Esteemed Colleagues:
I've just returned from the annual conference of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) in Garden Grove, CA. NARST publishes the Journal of Research in Science Teaching and is also a locus for researchers who edit and publish related journals such as Science Education, IJSE, J. Env. Ed., and so on.
In the recent past there has been increasing involvement in NARST conferences by geo-ed and geocog researchers, but not this year. There were very few of our community present and even fewer geo-related talks and posters. The general absence of the geo realm was noted by many, and some of the conference organizers asked me to get the word out about next year.
As others on this listserv can confirm, NARST is a smaller (~1000 attendees), friendly conference, particularly welcoming to first-time attendees (you can be matched with an experienced colleague who will show you around and introduce you). The spectrum of expertise there is quite different from one of our discipline-based meetings like GSA/NAGT or AGU. There are many social and statistical scientists, but also P/C/B science and SFES faculty, and K-12 educators.
Our community has plenty to contribute to this annual conference. Networking opportunities are tremendous.
Next year's conference will be in Philadelphia the week of 20-24 March 2010. It should be noted that the submission procedure for NARST is quite different from that of GSA or AGU. You can submit a single paper or poster, or get together with colleagues to submit a linked set of 4-5 papers (which, if accepted, constitutes its own topical session). Each submission is a presentation "proposal" of up to 5 pages single-spaced. And the deadline is early: typically mid-August for the meeting in the following spring.
If you are not a NARST member but are interested in the organization and/or the conference, visit
http://www.narst.org.
Thanks,
Steve
