News from the South-West

Contributed by Kelly Feille

The Southwest region of ASTE gathered October 14-15 in San Marcos, TX. Our annual conference was hosted by Sunni Taylor (Texas State University) and her team including Julie Westerlund and Dan Smith. Our weekend began with a Glass Bottom Boat trip over the crystal clear Aquarena Springs and a Fossil Hunt near the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment. We closed out the evening with dinner at Kerbey Lane overlooking a waterfall and the San Marcos River.

Saturday morning started bright and early with a Bird Walk at the Meadows Center before diving into the day’s presentations. The conference schedule included over 30 presentations formatted as research briefs, innovative practices, workshops, and panel discussions. Just over 40 attendees from 12 institutions represented the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and North Carolina. Graduate students accounted for 18 of those in attendance.

Stephen Burgin (University of Arkansas) rotated off the board as Andrea Foster (Sam Houston State University) moved into Past-President and Sunni Taylor (Texas State University) began her term as President. Stephen Gruber (University of Houston, Clear Lake) was elected as President-Elect and will host our 2023 SWASTE conference in Houston. Kelly Feille (University of Oklahoma) concluded her term as Regional Director and 11 years of service on the SWASTE board. Stephen Burgin was elected as the new Regional Director for SWASTE for the term 2022-2025.

We look forward to once again providing travel awards to SWASTE Graduate Student Members presenting at ASTE 2023. Visit https://sw.theaste.org for details to be posted soon!

MA-ASTE Fall Report

Contributed by Rachel Wilson

The annual meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Association of Science Teacher Education was held on September 30 and October 1st, 2022 at Shawnee State Park in West Portsmouth, OH. Much gratitude to conference coordinators Helen Meyer (University of Cincinnati), Bridget Mulvey (Kent State University), and Chris Atchison (University of Cincinnati), who coordinated an in-person conference for 49 attendees, including 11 graduate students. Attendees had opportunities to participate in 7 paper sessions with 22 presentations and one poster session with 13 poster presentations. The number of first-time attendees was 17, and 9 states were represented (Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia). 

The conference ended with a Business Meeting where Angela Webb (James Madison University) was elected to serve as treasurer. We also elected three board members to form an executive board with our officers: William Thornburgh (Eastern Kentucky University), Kristie Gutierrez (Old Dominion University), and Leslie Bradury (Appalachian State University). Stephanie Philipp (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga) will be coordinating to host next year’s conference in Tennessee. 

The business meeting also included the awarding of the Dr. Patricia A. Obenauf Graduate Student Research Presentation Award to Dylan Burgevin (Towson University) for his presentation (co-authored with advisor Sarah Haines) titled: Outdoor Educational Experiences and Children’s Nature Connections: Implications for Science Educators. This honor awards the recipient graduate student $750 in travel money to attend and present their research at the national conference of ASTE in January 2023.

In addition, over the summer of 2022, Kristie Gutierrez (Old Dominion University), Meredith Kier (William & Mary University), and myself (Appalachian State University) worked to officially establish MA-ASTE as its own non-profit organization. Many thanks go to Kristie and Meredith for their help in this endeavor. 

Update from the Southeast Region

Contributed by Jennifer Stark

The 37th annual meeting of the Southeast region was hosted at the Lodge in Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, Alabama on October 6-8, 2022. The conference theme, Science Education: A New World, was chosen to emphasize an emergence from the recent pandemic and to encourage forward advancements through sharing understandings and novel experiences of our “new world” for science instruction.

We had 39 presentations which were delivered both in person and virtually. The 67 conference attendees were also able to tour the onsite Learning Center, observe the Sun, and learn about teaching in virtual reality from keynote speaker, Vince Wright (Chief Technology Officer of Optima Ed.). Thank you to Dr. Shana Lee, SASTE president, who organized a vibrant hybrid meeting!

Congratulations to our award winners and new SASTE officers!

Outstanding Faculty Position Paper: Dr. David D. Kumar, Florida Atlantic University

Rod Nave Award: Dr. Sarah Lalk, Mississippi State University

John Shrum Award: Dr. Michael Dentzau, Columbus State University

Past-President Award: Dr. Melanie Kinskey, Sam Houston State University

President Elect: Dr. Rachel Gisewhite, University of Southern Mississippi

Secretary/Treasurer: Dr. Jennifer Stark, University of West Florida

ASTE Representative: Dr. Stacey Britton, University of West Georgia

Fall 2022 Northeast Region Conference

Contributed by Amanda Gunning

The annual conference of the Northeast Region of the ASTE was held in late September for the first time since the onset of the pandemic, organized by Amanda Gunning and Seema Rivera. Many thanks to Sheila Borges Rajguru for all her work the past two years. While this year’s gathering was smaller than years’ past, the participants still enjoyed the keynote speaker, lunch, presentations, and meeting together once more. Highlights included: Dr. Eugenia Etkina, Distinguished Professor of Science Education at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, as our keynote to speak about developing preservice science teachers’ habits of mind and a panel of Noyce PIs representing every track in the scholarship award program to field questions and provide guidance for applying. We also held our elections for the new executive team and welcomed Latanya Brandon, SUNY New Paltz; Dominick Fantacone and Jeffery Radloff, SUNY Cortland; and Karen Woodruff, Kean University who will be taking over in the new year. The Northeast Region will be hosting a Brown Bag Lunch research symposium on Dec. 1, if you would like to attend via Zoom. We look forward to gathering together again in person at the international meeting in Salt Lake City and encourage any interested NE attendees to join our regional meeting there.

Fall 2022 North Central Region Conference

Contributed by Jerrid Kruse

On September 30th and October 1st, the North Central Region held its annual conference in Des Moines, IA on the Drake University campus. We enjoyed 18 posters and presentations over a wide array of interesting topics. Alicen Morley of Iowa State University received the Davis-Foster Graduate Student Award for her paper “Examining question quality to promote equity and fairness in student assessment“.