Self-taught, long-ball hitter Bubba Watson gets a greater payoff from the collision between the driver and the ball than most anyone on tour. Find out what happens during those 500 microseconds in Science of Golf: Energy in Collisions and Compressions developed by the partnership of NBC Learn, Chevron, and the United States Golf Association (USGA). It’s one of twenty that bring you the science, technology, engineering, and math behind the sport.
Download the companion NSTA-developed lesson plans—jam-packed with ideas—that use the videos as a springboard. You might be a bit overwhelmed when you first open up the 20-or-so-page document, but there is a method to the madness!

• First, the page numbers on the table of contents are hotlinked to that section. Jump right to the end to see standards connections.
• The BACKGROUND AND PLANNING section gives a verbal description of the video and a timeline for “at a glance” evaluation.
• Want more STEM ideas? Each discipline in the PROMOTE STEM section has TAKE ACTION tips for engaging students.
• The FACILITATE ENGINEERING DESIGN INQUIRY supports you in guiding inquiry experiences where students make choices, but within an umbrella context.
• INCORPORATE VIDEO INTO YOUR LESSON PLAN helps you do just that with a bellringer, slots for 5E, and interdisciplinary and writing connections.
• The COPY MASTERS include photocopy-ready outlines for students and an example rubric.

Take a look for yourself! The Science of Golf video series is available cost-free on www.NBCLearn.com. Download the lesson plan at the link below for Word doc you can modify at will.
BTW, the USGA says that during impact the clubhead exerts an average force in excess of 2,000 pounds on the ball, compressing it about one-fourth of its diameter. That’s smashing it!
Video
SOG:  Energy in Collisions and Compressions highlights what happens during the 500 microseconds that the driver is in contact with the ball.
STEM Lesson Plan—Adaptable for Grades 7–12
SOG: Energy in Collisions and Compressions guides students in exploring the coefficient of restitution through an engineering design process. It also provides ideas for STEM exploration plus strategies to support students in their own quest for answers.
Image of Bubba Watson courtesy of jpellgen.
You can use the following form to e-mail us edited versions of the lesson plans: [contact-form 2 “ChemNow]

Many educators use summer break to reevaluate career goals. Volunteering is often considered a valuable asset on a resume or CV for almost any profession, including educators. Professionals of any age can develop new skills, expand professional networks, and open doors to opportunities for career growth through volunteering.
Get involved in shaping the future of NSTA by participating in one of the following three options: standing committees, advisory boards, or award review panels. With more than 30 different topics, you are sure to find an opportunity to spark your interest. Take some time to review your options before online applications go live on September 1.

Standing Committees

Standing Committee volunteers review NSTA policies, programs, and activities on an annual basis. Although there are 14 different committee topics, these committees are further broken into three subsets:

• Level: Volunteers review and report on whether the organization serves the interests of educators at four levels of science teaching: preschool/elementary; middle level; high school; and college.
• Function: Volunteers review the impact of NSTA’s work on roles outside the classroom, such as coordination and supervision; informal science; multicultural and equity issues; preservice teacher preparation; and professional development.
• Task: Volunteers review internal and external NSTA tasks and processes behind activities such as awards and recognition; budget and finance; nominations; and organizational auditing.

Committee members work directly with members of the Board of Directors and can have a positive impact on science education at the national level.

Advisory Boards

Have you ever wanted to submit an idea for improvement to an NSTA journal, conference, or program? Do you have a great inkling for innovation in urban science or special education? Advisory Board members have the opportunity to give direct input, guidance, and advice to members of the NSTA staff and the Board of Directors.
More than 15 different Advisory Boards cover the breadth of the organization:
Publication Advisory Boards

• Science and Children Advisory Board
• Science Scope Advisory Board
• The Science Teacher Advisory Board
• Journal of College Science Teaching Advisory Board

