Message from the President

2009 will be an exciting year for our association. We are poised to take advantage of the positive professional development lift we received by hosting the NSTA regional in Charlotte last October. I hope you were able to attend it was an overwhelming success. So much so, that we have agreed to host another in five years time. Our state PDI will be in Greensboro this year at the Koury Convention Center November 19 and 20, 2009, and information about session proposals and registration will be forth coming on our website.

We launched a discussion forum this past month and I encourage you to participate in any of the strands that are currently being discussed. Feel free to start your own strand and encourage others to participate.

As you know our state is going to have a revision of the science curriculum by June 2009. Our district drive-in workshops can help with the process of the revision. I will work with DPI science to make this happen.

Work on the Board of the association is some of the most rewarding we can do as science teachers. Those of you who are looking for a way to help other science teachers improve their classroom instruction should consider joining us on the board or joining our many committees. Please contact myself or our Secretary, Ann McClung if you are interested.

Finally, I want to thank all of the hardworking Board members for the wonderful job they did last year making 2008 a resounding success!

Happy New Year!
Scott E. Grumelot
President, NCSTA

NCSTA Trust Fund Update
It's the time of year that we are forced to think about taxes. When you are thinking about places to donate funds so that you can reduce your taxes, please consider the NCSTA Trust Fund. This fund is used to support major projects for NCSTA and as an emergency fund for the organization. One use of the fund is for donations in memory of a member who played a major role in NCSTA. When someone leaves a donation of this kind, the family of the member is notified that someone has left such a gift in his/her memory.

Donations for the NCSTA Trust Fund should be sent to: NCSTA, P.O. Box 33478, Raleigh, NC 27636. For questions, please contact Manley Midgett at midgettm@meredith.edu or 800-801-7983.

We would like to thank Fred Beyer, Mark Case, Jayson Duncan, Scott Grumelot, Carrie Jones, Barbara Leonard, Ann McClung, Linda Stroud and Paul Taylor for their generous donations since the last report.