The National Association for the Education of Young Children  2011 national conference takes place next week in Orlando. This conference will be the site of the first meeting of the NAEYC Early Childhood Science Interest Forum and I hope to see you there!
With your participation, the Early Childhood Science Interest Forum will:

• Provide a forum for the exchange of effective strategies and
  quality materials for teaching science.
• Establish and maintain a collaborative relationship with other
  professional organizations with similar goals.
• Build understanding of the nature of quality science teaching and
  learning.
• Promote public understanding of the importance of inquiry-based
  science curriculum and appropriate content, and a picture of what young
  children are capable of doing and learning.
• Support efforts to expand professional development opportunities
  for teachers and administrators.

The forum is open to all—please add your voice. Join us at the first meeting at the NAEYC 2011 conference in Orlando, Florida, on November 4, 2011 from 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM in room W311A of the Orange County Convention Center. (Search the sessions using the phrase “Early Childhood Science IF” to add it to your itinerary.) We’ll show a brief video clip to stimulate discussion, and plan for the future. We will also have a table with literature at the Interest Forum Café at the conference and will be there at most lunch hours. The Early Childhood Science Interest Forum will have an online presence on the NAEYC forum page—right now you can find the forum page on Facebook.
NAEYC members can add  the Early Childhood Science Forum to their membership profile as soon as it becomes available by signing in at http://www.naeyc.org/community
Other notes about the NAEYC national conference:
Science and Children editor Linda Froschauer and I are presenting a session titled “Science inquiry for you and your students: Fun experiences with hands-on materials to awaken the scientist in your young students!” on Thursday, November 3 from 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM in Room W303 at the convention center. Come and participate!
There are over 30 sessions offering science content including sessions by contributors to Science and Children such as Marie Faust Evitt’s Urgent curriculum: Thinking BIG to meet teaching challenges, in Room W105 on Friday November 4, at 1pm.
If you’re presenting a session, let readers know by commenting below.
Peggy

 
Space. The Final Frontier.
Well, not really according to James Garvin, Chief Scientist for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.  He insists, “Our exploration has just begun.”
Dr. Garvin was the keynote speaking during yesterday’s general session at the 2011 NSTA Hartford Area Conference.  He guided attendees through the evolution of the space program—through words and images—explaining the importance of blending science, space, engineering and IT.
The Apollo 11 voyage was ahead of its time, much like most space exploration. Something as inconsequential as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin “planting” the United States flag involved awesome science and engineering to create the billowing effect of the flag.
Fast forward to more recent missions with Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiters and we see more examples of science, engineering and technology coming together. These types of missions have allowed NASA to develop a record book of cosmic collisions to study for years to come.
Dr. Garvin also led us through past exploration of other planets.

1. Mercury: so close to the sun and so many different facets and signatures discovered, but the story still isn’t finished.
2. Venus: so imperfectly unexplored because of the atmosphere.
3. Earth: we’re poised to learn so much more about our planet; to use the data we have to more accurately predict catastrophic events like Katrina.
4. Mars: massive canyons, collapsing oceanic volcanoes and more ice than we thought existed on the planet.

What does all this mean—we need science teachers!  To prepare our students for STEM careers so they can explore microgravity and asteroids or as Dr. Garvin pointed out so brilliantly, “To look into the dark space of our galaxy to see what’s going on” (because we look at the light places all of the time).
“The next chapter hasn’t been written yet,” said Dr. Garvin.  “Inspire your students so we can continue the work.”

