Featured speaker Larry Lowery’s lively presentation at the San Francisco NSTA conference highlighted research findings about how children learn to inspire teachers to incorporate new practices in their classrooms. Lowery encouraged teachers to further expand students’ opportunities to learn and explore using their various senses. He showed a functional MRI image to illustrate the lit-up [...]
You never know who you might meet in the airport. Another NSTA staffer and I were waiting for our flight at Dulles and discussing our plans to put our soon-to-be kindergartners in a Spanish immersion program. A woman in a nearby seat piped up that she’d had 4 children go through such a program, and [...]
With the conference being two weeks away, I’ll review some suggestions for first-timers. At this point, you should be registered, have arrangements for lodging and transportation, and have your lesson plans ready for the substitute. Consider attending the first-timers session on the first day. This year, Dr. Christine Royce is hosting the session twice on [...]
The March 10-13, 2011 National Science Teachers Association’s national conference in San Francisco promises many good sessions for early childhood (preK-2) teachers as well as for the older grades. Take a look at the preliminary schedule on the NSTA conference website and read more about these sessions, just a few of the many offered:
I just got back from the NSTA area conference in Kansas City, Missouri, and I’d like to try presenting. My colleagues and I have some successful ideas we’d like to share, but I’m a little nervous about submitting a proposal and actually doing a presentation. Any suggestions?—Ally, Omaha, Nebraska It’s ironic: we spend more than [...]
From beginning to end, the National Association for the Education of Young Children 2010 annual conference in collaboration with National Black Child Development Institute offered meaty sessions on early childhood science curriculum. Of course, science curriculum goes nowhere without a good foundation in the early childhood classroom environment, social-emotional development, circle time, understanding and supporting [...]
The National Association for the Education of Young Children‘s annual conference has plenty of sessions about teaching science to young children, so many that I am going to have to make some tough decisions about which to attend. Fortunately, presenters can upload their handouts to the NAEYC website so I can look there to get [...]
The on-site Science Store at the Kansas City Area Conference has been bustling. Books and gear items garnering a lot of attention include John Haysom and Michael Bowen’s new NSTA Press book Predict, Observe, Explain: Activities Enhancing Scientific Understanding and Michael Klentschy’s Using Science Notebooks in Middle School. Susan Koba and Anne Tweed’s Hard-to-Teach Biology [...]
On an appropriately blustery morning in Kansas City, the short course “Wind Energy for the Science Classroom,” led by Joe Rand of The KidWind Project in St. Paul, MN, supplied participants with background information and sample classroom lessons on the rapidly growing field of wind energy. Joe began with an overview of where the industry [...]
…and you’re wondering what to bring, what not to bring, which sessions to attend, where to stay, and in general, how to enjoy and make the most of your time in Kansas City (or Baltimore or Nashville). Not to worry–you’ve got mentors.
