In our mid-Atlantic spring we can have temperatures in the 50s or in the 80s, rain or shine. The activities the children have been involved in center around the weather.

We planted peas and radishes, measured their growth, examined the pea flowers, and are waiting for the harvest. The radishes may be too spicy for many children’s taste so they will say “I don’t like it yet” but most will enjoy the slightly sweet crunch of a sugar snap pea pod. Always check for allergies—it is surprising how many plants can be a problem for one or more children.

This spring there was a large broccolis plant that had grown all winter long and produced many seed pods. When it was dry I brought it into the classroom and the children used scissors to cut it apart, opening the pods to see the seeds.

Books to go with planting seeds or gardening, an incomplete list because there are too many worthy books to list them all:

• Bean and Plant by Christine Back and Barrie Watts (a non-fiction classic with clear close-ups of seed sprouting)
• I’m a Seed by Jean Marzollo, Cartwheel Books, 1996. (early reader, accurate science)
• Seeds by George Shannon, Houghton Mifflin, 1994. (fiction, gardening leads to friendship)
• To Be Like The Sun by Susan Marie Swanson, Harcourt, 2008. (poem-like text about a child following the life cycle of sunflowers)

A traditional call and response song, such as “John the Rabbit: or “Ol’ John Rabbit” which can be heard on Mike and Peggy Seeger’s American Folksongs for Children

Oh, John the rabbit                 yes, ma’am

Had a mighty bad habit          yes, ma’am

Of jumpin’ in my garden        yes, ma’am

And eating my peas                yes, ma’am

He ate my tomatoes               yes, ma’am

and my sweet potatoes           yes, ma’am

And if I live                              yes, ma’am

To see next fall                       yes, ma’am

Maybe I won’t             yes, ma’am

Garden at all!              Yes, ma’am!

The amount of rain that falls can be measured in inches that accumulate in any container with nearly straight sides. We switched to a “real” scientific rain gauge because it has numbers on it already and can easily attach to a post. The children draw in the amount of collected rain on a template and compare it to previous days. They are beginning to connect the presence of low grey clouds with rain. This younger sibling is lucky to have a parent who knows puddle-stomping experience is more important than muddy clothes (and to have another pair of shoes at home).

Books: again, an incomplete list because there are too many worthy books to list them all.

• Come On, Rain! by Karen Hesse, Scholastic, 1999. Poetic language expressing a child’s wish for, and delight in, rain.
• Down Comes the Rain by Franklyn Branley, HarperCollins, 1983. Classic non-fiction with updated illustrations by James Graham Hale. This book provides teachers more information than preschool children need—allowing us to stay one step ahead of our students’ questions.
• Rain by Peter Spier, Doubleday, 1982. A wordless picture book about two children who experience the fun and wonders of a rainstorm.

I brought “laundry” to school for the children to wash on a hot day. When the laundry was dry we talked about where the water went. When one child said, “It went away,” I asked, “Where could it have gone?” Evaporation is a concept that the children will understand better once they begin to learn about atoms.

• The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash by Trinka Hakes Noble, illustrations by Steven Kellogg, Putnam Penguin 1980. Unrelated to water, weather, or evaporation but lots of fun. This tall tale can be used to encourage children to make predictions.
• The Water Cycle by Craig Hammersmith, Capstone Press, 2012. Non-fiction information at an age-appropriate level.

While we’re outside observing clouds and tending the plants, children often find “bugs” and other small creatures. We go looking for more little animals. Be aware that entomologists group only some insects in the “true bugs” category.

You can write your own version of “Going on a Bug Hunt.”

We’re Going On A Bug Hunt 

(Adapted from Michael Rosen’s version of a traditional chant. Children repeat every line after the teacher.)

We’re going on a bug hunt,
We’re gonna catch a big one,
What a beautiful day,
We’re not scared.
Oh oh!
Grass,
Long, wavy, grass.
We can’t go over it,
We can’t go under it,
We’ve gotta go through it!
Swishy swashy, swishy swashy.

Look, it’s a grasshopper!

We’re going on a bug hunt,
We’re gonna catch a big one,
What a beautiful day,
We’re not scared.
Oh oh!
Mud,
Thick, oozy mud.
We can’t go over it,
We can’t go under it,
We’ve gotta go through it!
Squelch squelch, squelch squelch

Look, it’s a mayfly nymph!