Trade books are an important way for young children to learn about the wonders of the natural world outside of their neighborhood, and the details of the natural world at their doorstep. From giant squids to the day’s weather, from craters on the Moon to craters made by ant lions in the backyard dust, trade books both whet and satiate children’s appetite for information through words and illustrations. Teachers rely on the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and the Children’s Book Council (CBC) to guide book choices. NSTA and CBC will announce the Outstanding Science Trade Books 2012 Awards at a reception on Friday November 11, 2011 at 3:30-4:30pm at the area conference in New Orleans at the New Orleans Marriott, 555 Canal Street, Suite 4022, New Orleans, LA. (Please RSVP by October 31 to ebrady@nsta.org ) The books are chosen by a book review panel appointed by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and assembled in cooperation with the Children’s Book Council (CBC). The criteria are listed on a NSTA website products and publications page (scroll down). Thank you to the book selection panel–it’s a tough job but someone has to do it.
Some of my favorites among last year award winners are:
How to Clean a Hippopotamus by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page. 2010. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Just One Bite by Lola M. Schaefer. 2010. Chronicle Books.
S is for Scientists by Larry Verstraete. 2010. Sleeping Bear Press
These award winners are listed in the NSTA Recommends data base along with other fine trade books. Do you have any personal or award-winning favorite books that you would like to recommend?
Peggy
 

Will we ever get to the point where we can sit back and say “Our students have these skills. We’re set until the 22nd century?”
A great benefit for NSTA members is electronic access to all of the journals. After you read the print version that is part of your membership, you can read the articles in all of the others. Even though they might be oriented to a different grade level, there are always ideas that can be kicked up a notch or simplified. And this topic certainly relates to all grade levels.
It makes sense that I’m reading a digital version of this TST issue on 21st century tools. On the other hand, in the year 2011 (well into the 21st century), we’re still talking about tools for the century. Just think about tools that have come and gone already (the original iPod or PDAs for example–even the computer mouse). What hasn’t gone away, as the editor suggests, are skills such as adaptability, critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, self-direction, and systems thinking.
Back in the 1990s, when I was a technology director, a school board member asked what tech skills students needed to get good jobs. I suggested that the technology our students would use routinely in their jobs hadn’t been invented yet and that the students would be doing jobs that didn’t exist at the time (such as the Visualization Scientist described in the Career of the Month—which dovetails with the October Science Scope theme of Art and Science). So the best thing we can do is prepare students in the skills mentioned above. The articles in this issue address these in a variety of science classroom contexts.

The authors of Science in the 21^st Century: More Than Just the Facts show how these skills are integrated into the Urban EcoLab project. They describe (with a graphic and summary chart) a framework for Four Ways of Knowing Science (understanding, doing, talking, and acting on science) and how these four ways of knowing were incorporated into an environmental science course with a local context. As the conclusion states “Ecology, and indeed science, doesn’t just happen in exotic rain forests or desolate polar ice caps—it happens in students’ neighborhoods and city blocks.”
Science, Technology, and YA Lit includes a list of young adult reading titles and how teachers can promote critical thinking and connections with technology [SciLinks: Reading and writing in science]. And in Getting Up to Speed, students integrate the content and process skills in real-life scenarios related to walking (e.g., How much do I walk in school?) [SciLinks: Speed]
The teacher-author of Customizing Curriculum with Digital Resources describes the Curriculum Customization Service, an online curriculum management tool he used to integrate classroom resources, such as lesson plans, with digital and traditional resources. I wonder when districts will replace the “textbook selection” committees with “resource selection” committees, tasked with using tools such as this to tap into the continually updated resources that are available digitally.
When a scientist participated in a PD project I was involved with, the teachers were amazed at the percentage of time he spent in communications—grant writing, presentations at meetings, and writing about his research. The 21^st Century Oral Presentation Tool Bag has resources to help your students improve their oral communications and information-literacy skills. The article includes a rubric and self-assessment guide.  Secret in the Margins illustrates how teachers can incorporate nature-of-science understandings into existing lessons (rather than create new ones). The 5E lesson format was used in a unit on atomic structure.  [SciLinks: Atomic structure]
In the earlier decades of the 20th century, pregnant teachers were dismissed and pregnant teenagers dropped out of school. Pregnancy in the Laboratory looks at potential hazards for teachers and for students (not just at the collegiate level but also at the secondary level).
TST also includes the column Headline Science with brief articles on current research and background information for teachers and students. [SciLinks: Virus, Sunspots, Carbon Cycle, Neurons/Nerve cells,  Nanotechnology, Asteroids, Fungi, Cells]
Don’t forget to look at the Connections  for this issue (October 2011). Even if the article does not quite fit with your lesson agenda, this resource has ideas for handouts, background information sheets, data sheets, rubrics, etc.