I coach teachers at an elementary school. One teacher is trying to improve his science instruction (one of the school goals), but he’s struggling with classroom management and organization during class activities. I’ve shared some ideas, but I’m looking for more. —S., Pennsylvania

Many teachers did not experience hands-on science as students and may be unsure how to create planned and purposeful opportunities for their own students. If science is the only time in which students are expected to work in groups, with hands-on materials, or with less structure, they may think of science as free time or not as important as teacher-directed lessons.

In addition to observing the teacher, notice what the students are (or are not) doing and how the classroom is arranged. Ask the teacher questions like: What went well—and why? What were the greatest challenges? What do you think about…? Did you notice today when…? What would happen if…? What works well for you in other subjects? His responses and your observations could lead to an action plan that could include strategies such as (and these were among those suggested to me by a mentor when I was struggling!):

• Begin the activity or investigation by stating the purpose, outcomes (e.g., report, graph, drawing, summary, notebook entry), and how it connects with the learning goals or expectations of the unit.
• Establish routines so students know what kinds of behaviors are expected and acceptable.
• Prepare and label materials in advance and have designated places for them to be accessed and returned.
• Assign and explain group roles before starting the activity.
• Stop an activity when students engage in unsafe behaviors.

Above all, encourage the teacher to give himself time to persevere and to reflect on each activity as part of a continuous effort to improve.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjlook/7152722/sizes/s/in/photostream/

This week in education news, should teachers stay in the classroom or move to an administrator role; President Trump orders hard look at federal reach on K-12 policy; the nation’s elementary school children still receive thin and infrequent science instruction; DeVos reiterates school choice agenda and suggests scrapping the Higher Education Act; and teachers’ concerns lead to changes in California’s testing contract.

A New Wave Of Bills Takes Aim At Science In The Classroom

In Idaho, lawmakers removed references to climate change from the state’s science standards. In Alabama and Indiana, they passed resolutions urging support for educators who teach “diverse” views on climate change, evolution and human cloning. And in Florida, the legislature on Friday adopted one bill that would give educators and students more freedom to express religious beliefs in school, and a second that would give residents new power to oppose classroom materials they dislike — including science textbooks. Click here to read the article featured on PBS Frontline.

The Search For A Middle Ground Between Teacher And Administrator

It’s a question that all teachers ask themselves — or in many cases are asked by friends and family — stay in the classroom and continue to teach or move to an administrative role? For educators in the United States, moving up to a principal or other school leadership position is often the go-to path in order to advance their careers and make more money. The dilemma is that a large number of teachers have little interest in leaving the classroom. Click here to read the article featured in Education World.

Trump Orders Hard Look At Federal Reach On K-12 Policy

President Donald Trump and his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, have made local control a major focus of their statements on K-12. And Trump underscored that priority in his recent executive order calling on DeVos to take a hard look at where the federal government has overreached on K-12 education. The order directs DeVos to review, tweak, and even repeal regulations and guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Education recently, as well as identify places where the federal government has overstepped its legal authority. Click here to read the article featured in Education Week.

Will Elementary Science Remain the Forgotten Stepchild Of School Reform?

Great science standards can help schools accomplish great things, but only if those schools spend time teaching them. That may sound like a truism, but that simple fact could hamstring efforts to improve science education across the country. Change the Equation dug into survey data from the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for fourth-grade science and found that many of the nation’s elementary school children were on a starvation diet of thin and infrequent science instruction. Click here to read the blog post by Change the Equation.

DeVos Reiterates Choice Agenda, Suggests Scrapping HEA For New Law In ASU + GSV Keynote

In a Tuesday afternoon keynote address and fireside chat at the annual ASU+GSV Summit in Salt Lake City, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos reiterated her reform and school choice agenda and said that the existing K-12 public education system is flawed because it is based on an outdated Prussian education model.When asked about Higher Education Act reauthorization, DeVos asked why they should reauthorize a 50 year old system rather than starting from scratch, noting that the needs of students and individuals should be the focus, rather than “systems” and “buildings” in both higher ed and K-12. Click here to read the article featured in Education DIVE.

