NCSC July 3: Last chance to Attend Great Sessions!

Even though it is the closing day of the National Charter Schools Conference, July 3 will still be a day full of eye catching sessions. In the morning from 7:45 AM – 8:45 AM there will be a networking breakfast held before the sessions. Here are a few sessions to look out for on Wednesday:
NASA STEM Education: Bringing NASA’s BEST (Beginning Engineering, Science and Technology) into the classroom- July 3rd, 8:00 AM-10:30 AM The NASA’s BEST (Beginning Engineering, Science and Technology) project provides professional development for educators and curriculum support resources with a space exploration theme. The NASA educators will be explaining the hands-on, problem solving activity to design and build a Mars Rover and its landing system to arrive intact and upright on the remote surface. NASA will be introducing the Engineering Design Process in STEM for elementary and middle school classrooms. The presenters for the session will be Leslie Garrison (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), Michelle Graf (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), Susan Hoban (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), Catherine Kruchten (NASA), and Alexis O’Malley (NASA).           Closing Session – July 3rd, 10:45 AM-12:00 PM Amanda Ripley will be the closing session speaker. Amanda Ripley is an award-winning author and investigative journalist. She currently serves as a Bernard L. Schwartz Fellow at the nonpartisan New America Foundation where she has written several recent feature stories about school reform, kids, and teachers. Ripley has built up an impressive body of work over the course of her career including a dozen cover stories for Time, features for The Atlantic and a variety of other leading publications, and her upcoming book The Smartest Kids in the World. In addition to writing, Ripley has briefed at the Pentagon, the Senate, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, the Peace Corps and FEMA. She will draw on both her storytelling and public policy expertise in our brand new Closing Session this summer. We’re excited to have her and know that hearing her take on the charter school movement will be a great way to wrap up this year’s National Charter Schools Conference.