Sunday Funday and NSTA conference

Hi Y’all!

I finally have my stuff together and can link up with the awesome Deirdre and Molly for their Sunday Funday link.

This has been a very busy week for me.  I was so lucky to be able to attend the National Science Teacher Conference in Boston this week. I had so much fun.  I sat in on some awesome sessions about STEM and the new NGSS.  I was overwhelmed by all the new fun science initiatives taking place all over the country.  Here are a few pics from the conference.

This is a shot of the Expo floor the first morning of the conference.  
There were tons of vendors there and the had tons of goodies to share.

At my first session. We worked through the engineer design process.  After learning about weather, we had to construct a hat to help protect us from some kind of weather.  
Can you guess what type of weather my hat was protecting me from?

Another session engineering design creation. I  worked with a team to build a car.  This is our first draft.  We then had to make our car do a trick with magnets.  This was so much fun! I also sat my some lovely ladies from the great state of Texas!

This is a water gel crystal.  It soaks up water and appears invisible in water.  They tied a string around the crystal and dropped it in the cup.  When you first look at it, it appears to be a string magically floating in water.  Very cool.

This was a showcase at an ETA vendor’s booth.  It’s an armadillo on a skateboard.  The kids build different ramps and test to see how far the armadillo can go.

A tobacco hornworm.
I met a sloth.  It was adorable. I almost teared up she was so cute.  She kept staring straight up into the sky. I wanted to hold her so badly…

See how adorable she is?  Look at that little tongue.  Oh I just love her!

Oh yea, that’s a bald eagle.  She was huge.  And very intimidating and beautiful.

I also met two magellanic penguins. I LOVE PENGUINS.  These two were adorable. They live in South America and their handler showed me their two featherless spots where they “sweat”.  So adorable.

Kinda gross right?  I was so excited to dissect this squid.  I’ve always had a small obsession with the giant squid…I know an absurd amount of information about squids.  They walked us through the dissection process.  I found the beak and examined the suckers, ink sac, and siphon. It was so cool!!
The NSTA people were so awesome they held a large session just for elementary educators.  It was a ballroom full of different tables of teachers/presenters.  We learned new ideas and walked away with some cool lesson plans.  I even got a cricket lollipop!
The conference was from Thursday until Sunday. I went all day Thursday and Friday.  I had every intention of attending Saturday…but woke up to a large swollen (and painful) ankle.  It was ridiculously difficult walking down the stairs.  My fitbit clocked over 15 miles! 
In other news…
I’ve updated  my Count the Room products.  Every single one has new clip art and a new cleaned up look.  Here are a few cover photos:

I’m working on bundling all of these together soon.  
Lastly, I am one (read 1, uno, un, ONE) follower away from 500 followers on my Facebook page.
I have a wonderful giveaway all planned out…so if you don’t already follow me…would you mind heading over and clicking that little “like” button.  Please?
Just one.
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1 Comment

  1. Molly
    April 6, 2014 / 9:20 pm

    Vera, OMG that sloth is too cute! That conference looked awesome! Thanks for sharing so much! Your new covers are adorable! Congrats on your big milestone!

    Molly
    Lucky to Be in First