December 3, 2015 Update

The House of Representatives voted 369 to 64 late on Wednesday, December 2, to approve the Every Student Succeeds Act, the federal education law which will replace the No Child Left Behind Act. The bill now goes to the Senate for their approval as soon as next week, then to the President by year end for his signature.

On Monday, November 30, House and Senate education committee leaders released the final legislative language of the Every Student Succeeds Act, the bipartisan bill that will replace the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

This legislation is scheduled to go to the House floor for final consideration this afternoon (Dec. 2) , then to the Senate for a final vote next week. President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law by year end. NSTA has endorsed the bill (read the press release here), as have many other groups, including the National Governors Association.

Two key highlights of interest from the bill: The new bill eliminates the NCLB highly qualified teacher requirement. States are no longer required by the federal government to do teacher evaluations using student outcomes (although they could elect to do this). A $1.6 billion block grant (Title II) consolidates a number of programs, including the Math and Science Partnership program. However, there are funding opportunities for STEM teacher professional development, leadership training, grants for performance pay and differential pay, and alternative cert programs throughout the bill available to both states and districts.

Links to articles and the text of the legislation, and a longer synopsis of the STEM initiatives in the Every Student Succeeds Act are below. More to come in the weeks ahead as this legislation FINALLY moves to the finish line.

STEM Education in Every Student Succeeds Act

Standards and Assessments (Title I)

• Standards Required in Math and Science: States will continue to be required to maintain standards in math and science that are aligned with entrance requirements in higher education. (Sec. 1005 State Plans)
• Math and Science Testing is Retained: Science tests will continue and must be given three times between grades 3 and 12. Statewide assessments of math in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school will be required. (Sec. 1005 State Plans)
• Integration of Engineering and Technology into Science Assessments: States are permitted to use a portion of federal funding provided to support the development of statewide assessments to integrate concepts related to engineering and technology into the states science assessments. (Sec. 1201 State Assessment Grants)

Preparing, Training, and Recruiting High-Quality Teachers and School Leaders (Title II)

• Support for Alternative Certification of STEM Educators: Allows states to establish, expand, or improve alternative routes for State certification of teachers in STEM subjects. (Sec. 2101 Formula Grants to States)
• State Teacher Quality Block Grants Support STEM Professional Development: Professional development for STEM-specific activities is an allowable use of funds under the Title II state block grants program to every state. Provides new authority to allow states and districts to develop and provide professional development and other comprehensive systems of support for teachers, principals, or other school leaders to promote high-quality instruction and instructional leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects, including computer science. (Sec. 2101 Formula Grants to States, Sec. 2103 Local Uses of Funds)
• Establishes Differential Pay for STEM Teachers: Allows states and districts to provide differential pay, or other incentives, to recruit and retain teachers in high need academic subjects (such as math and science). (Sec. 2103 Local Uses of Funds)
• Strengthens Career and Technical Education that Meets Workforce Needs: Supports professional development for teachers, principals, or other school leaders to integrate career and technical education content into their instructional practices, which may include training on best practices to understand State and regional workforce needs and transitions to postsecondary education and the workforce to help prepare students for postsecondary education and the workforce. (Sec. 2103 Local Uses of Funds)
• National Activities Funds Authorized for STEM Master Teacher Corps and STEM Professional Development: Provides the Secretary with a new authority to use a portion of the funding devoted to “national activities” under Title II of the bill to conduct an annual competitive grant program for the states to develop a STEM Master Teacher Corps or to provide professional development for STEM teachers. (Sec. 2245 STEM Master Teacher Corps)

Educating Well Rounded Students (Title IV)

