On behalf of the staff of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and our leadership team, I would like to thank the following members of our Board, Council, Standing Committees, Advisory Boards, and Panels whose terms of appointment end on May 31, 2016. NSTA has been busy this year promoting the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards,  working on the NSTA Strategic Goals, and helping me to promote my theme: Developing Creative Attitudes in Science.  NSTA is very fortunate to have dedicated members who volunteer their time to promote NSTA and its mission.  I am honored to have worked with all mentioned below as we advocate for science educators and build new leaders.  So to all of you on the list below, I say “Thank You” and I look forward to working with you in new capacities in the years to come.

Retiring Committee, Advisory Board, and Review Panel Members

College: Sally Harms, Sarah Haines, Christie Orlosky, Cindi Smith-Walters

Coordination: Kelly Price, Christopher Duvall, David Miller, Matthew Stolz

High School: Beverly DeVore-Wedding, Sharla Dowding, Karen Higuera, Brian Olsen

Informal: Stacy Glatz, Miriam Musco, Kelly Riedinger

Middle Level: Fran Hess, John Milam, Kitchka Petrova

Multicultural: Margaret Helen Carter, S. Maxwell Hines, Sami Kahn

Preschool-Elementary: Conni Crittenden, Jessica Fries-Gaiter, Jessie Kelly

Preservice: David Crowther, Cynthia Gardner, Kira Heeschen, Chris Ohana, Michael Troop

NSTA Teacher Accreditation: Cathy Gardner

Prof Development: Julie Luft, Christopher Soldat, Eric Walters

Research: Pamela Auburn, Anne Farley Schoeffler, Lise Whitfield

Audit: Paul Keidel

Awards: Linda Kennedy, Karen Nesbit, Jennifer Pritchard, James Puckett, Pat Shane

Budget: Susan Koba

Nominations: Bonnie Brunkhorst, Sharla Dowding, Herbert Dyasi, Barbara Pietrucha, Julie Thomas

Advisory Boards

Aerospace: David Black, Caroline d’Otreppe, Pamela Evans

Conference: Monica Ellis

Development: Barbara Pietrucha

International: Kathleen Horstmeyer, Teresa Kennedy, Edarlin Pagarigan, Kathryn Elkins

Investment: Jean May-Brett, Joseph Holm

JCST: Megan Litster, Barry Thompson

NSTA Reports: Mike Szydlowski, Barbara Thorp, Susan Locke

Retired: Susan Clay, Joyce Gleason, Deb Wickerham

Science and Children: Neporcha Cone, Wendy Frazier, Terri Hebert

Science Matters: Stephen Bartlett, Michelle Brand-Buchanan, Jean May-Brett

Science Safety: Theresa Curry, James Kaufman

Science Scope: Ekka Bowling, Kelly Chaney, Karen Jo Matsler

Special Needs: Jennifer Purcell-Coleman, Melissa Sleeper, Cheryl White

Technology: Gregory Benedis-Grab, Stephen Bock, Ben Smith

TST: Michael Brinkman, Carrie Jones

Urban Science: Selina Bartekls, Trudy C. Giasi, Michael Matthews

CBC: Conni Crittenden, Delene Hoffner, Linda Schoen Giddings

New Science Teachers: John Clark, Sumi Hagiwara, Michael Lowry

Shell: J. Carrie Launius, Ruth Ruud, Tamica A. Stubbs

NSTA members who are interested in volunteering for a position on one our committees, advisory boards, or review panels can find more information on our Committees page online.

Dr. Carolyn Hayes is the president of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). She began serving her one-year term on June 1, 2015. Dr. Hayes is a retired high school biology teacher from Greenwood, Indiana. Hayes earned a B.S. degree in biology from Indiana University in 1973, a M.S. degree in secondary education from Indiana University in 1976, and an Ed.D. in secondary education and biology from Indiana University in 2005. 

