ChangED
ChangED is an educator based podcast for Pennsylvania teachers to learn more about the PA STEELS Standards and science in general. It is hosted by Andrew Kuhn and Patrice Semicek.
ChangED
Exploring NSTA Philadelphia: Hidden Gems and Local Tips
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Christine Royce, the former president of the National Science Teaching Association, joins us to share her expert advice on making the most of your trip to Philadelphia. Discover Christine's insights as she guides us through the bustling streets of the city, highlighting the best ways to navigate its transportation and uncover its historical treasures. From the ease of using cabs, Ubers, or Lyfts to the art of savoring a Philly cheesesteak, Christine's tips are sure to enhance your visiting experience. Her advice ensures that you'll be moving about the city like a seasoned local!
Experience more NSTA podcasts and learn about the Philly NSTA Conference by visiting nsta.org/podcast.
Want to send us a show idea or just say hi? Email us at: thechangedpodcast@gmail.com!
Welcome back to the NSDA podcast hosted by Change Ed. I am your host, Andrew Kuhn, an education consultant Today you're a host Today. I am.
Speaker 2Last time you were a co-host.
Speaker 1From Montgomery County Intermediate Unit in Pennsylvania, the suburbs of Philadelphia, and here with me is.
Speaker 2Patrice Simicek co-host, apparently Lowly co-host Also out of the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit.
Speaker 1Mainly because of budget cuts. It's not you, it's just. You know, tough times, yeah, doesn't feel right, though. So we have here with us today a very accomplished individual.
Speaker 2Knowledgeable.
Speaker 1Very knowledgeable, has great knowledge about philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. So we're gonna have a great conversation, give you some really good tidbits on what to do, and maybe what not to do, when you come to the city of philadelphia. But before I introduce the person, I'd like to say that not only is she a former president of nsta, she's also a two-time world boxing champion. I'd like to to introduce Christine Royce. Welcome to the show, christine.
Speaker 3That's a very well-kept secret, so thank you for sharing that that's out of the bag.
Speaker 2That was a deep dive Deep dive into Google, not a problem. I don't know what factual sites you're on, though. Poor Dr Royce.
Speaker 1So, Christine, welcome to the show. We're glad to have you. Please introduce yourself to our NSDA audience.
Speaker 3Sure, thank you. My name is Christine Royce and I am actually a past president for the National Science Teaching Association, but in Pennsylvania I teach at Shippensburg University, where I prepare future teachers, that's awesome.
Speaker 1I went to Shippensburg University.
Speaker 2Oh no, here we go.
Speaker 1Obviously, you could tell that I was a quality educator and scholar when did you go to shippensburg? I before it was great before I was a university. I went.
Speaker 3I graduated in 2005 I was already teaching there in 2005. Really, I started at shippensburg in 2002.
Speaker 1Oh, oh, look we've been friends for 23 years. Come on.
Speaker 3You just made me feel old, but that's okay. Thank you, so good to reconnect with you. Well, you started teaching there when you were 12, right, sure, absolutely 11 and a half actually. Let's get that half over, okay, okay.
Speaker 1So you are in the elementary department at Shippensburg? Yes, shippensburg, and, madam President, thank you for being on the show, isn't that way? We, like you, always have that title. My curiosity is how did you get affiliated with your elementary work? How did you get affiliated with NSDA and PSDA?
Speaker 3So many years. Before I started at Shippensburg I had a mentor who took me to conferences. Actually one of them was in Philadelphia in 1995. And you get involved with committees and you go to different conferences and you get to meet people. And so over time I served on different committees and eventually worked through the governance change. I was a district director and a division director and eventually, many years later, ran for president. So NSTA has been like a large part of my professional career, my professional life. It's my professional family, wow.
Speaker 1That's really yeah, christine, we have been told by lots of individuals. Everyone on the NSTA world said that you are the renowned expert for Philadelphia and the city of Philadelphia, so we want to have you on the podcast so that you can tell others about what that experience will be like, because we're super excited to have it in Philadelphia. I guess my first question is I'm flying to the airport and I've got to get myself to where I'm staying. What does it look like to navigate Philadelphia?
