Sep28

Minneapolis Committee Offers a Warm Welcome

Jean Tushie, NSTA member and volunteer Program Coordinator for the Minneapolis Conference, promises a warm meeting, and at the very least, a warm reception, to all who come to her city:

 

 

Kayaking in Minneapolis in the fall.What comes to mind when you think of Minneapolis?  Most people think of cold and snow.  Yes, we have lots of snow in Minneapolis.  But not in October!  To the surprise of most folks, our Fall season is beautiful with average highs in the  60’s!

 

The downtown area has lots of do after conference hours.  Theaters, restaurants, sporting events are all within walking distance of the Minneapolis Convention Center.  The Nicollet Mall is a real treat to just stroll and take in the beauty of downtown Minneapolis.

 

So don’t miss out on attending the NSTA’s Conference on Science Education in Minneapolis, Oct 29-31.  October is a fun month with the Fall foliage at it’s peak and plenty of Halloween festivities. Yes, it’s over Halloween.  That can add to the fun in downtown Minneapolis.  We love our Fall events!

 

--Jean Tushie

 

This conference is for teachers in every grade band, K–College, and from every discipline. We recruit the leading experts and expect high performance. Consider some of the sessions we’re offering:

 

  • Featured Presenter, Richard Louv: Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
  • Award-winning Inquiry Lab Activities for High School Biology—Learn how to conduct three high-interest lab activities that give students experience in hypothesis formation, experimental design, data collection, and interpretation.
  • Using Dark Matter to Teach Physics Concepts—Use dark matter to tie together several units in your physics course. Leave with a DVD, teacher's guide, and student handouts.
  • Wind Turbine Challenge: How to Hold One in Your State or Region
  • Biotechnology and Environmental Risk: Project Learning Tree's New Secondary Program
  • Ecological Footprints (Elem–Middle)
  • Students Show What They Know—Formative assessment can have a powerful, positive effect on student learning. (General)
  • Polydensity Tube: Serious Fun with a Dense Subject—Make and take a bottle with solids floating or sinking in two immiscible liquids. Handouts. (Middle–Informal)
  • Field Trip: St. Anthony Falls Laboratory: Hydrology on a Big Scale (Ticketed)
  • Field Trip: Great River Energy: Splendor in the Glass (Ticketed)
  • Inquiry Instruction in High School Chemistry and Its Effect on Students' Proportional Reasoning Ability (Supervisory)

And there are many more sessions to choose from. Attend this conference to be the best you can be. Register by visiting www.nsta.org/minneapolis.

Published: Sep-28-09 | 0 Comments | 0 Links to this post

Sep25

Ft. Lauderdale Earlybird Deadline is Sept 25!

Consider taking just a few days to get inspired, build your content knowledge, access teaching strategies that help student performance and enjoy the natural environment in beautiful Fort Lauderdale. NSTA’s Conference on Science Education will take place Nov. 12–14, and is an event not to be missed. Workshops, seminars, presentations and sessions are planned for teachers in every grade band, K–college, and administrators who need professional development to meet your district or state requirements. It’s an investment in yourself. Consider a sampling of more than 400 sessions.

  • Featured Speaker Dr. Ellen Prager (Author and Chief Scientist, NOAA's Undersea Research Center), Chasing Science at Sea: Unveiling Stories of Wonder and Adventure from the Field and How Science Really Works
  • Discipline-specific, full day programs in Physics, Physical Science, Earth Science, Chemistry and Biology.
  • Teaching About Energy Resources (Middle–High School)
  • Environmental Issues Taught with an Inquiry Approach, Elementary
  • What Affects Reaction Time? Conduct an experiment to determine reaction time under three physiological conditions and then examine the nervous pathways that are in use with each pathway. (Middle–High School)
  • Muscular Physics—Explore the physics of body movements. We'll construct an arm model and apply lever mechanics to the "lifting" of various masses. (Middle–High School)
  • Increasing Student Achievement in an All-inclusive Learning Environment (Middle–High School and Supervision)
  • The "Principal" Difference: Leadership for Building a Quality Elementary Science Program(Supervision)
  • Instructional Technology and Partnerships to Promote Science Learning—Our large high school uses instructional technology to engage students in the learning process by providing authentic science experiences through design projects, competitions, and real-time data analysis. Students assess each other's outcomes and their own using quality formative assessment tools. (Middle–High/Supervision)
  • What's Matter Made Of? (High School)
  • Field Trip (ticketed): Key Largo Dive Trip—We will dive the live coral reefs of Key Largo, as well as the famous Christ Statue, very comfortably while searching for sea turtles, sting rays, eels, fish, and more. The Florida Keys reef tract is the only living coral barrier reef in North America and is the third largest coral barrier reef in the world.

And that’s just the beginning of a fantastic PD excursion. Remember there’s the Exhibit Hall (with giveaways), networking with your peers and presenters, and graduate credit for 12 hours of program attendance. Visit www.nsta.org/fortlauderdale  for more details and to register. The earlybird deadline is September 25.

Published: Sep-25-09 | 0 Comments | 0 Links to this post

Sep24

Fall Conference Season Kicks Off in Minneapolis

As we ramp up for the fall conference season (Minneapolis is only five weeks away), I asked Science & Children Field Editor and past NSTA President (2006-2007), Linda Froschauer, how she prepares to attend an NSTA conference…
 
The first time I attended an NSTA conference I had to spend the first couple of hours just looking through the program in an attempt to determine what sessions I wanted to attend.  Now, before I go, I devote some time to looking at the program that is available on line.  I select a couple of sessions that are occurring at the same time and place them in my personal conference scheduler.  In that way I’m able to make final selections on the spot.  That actually happens to me frequently because I find that what I might need from a session was actually provided in an earlier session, a session goes over time or I stop to speak with a presenter making me late if I travel too far, or I’m just fickle and change my mind.

Screen Shot: Online Session SchedulerThe on-line conference scheduler is a wonderful preview tool.  Especially for keynote or special speakers.  If they have authored a book that I am fond of, I like to bring it with me to the lecture and ask them to sign it.  Most speakers stop to talk with members of the audience after the talk and are happy to sign their book.

I’m always prepared to collect goodies at the conference.  I know that I can’t resist all of the materials you can pick up at the exhibit hall.  That’s not a problem when I can drive to the conference and load up my car, but when I fly it can be tough.  I try to leave a little extra space in my suitcase for some of the flat items.  It’s the bulkier or more fragile things that are a problem.  I now carry a canvas, zippered bag in my suitcase.  It takes up no room at all when empty but it expands very nicely to accommodate larger, bulkier, or fragile items.  Now, I’m free to pick up all I want from the exhibit floor – well, almost everything I want.  I did have to pass up an aquarium last time.

-- Linda Froschauer
 
In the coming weeks, we’ll use this blog to share more comments from NSTA staffers and volunteers about their conference strategies, as well as notes about scheduled events.

How do you prepare?

--Tyson Brown
Published: Sep-24-09 | 3 Comments | 0 Links to this post