NSTA Reports Advisory Board
Aerospace Programs Advisory Board
Conference Advisory Board
Development Advisory Board
International Advisory Board
Investment Advisory Board
John Glenn Center for Science Education Advisory Board
Retired Members Advisory Board
Science Matters Advisory Board
Science Safety Advisory Board
Special Education Advisory Board
Technology Advisory Board
Urban Science Education Advisory Board

Review Panels

Members who volunteer on Review Panels are charged with joint selection for specific NSTA programs, including the following:

• Children’s Book Council (which selects the annual “Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children” list)
• New Science Teachers Academy
• Shell Science Teaching Award

Volunteers bring outside perspectives and professional experience to NSTA programs, products, and activities, so consider taking your membership beyond reading your journal or attending a conference. Volunteers are essential to the success of NSTA. Join our team of volunteers by applying this fall!

More Time?

The best volunteers love to be part of a team—and they are always looking for passionate new volunteers. Learn more about the current Board of Directors and the newest leaders selected for Standing Committees, Advisory Boards, and Review Panels. Reach out to learn more about these opportunities!
Laura Berry of Cogberry Creative is our guest blogger for this series. Laura is a communications professional for the education community.

“Our students should be able to at least reason quantitatively: to read and interpret data, graphs, and statistics. They should be astute enough to demand to see the evidence when some politician claims that a new drug cures cancer, job numbers are up, our carbon footprint is too big, the president’s budget is the highest ever, and the world is coming to an end on December 21….But if this is a worthy ideal, how do we achieve numerical nirvana?”
Authors Clyde Freeman Herreid, Nancy A. Schiller, and Ky F. Herreid make the case in Science Stories You Can Count On: 51 Case Studies with Quantitative Reasoning in Biology that introductory biology is an ideal place to start. Teaching biology using real stories with quantitative reasoning skills enmeshed in the story line is a powerful and logical way to teach the subject and to show its relevance to the lives of future citizens regardless of whether they are science specialists or laypeople. “Biology is well suited for mathematical description, from the perfect geometry of viruses, to equations that describe the flux of ions across cellular membranes, to computationally intensive models for protein folding.”
The authors also contend: All students need some mathematics. They receive the fundamentals in their K-12 education. Once they are in higher education, the kind and extent of their quantitative instruction depends on their career plans. It is especially important that all students, regardless of their major, leave school knowing what questions to ask when they see data rolled out. One way to approach this is to use active learning, such as case study teaching.
The case studies presented in the book are divided into 12 sections. Each case study presents an abstract, learning objectives, quantitative reasoning skills/concepts, the case study itself, questions, and links to a web version.
The case studies delve into topics that your students will find relevant, dealing with items and questions they face in their daily lives. Here’s a sampling from each section:
The Scientific Method

• Cell Phone Use and Cancer
• Is High-Fructose Corn Syrup Bad for the Apple Industry?

Chemistry of Life

• Sweet Indigestion: A Directed Case Study on Carbohydrates
• A Can of Bull: Do Energy Drinks Really Provide a Source of Energy? (Check out this free case study.)

The Cell

• Wrestling With Weight Loss: The Dangers of a Weight-Loss Drug
• Nanobacteria: Are They or Aren’t They Alive?

Microbiology

• Elvis Meltdown! Microbiology Concepts of Culture, Growth, and Metabolism
• Resistance Is Futile…or Is It? The Immunity System and HIV Infection

Genetics

• In Sickness and in Health: A Trip to the Genetic Counselor
• The Case of Desiree’s Baby: The Genetics and Evolution of Human Skin Color

Molecular Biology

• The Case of the Druid Dracula
• Which Little Piggy Went to Market? Bioinformatics and Meat Science

Evolution

• As the Worm Turns: Speciation and the Maggot Fly
• Super Bug: Antibiotics and Evolution

Plant Form and Function

• I’m Looking Over a White-Striped Clover: A Case of Natural Selection
• Tougher Plants: Beating Stress by Protecting Photosynthesis in Genetically Modified Plants