Climate Change-denying Booklets Are Landing In The Mailboxes Of Thousands Of Teachers

Understanding science is fundamentally an education issue, said David Evans, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association, who spent 40 years as a scientist before moving into science education. With growing political pressure on science teachers, including challenges by state school boards and legislatures to remove science standards on human-made climate change and a presidential administration that has proposed aggressive cuts to environmental protections, teachers — the ones on the front lines — need to know they are supported, Evans said. Click here to read the article featured on PBS Newshour.

Teachers’ Concerns Lead To Changes In State’s Testing Contract

Teacher complaints have been heard by the vendor that designs some of the state’s academic tests. Partially in response to concerns raised by educators, the California Board of Education Wednesday approved a $1.5 million contract amendment with Educational Testing Service that will help pay for teacher training in science. Click here to read the article featured on EdSource.

Students Shouldn’t Live In STEM Deserts

More than ever, a high-quality math and science education is the foundation for opportunity. By 2020, almost two-thirds of all jobs will require post-secondary education or training – education that is supported by the critical thinking and problem-solving skills learned in math and science. In the same period, almost as many jobs will require basic literacy in science, technology, engineering and math. Yet, we as a nation continue with a familiar pattern in which access to high-quality STEM learning is unevenly distributed. Millions of students across the country live in what we call STEM deserts – school communities without access to rigorous and engaging math and science courses. Click here to read the article featured in U.S. News & World Report.

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

Any and all upper elementary educators looking to build their repertoire of STEM knowledge would benefit from attending the 6^th Annual STEM Forum & Expo.  The Expo will be held in Kissimmee/Orlando, Florida from July 12-14. The event promises to meet the needs of educators just beginning their journey into the STEM world and those who may be teaching at fully developed STEM institutions. Because the forum is organized by grade level strands, teachers will be able to focus on sessions, discussions, and presentations geared to their students’ specific needs and interests. Organizing by grade level will help upper elementary educators who would like to learn some middle level concepts or strategies as well as those would may want to learn some early elementary concepts and strategies. The Expo gives you full control of how you’d like to experience it. 

Whether you’re drawn to literacy integration, are looking to maximize the ‘M” of mathematics in STEM, or are curious as how the engineering design thought process can be ignited with art, upper elementary educators will find over 30 different hands on workshops, nearly 20 presentations, as well as many other panels and sessions to attend at the STEM Forum, all of which are presented by leaders in STEM education. Sessions like Where It Stops, Nobody Knows: ELA Through STEM are great for teachers who want to incorporate literacy in their STEM classrooms, and Designing with Electrical Circuits are sure to capture a students imagination. There is no doubt that the event will provide attendees with the latest information on STEM content, resources, teaching strategies, and research.  While there, educators and administrations are encouraged to network with each other, STEM leaders, informal educators, as well as policy makers from around the nation and the world building unprecedented collaborations in STEM education. With such high quality and specialized offerings, how could Upper Elementary educators not attend the STEM Forum and Expo?

Sandra Kellerman is a fourth-grade teacher at Lyman Elementary School, where she uses STEM-related projects such as making rafts from popsicle sticks to get her students engaged in STEM. Her top priority is to educate conference attendees on the importance of STEM in classrooms with limited resources and funding. She is currently on the steering committee as the upper elementary strand leader for the 6^th Annual STEM Forum & Expo. 

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

Future NSTA Conferences

2017 STEM Forum & Expo
Kissimmee/Orlando, July 12–14

2017 Area Conferences

Baltimore, October 5–7
Milwaukee, November 9–11
New Orleans, Nov. 30–Dec. 2

I have some chemistry students who ask “Why do we have to learn this?” How can I address this other saying “you’ll need it in college.” —D., Delaware

Why are we studying this? What good is this?

It’s easy to answer student questions like these with “because it will be on the test” or “because it’s in the textbook,” but this usually doesn’t satisfy the student. As you noted “you’ll need this someday” is equally frustrating because information is readily available electronically, and we can’t predict what careers and interests students will have in the future.

Some students enjoy science, and their interest is independent of class activities. Others are skeptical and may need to be convinced that a topic is worth learning. Teachers can make science interesting and relevant by sharing their enthusiasm and using thought-provoking investigations or activities, multimedia and visuals, a variety of instructional strategies, cooperative learning, and opportunities for students to use their curiosity and creativity.

