One more note about conferences planned for next academic year - each
Spring Western Illinois University hosts a Secondary Science Education
Conference targeting primarily high school science teachers. The
Conference for next year is planned for Friday April 15, 2005.
Laura M. Barden-Gabbei
Department of Biological Sciences
Western Illinois University
1 University Circle
Macomb, IL 61455
phone (309) 298-1679
fax (309) 298-2270
e-mail LM-Barden@xxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: ISTA Members Discussion List [mailto:ISTATALK-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Andrew Apicella
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 10:17 AM
To: ISTATALK-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ISTATALK-L] general membership meeting minutes 2004
ISTA General Membership Meeting
July 14, 2004 Interstate Center
Bloomington, Illinois
Marylin Lisowski, ISTA President, called the meeting to order at 1:10.
She thanked the Convention Committee (Gwen Pollock and CeMast personnel)
for their work on preparation of a convention that has been so well
received by those who attended.
President's Report
Marylin mentioned the changes to the ISTA Talk and that the listserv
will now only be available to members of the ISTA. Marylin also
mentioned that there are changes in the publications of the ISTA.
ISTAction is now available on the ISTA website. Soon there will be an
editorial board for the review of the Spectrum which will continue as a
paper publication.
Marylin reminded the audience that the summer ISTA convention was an
experiment. She asked that the members assess the benefits,
shortcomings, and value of a summer convention. There will not be an
ISTA convention in 2005 because of the NSTA regional convention at Navy
Pier in Chicago, November 10-12. There is not a set plan for the ISTA
convention in 2006. The ISTA may have a traditional single convention
or regional conventions throughout the State in 2006.
Marylin stressed the need to increase membership in the ISTA. She
mentioned how beneficial it would be if each current member could
recruit one new member. There seems to be a changing mindset about
joining organizations and professional development.
Marylin said the minutes of the general membership meeting will be
printed in the Spectrum.
President-Elect's Report
Ray Dagenais, ISTA president-elect, reviewed the work that the Board of
Directors have been doing on the Strategic Plan and Action Items for the
ISTA. Ray also thanked those present for attending the convention.
Treasurer's Report
Carl Koch, ISTA treasurer, was unable to attend the July 14 meeting
but prepared a report of the finances of the organization as of July 12,
2004. This report was presented for Carl by Wes Heyduck.
Executive Director's Report
Diana Dummitt, Executive Director of ISTA, thanked all those present for
attending the summer convention. She reminded everyone that the summer
timing for the 2004 convention was an experiment. She reported that
there will not be an ISTA convention in 2005 due to the regional NSTA
conference in Chicago in November. The NSTA conference will be titled
Chicago, World Class Science. Members of the ISTA are working to
develop the various program strands for this conference and would like
the conference to showcase all of Illinois. The NSTA conference
planning committee is looking for volunteers to assist with the
conference.
Regional Directors' Reports
Marylin introduced the six regional directors who were in attendance at
the general membership meeting. Anna Zuccarini from region 1 said that
she was working on ideas for increasing membership and is planning a
regional activity for the Chicago suburban region in the fall.
Larry McPheron and Don Terasaki both from region 2 mentioned that they
are organizing an event in region 2 at Rockford's Discovery Center for
October 2.
Jill Carter of region 3 is planning an event with Randal Musch for a
fall activity in the central Illinois region. Kendra Carroll from region
4 is looking to work with Sue Golden for an activity in her region and
repeated the need for increasing ISTA membership.
Wes Heyduck, Region 6 Director, reported that Science in the South is
scheduled for the first Friday in March in Carbondale.
Call to Action
Gwen Pollock explained the nature of the six focus groups that met on
Tuesday to address the recommendation that Illinois should increase its
high school graduation requirement from one year to three years. This
recommendation was made by State Superintendent Schiller in spring 2004.
