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A Major Change….
MSTA has made some major changes!
• MSTA annual conference will be held in Meridian, MS.
• The schedule has been “revamped.”
• Monday night trivia will be held at the MAEEX! (If you’ve not visited there yet, you are in for a treat!)
• Awards will be held during the general session, followed by a box lunch during your district meeting.
• Biostudy at Bonita Lakes in Meridian (weather permitting) on Sunday afternoon.
• The design of the conference will provide more CEU opportunity!
Location: Riley Center, Meridian, MS
With the move to a more central location for our annual conference, MSTA hopes to welcome more teachers than ever! The Riley Center is in downtown Meridian.
Hotels: There is no attached hotel to the Riley Center, though the Threefoot Hotel is across the street. There is no attached parking garage to the Threefoot Hotel or the Riley Center, but there is a parking garage on the next block.
Fairfield Inn & Suites Meridian for 109.00 USD - 114.00 USD per night - Last Day to Book : Wednesday, September 17, 2025
FAIRFIELD INN: (includes a continental breakfast)
Single: $109 per night plus tax = $119.36
Double: $114 per night plus tax = $124.83
The Threefoot Hotel, Meridian, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel for 134.00 USD139.00 USD per night - Last Day to Book : Thursday, September 18, 2025
THREEFOOT HOTEL: (does not include a breakfast; has a restaurant)
Single: $134 per night plus tax = $146.73
Double: $139 per night plus tax = $152.21
There will be an incidental hold placed on the card on file at check in. It is $20 for Fairfield and $50 for Threefoot. The hold will be released after each guest checks out.
There is no code. If you call, say that you are with the MS Science Teaching Block and give the dates.
To book online for either hotel, click
here.
A Major Change…. (continued)
Parking: There are two parking locations near the Riley Center:
1. The Arts District Parking Garage: 712 24th Avenue, Meridian, MS
2. Union Station Parking Lot: 1901 Front Street, Meridian, MS
Presenters: There is a small loading zone. If at all possible, please use a cart or wagon to bring in your presentation supplies from your parking area.
Members must wear nametags at all times during the conference.
12:00 – 7:00 pm
2:00 – 3:00 pm
3:15 – 4:15 pm
4:20 – 5:20 pm
Special Event: 3:00 – 5:00 pm
Special Event: 5:30 – 7:30 pm
Tentative Schedule
Sunday, October 19, 2025
Registration and Check In at Riley Center Lobby
Concurrent Sessions I* (CEU opportunity) Riley Center
Concurrent Sessions II* (CEU opportunity) Riley Center
Concurrent Sessions III* (CEU opportunity) Riley Center
Bonita Lakes Fishing Field Trip ** (additional 2 CEU opportunityField)- must have transportation
STEM Fest (additional 2 CEU opportunity) Riley Center
Monday, October 20, 2025
8:00 – 4:00 pm
8:00 – 4:00 pm
8:00 – 4:00 pm
8:30 – 9:30 am
9:45– 10:45 am
10:50 – 11:50 pm
11:55 – 12:50 pm
1:00- 2:00 pm
2:15– 3:15 pm
3:25 – 4:25 pm
Special Event: 4:30 – 5:50 pm
Special Event: 6:00- 8:00 pm
Registration and Check In at Riley Center Lobby
Silent Auction at Riley Center (ongoing all day)
Exhibits and Vendors in Riley Center
Concurrent Sessions IV* (CEU opportunity) Riley Center
Concurrent Sessions V* (CEU opportunity) Riley Center
General Assembly and Awards Presentation (CEU Opportunity) Riley Center Historic Theater (NO Food or Drinks Allowed)
District Meeting Luncheon (Box Lunch Pick Up and Meeting According to Districts (CEU Opportunity) Riley Center
Concurrent Sessions VI*(CEU opportunity) Riley Center
Concurrent Sessions VII*(CEU opportunity) Riley Center
Concurrent Sessions VIII*(CEU opportunity) Riley Center
Concurrent Sessions IX* (CEU opportunity) ThE MAX (Explore and Trivia for CEUs) Heavy Hors d’oeuvres served
Trivia Fest at The MAX “ (CEU opportunity)
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
8:00 – 10:00 am
8:00 – 10:00 am
8:00 – 11:00 am
8:00 – 11:00 am
8:00 – 9:00 am
9:15– 10:15 am
10:25 – 11:25am
11:35 – 12:35 pm
End of Conference - See You Next Year!