Speaker 3So the nice thing about Philadelphia is it's really connected by all sorts of transportation.
Speaker 3You can fly in.
Speaker 3You're going to fly in south of the city and I think the easiest way, to be perfectly honest, to get to the hotel would be to take a cab or an Uber or something like that, since we do have trains and if you're coming in on a train, you're going to come into a station, but you're going to still have to get yourself to the hotel, which is over near the convention center, which is near the Reading Terminal Market.
Speaker 3So I would say, however you're arriving into the city, the next thing is to try and get to your location via a cab or an Uber or a Lyft or something like that. It's going to make it very easy because they're going to know which streets are one ways and how you're going to get there, and it's not always conducive to just try and take that one transportation like the train isn't going to drop you close enough, so you still have to have that intermediate step. So just fly in or get the train and then jump in a cab or an Uber and you're going to be able to get to your hotel really easily.
Speaker 2I would agree as someone who isn't native to this area the first time. This is really a crazy story. I drove into the city because I was applying to work for the school district of Philadelphia and I'm from a smaller town in Florida. One, we don't parallel park and parallel parking in the city is a must. And two, navigating the one ways versus not one ways. And then I'm going to be honest as a non-native Pennsylvanian Philadelphians if you struggle with directions and driving may or may not be the nicest in terms of how they treat you in the car. They know where their horns are.
Speaker 2They know where their horns are.
Speaker 1Yeah, for sure, and they know how to use it.
Speaker 2And when they say it's like a little mini New York, it is a little mini New York and I know some Philadelphians get mad when we say that. But yeah, I think Ubering is probably the best bet. I would agree with you Because the train system is relatively intuitive. But you're right, it does not get to be.
Speaker 1And what I'm hearing, christine, is that number one kind of plan ahead, right? Just take a look, look at your options so that when you arrive there, it is a big airport. Every city has a big airport and they all operate differently.
Speaker 2But there are five terminals.
Speaker 1Have a plan before you show up, or an idea of what you might want to do, and you can navigate your way from the airport to the hotel, and then it sounds like most of the hotels will probably be in a reasonable radius. That is, you're going to find easy ways to move about. Does that sound right?
Speaker 3That's about right. Once you get to your hotel, the hotels are going to be in a general area You're going to be able to walk easily. There's going to be opportunities to connect to the convention center, to connect to other areas down there food. So once you get to that hotel area, you're going to be able to walk around and experience that part of the city.
Speaker 1Now, because you threw me a softball there on the convention center, let's talk about that convention center, navigating your way into there. Because I made yeah, exactly I made all this effort to get here to this conference. And then I'm like now, what? Now, where do I go? What does that look like?
Speaker 3So the convention center is actually a beautiful structure. It's massive. We're going to be in one particular part of it. So once you get there, I know that NSTA is expecting to have like the rotunda area where they're going to have the registration and they're going to have information. So that's going to be kind of the first meeting place You're going to walk in and make sure when you walk in you do look up and around, because it is incorporating a lot of the architecture from that area. And then there's branches off of that, like branches to rooms on one particular side or another particular side, and so at that point you're going to need to also have some planning and know which sessions am I going to. There's also sessions in the hotels, the main hotels. So knowing which ones you're going to be going to and having, or using one of the Information maps that's available with registration materials, is going to be helpful, because it is a big area if you can think about having hundreds and hundreds of sessions during the conference.
Speaker 2The other thing too I keep reminding people who aren't familiar with the convention center is plugs are not a plenty. So make sure you bring backup batteries and chargers and things like that, just because if you're taking notes electronically, the Wi-Fi is usually pretty good, but the plugs, if your battery dies relatively quickly, are not going to be readily available.
Speaker 3That's an excellent point. There's not a lot of outlets that are available. That's correct.
Speaker 1My mind immediately when you said Rotunda. I was like well, that's not podcaster friendly. We will not be podcasting live from that space.
Speaker 2No, no, but it is beautiful.
Speaker 1Oh my gosh live from that space.
