NSTA+Conference+(New+Orleans),+Spring+2009


 * __Characteristics of the Conference__**

The National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) conference lasted for approximately three days, which all were action-packed (though we were only able to be there for about one day, unfortunately). The conference was spread among more than 5 hotels and the convention center, attracting tens of thousands of science teachers. The conference mainly consisted of half-hour to hour-long presentations concerning all of the sciences at each level (elementary, middle, and high school). To give an idea of the size of the conference, there were 42 hour-long presentations offered every hour from 8:00 am to around 6:00 pm. Additionally, there were outdoor environmental science events (including a tour of the 9th Ward), two-hour presentations by the more prominent speakers, and a large room with publishers and other representatives at our disposal.


 * __The Presentations That Were the Most Relevant to Others__**

//**More information can be found at// [|//www.science.tamu.edu/cmse/tsi//]
 * //__Effective K-12 Science Instruction: Promoting STEM Eduaction (Texas A&M)__:// There was a presentation that was very data oriented that aimed to discuss **"what works in science teaching"** that I thought would be applicable to most subjects. The presentation was one-hour-long, with the first half-hour discussing the the statitical analysis used and how they determined what data was valid to use in the study and what was not as valid (I believe they said that they deemed the data from 2/3 of the schools studied to be not valid for the study, so they seemed fairly selective). They said that they found that students were the most engaged when teachers followed the "5-E method" which is to "**E**ngage**, E**xplore**, E**xplain**, E**laborate**, and E**valuate**. The results of the study were that the following 7 points were deemed to "work" the best with students, ranked in order from most significant to least significant:**
 * Contextualize science learning
 * teaching concepts that matter to the students
 * integrating science into other subjects and into what they see in their daily lives
 * including current events, news clips, video clips, etc.
 * Collaborative learning strategies
 * games, discussions of concepts, kinesthetic activities, etc.
 * Questioning strategies
 * create an open, safe environment to share ideas
 * involve everyone - can call people randomly by shuffling cards with the students' names on them and picking one
 * can serve as a kind of immediate assessment
 * most effective if the questioning delves deeper (that is, don't just ask questions that you want a set response to, but rather ask questions that are intended to have follow up questions or can be debated)
 * Inquiry strategies
 * experience content, rather than be told about it
 * instead of discussing a lab briefly, giving "cookie-cutter" directions, ask them to determine something, and let them discover how to **design** the experiment, wrestling toward the final result, giving it more meaning
 * Assessment strategies
 * get students to become more active learners, learning what "type" of learner they are (visual, kinesthetic, etc.)
 * have them: create, draw, diagram, map, and work with computer simulations (don't just ask "standard" questions in class and on tests/quizzes)
 * Instructional technical strategies
 * use different technology, such as: cameras, video analysis, podcasting, wiki's
 * Enhanced material strategies
 * modify traditional labs
 * rewrite/annotate text


 * //__Whiteboarding in High School Physics Courses__//: This presentation was put on by two high school teachers who each use small, student-held whiteboards 1-2 times a week in their courses (both AP and regular). They said that the students find them natuarlly motivating and it can really get them involved and active when employed properly. The boards used were cheap showerboards from Home Depot cut down to 2x3 pieces. They then gave up a list of activities that can be used in class to involve students using the whiteboards.
 * "Board Meeting" - students get into a round-circle discussion about graphs from a lab, etc.
 * "Pass the Board" - students complete a problem and pass it to the person next to them for critisism
 * "Seatle - Miami" - students work on a problem/task in 2's, partnering with someone from across the room
 * "Balancing Wars" - students divide the whiteboard in half, and each student, when solving the given problem, can only write on his/her half of the board, and must communicate with his/her parner
 * "Gallery Walk" - students post a problem, graphs, or data from an experiment around the room on the whiteboards, and students, then walk around from board to board, leaving feedback right on the board.
 * "Problem Presentations" - students present problems to the class, and when the teacher claps, the student talking in the group has to change, with the next student picking up where the other one left off.


 * There were many other presentations that were attended, including: New data on the front of global warming, information about the CHANDA X-ray telescope (presented by NASA), how to use movie-physics analysis in class (went to 2.5 presentations on this), discussions concerning whether physics should be taught first in the "Physics First" movement, the modeling method of physics instruction (2 presentations on this, one given by a high school instructor and one given by a college professor), seeing the world in a whole new light (studying the world using invisible light, such as infrared), and more.