• Creates a New Definition for STEM Specialty Schools: The bill establishes the definition of a STEM-Specialty School as a school, or dedicated program within a school, that engages students in rigorous, relevant, and integrated learning experiences focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, including computer science, which include authentic school wide research. (Sec. 4101 Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants)
• Title IV “21st Century Schools” Grant STEM Activities: The Title IV formula grant program would provide funding to support both state and district level educational enrichment activities for students. Districts receiving more than $30,000 in federal funds would be required to spend at least 20 percent of their funding on “well-rounded” educational activities that include a focus on improving instruction and student engagement in STEM by expanding high-quality STEM courses; increasing access to STEM for under-served and at-risk student populations; supporting the participation of students in STEM nonprofit competitions (such as robotics, science research, invention, mathematics, computer science, and technology competitions); providing hands-on learning opportunities in STEM; integrating other academic subjects, including the arts, into STEM subject programs; creating or enhancing STEM specialty schools; integrating classroom based and after school and informal STEM instruction; and expanding environmental education. (Sec. 4104 State Uses of Funds and Sec 4107 Activities to Support Well Rounded Educational Activities)
• Professional Development in Technology for STEM teachers. Title IV Grants to districts to improve the use of technology to improve the academic achievement of students. Districts receiving $30,000 or more must spend a portion of their funds on allowable uses including professional development in the use of technology (which may be provided through partnerships with outside organizations) to enable teachers and instructional leaders to increase student achievement in the areas of STEM. (Sec. 4109, Activities to Support the Effective Use of Technology)
• Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Computer Science Including in “Core-Academic Subjects” Definition: The original NCLB construct of “core-academic subjects” is re
  tained under the new ESEA bill, but is now called “well-rounded subjects.”  This definition is referenced throughout the bill to drive various aspects of accountability and data-collection required of the states. (Sec. 8002 Definitions)

Read the bill here.

Read the ED Week article on the bill here.

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 Jodi 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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My happy place is the at intersection of the worlds of science education and early childhood education so I was delighted by the large number of sessions on science and engineering education at the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s annual conference this month. Early childhood educators who want to connect more deeply with science education can take a look and register at the free National Science Teachers Association’s Learning Center, and consider joining NSTA using promo code CYBMON15 (extended through Friday, December 4, 2015).

Science inquiry, engineering design, research-based practices, the NSTA position statement on Early Childhood Science Education, and the Next Generation Science Standards were all part of presentations I attended at the conference of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Presenters shared the science and engineering work done by the children in their programs, the connections they made with families, and the research they conducted about early science and engineering learning.

The NAEYC Early Childhood Science Interest Forum (ECSIF) held the annual discussion and meeting at the NAEYC annual conference. Although all members are not able to attend, we try to stay connected through Facebook, the ECSIF blog, and the NAEYC Interest Forum pages. Add your voice and experiences to the group—join as an NAEYC member or simply follow the group on social media.

Here is a list of some of the 2015 sessions related to science, engineering and environmental education—I could not attend all of them! They are listed in the order they occurred at the conference. Look up additional information on the NAEYC conference session planner before it closes, or the conference program.

Tell us about your session in a comment below!

My mentor and I are discussing if we should grade science notebooks, lab reports, and assessments for correct usage, punctuation, and spelling. Or should we ignore these errors and just grade for content?  —G., Maryland

My contribution to your discussion would fall toward the content end of the continuum. It’s important to assess students’ content knowledge, the appropriateness of their conclusions, their use of evidence to support a claim, how they apply their knowledge to situations, and how clearly they organize data. But students’ written work can be hard to assess if it is riddled with spelling errors or uses sentence structure that is hard to follow. The rubric should reflect the students’ age, experience level, and facility with the English language. For example, expectations and requirements for high school seniors should be at a higher level than those for younger students.

It’s interesting to follow up with students. We often find that students, including those with special needs or who are English language learners, can communicate orally but struggle to write their thoughts in an understandable form.  In these cases, if the student can explain their thoughts orally and/or with drawings, I would use that explanation to assess their learning.