Speaker 2No, no, but it is beautiful. Oh my gosh, yeah, beautiful spot. The other thing that I think that was great that you pointed out, christine was the recognizing where the sessions are going to be, because I remember the first time I went to I think there was a STEM NSTA, stem one in Philadelphia a few years ago that had sessions in the Marriott, and so it says on there you got to make sure you're going to the Marriott as opposed to the convention center, so just making sure that you're navigating that and leaving yourself time to navigate from the hotel over to the convention center if your sessions are in different spaces, it's really important too.
Speaker 3There is no doubt you will get your steps in.
Speaker 2Yeah, wear sneakers.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2Oh, I closed my exercise loop by 9am.
Speaker 1Well, that's two things now that I've heard in this experience, and kind of navigating the city of Beverly Love, where it's like just take a little bit of time and create your plan.
Speaker 1You know, take a look over it, look at a map, kind of figure out where you are orient yourself, since you're going to be there for that whole time and it is big enough of a space that you want to make sure you kind of feel comfortable with where you're at. Now for NSTA, do they have people with shirts on that can help navigate you around as well?
Speaker 3NSTA has a lot of volunteers and they are going to have shirts on. I don't know what color shirt they are yet, but they also hold up wonderful signs that say ask me. So they will actually have volunteers, appropriately placed throughout the convention center, in the registration area, in the hallways, to help guide people on where they're going if they're looking for something specific. So yes, Great.
Speaker 1I'm thinking about my son who would go up to somebody who had a sign that said ask me and just start asking random trivia questions. That had nothing to do with navigating me around. He'll be like dad, where does wind come from? I'm like where's your mother? I don't know.
Speaker 2You never know Science people have lots of information so we may end up it's the right conference to ask random questions.
Speaker 1A great challenge for our listeners is navigate your way to somebody with an ask me, sign and just start drilling them with questions. There'll be a line with the ask me people, so I think this is super helpful.
Speaker 1Thank you very much. The other questions would be what else can I do in Philadelphia? Because we talked about this, actually, when we were on a podcast with the current NSCA president, alicia Connolly, and we were saying this is a city like all other cities, that, if you can plan to not just come in and come out, there are things that you definitely want to go do and see Lots of food.
Exploring Philadelphia's Attractions and History
Speaker 1Lots of food, lots of food. But there are just lots of things that you can be part of. Some of them are like hugely iconic and other things are like those small, hidden, tucked away things. So what are some of those things from your perspective or in your experience, or things that you want to go see or do in Philadelphia?
Speaker 3So definitely go visit the Reading Terminal Market that is right near the convention center and if you really want to get a good taste or flavor of how a lot of information or how a lot of market or produce stands or a lot of the Amish that come in from Lancaster, it's a good place to get different kinds of food, see different kinds of markets, see kinds of different kinds of crafts because there are some craft areas there as well for people for demonstrating it. There's a chocolate place there if you're into chocolate. So that's one of the first places I'd say. You know you're going to be hungry. You're going to try and find something to eat. It's right there and it's a good opportunity to have your first Philly cheesesteak without actually having to go very far away from the convention center.
Speaker 2To Pat's or Gino's.
Speaker 1We have a question about that, yeah. The question is do we go name brand or do you go off name brand?
Speaker 2I will tell you I'm a.
Speaker 3D'Alessandro's girl. I went to school in Philly. I went to Temple. I am a Temple girl. So, girl, I went to school in philly, I went to temple. I am a temple girl, so I'm very curious as to where you go then I like gino's. I like gino's steaks, but you know you have to actually make a plan to go get those cheesesteaks sure do, and be prepared to stand in line. That would be something you might want to do. Like you know, after the convention time days like the hours are over go down there at night.
Speaker 3If you're looking just just for Philly cheesesteak, I would say the Running Terminal Market has some really good ones. They also have really good crepes.
Speaker 2Oh, their crepes are so good, so good. I would agree with you there. I think there's lots of buildings, too, that have like observation towers, so you could go to several of those with observation towers.