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

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All students can benefit from the Maker Mindset, which encourages students to believe they can learn to do anything. The Maker Movement is a resurgence of creating and making things by people of all ages and backgrounds. Learning through “making” can happen across a range of contexts and curricular areas and can be leveraged for inspiration and powerful student engagement.

Making can happen in a variety of places that might be labeled “maker spaces,” such as libraries, classrooms, museums, homes, or garages. But they don’t have to be labeled spaces—innovation and creating can happen on a table in a classroom. Some maker spaces may have the newest technological toys such as a 3D printer or laser cutter, but this is also not necessary; the focus in this design learning is not on the tools but on the process and product. 

This approach is close in heart to the constructivist- and constructionist-based design work that focuses on engaging participants in learning content and process. This work provides students the opportunity to experience the hands-on intersection of critical thinking, engineering, computer science, circuitry, art, math, technology, and innovation.

Building Up to the Maker Movement

I have been a special services teacher and a regular classroom teacher for total of 31 years. I worked as an Einstein Fellow in DC at the National Science Foundation in 2012–2013 and became very involved with the Maker Movement in that year. I now work as a Science Technology Engineering and Math Outreach Coordinator and work with students and teachers doing STEM activities with a Maker emphasis, sharing all I learned in my fellowship as well as in my classroom practice. I have been extremely impressed with the enthusiastic participation of the students and teachers that I have worked with in the past two years in this role.

In these experiences, I have seen that students who have learning challenges are as engaged and as successful as any other learner, and often have unique and innovative perspectives and solutions to the design task at hand.  Classroom teachers are excited to see their students’ involvement and investment in this learning as well. I work with the teachers and students for one to three sessions and provide the materials for the times I am there.  I offer ideas and resource lists for teachers to follow up with and also give students (at the students’ request) sources where they can get materials for continued making. It is amazing how contagious learning through making can be for everyone!

There are many ways to do this in a low–tech, low budget, with an easy-access on ramp to making. Two books I highly recommend to get you started are:

• Invent to Learn, Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom by Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary Stager, Ph.D. (Chapter 14, Resources to Explore, gives you sources by topics and is worth the price of the book alone!)
• The Art of Tinkering, by Karen Wilkinson and Mike Petrich.  (This is put out by the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and they have a great website: http://tinkering.exploratorium.edu/projects )

I wish you a happy final stretch of the school year and an exciting launch into or continued endeavors with Maker education. It is a fantastic way to ignite learning in our classrooms and beyond. The intellectual development that happens through direct, hands-on experience with creating and tinkering is empowering and something we can offer all students!

Author Sheryl Sotelo is a STEM outreach coordinator and educator in Alaska; contact Sotelo at sherylsotelo@gmail.com. This blog is part of a series being published by NSTA’s Special Needs Advisory board, the charge of which is to “Advise NSTA standing committees and NSTA headquarters regarding support for members with special needs and for teachers of students with special needs; make recommendations to the Executive Director and the Board of Directors regarding issues and projects related to special education.” Teresa M. Fulk is the board chair and can be contacted at fulkt@gcsnc.com with questions about the work NSTA does with this community.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

Future NSTA Conferences

5th Annual STEM Forum & Expo, hosted by NSTA

• Denver, Colorado: July 27–29

2017 Area Conferences

• Baltimore, Maryland: October 5–7
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin: November 9–11
• New Orleans, Louisiana: November 30–December 2

National Conferences

• Los Angeles, California: March 30–April 2, 2017
• Atlanta, Georgia: March 15–18, 2018
• St. Louis, Missouri: April 11–14, 2019
• Boston, Massachusetts: March 26–29, 2020
• Chicago, Illinois: April 8–11, 2021

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Update on Every Student Succeeds Act

Almost 200 teachers and science leaders tuned into the NSTA Learning Center webinar last week on the new federal education law (ESSA), co-hosted by NSTA and the National Science Education Leadership Association (NSELA). You can find the powerpoint from the webinar here and learn more about the new federal education law here.