Animal Form and Function

• Girl Pulled Alive From Ruins, 15 Days After Earthquake
• The Hunger Pains: Ghrelin, Weight Loss, and Maintenance

Health

• Michael’s Story: A Case Study of Autism
• A Light Lunch? A Case in Calorie Counting

Ecology and Behavior

• The Dead Zone: Ecology and Oceanography in the Gulf of Mexico
• Mathematics in Conservation: The Case of the Endangered Florida Panther

Biosphere and Conservation

• Living Downstream: Atrazine and Coliform Bacteria Effects on Water Quality
• The Effects of Coyote Removal in Texas: A Case Study in Conservation Biology

These 51 case studies are a great way to engage your students in science and mathematics. Blend 12 areas of general biology with quantitative reasoning in ways that will make your students better at evaluating product claims and news reports.
This book is also available as an e-book.

Before NSTA member Kelly O’Connor became a seventh- and eighth-grade science teacher, she spent 17 years in an emergency room as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). The skills she cultivated as an EMT have transferred nicely to the middle school classroom, allowing her to provide a “real-world” perspective to the science concepts she teaches. To ensure her students fully grasp those concepts, O’Connor says she relies heavily on her NSTA membership, especially when it comes to finding ways to meet the needs of all learners.
O’Connor: I first found out about NSTA when we used the NSTA Learning Center in my Methods class as our textbook. We read so many NSTA book chapters available in the Learning Center about the nature of science, literacy, inquiry science, and how to help children construct knowledge based on novel experiences. Now that I’m in the classroom, I use what I learned in those chapters to check for understanding and to structure questions that encourage students to engage their brains and provide higher-order thinking responses.
As a member, there are a lot of amazing resources in the Learning Center if you want in-depth information about the nature of learning, styles of learning, constructivism, and how to better scaffold a lesson. For instance, I worked as a long-term sub in a district where almost half of the students were English Language Learners (ELL). I used the Learning Center to access NSTA journal articles about ways to make inquiry science more accessible to ELL students. I learned that the hands-on approach is best for students of all language abilities.
The hands-on approach was very successful in a classification unit I helped with as a student teacher. The unit was my cooperating teacher’s idea, and I looked up NSTA journal articles and sample lessons to incorporate classification activities into the unit. The students designed and built their own field guides for made-up creatures. The first thing I did was teach them about the history of classification. After students learned how to name creatures, we practiced naming a few made-up creatures. The unit took place over the course of a few weeks and culminated in students making their own field guides.
The NSTA journal articles and sample lessons I found in the Learning Center that were free due to my membership were very helpful. I also went to the NSTA Community Forums and posted, “Has anyone done this before? This is what I’m thinking of doing. What has worked for you?” I received excellent feedback from other educators.
All 150 students completed the unit and everyone completed it well. I scaled back the requirements for some learners to meet their own individual needs. For example, I had a child with a physical disability who was not capable of doing some of the work. Some students chose to illustrate their own field guides and added beautiful artwork and were very creative. The unit was a terrific way to meet the skills and abilities of all of the students and even encouraged students who didn’t feel at the time that they were good at science.
How else has your NSTA membership helped you in your career?
O’Connor: The SciPacks and SciGuides have strengthened my content knowledge. For instance, I have used the Earth, Sun, and Moon SciPack and the Atomic Structure SciPack. The SciPacks help teachers meet the needs of diverse learners because they encompass two of the three major learning styles–visual and auditory. The SciPacks are structured so that you can periodically check for your own understanding and make sure you are on the right track.
In addition, I relied heavily on the NSTA position statements (like the one on NGSS) when I was interviewing for a science teacher position. I read the position statements to make sure I was up to speed on anything that may have changed in science education in the months since I was out of school. I think that talking about my association with NSTA and preparing for the interview by reading the NSTA resources helped me get my job. I made the most of my membership, because I knew I wanted to teach science and NSTA was going to help me do that.
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.
 

