Back from the NSTA

We're back from the NSTA conference, and it was a great success. The conference took place at the Boston Convention Center, which initially had the look of an airport with its larger-than-life hallways and seemingly mile-long corridors...but it was the perfect place to hold a convention of such magnitude. Over 12,000 teachers attended, who arrived in fleets of bus shuttles. I was their for two reasons: to collect ideas for modules, units, and supplies for my department, and to sign books at the booth for Frogstreet Press, the publisher for the Dr. Birdley materials. Overall we saw a strong interest in the Birdley materials from the teachers and it was great to meet members of the "readership" face to face.

Visitors to the Frogstreet Press booth enjoyed purchasing the books and sampling the Dr. Birdley cookies. I was glad Dr. B was able to end a hand, especially to teachers with English Language Learners, Special Education Classes, and large groups of students who had trouble with their traditional textbooks. One of the compliments I heard was that teachers were pleased to find something at the conference they could take back with them to use right away in their classroom. I also had the opportunity to chat with earth science teachers and get a sense of the topics they were interested in for the earth science books. When I was not at the booth I was exploring the vast array of other booths. Two highlights on the booth floor that stand out were the Lego Mindstorms booth and a Computer Microscope simulation. I also had an unexpected encounter with a penguin from the Busch Gardens booth. highlight was an environmental science workshop on my TERC, which featured some interesting curriculum projects based on real-time data of tidal patterns in Estuaries.

Overall the NSTA was an eye-opening eperience, and I look forward to bringing much of what I learned back to the classroom and the drawing table.