As schools get back into session and teachers prepare to go back, many stories are popping up in the news about science and STEM education across the United States. The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) follows these stories and gets involved through our journals, conferences, and professional development programs. This week the stories I found to be the most interesting to science teachers are:\

• In Colorado, Denver schools are preparing to spend more than $7 million on new high school STEM career classes that include manufacturing, pre-engineering, health biotechnology, and game-design coding. Read more from the
  Denver Post.
• A prominent and outspoken South Carolina state legislator is once again proposing that high school biology teachers teach alternatives to evolution. Forbes tells you why it’s happening again.
• Teachers in Delaware prepare for the Next Generation Science Standards
• The Michigan State Board of Education has adopted a policy that gives students the chance to opt out of animal dissection.
• In Missouri, a proposal that could change teacher tenure and tie teacher evaluations to student performance will be on the ballot this fall.

Jodi Peterson is the Assistant Executive Director, Communication, Legislative & Public Affairs for the National Science Teachers Association and the Chair of the STEM Education Coalition. Reach her at jpeterson@nsta.org or follow her on Twitter @STEMedadvocate.

NSTA member Becky Litherland, a middle level STEM coordinator, loves taking the teachers in her district to the NSTA Conferences on Science Education. “One of my favorite things is to take a teacher to their first NSTA conference,” she says. “It’s so much fun. They come back to the classroom super charged and ready to do all kinds of things.” Litherland’s teachers aren’t the only ones who have benefited from those trips, however. Litherland, who served as a district science coordinator for 26 years before becoming a STEM coordinator, has found a number of professional learning resources at the conferences. She has turned to NSTA many times for guidance on how to provide quality learning opportunities for teachers.
Litherland: Over many years, I have encouraged teachers to become presenters at NSTA conferences. Usually, I have them present with me the first time. Then, the second time, they present on their own. The process of preparing for and presenting at a conference is an educational experience. There is so much learning that takes place at an NSTA conference.
I have a long list of professional development resources I’ve found at NSTA conferences. For instance, I already knew about Science Notebooks when I attended an NSTA conference in New Orleans. I came out of a session and said to a colleague, ‘This is what our district needs. This is the next piece to the Science Notebooks.’ When I came home I ordered the book Writing in Science and I realized the presenter was the author!
At the NSTA Conference in Seattle I happened upon a session by Julia Cothron, author of Science Experiments by the Hundreds. Her work also has had a major impact on my teachers and students. She has conducted professional development for our teachers many times. When Missouri wrote their grade-level expectations, their inquiry strand was basically the experimental design that Cothron outlined in her book. It wasn’t the intent of her book, but it became a great match. Part of our state test involves experimental design or inquiry. Our district does a pre- and post-test for sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade science that is similar to the state piece, but it all aligns with the ideas we got from Julia Cothron. My teachers are taking their labs and modifying them to be more open and more student-centered all thanks to Cothron’s work. It is fun to think this all got started from an NSTA session years ago.
How else has your NSTA membership helped you with professional development?
Litherland: I’ve served on the NSTA Board of Directors and Council. That’s been a great learning experience and I have met fantastic people. You always pick up ideas whenever you get science people together. You also get a good sense that science education is bigger than you and it’s bigger than just your school district. NSTA sets you up for professional networking, which increases your professionalism.
And, you make connections that you wouldn’t have made if you weren’t an NSTA member. For example, our district applied for a Mathematics and Science Partnership (MSP) grant through our state department of education called the Scientist in Residence Program. The RFP for the three-year project made it very clear that they wanted us to provide content training for third- through sixth-grade teachers. As we worked on the RFP, we were trying to figure out how to provide that content. Another colleague (who is also active in NSTA) and I we were at one of our writing meetings and we both thought of Bill Robertson. I had seen his Stop Faking It series, which is published by NSTA. So, we called NSTA and they gave us Bill’s contact information. We got in touch with him and he ended up working with us for three years. It was fantastic. We purchased many of his books.
NSTA also connected me with Page Keeley. I can’t tell you how many of her Uncovering Student Ideas in Science books I’ve bought. For five years, I was in charge of inquiry training in our district. Everyone who attended the training got copies of Page’s books. Her work has really made an impact on my teachers who use her formative assessment approach quite frequently.
(Note from NSTA: How has NSTA helped you with professional development? We’d love to hear from you in the comments section below. 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.

