates by the San Jacinto River Authority, which resulted in “even more flooding; the whole Lake Houston area was devastated,” Goerner reports. Teachers told her it was important for students to understand as well. “We had lots of parent input, too,” she adds. “Harvey brought us a big community issue that everyone wants to learn about.”

One teacher who is a Federal Aviation Administration–certified drone pilot won a grant to buy drones. “He intends to have students do drone surveys of the river and lake as dredging projects proceed…I [reached out to] conservation groups in Houston…; they hope to partner with schools and provide speakers,” Goerner relates.

The hurricane coincided with changes in Humble ISD. The district traditionally hadn’t done a lot of PBL, “but this past year, several campuses brought in BIE [Buck Institute of Education; www.bie.org] for PBL training for teachers and administrators,” says Goerner. The district is also transitioning “from a traditional learning district to a more personalized learning district [in which] students have options to plan their own time and choose their own projects within a structure,” a change that aligns well with creating hurricane-related units and community projects that students will relate to personally, she observes.

Some of the teachers’ ideas and driving questions for units include Save Our Soil: How Can We Reduce the Amount of Erosion on Lake Houston?; Harvey: What Else Did He Bring to the Ecosystem Besides Water?; and Rockin’ Awesome: How Can We as Environmentalists Create a Natural Filter to Clean Our Water in Our Local Watershed Due to the Impacts of Harvey?

“We have a new superintendent who led the community in creating our Portrait of a Graduate,” which lists the traits Critical Thinker, Communicator, Personally Responsible, Creative Innovator, Global Citizen, and Leader and Collaborator. This portrait is guiding teachers in helping students learn the science behind the disaster while becoming civically engaged in the community, she relates.

“There’s still work to do; we’re not back to normal,” says Goerner. For students, “the damage from flooding doesn’t heal quickly, even if you’re back in your home. Some students are terrified of rain now.” She hopes the PBL units and opportunities for students to do conservation work will not only help them become more involved with the community, but also will give them “a way to process the flood” and heal from the trauma.

This article originally appeared in the October 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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Students in the Citizen Science Institute, a magnet, alternative program housed at Marshall Middle School in Olympia, Washington, do scientific and civic investigations. These students are doing seasonal bird counts at the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually Wildlife Refuge in Olympia.

 

Legislative Update

Congress Passes FY2019 Education Spending Package

By Jodi Peterson

Posted on 2018-10-01

Congress has passed an appropriations bill for the FY2019 Department of Education and other education and labor programs and President Trump signed the bill on September 28, averting a government shutdown that would have occurred on midnight, September 30. The bill provides funding for key domestic and military programs and will allow educators to start planning programs for FY2019. The bill the President signed also includes a continuing resolution which funds other federal programs at current levels through December 7.  Read more here and check out the STEM Education Coalition’s list of federal funding for a number of federal ed programs.

ESSA News

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos this week approved Florida’s plan for the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Every state has now earned federal approval for their plans. Florida originally submitted their plan for federal review last fall; the initial plan sought to maintain the accountability plan developed under Governor Jeb Bush that graded schools on an A-F scale.  The state was requested to submit a revised plan that included how the state would better identify identify low performing schools

Also last week, during a hearing on ESSA in the Senate Appropriations Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee, Senate Democrats questioned whether states are sufficiently tracking and holding schools accountable for the performance of certain groups of students,

Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, and Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), the chairman of the committee, sparred over whether they believe Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has approved state’s ESSA accountability plans even though the plans may not adequately track English language learners, students with disabilities, low-income students and minority students.

“Democrats voted for this law — in part — because of these requirements to ensure equity,” Senator Murray said during the hearing. “Yet they are being disregarded by this administration.”

Sen. Alexander said he believes DeVos has followed the law in her approval of state education plans, and that he and Senator Murray “have a difference of opinion in reading the law.”

And finally, last week NSTA co sponsored a briefing on Capitol Hill for congressional staff on the ways in which states and districts are using the federal funding through the Every Student Succeeds Acts Title IV, Part A Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants program to support science and STEM education and other “well-rounded” education activities. 

Robert Holm, IT Director for the McKinley STEM High School in DC, joined that panel to discuss options to use Title IVA for STEM.  More here.

Stay tuned, and watch for more updates in future issues of NSTA Express.

Jodi Peterson is the Assistant Executive Director of Communication, Legislative & Public Affairs for the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and Chair of the STEM Education Coalition. Reach her via e-mail at jpeterson@nsta.org or via Twitter at @stemedadvocate.

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


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Congress has passed an appropriations bill for the FY2019 Department of Education and other education and labor programs and President Trump signed the bill on September 28, averting a government shutdown that would have occurred on midnight, September 30. The bill provides funding for key domestic and military programs and will allow educators to start planning programs for FY2019.

Swing Set Makeover, Grade 3: STEM Road Map for Elementary School

What if you could challenge your third graders to design a swing set that’s safe but still lots of fun? With this volume in the STEM Road Map Curriculum Series, you can!

Swing Set Makeover outlines a journey that will steer your students toward authentic problem solving while grounding them in integrated STEM disciplines. As are the other volumes in the series, this book is designed to meet the growing need to infuse real-world learning into K–12 classrooms.
What if you could challenge your third graders to design a swing set that’s safe but still lots of fun? With this volume in the STEM Road Map Curriculum Series, you can!

Swing Set Makeover outlines a journey that will steer your students toward authentic problem solving while grounding them in integrated STEM disciplines. As are the other volumes in the series, this book is designed to meet the growing need to infuse real-world learning into K–12 classrooms.
 

Engineering Encounters

Engineering a Model of the Earth as a Water Filter

Engineering a Model of the Earth as a Water Filter

By Jonathon Kilpatrick, Nanette Marcum-Dietrich, John Wallace, and Carolyn Staudt

 

Methods and Strategies

A Noteworthy Connection

Developing science knowledge and literacy with science notebooks

A Noteworthy Connection

By Melanie Schneider, Jessica Bonjour, and Anna M. Bishop Courtier

 

Science 101

Q: What Is “Static Electricity,” and How Can I See Its Effects?

Science and Children—October 2018 (Volume 55, Issue 3)

By Matt Bobrowsky

Q: What Is “Static Electricity,” and How Can I See Its Effects?

 

Teaching Through Trade Books

Plants, Animals, and Earth Processes, Oh My! Changes to the Environment

Science and Children—October 2018 (Volume 56, Issue 3)

By Christine Anne Royce

Plants, Animals, and Earth Processes, Oh My! Changes to the Environment

 

Teaching Teachers

Create Engaging Workshop Experiences in Five Simple Steps

Create Engaging Workshop Experiences in Five Simple Steps

By Mary Dudley and Abby Strietmann

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