 | | May 8, 2017 |
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| | Listen to the Lab Out Loud podcast this week. SciStarter founder Darlene Cavalier shares ideas for Citizen Science Day (happening through May 20). Citizen scientists can catch clouds with an app, document road kill, and fight Alzheimer's with an online game! |  |
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| | Sign up by Friday, May 12, for earlybird registration for the 6th Annual STEM Forum & Expo, hosted by NSTA. This one-of-a-kind PD experience is the only event this year that brings together the top STEM education organizations. The Forum keynote speaker will be Derek Muller, best known for creating the leading science YouTube channel, Veritasium. Join us in Kissimmee/Orlando, July 12–14. | |
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| | Seven months into the fiscal year, and with a day to spare before the federal government would have shut down, Congress has passed a FY2017 appropriations bill. Read more in this issue of the NSTA Legislative Update. | |
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| | Combine elementary level science and literacy instruction—and now technology, engineering, and math, as well—with Picture-Perfect Science. Register for the city that works best for you and participate in model lessons that combine STEM and literacy with authors Karen Ansberry and Emily Morgan. Learn more. | |
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| | Three teams of middle school students from Florida, New Jersey and Connecticut have been named national winners in the 2017 Bright Schools Competition™. Students on the first-place national winning team received a cash prize of $5,000; second-place students received $2,500; and third-place students received $1,500. The coach/teacher from each winning team also received a prize package. Congratulations to all of the national winners! | |
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| | Join us Wednesday, May 10, from 6:30 to 8:00 pm ET for our newest NGSS web seminar (How Do I Promote Student Discourse?), geared toward helping you foster a climate that promotes meaningful student discourse. | |
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| | How do you teach students to differentiate between science fact and science fiction? Are they able to compare "what pops up on Facebook" to legitimate science news sources like the National Science Foundation? NSTA Reports has the scoop on what real teachers are doing to combat fake news. | |
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| | Connected Science Learning (CSL) is an online publication of NSTA and the Association of Science-Technology Centers that bridges the gap between in-school and out-of-school science learning. CSL is seeking manuscripts for its fifth and sixth issues (STEM Learning in Environmental Settings and STEM Learning Through Citizen Science Experiences, respectively). | |
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| | How are we changing the ocean's dynamics and what are the impacts of these changes on our world? Attend NSTA's Virtual Conference happening this Saturday, May 13, to learn about how ocean temperatures and chemistry are changing, and how these changes affect corals and other marine species, including their habitats and distributions...and many more takeaways. Learn more about the conference, presenters, and agenda. If you're not able to make it, you can still register and have access to all of the recordings. Register today and enjoy coffee and professional learning from your own couch. | |
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| | | | | This role-play activity from the Environmental Protection Agency helps students understand how polluted waters affect the food chain and how fish become contaminated—and unsafe to eat—as pollutants accumulate up the food chain. |
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| | | | | The coloring book, for preschool and kindergarten children, introduces renewable energy sources and takes the student through solar, wind, water, hydropower, bioenergy, and geothermal before demonstrating ways to improve energy efficiency. The activity book, for middle level and high school students, features word games, math puzzles, and more challenging ways to help students understand the principles of energy literacy, energy efficiency, and renewable energy. |
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| | | | | Use this lesson plan, student worksheets, and a sanctuary system map to introduce students to the national marine sanctuaries in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and off the coast of American Samoa. In studying their biodiversity, ecology, and cultural legacy, students can begin to understand the interdependence of living things on our planet and its importance. |
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| | So far, there's been little talk about how parents have reacted to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). But states are preparing to give students tests aligned to the NGSS—next spring, in many places. And as testing pressure mounts, so might questions from parents about the new ways their students are being taught. Achieve, the group that led the development of the science standards, is working to head off misconceptions about the standards. The group recently released a series of parent guides that explain how science instruction is changing and why. Read the article featured in Education Week. |
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| | The lights will stay on in the federal government, and also in the countless laboratories and universities that depend on federal funding for scientific and medical research. That's one upshot of the bipartisan budget deal congressional negotiators reached on Sunday, April 30. The bill, numbering more than 1,600 pages, is likely to pass both houses of Congress and be signed into law by President Trump this week. It covers funding through September. Read the article featured in the Washington Post. |
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| | Evolution and creationism taught side-by-side. Climate change presented as a controversial hypothesis. If these proposed bills in Florida pass before the end the legislative session next month, the fate of science education in some school districts would be threatened. Two new bills—one passed in the house, and one making its way through the senate—give anyone, not just parents, the ability to question teaching materials in a school district and receive a public hearing with an "unbiased and qualified hearing officer." Read the article featured in Motherboard. |
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