This is Children’s Book Week—and 2014 is, incredibly, the 95th year for the annual celebration. A bit more recently—in 1954, a mere 60 years ago, Sister Marian taught her entire first-grade class of 66 students how to read. I should know—I was one of that good woman’s lucky pupils. By the way, the sheer size of that single classroom (Sister Madeline’s first grade across the hall was even bigger, with 70 kids) certainly illustrates the term “Baby Boom” better than any other example I could possibly cite.
Anyway, since Sister Marian got me launched on a lifelong exploration into the realm of books in particular and the world of words in general (Hey, some of my favorite reading in the ’50s ran to the backs of cereal boxes or magazine ads for “X-ray Goggles” that I ordered by mail and waited for for weeks), countless children’s books have been written and illustrated to lure generations of children into embarking upon the very same journey.
In celebration of this special week, the Huffington Post created an honor roll of the 50 best kids books published in the last 25 years. In addition, the New York Times Book Review devoted several pages of its recent issue to 26 of the best new books for kids.
Both resources are rich in stories—fictional adventures touchingly told and illustrated with almost magical artistry.
But, over time, I’ve become a bit of a science guy (Amateur Division)—working for decades at the National Geographic Society, then for the past dozen years or so as the publisher at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). So I look at these resources from that perspective, and they both come up… a little short. The Huff Post list includes, at best, a half-dozen nonfiction titles of any sort, with little focus on the honest, true-facts wonders of the world we actually live in. The special Times section on kids’ books does better on the nonfiction side—their half-dozen includes a history, a couple biographies, and three charming works that take young readers step-by-step through the annual cycle of seasons. Well-done.
But hardly enough, especially with the heavy emphasis on nonfiction reading in classrooms today. Which is why I took keypad in hand today to write my first-ever blog post.
Because I need to tell you that, since 1973, NSTA has worked with the Children’s Book Council (anchor sponsor of Children’s Book Week) to identify an annual list of Outstanding Science Trade Books for children. For my more-knowledgeable colleagues at NSTA, this is a yearly (and impressively well-informed) labor of love. We gather some of the best volunteers in the field of science education, people who’ve been in the trenches and know what they’re talking about, to review hundreds and hundreds of books each year. Then, every fall, they come together in our offices to whittle their final selections down to just a few dozen of the best of the best.
Of course: They look for accurate, informative, and engaging science content. Even more important: They only award top honors to books that will truly help encourage kids to love reading. Precisely what Sister Marian (and Sister Madeline, for that matter) set out to accomplish decades ago.
Just yesterday, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni wrote touchingly of the importance he placed on instilling a love of reading in his young nieces and nephews (Read, Kids, Read). But he also went beyond emotion to the realm of research, citing “a recent article in The Guardian by Dan Hurley, who wrote that after ‘three years interviewing psychologists and neuroscientists around the world,’ he’d concluded that ‘reading and intelligence have a relationship so close as to be symbiotic.’”
In my case, that’s no doubt an over-statement. But for the young people in your life, it’s comfortably close to incontrovertible fact. So, please, to help them along their path, check out our latest list of Outstanding Science Trade Books. You—and all the dedicated teachers of today—will be glad you did.

NSTA offers congratulations and gratitude to the authors, designers, reviewers, and editors of Science and Children, NSTA’s elementary level science education journal. Science and Children recently received the Silver EXCEL Award for design excellence in the journals category from Association Media & Publishing (AM&P). This year’s awards competition received more than 900 entries across numerous publications categories. The awards event will be held in May at AM&P’s Annual Meeting—we’ll bring you updates then! Learn more about this awards program at the AM&P website. Want to see what the buzz is all about? Browse the journal online to read articles, view online extras, and access the archives.