I really want to stop “giving” notes to students because it doesn’t seem like a good use of class time. They use tablets, so they can find facts easily, but I want students to actually manipulate the content and think about it. But I’m struggling a bit with letting go of the notes. Guidance or thoughts?
—Kelly, Raleigh, North Carolina
From my review of the notetaking literature (a focus of my dissertation), I found two schools of thought. One was note taking as a record of events. This would correspond to the minutes of a meeting or a transcript of a video. With this concept, teachers would give students a copy of important facts as a handout or file (or make the students copy them from the board or screen). Every student would have the same information in a standard style. [I’ve interviewed students who listed copying notes as their least favorite class activity.]
The other thought is notetaking as a form of information processing (notemaking might be a better term). As students read text, listen to a lecture, participate in a discussion, or watch a video, they connect what they’re seeing or hearing to what they already know, ask questions, reflect on their understanding, and summarize. This could be in a variety of formats depending on the information: Cornell notes, sketches, lists, annotating text, graphic organizers. Much of the literature on science notebooks reflects this concept of note taking.*
Do students know how to make their own notes? As veteran learners, we teachers often take things for granted, but if students are used to having notes given to them, they’ll need guidance. I observed a chemistry teacher who did this effectively. He projected the text on the board (the students had their own copies) as he read the text aloud. He paused and noted key words such as most important, three reasons for…, first. He underlined a few key phrases and annotated the margins with key terms or questions from the paragraph. After a page or two, he encouraged students to try this on their own as he circulated around the room and monitored their efforts. With a notemaking approach, teachers need to accept that students’ notes will not be uniform.
Regardless of the approach you use, the key is what students do with the notes. If they’re stored on a device or online, do they have access to them at home? Can they archive the notes for another year or class? Do students know how to use notes for review? Can they use them during other activities? Younger or less experienced students will need your guidance, modeling, scaffolding, and feedback to learn to use their notes.
Here are some additional suggestions from a recent e-mail list discussion**:

• Ellen: I have a 1:1 classroom, but I have not let go of the notes for seventh graders. I’m finding that they type them, but don’t use them. Also, there is a lot to be said for the thought process we use when we write a sentence. I see so many students that are looking at the keys worrying about spelling that the iPad is telling them is wrong. Then there are the growing children whose large fingers have difficulty with the touch screen typing. I feel the muscle memory and mental processing [of handwriting] is easier for them. Lastly, there are those that NEED the paper form to mark up and to limit screen distractions.

• Arvilla: Due to shortened class time I went from having students copy down my notes Cornell-style while I lectured and demonstrated to a fill-in-the-blank style where I merely whited out parts of my typed overhead. I found that test scores really dropped significantly when I did that. Scores went up when I then incorporated those fill-in-the-blanks with an interactive notebook which required them to find ways to express those notes. I feel they do need to develop some level of notetaking skill.

• Nancy: I gave up “notes” a few years back and now work with a journal system, based on Teaching Science With Interactive Notebooks by Kellie Marcarelli. Each unit centers on the connection page with the big question, and students go back and add to this as each lesson is done with more thoughts and questions. I like this better as the students are able to think and create their own ideas instead of just repeating what they were given.

• I would agree with Jane’s idea for action research: Try out a unit or portion of a unit with your usual use of notes and another with their own version. Then ask your students what works best for them. In addition to your conversations with them, look at the assessment outcomes.

Adding to the discussion of 1:1 classrooms is a recent article “The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking,” summarized here.
Since you have tablets, it might be interesting to compare traditional handwritten notes with notes taken via a stylus on the tablet. Please share your results!
 
* I’ve created a notebook resource collection in the NSTA Learning Center on the topic of notebooks and notes.
**There is also a related discussion in NSTA’s Community Forums.
 
Photo: https://flic.kr/p/bbqqTR

Building an elementary program connecting literary and science can be an overwhelming thought. The common core standards address the need for reading complex informational text at an early age. Infusing the language arts block with rich, age-appropriate content knowledge and vocabulary in science is essential. Having students listen to informational read-alouds in the early grades helps lay the necessary foundation for students’ reading and understanding of increasingly complex texts on their own in subsequent grades.