At the end of the year, my principal mentioned—again—that he wanted Honors Biology to be the “hardest” ninth grade course. I have tried explaining and showing that my Honors students are having different, more thought-provoking assignments, in addition to going into more depth than my general Biology classes. I think he equates rigor with students doing more work. Suggestions?
—Kiley, Florida
Rigor is a “I know it when I see it” concept. It seems to be a current buzzword as the fourth R, along with reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic. I did a search on “academic rigor” and found dozens of articles, blogs, reports, and position papers using the term, but few defined it.
Having a consensus definition is the first step in determining whether a class fits the definition. (I was part of a Tweetchat on the topic, and most of the discussion was about defining what it is and what it is not.) The cover of the report Understanding and Reporting on Academic Rigor from the Hechinger Institute has a concept map around the word “rigor,” showing how complicated the concept can be. The report is a good read on t
In the paper Debunking the Myth: The Social Studies and Rigor, Barbara Slater Stern states: “… academic rigor will be defined as studies that require students and teachers to pursue knowledge and skills with enough depth and understanding to be able to apply this knowledge and these skills in their daily activities, present and future.” This definition ties into the performance expectations of the Next Generation Science Standards which incorporate disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and science and engineering practices. Students are encouraged to think and investigate like scientists.
So it seems like you’re on the right track with the honors class, going in-depth and using challenging activities and investigations. (And there are those who would say that all students should have such experiences at their appropriate level.) But I would ask your principal what he means by “rigor” and what a “hard” course would look like to him.
Unfortunately, people use literal definitions of rigor: difficult and unpleasant conditions or experiences; being very exact, careful, strict, harsh, or inflexible. You may hear, “My course is rigorous because…

• the content is difficult.” Giving students challenging work with no support will turn them off to science. Teachers and students should identify learning goals that are relevant to the subject and appropriate for the interest and experience levels of the students. For example, requiring all first graders to learn the medical names of all of the bones in the human body is not rigorous; it is inappropriate. However, in a challenging and supportive learning environment, some students may feel empowered to go above and beyond the requirements to pursue their interests.

• there is a lot of homework.” Homework assignments should be chosen to introduce topics, supplement the class activities, or provide practice. Lots of busywork, whether completed in class or at home, is not rigor.

• only a few students earn As in the course.” This contradicts effective teaching. If the learning goals are challenging and appropriate, if teachers work with and support students, and if students are learning, why wouldn’t students receive a successful grade in the course? A local university promotes its law school by stating that 93% of its graduates pass the state bar exam. Does that success rate mean the program lacks rigor? In terms of tests, a 100-item multiple choice test is not necessarily rigorous. (The most challenging exam I ever took had one essay question.) And even worse than an unfair or poorly constructed test is the grade distortion of curving poor results to manipulate the number of students who appear successful.

• lecture is the primary mode of instruction.” Science is not only about listening, but engaging in scientific practices: thinking, investigating, arguing from evidence, writing, presenting, reflecting, connecting, and creating.

• I get them ready for real life—no excuses.” Ninth graders are still kids and still learning about responsibility. Being totally inflexible about things such as due dates and test retakes may sound rigorous, but sometimes students need some understanding. They should be allowed to make mistakes and learn from them.

• we’re here to learn, not have fun.” Science is interesting and with a passionate and knowledgeable teacher, students can discover their own interests and talents. For me, the greatest joy was seeing the light bulbs go off, the “aha” moment students had when they figured something out on their own or when ideas came together in a new way.

I would hope your principal would not want you to take the joy out of learning by using ineffective or inappropriate strategies in the cause of making your course hard or rigorous.
For a different play on words, I would encourage you and your principal to read the article What Schools Need: Vigor Instead of Rigor.
I’ve created an NSTA resource collection on “rigor” with the articles mentioned here as well as others to help you (and your principal) explore the topic further.