Looking for meaningful ways to integrate the “T” in STEM into your K-5 instruction? Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision (www.exploravision.org) is a K-12 STEM competition that engages teams of 2-4 students to envision ways to solve student selected real-world problems by reimagining current technology for applications 10 years from now.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer O'Sullivan, Kristen Moorhead

Navigate your first National NSTA Conference with ease! Join our session for an orientation to the conference, tips on selecting sessions, and an opportunity to meet other first-time attendees. We will share a few insider tips from experienced conference attendees and give an overview of the conference app. This session will help you discover why you belong at NSTA and how to make the most of your experience.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to get the most out of your conference experience in addition to becoming an engaged learner.

SPEAKERS:
Dr. Alicia Conerly

Join us for an opening reception to mark the start of NSTA MINN25! We’ll keep it casual—enjoy beverages and small bites while networking with old and new friends. The event is complimentary and open to all registered conference attendees.

Navigate your first National NSTA Conference with ease! Join our session for an orientation to the conference, tips on selecting sessions, and an opportunity to meet other first-time attendees. We will share a few insider tips from experienced conference attendees and give an overview of the conference app. This session will help you discover why you belong at NSTA and how to make the most of your experience.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to get the most out of your conference experience in addition to becoming an engaged learner.

Science instruction is often deprioritized in many urban, low-resourced districts as literacy becomes the dominant focus. But every student, regardless of race, gender, or zip code, deserves access to meaningful, high-quality science learning. This session explores what happens when science is sidelined and why it must be brought back to the forefront. We’ll examine how integrating science with ELA strengthens literacy skills and deepens scientific understanding. Participants will explore national STEM data and patterns that reveal the broader global impact of limiting science access, and how equitable instruction can prepare students to thrive in an increasingly STEM-driven world.

TAKEAWAYS:
Every student—regardless of race, gender, or zip code—deserves high-quality science learning. Prioritizing science in urban, low-resourced schools and integrating it with ELA strengthens literacy, builds STEM understanding, and addresses global equity and workforce gaps.

SPEAKERS:
Tyrone McNichols, Nicole Williams, J Carrie Launius

Science education has a key role to play in supporting a just transition to the climate crisis. Participants will learn about 20 priority areas associated with climate and environmental justice—and explore educational approaches, resources, and groups related to these areas.

TAKEAWAYS:
Working towards climate justice involves a multifaceted set of issues and priorities. Teachers will identify which priority areas relate to their goals and context and learn about related resources. A climate justice framework will help teachers learn about different dimensions of climate justice.

SPEAKERS:
Deb Morrison, Nancy Price, Kelsie Fowler, Philip Bell

Science is a social endeavor! Gain strategies to transform your classroom into a community of learners in which students and teachers actively try to make sense of the natural and built worlds.

TAKEAWAYS:
Leave with strategies for developing classroom norms in collaboration with your students.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Mathews, Kristen Moorhead

As part of its STEM-on-the-Go Mobile Digital Fabrication Van Program, funded by the Defense STEM Education Consortium, TIES has developed a set of standards-based activities to engage students in Digital Fabrication-inspired Design Challenges. One of the curricula activities, focused on electric circuits, includes the design and construction of a pocket flashlight. During this workshop, participants will learn how to integrate a pocket flashlight project into their electricity and magnetism elementary science curriculum as they construct a series circuit using an LED, coin-cell battery, and copper conductive tape, and take home a functional flashlight. When this project is introduced in a school with digital fabrication machines, students will have the opportunity to design the base of the pocket flashlight and fabricate it on a laser cutter/engraver. All participants will receive a template for the pocket flashlight base and the standards-based activity guide for the project.

TAKEAWAYS:
During this workshop, participants will learn how to integrate a pocket flashlight activity into their electricity and magnetism elementary school science curriculum as they construct a series circuit using an LED, coin-cell battery, and copper conductive tape and take home a functioning flashlight.

SPEAKERS:
Toby Bothel

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Come experience a hands-on model lesson from OpenSciEd for Elementary and discover how the new Carolina Certified Version enhanced these high-quality instructional materials, making them more accessible, user-friendly, and safer for classroom use. Participants will walk away with valuable resources to take back to the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Hoover Herrera

Join us for this interactive, student-perspective workshop that immerses participants in an interdisciplinary placemaking unit taught in a 4th-grade New Orleans science and art classroom. Rooted in the realities of climate change and water pollution, this NGSS-aligned session models how to integrate science, art, literacy, social studies, and engineering to explore local environmental issues driven by climate change. Participants will engage with student drawings of local lakes, read and discuss excerpts from our comic Monsters in the Lake, and build simple water filters inspired by NASA’s design process to simulate hands-on engineering investigations. Through this experiential session, educators will reflect on strategies for integrating climate literacy in ways that are locally grounded and linguistically relevant, connecting to students’ diverse ways of being and knowing. Leave with adaptable curriculum resources and renewed inspiration to make climate change instruction empowering.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to design and implement interdisciplinary, place-based climate change lessons that integrate science, art, literacy, social studies, and engineering while honoring students’ cultural and linguistic assets to make learning personally meaningful and locally relevant.

SPEAKERS:
Andree Champagne, Ayca Fackler

How can we discuss difficult environmental realities with children in ways that are honest and empowering? This session presents the research-based 5Es of Eco-Action, a framework to support environmental action by fostering agency and solution-focused thinking. The climate emotion and environmental stewardship experiences of 6-11-year-old children are often overlooked. We undertook research focused on this group to understand how eco-anxiety affects motivation for pro-environmental behaviours. From this we developed the 5Es of Eco-Action framework that supports environmental learning while helping children process their emotions. In this session, attendees will be introduced to the framework and participate in hands-on activities. Practical tools and real-world examples will be explored. Educators will leave with fresh insights and ready-to-use strategies to support children in becoming confident, caring environmental stewards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with an understanding of the 5Es of Eco-Action (Empathy, Education, Excitement, Environmental Stewardship, Empowerment) and how this framework can be applied in the classroom to support children in becoming confident, caring environmental stewards.

SPEAKERS:
Stephanie Doyle

Sponsoring Company: Teachers' Curriculum Institute (TCI)

Learn to promote interest and engagement while helping students achieve specific learning objectives with games. Join us as you learn simple and valuable ways to gamify your lessons. We will be sharing a few creative game ideas for building relationships and reviewing and learning content.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Kumar

Place-based education enhances learning when students have purposeful activities to engage them. From the school playground to exploring the neighborhood to botanical gardens to zoos to environmental learning centers, nature offers opportunities for teaching and learning. Come hear about a variety of activities and experiences and receive handouts you can adapt for your elementary students as they learn about life science topics such as needs for survival, growth and development, life cycles, food webs and chains, and interconnectedness of living and nonliving materials . Learn how to maximize student focus and attention through observations, hands on activities, and explorations.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be able to identify and apply engaging activities for students to help them learn about life sciences in natural environments.

SPEAKERS:
Laurie Boulden

You will learn how to use MFLOW, a web-based programming platform that makes it extremely easy to play with sounds and create sound compositions while learning the basics of programming. You will gain access to an NGSS-aligned curriculum to support students with coding and sound engineering. Music and computer science are highly connected. In fact, most of the popular music we hear now has been created with computers. To engage young children (and teachers!) In programming, we have created MFLOW, a web-based computer programming platform that makes it extremely easy to play with sounds and create sound compositions while learning the basics of programming. MFLOW has an associated curriculum created at UCSD, in collaboration with the Chula Vista Elementary School District, and aligned with the Computer Science Standards. It is super engaging and easy to learn by children as young as fourth grade, and by teachers with no previous experience in programming. In this workshop, participant

TAKEAWAYS:
You will learn how to use MFLOW to sound engineer and code your own sound or music composition. Also, you will learn how to engage your students with coding through engineering design challenges.

SPEAKERS:
Victor Minces, Victor Minces

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

We'll dive into how NGSS assessments can drive sensemaking and 3D performance in the classroom. We’ll explore practical strategies for using these assessments to support students’ growth and engagement in science.

SPEAKERS:
Brendan Finch

Sponsoring Company: Activate Learning

Come learn more about the OSE elementary curriculum! We’ll look at shifting to a classroom where students' natural curiosities about the world are leveraged to motivate their learning in science. Meaningful conversations and ideas about what the flexible scheduling plan might look like with your teaching and learning.

SPEAKERS:
Brian Klaft

What happens when science is taught as a standalone special for every K–6 student, every week? In this session, we share how our district implemented a Science Specialist model that ensures all students regardless of language, ability, or background engage in phenomenon-driven, 3D NGSS instruction. Aligned with the Framework’s vision of equity and coherence, this model provides weekly access to science instruction rooted in sensemaking. Participants will explore inclusive strategies like multilingual scaffolds, discourse routines, and walking rubrics that help students model, explain, and argue from evidence. Storyline-based units and classroom artifacts will show how student ideas evolve over time and how we prepare 12,000+ students for new state assessments. Whether you're skeptical or curious, come hear how this bold model is transforming instruction and why “science as a special” may be the future of equitable science education.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover how a Science Specialist model can provide all K–6 students with equitable, NGSS-aligned instruction every week and leave with tools, strategies, and examples to bring inclusive, phenomenon-driven science learning to your own school or district.

SPEAKERS:
Frankie Valenzia, Vincent Fosco, Deborah McMullen

Explore how leaders can use the new BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning (AIL) instructional model to support teachers in creating learning experiences that motivate students with significant, real world phenomena and problems! Learn how AIL cycles of inquiry and sensemaking culminate in student agency! The BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning instructional model succeeds the 5Es and utilizes authentic phenomena/problems to anchor multiple cycles of inquiry and sensemaking, culminating with student explanations/design solutions. The research-based AIL model emphasizes coherence from students’ perspective. In this session, participants will consider how AIL integrates elements of the 5E instructional model, NextGen Science storylines, and problem-based learning instructional models, the role of an instructional model in high quality instructional materials, and their own education contexts and how they can apply AIL to design meaningful learning experiences to support their teachers.