Using Picture Perfect Science resources became part of the foundation for our teachers to successfully connect literacy and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). We’ve found author visits to be a key factor in teacher buy in. Over the past several years, we invited the Picture Perfect Science (PPS) authors Emily Morgan and Karen Ansberry to visit and work with our teachers. Starting off with a five-day workshop was a tremendous success in getting our teachers familiar with inquiry, reading strategies, and the BSCS 5E (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate) model of instruction. Karen and Emily modeled lessons and went in-depth with our teachers about using the lessons in the K–6 classrooms. You can learn more about the background of PPS by watching authors Emily Morgan and Karen Ansberry discuss Picture-Perfect Science Lessons on the NSTA YouTube channel.

The graph at the right shows the shift in our teacher’s comfort level with the reading strategies after working with the PPS authors (click to enlarge).

The PPS lessons came alive using children’s literature and the 5Es and helped teachers make the most of their day with so many standards and so little time. Integrating fiction and non-fiction science literature into the language arts block helps teachers utilize their time while addressing Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. Although the Picture Perfect Science Lessons are primarily books for teaching science, reading comprehension strategies are embedded in each lesson.

A key factor to successfully implementing the lessons is to get the needed materials in the hands of the teachers. We began with getting Picture Perfect Science Lessons and More Picture Perfect Science Lessons in the hands of as many teachers as possible. I believe that if teachers have easy access to a resource there is a greater chance of them using the resource on a regular basis.  The next step was for teachers to have easy access to book collections. If we expect teachers to incorporate children’s literature in the science lessons we need to have the books accessible. NSTA Press has created book collections that are a lifesaver for teachers locating hard to find books. Currently multiple book collections are in each building and our goal is for each teacher to eventually have a book collection in their classroom.  Class packs have been a great invention to help get needed materials in the hands of teachers. NSTA Press has begun creating class packs for the PPS lessons. In the process Even More Picture Perfect Science Lessons has been published and we are working to get the books into our schools. Next Time You See… series of children’s books authored by Emily Morgan are also a resource our teachers love to share with their students. Visit the NSTA Press YouTube channel for author talks.

NSTA Press Author Emily Morgan Discusses Her Series, Next Time You See

During the course of our projects we created over 20 instructional vignettes featuring best practices and the PPS lessons. Many teachers that have a lack of confidence teaching science often avoid the topic.  The eight- to twelve-minute instructional vignettes highlight our teachers utilizing effective teaching strategies and ways to engage students in the lesson. The vignettes are designed for teachers to watch before teaching the lesson. Our teachers are featured in the vignettes so that other teachers can relate to a colleague and build confidence to embrace the science lesson compared to avoiding the engaging lessons. For example, The Chemical Cafe’ Lesson involves some set-up that a teacher would benefit from knowing in advance. Fourth-grade teacher, Stephanie Dean shares some of the challenges and what she would do differently next time she teaches the lesson. The chemical change cafe’ vignette can be viewed at http://stuckonscienceonline.com/?post_type=videos&p=408.

Visit www.stuckonscienceonline.com for vignettes, instructional e-magazines, and resources.

Note: To order any of the books noted in this blog, including the Picture Perfect Science and Next Time You See book series, or to explore NSTA book collections, go to http://www.nsta.org/store. You can also download a free e-book about Picture-Perfect Science, “Why Read Picture Books in Science Class?”.

Today’s guest blogger is Kim Stilwell, an education consultant who plans and conducts professional development workshops. Kim, along with her colleague, Chris Gibler, are presenters in the August 6 NSTA Virtual Conference on Connecting Literacy and Science with NGSS and Common Core, where they will share how using Picture Perfect Science resources became part of the foundation to successfully connecting literacy and science in their district. Learn more and register for the Virtual Conference here. For all resources on NGSS, visit the NGSS@NSTA Hub.

