Following a contentious confirmation hearing for Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos that evoked images of guns and grizzlies and showcased a lack of understanding of key education issues, the Senate HELP Committee postponed its planned confirmation vote on her nomination until Tuesday, Jan. 31, at 10 a.m. after Democrats said they didn’t have enough time to examine her financial holdings and that Republicans were moving too fast on her nomination.

If confirmed, DeVos has agreed to divest from a number of companies and investment funds to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

While most pundits anticipate that Republicans will support DeVos’ nomination, Senator Al Franken said in an interview with MSNBC that no Democrats will vote for DeVos, and that they are actively trying to engage Republicans to also vote against her nomination.

Politico is reporting that “Senators’ offices have been flooded with thousands of calls and letters opposing the nomination of Betsy DeVos — with some Democratic offices saying, the opposition to DeVos is stronger than for any other Cabinet nominee.” A petition opposing DeVos’ nomination that was ranked most “popular” last week on change.org had more than 318,000 signatures (as of Friday afternoon).

Science March on Washington

In other political news following the success of the Jan.21 Women’s March on Washington, a group of scientists have organized and are planning a protest march in the nation’s capital as a “starting point to take a stand for science in politics.”

A date has not been set for the event. Read more here, and visit the twitter page here.  

Your How-To Guide on Federal Funding for STEM Education

The U.S. Department of Education issued a letter last week that will help states, districts and other stakeholders to better understand how to use Federal funds under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and other federal programs to support STEM education. This guidance will be critical as states and districts begin to receive funds and implement ESSA. Read it.

Trump Delays Implementation of ESSA rules on Accountability

The Trump administration has delayed the implementation of all pending federal regulations, including the Obama administration’s proposed ESSA accountability rules.

The Obama administration’s accountability rule was finalized last November but not slated to take effect until Jan. 30. The Trump administration has postponed the regulation to March 21, which is a few weeks ahead of the first initial deadline for states to submit their plans for ESSA on April 3.  At her confirmation hearing, DeVos said she plans to stay with the schedule of having states submit plans by either April 3 or September 8, with implementation to begin in the 2018–19 school year. Many organizations are calling on states to move forward and continue developing their state plans. Read more here.

Help Every Student Succeed with STEM

This new campaign is designed to ensure that STEM education is a priority in the state plans required under the new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). ESSA provides states and local districts with the flexibility and power to set new policy and funding priorities. Every state is now developing a new plan they will submit to the U.S. Department of Education detailing how they will implement ESSA. These plans will have an impact on the education in your state for years. Learn how you and teachers in your school/district can impact your state’s plan by promoting STEM here.  Click here to learn more about ESSA.

ED Withdraws Supplement Not Supplant Regulation

In the final days of the Obama administration the Education Department withdrew their supplement, not supplant draft rule under the Every Student Succeeds Act, saying they simply ran out of time to issue a ruling. “I am glad the Education Department has listened to Congress and has chosen not to move forward with its proposed ‘supplement-not-supplant’ regulation,” said Senator Lamar Alexander in a statement on the action. “This proposal would have dictated from Washington how states and school districts should spend nearly all state and local tax dollars on schools in order to receive federal Title I dollars — which are only about 3 percent of total national spending on K-12 schools. A regulation like this is not authorized by law; in fact, it is specifically prohibited by law.”

Join our New Education Policy Listserv

NSTA is pleased to announce a new listserv for members. The Education Policy listserv will provide members with an opportunity to share information, thoughts, resources and research on federal and state education policies that affect the science/STEM classroom. We invite you to join the Education Policy listserv and bring us your questions, or stop by for critical information and thought-provoking conversations about key K-12 state and federal policy issues such as:

• Every Student Succeeds Act (the new federal education law)
• U.S. Department of Education Policies
• Education funding, with a focus on funding for ESSA and STEM programs
• Innovation, competitiveness and workforce issues
• Assessment
• Serving high risk students
• Career and technical education
• Professional development (ESSA, use of Title II and Title IV)
• Teacher preparation/Higher Education Act
• Informal education/out of school activities
• Next Generation Science Standards/three dimensional learning
• Education research
• Student achievement in STEM
• Science and Technology

Please note that we encourage listserv users to discuss policy issues only; posts around specific individuals and/or politics will not be permissible topics for discussion.

You can subscribe to the Education Policy listserv by going to http://www.nsta.org/membership/listserver.aspx.