Congratulations to the authors and to the NSTA Press staff for their recently announced 2014 Gold EXCEL Award from Association Media and Publishing (AM&P). The following book won the Non-Technical Book Gold Award this year: Even More Picture-Perfect Science Lessons: Using Children’s Books to Guide Inquiry, K-5, by Emily Morgan and Karen Ansberry. This book is the third volume in the Picture-Perfect Science Series, which is designed to help elementary teachers combine the appeal of children’s picture books with key science concepts to capture the interest of young scientists and blend science with reading in a natural way. Science education leader Rodger Bybee has written of the series, “Karen Ansberry and Emily Morgan present the science education community with a refreshing and positive remedy to the reduction of science teaching in elementary schools…. The authors have contributed to the goal of more and better science instruction in elementary schools in the United States.” This year’s awards competition received more than 900 entries across numerous publications categories. The awards event will be held in May at AM&P’s Annual Meeting—and we’ll bring you updates then! Learn more about this awards program at the AM&P website. Want a peek inside this award-winning book? Browse a free chapter (The Wind Blew).

Questions and discussions about safety are often seen in the NSTA e-mail listserves and discussion forums. Each month, columns on safety in the science lab are featured in NSTA’s Science Scope (Scope on Safety) and The Science Teacher (Safer Science). These columns are written by Ken Roy, Director of Environmental Health and Safety for Glastonbury Public Schools in Glastonbury, CT, and NSTA’s Science Safety Compliance Consultant.
These are relevant for all K-12 science teachers and school administrators, regardless of what grade level or science course you teach. And NSTA members have access to them, regardless of which print journal you receive. I’ve collected these into a Resource Collection through NSTA’s Learning Center:

• Safety requires collaboration (Science Scope April 2014)—If you’re collaborating on STEM projects, here are some considerations for safe practices in the area of engineering.
• LAMP: Shining a light on safety (Science Scope March 2014)—LAMP is an acronym for lead, asbestos, mercury, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The article describes where in the school building each of these health hazards can be found and the symptoms of exposure (and remember that you’re in the building all day for many years!).
• Kitchen Chemistry and Safety (Science Scope February 2014)–This is a must-read article for every K-12 teacher. Using common household substances such as sodium bicarbonate, vinegar, and even food coloring in a lab setting requires a different level of awareness than if a teacher uses these substances at home. “If a safety incident should occur without these safeguards in place under a teacher’s duty of care, the teacher has potential liability—even if the problem occurred using common household products.”
• More must-reads for K-12 teachers and administrators: Eating in the lab: A recipe for disaster (Science Scope January 2014) and Don’t Make Your Lab a McDonalds (The Science Teacher March 2014) Snacks, lunches, treats, coffee breaks, parties–in a word…Don’t! And here’s why.
• Eyewash stations and showers in the lab (The Science Teacher April 2014)—“Teachers and students shouldn’t work with hazardous chemicals unless these engineering controls are in place. If a science teacher proceeds with using the hazardous chemicals in the lab without the needed safety equipment, he or she shares legal liability with the school district.”
• Protecting Against Attack (The Science Teacher February 2014)—Your lab could be an attractive target for vandals and other criminal activity. Here are suggestions for securing lab and storage areas.

Each month, Scope on Safety also includes a Q&A on a safety-related issue. If you’re looking for a science department discussion topic, take your pick (I’d advise the ones on food for starters)! For more on safety topics, go to NSTA’s SciLinks and use “safety” as the keyword.
Graphic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/epicfireworks/3646350410