As you ramp up your plans for the coming school year, be sure to include time to visit the NGSS@NSTA Hub. Setting aside 30 minutes of professional learning time regularly will help you keep up with the latest news and developments regarding the Next Generation Science Standards. This one-stop source for blog posts, journal articles, web seminars, updated NGSS adoption news, and more is tailored to assist K-12 science teachers across the United States.
NSTA supports the implementation of the NGSS as an effective and research-based way to transform science education, to prepare all students for college and career readiness, and to foster a new generation of evidence-based consumers of science. NSTA is committed to supporting science educators, leaders, and states to help them prepare for NGSS implementation.
Science education aligned to the NGSS standards can bolster important skills learned in other disciplines, including the crucial skills of reading, writing, and argumentation. NSTA is always looking for ways to aggregate vast organizational resources and inform member professional learning.
As a premium benefit to NSTA members, you can now download five educational videos on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), each one hour in length.
More Time?
NSTA’s Web Seminar Archive has a category devoted to NGSS. Explore past web seminars on NGSS to learn more about the standards and how to implement them in your classroom.
 

When NSTA member Patty McGinnis attended her first NSTA national conference, she was hooked. “I thought, ‘this is the best thing ever!’ and I went again and again,” McGinnis says. “The conferences are energizing because you’re with other people who are passionate about what they do. They’re good teachers, they want to be better, and they want to give back to their profession.”
And that’s exactly what McGinnis wanted to do after the conference—give back to her profession and make a difference in science education. So, she started presenting at the NSTA conferences, writing and reviewing articles for the association’s journals, and volunteering for NSTA committees. Now, she serves on the NSTA Board of Directors as Director of Middle Level Science Teaching.
McGinnis: It’s amazing to have your voice heard. You feel valued. And, when you’re interacting with other really passionate teachers at the national level, you experience this energy that you wouldn’t anywhere else.
A coworker encouraged me to go to my first NSTA conference. After that, I started presenting, mainly at local NSTA conferences, because they were less intimidating. Then, I started presenting at the national level and soon realized there were other opportunities in addition to presenting. Now, I try to let NSTA members who attend conferences know that there are opportunities to serve that will continue to re-energize them beyond that conference.
Serving on an NSTA committee is a great opportunity for teachers to grow into teacher leaders. Your opinion is valued at NSTA. For instance, I served on the Science Scope journal advisory board. On that board, you have the opportunity to set the themes for the journal and to make suggestions for different columns. Ten years ago, I never would have thought I’d be making decisions that could potentially impact teachers across the nation.
As chair of the Committee on Middle Level Science Teaching, for example, I encourage my committee to consider the needs of middle school teachers and figure out ways to help them specifically. We decided that middle school teachers would want conference sessions geared toward just them. So, we held the first ever “Meet Me in the Middle” Day at the national conference in Boston. We had a two-hour networking round-table session that focused on different topics such as assessment and robotics. We also held 14 different half-hour sessions, and then a two-hour share-a-thon with 100 presenters and that was very dynamic. We had about 500 educators attend and we plan to repeat the event at the next conference in Chicago. It am proud that I played a part in creating this event. Being able to provide middle school teachers with something that specifically targets their needs feels very satisfying.
I love volunteering for NSTA and giving back to the profession. But, I didn’t anticipate that I would grow so much and benefit personally from the experience, as well. I can’t describe how much NSTA has impacted my professional life. It has made me into the leader I am today.
(Note from NSTA: Learn more about NSTA’s volunteer opportunities. 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.

I’m mentoring two new science teachers this year, and I want to focus on must-have strategies and effective practices for science. I’m sure they will have their own needs, but, based on your experience, what would be important to include in a plan for them?
—Chris, Baltimore, Maryland
Your new teachers are fortunate to have a mentor in place. Few teacher prep programs and practicums can prepare one for every circumstance, and new teachers are often placed in less-than-ideal situations (floating, working with the most challenging students, or teaching several subjects or subject levels). What is a common event for an experienced teacher who already has a repertoire of strategies is a brand-new challenge for a newbie.
A list of “must-have strategies and effective practices” in science must start with safety, and NSTA has many resources on its safety portal. New teachers should understand that if an activity or demonstration cannot be done safely, it should not be done at all, no matter how interesting or engaging it might be or how mature the students are.
Here are four other must-haves that I learned over more than 25 years of teaching science (in no particular order):

• Established routines. My mentor (actually the school principal) suggested establishing routines and procedures for the beginning and end of class and for transitioning to and from lab activities. Since these are the times when disruptions can occur, it is important for students to be engaged and to understand your expectations. Having routines in place frees up time to spend on more important topics and activities, rather than dealing with discipline or logistic issues. For example, for the beginning of class, I posted an agenda with what the students needed for the class (laptops, notebooks, textbook, pencil, assignments to turn in, etc.) so they could get ready for class (while they socialized a bit). “Bell-ringer” activities also focused the students’ attention. Each class ended with a summary and a “preview of coming attractions” before the students left the room.

