Introduction

1) Required to meet all content curriculum and skills;
 * as stated in the Science & Technology Standards
 * and promote STEM activities (Science-Technology-Engineering-Math)
 * while developing higher order thinking activities for students.

2) Limited instruction time;
 * Most ESS instruction time is scheduled to be 45-90 minutes a week (1-2 class periods) for grades 2nd - 5th. Before the use of ESS teachers, elementary classroom teachers where required to provide 4-5 45 minutes of Science instruction a week. This time has been directed toward Language Arts and Mathematics due to the mandate of the No Child Left Behind Act.
 * You can lose 50% of instruction time a week to field trips, school plays, and other extracurricular school activities.
 * You can lose 50-100% instruction time a week to standardized testing for other core content areas.
 * You can lose 5-10 minutes waiting to receive permission from __certain__ teachers (a severe minority) to enter their classrooms to teach.

3) No Science Classroom (No room for centralized Science instruction);
 * Travel to various classrooms during scheduled instructional time.
 * Classroom setup to teacher's instructional needs of Reading-Writing-Mathematics can pose difficulties for Science instruction. Individual/Paired desk seating as opposed to larger desk groupings hinders collaborative Science activities.
 * Varying degrees of access to teacher classroom for Science instruction ranging from "**welcome to my room**" to "//**this is __MY__ room**//".

4) Prepare the students for the Science & Technology Assessment given in the 5th grade;
 * Assessment covers curriculum and skills learned from 2nd grade through 5th grade (4 years)
 * Required to also review/teach past Science content from earlier grades in preparation of test.
 * Effectiveness of a teacher/school is based on the success rate on standardized testing of the students.

5) Certification in Elementary Education is the only requirement for being an ESS as opposed to being actually trained in a Science field (Engineering, Biology, Chemistry).
 * Majority of teachers adaptable to new teaching situations.
 * More elementary schools are hiring teachers with prior Science degrees.
 * School systems are offering Professional Development to enhance ESS capabilities in Science.