TAKEAWAYS:
The research-based BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning instructional model succeeds the 5Es as the basis for implementing HQIM. Leaders leverage this model to support teachers in developing a shared vision of effective science teaching and learning and creating a student-centered classroom for all.

SPEAKERS:
Cynthia Gay

For many students, natural interest in science starts to decline in late elementary to early middle school. To maintain interest, they need to see the relevance of science and feel confident. Our methodology capitalizes on their natural interest in science and teaches them how to figure out what is going on in a science activity. We use an inquiry-based format that begins with a unique, two-setup discrepant event. Regardless of differences in their background, the first setup puts students on a level playing field by giving all students the information necessary to form an expectation about the outcome of the second, similar setup that results in an unexpected outcome. What follows is structured exploration requiring students using scientific inquiry to explain the different outcomes – they identify variables, develop hypotheses, design experiments, and conduct the experiments they design. Concepts and everyday applications are discussed. Participants experience a complete activity.

TAKEAWAYS:
Exciting activities are just a first step in engaging students’ natural curiosity in science. To maintain their interest, differences in background must be addressed, and they need to practice strategies that help them solve problems while seeing the relevance of the science to their lives.

SPEAKERS:
Mary Jean Lynch, John Zenchak

What does it take to prioritize science instruction in an elementary system? Join the professional learning team from The Lawrence Hall of Science and fellow K-5 science educators to explore how one district made the shift from little-to-no science instruction for elementary students towards a burgeoning commitment to phenomena-based science teaching and learning for all. We will highlight three transformative leadership practices used by that district, and you will consider how to apply these same practices to build the capacity of teacher leaders and create the conditions for equitable opportunities for 3D phenomena-based science in your K-5 classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will take away ideas and next steps for enacting the three transformative practices related to instructional materials, instructional time, and professional learning, for use in their own classroom, school, or district context.

SPEAKERS:
Leslie Stenger, Rebecca Abbott

Sponsoring Company: LEGO® Education

Be one of the first to experience the power of inquiry-based, hands-on learning through our new and innovative LEGO® Education Science solution! We will explore a lesson designed to promote engagement, collaboration, and solution diversity in the classroom and inspire students to see themselves in science. Participants will explore how state standards come to life by developing and using models to explore authentic, real-world phenomena. Engaging in science and engineering through hands-on learning has never been so easy or fun!

Sponsoring Company: Teachers' Curriculum Institute (TCI)

Join us for an innovative and interactive session where engineering meets speed dating! Dive into hands-on engineering challenges and activities inspired by TCI's K-5 science programs. In this dynamic workshop, attendees will participate in a series of "speed dates" with engineering experiences, uncovering valuable lessons and insights.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Kumar

Sponsoring Company: LEGO® Education

Transform your science instruction into an engaging, student-centered experience with the power of hands-on learning! In this interactive workshop, discover how to maximize engagement and deepen understanding in Grades 3–5 science using LEGO® Education Science. Explore how tactile, inquiry-based lessons support three-dimensional learning and help educators bring abstract science concepts to life. Join us to learn how hands-on learning experiences can boost student curiosity, retention, and collaboration—making every science minute meaningful.

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

Join us as we dig into real district case studies showing how performance on summative assessments can predict and support readiness for state science tests. We’ll explore key findings, insights, and practical takeaways to help you align your assessments and boost student success.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Miller

High school students embrace leadership guiding elementary scientific inquiry sparked by leveled storybooks. Using the Science Process through the Magic of Literacy (SPML) approach, the Centennial Science Club teaches science concepts through exploration while reinforcing reading, writing, and math standards. This program brings science back into the elementary classroom, fostering student leadership and helping teachers confidently integrate science into their daily lessons. Topics covered to date are thermal energy, motion, kinetic energy, energy transfer, biomimicry in engineering, and density. The littles are guided to ask questions from reading a storybook followed by collaborative development of a hypothesis and a procedure followed by data collection and analysis. The group ends with a conversation of errors and extensions. Come see the excitement, ask questions, and discover how literacy can be a powerful launchpad to provide autonomous scientific thinking at your school.

TAKEAWAYS:
High school students guide elementary scientific inquiry sparked by storybooks, reinforcing cross-curricular skills. This encourages student leadership, boosts teacher confidence, and fosters independent scientific thinking, demonstrating how literacy can be a powerful tool for hands-on learning.

SPEAKERS:
CHERYL FARRER

This session will showcase literacy integration examples from ML-PBL Science Classrooms. Handouts will provide links to the FREE OER ML-PBL units of instruction, lesson overviews, and literacy integration affordances. Examples of trade books included in the units will be shared.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will peruse plans for integrating science and literacy, and for extending science ideas throughout the school day as shared by ML-PBL Elementary Teachers. Access FREE OER Elementary Science Units.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Codere

This presentation explores equity in STEM education, focusing on the underrepresentation of African American scholars in STEM fields. It highlights the importance of identity development in shaping their educational trajectory. Research shows that culturally responsive teaching in STEM helps African American scholars connect with content and see how STEM disciplines address real-world problems. Historically, these scholars have underperformed on standardized tests due to marginalization in the classroom and lack of representation. This presentation offers practical solutions to foster a positive STEM identity, including addressing teacher perceptions, incorporating literature that reflects African American experiences in STEM, and using performance-based tasks to encourage inquiry and creativity.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will explore how to foster STEM identity in underrepresented scholars, especially African Americans. By building a positive STEM identity, teachers can empower scholars to drive change in their communities, helping break cycles of systemic oppression and engaging them beyond the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Brittany Jones

We show how instructional materials can be adapted for local contexts—and how to elevate issues of climate justice and ethical responses to the climate crisis. Participants will learn about how a high school physics unit from OpenSciEd was adapted to attend to Indigenous land rights and sovereignty.

TAKEAWAYS:
In relation to science and engineering projects in society (e.g., associated with the energy transition, ecological restoration, urban development), teachers will learn how to engage students in exploring moral and ethical dimensions of trade-offs in project approaches.

SPEAKERS:
Kelsie Fowler, Philip Bell

Leaders will share their purpose for joining this session and then engage in a simulation as a “common experience” and use that experience to consider how key lessons about change played out in the simulation and how the lessons play out in their work. Leaders will read and discuss the Change Management text from The Elements: Transforming Teaching through Curriculum-based Professional Learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Join other leaders to consider key lessons from change and dig into Change Management from The Elements: Transforming Teaching through Curriculum-based Professional Learning.

SPEAKERS:
Jody Bintz

Join the NSTA PL committee for one or all of the interactive sessions in our Interdisciplinary Connections strand to explore the what, why and how of interdisciplinary science teaching and learning. Each session will engage participants in interactive experiences to solve problems or investigate phenomena using science while focusing on a particular pairing of interdisciplinary opportunities. In this session, you'll explore how engaging in purposeful ELA activities during a phenomenon-based lesson is essential to both figuring out phenomena in science and boosting literacy development! Participants will engage in a science learning sequence in which they read, write, listen and speak in authentic ways like scientists do and will discover how ELA can be leveraged and integrated into science instruction.

TAKEAWAYS:
Experience a model lesson and learn how to align ELA standards with authentic science practices like reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Discover how integrating purposeful ELA activities into phenomenon-based science boosts both literacy and science sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Abbott, Rebecca Garelli, Jesse Wilcox, Erik Wade

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Join our interactive workshop where literacy meets exploration through the lens of the Science of Reading! Students engage in hands-on investigations, like testing magnets, to build knowledge and apply evidence-based literacy strategies. Leave with practical classroom resources to support reading development.

SPEAKERS:
Hoover Herrera

Calling all elementary school teachers! Join us for an engaging and enlightening workshop that explores the powerful intersection of science education and the Science of Reading initiatives. Discover how teaching science can support and enhance students' reading and writing abilities, creating a comprehensive approach that fosters academic achievement across disciplines.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will engage in hands-on activities, collaborative discussions, and reflective exercises to gain practical insights into the seamless integration of science education and the Science of Reading initiatives. They will receive valuable resources and lesson ideas that can be applied.

SPEAKERS:
Mike Larson

Teachers are encouraged to use eliciting strategies and talk moves to assist their students in sense-making and evidence-based explanations during science investigations. In this workshop, participants will experience putting ambitious science teaching ideas into practice by learning scaffolds they can provide students, training, and encouraging them to discuss findings and reach a consensus independently. Transferring the responsibility of productive talk moves to students can encourage intellectual engagement while also attending to equity issues in the classroom. Younger students often require more scaffolding, reinforcement, and encouragement to be successful in school and engage in productive discourse. We will share how to plan for student conversation using an anchor chart, talk scaffolds, and talking circles. In this workshop, we will also allow time for educators to practice the practical, user-friendly strategies with each other.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be introduced to user-friendly scaffolding strategies designed to increase their students' ability to discuss science productively. We will present how talk scaffolds can work in an elementary setting and engage participants in a scenario to practice talk moves as students.

SPEAKERS:
Shelley Petzold, Melissa Wimmler, Lisa Pitot

This session empowers educators to teach climate change through children’s literature that inspires hope, resilience, and action. By integrating emotionally engaging stories with climate science, we help young learners understand environmental challenges while fostering a proactive, optimistic mindset. Participants will explore curated resources—including book lists, lesson plans, and activities—that connect scientific concepts with relatable narratives and emphasize individual and collective agency. The session also offers guidance on navigating difficult topics in age-appropriate ways and encouraging community engagement projects that extend learning beyond the classroom. Through collaboration, we are building a network of educators, authors, and advocates committed to cultivating a generation of informed, compassionate climate stewards. Join us in reimagining climate education as a hopeful, action-oriented journey for children.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use children’s literature to teach climate change in developmentally appropriate ways that foster hope, resilience, and student agency, while accessing ready-to-use resources that connect science concepts with meaningful storytelling and community action.

