STEMteachersNYC

Especially wonderful was running into STEMteachersNYC members! I saw some of our leaders – like Michelle Velho pictured below – plus some workshop attendees, some folks who recently attended and presented at our conference, and I was even stopped by two separate former members of the administrative team. Love to see so many from our team engaged! I also was surprised when an old friend appeared – that’s Christine, an Earth Science teacher in the Bronx, and the only good picture of me from the conference. Christine and I worked together for many years in some of the youth programs at the American Museum of Natural History, she is a talented and creative educator, one of my favorites!

There were so many people to talk to that I missed both a luncheon and another session that I had wanted to attend! I did finally eat lunch at like 2:30pm, but before that I talked to a number of people in the day’s poster session. Some of the highlights there included:

• Jess Cleeves, educator and therapist, and author of Planning to Stay, a book about overcoming teacher burnout.
• SUNY Farmingdale professor Christine Schlendorf, and her study on predictors of students achievement in Earth Science in New York State high schools. We had a lively talk about her data and analysis, and I can’t wait to discuss it more!
• Teacher researcher Linda Preminger, on her work with elementary teachers teaching science, and a new-to-me conceptual framework, teacher noticing (“teachers attending to student ideas, interpreting what students are saying, making connections with content, pedagogy, and learning (van Es & Sherin, 2021)”).
• A husband and wife team from Barbados, The Island Teachers, and their methods of teacher training. I can’t tell you how excited they were to be there, their first conference!
• And pictured below is our local friend, Godwyn Morris and her setup on the Engineering with Paper project.

As you might have noticed above, I was trying to be very recognizable in my STEMteachersNYC logo t-shirt because I had 5 Wonka-inspired golden tickets to give away, each good for a free summer workshop! Three of the tickets went directly to people who recognized me while I was wandering about – congrats to Debbie, Intiaz, and Janet!. The final two tickets were “hidden” at booths – our friends at New Visions had one, and my buddy, and fellow Astronomy on Tap NYC host, Kate had the other at the OpenSpace science visualization software/ePlanetarium booth – that’s her holding one of the golden tickets before she hid it away.

And finally, I had some great conversations with some of the booth vendors. I most enjoyed, although this is not an official endorsement or anything:

• the Lego Education Science team. I played with some of their robots and through some of their scenarios. I’ve been a big fan of Lego for a long time, so naturally wound up at their booth, but those little robots were fantastic, and so easy to use. I’d be curious to know if anyone has used them – what do you think???
• miniPCR. I’ve known these folks for many years, they make affordable genetics equipment that is also very easy to use. And, they have an annual Genes in Space competition where students propose experiments for space, with winners’ projects sent to the International Space Station. They also have some free online genetics/PCR-based interactives – I haven’t tried them out, but let us know if you do!
• Ozobots were neat, they were like smart watches on wheels that could be programmed to move along specific paths, look for colors, simulate movements in tandem.
• And I almost nabbed a copy of Big Bangs and Black Holes, a graphic novel guide to the Universe, but instead I think I’ll put that on my wish list. Also, my backpack was too heavy to want to add more to it. I also flipped through How to Teach Grown-Ups about Climate Change and a few other books at that booth, but I didn’t get the vendor’s name.

After everything, Kate and I walked over to Drexel University’s Academy of Natural Sciences for Dinos After Dark! We grabbed beers, looked at some dinosaurs, and saw a live stage show that Kate’s old colleague, Buddy, was putting on. The show was, admittedly, for kids, but we sat right in the first row and maybe heckled him a little. But Buddy is a consummate professional science communicator, and he had fun with it too. Plus the kids in the audience got to hold a real dinosaur coprolite (fossilized dino poop)! If you’re looking for something fun to do in Philly, Dinos After Dark runs monthly, and if you see Buddy (he’s hard to miss! That’s him with the giant beard!), tell him Brian Levine from New York says hi!

It was so rewarding to be back at NSTA, and inspiring to see teachers excited about their craft. This conference always has such an exhaustive slate of sessions – if only I had more time, I could only make it on Friday! Did you go? What did you think? Will you be going to Minneapolis in November? Let us know – especially if you plan to present! We might even see you there!

Next up – I will be tabling at the NY State Marine Educators 2025 Conference on May 3. Find me there or at another event or workshop in the near future!