We’re going on a bug hunt,
We’re gonna catch a big one,
What a beautiful day,
We’re not scared.
Oh oh!
A river,
A deep, cold river.
We can’t go over it,
We can’t go under it,
We’ve gotta go through it!
Splish splosh, splish splosh.

Look, it’s a dragonfly!

We’re going on a bug hunt,
We’re gonna catch a big one,
What a beautiful day,
We’re not scared.
Oh oh!
A forest,
A big, dark forest.
We can’t go over it,
We can’t go under it,
We’ve gotta go through it!
Stumble trip, stumble trip.

Look, it’s a jumping spider!

We’re going on a bug hunt,
We’re gonna catch a big one,
What a beautiful day,
We’re not scared.
Oh oh!
A cave,
A cool, dark cave.
We can’t go over it,
We can’t go under it,
We’ve gotta go through it!
Tiptoe, tiptoe.

Look, it’s a cave cricket!

We’re going on a bug hunt,
We’re gonna catch a big one,
What a beautiful day,
We’re not scared.
Oh oh!
A neighborhood,
A grassy, tree-filled neighborhood.
We can’t go over it,
We can’t go under it,
We’ve gotta go through it!
Skippetty, skip, skip.

Look, it’s a wooly BEAR (caterpillar of the Isabella Tiger Moth)

(Say this section very quickly.)
OH NO IT’S A BEAR!!!
Quick!
Through the cave, tiptoe, tiptoe,
Through the forest, stumble trip, stumble trip,
Through the river, splish splosh, splish spolosh,
Through the mud, squelch squelch, squelch squelch,
Through the grass, swishy swashy, swishy swashy.
Through the neighborhood, skippetty, skip, skip.
Run to the house, run up the stairs,
Oh oh forgot to shut the door!
Run back downstairs, shut the door,
Run back up, to the bedroom,
Jump into bed, pull up the covers,
WE ARE NEVER GOING ON A BUG HUNT AGAIN!!

WAIT! It was a wooly bear, a moth caterpillar, not a big bear!

(You can listen to a sample of Lorraine Bayes saying the traditional chant at Songs For Teaching.)

Books, an incomplete list, to pair with searching for small animals such as insects, spiders, and roly-polies.

• Backyard Detective: Critters Up Close by Nic Bishop, Tangerine Press, 2002. A photographic collection on each page of “critters” which might be found in the same habitat.
• Bugs Are Insects by Anne Rockwell, illustrated by Steve Jenkins, Harper Collins Publishers, 2001. Use this book to learn about the scientific groupings of insects and the greater arthropod group.
• Do All Bugs Have Wings?: And Other Questions Kids Have About Bugs by Suzanne Slade, Picture Window Books, 2010. Once a small animal is found, use this book to answer some questions.
• It’s A Good Thing There Are Insects (Rookie Read-About Science Series) by Allan Fowler, Children’s Press, 1990. This book for emerging readers is also a good read-aloud for beginning a discussion on how insects are beneficial for human life.

I hope that spring weather has provided new science exploration opportunities for your students,

Peggy

The Sylvia Shugrue Award for Elementary school teachers honors one elementary school teacher who creates and makes use of interdisciplinary, inquiry-based lesson plans. To qualify, teachers submit a lesson plan with fully referenced sources of information and any relevant National Science Education Standards and benchmarks found in The Atlas of Science Literacy. Since the award’s debut in 2007, NSTA has recognized six teachers (we made two awards the first year… the submissions were THAT good). We haven’t posted the lesson plans, however, so this post is an effort to rectify that shortcoming. Please click through and have a look at the winning entries, and let us know what you think in the comments area below.

2007 Winners

Jennifer Sinsel
Fifth-Grade Science Teacher
Wichita Collegiate School
Wichita, Kansas

In Sinsel’s Smart Consumers unit, students investigate the quality of household products through hands-on activities and inquiry projects that allow them to apply the concepts and skills about which they are learning. Sinsel then works with her colleagues to create interdisciplinary connections that fulfill standards in other subjects. Her students write a Consumer Reports-style article in language arts class, for example, and create spreadsheets in math class. Her principal writes, “Jennifer does all the extra projects and discovery activities that students crave…As soon as she gets one project perfected, it becomes part of the curriculum, and she immediately begins to create the next unit.”