• Organization. A lot of class time can be spent accessing materials. Having a tray for each lab group made it easier to organize and count the materials and make sure everything was in place for the next class. Each class had assigned seats, assigned lab groups, and assigned roles for lab group members. Of course, I changed these periodically. (This lessened the time-consuming drama of students deciding where to sit or with whom to work.) There were designated places to turn in assignments and equipment and labels everywhere, including on the shelves or tables to organize materials students needed during class. Color-coding is another way to organize materials for different classes or subjects. Part of being organized is making sure all materials are safety stored and secured when class is not in session.

•  Big ideas. Whatever term is used (big ideas, essential questions, key understandings, or themes), the purpose is to focus student learning on important concepts that unite and underlie the lessons in a unit. They help students make interdisciplinary connections, see the bigger picture of science beyond the vocabulary and facts, and address “Why are we learning this?” During each lesson, students revisit the question and connect new content or experiences with previous learning. For example, an earth science teacher I observed posed the question “How does the surface of the earth change over time?” As students investigated processes such as plate tectonics, erosion, deposition, or asteroid impact, she guided them to reflect on the question and record their connections in their notebooks. (The Next Generation Science Standards are designed around big ideas in science that connect disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and cross-cutting concepts.)

• Wait time. I found that including wait time in class discussions was an effective way to encourage participation and higher order thinking . After you ask a question or pose a topic, wait four or five seconds before calling on a student. Some students (including those for whom English is their second language) may need time to compose their thoughts. The first time I tried this, I was astounded at the additional hands raised during those few seconds! Waiting is hard for teachers to do, but the “dead air” is actually thinking time, and research has shown that the students’ responses are often at a higher level of complexity. After a student’s response, allow more wait time. During these few seconds the student may elaborate on the response, or another student may contribute.

My list would also include inquiry, cooperative learning, project-based learning, authentic assessments, notebooking, and more. New teachers are often overwhelmed, so it would be important to focus at first on a few essentials. Let them know that it’s okay to make (and learn from) mistakes. And remind them to take some time for themselves, too.
Readers: Add a comment with your must-have strategies.
Photo:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjlook/7152722/sizes/s/in/photostream/

Are you looking for a professional learning community specifically for K-16 science teachers? The NSTA Learning Center is stocked with resources, customized lesson plans, and community forums, and will change the ways you access and leverage professional learning. Research suggests that professional learning for science educators should be an ongoing, continuous endeavor taking anywhere from 50-80 hours per year. The NSTA Learning Center allows you to control the place, the pace, and the time as you work to transform instruction in your classroom.
Whenever you’ve got 45 minutes, consider choosing one of these six introductory steps to take advantage of what the NSTA Learning Center has to offer.

1. Activate your account and personalize your profile.

All NSTA members already have a Learning Center account. To activate your account for the first time, use your last name and your NSTA Member Number. Once you’re logged in, make sure to upload a profile picture, school/work affiliation, your geographic location, and any professional social media channels like Twitter or Facebook. Updating your profile makes you more visible to more than 150,000 community members.

2. Search for resources.

The Learning Center offers a robust search engine that can bring you peer-reviewed resources and new online learning opportunities. Even the most basic search can bring you results not only from the NSTA vaults, but also from other users’ collections. Once you’ve selected a resource, simply “Add to Library” and it’s yours to use and share. Although the NSTA Learning Center is an open resource to anyone, NSTA Members get an extra 20% discount on fee-based resources in the Learning Center.

3. Get recognized through Activities Badges.

Earn badges as recognition for your efforts as you aggregate, review, and share your personal and NSTA e-PD resources. You also earn badges for making posts in the community forums, for diagnosing your needs in science content, and by attending web seminars, and successfully completing SciPacks.