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

Jodi Peterson is Assistant Executive Director of 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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Noticing changes in the growth and habit of plants is part of the science of phenology. We do this casually when we comment on the buds swelling on the maple tree (yay! not as many branches are dead as I feared) or the daffodil leaves sprouting above the soil ( yay! they survived the winter). The USA National Phenology Network’s Activity Book for Children can give you some ideas about how children can document such changes. 

Young children may notice weather changes more easily than more subtle changes in plant growth but they both can be part of a daily report, a form of collecting data. With a chart full of mostly “cool” days children can see a pattern when the season changes from winter to spring. Or perhaps the seasonal change in your area includes an increase in windy days, or more or less rain. Children can measure the size of sprouting leaves or a tree bud by comparison with a fingernail or finger length, or use a standard such as a cube block or centimeter rule. Making observations using a magnifier and drawing the details of plants is one way to collect data about plants.

The data that children collect is their evidence for any change they see in the weather or plant growth over time. Scientists, including citizen scientists, have collected this information over hundreds of years. Children can make predictions based on their evidence—how many cold, cool or warm days will we have next week?

Just as numerals marking the number of days in school are sometimes posted in one long line stretching across walls of the classroom, weather data can be collected and posted all year. Using symbols that both children and scientists recognize children can document the weather. I wrote about collecting weather data in the The Early Years: The Wonders of Weather in the January 2013 issue of Science and Children. I hope the data collection templates will be useful for your children as they make actual weather observations outdoors, describe and document them. Collecting data over the year or at least several months will be more meaningful than “doing” weather for a week. The children’s documented evidence will be a topic of discussion and the basis for developing math skills over time. Arguing for a “claim,” or knowledge statement, based on evidence is described in “Methods and Strategies: Claims and Evidence” by Julie Jackson, Annie Durham, Sabrina Dowell, Jessica Sockel, and Irene Boynton in the December 2016 Science and Children.  With wonderful classroom examples they describe how first through fifth grade children learn to make scientific claims based on their evidence. Instead of asking “Why?” to prompt children to further explain their reasoning, they suggest teachers ask “Because?” because it is less threatening and “It invites the children to tell me more, to elaborate upon ideas, to support claim statements with evidence.” Articles from all National Science Teachers Association journals are free to members but if you aren’t yet a member of NSTA, this article is well worth the $0.99 cost.

To see how argument-based inquiry worked in a fourth grade classroom, read “Methods and Strategies: Using Argument-Based Inquiry Strategies for STEM Infused Science Teaching” by Mason Kuhn and Mark McDermott in the January 2017 Science and Children.

Engaging in argument from evidence is one of the science and engineering practices of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Read more about this and other practices in Appendix F – Science and Engineering Practices in the NGSS and look for ways to have your children use them in their science inquires and other areas of their life.

“I aspire to translate complicated ideas in science into consumable stories,” says Katherine Lingenfelter, who writes for TV shows with science or science fiction themes, such as House and Westworld, respectively. “Television is a writer’s medium.” Writers research, develop, and pitch ideas for shows, then assemble and oversee teams of other writers to create the scripts. Writers may also have a final say on casting and set design.

Work overview.

Typically, once filming starts, four episodes are in progress at once: one being “broken” (ideas being developed), one being written, one being filmed, and one being video edited. Each will require your attention. The writers may gather in the writers’ room in the morning. In the afternoons, I go to production meetings, where I might discuss things such as wardrobe, go out on a location scout, or get feedback from network executives on a script draft. I might also go into the editing room to make adjustments. I spend the evening writing.

At the major networks, you work 10.5 months and then get a five-week

Writer Katherine Lingenfelter poses on location for the popular Westworld TV series (for mature audiences) in Fossil Point, Utah. Photo by Matt Belanger.

hiatus. If the show continues, and you’re asked back, you start up again. If not, you look for your next contract. Cable schedules are more varied.

I just finished working as a co-executive producer for HBO’s Westworld, which is about artificial intelligence. I researched topics such as consciousness, biology, and early evolution.

I recently sold a sci-fi pilot idea to the AMC network about a western taking place after climate change. Science fiction writers have the freedom to imagine scientific possibilities, but we also consult with the Science and Entertainment Exchange, a program of the National Academy of Sciences that connects us with scientists and engineers who vet our ideas. I’m also preparing to sell another idea, about cryptozoology, with an environmental bent. A tiny percentage of pitched shows make it all the way to airing on a network.