But it’s also important for students to write for a variety of purposes and for their writing to be appropriate for its purpose. A museum zoologist I interviewed said that a good portion of his day was spent writing—notes, memos, observations, summaries, reports, journal articles, blog entries, and letters. Some of this written work was meant for his eyes only (notes, drafts, observations) while others were more summative and meant to be shared with others (reports, articles, letters). Your students’ work follows a similar pattern: writing for themselves (as in notes, reflections, exit tickets) versus writing for their peers or teachers to understand (lab reports or essays). The latter needs to be understandable to others.

When evaluating student writing, some teachers try to “edit” their work. But noting or commenting on every misspelled word and grammatical error is time consuming and assumes the teacher is knowledgeable of language usage and punctuation. Seeing a page of corrections in red ink can be discouraging to novice writers. (A colleague of mine on the science faculty is dyslexic—he noted that he would have a hard time correcting someone else’s work!)

My own elementary teachers were strict grammarians. We identified parts of speech, punctuated sentences, and diagrammed and parsed sentences. Unfortunately, we didn’t do much original writing. I struggled with writing in high school (even though what I wrote was grammatically correct), and I’m grateful to those teachers who encouraged and helped me to organize and express my thoughts in writing and eventually to enjoy doing it.  

So in my own secondary classroom, I focused less on conventions and usage and more on the content and clarity of students’ writing. However, I did require that students use complete sentences, spell the words on the Word Wall correctly, and label all numbers. I framed this in the context of communicating clearly: “You have important things to say. When you write clearly, we can all understand what you mean. And I really want to understand.” I modeled and reviewed what a sentence was and what to do if I was unsure of how to spell a word. It took time but eventually most students were able to meet these expectations.

My students and I also brainstormed and posted commonly confused words: to-too-two, your-you’re, their-there-they’re, its-it’s, and choose-chose. Having these on the Wall or in their notebooks reinforced their proper use.

Writing informational text in science is different from writing narrations, opinion pieces, or poetry, and students need guided practice, support, and opportunities to communicate this way (although a student of mine did write a series of poems about marine invertebrates that was quite good, both in content and in structure!).

[In an NSTA discussion forum, several teachers suggested the CAST Science Writer as a classroom tool. I have not used it personally but it looks good.]

As head of the middle level division at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), one of my goals is to communicate more with middle level science teachers. So, we’re launching a blog, which I hope will enable even more grade 5-8 teachers to contribute to and learn from NSTA. The refined focus at this level will provide an additional opportunity for middle level teachers to share ideas and gain insights from their teaching counterparts. I invite all middle level teachers of science to read, share, contribute ideas, ask questions, and otherwise help us create a greater identity in NSTA while enhancing teacher voice at the middle school level.

Who Are We?

I’d like to start by introducing the members of NSTA’s Committee on Middle Level Science Teaching:

• Kenneth L. Huff, Chairperson and Director
• Justin Brosnahan
• Melanie Canaday
• Zoe Evans
• Fran Hess
• John Milam
• Elizabeth Orlandi
• Mary Patterson
• Kitchka Petrova
• Tiauna Washington
• Michael Bowen, District XVIII Director, Council Liaison
• Diana Cost, NMLSTA Affiliate Representative
• Inez Fugate Liftig, Field Editor, Science Scope

Two members serving on the NSTA Committee on Middle Level Science Teaching are featured below.

Mary Patterson, a 2014-2015 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow, 2014-2015 PBS Digital Innovator, and 2009 NOAA Teacher at Sea, has over 30 years of classroom teaching experience at both the elementary and middle school levels. Currently, she is the Campus Content Instructional Specialist for Science, Grades 6 through 8, at Hopper Middle School in Cypress Fairbanks ISD in Cypress, Texas.