4. Create an e-PD portfolio.

Have you ever struggled to submit a professional development plan? Let NSTA help you with accountability by creating a personalized professional development portfolio online. The My Professional Development Plan and Portfolio Tool helps educators define goals, track successes, and write a report with specific content knowledge goals.

5. Join a community forum.

Despite the nagging stigma of online chat rooms, the modern world connects online. The Learning Center was developed as a way to connect with like-minded colleagues at various levels of experience. Join a community forum to learn and to share. You can always ask questions from online advisors, but you might be the one person with the answer for someone else.

6. Develop your library—and share it with others.

Your good ideas have probably already outgrown the folder on your desktop or even worse, the physical drawer in your classroom or office. By sharing a virtual library and cultivating collections of resources, you not only organize your digital shelf —you allow others to use what you’ve learned. Educators can benefit from your curated content, and you’ll make a greater impact than just filing that away as a resource for a rainy day.
Next time you need help with a lesson plan, developing assessments, or collecting resources, you have more than just Google as a tool. The NSTA Learning Center will help you focus on your grade level, your topics, and your interests while helping you connect with fellow educators around the world.
More Time?
We know our members are leaders in their schools, districts, and communities. As you explore the rich collection of resources available in the NSTA Learning Center, advance your leadership role by sharing resources with your colleagues. As more science teachers join the NSTA Learning Center community, the richer it becomes. When someone receives resources from you, whether they are an NSTA member or not, all they have to do is create a free account to access the materials.
Laura Berry of Cogberry Creative is our guest blogger for this series. Laura is a communications professional for the education community.

One of the perks of being an NSTA member is having access to all of the journals online. Regardless of the grade level you teach, the journals have ideas that can be used, adapted, or extended for different levels of student interest and experience.
In the July K-12 journals, the overarching theme seems to be “connections.” The articles have ideas for helping students make connections between the current topic or skill they’re learning with others. The articles also show connections with the NGSS.

Science & Children: Informal Education

Connecting students with the community. Most communities have people, places, or programs that can help students extend what they learn in the classroom or explore new topics. These articles help you make the most of these connections. Here are some SciLinks that are connected to the content topics in the articles:

• Will It Sink or Will It Float? [Buoyancy, Density]
• Inviting Parents to School (Making Lemonade from Scratch) [Dissolve, States of Matter]
• Channeling Your Inner Entomologist [Insects]
• Big Project, Small Leaders [Rivers and Streams, Watersheds]
• Informal Science Learning in the Formal Classroom, It’s a Zoo Out There, and Extending the Classoom [Informal Science Education]
• Why are Hippos Unguligrades? [Adaptation of Animals]

Science Scope: Astronomy

Connecting the Earth with its place in the universe. Captialize on the popularity of the television program Cosmos http://www.cosmosontv.com/ with these articles and classroom ideas. (And I have to wonder why middle school is often the last chance in K-12 for students to study astronomy.) Here are some SciLinks that are connected to the content topics in the articles:

• Astrobiology [Astrobiology, Search for Extraterrestrial Life]
• Including Students in a Model of the Earth, Moon, and Sun System [Reasons for the Seasons, Solar System, Phases of the Moon]
• Planetary Properties: A Systems Perspective [Inner Planets, Outer Planets, Origins of the Solar System]
• Location, location, location (Bob Riddle’s monthly column) [Astronomy, Galaxies]

The Science Teacher – Math-Science Connections
Connecting science and mathematics. The articles in this issue of The Science Teacher provide useful ideas about including mathematics in your science teaching. Here are some SciLinks that are connected to the content topics in the articles:

• Modeling the Millikan Oil Drop Experiment [Electrons in an Atom]
• The Dark Side of the Tube [Statistics in Science]
• Discovering Our Stellar Neighborhood [Astronomy, Stars, How Stars Evolve]
• Graphing the Past [Stratigraphy, Fossils, Graphing Data]
• Striding Through Time [Dinosaurs, Geologic Time]
• Computational Thinking in High School Science Classrooms [Graphing Data, Measurements and Data, Presenting Scientific Data]

