Today is Informal Science Day and everywhere I look there’s some kind of hands-on activity going on—in workshops and the exhibit hall. From attendees putting together simple tools from what looks like an assortment of children’s building blocks to making casts, there’s someone doing something virtually anywhere I look. Walking through the exhibit hall, I overheard one teacher exclaim, “This is better than a field trip!”
I’ve also seen children and adults line up to get a closer look at live penguins (I’ve never attended a conference with live animals before!) and their pictures taken with boa constrictors, a fuzzy little member of the hedge hog family or Bill Nye.
—Lynn

It’s always fun to hear from teachers and former teachers. When they describe the wonderful and effective projects they do with real students in their own classrooms, it’s hard to say: Yeah, but that won’t work in my school.
In their session “Evolution of the K–12 Science Notebook,” three educators from the New York City public schools (Sandra Jenoure, Greg Borman, and Sara Desplaines) described how they work with their elementary and middle school students in creating and, more importantly, using science notebooks. These notebooks are living documents in which students keep records of their lab investigations, vocabulary, class notes, sketches, summaries, and homework. They passed around some real notebooks from real students. Some were more complete and organized than others, but it was clear that there was a process taking place.
When asked why the notebooks were used with elementary and middle school students, Greg said “high schools are tough nuts to crack.” But in his teacher ed classes at CCNY, he requires the teachers to keep such a notebook, to model this process. NSTA has published a book Using Science Notebooks in the Elementary Classroom. I had seen it in the catalog and read a sample chapter online, but now I think I’m going to stop at the NSTA bookstore at the conference tomorrow to get my own copy.
I talked for a while with Greg after the presentation. He and I are of an age when we remember the era of student “portfolios.” We agreed that the word portfolio conjures up images of art projects and the word journal sounds like a diary with personal feelings and reflections. But Notebook—there’s a word that sounds like science. Even Leonardo da Vinci had a notebook!

I attended a session presented by some folks from NOAA called Data in the Classroom. No, it’s not about student assessments and NCLB! It’s about an effort to make the huge amount of data that NOAA has on the oceans and atmosphere accessible to students and teachers for problem solving and inquiry. Rather than just saying “Here is it is, have fun” they’ve created several modules (El Nino and Sea Level are ready now) that guide teachers and students through what they call “levels of scaled interaction.” In other words, each module has five levels of lessons ranging from teacher-presented ones through letting students explore the data to full-blown problem solving and invention. Each module shows the associated data in a variety of formats and guides the users through how to interpret it. There are “checkup” questions throughout, and teachers can download the materials. Even though the modules have been field tested, the NOAA folks are asking for additional feedback. (I played around a little this evening and my feedback is WOW). The address is www.dataintheclassroom.org
If anyone has info on resources from other NOAA sessions, feel free to add a comment here and tell us about them.

In her session on “Unleashing the Power of Data,” Nancy Love said cultural proficiency—knowing about and understanding different cultures—is key to interpreting data about science learning. “A child is not a number”—this fact is easy to forget when examining data, she observed.
Love used this image to illustrate the huge gap that can exist between data on student learning and interpretation of test results. “It’s our kids who are drowning in the middle,” she pointed out. Then she told us how to bridge the divide using collaborative inquiry.
During the session, attendees had opportunities to talk with a nearby partner about how to look at data collaboratively.

Lynn here. I attended the general session this morning as well. I found Barbara’s speech particularly inspirational. As folks were leaving the ballroom, she announced she had a special presentation to make. She presented NSTA with momentos from her August flight aboard Endeavour—including a Christa McAuliffe flight patch. I was in high school at the time of the Challenger disaster, so I found this particularly moving.
I did want to add one note. During several sessions I’ve attended, I’ve heard cell phones going off. I found this disruptive, especially when a person sitting near me proceeded to carry on a conversation with the caller.

Susan Morgan gave us tips for starting and running a science fair gleaned from her 18 years of experience with fairs. I appreciated her suggestion to let students choose something they’re interested in and develop a question to answer. Let them follow their own star.
Morgan (at left in the photo above) advised teachers to take time to chill out before the science fair. “You may only have three hours of happy hour before the fair–but enjoy it!”

Barbara Morgan was a featured speaker today, and it was a real thrill to see her in person. She described her Space Shuttle mission with slides and videos, a wonderful sense of humor, and a real pride in being an educator. As I listened to her describe what makes a NASA mission successful, several words and phrases came to mind: collaboration, teamwork, the importance of multiple roles, technology, using data and feedback, authentic experiences in training, guided practice, debriefing, a set of goals, communications, focused inspections, celebrations. Shouldn’t these words also describe a successful classroom?

It’s amazing how comfortable you can be at an NSTA conference, even in a city you’ve never visited before. Even the floors are just like home! That guy lying down looks so peaceful, don’t you think?

Just taking a break after a full schedule of sessions and a reconnaissance of the exhibitor’s hall. The conference center is a very large venue, but somehow it doesn’t seem as hectic as some. It even seemed that the registration area was running smoothly. There are lots of places to sit and relax, plan a schedule, chat with friends (I ran into one of my professors from grad school here!), or grab a snack. We teachers are used to eating in 10 minutes!
One wonderful feature of the new Boston Convention and Exhibition Center is that there is wireless service throughout the whole building! I was in a session earlier that mentioned a website, and right after the session I could take a look at it. The presenters, I’m sure, appreciated the fact that they did not have to pay extra for Internet access.
Another cool feature is NSTA’s Professional Development documentation project. Many conferences have agreements with local universities to provide graduate credit for conference attendance (as this conference does), but NSTA is providing another option for those who need to document their attendance. If attendees complete a session evaluation form and include their names and badge numbers, in a few weeks NSTA will have a “transcript” available online with the names of the sessions and the times. So we don’t have to keep a diary or try to remember what we did when we get home. By going to the NSTA website, attendees can get this documentation to share with their schools or for their personal records.

Be sure to check out the conference blog this week. Use the tab at the top of the page for first-hand accounts of the sessions, exhibitors, speakers, and the overall impressions of being a national conference!