Page Keeley, NSTA’s President-Elect, guided us through the use of probes (the written kind, not the electronic ones!) to uncover student’s knowledge and misconceptions about science concepts. She shared several examples of the probes: Ice Cubes in a Bag, The Mirror on the Wall, Is It Food for Plants. She also shared a list of non-threatening formative assessments to get students involved and to find out what they are learning. By the time the final exam or the state test is given, some misconceptions get set in stone unless we get inside the students heads.

OK, I’ve been to a number of sessions on topics that I’m familiar with. It’s time to stretch my mind and venture into unfamiliar territory to learn something new. Dr. Gibor Basri from Berkeley gave a presentation on The Search for Earth-Sized Planets Around Other Stars. He described NASA’s Kepler mission, designed to search for earth-like planets by using a telescope to monitor stars and look for “the telltale dip in their light cause when a planet crosses in front of them.” Astronomy is something I never had any formal coursework in, and judging from the sophisticated level of questions from those in the audience, I was definitely the new (and semi-clueless) kid on the block!
But Dr. Basri is a wonderful example of how someone who is passionate about his topic and who has excellent presentation skills can motivate someone who is a novice learner in a topic (in this case, me) to get excited enough to want to learn more! I’ve bookmarked the Kepler Mission website and put Kepler’s tentative launch date (next February) on my calendar.

At the NSTA conference bookstore, the current books are on display and available for purchase (but you can get a great bargain – free shipping and no sales tax for orders placed at the conference). I was going to fill out an order blank for the book Using Science Notebooks in Elementary Classrooms after being inspired yesterday, but then I saw that the author himself was there to sign books! So I purchased one on the spot and Michael Klentschy autographed it for me. No, I won’t let anyone borrow this copy!

I saw teachers lining up to spin the Fisher Science Education wheel to try for a “grand slam” of prizes, including balances, a forensic entomology kit, and videos. Consolation prizes included mini baseballs and baseball bats.

Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, told a packed room of educators that “it is their duty” to step in when they discover a colleague who is teaching creationist theory in a science classroom. Scott detailed the many ways creationists are continuing to denigrate evolution in the wake of the 2005 Kitsmiller v. Dover trial. She presented a variety of resources for supporting the teaching of evolution, including NCSE’s new Facebook page.

Unfortunately, with hundreds of sessions at a conference this size, not all are going to be terrific. I was at a clunker this morning. The presenter (who shall remain nameless) was not very prepared and really didn’t explain the point very well. But it was a learning experience in what should be done to have an effective presentation: introduce yourself, be very clear what the point of the session is, be up-to-date on the research, have the materials in order, be open to questions from the audience, and relax! But then again, one person’s clunker could be someone else’s motivation!
Later this afternoon, I went to another session whose presenter was at the opposite end of the spectrum. More to follow on this.

You can watch a few Presentations on Ustream.tv.  Watch and chat with us!
Current Presentation Schedule:
Eugenie Scott: After Dover: The New Creationism
Friday, March 28 3:30–4:30 PM EST
Bill Nye: (The Planetary Society Lecture) Planetary Citizenship in the Next Space Age
Saturday, March 29 8:30–10:30 AM EST

Today is Informal Science Day and everywhere I look there’s some kind of hands-on activity going on—in workshops and the exhibit hall. From attendees putting together simple tools from what looks like an assortment of children’s building blocks to making casts, there’s someone doing something virtually anywhere I look. Walking through the exhibit hall, I overheard one teacher exclaim, “This is better than a field trip!”
I’ve also seen children and adults line up to get a closer look at live penguins (I’ve never attended a conference with live animals before!) and their pictures taken with boa constrictors, a fuzzy little member of the hedge hog family or Bill Nye.
—Lynn

It’s always fun to hear from teachers and former teachers. When they describe the wonderful and effective projects they do with real students in their own classrooms, it’s hard to say: Yeah, but that won’t work in my school.
In their session “Evolution of the K–12 Science Notebook,” three educators from the New York City public schools (Sandra Jenoure, Greg Borman, and Sara Desplaines) described how they work with their elementary and middle school students in creating and, more importantly, using science notebooks. These notebooks are living documents in which students keep records of their lab investigations, vocabulary, class notes, sketches, summaries, and homework. They passed around some real notebooks from real students. Some were more complete and organized than others, but it was clear that there was a process taking place.
When asked why the notebooks were used with elementary and middle school students, Greg said “high schools are tough nuts to crack.” But in his teacher ed classes at CCNY, he requires the teachers to keep such a notebook, to model this process. NSTA has published a book Using Science Notebooks in the Elementary Classroom. I had seen it in the catalog and read a sample chapter online, but now I think I’m going to stop at the NSTA bookstore at the conference tomorrow to get my own copy.
I talked for a while with Greg after the presentation. He and I are of an age when we remember the era of student “portfolios.” We agreed that the word portfolio conjures up images of art projects and the word journal sounds like a diary with personal feelings and reflections. But Notebook—there’s a word that sounds like science. Even Leonardo da Vinci had a notebook!

I attended a session presented by some folks from NOAA called Data in the Classroom. No, it’s not about student assessments and NCLB! It’s about an effort to make the huge amount of data that NOAA has on the oceans and atmosphere accessible to students and teachers for problem solving and inquiry. Rather than just saying “Here is it is, have fun” they’ve created several modules (El Nino and Sea Level are ready now) that guide teachers and students through what they call “levels of scaled interaction.” In other words, each module has five levels of lessons ranging from teacher-presented ones through letting students explore the data to full-blown problem solving and invention. Each module shows the associated data in a variety of formats and guides the users through how to interpret it. There are “checkup” questions throughout, and teachers can download the materials. Even though the modules have been field tested, the NOAA folks are asking for additional feedback. (I played around a little this evening and my feedback is WOW). The address is www.dataintheclassroom.org
If anyone has info on resources from other NOAA sessions, feel free to add a comment here and tell us about them.