If you were with the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) in Washington, D.C. last week, you would have been part of the most exciting and productive Congress of the year! In Georgetown, about 145 representatives of chapters, state organizations, affiliates and NSTA governance met to spend “quality time” breaking down walls at the National Congress on Science Education (NCSE). What walls? Those that might exist among educators, those that define where and when we teach science, the ones that create barriers to a literate citizenry, and especially those mental barriers that might keep us from imagining great accomplishments in the near future.
In every hall, over endless great snack breaks, on the streets and in the parks the group smashed preconceptions. State to state sharing ruled! How do you create a new style of conference? How can social media support membership retention? What are the legal and ethical guidelines for association management? NCSE had sessions for every need. There were also updates on NSTA’s Strategic Planning process and building program, as well as updates on the state of publishing and STEM in the “age of NGSS.”
This year was the first Congress at which the Robert E. Yager awards were presented. Five outstanding teachers gave short presentations on their educational philosophies, highlighting both creativity and diversity in STEM education. They were supported so that they could mingle with other attendees and contribute to the rich mix of ideas that would come out of the meetings.
A Congress is also a voting body; in each Congress there are forums focusing on the issues that are most important to the NSTA membership. The initial topics are first proposed by an elected team (four from Congress, and four from the NSTA Council). Any delegate can propose issue forums as well. This year, the forums concentrated on STEM implementation partnerships between formal and informal educators, and assessment in the light of NGSS.
The latter two topics generated recommendations for action by the NSTA Board of Directors. At a Congress, these resolutions go through several voting stages: by Congress, Council, and then Board. In the process, it is common for a resolution to take a different form as it goes “up the chain.” Resolutions urging the Board to develop both contacts and tools for partnerships with informal educators resulted in long discussions at both the Council and Board levels. With whom do we “talk” as an organization? What new opportunities for interactions exist?
Here’s an example: An existing network of Earth science/STEM educational groups was researched, and at the urging of Congress, NSTA delegates will take a more active role in this group. Both Council and Board discussed what resources NSTA had to make partnerships more productive. Turns out we have a lot, but they may not be as easy to find as we’d like because the NSTA Learning Center is getting truly massive. Because of the activism of Congressional delegates, new links and bundles will be available to members in more accessible formats.
The topic of assessment also turned out to be as hot as the DC weather last week. We asked first if there are good resources already available to assess the practices and crosscutting concepts of NGSS? How do educators in adopting and non-adopting states influence the development and use of assessments, to make sure that the three-dimensional learning in NGSS is reflected? Is it time for a “timely” policy statement by NSTA? The Congress said “yes,” but the council and Board said: “Let’s find out.” They assigned a research project to the appropriate NSTA Standing Committee, and asked for an answer soon.
What do science teachers do after long days of learning and legislating? Explore science, of course. The group was hosted by Smithsonian Institution at Q?rius—an interactive collection of (mostly) hands-on artifacts and learning objects with wonderful potential for inquiry. “What does a cockroach smell like?” (Vanilla) “Can you fold an origami passenger pigeon?” (I failed, but many others succeeded.)
The “meta” discussion that this series of Congress actions stimulated was about where and when NSTA Position Statements are used. NSTA currently has a list of perhaps a dozen potential position statements needing development or revision. Each requires months of work: research, development, and a series of reviews by committees, membership, council, and board. The ultimate product is the result of the cooperation of many professionals.
There are various levels and perspectives on position statements. Some are specifically designed as tools that science teachers can use. A document on safety, the importance of science at the elementary level, or what kinds of assessment are appropriate for a given purpose might be used at the local or Board level to argue for best practices. Other topics for position statements, like “poverty” or “diversity” might represent the best thoughts of talented science education leaders but might have less potential for impacting a specific local or state debate.
Check out our current list of position statements on the NSTA website and let me know your thoughts. How can these position statements be useful to you? How have they been useful to you in the past? Send your response to juliana_texley@nsta.org and watch for a major survey on this topic later this summer.
And finally, check your calendar. NSTA’s next Congress is scheduled for Omaha, Nebraska the second week of July, 2015. Can you be there?

—Author Juliana Texley is the 2014–2015 President of the National Science Teachers Association and Chairperson of the 2014 Congress Planning Committee