At the Chicago NSTA National Conference on Science Education it was my honor to begin my term as CESI President. Thank you to Julie Thomas for two solid years of leadership of CESI. I look forward to her advice for the next year. Thanks also to the board members: Betty Crocker, Ratna Narayan, Cynthia Deaton, Melissa Sleeper, Susana Ramirez, Janelle Day, and Tammy Brown for their years of service on public relations, awards, arranging the Elementary Extravaganza, the regional CESI Sharathons. I would also like to welcome Samantha Burko as our secretary of CESI. Samantha is a third year preservice elementary teacher at Central Michigan University and a student assistant in the Central Michigan GEMS Center.
CESI will have a busy 2015 as you can see at the NSTA Fall regional conferences. We will hold a special event for members only at the Kansas City conference in December. The session is an organizational gathering combined with a workshop that will be facilitated by our own Karen Ostlund and her son Al, a high school physics teacher. Everyone will get to build a mousetrap car and get lesson plans for how to use it with your students. I went to this session at the NSTA STEM Expo last year and it will be worth your time. More information about this session will be announced later in the year.
In 2016 we will have a full slate of sessions at the NSTA conference in Nashville. Please follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook group so that you can keep up with CESI in the future.
I look forward to two great years as your President. Science rules and should in every elementary and preschool classroom on Earth!
Regards,
Jim McDonald