Greetings! Let me begin by extending my thanks for being given the honor of serving as this year’s president. The coming year should prove to be one of our best. I would also like to highlight some of our most recent successes, make an appeal for using the “5E” Lesson Plan, and to relay a personal request to each of you.

Our 2006 Professional Development Institute (PDI) was a huge success thanks to all of you who came to feed and be fed. Where would we be without each other? Attendance was up from last year and many sessions were standing room only. We must take a moment to thank and applaud Renee Coward for bringing to us an exceptional PDI conference. Her timely appreciation of an increasingly important aspect of North Carolina’s economic future was featured by highlighting the significance of science education as an essential building block for the workforce in our State’s new and burgeoning enterprise of “Biotechnology”. Each of you will play a vital role in readying students for careers and higher education in the multidisciplinary fields of biotechnology. What an exciting opportunity we have as educators in addressing this task!

I would like to comment on an appeal Manley Midgett made to the membership in the Fall 2006 NCSTA Newsletter. He stated that, “With the ‘high-stakes’ testing and increased public scrutiny, many teachers are beginning to ‘cut corners’ and sacrifice inquiry-based science in order for their students to know all of the science vocabulary in the book and science content that can be copied into science notebooks.”. Manley emphasized that the 5E lesson plan is a model for developing inquiry-based lessons. I personally feel that inquiry-based science will ensure student success on state tests and will strengthen our competiveness both nationally and globally.

One of NCSTA’s goals is to help teachers build a repertoire of materials to teach science effectively. Numerous North Carolina teachers have worked diligently to develop inquiry-based science support documents through the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI). These materials are in the form of 5E Lesson Plans, which directly address the North Carolina Science Education Standards. The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and many of its leaders have been suggesting that science teachers use the 5E Lesson Plan to teach classroom science effectively.” This plan is consistent with the learning cycle approaches that have been so successful for many years.

The 5E Lesson Plan asks students to engage in critical thinking and exercises their higher level thinking skills. As you make out tests or develop class discussion strategies this spring, think about how you will assess whether students are merely memorizing or actually embracing in a practical way the topics to which they are being exposed. Developing higher level thinking skills in our students requires us to write and ask questions that are designed to assess not only vocabulary and mechanism but also analysis and interpretation. When you create your strategies, try to use question shells that will address all levels of thinking.

As you begin fresh and renewed from the winter holidays, my charge to the membership of NCSTA is to get more science teachers involved. Forward this newsletter to science teachers in your schools. You are the local NCSTA representatives! Let others know that NCSTA is here to provide study grants and curriculum grants, to keep them informed about professional development opportunities, and to provide links to resources via our website. Help them join us in being a part of the best and brightest science group in town – the North Carolina Science Teachers Association!