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Documenting science investigations in preschool: Solar eclipse and butterfly metamorphosis
Thank you to the director, Sandra Redmore, and the teachers of Clarendon Child Care Center, Andria Shelton, Barbara Foster, and Sarah Abu-El-Hawa, for sharing their teaching practices and science explorations!...
By Peggy Ashbrook
Blog Post
When students miss a lab activity, what are some meaningful ways they can make up the work? — R., Oregon Most students don’t want to miss lab investigations, but when they do, it can affect their learning in the rest of the unit. Finding time...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
Seeking a New Way to Assess Science at All Levels
The word assessment can prompt feelings of dread, mistrust, or outright hate in many teachers. That’s distressing, as quality instruction includes quality assessment. Unfortunately, we have allowed assessment to become the “tail that wags the dog...
By Cindy Workosky
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Kentucky’s Systems Approach to Assessing Three-Dimensional Standards
One thing is clear about our multi-dimensional standards: They require a complex and thoughtful approach to assessment. No single, conventional, summative test can be expected to provide reliable data sufficient enough to satisfy the demands of all p...
By Cindy Workosky
Blog Post
Focusing on Instruction to Improve My School
How do you envision science education in your classroom? Your school? Your district? In hectic life of a modern educator, it is easy to become overwhelmed by the initiatives, expectations, and pressures of our profession. As a first-year high sc...
By Cindy Workosky
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Ideas and inspiration from NSTA’s September 2017 K-12 journals
Commentary: Reasoning Versus Post-Truth in The Science Teacher is an important read in a time when dependence on unverified information from social media seems to be more prevalent than using trusted sources that value reasoning....
By Mary Bigelow
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Ed News: Critics Say Proposed NM Science Standards Omit Evolution, Climate Change
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By Kate Falk
Blog Post
The Vernier Three-Axis Magnetic Field Sensor: A Magic Wand for Magnets
What could be better than one anisotropic magnetoresistance magnetic field sensor? How about three anisotropic magnetoresistance magnetic field sensors and a Hall effect sensor as well! Pack them all into a lightweight watertight housing with a rech...
By Martin Horejsi
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Protecting Students From Fires
In 2015, the National Fire Protection Association released a revised version of NFPA 45 that included a new chapter titled “Educational and Instructional Laboratory Operations,” which applies to K–12 school laboratories. The new chapter provide...
By Kenneth Roy
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Enhancing Google Sheets for the Classroom
Among the most commonly used tools in the science classroom are those that allow students to collect and manipulate data, including Microsoft Excel, Graphical Analysis, and Google Sheets. This month, we focus on one of the benefits of Google Sheets ...
By sstuckey
Blog Post
Health Wise: Be Prepared for Opioid Overdoses
In light of the national opioid epidemic, schools need to be prepared in case a student overdoses. Consider:...
By sstuckey
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Is Quality PD the Goal of STEM Certification? Here's What the AACT Has to Say
For anyone who isn’t yet familiar with The American Association of Chemistry Teachers (AACT), here’s a bit about who we are. We’re 4,500 members strong, though we’ve only been around for three years. Most of us are teachers, and some are othe...
By Guest Blogger
Blog Post
My fourth-grade students like doing hands-on science activities. How can I get them to focus on the activity rather than socializing? —C., West Virginia You want students to enjoy the activity and talk with each other, but students need to understa...
By Mary Bigelow
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Off the Deep End: Reflections on my time as a NOAA Teacher at Sea
Sunset/Sunrise over a fjord in Kodiak, Alaska...
By Korei Martin
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Commentary: Reasoning Versus Post-truth
Nicolaus Copernicus’s heliocentric model of the universe was reasoned from evidence but conflicted with popular beliefs of the day....
By sstuckey
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Natural phenomena: awe inspiring and trauma inducing
Guest blogger Carrie Lynne Draper joins me in writing this post about supporting children affected by natural disasters....
By Peggy Ashbrook
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Focus on Physics: Eight Tips for New (and not so new) Teachers
Being a teacher can be a wonderful experience. Making it so is greatly aided by qualities that you can acquire. Needless to say, you must know your subject and be able to explain it well. Beyond that are traits and practices that make the difference ...
By sstuckey
Blog Post
Senate Restores $2 Billion Teacher Training Fund
Congress returned to D.C. after Labor Day and immediately started work to fund the government, raise the federal borrowing limit and supply relief funds to disaster victims....
By Jodi Peterson
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Answers to Your Questions About NSTA's District Professional Learning Packages
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By Carole Hayward
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I’m looking for ideas to get to know my students better and interact with them. My head spins with six different groups of students each day. –M., Maryland You may have heard the idea that students don’t care what you know until they ...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
A Vanderbilt University Scientist in the Classroom Partnership fellow helps middle school students in the Nashville, Tennessee, area test their car design for speed....
By Debra Shapiro
Blog Post
Ed News: Teacher Shortages Affecting Every State As 2017-18 School Year Begins
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By Kate Falk
Blog Post
Early-in-the-school-year science experiences to support later explorations
When children and teachers are just getting used to being at school and with each other, open-ended experiences can help bring joy to what may be a stressful time. Simple science experiences involve open exploration and build foundations for later sc...
By Peggy Ashbrook
Blog Post
What Goes Into STEM Certification? STEM Orgs Weigh In
What if you are an experienced science teacher but you have limited knowledge of engineering? Or you are an administrator looking for the most qualified person to fill a vacancy in your STEM lab? What if you are a preservice teacher and are intereste...
By Guest Blogger
Blog Post
A total solar eclipse is seen on Monday, August 21, 2017 above Madras, Oregon. (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)...
By Peggy Ashbrook
Blog Post
I see many good activities for middle school involving plants, but what if students already did something similar at the elementary level? I don’t want to spend time on duplicate activities or get the eye-roll “we already did this.” —M., Ariz...
By Mary Bigelow
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Collaborating to Improve Performance Expectations
Jessica Tetreault and I were the only two middle school teachers at a recent conference, so we were paired to create a common performance assessment that we could both use with our students in the coming months. She volunteered to share an assessment...
By Cindy Workosky
Blog Post
Gravitational Interactions and 3-D Learning in Middle School
I recently embarked on a journey with K–8 teachers in Vermont to learn how to be intentional about planning for three-dimensional (3-D) learning in the classroom....
By Cindy Workosky
Blog Post
It's Elementary: Investigating Student Work
Teachers wear many hats in the classroom. We are doctors, therapists, IT technicians, politicians, and entertainers, but the one hat we wear that is essential for student learning is the detective’s hat. As detectives, we gather and analyze evidenc...
By Cindy Workosky
Blog Post
It is truly an exciting time in science education. Science educators across the country are adapting to a new vision of how students learn science guided by the Framework for K–12 Science Education (Framework). As a result, science instruction is c...
By Cindy Workosky
Blog Post
I will start teaching in an elementary school this year. When I looked in what will be my future my classroom, but I didn’t see supplies or equipment for teaching science. What can I do now? – —G., Michigan...
By Mary Bigelow
Blog Post
Unparalleled Student Experiences through the NASA Educator Workshop
During July 2001, I along with 24 science educators from 15 states attended the NASA Educator Workshop (NEW) at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The two-week program was a NASA Headquarters initiative managed by NSTA, and coordina...
By Korei Martin