SPEAKERS:
Lorianne Donovan, Carissa Haug

In this session, we will examine how to leverage time used to practice and reinforce math and reading skills to also include phenomenon-based science. By using math and ELA standards as a starting point, short units building off of a common science phenomenon are created.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will experience the process of creating a phenomenon-based, science-focused lesson series to help reinforce and practice the standards in math and ELA, thus leading toward equity for students and subject areas.

SPEAKERS:
Miranda Orellana

Sponsoring Company: ECA Science Kit Services

In this session we will select 3-4 popular science programs to evaluate using the 15-Questions developed by ECA Science Kit Services. The objective is to have participants walk away with an easy guide to use as they evaluate different programs to adopt. The takeaway will be an understanding of how to set teachers up for a successful implementation. This process will share information about alignment, usability and budget (yes! we will talk money and share “blindspot” costs to prepare for). It will cover short-term and long-term goals for implementation. There will also be an activity related to the “usability” portion of the presentation! Participants will have a fun experience and leave with a simple navigation guide to support their adoption and implementation process.

SPEAKERS:
Heidi Harlan

Science ignites students’ excitement and curiosity about the world! Explore research and discuss how to build your toolbox for engaging others in prioritizing phenomenon-based instruction in the curricular experiences of elementary students; go beyond mere special activities.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with strategies to make the case for making science as much a part of students’ elementary classroom experience as ELA & Math.

SPEAKERS:
Yanira Vazquez

The Next Generation Science Standards describe a vision of scientific literacy that emphasizes informed and participatory citizenship on issues related to science in society.  Many elementary teachers, however, avoid debatable socioscientific issues such as whether we need zoos, the value of a national space program, or whether certain sports are too dangerous for children, because of concerns about arguments in their classrooms and fear of broaching moral/ethical issues.  During this interactive session, participants will be introduced to the theoretical framework behind the Socioscientific Issues (SSI) approach.  They will then collaboratively engage in an activity from the NSTA Press book, It’s Still Debatable, during which they will model negotiation of a debatable issue while analyzing the lesson’s use of SSI, NGSS three-dimensional science learning, alignment with interdisciplinary standards, and multiple means of assessment for all learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
During this interactive workshop, participants will learn an array of strategies for using debatable societal issues related to science to develop their elementary students’ scientific literacy while modeling 3D teaching and learning.

SPEAKERS:
Sami Kahn

This interactive workshop introduces participants to Play-Doh Volumes, a field-tested lesson developed and refined from 2022 to 2025 in elementary STEM methods courses. The lesson integrates the development of volume formulas (prisms, pyramids, cones, cylinders, and spheres) with scientific inquiry around conservation of mass. Students hypothesize, build, measure, calculate, and analyze using everyday materials—then use CER (Claim-Evidence-Reasoning) to draw conclusions from their findings.

Participants in this session will construct and measure geometric solids with Play-Doh, apply volume formulas to various shapes, and engage in 3D learning practices including modeling, mathematical thinking, and evidence-based reasoning. Analyze how shape transformations impact volume and mass, discuss adaptations and extensions for classroom use.

TAKEAWAYS:
Understand how NGSS and Common Core math standards can be integrated through authentic problem-solving. Engage in a model lesson grounded in hands-on learning and the 3 dimensions of science instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Shelly Engle

Is it important to distinguish between data and evidence in science? YES! We’ll observe young students engaged in analyzing data and then broaden our focus to explore how data and evidence are woven through the science and engineering practices and across students’ K-12 science experience in school.

TAKEAWAYS:
Distinguish between data and evidence and why the difference matters in the science classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Kristen Moorhead, Ann Guglielmo, Brianna Reilly Oliveira

Ever wonder how to connect science and engineering? This session provides insight into a group of Wyoming elementary teachers’ classrooms through sharing a STEM task that brought science and engineering to life for students. Beginning with a familiar natural phenomena and allowing students opportunities to create solutions to a real world issue stemming from that phenomena, student ideas are foregrounded through engineering design practices and locally relevant instruction that welcomes all students an access point. Then, we introduce two phenomenon-driven assessment tasks with evidence on how students performed. The first, Creating a Park, presents the real-world issue of a city council proposal for a park that would thrive in a very dry climate while still promoting wildlife. The second, Air Pollution in LA, asks students to recommend to city leaders ways to reduce air pollution based on source data. We end with a list of wonderful free STEM resources and time for questions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants see examples of supporting 3-5th grade students in phenomenon-driven, engineering connected lessons and performance assessment tasks. They see how these resources were used in multiple contexts to promote student sensemaking by applying science ideas/data to solve real world problems.

SPEAKERS:
Brianna Sawyer, Brenda Leonhardt, Kristan Trujillo, Martha Inouye, Ryan Summers, Chad Lemley

This workshop will provide K-12 Science/STEM teachers interactive hands-on practice with generative A.I. tools to support 3D learning within a convergence education framework for transdisciplinary real-world learning opportunities in the classroom and beyond. Participants will gain firsthand experience with TeacherServer, a free platform containing over 1,000 A.I. tools to support teachers with high-quality, NGSS and state standards-based, innovative approaches to maximize access for all students investigating Science/STEM applications across fields. This platform is unique in that it was created, funded, and hosted by our university College of Education. The session will balance direct instruction with guided exploration and collaborative activities. Guidance and ongoing discussion will accompany the targeted time to try out the various tools, ensuring that participants leave with actionable insights and skills applicable to their academic roles and classroom goals.

TAKEAWAYS:
K-12 Science/STEM teachers will broaden their understanding of the implications for generative A.I. to support convergence teaching and will gain practical skills to leverage A.I. to enhance their planning for inclusive, inquiry-based, transdisciplinary investigations that engage all students.

SPEAKERS:
Yvonne Franco, Zafer Unal, Stephanie Arthur

Engaging students in phenomenon-based 3D science learning is challenging; when students are absent, it can feel impossible. In this session, participants will take away strategies for supporting absent students in staying engaged in learning when they miss classroom instruction.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will take away strategies for supporting absent students in staying engaged in learning when they miss classroom instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Delaney

[Note: I can modify this into a keynote aligned with NSTA/NMEA ocean literacy position statement if you’d prefer.] Teach the Hope is an ocean/environmental literacy strategy every teacher around the country can employ. First, I introduce environmental literature specifically written for children and youth. These books address climate change, plastic marine debris, sea level rise, ocean acidification, and endangered species. But these books also introduce worthy mentors – mentors who are the hope because they serve as civic role models, respecting their connection to nature. Students identify with them because they are often young and begin alone with little or no money, blazing a trail through unchartered territory. These mentors help students appreciate their role in nature. Next, participants test a variety of experiments, demonstrations, and activities integrating STEM and literacy designed not only to teach environmental science, but to offer hope to our students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Today’s media tends to focus on depressing environmental headlines because bad news sells. And our students are listening. In this workshop, I help educators recognize hope and share it with their students to empower rather than paralyze. All activities free for participants’ classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Patricia Newman

Discover innovative STEM activities tailored to complement popular read-alouds. Participants will experience firsthand three engineering challenges inspired by beloved books. This hands-on workshop empowers educators to confidently integrate STEM into their existing curriculum, enriching students' learning experiences. Leave equipped to inspire young minds with the magic of reading and the excitement of engineering.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with everything they need to implement three read-alouds with follow-on STEM activities in their classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Terra Tarango

Experience how classroom agreements can create productive and safe spaces for elementary students to share their ideas, let those ideas change and grow, and engage with each other as a community of learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
Elementary students can co-construct classroom agreements that support an environment where they recognize that science can be done in many ways, feel safe and compelled to share their ideas and questions, listen/look/respond to others' ideas, and let their ideas change and grow.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Gomez Zwiep, Janna Mahfoud

Integrating science and literacy is essential for supporting elementary teachers in science instruction. This presentation presents an argument for using science investigation to motivate students to read, write, and engage in discourse. Participants receive a set of hands-on science lessons to motivate students to learn.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants develop insights and understanding of how to effectively integrate science learning with language arts skills development. Participants will be provided with hands-on scientific investigations that include meaningful reading resources aligned to the lesson.

SPEAKERS:
Brett Moulding

Data collection and robotics are accessible, engaging learning experiences, offering ALL students opportunities to explore, engage in hands-on learning, and experience success, using technology-rich devices, while learning essential science processes and concepts. Testing variables, analyzing their effects, and watching a device ‘work’ are positive learning experiences. Attendees will actively engage with a wide range of technology-rich devices and learn how to implement engineering design processes and robotics concepts, providing accessible portals of learning for ALL K-6 students, including ELL’s and special needs learners, as students develop computational and critical thinking skills and become successful, innovative problem solvers. Attendees will learn how to add complexity and rigor to tasks, as students gain skills and understanding. Practical strategies and applications will be explored, maximizing opportunities for equitable, accessible learning for ALL students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to design accessible learning experiences using innovative devices, helping students learn essential science concepts, data collection and analysis, engineering design processes, and robotics, and how to add rigor and complexity as learners gain skills and understanding.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Knoell

Youth need opportunities to learn about green colonialism and how Native Science and Indigenous sovereignty are fundamental to addressing the climate emergency. Workshop participants will engage in talk activities designed to support non-Indigenous youth in learning and processing these topics.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session will support educators in understanding that climate experts across the globe are calling for the broad recognition of Indigenous sovereignty and climate expertise as fundamental to mitigating climate change and building a just future.