Registration and Check In at Riley Center Lobby
Last T-Shirt Pickup in Registration for Early Bird Registration
Silent Auction Item Pickup in Riley Center
Exhibits and Vendors in Riley Center
Concurrent Sessions X* (CEU opportunity)
Concurrent Sessions Xi* (CEU opportunity)
Concurrent Sessions XiI* (CEU opportunity)
Concurrent Sessions XIII* (CEU opportunity)
CEU Paperwork, Evaluation, and Door Prizes
From MSTA President, Dr. Carl Dewitt
As summer winds down, I’ve found myself reflecting—not just on to-do lists, but on a bigger question: Am I helping my students experience science, or just helping them pass a test? Are my students exploring the natural world or are they just memorizing terms and attempting to remember answers long enough to pass the test? It has made me revisit one of my favorite stories from one of my favorite Scientists.
Richard Feynman told a story about education. It is a really great read and I will leave you a link to the whole story. He was speaking about learning new ideas in science and he picked the word Triboluminescence from a textbook…
“Triboluminescence. Triboluminescence is the light emitted when crystals are crushed…” I said, “And there, have you got science? No! You have only told what a word means in terms of other words. You haven’t told anything about nature – what crystals produce light when you crush them, why they produce light. Did you see any student go home and try it? He can’t.
“But if, instead, you were to write, ‘When you take a lump of sugar and crush it with a pair of pliers in the dark, you can see a bluish flash. Some other crystals do that too. Nobody knows why. The phenomenon is called “triboluminescence.” ‘ Then someone will go home and try it. Then there’s an experience of nature.” -Richard Feynman
This year, I’m recommitting to giving students experiences they can feel—not just facts to memorize. Let’s help them crush sugar cubes in the dark, ask real questions, and wonder why.
If you’re doing something hands-on or curious in your classroom, find me on Facebook —I’d love to hear what you are doing to give experiences to your students.
Cheerfully,
Carl
https://enlightenedidiot.net/random/feynman-on-brazilian-education-system/
Welcome Back from Your MSTA High School Representative!
new school year! As we prepare our classrooms, update our lesson plans, and gear up to inspire a new group of students, I hope you feel recharged and ready to make this your best year yet in science education.
I encourage each of you to mark your calendars for the 2025 Mississippi Science Teaching Association Conference. This year, we’re especially excited as we head to our new host city: Meridian! Get ready for a fantastic time of professional learning, networking, and inspiration in a vibrant new setting. Whether you’re looking for new classroom strategies, updated content knowledge, or just a boost of motivation, the conference has something for you.
As your High School Representative, I’m here to support you throughout the year. If you ever need ideas, resources, or guidance for your classroom, I’m just a message away. And if I don’t know the answer, I’ll help connect you with someone who does.
Wishing you a successful, engaging, and science-filled school year!
Heather Thornton, MSTA High School Representative
ACLIPSE: Advancing Climate Literacy through investment in In-Service and Pre -Service Science Educators
The ACLIPSE course engages grade 6–12 teachers and teacher candidates in climate science/change activities using authentic data. ACLIPSE uses climate science as the context for applying current research about teaching and learning aligned with the Framework for K–12 Science Education. Educators and their students also improve their skills for using and interpreting real- and near real-time data. ACLIPSE includes instructional materials developed with NOAA's financial and scientific support.
Audience: College & university
K-12 educators
Opportunity Type: In person Online Professional Development Opportunity
Welcome to District E!
I am so excited that the MSTA Conference will be in Meridian this fall - District E. Our little district and Meridian, in particular, has more to offer than you realize. Downtown Meridian has enjoyed a revitalization and has several nice restaurants and the venues we will be using are state of the art. Both the MSU Riley Center and The MAXX are incredible venues - I can’t wait for you to experience them.
Book early if you want to stay in the convention hotel next door - but there are several other options if you don't want to stay downtown. If you want to eat downtownhere are some of my recommendations:
Weidmann’s - Since 1870, generations of families have gathered around Weidmann’s tables to sample some of the greatest food and beverages available. Starting with the freshest ingredients, tried and true recipes and just a little bit of tender, loving care, Weidmann’s has always specialized in high quality comfort food.
Harvest Grill - We’re a relaxed, casual restaurant with an inventive menu. Our Cross-Country Cuisine draws inspiration from our travels across America and prominently features fresh, seasonal produce from right here in Mississippi. It’s fun, healthy and affordable.
Jean’s- Jean's serves traditional Southern fare in a beautifully renovated historic building in Downtown Meridian, Mississippi. Come see us for recipes just like your mama used to make from a kitchen with a combined 100 years of experience. Everything is made fresh to order and served on our mix of fine china, sourced regionally from the Mississippi Delta to the Gulf Coast. Only open for LUNCH.
If you want to leave downtown, there are several other options to explore and multiple chain restaurants available.