As states gear up for implementation of ESSA, more heated debate around the regulatory language for ESSA’s supplement-not-supplant provision, which says that federal Title I funds for low income students must be in addition to, and not take the place of, state and local spending on K-12. (Drafts of the regulations are in circulation, however the Department of Education (ED) is expected to officially release regulations for comment on accountability, state plans, supplement-not-supplant and assessments this summer.) Education Week reports that a recent Congressional Research Service report on ED’s proposed regulations are outside of the statutory language that ESSA allows.

Republicans (and unions) are concerned that ED officials would violate the new law by requiring districts to use a school-level test of expenditures to show compliance with supplement-not-supplant, which could ultimately mean monitoring teacher salaries when calculating how much schools receive.    Many Democrats believe this provision will provide an important tool to ensure the new federal law provides equity. Senator Lamar Alexander, a chief architect of the new federal education law, recently said that the Education Department has been “deceitful” in trying to force equity through implementation of the new education law.

Ed Groups Rally for ESSA Title IV Block Grants

NSTA joined over 75 organizations last week for a press conference and rally on Capitol Hill urging Congressional appropriators to fully fund Title IV, Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). 

Congress authorized this flexible ESSA block grant, known as Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grant, at $1.65 billion for FY 2017.  Congressional appropriators are now working to provide funding amounts for this and other FY2017 federal education programs.  The Title IV grants will provide funding to districts for activities in three broad areas:

1) Providing students with a well-rounded education (e.g. college and career counseling, STEM, arts, civics, IB/AP)

2) Supporting safe and healthy students (e.g. comprehensive school mental health, drug and violence prevention, training on trauma-informed practices, health and physical education) and

3) Supporting the effective use of technology (professional development, blended learning, and devices).

Specifically, in regards to the use of Title IV A funds for STEM, districts and states can use grant monies to expand high-quality STEM courses; increase access to STEM for underserved and at risk student populations; support the participation of students in STEM nonprofit competitions (such as robotics, science research, invention, mathematics, computer science, and technology competitions); provide hands-on learning opportunities in STEM; integrate other academic subjects, including the arts, into STEM subject programs; create or enhance STEM specialty schools; integrate classroom based and afterschool and informal STEM instruction;  and expand environmental education.  

Myra Thayer, Prek-12 Science Coordinator, Fairfax County Public Schools, was NSTA’s guest speaker at the press event. She told participants that “Providing students with hands-on learning opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), increasing access for underserved students, and integrating afterschool STEM experiences with classroom-based learning will improve instruction and student engagement in these fields. It’s critical that Congress fully fund the ESSA Title IV-A, Student Support and Academic Enrichments Grants, so that all students have access to quality STEM programs, and to a variety of health and safety programs, diverse academic courses, and modern technology.”

At the press event/rally the group also released individual letters from state and local groups in Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Washington, seeking full funding for this grant.

In addition to seeking funding for Title IVA at $1.65 billion NSTA, the STEM Education Coalition and 85 other organizations, is asking Congress to

• Provide $2.250 billion for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Title II Supporting Effective Instruction State grants. This program provides support for teacher quality improvement initiatives, including professional development and teacher leadership.
• Support the proposal of $100 million for the new Computer Science for All Development Grants.
• Provide $10 million for a STEM Master Teacher Corps which was authorized through Section 2245 of ESSA. This program would help cultivate teacher leaders in STEM subjects and promote the sharing of best practices across the teaching professions.

These programs will be part of the FY2017 Labor, HHS, and Education appropriations bill.  Advocates expect to see some Congressional action on this bill in mid-June. Stay tuned.