SPEAKERS:
Deb Morrison, Kelsie Fowler, Philip Bell

This presentation will showcase how transdisciplinary, real-world problem solving can be integrated into science classrooms through engineering design. Aligned with NGSS standards such as generating multiple solutions to reduce impact of Earth’s process on humans and focused on environmental literacy, participants will explore hands-on, student-centered investigations that engage multiple disciplines such as math, technology, science, art, and computer science. Examples of projects include designing/building air cleaners to reduce impact of wildfire smoke; analyzing floodplain maps and proposing engineering solutions to lessen the effects of flooding; and constructing bee hotels for pollinators using creative design with 3D printers. These projects engage students in the engineering design process, foster critical thinking, and connect academic content to authentic, community-centered issues. Attendees will leave with strategies and ready-to-use resources including assessment ideas.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to engage students in solving real-world environmental problems through hands-on engineering projects that address wildfire smoke, flooding, and pollinator decline—empowering them to think critically, design solutions, and make meaningful connections to their communities.

SPEAKERS:
Amanda Rapstad

We know two things: 1) the purchase of new instructional materials represents a significant district investment and 2) effective classroom use of high-quality instructional materials improves student learning. NextGen TIME can help districts ensure investment in the best possible instructional materials and provide them to teachers prepared to use them effectively. NextGen TIME is a suite of tools and processes to support districts in evaluating, selecting, and implementing instructional materials designed for the NGSS. NextGen TIME is also designed as a professional learning experience for teachers to deepen their understanding of NGSS as they analyze instructional materials. It addresses the needs of states, districts, and schools for a deep understanding of the NGSS to make selection decisions for instructional materials, plan for implementation of those materials, and provide teacher professional learning that enables effective implementation of NGSS‐aligned teaching and learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how NextGen TIME supports the evaluation of current instructional materials to strengthen their design for NGSS and how NextGen TIME tools and processes can serve as critical components of curriculum-based professional learning. You’ll walk away with free access to NextGen TIME resources.

SPEAKERS:
Jenine Cotton-Proby

Come along as we explore extreme weather and avalanches. We know avalanches are inevitable, but how can we limit their impact on forests and people? This session is built around an NGSS-designed lesson sequence targeting 3-LS3-2, with an emphasis on student modeling, explanation, and collaboration. Attendees will create and test their model to immerse themselves in a performance assessment. Discussion of other possible formative assessment strategies, rubrics, and how to support student explanations using evidence.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be engaged in an immersive Next Generation Science experience where attendees will step into the learner’s shoes in a high-quality, hands-on, inquisitive experience. Attendees will also participate in a performance based assessment. One real-world strategy used to mitigate avalanche.

SPEAKERS:
Greer Clark, Teresa Merager

Sponsoring Company: LEGO® Education

Learn how educators are using LEGO® Education to deliver science learning while fostering creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills in students. This session explores innovative approaches from early adopters who have successfully integrated LEGO® Education solutions into their curricula. Whether you are an educator seeking fresh ideas, a school administrator aiming to improve science achievement scores, or simply passionate about science education, this session will provide valuable insights and inspiration.

In this workshop, teachers will explore comprehensive Next Generation Science Standards aligned formative assessment tasks designed to capture first grade students’ understanding of science in flexible and meaningful ways. These tasks move beyond traditional paper-and-pencil formats, allowing young learners to express their thinking through drawing, discussion, and writing and other developmentally appropriate modes for early elementary. Participants will work in small groups to try out the tasks with each other, review their structure, and provide feedback on clarity, accessibility, and alignment to science learning goals. Together, we will reflect on how these assessments can support all first graders in science. All reviewed tasks will be made available for classroom use, offering teachers ready-to-implement resources that promote creativity and deeper insight into student thinking.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave the session with insights into how to use student-centered formative assessment science tasks that allow young learners to show understanding in ways that suit their developmental stage and communication strengths. Formative assessments will be available to participants.

SPEAKERS:
Marta Mielicki, Kim Benton, Nonye Alozie

How do students’ knowledge and skills build over time within the NGSS? This presentation will illuminate the Progressions so that educators gain a deeper understanding of what they are, where to access them, and how to use them in schools - to support science teaching and teaching in other subject areas. The Framework that underlies the design of the Next Generation Science Standards set out a roadmap for science learning over the years from K-12. These learning progressions are a fundamental tool for understanding the learning needs of students at all ages, and for building curriculum to help them meet the standards. The Learning Progressions chart out a path for supporting student sensemaking that can be leveraged not only in science classrooms, but in all classrooms and all subjects. This rich resource can be challenging to access and understand, but is useful for many purposes within classrooms, within a

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to access and understand the structure and the content of the learning progressions that inform the NGSS, and will leave with ideas about how to utilize learning progressions to support students’ mastery of core ideas in science disciplines across grade levels.

SPEAKERS:
Karin Klein, Betsy Leong

For elementary classrooms, integrating Science with English Language Arts is necessary due to limited time and abundance of content. This engaging workshop integrates Earth Science content and maps with The Hobbit, allowing participants to make connections with the physical world and the imaginative Middle Earth. Identify landforms and land features, classify climates across Middle Earth, and apply weather knowledge. 3D learning includes asking questions, looking for patterns, and understanding Earth systems.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be able to describe weather and climate in various regions, both real and imaginary. They will learn how to connect literature passages with science content in ways that encourage creative thinking and active learning.

SPEAKERS:
Laurie Boulden

Join the Jeffers Foundation to explore biological and physical events in nature and their relationship with weather and climate. This is the science of Phenology. Humans and the diverse communities of animals and plants in Minnesota have adapted to cyclical weather and climate patterns that come with the changing of seasons. Learn more about Minnesota Phenology and better understand seasonal patterns through observation, investigation, and journaling exercises. Actively participate in lessons that have been developed by Minnesota educators to provide place-based experiences and elevate science instruction connected to seasonal phenomena.

TAKEAWAYS:
Leave with lesson ideas and materials ready to implement with your students on your school grounds and to help you and your students to think like scientists (cross cutting concepts) while working as scientists (practices) with real-world, tangible natural phenomena and seasonal patterns.

SPEAKERS:
David Grack, Haley Kalina

Young children are naturally curious, eager to investigate: "Why?," "How?," and “What if?...” This interactive session explores the powerful connection between self-directed play and early science sensemaking. Discover the brilliant and intuitive ways that preschoolers and kindergarteners engage in the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) – an essential component of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) often overlooked in early childhood. Through engaging video examples and small group discussions, we’ll explore how our youngest learners ask questions, analyze data, design solutions, and more, all through play! We’ll introduce field-tested SciEPlay tools, developed through a four-year collaboration between Bowdoin College, the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance (MMSA), and Samara Early Learning. Walk away with new insights and practical strategies to enrich children’s play-based science and engineering in your classroom and outdoor spaces.

TAKEAWAYS:
Gain two field-tested tools to recognize and enrich play-based Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs). Leave this session feeling informed, inspired, and equipped to create purposeful play environments and foster playful science sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Hildah Makori, Maranda Chung, Heather Bowen

STARBASE has developed insight into the benefits of a growth mindset in STEM career integration into curriculum planning and has identified strategies and supports to help students see their growth in STEM and related skills. In consultation with STEM corporate partners, specific STEM career skills were identified that would be beneficial for a future workforce: Teamwork, Creativity, STEM, Curiosity, and Perseverance. Using these skills, you can build a classroom culture at any grade level or STEM discipline that celebrates strength and growth while providing real-world examples of STEM professionals who are reflective of diversity and the depth of STEM careers available to students.

TAKEAWAYS:
At this session, attendees will learn strategies for incorporating STEM Career integration into curriculum and lesson planning applicable to all grade levels and science focus areas. Free resources and access to STEM Career website will be provided to all attendees.

SPEAKERS:
Melanie Peters, Charity Johnson

Explore a Transdisciplinary STEM+X approach, fostering real-world problem-solving, critical thinking, leveraged learning, differentiation and engagement. Participants will learn STEM+X lesson design principles and experience a STEM+X activity. Emphasizing teacher support and agency for effective implementation to promote student agency, collaboration, and engagement from a two-time NSTA SHELL Science Lab Challenge Grand Prize Winner.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to design and implement engaging STEM+X lessons, incorporating real-world problem-solving and critical thinking, with practical strategies and insights from an award-winning educator to empower both teachers and students. Empower your inner STEM confidence.

SPEAKERS:
Arianna Moody

Consider and discuss why student-to-student discourse in elementary classrooms is essential for making sense of science. Science is the perfect setting for building students' capacity for deep discussions, and the strategies for making those discussions happen are transferable to other subject areas. Consider ways to help elementary students grapple with evidence from multiple sources, make their thinking clear for others, and productively build upon or challenge the ideas of others.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will consider strategies for supporting deep and meaningful student-to-student discourse in elementary science class.

SPEAKERS:
Ryan King

You have a coherent phenomenon-based learning plan for your students, and midway through, you get sick or jury duty - now what?!? This session will highlight approaches to substitute plans that are flexible, easy to implement, and support student learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
When students are tasked with sensemaking and figuring out day in and day out, it is easier to have that happen without the teacher present. Utilizing a quality curriculum that supports student coherence and phenomenon-based learning is the best tool to make that a reality.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Delaney

Sponsoring Company: PLTW

Elementary educators shouldn’t have to choose between science, math, and literacy. In this hands-on session, you’ll explore how PLTW Launch helps students master science standards while reinforcing key literacy and math skills. Participate in a classroom-tested activity from the “Light Exploration” module, where students investigate how light behaves with different materials—while building vocabulary, reasoning, and data skills. You’ll also see how Launch’s 42 NGSS-aligned modules support cross-curricular integration and engage students in real-world problem solving. With strong ties to Common Core and ELA goals, Launch offers a flexible, teacher-friendly approach that works across varied classroom models. Walk away with strategies to strengthen science instruction without sacrificing core academic time.

