I’ll be having a wonderful time at home with a sister visiting and celebrating a family birthday BUT, I do wish I could also go to the 1^st Annual NSTA STEM Forum & Expo in Atlantic City, New Jersey on May 17–19, 2012. Register soon–before April 20 at a lower cost.

There are 36 sessions in the PreK-2^nd strand and others that will be of interest to early childhood educators. Select “Preschool” in the “Select by Grade” menu, then click on the “Browse Events” button. Engineering is well represented.

The Exhibit Hall will be open in the evening on Wednesday May 16 for a preview.

When you go, will you post a comment about it here so I can vicariously learn from your participation? Maybe on Sunday while you’re processing the conference material while on the beach…

Peggy

Big kudos to the preservice and new teachers who participated in the first-ever Student/Student Chapter Showcase during the NSTA National Conference on Science Education.  Over three days — March 29-31 — seven student teams provided nine presentations to other preservice and new teachers.  The teams conducted sessions on: the school garden model; laboratory makeovers; NASA partnerships; a poster display; robotics, and general updates of student chapter activities.

The showcase location doubled as a lounge in between sessions.  Students, new teachers and faculty were able to network, prepare for other presentations and grab a snack in the lounge.

We appreciate each group that participated in this event and a HUGE thanks to the faculty and student chapter faculty advisors who encouraged these preservice and new teachers to take part in the showcase.  The excitement from the advisors was contagious…NSTA appreciates all you do to support those coming into our profession.

• Elizabethtown College NSTA Student Chapter
• Keene State NSTA Student Chapter
• Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus (IUPUC) NSTA Student Chapter
• Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) Woodrow Wilson Fellows
• Luther College NSTA Student Chapter
• Murray State University NSTA Student Chapter
• University of Missouri NSTA Student Chapter

Interested in participating in next year’s showcase? Email us at chapters@nsta.org and we will add your team to our list of presenters for next year.

See you in San Antonio!

With spring break coming right after the conference my reporting has been delayed. There were many interesting sessions presenting and discussing many interesting ideas at the 2012 NSTA national conference in Indianapolis. Here are a few of the ideas from a few of the sessions.

This young scientist displays his developmentally appropriate model of the Earth in a session by Dr. Brenda B. Mackay Associate Professor of Education at Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio. She suggested several books, including Hands-on Projects About Changes in the Earth by Krista West (2002, Power Kids Press, Rosen Publishing) and Underfoot by David M. Schwartz and photographs by Dwight Kuhn (1997, Creative Teaching Press).

Dr. John Payne of Mercer University involved participants in making and thinking about “density bottles,” a layering of liquids of different densities such as water, oil, corn syrup and dishwashing liquid (NOTE: do not use alcohol for young children). We also tested the sounds made by tapping our palms with different lengths of PVC pipe, observed a millipede curled up under bark in a terrarium, and used a “color box” to view colored balls through films of different colors to notice changes perceived color.

Nancy Sale presented a Butterfly Bonanza, showing examples of several species and slides of many others. Have you made a butterfly lifecycle craft out of pasta? We each got a early reader book or other classroom-useful goodie and drawings were held for big book copies.

In a session titled Inspired by Nature’s spectrum: Observation and questioning in art and science inquiry, Glenda McCarty and Jennifer Hope led us thorough an exercise in piecing a puzzle together by talking to each other and describing what we observed on our piece. We got it! In addition to bringing us together as a learning group, this exercise referred to how scientists may be working on pieces of the same question and need to talk with each other to determine an answer. They also shared ideas for creating a “parts of a whole” book with windows made from holes in pages, and notebooks with covers made from box cardboard and pages made from one-side-used paper.

I’m sorry that I couldn’t stay long enough to attend the other 8 sessions I had put on my schedule. I can look them up on the conference schedule page and hope they posted packets so I can get a few ideas to use with my students.

I’d like to hear about sessions that you went to. Post a comment to tell us all about something you learned so we can pass it on.