Jodi Peterson is Assistant Executive Director of Legislative Affairs for the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and Chair of the STEM Education Coalition. e-mail Peterson at jpeterson@nsta.org; follow her on Twitter at @stemedadvocate.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

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Would you like to inspire students to be better writers while you incorporate new strategies into your teaching to assess their scientific understanding? Katie Coppens’ new NSTA Press book, Creative Writing in Science, provides engaging literary exercises that use the world around us to inspire. Designed for grades 3–12, the book offers fiction, poetry, and playwriting prompts that help students increase both their writing skills and their science knowledge.

Each writing lesson outlines foundational science knowledge and vocabulary and connects to the Next Generation Science Standards. The lessons also introduce language arts skills such as developing characters; writing conflict; and using personification, narrative voice, and other literary devices.

In the lesson “Travel Blog About the Digestive System,” students must apply their knowledge and vocabulary related to the human digestive system to compose a blog post from the perspective of a bit of food on a journey through the human body. Students will capture all of the twists and turns and use personification to convey this trip of a lifetime.

In another unique lesson, students are asked to imagine what life would be like if the KT asteroid had never hit. How would our landscape look and what organisms would be thriving today? Students must consider what role evolution would have played, and what animals might have become extinct. Would dinosaurs be here? Would humans still be roaming Earth?

Additional ideas to get students thinking creatively include writing comics, diary entries, songs, and letters from the point of view of the Moon, rocks, atoms, and more! The 15 lessons cover life science, physical science, Earth, space, and engineering. 

This book is humorous and engaging, and your students will love approaching science from a new direction.

Want to get your creative juices flowing? Try the free chapter “Group Poem: Earth’s History.”

Check out Creative Writing in Science in the NSTA Press Store. 

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Questions and discussions about safety are often seen in the NSTA e-mail listserves and discussion forums. Each month, columns on safety in the science classroom/lab are featured in NSTA’s Science Scope (Scope on Safety) and The Science Teacher (Safer Science), with occasional articles in Science and Children (Safety First). These columns are written by Ken Roy, Director of Environmental Health and Safety for Glastonbury Public Schools in Glastonbury, CT, and NSTA’s Science Safety Compliance Consultant.

These are must-reads for K-12 science teachers and school administrators, regardless of what grade level or science course you teach. And NSTA members have online access to them, regardless of which print journal you receive.

The 2015-16 columns speak to a variety of safety concerns:

• Safety in Science Instruction –  A discussion of NSTA’s position paper on “Safety and School Science Instruction”  (TST 2/16)
• Safety Acknowledgment Form for Earth and Space Science – Customize the acknowledgment form for different subjects
• Making the Grade on Safety – The value of lab safety assessments for students at the beginning of (and during) the year (SS 3/16)
• Preventing Allergic Reactions – Preventing and dealing with allergies in the classroom (S&C 12/15)
• Creating Latex-Safe Classrooms – Allergic reaction to latex materials (SS 4/16)
• Safety Picks Up “STEAM” – Considerations for engineering activities (S&C 2/16)
• Wired for Safety – Using electricity in science classrooms (SS 12/15) 
• Don’t Bench Lab Safety – Suggestions for purchasing lab furniture (SS 11/15)
• Detoxing the Lab – Reduce risks of toxic substances in the classroom/lab (SS 9/15)
• Safer Science Kits – What to consider when adopting/using science kits (SS 10/15) 
• Safety: Food for Thought – Food in the lab and other issues of cross-contamination (SS 7/15)
• Eyeing Safety  (SS 2/16)
• Safer Science Outside the Classroom – What to consider when planning field trips or outdoor classes (SS 1/16)
• Safety in the Field – What to consider when planning field trips (TST 10/15)
• A Healthier Science Class – Preventing chemical hazards (TST 12/15) 
• Handling Hazardous Waste (TST 9/15)
• Heightened Risks – Hazards when conducting activities on ladders, platforms, rooftops (TST 7/15)
• Preventing Alcohol-Based Laboratory Fires (TST 4/16)
• Safer Use of Toxic Chemicals (TST 3/16)
• Safer Reproductive Health in Science Labs – Protecting the health of students (and teachers). (TST 1/16)

Each month, Scope on Safety also includes a Q&A on a safety-related issue. If you’re looking for a science department discussion topic, choose an article relevant to your situation. For more on safety topics, go to NSTA’s SciLinks and use “safety” as the keyword.