For students to become interested in STEM careers, Patterson strongly feels that early career awareness and positive role models are critical. In 2011, a Fund for Teachers grant enabled Patterson to travel to Taiwan and the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy to investigate robotics and emerging technological advances. In 2009, Patterson was a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Teacher at Sea. She spent nearly a month on a research ship doing hydrographic surveys in the Pavlov Islands in the Aleutian Island chain in Alaska. In 2006, another Fund for Teacher grant took Patterson half-way around the world to Australia and New Zealand to explore the natural history, ecosystems, and geology of the areas. “Each of these experiences greatly impacted my teaching. I was able to bring back real-world, hands on activities that modeled numerous STEM careers for my students and my students saw me as a scientist. Students said they never knew there were so many different jobs on a ship and now they could see themselves doing science as a career.”

Fran Hess (a National Board Certified Teacher, past Science Teachers Association of New York State president, former NSTA District IV Director, and Earth Science textbook author) has many years of classroom teaching experience at both the middle and high school levels. Currently, she provides professional development opportunities and mentors teachers across the United States.

Hess says, “Middle school students, while they can be the most vibrant and challenging, are also the most rewarding students to teach. Teachers need to support and challenge them to strive in the sciences beyond what they may consider are their limits and capabilities. One way teachers can do this is for teachers to take advantages of opportunities to travel, bringing students with them through a variety of mechanisms including through the use of the latest technology, to places they may never have the opportunity to experience otherwise. Show them the world as you help them understand their importance in the global environment so that each one of them can envision themselves as a vibrant part of planet Earth, able to make a difference in the world in which they live.”

Join Us!

If you are a member of NSTA, I invite you to apply to serve on the Committee for Middle Level Science Teaching. Join us as we seek to share and collaborate on promising ideas elevating teacher voice and teacher leadership at the middle level.

To apply to serve on our middle level committee or another NSTA advisory board or panel, please visit: http://www.nsta.org/about/governance/advisoryboards.aspx. The application deadline is December 1, 2015.

Kenneth L. Huff serves on the NSTA Board of Directors as the Division Director for Middle Level Science Teaching. He is a science and math teacher in Williamsville Central School District, Williamsville, New York.

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 Nashville this spring (sign up to present at MMITM here).

Volunteers for eCYBERMISSION [a web-based Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) competition for 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grade teams] play an integral part in supporting and helping to build students’ interest STEM. During the past competition year, team “Power Up” (a 9th-grade team from Jenks, Oklahoma) sought to use the kinetic energy captured through gears, turned by revolving doors in high traffic areas, to power LED lights. Their national winning project was an innovative way to address the alternative energy solution of crowd harvesting and yield costs savings for their community.

Volunteers Spark Innovation

Working with the eCYBERMISSION teams that create these innovative project are volunteers who spark the teams’ engines and encourage them to explore STEM. Who are these volunteers? People like Army Sergeant Robert Hollins, who serves as a power station mechanic stationed in Hawaii. As a mechanic, Sgt. Hollins maintains the engines that produce large amounts of power for various applications—running lights for buildings, air conditioning, and water pumps.

When Sgt. Hollins is not working, he volunteers as an eCYBERMISSION Virtual Judge and CyberGuide. When he first started volunteering, he served as a Virtual Judge for two years while on post as a medical laboratory specialist conducting bio-research.

“As a Virtual Judge, I often times saw the pitfalls some of the teams were going through and I wondered how teams could be steered toward putting out more insightful project results,” said Sgt. Hollins. “This is what led me to become a CyberGuide, where I could actually interact with the teams and provide insightful answers to a variety of questions. Being a CyberGuide allowed me to assist teams with crafting a better report for their Mission Folder.”

“I know people do this for a particular benefit, but I do it because I have a love for science and learning,” said Sgt. Hollins. “I see eCYBERMISSION as a development tool for kids to use their minds and to see that spark of light shine while building interest in STEM.”

Army Sergeant Robert Hollins serves as a power station mechanic in Hawaii. When he’s not working with students online, he takes his love of science outdoors, biking and taking in the sites of Hawaii. The beautiful climate, water, and land make every moment enjoyable for day-to-day adventures, including snorkeling and hiking.

How can you get involved with eCYBERMISSION?
Visit the eCYBERMISSION website; contact communications coordinator Dimetrius Simon; like us on Facebook; or follow us on Twitter or Instagram!