Have a look at Sinsel’s winning lesson plan, which looks at examples of the marketing messages kids see when they watch television, and how teachers can use the tube to spark scientific inquiry in the classroom.

Peggy Carlisle
Open Doors Teacher
Pecan Park Elementary School
Jackson, Mississippi

In her Open Doors program, Carlisle brings science to life for her inner-city students through hands-on, inquiry-based activities and with funding from the many grants she has received. She uses her classroom as a haven for many fascinating creatures housed in aquariums and terrariums; students are able to observe snails, chameleons, and other wonders of nature that also motivate them to read and write about the science they are learning. Interwoven in their studies have been poems to recite and create, figurines to mold, books to publish, and amazing facts and trivia to impress parents with. “There is not a child who leaves her classroom without a love of science,” says a colleague. “It is no surprise that some of her fourth-grade students’ writing scores are among the highest in the district.”

Carlisle’s winning lesson plan looks at the structures of aquatic creatures.

2008

Jennifer Thompson
K-1 Science Teacher
Gastineau Elementary School
Juneau, Alaska

Thompson created Ramps and Marbles: An Inquiry Into the Physics of Motion for Young Children, an interdisciplinary unit that introduces science process skills to young students. Students construct ramps on which they roll marbles; they make predictions, discussion them with other students, write about and draw pictures of their observations, and count marble rolls. This unit succeeds in exciting students about learning physical science because Thompson “puts the best into practice in her classroom,” observes her principal.

Thompson’s winning lesson explores the physics of motion with an inquiry activity using ramps and marbles. It includes examples of student work.

2009

Richard Tabor
Amerman Elementary School
Northville, Michigan

Tabor encourages young scientists to apply process skills to learn through discovery and experimentation. He designed a Solar Sprint activity to challenge them to consider multiple variables, integrate math, and develop technological applications. He has presented workshops to colleagues at his school and to teachers from several educational organizations and shared his ideas through state and national publications.

In Tabor’s winning lesson, students design and build their own solar powered LEGO cars, the goal being to design the most efficient car.

2010

Cathy Kindem
Cedar Park STEM Elementary School
Apple Valley, Minnesota

Kindem’s leadership has not only inspired the students to be engaged in science learning, but the work classroom teachers do with science has been transformed.  Her work has provided the staff with the content, teaching strategies and most importantly the willingness to be innovative.  Kindem has convinced classroom teachers that it is beneficial to go beyond the “boxed” curriculum and to move students’ understanding to important science concepts. She is leading the way for successful implementation of the new standards for not only her school, but for the district and the state.

Here is Kindem’s winning lesson, which examines the types of plants living in the gardens and how they are alike and differ.

2011

Melissa Collins
John P. Freeman Optional School
Memphis,Tennessee
Elementary teacher

A Presidential Awardee and National Board-certified teacher, Collins has served on or spearheaded committees to engage parents and community members, so they can learn from and assist with experiments, evaluate students’ work, and share their expertise. She helped develop a “night out with science and math” and hosted a health fair at her school. She also created a Physics Carnival that has helped many disadvantaged students understand the physics of carnival rides.

She provides her students with field experiences; for example, when learning about sound, she arranged for her students to interview a musician. She encourages her students to think of themselves as scientists and ensures that they understand safety regulations.

Her principal says she “motivates K-8 students to participate in science fairs, plant gardens, and take nature walks to observe living and nonliving things. She takes the initiative to ensure students’ success.”

Have a look at Collins’ winning lesson and some examples of student work. In the course of the lesson, students are expected to create an instrument that produces a sound. The instruments will be: a tambourine, sand blocks, maracas, a drum, and a guitar. To motivate students, they can bring items from home.

2012

Sergio de Alba
RM Miano Elementary School
Los Banos, California
Elementary teacher

De Alba has received many awards, including the Amgen Award for Science Teaching Excellence and the Entomological Society of America Foundation President’s Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Primary Education. His love for science has inspired him to create schoolwide programs that help students succeed in school and in life. For example, his inquiry-based Arachnid Mania research program has enabled thousands of students to learn the science behind arachnids. His Outdoor Science Lab Gardens provide students of all grade levels with hands-on lessons on plant science, history, math, and language arts. And his “Doctor Is In” club affords the school’s top science students a vision of a future in medicine.