As you plan a unit, consider the goal or performance expectation. What content is essential? How can I use a variety of practices to make it interesting? How does the unit connect with or build on what students already know? Does it provide background for future learning? How does it relate to real-life events or other subject areas? How can students personalize this information?

It may help to introduce each unit with essential questions focused on a big idea or theme. During each lesson, revisit the questions, connecting any new content or experiences. If the questions are posted in the classroom or in the students’ science notebooks, they are a constant reminder of why students are learning about the topic. Eventually, students may come up with their own questions and learning goals.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fontplaydotcom/504443770/

How is the experience of listening to, attending to, live music different from listening to a recording? I can be very moved by recorded music, moved to sing along or dance. A particular piece of recorded music can become a favorite, and listening to it is like wearing your favorite pair of jeans because they fit your shape so well.  Live music is never exactly that pair of jeans but it can be the experience of that pair of jeans when you try them on for the first time and, oh wow, they are just what you needed. Steve Guttenberg, who writes about audio, discusses the ways recorded music differs from live and asks, “What do you think? Is recorded music better than live music?” For me, all the ingredients in a live experience combine to make it more, more powerfully stirring—the sound,  expressions of the artists and other sights, feel of the location, smells, and maybe tastes.

The same stirring as when I blow on the spherical dandelion head, feeling my cheeks stretch out with the force of my breath and that same force pushes the tiny seed parachutes off the seed head, into the air, carrying my wish with them. Being outside is a sensory immersive experience teaching us about the elements of weather events, the sounds and smells of our environment, and how we have to exert force to make changes. 

Using technology, Neil Bromhall takes us to a detailed view of this familiar plant over time with his time lapse videos, “Time lapse Dandelion flower to seed head” and “Dandelion flower and clock blowing away time lapse .” 
Look at the way the plumed seeds or pappus open as the dew dries off, something we might never sit still enough to watch happen in real time. For really close up, but still, photographs that allow us to see the intricate details of how seeds are produced, visit Brian Johnston’s page, “A Close-up View of the Wildflower “Dandelion” (Taraxacum officinale). He also shared an Emily Dickinson poem (with vocabulary that is challenging and exactly, Dickinsonian, right).

I am happy to be alive in a world where I can access nature directly with clothing technology that makes it comfortable, and to access nature in a different way through other technologies shared by other nature enthusiasts and naturalists. 

The authors of Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature, Jon Young, Ellen Haas, and Evan McGown, advocate for us to use nature as a living teacher to allow children to “soak up the language of plants and animals as naturally as any of us learned our native language.” I like the way they require one to get to know the people we mentor and “Look for their edges: the edge of their comfort zone, the edge of their awareness, the edge of their knowledge, the edge of their experience. Then, you can stretch and pull them to a new edge, and then another, deeper and deeper into a sense of comfort and kinship with the wildness of the natural world.” Their animal senses exercises, Owl Eyes, Deer Ears, Raccoon Touch, Dog Nose, and Fox Walk, are practiced and used to expand our personal observation abilities. 

The Coyote’s Guide describes how using a “sit spot,” a special place in nature where one can be “comfortable with just being there, still and quiet. In this place, the lessons of nature will seep in.” Educators Karen Dvornich, Diane Petersen, and Ken Clarkson write about having children record their sit spot experience and observations in a science notebook and later contribute the data to a citizen science program.  

If you are lucky to have in-person or through-technology connections to a local naturalist such as Alonso Abugattas, the Capital Naturalist who posts informative videos taken during first hand experiences in nature, you can use the information to plan your program’s outdoor experiences in nature.

Whether you express excitement along with your children as they observe a group of ants building along a sidewalk crack or help them use the Coyote’s Guide animal senses exercises to make observations from a sit spot, you are connecting them to live nature, connections they may later follow up on using technology-recorded nature that extends their senses. And offering both recorded music and live singing will enrich your children too!

Although we are now more than half way through FY2017, as expected both the House and Senate passed, and President Trump signed into law, the bill for FY2017 appropriations before the May 5 deadline that would have closed the federal government.

