Latest News

  • Samsung Climate Superstars

    Be a Climate Superstar and win tablets for your classroom! Think your students have what it takes to tackle the 2019 Climate Superstars Challenge? This 10-day online environmental challenge will get middle school (6-9) kids excited about the environment and teach them the value of collaboration. If your classroom completes at least 7 of 9 total tasks, you’ll have the chance to win five Samsung Galaxy Tablets with ENERGY STAR® certification! Registration opens October 14, contest starts October 21, and winners announced November 4.

    For more information and to register...
  • Model Water Tower Competition

    The Illinois Section American Water Works Association (ISAWWA), is proud to announce the State-Wide Annual Model Water Tower Competition (MTWC). The Competition provides students with a fun-filled, science oriented competition aimed at introducing middle school aged students to opportunities in the water profession. This competition requires students to design and build a water tower with specific size and height requirements. The models are judged based on 5 categories including cost efficiency, hydraulic efficiency, structural efficiency, design ingenuity and interview presentation. The East Regional will be held March 7, 2020 at Westmont Jr. High School and the state competition at the same location on April 25, 2020. Numerous resources on running the competition, judging, rules, etc. are available on the links below. Monetary prizes are awarded to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place at the state competition.

    Information on the State Competition and the Regional Competition
  • Gross Anatomy for Teacher Education (GATE)

    Gross Anatomy for Teacher Education (GATE) is offering a 3-day professional development workshop with complete cadaveric dissection for high school anatomy teachers and college anatomy professors. It is being held locally at Rush University on July 23-25, 2018.

    Download the Flyer and to Register...
  • NISE Grants

    Need funding for travel in order to present at a national conference? Want to attend the NISE Conference but your school doesn't fund out-of-district PD? Need financial assistance to run a summer STEM workshop? NISE is offering grants that might be able to help. NISE's grant program supports STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professional development activities for K-12 educators in the greater Chicago area. Eligible expenses the grant would cover include: reasonable travel, registration fees, and materials. (NOTE: Download the application and open in Acrobat to edit and save it. Edits made in a web browser typically won't save.)

    Download the NISE Grant Overview and Application...
  • CPDU / PD Hour Requirements

    The Illinois State Board of Education now requires approved professional development providers to record the educator's Illinois Educator Identification Number (IEIN) for all PD hours. NISE will not be able to issue Professional Development (PD) Hours (formerly CPDUs) without the educator providing the IEIN prior to the event offering PD Hours/CPDUs. Unfortunately, NISE is unable to "lookup" the educator's IEIN on their behalf. Since all approved providers will require this number going forward, it is highly recommended that educators lookup their number and have it readily available for future events. The number can be located by either contacting the appropriate district personnel in charge of licensure tracking or logging into the ISBE "Educator Licensure Information System (ELIS)" using the educator's login (http://www.isbe.net/elis).

    For more information...
  • Achieve Begins Releasing PE Bundles

    Over the summer, Achieve began the rolling release of NGSS bundles. As a response to the many questions that Achieve and the writers received about how to organize the Performance Expectations into units, a group of writers and other educators created NGSS bundles. These are meant to be examples of how PEs could be organized to create curriculum for a specific subject or grade level. These bundles are only meant to be one example of how PEs could be organized/arranged. Emphasis is on creating connections between PEs so that students use multiple PEs as they answer an over arching question or solve a problem. Science teachers are also able to see how the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) and Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs) are utilized in lessons to address three dimensional learning.

    To see the bundles that have been released...

Did You Know?

  • Twitter Handles
    NISE has created a list of popular science education related Twitter Handles. The list includes general topics discussed and typical meeting times. The list includes topics that have a not only focus on national topics but also local topics too.[more]
  • NISE Educator Resources
    NISE has a created several dynamic spreadsheets listing various resources for science teachers of all levels including lesson ideas and materials, professional development, awards and grants, and publication. This is maintained by NISE with teachers and providers suggesting additions to the lists.[more]