It's hot all over the country. Which for some is driving Science interest and making it 'sticky'. Whether you search youtube for STEM or STEAM info or head to the Denver Conference Center this week for the National Science Teachers Conference, Carbon, Weather, Chemistry, or pedagogy are stirring young and older minds. It's timely to consider complex facts in the context of systems theory and higher order math before we go back to school or to prepare for readying the next generation of scientists and space travellers.  Who will make the difference?- open minded teachers and LEAs/SEAs answering to our national initiative to raise our student aptitudes and competitiveness through hard and soft skill development across studies and core subject areas.

 "[Science] is more than a school subject, or the periodic table, or the properties of waves. It is an approach to the world, a critical way to understand and explore and engage with the world, and then have the capacity to change that world..."

—President Barack Obama, March 23, 2015

—While NPR is touting a global and national heat wave and discussing the Democratic Convention, the National Science Teachers are meeting in Denver and facing our national educational policy to transform how we teach and integrate science in our classrooms.  This copy from the U.S. Department of Education website continues to open up a window on the future.  Science provides a lens on Presidential optimism and the leadership elements in business and in research that have led to the national initiative in Education aka our common core.

To quote the USDOE ..."The United States has developed as a global leader, in large part, through the genius and hard work of its scientists, engineers, and innovators. In a world that's becoming increasingly complex, where success is driven not only by what you know, but by what you can do with what you know, it's more important than ever for our youth to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to solve tough problems, gather and evaluate evidence, and make sense of information. These are the types of skills that students learn by studying science, technology, engineering, and math—subjects collectively known as STEM.

Yet today, few American students pursue expertise in STEM fields—and we have an inadequate pipeline of teachers skilled in those subjects. That's why President Obama has set a priority of increasing the number of students and teachers who are proficient in these vital fields."

You may want to start reading about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) to understand the new national priorities or grok that Science Friday, the Loh down on Science and public media on radio, in print or on tv that followed on the popularity of magazines like Science Digest or National Geographic have been developed over the popularity of new research and findings and new media applications and innovations that have shown us the world and spaces we live in from Outer Space to cave anthropology, from inner spaces to genomes in graphic and compelling ways.  If you don't, children will as SciGirls to fellowships and poster presentations in virtual science fairs are in vogue.

NSTA will continue to innovate and transform how we teach these new concepts and bring students "new eyes" on the world. If you can't attend...at least you can congratulate these visionary pragmatists for bringing us the future in the eyes of our students and school districts year round.  It's daunting, but rewarding. Wish them a hardy ......Bravo!

Source of the President's quote and STEM copy: http://www.ed.gov/stem

Exploring browser comments on STEM from individual research to national policy change:

https://www.omsi.edu/sites/all/FTP/files/evaluation/Blackford2009.pdf

http://www.informalscience.org/

http://www.nsta.org/about/positions/elementary.aspx

Papers to publish?

http://www.nsta.org/elementaryschool/call-sc.aspx

Building the bridge to reasoning:

http://www.informalscience.org/children-doing-science-essential-idiosyncrasy-and-challenges-assessment

Understanding Aerosols and Spheres, Bo Lebo will describe working as a nonprofit community educator working in the SFV with GLOBE EL tools on Friday, July 29^th Denver convention center at 3pm (the book and the new video):

http://www.globe.gov/web/elementary-globe

http://www.teachertube.com/video/jazzing-up-science-elementary-students-harmonizing-with-globe-426228

Capturing tradition to learn to count- what ever you can sing you can play …learning new traditions in math (STEM explored through music theory):

https://www.kathak.org/index.php/about/about-us

http://rootsofrhythm.net/

http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/bol_percussion.html

http://languageofrhythm.com/indian/konnakol/

You can look at NEO's teacher tube video or head to the next NSTA or Arts Integration Conference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDr5AiNVcKE

http://edclosetstore.com/products/2017-winter-arts-integration-and-steam-online-conference-registration

Check out the policy paper:

http://www.ed.gov/stem

Head to the conference or buy reference guides until you can attend next year:

http://www.nsta.org/conferences/stem.aspx