It’s thrilling to be on set, when 60 people are all focused on one goal,

Equipment trucks on location for the Westworld TV series. Photo by Katherine Lingenfelter.

and everyone plays their part. I also love the research. My least favorite part is the actual writing, which is a lonely endeavor, and I also don’t like it when a project fails.

Career highlights.

Our work can affect real people. A House episode I worked on accurately portrayed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and may have inspired people to learn the technique.

Career path.

I wanted to follow in my anesthesiologist father’s footsteps and become a neurosurgeon, but I also adopted my older brother’s love of science fiction. In college, I started out in pre-medicine but switched to psychology. I joined my brother in Los Angeles to try to get into the entertainment industry. After working as an assistant, learning what I needed to know about the industry to become a writer, I eventually landed my first writing job.

Knowledge, skills, and training needed.

Writing competency is important, but a good TV writer needs the imagination to explore ideas and maintain unusual interests. Networks want diverse writers. Writers with varied life experiences are in high demand. Your characters will be more realistic if you’ve observed the world for a while.

Advice for students.

Write a lot about many different things. If you decide to become a TV writer, don’t let go until you do it. Move to Los Angeles or New York or at least submit your work every month. It may take years. Work for people you admire. Almost all my job offers have been based on relationships I developed, so be generous with your ideas and be someone other people like to work with.

Bonus Points
Lingenfelter’s education:
BA in psychology, University of Michigan

On the web:
www.johnaugust.com, www.imdb.com

Related occupations:
screenwriter, science writer, novelist, prop maker, production designer

Editor’s Note

This article was originally published in the January 2017 issue of The Science Teacher journal from the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA).

Get Involved With NSTA!

Join NSTA today and receive The Science Teacher,
the peer-reviewed journal just for high school teachers; to write for the journal, see our Author Guidelines, Call for Papers, and annotated sample manuscript; connect on the high school level science teaching list (members can sign up on the list server); or consider joining your peers at future NSTA conferences.

The lab can be an unsafe place. Under NSTA’s Duty of Care, however, the teacher is required to make labs safer (see Resources). One way of doing so is to follow the analysis, assessment, and action (AAA) method. The method requires teachers to perform a hazard analysis before each lab demonstration (Minister 2015), as mandated by Standard 45 of the National Fire Protection Agency, then conduct a hazard assessment, and take the best possible action.

Analysis

The first step is to analyze the potential hazards. For example, there can be physical impact hazards (labware such as ring stand rod and meter sticks), chemical hazards (corrosives and toxins), and biological hazards (mold and bacteria). The hazards analysis is usually based on the teacher’s previous lab experiences, employer-required safety training, Safety Data Sheets and a Chemical Hygiene Plan from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA [see Resources]), and internet safety information.

Assessment

Next, assess the risks of potential hazards determined in step one, using the Safety Data Sheets:

• Section 2. Hazards Identification,
• Section 5. Fire-Fighting Measures,
• Section 6. Accidental Release Measures,
• Section 10. Stability and Reactivity, and
• Section 11. Toxicological Information.

Action

Determine the appropriate action based on the types of hazards and risks.
The top three actions to consider, based on the OSHA’s Hazard Prevention and Control (see Resources), include engineering controls, administrative controls, and personal protective equipment (PPE).

Section 8 of the Safety Data Sheet can help determine which PPE (safety glasses or goggles) and engineering controls work best. Also, read the labels on hazardous chemicals before working with them. In some cases where risks are too high, the demonstration or activity should be abandoned and replaced with a safer alternative.

Submit questions regarding safety in K–12 to Ken Roy at safesci@sbcglobal.net, or leave him a comment below. Follow Ken Roy on Twitter: @drroysafersci.

Reference

Minister, A. 2015. Unsafe science. NFPA Journal. www.nfpa.org/news-and-research/publications/nfpa-journal/2015/september-october-2015/features/unsafe-science.

Resources

NSTA’s Duty of Care—www.nsta.org/docs/DutyOfCare.pdf
Hazard Prevention and Control—www.osha.gov/shpguidelines/hazard-prevention.html
Safety Data Sheets—www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA3514.html
Chemical Hygiene Plan—www.osha.gov/Publications/laboratory/OSHAfactsheet-laboratory-safety-chemical-hygiene-plan.pdf

NSTA resources and safety issue papers
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