“His extraordinary drive and dedication to the success of the youth of Los Banos is unparalleled,” declares his principal. By the end of his first year at his school, “he was able to raise the $35,000 required to create the first of his 12 outdoor science labs and had singlehandedly developed a research program that inspired 15 teachers to adopt…Though our district does not have the budget to pay him for his extra efforts, he has maintained and continues his programs because he believes in what he is doing. Throughout the years, he has found great success with getting local businesses to help his causes. He has won many grants that have helped to create the infrastructure of his programs, and when other funds are needed, he pays for many things out of his own pocket.”

Give de Alba’s lesson a try. It also includes some samples of student work, through which students show a basic foundation of how plants change (adapt) to increase their chances of survival and continued success.

The USA Science and Engineering Festival had something for everyone this weekend—information, experiences, fun and challenges for scientists young and old.

I learned about the senses through the “Science of Our Senses” exhibit activities by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. By smelling, people can have different perceptions of the same compound, that is, things may not smell the same to different people. Data was collected by age and intensity of the perceived smell on the Smell Board to see if any trends developed. Listening to a “Shepard Tone” sounds like it’s rising endlessly because our brain doesn’t notice that other rising tones come up from the depths to take our focus away from the tone that rose out of our hearing range. The sense of touch activity involved identifying shapes by touch. The sense of sight was illustrated by optical illusions. 

The National Science Teachers Association tables had a steady stream of visitors making soda straw rockets, a sense of touch materials science challenge, a center-of-gravity activity to balance a butterfly, a loop plane (see page 48), as well as an activity involving a hairdryer blowing toilet paper and one with a big jar of cheese balls (your guess is as good as mine, I wish I had participated!).

The volunteers staffing a National Institute of Health booth were using models to teach about the structure of the human brain. Visitors lined up to look through a window into the Crew Module of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. And Ms Frizzle brought the Magic School Bus to the Festival.

It was wonderful to see so many families spending time together learning, and to meet teachers who came from places like NYC and California just for the Festival.

Next year I hope to go both days.

Peggy

The Early Years blog will broaden its voice by having occasional guest bloggers. Marie Faust Evitt joins us today. She is the head teacher of a preschool class for four- and five-year-olds, and leads an “Adventure Day” class in Mountain View, California. She has written for newspapers and journals* and is the author of Thinking Big, Learning Big, a book of science activities aligned with national standards in literacy, math, and science. She posts wonderful photographs and writes about her classroom activities on Facebook. *A Web of Learning, Science & Children September 2011 

Spring is in full bloom here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’ve discovered that when I’m out walking with my nature fieldtrip class the children are much more excited about seeing wildflowers when they are looking for a few specific flowers as if it were a treasure hunt. And they are quicker to notice the flowers if we have talked about the flower names ahead of time and come up with, gestures to remember them.

For example, Pacific hound’s tongue is an early woodland flower with delicate blue flowers. The name comes from two characteristics – the leaves look like a dog’s tongue hanging out, and the seed pods look like the surface of a tongue. I tell the children that when we see hound’s tongue we’ll stick out our tongues and pant like a dog. We all look silly, and they remember the name of the plant.

We remember trillium by holding up three fingers because trillium has three big leaves and three magenta petals, like a tricycle has three wheels. (Click on the photos to see the larger photographs.)

These gestures help me remember the names of the California flowers myself since I grew up in Connecticut with buttercups and Queen Anne’s lace. I had learned to recognize buttercups by the old saying that if you held the flower under your chin on a sunny day and your chin showed a yellow reflection it meant you like butter. Folklore, yes, but I remembered the name of that cheerful yellow flower when I saw it again here, years later. It was like greeting an old friend! Buttercups!! I just discovered the science behind the lore.

As beautiful as the wildflowers are, we have the rule that during class we don’t pick any flowers so they can go to seed and make food for the wildlife and new flowers for the next year. Know your students—if you have any concerns that a particularly curious child might taste one of the flowers, talk about the “No Taste” rule too and stay close to that child. Check this site to learn more about your local wildflowers http://wildflowerinformation.org/.

Reading books about wildflowers adds to the learning. My preschoolers like hearing The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by Tommie de Paulo and Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. Elemenatry school children will enjoy Miss Lady Bird’s Wildflowers by Kathi Appelt, the story of Lady Bird Johnson’s love of wildflowers.