Membership in NSTA comes with a wealth of benefits. Although the most obvious benefit may be the regular appearance of Science Scope in your mailbox and NSTA Reports in your Inbox, membership encompasses far more. The ability to connect through list serves, interact with other middle school science teachers via the Learning Center forums, serve on a variety of NSTA committees and advisory boards, and apply for prestigious awards are some examples of additional NSTA member benefits. There is, however, one hidden member benefit that we consider to be priceless; it is the ability to carve deep and lasting friendships through the personal connections afforded by involvement with NSTA.

As veteran middle school science teachers, we began our individual professional relationships with NSTA many years ago while serving on the Toyota Tapestry Grant Judging Panel. Although the panel no longer exists, the friendship that evolved through our common experience has stood the test of time and serves as an example of NSTA’s unique ability to connect science educators with each other. We have overcome the physical distance that separates us and have strengthened our friendship through presentations made at NSTA conferences, by teaching short courses together, and by recently authoring a book for NSTA Press.

NSTA offers numerous venues for personal and professional growth that will afford you the ability to connect with like-minded peers. We know from experience that attending a NSTA conference will leave you recharged as a result of your contact with other science educators. You can maintain that conference energy through activity in one or more of NSTA’s social media platforms, which include Twitter, Facebook, and the middle school list serve (middleschool@list.nsta.org). If you have taught for less than five years, we recommend that you to apply for the Maitland P. Simmons Memorial Award (https://www.nsta.org/docs/awards/NewTeacher.pdf). This outstanding program provides a year of professional development that includes attendance at the NSTA national conference.

Get Involved and Grow as a Leader

Involvement in NSTA will also allow you to grow as a leader in your educational community. We encourage you to expand your relationship with NSTA by volunteering to serve on a NSTA committee or advisory board. Consider lending your expertise to the Committee on Middle Level Science Teaching or to the Science Scope Advisory Board. This is a great way to meet colleagues from across the nation while helping to drive decisions that will impact the organization. 

If you are planning on attending an upcoming NSTA national or regional conference, submit a proposal for a session. Keep in mind, however, that proposals need to be submitted nearly a year in advance (http://www.nsta.org/conferences/sessions.aspx). Presenting in front of your peers will help you grow both professionally and personally. If your strengths lie in written communication, you may want to consider authoring an article for Science Scope. A great way to build your confidence and knowledge prior to submitting a manuscript is to offer to review for Science Scope. In the process, you will be providing a valuable service to NSTA while gaining an insider’s viewpoint regarding the publication process.

The path to greater involvement in NSTA is as varied as the numerous member opportunities available to you. Whether you choose to become more active at the conference level, develop your reviewing or writing skills, or to serve in a leadership capacity, your growth as a science educator will be profound and may lead to the greatest benefit of all: friendship.

Patty McGinnis teaches at Arcola Intermediate School in Eagleville, PA and is editor of Science Scope. Kitchka Petrova is currently a doctoral student at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. Their book Be a Winner: A Science Teacher’s Guide to Writing Successful Grant Proposals allows readers to learn from veteran science teachers about the secrets to successful grant writing. Formatted as a handy workbook, this practical book takes you step by step through the writing process.

Get more involved with NSTA!