Here are how STEM-related programs fared in the spending bill:

• ESSA Title IV, Part A, Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants: $400 million (more on this program below)
• ESSA Title II Teacher Quality State Grants: $2.055 billion (vs. $2.25 billion in FY16)
• Computer Science for All: $0 (vs. $100 million proposed)
• STEM Master Teacher Corps: $0 (vs. $10 million proposed)
• 21^st Century Community Learning Centers: $1.191 billion (vs. $1.166 billion in FY16)
• Perkins/CTE: $1.135 billion (vs. $1.125 billion in FY16)

For fiscal year 2017, Student Support and Academic Enrichments Grants (Title IV, Part A of ESSA) will be funded at $400 million, a fraction of the ESSA authorization level of $1.65 billion. With the low funding level, Congress changed the distribution for this program for this year only: money will go directly to the states and states have the option to distribute the funds via a competitive grant program to districts. (They could allocate by formula only if districts would get at least $10,000.) States have until September 30, 2018 to expend funds.

At least 20 percent of the money states receive would go to programs (which includes STEM programs) that allow students to become more well-rounded. Twenty percent of funds must be used for student health and safety, and the remaining funds could be spent on technology. 

Districts can use Title IV Part A grants to provide students with a well-rounded education and improve instruction and student engagement in STEM by:

• Expanding high-quality STEM courses;
• Increasing access to STEM for underserved and at risk student populations;
• Supporting the participation of students in STEM nonprofit competitions (such as robotics, science research, invention, mathematics, computer science, and technology competitions);
• Providing hands-on learning opportunities in STEM;
• Integrating other academic subjects, including the arts, into STEM subject programs;
• Creating or enhancing STEM specialty schools;
• Integrating classroom based and afterschool and informal STEM instruction; and
• Expanding environmental education.

It is hoped that this competitive grant will only be for FY2017 and that Congress will provide a higher appropriations level for FY2018 so the block grant would work as a targeted program tied to Title I funding, as authorized in ESSA. More on the Title IV program here.

Science Budget for FY2017

Funding for science agencies was boosted in FY2017, a sharp contrast to Trump’s proposal for FY2018 that would provide deep cuts in federal science programs.  

Here are the funding levels for some key federal science agencies:

• DOE Office of Science: $5.392 billion, a 0.8% increase above the FY16 level
• NASA Science: $5.765 billion, 3.1% increase
• NSF: $7.472 billion, 0.1% increase
• DOD S&T: $14.011 billion, 7.5% increase
• NIST: $954 million, 1.0% decrease
• NOAA: $5.675 billion, 1.6% decrease
• NIH: $34.084 billion, 6.2% increase
• USGS: $1.085 billion, 2.2% increase

Read more here.

House Introduces Career and Technical Education Bill

On May 4 the House Committee on Education and the Workforce introduced the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act. The proposal is largely identical to legislation the House of Representatives passed in September 2016 by an overwhelming vote of 405 to 5. The committee will consider the legislation in the coming weeks.

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.

Follow NSTA

This week in education news, Achieve releases a series of parent guides that explain how science instruction is changing and why; California administers pilot test for new science standards; science funding spared under congressional budget deal; Florida bills would give citizens the ability to question teaching materials used in schools; teachers receive help for creating lessons with drones; and Nebraska unveils new draft science standards.

Helping Parents Understand The Next Generation Science Standards

So far, there’s been little talk about how parents have reacted to the Next Generation Science Standards. But states are preparing to give students tests aligned to the NGSS—next spring, in many places. And as testing pressure mounts, so might questions from parents about the new ways their students are being taught. Achieve, the group that led the development of the science standards, is working to head off misconceptions about the standards. The group recently released a series of parent guides that explain how science instruction is changing and why. Click here to read the article featured in Education Week.

Pilot Science Test Underway in California, Despite Dispute With Federal Officials

The pilot test for California’s new science standards is underway at schools across the state, despite a long-brewing dispute with the federal government over whether students should be tested on the old or new standards. California is one of 19 states to adopt the new standards, and among the first to administer a pilot test. In 2016, the state asked for a federal waiver to stop giving the older, pencil-and-paper science standardized test, which was based on standards adopted in 1998, in favor of the new test. Click here to read the article featured in EdSource.