SPEAKERS:
Andy Sarbacker

Sponsoring Company: Teachers' Curriculum Institute (TCI)

Join our session to learn how to harness the power of three-dimensional Performance Assessments! Beyond evaluating learning, these assessments offer students a meaningful context to demonstrate understanding. Explore the role of performance assessments in teaching core science concepts effectively.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Kumar

Learn about and apply lessons learned from Saint Paul Public Schools and BSCS Science Learning’s partnership to customize high quality instructional materials to align with state-specific 3D standards and local contexts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn what considerations are important for developing a well-crafted plan for implementing and customizing high quality instructional materials for use in local contexts. Leaders will review examples of customized units that are aligned with the MN Academic Standards for Science.

SPEAKERS:
Molly Leifeld, Abraham Lo

This session aims to deepen educators' expertise in selecting, modifying, and implementing high-quality assessment materials aligned with NGSS and state-specific standards. The focus will be on integrating the 3-dimensions of science into common formative assessments (CFA), ensuring equitable access for all students and teachers. Through guided practice and collaboration using a developed CFA and state-provided item specifications, educators will explore connections with standards, SEPs, CCCs, stimulus materials, and item types, ensuring seamless incorporation of the 3-dimensions of science. Participants will engage in hands-on activities to synthesize their knowledge, collaborating on exemplar responses and instructional strategies. By applying these skills, educators can develop and refine aligned assessments that foster a deeper understanding of content knowledge and enhance assessment accessibility, providing opportunities for student engagement with aligned materials.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will gain the skills to create and refine high-quality, aligned assessments that seamlessly incorporate the three dimensions of science, ensuring equitable access and deeper understanding for all students.

SPEAKERS:
Alicia Doty, Haley Smith

Learn about the STARBASE Minnesota, Inc. Destination Mars STEM Kits and Curriculum, a free integrated STEM unit for upper elementary students! This presentation introduces educators to curriculum that transforms students into Mars explorers, scientists, engineers, and more. In this curriculum, students engage in hands-on STEM lessons to plan a human mission to Mars. They'll conduct investigations, create models, practice coding, design a Mars base, explore topics like energy transfer and chemistry, and apply math throughout. Students track growth in STEM career skills and expand their awareness of careers through a STEM career interactive, featuring real STEM professionals. The presentation will include a demonstration of several lessons and educators implementing the program will share the positive impact of these STEM kits on their students. Participants will receive access to the free online curriculum, and Minnesota teachers can register for free sets of classroom materials.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to implement a standards-based integrated STEM unit that provides connections to STEM careers and engages students through an exciting storyline of a future mission to Mars.

SPEAKERS:
Charity Johnson, Aaron Stolp, Melanie Peters

Explore the storyline of a newly released OpenSciEd unit and see how students leverage connections to ELA and math as they investigate and make sense of a puzzling phenomenon.

TAKEAWAYS:
OpenSciEd Elementary units provide significant opportunities for students to explicitly connect with grade-level mathematics, reading, writing, speaking & listening, and language standards in service of their science sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Gomez Zwiep

How can you engage learners in creating projects to share their ideas and observations in motivating and meaningful ways? Join us to make an interactive animation or mini-game featuring an animal in nature that interests you. Experience how you and your students can create projects with OctoStudio, a free creative coding app from MIT that bridges physical and digital making. Access new open-educational resources you can use and adapt for 3D learning and sensemaking, developed by National Geographic Society in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how they can engage learners in creating interactive projects to share their ideas and observations about the natural world, using an engaging set of open-educational resources created by National Geographic and the creators of OctoStudio and Scratch at the MIT Media Lab.

SPEAKERS:
Teo Xisto, Audrey Everett

Engaging All Learners Through Gameplay and Engineering in Science Come explore how we've infused gameplay and hands-on engineering design challenges into 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade science units to engage and support all learners. Discover how we've created or adapted activities to provide real-world learning experiences directly aligned with NGSS grade-level standards. You'll leave with ready-to-use resources and fresh ideas to bring into your own classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will have the opportunity to engage in hands-on, experiential learning using games and design challenge examples from our classrooms, and will leave with practical resources they can use immediately.

SPEAKERS:
Lisa Nathaus, Laura Strejc, Jill Burns

Sponsoring Company: Teachers' Curriculum Institute (TCI)

Are you eager to implement TCI’s hands-on investigations but struggling with tight class schedules? This practical workshop is designed for K-5 science educators seeking strategies to maximize the impact of TCI Investigations, even with limited instructional time. Explore efficient planning methods, time-saving tips, and adaptable classroom routines. Participants will collaborate to prioritize essential activities, streamline materials management, and integrate formative assessments—all while maintaining student engagement and depth of learning. Walk away with ready-to-use tools to ensure meaningful, inquiry-based science experiences for every student, every day, regardless of time constraints.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Kumar

Educators need supports to create climate learning for their students. Now is the time to explore how to broaden climate learning across your school, district, region, or state. This session will provide pragmatic tools and design advice on how to best engage in this work for your specific context.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will come away from this session with an action plan and the tools they need to begin to collaboratively design systemic climate learning efforts in their own contexts, sensitive to their particular local phenomena, socio-political norms, and educator capacities.

SPEAKERS:
Kimberly Talarico-Wolff, Deb Morrison

In this workshop session, participants will learn and try strategies to support language development related to each of the 3 dimensions of the science framework within the context of one model lesson. Language practices will support scientific language development for all students, and for multilingual learners specifically. Participants will leave the session with multiple oral language strategies they can differentiate at multiple grade levels and apply immediately in their teaching to support students in increasing their language output using the contextualized language of science. They will also come away with a better understanding of how to support multilingual students and develop oral language practices in the k-5 science classroom. Some of the focuses will include constructing explanations, sentence-level language structures, and developing vocabulary inside of scientific discourse for young learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
Come away with a better understanding of how to support multilingual students and develop oral language practices in the k-5 science classroom, including constructing explanations, sentence-level language structures, and developing vocabulary inside of scientific discourse for young learners.

SPEAKERS:
Aanya DiBrito, Kelli Ellickson, Laura Mitchell

Shared Waters is a phenomenon-based, NGSS-aligned curriculum that equips upper elementary students to become environmental problem-solvers through meaningful watershed education experiences (MWEEs). In this 60-minute workshop, participants will engage in hands-on activities from the 10-lesson unit, explore strategies for implementing outdoor field investigations, and learn how to guide students through data analysis and real-world environmental action projects. Lessons feature place-based experiences such as water quality testing, macroinvertebrate sampling, runoff modeling, and schoolyard redesigns. Participants will leave with access to free digital materials, practical implementation tips, and a framework for cultivating environmental literacy and civic responsibility in young learners—whether teaching in rural, suburban, or urban contexts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with a complete NGSS-aligned unit and tools to engage students in outdoor, place-based science that leads to authentic environmental action in their local watershed.

SPEAKERS:
Nanette Marcum-Dietrich

Step into our Sugarbush camp—a place-based, interdisciplinary learning experience that weaves together the cultural tradition of maple syrup production with engaging, standards-aligned instruction in science, math, Ojibwe language, and computer science. Rooted in local Indigenous knowledge and outdoor learning, this unit invites students in both elementary (4th-grade) and high-school grade levels to explore data collection, temperature monitoring, graphing, analysis, and coding through real-world, hands-on activities. From collecting and analyzing temperature data with Micro:bit computing devices to investigating the physical science of syrup production, discover how this model extends classroom learning into their local forest, fostering deeper connections between students, community, and land. Leave with adaptable, cross-curricular ideas to bring fun and engaging activities to your own learning environment.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore how maple syrup production connects outdoor learning with STEM through hands-on, cross-curricular lessons. They’ll leave with micro:bit coding experience, student-friendly data analysis activities, and adaptable curricular resources including a teacher guide and slides.

SPEAKERS:
Paul Schonfeld

Sponsoring Company: LEGO® Education

Connect purposeful play with the Kindergarten Science and STEM Skills with LEGO® Education Science, a solution built to stimulate a child’s natural curiosity and encourage learning through play. In this dynamic presentation, we'll delve into science lessons designed specifically for young minds, leveraging the versatility of LEGO bricks to foster creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. Participants will get hands on with our inquiry-based lessons... Be prepared to have fun as we learn together!

Do you need some fresh ideas for stories? Join us as we share some newer/recent stories that can support your existing science curriculum and provide a means for learning outside. Gain practical ideas on how to integrate the science and engineering practices using literature as a launching point for a science lesson. Learn how having your students experience outdoor lessons can build a sense of community and the local level and beyond. No matter how much outdoor space you have access to, discover ways to use what’s available to engage students in learning and exploring. Outdoor lesson ideas that can be used no matter what month of the year it is will be shared along with practical tips for how to find success.

TAKEAWAYS:
No matter what your outdoor setting is like, you will come away with ideas to implement outdoor lessons in your classroom next week. No matter what grade or curriculum you use, learn ideas that can fit into your existing curriculum and spark engagement and benefit students.

SPEAKERS:
Jill Jensen, Kim Benton

This session explores strategies that elementary teachers can use to integrate student narratives into STEM instruction. Drawing from practices used in a teacher preparation program’s courses, the session will highlight how elementary educators can implement STEM lessons despite time constraints and scheduling challenges. Attendees will examine how teachers can use students’ communities and lived experiences to design meaningful, relevant instruction. The session will also walk through a practical framework that includes: identifying lesson objectives, connecting those objectives to student narratives, linking academic content to student experiences, and designing assessments that reflect student-centered learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will have a practical framework to help elementary teachers design student-centered STEM lessons that connect academic content to students’ lived experiences, even within the constraints to implementation.

SPEAKERS:
Shereen Holmes

Appropriate and useful for all grade levels. Still confused about the basics of the NGSS? Need a refresher about what it is and why it matters? Come learn from the experts. The NGSS is very complicated. The Institute for Quality Science Teaching at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry provides professional learning opportunities for K-12 science teachers in Chicagoland and surrounding areas. Our approach is to ground everything we do in the NGSS and take a deep dive into all the elements of 3-dimensional learning. The professional learning programs at Griffin MSI are invested in helping teachers understand how to teach science effectively using these standards. This presentation will review the basics of the NGSS, the 3 dimensions, how they’re combined in Performance Expectations, and the basics of how to enact the NGSS in the classroom. If you’re new to the NGSS, just want a review, or still don’t have all those acronyms straight in your head, this is the presentation for you.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers in all grades K-12 will leave with a basic understanding of the structures of the Next Generation Science Standards and how they inform 3-dimensional standards and 3-dimensional science teaching.