Whether from Spiderman or Voltaire, the sentiment proves critically important to our approach to science education. As such, we hold great power to encourage, enlighten, and nurture young minds that are inherently curious and full of poignant questions. As good teachers, we are responsible not to be the authority that provides the answers to students, but to be the guide that helps them develop the skills to find the answers. Students look to us for knowledge and direction, and we must not abuse that power. We must foster continued curiosity, critical skepticism, and the acquisition of skills that will help them face life with confidence and maybe pursue further study, even careers, in science. We must give them the power to act with informed responsibility.
Last week, two incredible scientific breakthroughs were in the news. Nature published an article detailing the work of MIT researchers who have simulated the evolution of the Universe from a point just seconds after the Big Bang (Properties of Galaxies Reproduced by a Hydrodynamic Simulation). The scale of the simulation and the details it contains from the structure of the universe to the formation of heavy elements to the roles of dark matter and dark energy are almost uncanny in reflecting the universe we observe. And scientists from The Scripps Research Institute engineered a bacterium containing synthetic DNA nucleotides found nowhere else in nature, essentially adding two new letters to the alphabet of life. One announcement answers important questions about our place in the universe and provides a model to enable further study. The other raises important questions about the very fiber of our being and the meaning of life. Both announcements have significantly altered our view of accepted scientific understanding. Once again, the “facts of science” have been given a good shake. So let’s teach students how to digest the news, how to ask for evidence, and how to understand the nature of science.
Typical high school students (nor most of the rest of us for that matter) probably have not mastered the level of science and math required to truly understand the research at the highest level. But I don’t believe content mastery is necessary for the news to have an impact. I’d like to see teachers introducing life-changing research like this to pique student curiosity and inspire a desire to ask more and know more. I’d like to see teachers encouraging students to think critically about the breakthrough—to ask questions like: How does this relate to what I already understand? What is the source? Are the results replicable? What do other scientists say about it? What does this mean for me? What will it mean for the Earth? Is there a role for government?
We have been building models of our place in the universe since prehistoric times out of a need to be a part of something bigger. Now we have a model that connects the very dust from which we are made to the fabric of the universe. I’d like to see all citizens appreciate these knowing that they are based on observations of the physical world and lead to testable predictions. Regarding the Scripps research, my hope is that educated citizens would be conscious and critical enough to snap to attention, because this is ground-breaking. I want to hear things like, “WHAT? 6-nucleotide DNA? I thought the genetic code had only 4 letters! Is this stuff ALIVE? What does it mean? Can we use it to cure disease? What happens when it gets outside the lab? Can the bacteria’s DNA get into our own? Who’s overseeing this? What protocols are in place? Have I voted this year? Is anyone minding the shop?”

Today at the National Science Teachers Association: We’re following NSTA Member Steve Rich (@bflyguy) on Twitter as he visits the White House for an educators luncheon with 2nd Lady Jill Biden, getting excited because we’re only 1 week away from the #NSTA14 STEM Forum and Expo in New Orleans (May 14–17) featuring keynote speaker and Newton’s Football author Ainissa Ramirez, and offering some great science education books from NSTA Press for rock-bottom prices. Join us, and never miss a thing!

I’m finalizing my student teaching, which has been a good experience. I’m excited about teaching science, but I’m not excited about interviewing for jobs. Will the school ask anything about the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)? Do you have any suggestions to help me interview successfully? What can I do to calm the butterflies?
—Steve, Kenosha, Wisconsin
Congratulations on completing the first part of your career!
In terms of the NGSS, if you’re applying for a position in a state that has adopted the standards, you certainly should have a basic knowledge of them, and remember that the veteran teachers and administrators are learning about them, too. (Other states may be in the process of adopting them as we speak.)
To go beyond what you may have learned in your methods course or from your supervising teachers, use the NGSS@NSTA site to access the standards by topic or Disciplinary Core Idea and for an updated list of states that have adopted them. The NSTA Resources section has a list of resources including

• The EQuIP rubric for evaluating materials (see also a recent NSTA blog entry)
• Books on the topic (I recommend Translating the NGSS for Classroom Instruction)
• Archived web seminars on NGSS core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and practices
• Complete articles from NSTA Reports and NSTA member journals (free)
• Downloadable handouts and matrices related to the standards
• Links to NSTA blogs on the topic
• The NSTA position statement.

If you’re interviewing in a state or private school that does not use the NGSS, it would be a good idea to locate the standards or curriculum that are being used. If the interviewers ask you a question about your knowledge of the standards, answer with what you know and your experiences, state that you are still learning about them, describe how you’re learning about them, and write down the question so that you can address it at the follow-up interview.
Other interview suggestions are discussed in the blog Tips for Interviews. In between interviews, you can review the NGSS and consider Preparing for Your First Teaching Job.
It’s OK to have butterflies before an interview. The best way to calm them and keep them under control is to be prepared and rested. Good luck!
 
Photo:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsmagic/411380395/