Science Funding Spared Under Congressional Budget Deal, But More Battles Ahead

The lights will stay on in the federal government, and also in the countless laboratories and universities that depend on federal funding for scientific and medical research. That’s one upshot of the bipartisan budget deal congressional negotiators reached Sunday, April 30. The bill, clocking in at more than 1,600 pages, is likely to pass both houses of Congress and be signed into law by President Trump this week. It covers funding through September. Click here to read the article featured in the Washington Post.

How Would Changes To ESSA’s Block Grant Work?

The Every Student Succeeds Act may be less than two years old, but its funding provisions are already getting a makeover, at least temporarily, in a spending bill expected to be approved in Congress. The bill would make a really important change to the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants, or Title IV of the law (aka the “big giant block grant”). Click here to read the article featured in Education Week.

CSI Effects Livens Up Science Education

The forensic biotechnology pathway at James C. Enochs High School in Modesto City Schools, California, incorporates the science behind the popular CSI TV show to excite students about a career in the science behind criminal investigations. Nearly 350 students participate in the four-year program that combines fictional and real-world cases with hands-on research. Click here to read the article featured in District Administration.

Florida Bills Would Let Citizens Remove Textbooks That Mention Climate Change And Evolution

Evolution and creationism taught side-by-side. Climate change presented as a controversial hypothesis. If these proposed bills in Florida pass before the end the legislative session next month, the fate of science education in some school districts would be threatened. Two new bills—one passed in the house, and one making its way through the senate—give anyone, not just parents, the ability to question teaching materials in a school district and receive a public hearing with an “unbiased and qualified hearing officer.” Click here to read the article featured in Motherboard.

Educators Get New Help For Creating Lessons With Drones

Drones have been drifting into K-12 classroom lesson for years. Now teachers are receiving more specific guidance than ever before on how to use the aerial devices in ways that will bring a payoff for students. The guidance is coming from organizations like the International Society for Technology in Education, which recently published advice for educators on the subject, and the National Science Teachers Association, which at its conferences has offered educators guidance on how to use drones in classes. Click here to read the article featured in Education Week.

Can Bill Nye – Or Any Other Science Show – Really Save The World?

Netflix’s new talk show, “Bill Nye Saves the World,” debuted the night before people around the world joined together to demonstrate and March for Science. Many have lauded the timing and relevance of the show, featuring the famous “Science Guy” as its host, because it aims to myth-bust and debunk anti-scientific claims in an alternative-fact era. But are more facts really the kryptonite that will rein in what some suggest is a rapidly spreading “anti-science” sentiment in the U.S.? Click here to read the article featured in the Huffington Post.

To Develop Teachers, Look To Other Teachers

Researchers from Michigan State University this week presented the findings of a study that indicated half of early career teachers leave their schools by their fifth year, and one in four leave the profession altogether. Part of this can be attributed to a perceived lack of support by their principals, but another part is due to a lack of support and personal development that encourages persistence. Having teacher mentors and a supportive principal are the two most critical influences on how a teacher experiences the profession in the first five years, and an emphasis on interpersonal learning and relationships is key to any teacher retention conversation, said American Institutes for Research Center on Great Teachers and Leaders researcher Catherine Jacques at a Wednesday Capitol Hill event detailing the findings of a new report on a teacher learning study. But it is important that any professional development efforts allow opportunities for teachers to self-select or opt-in to courses that are led by other teachers and job-embedded, focusing on collaboration. Click here to read the article featured in Education DIVE.

Climate Change, Big Bang, GMOs Among Topics In Draft Science Standards For Nebraska Public Schools

New draft science standards unveiled Thursday call upon students to think and act like scientists, gathering data, analyzing it and communicating their results. The draft standards list what officials believe students should know and be able to do from kindergarten to high school. The Big Bang theory, climate change, evolution and genetically modified organisms are among the topics addressed. On these weighty topics, the standards push students to draw their own conclusions after analyzing data. Click here to read the article featured in the Omaha World-Herald.

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