If you’ve been to Chicago, you know it’s an ideal place to focus on design and architecture. So this March, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) will feature a special strand “The Science of Design: Structure and Function” at our 2015 National Conference on Science Education, in Chicago, March 12–15. Our conference organizers recognize that architecture and engineering provide the infrastructure for human-made systems, that designing for the future requires imagination and a commitment to sustainability, and that teaching about this involves the crosscutting concepts of structure and function and the practices of science and engineering. Communities like Chicago provide examples of great design and great science.

Sessions organized around this strand include a featured presentation on Friday, March 13, 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM (“The Power of Play”) by Peter Exley (Architecture is Fun, Inc.: Chicago, IL). Not familiar with Exley? Check out this profile on him in Chicago Artists Month. And there will be hundreds more sessions in Chicago that highlight great design and great science; below is a small sampling so you see what’s in store:

• The Maker Movement
• From the Love Canal to Phytoremediation: What’s New in Environmental Engineering?
• Engaging Girls in Engineering Through Community Service
• McREL Pathway Session: Green STEM in Elementary Classrooms
• Understanding Car Crashes: Engineering Truly Impactful STEM Lessons
• Helping Middle School Students “Discover Engineering”
• Eco-Structure and Function: Analyzing River Health with Engineering Practices in Problem-based Situations
• Engineering Design Inspired by Nature

Want more? Check out more sessions and other events with the Chicago Session Browser/Personal Scheduler, or take a peek at the online conference preview (pdf). Follow all our conference tweets using #NSTA15, and if you tweet, please feel free to tag us @NSTA so we see it!

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

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This March, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) will feature a special strand “Teaching Every Child by Embracing Diversity” at our 2015 National Conference on Science Education, in Chicago, March 12–15. We’re starting with the knowledge that all classrooms are diverse; learners bring a variety of cultures, backgrounds, and experiences to the study of science. So we want to help educators find new ideas and resources for meeting the needs of all students, including English language learners, students with special needs, and those with diverse learning styles and abilities. Successful instructional approaches must address methods, materials, facilities, and partnerships. These sessions will confirm the belief that every student can excel in science.

Sessions organized around this strand include a featured presentation on Thursday, March 12 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM (“Next Generation Science Standards and English Language Learners: The Development of Deep and Generative Practices”) by Aída Walqui (WestEd: San Francisco, CA). Not familiar with Walqui? Check out this interview in Language Magazine, where she discusses Five Principles for Succeeding with Adolescent English Learners. And there will be hundreds more sessions in Chicago to inspire teachers who want every student to have the chance to succeed in science; below is a small sampling so you see what’s in store:

• Aprendamos Juntos! (Let’s Learn Together): Embracing Native Languages in Non-bilingual Classrooms to Build Intermediate Science Literacy in English
• Mixed Media Journaling in the Diverse Science Classroom
• SC-10: STEM for ALL: Practices and Methods that Promote Equal Access to STEM
• A New Movement: Thinking on Your Feet
• Science for Bl(all)ck Children: Making Meaning Through Language and Culture
• Implementing the 3-E Instructional Model to Enhance Science Learning Experiences for Students with Special Needs
• Your Kids Can, Too! Scientific Argumentation for All Students
• Any Time, Any Place, Any Pace Lab Science
• El Club de Padres: Maximize Science Learning for Your Bilingual Students by Promoting a Learning Partnership with Their Parents

Want more? Check out more sessions and other events with the Chicago Session Browser/Personal Scheduler, or take a peek at the online conference preview (pdf). Follow all our conference tweets using #NSTA15, and if you tweet, please feel free to tag us @NSTA so we see it!

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

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In cold weather children’s systems of clothing for comfort may become more complicated with added parts of boots, leg warmers, mittens, scarves, hats and coats with multiple fastenings. Reading a book aloud during the time it takes children to get dressed to go outside can help those who are fastest be patient while waiting for others to finish. 