Join today and receive Science Scope, the peer-reviewed journal just for middle school teachers; connect on the middle level science teaching list (members can sign up on the list server); or consider joining your peers for Meet Me in the Middle Day (MMITM) at the National Conference on Science Education in Los Angeles in the spring of 2017.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

Future NSTA Conferences

NGSS Workshops

• Discover the NGSS, San Diego, June 29–30
• NGSS Summer Institute, Reno, July 15
• NGSS Summer Institute, Detroit, Aug. 8
• Discover the NGSS, Fall 2016 & Spring 2017

2016 STEM Forum & Expo, hosted by NSTA

• Denver, July 27–29

2016 Area Conferences

• Minneapolis, October 27–29
• Portland, November 10–12
• Columbus, December 1–3

2017 National Conference

• Los Angeles, March 30–April 2

 

 

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Join NSTA in Minneapolis this October 27–29, 2016, for our first area conference on science education. Our outstanding program will have something for science teachers of all subject areas and experiences. With featured speakers who will leave you inspired, to sessions that will give you more resources than you can possibly use, the upcoming NSTA Area Conference in Minneapolis is the place you need to be.

To help you make the most of the professional development opportunities available at the Minneapolis conference, the Conference Committee has planned the conference around three strands that explore topics of current significance, enabling you to focus on a specific area of interest or need.

Teaching Science in a Connected World

Students and teachers have access to many forms of technology. These technologies can be effective tools to access information, deliver instruction, communicate ideas, connect with people from around the world, and build professional learning networks. Educators attending these sessions will explore instructional materials, technologies and strategies for effective learning for students and adults, and responsible use of digital resources and processes.

STEMify Instruction Through Collaboration Across the Curriculum

STEM can be a powerful unifying theme across the curriculum and in many settings. STEM provides an opportunity for collaboration among teachers, disciplines, and schools, as well as postsecondary, informal education, and community partners. Educators attending sessions in this strand will explore models of integrated STEM education programs, learn strategies to productively STEMify lessons, and investigate how to effectively engage students.

Celebrating Elementary Science and Literacy Connections

Children are born investigators. Science is an engaging way to develop students’ skills in thinking creatively, expressing themselves, and investigating their world. Reading, writing, and speaking are inspired through science experiences. Educators attending these sessions will gain confidence in teaching science, learn strategies for literacy and science integration, and celebrate elementary science. 

We hope to see you in Minneapolis in October! Save the date, line up your subs, and please check back here in early June for registration information.

Author Jean Tushie is a High School Biology Teacher and the MnSTA conference coordinator. As a former NSTA council and board member, Tushie is NSTA’s biggest cheerleader!

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

Future NSTA Conferences

5th Annual STEM Forum & Expo, hosted by NSTA

• Denver, Colorado: July 27–29

2016 Area Conferences

• Minneapolis, Minnesota: October 27–29
• Portland, Oregon: November 10–12
• Columbus, Ohio: December 1–3

National Conferences

• Los Angeles, California: March 30–April 2, 2017
• Atlanta, Georgia: March 15–18, 2018
• St. Louis, Missouri: April 11–14, 2019
• Boston, Massachusetts: March 26–29, 2020
• Chicago, Illinois: April 8–11, 2021

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I’m looking for suggestions for what to do during the last week of school, after final exams are over. I teach high school chemistry.  —T., Maryland

It’s hard to justify students (and parents) why students should come to school on the last days of the year, if all they do is watch videos, do busywork, talk to or text each other, have one study hall after another, or roam the halls. The last few days of the school year can be a gift of time for explorations and enrichment activities.

But the end of the year is a busy time for you, too. Your after-school time is probably spent on grading exams, evaluating projects, finalizing inventories, or preparing final grades. So the last thing you need is planning additional activities to keep students busy.