Schiller wanted the three years requirement to include a year each of
biology, chemistry and physics. Of the fifty states, only Illinois
requires just one year of science for high school graduation. While
many school districts have adopted more than one year of science for
their local graduation requirement, the State Board only monitors the
districts that are not meeting the minimal of one year. The information
of how many schools do require more than one year of science is not
available at the State Board of Education. Gwen urged the ISTA members
to put on their civic hats to address this recommendation. There is a
plan to have a showcase of the recommendation in the Capitol building in
April 2005. Gwen asked the ISTA members to take a part in an informed
conversation about what is costs for a quality science education.
Marylin Lisowski was facilitator of the Assessment focus group and
reported that her committee had three action items: 1.form a statement
of concern with the current assessment framework 2.develop a guide for
teacher to analyze the components of the assessment framework 3.draft a
model letter to send to state legislators about the impact of increasing
the science graduation requirements.
Wes Heyduck reported from the Graduation Requirement focus group that
the group was recommending that local school districts be able to select
the courses and course sequence to fulfill a three year science
requirement. The ISTA would be developing a task force to do fact
finding to learn where schools are now with their graduation
requirements in science. The task force would also survey what the
expected impact would be in school districts that would have to add one
or more years to their current science requirement for graduation. The
task force would report to the ISBE and General Assembly by 2005-2006
and the program would be implemented in school year 2007 to impact the
graduating class of 2010.
Deb Perryman reported from the Service Learning focus group that there
is a need to distinguish between service and service learning and a need
to cultivate community partnerships.
Kay Taft reported that the Retiring Teachers focus group wanted to
address the question of how many qualified science teachers would be
retiring in the next few years.
Comments from the Membership:
Kay Taft mentioned that this had been one of the best conventions in
recent years. She thought the marketing of the convention was not
appropriate. She specifically mentioned the lack of information and
promotion of the awards reception at the Challenger Center. She urged
the ISTA to market the convention much more aggressively and that the
cost of the convention registration should be lowered. The original
design for ISTA conventions in the past was to encourage as many
elementary teachers as possible to attend; lowering the registration
fees would make the convention more affordable.
Bob Williams mentioned that September 18 will be "It's Our River" Day.
The focus of the special day in local cleanup of rivers. Information
about this day will be coming to members on the ISTA listserv. Bob
reminded the group that LEEP grants were due in September. LEEP (lake
education grant) information is available through the EPA website.
Carolyn Zanta requested that the ISTA offer reduced rate convention fees
for session presenters.
Gwen Pollock mentioned that there was an increase in funding to Illinois
for the 2004-2005 Math-Science Partnership grant program. The request
for proposals will be available in the first week of August. The
comprehensive needs assessment that was done for the 2003-2004
Math-Science Partnership grants had a high number of responses. The
results will be published either on the ISTA listserv or in the
Spectrum.
Anna Zuccarini mentioned that the summer convention was an experiment.
She commented that the stress of returning to the classroom to find out
what the sub did and how the students behaved was missing due to the
summer time frame of the convention. Another person added that the
summer convention gave teachers time to process newly acquired ideas
before school starts again in August or September.
The year of the woman in physics is 2005. Information about this maybe
reached at either www.physics2005.com or www.wyp2005.org
Meeting was adjourned at 2:15.
Donated door prizes were awarded.
***********************************************************
ISTATALK-L is hosted by the Early Childhood and Parenting
(ECAP) Collaborative at the University of Illinois.
http://ecap.crc.uiuc.edu/listserv/ecenet-l.html
Contact listadmn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx for assistance.
************************************************************
***********************************************************
ISTATALK-L is hosted by the Early Childhood and Parenting
(ECAP) Collaborative at the University of Illinois.
http://ecap.crc.uiuc.edu/listserv/ecenet-l.html
Contact listadmn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx for assistance.
To unsubscribe, send a message to listadmn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
that states, "Please unsubscribe me from the ISTATALK-L listserv."
************************************************************