Don’t let the idea of Meridian fool you - there are several places to enjoy as part of your conference down time. We look forward to seeing you soon.
Chantelle Herchenhahn District E Director
NSTA Recommends…
Thinking made visible: That’s what happens when elementary students record their thoughts in science notebooks. This practical guide shows how notebooks can become a tangible record of their emerging understanding of and proficiency in science. Students can use their notebooks to pose questions, write down observations, work through puzzling data, or think through new ideas. You can use them to ascertain each student’s strengths and challenges in participating in the academic work of science.
Science Notebooks in Student-Centered Classrooms offers the following:
• Specific guidance on how to start using notebooks—or improve what you already do. Find out how to help students learn to organize information while also preserving their own voices and choices. Many of the samples are from actual student notebooks.
• Advice on the best ways to use notebooks. Explore lessons, instructional routines, and assessment techniques that pair well with science notebooks.
• Practical techniques. Discover how to use notebooks to assess student work and plan future lessons even as you integrate language arts and mathematics into your science class.
• Blackline masters you can use at your discretion. These are provided in the appendix for organizational elements (such as a table of contents) and instruction (graphic organizers).
Throughout, the book’s approach aligns with the vision in A Framework for K–12 Science Education, the Next Generation Science Standards, and current research about notebooks. You can be sure the strategies in this book really work because author Jessica Fries-Gaither is a veteran teacher who has personally tested every technique. She is also the author of the award-winning NSTA Kids books Notable Notebooks: Scientists and Their Writings and Exemplary Evidence: Scientists and Their Data. As she says in the book, science notebooks have the power “to engage students as active participants in the practice and learning of science.”
Source: https://my.nsta.org/resource/125063
Space News
Another interstellar visitor is traveling through our solar system! Comet 2025 N1 (ATLAS) is speeding through the solar system, barely being deflected by the sun’s gravity as it passes inside the orbit of Mars. It will have closest approach to the Sun in October.
Want to learn more about how the solar system works? I will be offering my “solar system for teachers” class this fall, Monday nights 6-9 pm Central time starting August 25. https://mst.rice.edu/ASTR502/ You can take it for three hours graduate credit, which can apply to my “Master of Science Teaching” degree, or you can take it just for professional development. You can also participate remotely via Zoom! Contact me if you are interested!
Prof. Patricia H. Reiff
Professor, Physics & Astronomy
Director, Master of Science Teaching
Rice University MS108, 6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77251-1892
email: reiff@rice.edu (o)713-348-4634 (c)281-660-9107
www: https://reiff.rice.edu
The biggest black hole smashup ever detected challenges physics theories Gravitational waves reveal the birth of a black hole with about 225 times the mass of the sun
By Emily Conover
Talk about epic. A collision of two black holes is so extreme that it’s challenging physics theories of how large black holes form and merge. The two black holes had masses bigger than any before confirmed in such a collision. One had about 140 times the mass of the sun, and the other about 100 solar masses. And both were spinning at nearly the top speed allowed by physics. “We don’t think it’s possible to form black holes with those masses by the usual mechanism of a star collapsing after it has died,” says physicist Mark Hannam of Cardiff University in Wales, a physicist working on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, which detected the crash. That has researchers considering other black hole backstories.
For the rest of the story: https://www.sciencenews.org /article/biggest-black-hole-gravitational-waves
Student Competitions
Mapping Alien Worlds
Activity from NASA Jet Propulsion Lab
Overview
Students analyze simulated radar data to map surface elevations on a grid. Next, they determine what kind of surface feature is displayed by the data. Students then build a physical model representing their data.
Materials
Colored pencils, crayons, OR markers (six colors)
Student data sheets – Download | View on Google Docs
Teacher answer key – Download | View on Google Docs (Optional) plastic building bricks, soft kid clay, or 3D design software
Management
The suggested materials or other materials can be used for modeling features depending on availability or student abilities. See images below for examples. Colors that take into account student color-blindness should be used as appropriate. Provide different data sheets to groups so the class can see a variety of terrains.
Background
Spacecraft can collect data about the surfaces of planets, moons, and asteroids using radar (radio detection and ranging) and lidar (laser imaging, detection, and ranging). Both methods send a signal – radio waves in the case of radar and laser pulses in lidar –from a spacecraft and measure the returned signal that bounces, or reflects, off a planetary surface. The longer a signal takes to return, the farther it has traveled, indicating a lower surface. A shorter return time means the signal bounced off of a surface with a higher elevation. Meanwhile, the amount of energy returned can provide information about the properties of the reflected surface. Spacecraft circling a planet measure strips, or swaths, of the surface as they orbit, eventually mapping the entire body. NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission was one of several that did this for Earth while the Mars Global Surveyor used lidar to map the Red Planet. Some spacecraft fly by planets and moons, only mapping sections of the surface. For example, the Cassini spacecraft mapped multiple swaths of Saturn’s moon Titan during its more than 13 years at the ringed giant.