I’m taking a job with a preschool program. I’m concerned about how to incorporate science lessons with children who have had no experience with science. Any suggestions or advice would be welcome.  —C., Virginia

Thank you for taking on the awesome responsibility of working with young children! I think you’ll find that even though they may not have had formal science classes, they have many informal behaviors and experiences that lend themselves to learning and doing science: asking questions, observing and exploring their surroundings, drawing, learning new words, making new “discoveries,” being creative with materials, and using their imaginations. Many children may have visited parks and nature centers or participated in outdoor activities with their families.

The Framework for K-12 Education has a section, “Children Are Born Investigators,” describing the capabilities of young children:

In fact, the capacity of young children—from all backgrounds and socioeconomic levels— to reason in sophisticated ways is much greater than has long been assumed. Although they may lack deep knowledge and extensive experience, they often engage in a wide range of subtle and complex reasoning about the world. Thus, before they even enter school, children have developed their own ideas about the physical, biological, and social worlds and how they work. By listening to and taking these ideas seriously, educators can build on what children already know. (p.24)

Their curiosity and thought processes are interesting to observe. For example, I was at a supermarket seafood counter when a toddler sitting in a cart suddenly squealed, “Spider! Spider!” We all looked around, and her mother reassured her that there weren’t any spiders nearby. The girl pointed to silhouettes on the wall behind the counter depicting a crab and a lobster. I was impressed that she made the connection between spiders and these other arthropods. Her mother did not correct her but identified them as crabs and lobsters and said that spiders and insects were indeed related to them. She expanded the child’s knowledge and validated her observation.

Preschool activities should capitalize on young children’s experiences . It has been said that “Play is the business of childhood” and from what I’ve observed what may look like “play” in a classroom is actually the learning process at work—something that we often forget with older students! Your school program probably includes many play experiences that can be a foundation for science learning:

• Exploring living things with classroom pets, an aquarium, or windowsill plants
• Recording daily weather observations and looking for patterns
• Collecting and organizing objects such as rocks, seashells, leaves
• Investigating objects with magnifying glasses
• Playing games that include sorting and counting objects
• Building with blocks
• Solving problems through trial and error
• Making objects with clay
• Observing with the senses and using hand lenses or cameras to gain different perspectives
• Keeping a “journal” of drawings
• Using outdoor space for bird or insect watching, collecting, gardening

While you observe children at play, talk to them: What is happening here? What would happen if…. Tell me about your drawing. Does that remind you of anything? A think-aloud of your own thought processes can encourage children to make connections.

You can also integrate science into other activities. Introduce appropriate words to describe or explain things. Have picture books available on high-interest topics such as animals, rocks, machines, dinosaurs, plants, and weather. Include nonfiction in read-alouds. (See NSTA Recommends or check with a librarian for suggestions.) And be sure that your displays and conversations are scientifically accurate (I cringed when I saw a bulletin board with polar bears and penguins frolicking together in the snow.)

If you’re looking for activities with a focus on specific concepts, see Peggy Ashbrook’s “The Early Years” column in NSTA’s Science and Children journal. Each issue has a different lesson with background information, suggestions for using the activity with children, and a photograph of students in action. For example, the March 2015 issue includes “Getting Messy With Matter.”  Her NSTA blog The Early Years also has helpful ideas.

Take a look at the NSTA Position Statement on Early Childhood Science Education for suggestions on supporting science learning in young children.

Although I have a secondary science background, I’ve learned from my own experiences that young children’s interest in the world around them should not be underestimated! I wonder what happens to their creativity, curiosity, and enthusiasm as they get to the upper grades?

No Child Left Behind is closer to becoming history.