SPEAKERS:
Sean Murphy, Karin Klein

One of the best ways to support student sensemaking in NGSS is to be very clear as teachers about what we want students to know and be able to do. Unpacking NGSS can be complex as you analyze progressions and evidence statements. Come learn how an elementary science team in California has been refining their previous work on learning targets, assessments, and rubrics by creating proficiency scales with learning gradations. This work has helped our group of over thirty science elementary specialists come to greater consensus on student proficiency, increasing equitable expectations across our district. We will have elementary samples to share, as well as protocols to help walk you and your colleagues through the process.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn how to create proficiency scales for NGSS that will more clearly and accurately identify what we want students to know and be able to do.

SPEAKERS:
Meg Vanek, Kim Cashin

The NSTA Sensemaking Tool can help educators be critical consumers of instructional materials and create/revise lessons that reflect the shifts required by new standards (sensemaking). Gain experience using the tool and facilitating criteria-based consensus conversations with your colleagues!

TAKEAWAYS:
Use the NSTA Sensemaking Tool for classroom observations and providing feedback.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Mathews, Kristen Moorhead, Patrice Scinta

Get ready to spark curiosity and “generate” excitement! This interactive session empowers K–5 educators with foundational knowledge and practical tools to confidently teach about batteries and electrical energy. During the first 20 minutes, participants will engage in hands-on experiments that build their understanding of how batteries work and how electricity flows. In the next 20 minutes, we’ll explore grade-specific implementation strategies, including pedagogical approaches, classroom management tips for inquiry-based activities, and ways to foster student collaboration. The final 20 minutes will highlight a range of accessible curricular resources, extension activities, and cross-curricular connections in literacy, math, and STEAM. Leave this session energized, equipped, and inspired to bring battery science to life in your elementary classroom!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will build foundational knowledge of energy and batteries through hands-on experiments, explore grade-appropriate strategies for implementation and classroom management, and leave with practical curricular resources to effectively teach battery science in the K–5 classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Abigail Dutcher

We’re hearing a lot these days about the importance of computational thinking skills to a well-rounded education. Join Science from Scientists, a STEM education nonprofit that partners with schools, to explore how computational thinking can be part of science learning. Together with computer science specialists from a partner school we’ve developed interdisciplinary learning experiences that deepen science learning through computer science extension lessons that reinforce key science concepts, introduce students to new ways of thinking and problem-solving, and explore how computer science skills apply across diverse careers and fields of study.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this session, participants will explore computational thinking concepts through an example lesson and then work together to identify opportunities to incorporate computational thinking skills in their science teaching.

SPEAKERS:
Renee Nesnidal

All students have the right to develop a deep understanding of how the world works in ways that support their personal goals and the interests of their community. Come explore how instruction can more equitably support science learning that is consequential to your students and their communities.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will develop an understanding of an equity project framework for science education for supporting professional learning and implementation projects. They will learn how open education resources (http://stemteachingtools.org/) can help them develop equitable approaches to science teaching.

SPEAKERS:
Philip Bell

Do you value helping kids engage more deeply with the wonder of our world AND each other? Do you want to build deeper relationships with your students through your content? Do you want to draw students into the start of a unit about where water can be found on Earth? If you answer yes, come explore a routine you can use to help you do all that! Participants will experience a noticing, wondering, and connections routine designed to launch a unit for 2-ESS2-3 Earth's Systems. "Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth, and that it can be solid or liquid." This routine will help your students access prior knowledge and lived experience that gets them talking with other students and with you. You will leave with scripts and templates to help you use this routine in your classroom. We will also share how to use this routine to launch other units, regardless of whether you have a curriculum or not.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn about a noticing, wondering, and connections routine used to launch a unit for 2-ESS2-3: Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth. This engaging routine will help your students share prior knowledge and experiences and get them talking with other students and you.

SPEAKERS:
Joel Donna

How can weather data help 3rd graders think like scientists? Both place-based and project-based instruction have been shown to increase students’ motivation for learning science and their acquisition of science concepts and practices in ways that support all learners through local context. Additionally, in their 2024 statement, NSTA called for educators in all disciplines to scaffold students’ experiences with data and integrate data with disciplinary lessons. This session will provide an overview of work a group of elementary educators did to engage students across multiple districts in collecting and compiling weather data from their local places over a school year. Presenters will share specific examples of how they helped students use the data by developing place-based, project-based learning opportunities aligned to NGSS standards. Challenges encountered along the way will be discussed, as well as how the team worked to overcome those challenges and ideas for next steps.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn about potential ways to engage elementary learners in place-based projects that utilize student-collected weather data, encourage collaboration, and foster scientific thinking. They’ll hear about some challenges this team of educators faced and how they worked to overcome them.

SPEAKERS:
Kelli Petrick, Rebecca Qualm, Andrea Hayden

Help students experience a moment in the life of a pollinator (you) visiting an actual flower. Then have students investigate how flowers attract pollinators and create fruits through a simple flower dissection. Making sense of pollination from a flower's viewpoint, understanding the tricky nature of flowers, and experiencing how busy the lives of bees and other pollinators truly are will give your elementary students something to buzz about. This is a hands-on, minds-on, NGSS-aligned investigation to share with 1st - 5th grades. (NGSS connection: 4-LS1-1). As an added bonus, participants will create/investigate bee hummers as a STEM project in a sound unit (1-PS4-1) The presenter will model how to use a phenomenon to drive instruction and demonstrate how to illicit student ideas through collaborative, sensemaking strategies while participants engage in science and engineering practices to make sense of and explain the how and why of two different phenomena

TAKEAWAYS:
Sensemaking strategies will be practiced and shared while investigating the connections between pollinators and the intricacies of a flower and its sweet treat. Bee hummers are an added bonus to be constructed while learning how to turn them into a STEM activity to be used within a sound unit.

SPEAKERS:
Tina Harris, Carolyn Mohr

Too often, science is treated as the expendable subject in the school setting, particularly in the elementary grades, where reading and math (and their standardized test scores) reign supreme. For many of our brightest students, however, it is also their favorite subject. This presentation will demonstrate the importance of implementing challenging and engaging science experiences that provide students with opportunities for critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity within the confines of district mandates.By engaging in hands-on experiences themselves, attendees will be provided with the tools they need to facilitate similar opportunities for their students, thereby instilling the ultimate goal for all educators—a love of learning and exploration.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with easily implemented resources, effective strategies, and rigorous lessons that facilitate students' higher-order thinking, creativity, and problem solving in the science classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Joyce Greco-Foster

Explore the storyline of a primary-grade OpenSciEd Elementary Unit and see how students use science ideas they have figured out to design, build, and test solutions to a local problem.

TAKEAWAYS:
Engaging in engineering to solve a problem that is relevant to them gives young students a meaningful opportunity to use their science ideas.

SPEAKERS:
Gail Housman

This session explores how formative assessment tasks can reveal students' 3D learning as well as students' ability to use language to express their scientific thinking. Come learn how well-designed tasks can be an asset for supporting science learning and literacy growth for all students! Participants will experience formative tasks, examine student responses, and practice identifying students’ language-in-use and 3D learning. Eliciting and recognizing evidence of science learning for elementary students has long presented challenges. All too often, the use of academic vocabulary serves as evidence of science knowledge. Language-in-use reframes how students use language in two ways: (1) as a tool for developing one's own scientific thinking, and (2) as a means of communication that aids with demonstrating one's science learning. This framing helps teachers more adeptly interpret what students know. Participants will leave with strategies for using this framing in their own classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with new knowledge about how 3D assessment tasks can elicit important information about students' 3D learning as well as students' ability to use language to demonstrate their learning. This knowledge is highly valuable for using assessment to support teaching and learning.

SPEAKERS:
Alison K Billman, Christopher Harris

Imagine a classroom transformed into a stage where fourth and fifth graders become thought leaders, sharing innovative ideas and sparking change. This session provides a roadmap for planning and executing a student-led TEDx conference—from initial idea to final publication on TED’s platform—integrating STEM, humanities, and public speaking. Participants will learn how to empower students to research, develop, and present ideas that matter to them and their communities. Rooted in the belief that all learners deserve access to high-quality science education, this project fosters science literacy, collaboration, and critical thinking. From incorporating technology and media production to cultivating real-world problem-solving skills, educators will leave with practical strategies to amplify student voices and build a learning community that inspires curiosity, passion, and lifelong learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to plan and execute a student-led TEDx conference, empowering young learners to research, develop, and present big ideas while integrating STEM, humanities, and public speaking to create a meaningful, real-world learning experience.

SPEAKERS:
Lisa Robinson, Katie Musick, Jesse Wren

What happens when future teachers step outside the classroom to design real-world, standards-based learning for their local community? This session showcases a collaborative place-based education project between teacher education candidates, trail locations, and two elementarty schools. As part of a semester-long service-learning experience, preservice teachers investigated local wildlife, vegetation, geology, and health science topics while developing cross-curricular trail-based lessons for elementary students. The final product included literature-rich, NGSS-aligned, three-part instructional modules with pre-visit, trail-based, and post-visit components. Each module included standards, materials, assessments, and original videos to guide both teachers and students. These trail lessons were piloted with grades K-5 and will be installed for continued community and school use.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to design and implement a place-based education project grounded in local STEM standards

SPEAKERS:
Shelly Engle

Localizing science instruction is a powerful way to boost student engagement, and it’s invigorating for teachers, too. Join the professional learning team from the Lawrence Hall of Science to explore three low-effort, high-impact strategies to localize your core classroom science curriculum while continuing to reach your grade level learning goals. We will dive into an example lesson and engage with a tool for localizing your own instructional materials. Participants will come away with ideas for how to make small changes to nationally-designed materials that have a big impact on students' connections to science in school.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will take away a framework and examples for three practical ways they can localize their in-class science instruction across K-12 to meet the interests of their students.

