Category Archives: The Leading Edge

Connect with leaders on the national level. Click on a headline to read the entire post.

What will we do, where will we go with the NGSS?

On Tuesday, April 9, the final Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), a new set of voluntary, rigorous, and internationally benchmarked standards for K—12 science education, were released. For more information on this document and the release of the NGSS, please read the press release.  Also, if you haven’t yet downloaded your copy of the NGSS, [...]

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Incorporating the History of Science

In the most recent issue of the Leaders Letter, one of the features includes a discussion about the new NOVA Series which is appearing on PBS. The Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers which is developed and produced by PBS as part of the NOVA Series has a wonderful website that provides short informative and [...]

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Your favorite professional development opportunity

This month’s topic for Continuing the Conversation focuses on discussing your favorite professional development opportunity that you participated in during your career. These could be online for face to face courses, a seminar, institute, fellowship or workshop—is it still available? How do people apply? Why should they apply? I have been fortunate in my career—and [...]

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Teaching with current events

In this month’s Leaders Letter, the topic for the building content area focused on the recent record setting sky (or should we say space) jump conducted by Felix Baumgartner. The undertaking was sponsored by Red Bull Stratos which has a history of sponsoring extreme sports.  For more information on their Mission to the Edge of Space [...]

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And the definition is??? Defining 21st century skills

Based on many different sectors requests to have schools integrate skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, and problem solving into academic subjects, the term of 21st century skills surfaced several years ago and has been promoted throughout the educational, political, and business arenas in recent years.  Usually the mantra goes something like –we need to [...]

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A point well taken about the Leading Edge

The Leading Edge is a blog that asks those involved in science education leadership whether that be administrators, policy makers, supervisors, state leaders to continue the conversation on something that was presented in the recent issue of The Leaders Letter, an e-newsletter that is a joint project of the National Science Teachers Association and the [...]

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The place of inquiry in the reform of science education

The National Science Education Standards use the word “inquiry” in two ways. It was to be a form of content while also being a way science must be taught. Some argue that the term inquiry needs to have “scientific” in front of it (that is, scientific inquiry) before it has real meaning and use in [...]

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How professional development programs can model science

No one is against Professional Development (PD) for science teachers. But, how it is typically structured remains a major problem. Not many Professional Development efforts outline how the PD can be structured as an example of science itself. Professional Development efforts, even those funded by NSF and offered by organizations like the National Science Teachers [...]

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Does “hands-on” indicate real reforms of science teaching?

Too often the reform of science for K-12 students is described as being “hands-on.” Analyses of the “Hands-On” ideas for classrooms seem to miss how and why hands-on actually does not define needed reforms adequately. Hands-on often become merely directions students are expected to follow. Teacher directions also often refer to specific information included in [...]

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Is science literacy an appropriate major goal for science education?

–Occasional commentary by Robert E. Yager (NSTA President, 1982-1983) Science Literacy is widely used as an important goal for science teaching. The term Popularity and Relevance of Science Education for Scientific Literacy (PARSEL) in Europe is used to indicate science reforms for every K-12 classroom; the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) in the U.S. lists [...]

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