Earlier this week House and Senate education leaders announced they had come to an agreement on the major differences between the House-passed (H.R. 5) and Senate-passed (S.1177) bills to reauthorize No Child Left Behind and quickly named conference committee members. A three-page summary of the Framework agreed to by the top four education leaders in Congress (Reps. John Kline, R-Minn.; Bobby Scott, D-Va.; and Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.; and Patty Murray, D-Wash.) was released at the start of the conference and guided the discussion that started yesterday afternoon.

Earlier today (November 19), the conference committee voted 39 to 1 to approve the Framework (as amended). The text of the new bill is expected to be out on Monday, November 30. Chairman Kline indicated he hopes the bill will go to the House floor for a final up or down vote either on December 2 or 3.

What’s in the Framework for STEM?

Much more information will be available next week when actual language is available. But from the Framework document it appears that science tests will continue and must be given three times between grades 3 and 12. Annual, statewide assessments in reading and math in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school will continue.

Title II continues to provide substantial support for teacher professional development, induction programs, and recruitment. It eliminates the federal mandates for teacher evaluations. A change in funding formula will allow states with a higher number of low income students to receive funding.

The Math and Science Partnership program, along with a number of smaller, targeted programs, was streamlined into a massive Title IV block grant. Districts will be able to choose from a number of allowable uses, including implementation of key STEM activities.

Replacing the MSP program under Title II of the law is a provision reserving funding for the Secretary to award grants to State educational agencies to enable them to support the development of State­ wide STEM master teacher corps and to develop and implement state-wide STEM teacher professional development.

Other Issues in the Framework

• Accountability: Continues annual, statewide assessments in reading and math in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school. Science tests will continue and must be given three times between grades 3 and 12. Eliminates “adequate yearly progress” federal accountability system and allows states to develop their own system to identify and support struggling schools. States can measure school performance using multiple measures. They are required to improve student learning in the state’s lowest performing 5 percent of schools. The Framework maintains the annual reporting of data disaggregated by subgroups of children and establishes a state-level participation cap of 1 percent of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities who can take the alternate assessment.
• Standards: States are able to choose their standards in reading and math without interference from Washington. The federal government may not mandate or incentivize states to adopt or maintain any particular set of standards, including Common Core.
• Low Performing Schools: States are responsible for identifying and providing support for improvement in struggling schools. The federal government is prohibited from interfering in state and local decisions regarding accountability and school improvement activities.
• Grants to States and Districts. Authorizes a new Student Support and Academic Enrichment grant program that would allow states and school districts to determine how they will spend funding based on local needs and priorities.
• Authorizes Preschool Development Grants program and continues Charter Schools.

Read more in this Ed Week blog and in this press release on today’s conference meeting. Here is some information on how a bill becomes a law.

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 Jodi at jpeterson@nsta.org; follow her on Twitter at @stemedadvocate.

The iPad Pro is, at its core, a larger iPad. Larger screen. Larger speakers (four of them), larger keyboard, larger processor, and larger resolution. But so what? Well, I guess it depends on whether or not you believe in magic!

Not just life-size but larger than life. Running anatomy apps like Ess. Skeleton 4 is truly exciting and throughly engaging!

I’ve been with the iPad since the first one back in spring of 2010. The original screen was the perfect size for what it did well. But too big for some things, and too small for others. The iPad Mini does mini iPad stuff very well. But still it was too big for some jobs, and plenty too small for others.

Understanding the size of an iPad is based on two things. First, let the tablet do what it does well, and second, don’t use the tablet for things it doesn’t do well. So enter the iPad Pro, the bigger, faster, louder, smarter younger brother.

Leica’s SlidePath app is a database of exceptionally clear and detailed microscope slide images. The massive real estate of the iPad Pro is amplified by the ultra-high resolution of its Retna Display.

In the few days I’ve had my hands on an iPad Pro, I learned much about what a larger touch screen offers to a teacher, to students, and to the running of a class.