Here are some learning-related alternatives that won’t require a lot of preparation:

• My students enjoyed vocabulary games, such as variations on Jeopardy or A card sort or word splash is easy to put together. In science charades, each team creates a pantomime of a vocabulary term or science process for other students to figure out (it’s amazing what they can do with mitosis or Newton’s laws).
• Dig out those lab activities or online simulations you wanted to do during the year but didn’t have time.
• You could ask them to work in groups to come up with a “guide” for next year’s class –something like The Top 10 Things You Need to Know About Chemistry Class or Chemistry Class FAQs (and Answers). You could make this open-ended or you could give different topics to the groups (e.g., lab safety, study skills, lab procedures, difficult topics, or how to use a science notebook. You may need to model a few appropriate ideas before they start. The groups could share and debrief with each other, perhaps as a gallery walk. This could also be an informal evaluation survey, since you’ll get to see what they thought was essential or important enough to share. And be sure to share a composite list with your students at the beginning of next year.
• Have students try out a new technology tool or app. Assign an app to each group and ask them to demonstrate it and describe how it would (or would not) be useful for students in your class next year. You can be part of the audience.

I would be cautious about having students assist with lab cleanup or inventories. You would need to supervise both those who are helping you and those who are not. The liability may not be worth the extra help.

If grades are turned in, it may be hard to get students to participate in any activities, especially if students expected points that “counted” for every activity and they know that grades are calculated. You might also hear “But Mr. B gave us a study hall.” Be persistent. I suspect that most students would rather have a planned enjoyable activity to do (even though they might grumble about it).

A wise teacher once advised me to start planning for the last week during the first week of school. Take photos or videos of activities and equipment during each unit, and have students write captions for them at the end of the year. Prepare vocabulary lists ahead of time, or (better yet) have students make the lists in their notebooks.

Time is a precious commodity. We never have enough, so let’s not waste any of it.

Please welcome guest blogger, Brooke Shoemaker, who brings her museum education expertise to The Early Years blog. Brooke was a pre-k classroom educator at the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center (SEEC) in Washington, D.C. for four years, before joining SEEC’s outreach arm, the Center for Innovation in Early Learning as the Pre-K Museum Education Specialist. You can read SEEC teachers’ reflections on their practice on the SEEC blog. 

SEEC invites you to join them for a two-day seminar, “Play: Engaging Learners in Object Rich Environments,” on June 28^th and 29^th, to explore how to use play as a vehicle for engaging young children in the classroom, museum, and community. 

As early childhood educators, we know play is important, but how can we utilize play to engage students in the classroom, museums, and the community? At the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center, we playfully approach object-based learning to engage our young learners and help them make connections between concepts being taught and the world around them. Object-based learning represents a framework for teaching and learning that engages students in a process of understanding the world and its complexity through the study of objects.

This past fall, my co-teacher Tina Brimo and I decided to explore the topic of oceans with our class of three-year-olds because every time we walked through The Sant Ocean Hall at The National Museum of Natural History the children were full of questions about the animals and objects they saw.  Tina and I wanted to present the science, technology, engineering and math concepts in the lessons playfully through hands-on, teacher-guided play, as well as unstructured, child-directed play opportunities, such as dramatic, and symbolic play.   

To begin our exploration of oceans, we went to The Sant Ocean Hall where children’s curiosity was sparked, and created an ocean web graphic organizer to record questions that the students had, and wanted to learn about over the course of the unit.  One of the questions that day was, “Why do seashells open up?”, so I knew we would have to learn about bivalves at some point during the unit!  But how do you make a lesson about bivalves for preschoolers playful and engaging?

The objectives for the bivalve lesson were to understand that bivalves are animals that have two shells that enclose them, which serve as protection, and that those two shells are symmetrical.  To help make these concepts more concreate, I used a collection of seashells and two sculptures in the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Dan Graham’s sculpture, For Gordon Bunshaft, was a perfect object to introduce the idea that bivalves are enclosed in two shells.  We were able to sit inside the piece and pretend to be bivalves ourselves.  We talked about how the walls of the sculpture made us feel safe and protected from the outside elements, just like the shells of a bivalve do. 