Happy spring! Marie Faust Evitt

We didn’t have enough wire so we re-used cardboard tubes, empty boxes, egg cartons, and plastic jar lids to create toys called “Galimotos” in the Malawian children’s tradition as recounted in the children’s book, Galimoto by Karen Lynn Williams and illustrated by Catherine Stock. Galimoto means “car” in Chichewa, the national language of Malawi and many, but not all, of our creations were vehicles. The small group of kindergarten and first grade girls drew their designs and then built their own toy to take home in a one hour library sponsored program.

A third grade lesson plan (with additional links) from LEARN NC from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill describes this activity as an “opportunity to engage in creative self-expression by designing and creating wire sculptures.”  It is also an opportunity to understand the iterative practices of engineering—a cycle of ask, imagine, plan, create, improve, ask, imagine….See the Engineering Is Elementary website for more details of this process.

Some of the problems the children had to solve were how to attach wheels, balancing the vehicle to keep it upright, and holding the pieces together. These significant challenges did not discourage the young engineers who tried alternative designs or accepted their work with its limitations.

I’d also like to read Lorato and her Wire Car by Botswanian author Lauri Kubuitsile. It won the Golden Baobab Prize Best Story for ages 8-11 years in 2009. It is published by Vivlia Publishers. Can you think of any other books that tell of children designing and building something out of found materials?

An hour-long program just isn’t enough time to create a toy that works satisfactorily. I hope the children will continue to design and improve, imagine and create, until they are happy with their designs.

Peggy

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

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

Yesterday at the NSTA national conference was my treat for myself—the CESI Engineering Is Elementary Day. My father was a metallurgist, and later a ceramist. He was good at figuring out ways to fix things and understanding the properties of materials. I looked forward to learning more about his field in a way that I can use in mine, early childhood education, and I was not disappointed!

We were given a guided tour of what engineers do by doing engineering ourselves under the guidance of Sharlene Yang, professional development director and Katy Laguzza, senior curriculum/research assistant of Engineering Is Elementary at the Boston Museum of Science, and Family Engineering founders Mia Jackson and David Heil. And we met a real, live engineer who gave an inspiring talk about how to grow up to be an engineer, NASA engineer Heather Paul who is the lead engineer for the future spacesuit life support system design. (As part of her work Heather got to meet LeVar Burton of Star Trek and Reading Rainbow fame so you know I’m jealous.) If you are an elementary teacher these programs are designed for your students and their families. If you are a birth-to-preK teacher, get their materials for your own education and look for materials for the very young children coming from Family Engineering at some time in the future.

As I look over the sessions for the NSTA 2012 national conference, I see that I will have to revise my thinking about sessions labeled General Science Elementary or K-8. For a while I found that what was being presented was more appropriately called “Grades 3-5 and you can adjust it for younger students” but now I’m finding them more appropriate to early childhood than previously.  Take a look at this session: the presenter has uploaded activity plans for preK- grade 5. Thank you Sharon Anibal for including preK!

Thursday, March 29 8:00–9:00 AM Indiana Convention Center, 212

Everybody Loves I.N.D.Y.C.A.R.S. (Incredible New Discoveries You Can Achieve Really Simply)!

Are you tired of driving in circles with the same old boring lessons? Zoom ahead of the pack and take the lead with these proven K–5 inquiry-based lessons. Presenter(s): Sharon R. Anibal (Missouri Botanical Garden: St. Louis, MO)

Where will you be today and tomorrow? If you’re at the conference, let other early childhood teachers know about sessions appropriate for this level.

Peggy

Don’t you just hate it when multiple conference sessions you want to attend are occurring simultaneously, or several blocks away from one another? If you are an elementary teacher, the “Elementary Extravaganza” will give you a break! In this event, coming up this Friday, March 30, 2012, 8:00–9:30 AM in the 500 Ballroom, Indiana Convention Center, you’ll find tons of elementary-focused presentations, all in the same place. In addition to a share-a-thon, there will be information tables and resources galore. Come have a coffee and a roll and peruse the elementary offerings–there will even be door prizes!

Some of the presenters have already posted their materials online, so you’ll be able to download materials once you are back home. Search “Elementary Extravaganza” in the conference personal scheduler to access these materials.

Organizations participating in the Elementary Extravaganza include the Association of Presidential Awardees in Science Teaching, the Council for Elementary Science International, the NSTA Committee on Preschool–Elementary Science Teaching, Science and Children authors and reviewers, and the Society of Elementary Presidential Awardees.