The beauty of the iPad Pro easily outshines the utility of a textbook-sized screen. Using a projection system via AppleTV shares screens, but the resolution of the iPad Pro can be more advantageous than a huge but lower resolution projection. Some apps like Leica’s SlidePath, or the 3D 4 Medical apps including Essential Skeleton and Essential Muscle. Anatomy apps are particularly effective on a large touchscreen especially when the object under study is full size.

Although the iPad Pro is large measuring 30.5cm x 22cm, its weight is actually about five grams less than my first generation iPad. The Pro is also half as thick. But no matter what, the iPad Pro is a two-handed device when held. The Pro has a 12.9 inch screen that Apple refers to as a retina screen.

Comparing screen sizes, the iPad Pro is large to giant. Pictured are the Pro, the iPad, the iPad Mini, and the iPod Touch. All sizes have their place and strengths.

Sensor apps become a truly collaborative effort with the iPad Pro. The large screen and magical touch interface makes manipulation of captured and graphed data a joy to explore. Apps including Vernier’s Graphical and Pasco’s SparkVue HD, while not formally optimized for the iPad Pro’s screen resolution, do offer a significantly more immersive environment. 

While the iPad Mini and iPhone makes for a highly convenient and mobile data collection platform, and the original iPad size makes an excellent individual interface for data collection, the iPad Pro brings to life the obvious visual components while offering up nuances that would go unnoticed or inexperienced in a smaller frame. It is like the difference between consuming media on a laptop compared to a large-screen HD television. Or television compared to movie theater. Well, maybe not quite that big, but it’s definitely a different experience.

As Apps are optimized for the iPad Pro, and others are invented specifically for it, there will be an expansion into uncharted teaching and learning territory. With each new space (with “space” denoting a new size, form factor, or interface) we discover more about education. One area that has struggled to gain wide traction is with digital textbooks. The iPad Pro just might be the breakthrough needed to push the digital textbook platform into widespread use. The size of the Pro is more friendly to new digital text users because it does not require either squinting at the screen or manipulating the pages in an entirely new way that distracts from the traditional cognitive tempo and smoother workflow that paper books offer readers.

And while discussing books, the iPad Pro is large enough to hold up in front of a class of students without just going through the motions of sharing. You can actually present images by waving the iPad Pro around the class. I imagine a preschool teacher loving the Pro because it has a similar screen real estate as many children’s books that are read during circle time. And the bright backlit screen would make the viewing the pictures more lively and rich as the colors and artist’s details jump off the “page.”

Another size comparision.

There is plenty more to explore with the iPad Pro in science education, but since the Pro is less than a week old, I’ll be visiting this topic again. The iPad Pro has many new features like a slo-mo video option (aka: High Speed) as well as better light sensors. The touchscreen seems to have some hidden advantages that will be exploited further with the Apple Pencil. And the offering the growing potential of multitasking allows a more fluid (but not perfect in my opinion) solution for combining the power of Apps. The boomy and loud speakers makes the Pro an obvious choice for small to medium sized group work and communication. The onscreen keyboard mimics a laptop  keyboard and has additional buttons and features to make the iPad Pro a worthy word processor.

The A9X chip running the show behind the scenes of the iPad Pro is noticeably faster than previous iPads. Not that we are all making movies and editing large pictures all the time, but to make the classic silly oversight, I’ll just go ahead and say it, “Who need all this power in an iPad?”

The answer is we all do because we don’t yet know what’s possible since we’ve never been here before.

When the two-year-old class goes walking around the open space with me, they sometimes like to bring pretend cameras with them. I have let children use my real digital camera if they are interested, making them use the wrist strap to catch it if they let go. Watching them use the camera teaches me about their ability to use a device and their objects of interest. Something I never had to consider when raising my children was their use of mobile electronic devices. We had limits on the type of television shows and how long the children could watch, but they did not have their own mobile devices (Gameboys or phones) until they could pay for them themselves in high school. Today there are so many more mobile device options and so much more content available on devices that they’ve become a useful tool for very young children to be entertained and expand their knowledge of the world.

