Thousands of science teachers found their way to St. Louis for the 2007 National Science Teachers Association convention, and we wanted to make sure they had something to take back to their students. So, we loaded our trucks with experiments and products from the website along with 5,000 rolls of MENTOS stuffed into plastic test tubes and headed for the Gateway City. We were fortunate to have 14 teacher ambassadors from the Hands-on Science Institute join us in the booth to each share their favorite science activities. Aside from 500 bottles of Diet Coke and a mountain of MENTOS, all eyes were on the 18 foot tall soda eruption chamber. We were demonstrating the new Geyser Tube by triggering a MENTOS geyser as fast as we could set-up a launch (about every 2-3 minutes for 3 full days). At the end of the convention, the soda was gone, the rolls of MENTOS were in the hands of 5,000 teachers, the truck was cleaned out… and we all had a blast. It’s back to the classroom for the 14 ambassadors to start working on cool stuff for next year’s NSTA in Boston.

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The National Science Teachers Association hosted a special day for PreK-2 teachers who want to make science more fun, more hands-on and more integrated into their teaching experiences. The Science for Young Learners Day was the brainchild of Bill Ritz, Professor Emeritus at California State University and the Conference Chairperson for the 54th Annual NSTA Conference in Anaheim, California (April 6-9, 2006). Bill Ritz and his conference planning committee invited me to help them kick-off the day as their morning keynote speaker.

Download a special handout from the morning keynote.

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I just returned from the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) convention in Dallas and the experience was fantastic. The convention organizers knocked everyone’s socks off with a first rate conference. But there was one little probelm. What was the “buzz” this year among teachers? In a word, stealing. The convention opened with the general session speaker who told the packed audience of over 4,000 K-12 teachers to “steal their way to success.” Of course, “stealing” refers to the taking of another person’s teaching ideas, lesson plans, classroom management practices or their favorite science demonstration in hopes of becoming a better teacher. The keynote speaker concluded with, “… if you didn’t like this speech, I’m not offended because I stole it!” This theme of theft prevailed throughout the conference as presenter after presenter jokingly recommended this sort of tongue and cheek robbery. On my way to a session, a teacher stopped me and said, “I just wanted to let you know that I’ve stolen all of your ideas! They’re great.” This was intended to be a compliment, I think. However, my response caught her off guard. “How could you have stolen the ideas if I gave them to you in my workshop?” I continued, “Tell me about some original ideas you’ve come up with that I might put to good use.” I could tell by the uncomfortable silence that I had hit a nerve. “I’m flattered that you found my ideas useful. Let’s keep sharing,” I replied.

Here’s my basic beef: If you want to be treated like a professional then act like one. Professionals do not run around “stealing” ideas - hacks steal. Professionals, on the other hand, exchange ideas and share their creations in an effort to help and support others in their profession. Professional teachers have integrity and respect for one another and respect for one’s intellectual property. You might say it’s all just semantics, but I believe that the problem lies in the culture of the teaching profession. If teachers believe that it’s acceptable (even cute) to “steal” ideas, then what’s the harm in placing a book on the copy machine instead of buying an original copy or making multiple copies of an instructional video?

I can’t help but think that the speaker would have a problem with my school district if we distributed photocopies of his book or pirated copies of his new DVDs. Using stolen software must be acceptable and a little plagiarism (Ward Churchill) is probably okay, right? What about cheating on a test or worse yet, helping a student cheat on a standardized test? Am I off base on this one?

The solution is free, painless and the behavior is professional. Two words: Give credit. If I use an idea shared by another presenter like Bob Becker, Lee Marek or Don Herbert, I give that person credit. Does giving credit lessen the quality of the idea? Giving credit is a token of respect for colleagues in your profession. In the end, the keynote speaker delivered a great message about running an effective classroom as evidence by the standing ovation. The speaker on the platform has a great responsibility and tremendous influence. Just do the right thing… replace the word steal with the professional behavior of sharing.

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If your child’s science teacher is not at school today, I’ll put 10 to 1 odds that you’ll find the teacher in Dallas, Texas. Why? It’s the gathering place for close to 25,000 of the best science teachers in the world! Dallas is host to the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) convention. Just to give you an idea of the size of the event, the exhibit hall is over 1,000,000 square feet with almost 3,000 vendors. The best part of the convention, however, is the huge number of teacher workshops. Any given hour there are more than 60 concurrent workshops… and you can only pick one. My day started early on Thursday with an 8:00 AM presentation to about 450 teachers and I haven’t stopped but for a few seconds to pour a little Starbucks into my veins for nourishment. If you want to learn more about NSTA, visit their website at www.nsta.org.

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