Tag Archives: standards

Conceptual Framework for New Science Education Standards, draft ready for our review

Teachers of K-12, including early childhood educators, we have until August 2nd, 2010 to comment on the preliminary public draft of the Conceptual Framework for New Science Education Standards Here are a few paragraphs from the beginning of the document to get you interested: “This document is an interim draft of a report from a [...]
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Educational technology standards

I had an interesting conversation with some teachers about technology skills for the 21st century. Many years ago in the last century (the mid 1980s), when personal computers were emerging into the schools, we had similar discussions and made up lists of skills we thought would take our students into the future. Looking back at [...]
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Learning from the experience of others

As the revision of the national science education standards gets started, many educators, administrators, parents, and other community members will be concerned not just the final product, but how the final product will be decided. Henry Kepner, Jr., president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, shared his observations from the development of the [...]
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Once Upon a Life Science Book: 12 Interdisciplinary Activities to Create Confident Readers

As the great Dr. Seuss once said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” In Jodi Wheeler-Toppen’s new book, Interdisciplinary Activities to Create Confident Readers, she utilizes the parallels between how people learn science and how people become better readers. This [...]
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Three creative, committed, and caring awardees

Meet three 2010 NSTA Teacher Award recipients who represent science teaching at its best.
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Exemplary science program monograph series

This series from NSTA Press has focused on meeting the reforms central to the National Science Education Standards. NSTA members are invited to volunteer to serve as members of the National Review Team for future monographs.
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Peering into students’ “private universe”

Get some insight on students’ “Private Universe” in Philadelphia. You’ll find sessions addressing misconceptions at all grade levels, in a range of science fields.
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Magnifiers

Did I tell you how happy I was to see the returning three-year old students use magnifiers appropriately? Because this half-day preschool for 2-5-year-olds had moved to a new space over the summer, the “usual place” for everything had to be determined. It is one thing to design a preschool in a set of rooms [...]
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Are children getting enough direct experience with natural materials?

There has been an interesting discussion going on among the middle and high school science teachers on the NSTA General Science email list about the lack of direct experience in their students’ background. Some have suggested that early childhood and elementary schools are not laying the groundwork for the later learning. One teacher said, “I [...]
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What science should we teach in early childhood?

I’m interested in your opinions on what should be included in early childhood science standards. We don’t want to underestimate the abilities of young children to understand relationships in natural systems, nor overestimate their ability to understand the concepts of a “fair” test or the importance of collecting data. Many states have early learning standards, [...]
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