I’ve turned to early childhood colleagues to understand the research about children’s use of “screens,” how it affects their development and what they learn from such use. Here are several of the recent resources I’ve read or listened to as I consider what I think:

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) issued a joint position statement with the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at Saint Vincent College in January 2012, “Technology and Interactive Media as Tools in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8.” The key messages are:

• When used intentionally and appropriately, technology and interactive media are effective tools to support learning and development.
• Intentional use requires early childhood teachers and administrators to have information and resources regarding the nature of these tools and the implications of their use with children.
• Limitations on the use of technology and media are important.
• Special considerations must be given to the use of technology with infants and toddlers.
• Attention to digital citizenship and equitable access is essential.
• Ongoing research and professional development are needed.

American Academy of Pediatrics News, “Beyond ‘turn it off’: How to advise families on media use” by Ari Brown, Donald L. Shifrin, and David L. Hill. September 8, 2015.

The authors state that “scientific research and policy statements lag behind the pace of digital innovation” and report on the key messages for parents that emerged from the AAP Growing Up Digital: Media Research Symposium. The first 2 of 12 in the list are:

• Media is just another environment. Children do the same things they have always done, only virtually. Like any environment, media can have positive and negative effects.
• Parenting has not changed. The same parenting rules apply to your children’s real and virtual environments. Play with them. Set limits; kids need and expect them. Teach kindness. Be involved. Know their friends and where they are going with them.

Interesting news articles and podcasts include:

“Many Children Under 5 Are Left to Their Mobile Devices, Survey Finds” by Catherine Saint Louis, (NY Times Nov. 2, 2015) reports on usage and notes the lack of research.

“Parents: Reject Technology Shame: The advantages of helping kids learn to navigate the digital world, rather than shielding them from it” by Alexandra Samuel. November 4, 2015. The Atlantic, reporting on a series of surveys on how families manage technology.

Diane Rehm Show: New Research On Teens, Toddlers and Mobile Devices. November 5, 2015 (archived). Diane and her guests discuss the latest research on screen time and kids. Guests are: 

• Lisa Guernsey, director of the Learning Technologies Project in the Education Policy Program, New America
• Rachel Barr, associate professor in the department of psychology, Georgetown University
• Dr. Michael Rich, founder and director, The Center on Media and Child Health; associate professor of pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
• James Steyer, founder and CEO, Common Sense Media

Diane Rehm Show: Touch-Screen Devices And Very Young Children. May 23 2012 (archived). A conversation on young children and touch-screen devices with guests:

• Lisa Guernsey, director, Early Education Initiative at the New America Foundation
• Liz Perle, editor in chief, Common Sense Media `
• Heather Kirkorian, assistant professor, human development and family studies, University of Wisconsin , Madison
• Ben Worthen, reporter, Wall Street Journal

An online collection of information from early childhood educators, Gail Laubenthal and Robbie Polan, sharing their experiences and offering reflective questions on their wiki, Using the Latest Technology in Early Childhood.

The four-year-olds spent longer observing and commenting on a slug they found when they used the digital camera to record every glistening track. Given that I teach in a half-day program with a very limited budget and have a focus on exploring the natural world, I don’t have plans to use tablets and computers with children in the short time I have with them. Technology tools have made my learning much easier as I use it to connect with resources posted online and communicate with colleagues. I really appreciate the way these tools expand my world.

The NAEYC Technology and Young Children Interest Forum, is a network of early care and education professionals who are committed to promoting the developmentally appropriate use of technology in the early years by leading discussions, sharing research, information and demonstrating evidence-based practices. They encourage us to work together to create responsive learning environments for children everywhere. Find them online, on Facebook, and at the annual NAEYC conference in Tech on Deck sessions including a “Free Play” area outside the meeting rooms all day on Thursday and Friday where participants will encounter a variety of traditional and emerging technology tools. And we’ll likely encounter some illuminating conversations too!

Thank you to all early childhood educators who help me learn about technology and the research about how young children use it and are shaped by it.