Procedures
1. Ask students to think about what kinds of natural features there are on Earth’s surface (e.g., mountains, valleys, canyons, plains, etc.).
2. Ask students if they think those types of features exist on the Moon or other planets. Show them pictures of places like Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris on Mars or Maat Mons on Venus.
(continued on the next page)
3. Explain to students that scientists use radar to bounce radio signals off of surface features to measure their height or depth, similar to the way bats and dolphins use sound (i.e., sound waves) to find the location of objects around them.
Try bouncing a ball off surfaces of different heights to demonstrate that the longer it takes for the ball, or a radar signal, to return, the farther away, or deeper a surface is.
4. Show the student data sheets, and explain that each grid square represents a surface area and shows the height of that area.
5. Divide students into groups and provide each group with data sheets containing different maps, or swaths.
6. As a class, you will need to decide which colors will correspond to which heights on the maps and fill in the grids with the appropriate colors. Many maps use blues and purples for low elevations, oranges and reds for high elevations, and greens and yellows in between, but feel free to make it your own and consider colors that account for color-blindness
7. Have each group color in the squares to create their elevation map on the data sheet and determine what feature(s) are shown on their map.
8. Have student groups compare their maps with other groups to determine if their maps might connect, contain similar features, or be separated by missing data (e.g., two maps of a mountain range with missing mountains between the maps). Students should arrange maps relative to other student maps, if appropriate.
9. Using clay, building bricks, or other methods, have students create physical models of their elevation maps.
Discussion
Ask students to describe or explain the limits to the accuracy of the maps. In what ways is this sort of information useful to scientists? If you were searching for a landing site for a future spacecraft, which location would you choose if you could guarantee landing in a 6-km-by-10-km ellipse? Where would you choose if you could guarantee landing in a 4-km-by-6-km ellipse?
Assessment
Student maps should accurately represent the data provided. Students should be able to identify which type of surface feature their map represents. Physical models should accurately represent the data and maps.
(Continued on next page)
Extensions
Students familiar with or interested in learning conditional formatting in spreadsheet software can transfer the data to a spreadsheet and format the cells to highlight in different colors based on the data provided. Allow students to generate their own simulated data that describes a feature on the blank data swath.
Surface features, even enormous mountains, are quite small compared to the size of a planet or moon. To see details and features more clearly, scientists use a technique called vertical exaggeration, a means by which vertical height is multiplied by some amount while the horizontal measurements remain the same. This may be listed as a ratio, such as 15:1 or described as 15x vertical exaggeration. In this video, the vertical exaggeration changes from 1X to 3X to demonstrate this technique. The simulated data in this activity represent 1 km per unit in each direction (10 km along the short axis, 20 km along the long axis). Using their physical model, have students calculate the vertical exaggeration of their model using the following method, where: a = true feature height from the data swath; b = true width of the data swath; c = feature height on model if there were no vertical exaggeration; d = measured width of model; v = vertical exaggeration factor; and f = measured height of model.
Source: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/resources/lesson-plan/mappingalien-worlds/
MSTA Board of Directors
Executive Board
President: Carl Dewitt, PhD
President-elect: Adrine Williams, EdD
Immediate Past President: Cindy Alsworth-Jones
Treasurer: Melinda Miller (also Website, Scholarships)
Executive Director: Ann Huber
Assistant Executive Officer: Betsy Sullivan, PhD (also Newsletter Editor )
District Directors
District A: James Brownlow
District B: Adrine Williams, PhD (also DEI)
District C:
District D: Elizabeth Prewitt (also Publicity) Kelle Sumrall (also Publicity)
District E: Chantelle Herchenhahn
District F: Megan Brooks
District Directors Coordinator: Lillie Akin-Knighton
Area Representatives
College/University: Bill Scott, PhD
Community College: Michelle Baragona, PhD
High School: Heather Thornton
Middle School: Bobby Robinson
Elementary School: Lori Matzek
Independent Schools: Industry:
Pre-service Teachers: Lacey Fitts, PhD
MDE Liaison: Kevin Gaylor, EdD
Parliamentarian: Johnny Mattox, PhD (also Historian)
Social Media: Christy Sheffield (also Exhibits Coordinator)
Professional Liaison: Joe Sumrall, PhD (also Student Competitions)
About the Board of Directors:
The MSTA Board of Directors are volunteers who believe in science education within Mississippi. We receive no discounted rates for our service.