Sneezy the Snowman by Maureen Wright is recommended by Kathy’s Book Corner at ScienceStart! for introducing the topic of freezing and melting (changing the state of matter from a solid to a liquid.) Kathy Conezio suggests activities to do at home or school related to the theme of the books she reviews. You can also find videos of books being read aloud by Jessica Bruederle and other readers, but nothing beats sitting on a lap or gathering by a knee to listen to a story being read from an actual book. The reader can pause to ask children what they think might happen next or to describe a time they had a similar experience.

Do you use videos for story time or for children to revisit favorite books? What technology system works best in your home or program? 

NSTA Recommends is another wonderful resource for finding books that are scientifically accurate and useful for learning about science concepts in early childhood. Build It! Structures, Systems and You by Adrianne Mason describes many systems and their parts. While the text level of Snow and People by Nikki Bundy is recommended for grades 2 and above, the photographs and labeled illustrations will engage preschoolers in talking about their clothing system for keeping warm. 

I asked my local librarian for books about light and shadow and she found many non-fiction books that address science concepts such as, “How is a shadow formed?” Local libraries—another example of a system!

Work to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, otherwise known as No Child Left Behind, is moving quickly in both the Senate and the House. A Senate draft discussion is being circulated and a bill is expected to be introduced shortly. In the U. S. House of Representatives, we anticipate introduction of a Republican bill (version passed by House in 2013) soon, with markup to follow.

It has taken many years for Congress to reauthorize this law, and the efforts in the Senate seem promising. But instead of being a priority in federal education policy, STEM is becoming lost.

Educators are urged to contact their members of Congress immediately, and ask them to make STEM education a national priority. At the Legislative Action Center of the STEM Education Coalition website, you can send a letter to your elected representatives, which asks them to

• Maintain a strong focus on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.
• Continue the focus on math and science as required elements of any state’s accountability system.
• Provide states with dedicated funding to support STEM-related activities and teacher training.

We need your help getting this message heard and to get as much support as possible for science and STEM education. Please take a moment to write to your elected officials, and send this message to your networks.

Read background on this, find out what happened at the Senate hearing last week on teaching and learning, and get insight from Senator Alexander on No Child Left Behind.

Questions? e-mail me at jpeterson@nsta.org.

Jodi Peterson is Assistant Executive Director of Legislative Affairs for the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and Chair of the STEM Education Coalition. e-mail Jodi at jpeterson@nsta.org; follower her on Twitter at @stemedadvocate.

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

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“The new aim of science education in the United States is for all students to become proficient in science by the time they finish high school. The argument-driven inquiry (ADI) instruction model was designed as a way to make lab activities more authentic and educative for students and thus help teachers promote and support the development of science proficiency.”

The 30 lab investigations in the new NSTA Press book Argument-Driven Inquiry in Chemistry, Lab Investigations for Grades 9-12 follow the ADI instruction model. Authors Victor Sampson, Patrick Enderle, Leeanne Gleim, Jonathon Grooms, Melanie Hester, Sherry Southerland, and Kristin Wilson organize the book into two parts. Part I describes the 8 stages of the ADI instructional model and the development and components of the ADI lab investigations. Part II contains the lab investigations, including notes for the teacher, student handouts, and checkout questions.

The investigations included in the book are not meant to replace an existing curriculum but rather to transform the laboratory component of a chemistry course. A teacher can use these investigations as a way to introduce students to new content or as a way to give students an opportunity to apply a theory, law, or unifying concept introduced in class in a novel situation.

Here are a few examples of the lab investigations:

Structure and Properties of Matter

Introduction Lab

• Molecular Shapes: How Does the Number of Substituents Around a Central Atom Affect the Shape of a Molecule?
• Temperature Changes Due to Evaporation: Which of the Available Substances Has the Strongest Intermolecular Forces?

Application Lab

• Melting and Freezing Points: Why Do Substances Have Specific Melting and Freezing Points?
• Density and the Periodic Table: What Are the Densities of Germanium and Flerovium?