SPEAKERS:
Leslie Stenger, Rebecca Abbott

Sponsoring Company: Inquisitive K-5 Science

Empower yourself to make science teaching more manageable and meaningful by integrating phenomena-based lessons into your classroom. From planning to setup to execution, science instruction can feel overwhelming—but it doesn’t have to be. In this hands-on workshop, participants will engage with real-world phenomena as students, then as teachers they will explore the pedagogy, including the 5e model, behind creating inquiry-driven science lessons that are both manageable for teachers and deeply meaningful for students. You’ll walk away with practical strategies, a curated digital resource library, and a physical toolkit designed to simplify your process. You’ll leave equipped with the tools and confidence to implement engaging, meaningful science lessons—without adding extra stress to your workload.

SPEAKERS:
Ryan Kelly

Equity is often stated as a key value in education, but how can we embed equity in science leadership work? Reflect on your own ideas, beliefs, and approaches to equity and learn how one science leadership development program weaves equity into the fabric of science curriculum leadership.

TAKEAWAYS:
Beliefs, knowledge, context, and lived-experiences shape approaches to equity work. The NEXUS Academy for Science Curriculum Leadership has developed Equity Principles to consider and intertwine with other leadership knowledge bases as leaders work to ensure equity for all learners in the system.

SPEAKERS:
Janna Mahfoud

Uncertainty motivates sensemaking at all ages – from toddlers learning how to use new toys to scientists deep in their fields. Yet, it is often removed from school science investigations, limiting opportunities for students to engage in science practices like argumentation, investigation, and explanation. Drawing from our recently published book, Productive Uncertainty in Science Education, we will engage participants in a elementary school science investigation designed to strategically incorporate uncertainty. Participants will reflect on their experience and explore tools they can use to elicit, work with, and help students benefit from uncertainty in science investigations.

TAKEAWAYS:
Strategically incorporating uncertainty using design strategies and talk tools can help students engage more meaningfully in science practices and make conceptual progress on big science ideas through investigation.

SPEAKERS:
Eve Manz

This outdoor learning session will be great for educators of any grade level and location. Whether you're new to outdoor learning or a seasoned pro and if you teach in a classroom or an informal learning space, this session is for you! Naturalists from Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in Finland, Minnesota will guide educators through different practices and ways of thinking about outdoor learning that will change their outdoor learning mindset. From there, practical ideas will be shared and explored that can be implemented in classes the following week!

TAKEAWAYS:
For outdoor learning to be successful, educators need to be able to say 'Yes! And...' to whatever comes their way. Educators will learn how to use nature as their co-teacher and embrace the spontaneity that comes with outdoor learning.

SPEAKERS:
Charles Pavlisich, Joseph Walewski, Emily Pavlisich

Sponsoring Company: Savvas Learning Company

Discover why now is the most important time to prioritize K–5 science instruction. This session explores how high-quality science education strengthens literacy development, fosters overall student growth, and prepares learners for the future. Unpack how science standards are intentionally built as coherent learning progressions from kindergarten through high school. Leave with a clearer understanding of how excellent science teaching not only drives academic success but also equips students for the real-world challenges and careers of tomorrow.

SPEAKERS:
Monica Morton, Mike Larson

This session will explore how nature education can be enriched by leveraging effective community partnerships and innovative lesson planning that reflects the unique cultural and ecological landscapes of New Mexico. Attendees will gain insight into how Explora Science Center and Children’s Museum collaborates with local agricultural experts, conservation organizations, and local school districts can enhance outdoor learning experiences for children. Through these partnerships, educators can access resources, knowledge, and support to create hands-on outdoor learning opportunities, such as acequia restoration projects and sustainable desert farming practices, fostering a deep connection to land and stewardship among students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will engage with, examine, and apply place-based lessons to engage students in the intersection of STEM and agriculture.

SPEAKERS:
Dixie Cooper

Using a module that was not only featured in the Science and Children Jan/Feb 2025 edition, but received a 2025 South Carolina Growing in STEM Educator Grant, attendees will see how incorporating the four attributes of sensemaking can create an environment where all students achieve mastery of the standard being taught as evidenced through examples of student work/formative assessments and a real world summative experience. Attendees will understand how by building student experiences through the framework for Science Education, and NGSS/state standards, even young students can develop their capabilities all subjects through the lens of STEM education.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will not only see an innovative transdisciplinary sample unit, but have time in the workshop to brainstorm ideas for sensemaking in their classroom/grade level. They will use attributes of sensemaking to support/create their own new/existing classroom experiences benefiting all students.

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Stovall, Emily Wilkey, Fran Carden, Brittany Clark

How do you assess young elementary students in science? How do you measure progress in the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices? I have developed rubrics that allow me to chart the growth of my grades 1-4 students, using the SEP as my standards. I will share students' work samples from a variety of units and show how I use the rubrics to record and share their progress. My rubrics can be used with students to set goals, clarify expectations, and teach explicitly. They can also be used to share progress with parents, and they can support a standards based report card system. This session will allow participants to review the rubrics and discuss the pros and cons of using them in their own teaching practices.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will review grades 1-4 rubrics based upon the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices and be able to take them to use and adapt to their own teaching practice.

SPEAKERS:
Shelley Petzold

Grading that supports student sensemaking doesn't have to keep you at school all night. Learn approaches to grading that prioritize 3D sensemaking and utilize technology, collaboration, and existing resources so you have can your evenings back.

TAKEAWAYS:
The process of giving feedback and assigning grades is easier when there are strong materials and assessments to build from and technology can help make it faster without decreasing effectiveness for students.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Delaney

Without local data it is impossible to fully understand community environmental and climate problems and their effects on different groups. Attendees will explore different environmental and climate data sets and learn how to use these with students to create well-informed solutions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participatory methods for collecting and acting upon environmental and climate data is more important now than ever, yet students are not taught about this data or how to use it. Throughout the workshop, resources and examples for supporting youth in collecting and using data to create real community will be shared.

SPEAKERS:
Kelsie Fowler, Deb Morrison

Science education is a powerful tool for fostering curiosity and critical thinking in young learners. However, students with disabilities and learning differences often face barriers that can hinder their full participation and success in science activities. UDL is a framework for teachers to create an accessible and engaging instructional plan for all learners (Israel et al., 2020). Grounded in three core principles—multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression—UDL helps educators design accessible learning goals, methods, materials, and assessments (CAST, n.d.). During this session, elementary and special education faculty will use a co-teaching model to share the three main principles of UDL and how these apply specifically to support science 3D teaching and learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
This presentation will equip educators with practical strategies and insights to create an inclusive science learning environment for all students. Through the activities, participants will leave this session with actionable strategies and tools to ensure all students have equitable access.

SPEAKERS:
GaKyung Jeong, Jennifer Watson, Keisha Pearson

The booklet Explorations into the US Space Program was developed for elementary students. Using personal narratives, primary sources, thinking routines, creative thinking, and STEM, the booklet engages students. They'll learn about astronauts, the impact of the space program on the local economy, and design and test model paper rockets. The booklet is geared towards fourth and fifth grades and includes annotated text features to support ESE and language learners. Come learn how to access the booklet and teacher guide for free. These resources have been made possible by grants with the Eastern Region for Teaching with Primary Sources.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to download Explorations into the US Space Program and its teacher guide for free. They'll learn how to use the activities in the booklet to integrate literacy and STEM. They'll learn how to support student learning using annotated text features.

SPEAKERS:
Laurie Boulden

How can science learning experiences help students develop ecological caring approaches to the living world? Come explore educational approaches to multispecies justice with us! Expanding how students connect to and care for the living world around them is vital at this time of climate crisis. We will draw on resources from STEM Teaching Tools (www.stemteachingtools.org) and Learning in Places (learninginplaces.org) to support these experiences.

TAKEAWAYS:
People’s relationships to nature are culturally and historically rooted and are embedded in approaches to science teaching and learning. Science can be used to guide ecological caring responses and support the thriving of people and ecosystems.

SPEAKERS:
Kelsie Fowler, Nancy Price, Philip Bell

Once you’ve adopted high-quality instructional materials (HQIM), how do leaders ensure effective and sustained implementation? Join us to explore critical actions of leaders to launch and sustain the implementation of HQIM!

TAKEAWAYS:
Effective and sustained implementation of high-quality instructional materials requires planning for change prior to implementation, generating excitement, providing transformative professional learning, monitoring implementation progress and using data to support continuous improvement.

SPEAKERS:
Jody Bintz

Sponsoring Company: ECA Science Kit Services

In this session we will select 3-4 popular science programs to evaluate using the 15-Questions developed by ECA Science Kit Services. The objective is to have participants walk away with an easy guide to use as they evaluate different programs to adopt. The takeaway will be an understanding of how to set teachers up for a successful implementation. This process will share information about alignment, usability and budget (yes! we will talk money and share “blindspot” costs to prepare for). It will cover short-term and long-term goals for implementation. There will also be an activity related to the “usability” portion of the presentation! Participants will have a fun experience and leave with a simple navigation guide to support their adoption and implementation process.

SPEAKERS:
Heidi Harlan

Thinking about shifting to phenomenon-based science teaching—but not sure where to start or how to sustain it? This session is for you. We’ll explore what makes this approach so powerful for student sensemaking, while also naming the real challenges teachers face in making the shift—like facilitating discussions, sparking curiosity, supporting modeling, and rethinking assessment. You'll get a look at a free, growing library of short, on-demand video resources designed to support these transitions. Whether you're exploring new practices or looking for concrete tools and planning strategies, you’ll leave with practical ideas and access to high-quality, open instructional materials that can support your journey.