While sitting inside the sculpture I passed around the collection of bivalve shells, and the students made observations about the size, shape, and texture.  We noticed that the shells’ hardness made them ideal for protection.  Noticing and describing size, shape, and symmetry demonstrates a beginning understanding of geometry.

Then we turned our attention to Ellsworth Kelly’s sculpture, Untitled, to introduce the idea of symmetry.  As the children observed the sculpture, they noticed that it looked like a circle folded in half, and that each half was exactly the same or symmetrical.  The children explored the collection of shells again, this time putting two shells together.  Children noticed that if two shells were mismatched, or asymmetrical, the shells left openings on the sides, however, symmetrical shells closed snugly, and therefore protected the bivalve.  The class practiced their careful looking skills by playing a game to match shells to their symmetrical counterpart.  To end the lesson the children used their fine motor skills to cut a shape out of a folded piece of paper, yielding a shape that was the symmetrical on both sides.  They called these their bivalves, and had a blast making them open and close.  The children gained early engineering understanding through examining how the symmetrical shells fit together, as well as learning about the mechanics of bivalves.

That afternoon in our classroom, we used technology to watch several videos to see how bivalves move. The children were curious to see how bivalves move around since they do not have legs like humans do. The videos helped the children visualize bivalve movement, which they were having a hard time imagining.  After watching the videos we jumped like a cockle to get away from a sea star, we swam like a scallop by opening and closing our shell, and wiggled back and forth like a clam to bury ourselves in the sand.  Reflecting on the lesson I realize the videos could have been used to begin the lesson so that the children had a better idea of how they move, before delving into the mechanics of bivalves.

The students were exposed to concepts in multiple ways through art, hands-on objects, and kinesthetic learning, which made the concepts more concrete. They were playfully engaged with bivalves in different ways including exploring shells through touch, practicing fine motor skills, and using their bodies and imaginations.  Through these playful techniques, bivalves came alive for the children.

We designed other playful experiences to teach the children about the biology of ocean animals. We explored how coral reefs are made by observing the physical attributes of live and preserved cora
l in the Sant Ocean Hall and a photograph of a coral reef in the museum’s Nature’s Best Photography Exhibit, by using our fine motor skills to build coral out of pipe cleaners, and by reading about how reefs are formed through the lifecycle of coral polyps.  To end the lesson, the children used their bodies to create a coral reef. By engaging their bodies, the kids were up and moving (always a plus for young children), mimicking the various shapes of coral, and coming together to create a coral reef.   

We also explored the physical characteristics of stingrays, specifically their flat bodies which mean that they cannot see what they eat.  We pretended to eat like stingrays by feeling inside a mystery box and trying to detect what plastic food was inside.  Through imagining what it might be like to be a stingray, the children continued to learn about the variety of body structures found in the oceans’ living organisms, and what these structures mean for the animals’ lives. After feeling a real sea star, and counting its legs, the children put cones on their feet, hands, and head to illustrate the five points. 

While the above examples were teacher-guided playful lessons, Tina and I also observed the children spontaneously exploring and communicating about the ocean life content through their child-directed play.  For example, one child ran up to me on the playground and said, “Look, I made a whale, it has eyes and a tail!”  I followed him to a spot on the playground where he had cleared fallen leaves to make a whale shape. After learning about octopus, one child grabbed a handful of stilts, and said, “Hey Tina, these suction cups are coming for you!”  Another child found a torn ball on the playground, opened it up said, “Look, it’s a bulbous octopus head.” Even when playing with pretend food, the children found a way to use it for ocean play.  The children attached pieces of yarn to the Velcro strip on plastic pears, and made them move like jellyfish. Playful lessons were essential in creating engaging experiences for the students to learn content about life in the ocean, but the children’s play also helped us to know what content they understood, and what they wanted to learn more about.   

Through the playful and hands-on experiences in the museums and community, our class was able to learn about diverse animal life in the ocean.  Handling objects helps make concepts more concrete and real, and playful approaches make content more engaging for children.