Chemical Reactions

Introduction Lab

• Characteristics of Acids and Bases: How Can the Chemical Properties of an Aqueous Solution Be Used to Identify It as an Acid or a Base? (Free lab)
• Reaction Rates: Why Do Changes in Temperature and Reactant Concentration Affect the Role of a Reaction?

Application Lab

• Composition of Chemical Compounds: What Is the Empirical Formula of Magnesium Oxide?
• Designing a Cold Pack: Which Salt Should Be Used to Make an Effective but Economical Cold Pack?

The book also includes Standards alignment matrixes, options for implementing ADI lab investigations, investigation proposal options, a peer-review guide, and an instructor-scoring rubric.

This book is also available as an e-book.

As the temperature dips low and snow piles up across large areas of the country, I find myself thinking about the spring weather to come and working in my garden. So I was delighted to have the chance to read author Steve Rich’s latest NSTA Kids books, My School Yard Garden and Mrs. Carter’s Butterfly Garden.

The exquisite photography and clearly told stories in both books made me feel as if I were actually in a garden, a particularly terrific activity when the weather outside is frightful.

In My School Yard Garden, Rich tells of the many ways that a school yard garden can help the students, the animals who live nearby, and the people living in the community. By planting herbs and vegetables that people can eat, students learn how human activity can affect the food chain. The glossary provided in the book gives an idea of the important concepts covered in this simple story for early elementary students. Reading this story with your students can familiarize them with terms such as compost bin, food web, habitat, nature journal, pollinator, predator, and water cycle.

In Mrs. Carter’s Butterfly Garden, Rich tells the story of how former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, a lifelong lover of gardens, wanted to be involved in what type of garden would be planted at the home they granted to the National Park Service.

Mrs. Carter did her research and learned about a special kind of garden that has everything a butterfly needs. She learned that human activity has destroyed many habitats for butterflies, so she wanted to plant a garden to attract pollinators to the area. Reading this book with your students will impart useful information and may inspire young naturalists to learn what they can do to help attract beautiful butterflies.

Both books are available as e-books: My School Yard Garden and Mrs. Carter’s Butterfly Garden

NSTA Kids book are trade books dedicated to nurturing the wonder and curiosity inherent in young minds. Learn more.

Dr. Sharon Bennett Delesbore is a campus administrator at an alternative school for at-risk students. Dr. Delesbore, who joined NSTA almost 20 years ago when she was a middle school science teacher, credits the organization with helping her become a leader in science education and a minority role model for administrators, teachers, and students.

Delesbore: As an administrator, I’ve never wanted to lose the teacher in me. How can you be an administrator and lead if you don’t stay abreast of what’s taking place instructionally? I’m a campus administrator for a small community of at-risk students. Our science program is one of the main ways we engage our students. That’s why it’s important that I stay connected to science education, and NSTA helps me with that. I always share NSTA Reports, the journals, blog posts, and information I gain at NSTA conferences with my teachers and district administrators.

In addition, my affiliation with NSTA connected me with the Association for Multicultural Science Education (AMSE). When I first became a member of NSTA, I attended the Alice J. Moses Breakfast sponsored by Pearson Education and organized by AMSE annually at the NSTA national conference. Dr. Alice Moses was the first African-American NSTA president. AMSE is an affiliate of NSTA and is a community of educators that are either minority educators or educators who work with minority or at-risk students. I am grateful to NSTA for introducing me to this group that nurtures science education for minority and diverse students. I am now president-elect of AMSE.

How else has your NSTA membership helped you in your position?

Delesbore: NSTA has been valuable in helping us look at NGSS, for example. Our state, Texas, didn’t adopt NGSS. But even though Texas hasn’t adopted NGSS, our school is still incorporating what’s taking place nationally, because that’s important. NGSS finally provides a definition of what science looks like. So, for me, as an administrator, that gives me a valuable tool as I’m helping teachers revise their science curriculum to engage students.

The NSTA resources on NGSS have helped us work through paradigm shifts and learn more about what NGSS is all about. We want to make sure that what we’re practicing goes above and beyond state expectations. That way, our students are still going to meet state expectations, but will also be able to compete globally.