Peggy

Thank you Council for Elementary Science and APAST, SEPA, the NSTA Committee on Preschool-Elementary Science Teaching, and Science and Children for the “Elementary Extravaganza”! (Click here, then scroll down to see photos.) Well before 8am science educators were lining up to get into the ballroom where each one (of ~ 100) tables was a different presenter ready to share a lesson plan, cool idea, student work, or product, and enter into a discussion as deep as you wanted to go. Thank you for the combined efforts that supported and created such an awesome concentration of professional development–we did indeed “Walk away with a head full of ideas and arms filled with materials.” Each person who attended got a sturdy carry-bag made of recycled materials, and a jump drive, and many won door prizes. What a fun and productive way to spend the first 1.5 hours of a conference morning. If you weren’t able to make it, you can still access some of the material.

I passed out copies of the journal Young Children, generously donated by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, my other professional association. In the March 2012 issue the NAEYC Early Childhood Science Interest Forum is introduced, and there are several features focusing on science in this all-around excellent issue.

What didn’t I see at the “Elementary Extravaganza”? What did I miss? Go to the  Elementary Extravaganza session listing on the NSTA Indianapolis Conference page to download the presenters information sheets.

Here are photos (click on a photo for a link) to share what I saw. Comment below to add information about your table or another favorite.

And each person who attended got a sturdy carry-bag made of recycled materials, and a jump drive, and many won door prizes. What a fun and productive way to spend the first 1.5 hours of the morning,

Peggy

I talk to teachers from all over the country during the national conference and am no longer surprised to find some who have traveled from distance corners of the nation. There also usually an international group. But once in a while, I’ll meet a teacher like Elizabeth who attends the conference despite the fact that she teaches in Saudi Arabia.

Attendees of the 2012 NSTA National Conference on Science Education used the free wi-fi to keep in touch with colleagues at the event and back home.

Saturday morning and the conference is going strong. As I was walking down the hall, I overheard a woman telling a friend how she was overwhelmed — there was just too much that she wanted to do while here. She said, “Next year, I’m coming a day earlier!”

Guess it’s time to start planning for San Antonio!

Asking questions

When my district sent teachers to conferences, we were expected to submit a list of sessions we attended. NSTA has a great transcript feature for this documentation, producing a professional-looking document. But I never thought of including the time I spent in the exhibit hall (which you can do with the transcript tool).

A mini-seminar

After walking around today, I realize that was probably a mistake. Many of the vendors have set up seminar areas with seats or tables and offer brief mini-classes and demonstrations. Afterwards, they often give “door prizes” to participants.

One-on-one tutorial

I also saw teachers having intense one-on-one conversations with vendors, asking questions or getting personalized information about science-related products and services.

So how would you document these informal sessions? With a camera, of course! I saw several teachers snapping photos with their cell phones, tablets, or digital cameras. (One even asked if a passer-by could take the photo of her with a consultant. You could even photograph a display of all of the posters, books, and other supplies that you collect in the exhibit hall, illustrating the report submitted to the principal.

Hands-on collaboration

Cameras are becoming indispensable tools at conferences–capturing screens at a presentation, products at the exhibit hall, documentation of events, and especially the memories of new-found friends and colleagues.

A hands-on experience with a walking stick

It’s been a long day, but there are still sessions going on. The exhibit hall is still a popular spot with many folks checking out the latest texts, software, and other “interactives” like the walking stick pictured here!

Indianapolis chemistry teacher Georgia Watson was enthusiastic about her experience today at the NSTA national conference. Not only did she present on her project-based forensic science program, but she also visited the exhibit hall, where she collected resources—including several free ones!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Deanna, in town from Fort Wayne, Indiana, has been attending sessions this morning, focusing on hands-on learning opportunities for her fifth- and sixth-grade students.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hundreds of teachers were eager to hear more about the Framework for the Next Generation Science Standards from NSTA Executive Director Francis Eberle and Stephen Pruitt of Achieve, Inc.

This morning’s session on the Framework for the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) drew quite a crowd. In addition to the people sitting and standing around the periphery, I saw a number of educators standing in the hallway just outside the door.

Some attendees posed questions, ranging from the inclusion of controversial topics in the NGSS to how assessment of students and states’ adoption of the standards will be conducted to coordination between the NGSS and the framework for technology and engineering.

Stephen Pruitt, vice president for content, research, and development at Achieve, Inc., encouraged audience members to participate in the public review of the standards’ draft, expected to be released in late April or May. Read more about the NGSS and the framework.