Speaker 3Oh, absolutely so. Beside Running Terminal Market, I would say, if you haven't been there and if you're bringing young children, the Franklin Institute, even if you're not into spending time in museums, I would go down and walk up the steps to the art museum just to see what's happening. I'm not sure if people have told you, but Rocky impersonator will be in Philadelphia. Oh yes.
Speaker 1That's my part time job. I didn't know I was hired. It's great.
Speaker 3I'm not sure which day he will be there, but he's actually a friend of mine from high school who is the professional Rocky impersonator. That's amazing. I'd also say some hidden things, like, if you're into history, we obviously have the Independence area. We have the Liberty Bell. The Chemical Heritage Foundation, which is down in that area, has a really well-designed museum area about chemistry education, but it's not always something that comes up on the first list of things that you're going to see for Philadelphia, so I would say that that's an option to see.
Speaker 2What about the Mutter Museum? Did I say that right? The one with?
Speaker 3all the Mutter Museum, yes, mutter, yes, yeah, I feel like that's a really cool one for science people. It's a well-kept secret.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's different the Mutter Museum.
Speaker 3So, yeah, there's a couple of different museums that are science-oriented, science-focused, in addition to the historical aspects of it. In addition to the historical aspects of it, obviously, just walking along the waterfront Philadelphia shipyard area, there's going to be some interesting things. I mean because there's a lot of historical aspects associated with how we began to get information about, like diseases and that kind of information from that area over time.
Speaker 1So history and science really does combine a lot with the Philadelphia area. Yeah, and over there in the old city they have that beautiful cobblestone streets and there's so much beautiful history over there probably some walking tours.
Speaker 1I don't know, with it being march it might be a little chilly, but there's definitely going to be walking tours yes, some of the things that my family loves to go and see when we're down in philadelphia is love park, which is actually it's a stone's throw away from the art museum, but you can see stray shot right down. You can see the art museum there. There's also a spot it's a location kind of in that area where it's super famous in the philadelphia area for wedding photos. A lot of people will stay in the middle of the street and you've got traffic on either side and they can get beautiful pictures there. We also really like Boathouse Row, which is very close to art museum and there's like a really nice pathway there. You can like take walks and it's really well thought out.
Speaker 3And it's pretty at night with the lights.
Speaker 1It's gorgeous For sure it's like a must see, right, because there are lots of pictures there, but to see it is really incredible To your point. There's plenty, lots here to do. You can choose the big things that have a lot of people there and you can see them, or you can kind of go off that beaten path and experience those other things as well. I think they should come ask those, ask people, what their favorite thing to do is in Philadelphia and just see what they say.
Speaker 2It's not a bad idea, unless they're not from.
Speaker 3Philadelphia, we'll have to prompt them for some things, unless you're not from Philadelphia. They may not all be Philadelphia volunteers.
Speaker 2Let me Google it real quick. I like the Liberty Bell that's here, right yeah?
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2It's somewhere in the city.
Philadelphia Travel Tips With Unexpected Adventures
Speaker 1Christine, thank you so much. This is hugely helpful and I think the big takeaway is have a plan, but also be prepared to be spontaneous, because there's a lot to do and see and experience, and maybe a wrong turn will actually get you in the right spot, but you also have an adventure or a story to tell from it, or a non-name brand cheesesteak that ended up in your hand on the path.
Speaker 2And they're just as good if not better.
Speaker 3There's lots of Philadelphia food, so you definitely will not go away hungry.
Speaker 2No, and we said before, they're not always the healthiest options. So thank goodness you're walking a lot. It is yes.
Speaker 1We've established that Philadelphians like to use their car horn and they like good tasting food. Good tasting food. You got two guarantees, two guarantees, so thank you again. Thank you for coming on, hugely helpful. We are excited for our NSDA friends, listeners what's the word? Attendees, friends, listeners and attendees to come to have this insight before getting here, and remember, prepare your trivia questions for the NSDA volunteers with the Ask Me Science.
Speaker 2I feel like we need to prepare the Ask Me people now that you've put this out there.
Speaker 1Well, hopefully they're listening as well. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2Get ready? Ask Me people.
Speaker 1Those questions are coming.
Speaker 2Blame Andrew, not Patrice.