Not a member of NSTA? Learn more about how to join.

Jennifer Henderson is our guest blogger for this series. Before launching her freelance career as a writer/editor, Jennifer was Managing Editor of The Science Teacher, NSTA’s peer-reviewed journal for high school science teachers. 

When I was student teaching, we had to do a “reflection journal.” Now that I have my own teaching assignment, I’m wondering if teachers keep such a document. If so, what do they put in it? What format do they use and how do they find the time for journaling?   —L., Vermont

Teachers are constantly thinking about their lessons: What went well? What should I do differently next time? How did students react? Unless a teacher is given a tightly scripted lesson with no variations allowed, there is always room for improvement or extension.

Reflection goes beyond edits to a lesson, however. It is a more intense and purposeful professional activity, a form of self-evaluation during which teachers analyze their practices and the effects on student learning or classroom behaviors. If you ask teachers if they reflect on their teaching, you’ll get a general consensus that they do, but the timeframe, format, and content of this reflection varies.

Teachers find time for this in different ways. Some set aside quiet time every day to think about what happened. For others, their thoughts may happen more informally or spontaneously. (I did a lot of thinking on the commute home.) If you teach the same lesson several times a day, you have a chance for some immediate fine-tuning before the next class appears. As teachers prepare lessons, they consider how the previous lessons relate to the new one. Even grading tests, projects, or lab reports provides time to think about what students did (or did not) learn.

Some teachers try to rely on mental reflections, but in the course of the day, our memories can get overloaded. Putting thoughts in writing is good, even if it’s just a few words. Some of our colleagues may keep a written diary or journal with their thoughts and reflections. Others use sticky notes on a printed lesson plan, sidebars or edits in electronic documents, blogs, or notes in a calendar app to record their thoughts and insights.

The process of reflecting is more important than the format of the document or the time of day in which it is done. I’ve found it helpful to think of reflection as being formative or summative.

Formative reflection is the just-in-time thinking on a current lesson or unit, based on student feedback from exit tickets, formative evaluations, and your own observations. Here are some guiding questions for this level of reflection:

• Did students meet the instructional goals? What evidence do I have?
• How did students engage with the lesson? What kinds of participation did I observe?
• What should I do differently? Do I need additional resources or support for this lesson?
• Did anything unanticipated happen? What was the impact on learning?
• Did the lessons have an effective combination of science content, practices, and cross cutting concepts?

Summative reflection at the end of a unit or at the end of the semester/school year is an opportunity to look back from several perspectives and to create an action plan for the future.

From the students’ perspective:

• What strategies did I use to connect with students? Are there new strategies I would like to try next year?
• Did students seem to enjoy learning? How do I know?
• What was my greatest student success story?
• What did students seem to struggle with?

From an instructional perspective:

• What was my greatest eye-opener this year?
• Should I change the amount of time or emphasis on some topics?
• How effective were the classroom and laboratory management routines and procedures?
• What are the gaps in my own knowledge base?
• How well was I able to access and use the available technologies?
• What kinds of interdisciplinary connections did I make?

From an assessment perspective:

• How well do grades reflect student learning?
• How well did the assessments align with the unit goals and lesson objectives?
• Did I provide opportunities for students to reflect on their own learning (e.g., through a science notebook, rubrics)?
• Based on assessment data, what topics or instructional strategies should I change or keep?

A colleague recently posted this reflection on Facebook: Today was a good day. My [seventh] graders recognized the beauty and awesomeness of mitosis—I wish I could jar that feeling. I wish you could have seen it. As I reflected back on my seventh grade classes, I recognized that excitement!

For more on reflections, check out the insights some of our science education colleagues have shared on the Do You Reflect? thread of the Evaluation and Assessment discussion forum in the NSTA Learning Center.

In addition, I’ve created an NSTA Resource Collection on Reflection as a Professional Activity with additional ideas.

Photo: https://flic.kr/p/8iAzC