TAKEAWAYS:
Phenomenon-based instruction is powerful—but challenging. Explore free, on-demand resources and curriculum tools designed to help you take the next step with confidence.

SPEAKERS:
Renee Affolter

Engage in an OpenSciEd Elementary unit and see how classroom discussions can support ALL students’ in using their ideas, experiences, and evidence for collective sensemaking.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about how to engage elementary students in classroom discussion to share initial ideas, build understanding and come to consensus about the phenomenon they are trying to collectively figure out.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Gomez Zwiep, Guy Ollison

Wondering how to fit meaningful science into your busy day? Finding time for science in the busy, often fragmented schedules of primary classrooms can be a challenge—but it’s not impossible! Discover time-saving strategies and flexible routines to help you integrate science into the school day without sacrificing literacy, math, or play-based learning. This session will explore NGSS-aligned activities and assessments that work in short blocks of time, across subject areas, and within real classroom constraints. Practical examples will show how to turn everyday moments into science opportunities, how to use quick routines to build scientific thinking, and how to adapt lessons to fit your district schedule. Whether you have 10 minutes a day or 30 minutes once a week, you’ll leave with ideas that fit your classroom and support your students’ diverse learning needs. Perfect for new and experienced teachers looking to keep the joy and wonder of science alive when only given minimal time.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will leave with flexible routines and NGSS-aligned activities that integrate easily into busy PK–2 schedules. They will be able to adapt time-saving strategies to weave science into literacy, math, and daily routines—making science a natural, joyful part of every school day.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Forsythe

Preparing new teachers to integrate socioscientific issues (SSI) in the elementary classroom increases the comfort level and confidence to teach ‘controversial’ real-world, age-appropriate science topics that are meaningful and engaging to students within their unique community contexts. This approach provides increased perspectives as well as critical thinking within ongoing scientific inquiry, thereby promoting interest and application of science content for classroom students. Additionally, an SSI framework promotes deeper exploration for facets of empathy and moral reasoning as connected to real-world science-based scenarios that students investigate. Specific instructional practices implemented within a university science methods course led to significant shifts in preservice teachers’ comfort levels and confidence for integrating SSI into their elementary science classrooms. Furthermore, preservice teachers’ use of SSI informed the in-service community as well.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about research-based strategies / methods to support student-centered, contextual, real-world, and content-rich Socioscientific Issues lessons that can shift teachers’ comfort / confidence, and thus increase intention to infuse SSI into their own elementary classroom lessons.

SPEAKERS:
Ly Do, Stephanie Arthur

Sponsoring Company: Teachers' Curriculum Institute (TCI)

Elevate your students’ science thinking with CER Writing! This interactive workshop will equip educators with practical strategies for guiding students in constructing Claims, Evidence, and Reasoning. Learn how to scaffold the CER process, integrate it seamlessly into science lessons, and support students at all ability levels in developing strong scientific explanations. Participants will analyze student work, share best practices, and take away ready-to-use resources that foster critical thinking and effective science communication in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Kumar

The NSTA Sensemaking Tool can support teachers shifting their instruction to create opportunities for student sensemaking. Gain experience using the tool to identify “look and listen fors” in classroom observations and to facilitate productive discussions about successes and overcoming challenges.

TAKEAWAYS:
Use the NSTA Sensemaking Tool for classroom observations and providing feedback.

SPEAKERS:
Patrice Scinta, Emily Mathews

Engaging students in real world science is an important first step in three-dimensional science instruction, but what do you do with phenomena once students are hooked? In this session, we look at the next steps of learning through phenomena, getting students to ask questions, collect evidence, and make meaning using claim, evidence, and reasoning. Attendees will dive into what makes a good phenomenon, eliciting questions from students, and how to structure instruction to guide students through the CER process. They will leave with strategies for creating a true 3D environment and graphic organizers to help them on their way.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to build true NGSS learning off of strong phenomena, taking the "next steps" in thinking like real scientists.

SPEAKERS:
Obie Martin

This short session will describe an interactive five day unit designed for elementary students in grades 4-5 that includes: an integration of disciplinary literacy including readings about Amelia Earhart and how paper airplanes work, with active engagement in science and engineering practices by designing, testing, and modifying paper airplanes.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to integrate science and engineering concepts with paper airplanes. They will leave with access to resources to help them bring this series of activities into their classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Michele Koomen

Elementary students are not ready to jump directly to organizing data in tabular format. In this session, learn about a strategy for organizing data onto case cards that helps make the data collection and organization process manageable for younger students and builds skills that will be needed in the secondary level. I'll introduce two modes for doing this, one analog and the other digital, using a free tool called Tuva Jr.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will leave with a concrete strategy for helping younger students collect and organize data onto "case cards", which will scaffold the eventual creation of tabular data.

SPEAKERS:
Jocelyn Foran

This poster presentation will focus on how to deliver captivating science via zoom and maintain student engagement. We will share our lessons, our experiences and our successes as we navigate this novel form of science instruction with very young students. Lessons are delivered via Zoom for 30 minutes, once per week. Our sample lessons will show an age-appropriate mix of visual and audio media as well as substantial time spent in hands-on activities. Assessment is informal with students reporting what they learned to the on-site school director and other adults, and formal with the presentation by a panel of “expert” students whose knowledge is documented via video and shared within the School Community.

TAKEAWAYS:
Visitors to our presentation will take away the steps we followed to create this successful science curriculum for 4K students.

SPEAKERS:
Cindy Trinker-Peot, Susan (Cee Cee) Cohen

This session will demonstrate how to apply the 5E instructional model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate) to create a complete, phenomena-based science lesson. Participants will explore visual images representing each phase of the lesson and see how it fosters student inquiry, critical thinking, and real-world connections. You’ll walk away with practical strategies and materials for integrating the 5E model into any science curriculum, encouraging inquiry-driven learning. Resources provided include lesson planning tools, a digital toolkit, and a variety of open-and-go 5E model sample lessons.

TAKEAWAYS:
The 5E model provides a clear, effective structure for designing phenomena-based science lessons that spark inquiry and deepen student understanding—supported by ready-to-use tools and resources.

SPEAKERS:
Ryan Kelly

Science Curriculum Implementation, as a change process, provides opportunities to confront persistent inequities in educational systems. Curriculum leaders consider and seek information from multiple levels to understand how the current system is disadvantaging some learners so that they can redesign the system accordingly. The examination of state, district, and school level policies and practices can reveal factors contributing to equitable or inequitable outcomes. Participants will engage in an equity simulation and consider important takeaways that can help them lead change in ways that produce more equitable outcomes across student groups.

TAKEAWAYS:
Barriers to equity are not in learners, but rather in environments. When seeking to reach “all”, historical and current policies and practices need to be examined. Educational policies and practices that are seemingly neutral can contribute to persistent inequities for marginalized student groups.

SPEAKERS:
Jenine Cotton-Proby

NSTA’s suite of instructional coaching tools support teachers, coaches and leaders in making the best use of instructional coaching cycles to support students’ sensemaking in the classroom. Become familiar with all of our OER coaching tools and try a few out a few in this session!

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to use NSTA’s suite of instructional coaching tools to support instructional coaching cycles in your school/district.

SPEAKERS:
Brianna Reilly Oliveira

Understanding how to constructively respond to the diverse emotions youth express and experience as they engage in climate learning is essential work for educators. We will explore approaches for responding to youths’ eco-emotions, and how these can help students make better sense of the world.

TAKEAWAYS:
Climate anxiety is a sign of the times. This session gives attendees conceptual ideas as well as practical instructional activities to engage and channel student’s emotions. We will model teaching strategies and how to use students’ eco-emotions for furthering their scientific thinking and action.

SPEAKERS:
Kelsie Fowler, Deb Morrison

This session will describe a partnership between instructional coaches and SC elementary/middle school science teachers working to shift from a "traditional" approach to a 3D model. As part of a multi-year NSF grant, teachers received one-on-one support through monthly coaching meetings and biannual in-person coaching cycles. The presentation focuses on this coaching component, targeting school/district leaders and coaches seeking to support similar shifts in their schools and districts. The presentation will introduce the dialogical coaching model (Knight, 2018), outline the coaching structures used, and describe how the NGSS Science & Engineering Practices and teacher-identified goals guided reflection and feedback throughout the year. Teachers' challenges and successes in implementing 3D instruction will be shared, along with students' learning outcomes. A live Q&A backchannel will be available, with time reserved at the end for discussion. Resources and references will be provided.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will gain an understanding of how to design & implement a supportive coaching model grounded in the dialogical approach, differentiated based on teachers' goals, & structured around the Science & Engineering Practices to support the shift to 3D instruction in K–8 science classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Anna Morrison

Discover how invention education (IvE) empowers ALL students to solve real-world problems using STEAM! Educators will become inventors themselves! We will highlight how IvE engages all learners and allows students to take control of their learning. IvE begins with students reflecting on their lives and identifying problems. Once they identify a problem they are passionate about solving, their self-agency begins! Rather than being given a problem to solve, IvE empowers all students to solve problems in their lives/their communities. This compelling premise then inspires students to design a solution which marries STEM, empathy, and student-led learning. Attendees will become inventors as they go through an innovation activity. They will even brand and pitch their invention! Inventing/marketing leads to IP. Participants will learn the power of trademarks, and other types of IP. Educators will see free resources and be inspired by the power of invention and IP education!

TAKEAWAYS:
IvE empowers students to solve real-world problems using STEAM, fostering self-agency and student-led learning. Educators will experience the innovation process firsthand, creating their own inventions and learning how IP plays a key role in student creativity and ownership. Free resources too!

SPEAKERS:
Christine Lawlor-King

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Come experience a hands-on model lesson from OpenSciEd for Elementary and discover how the new Carolina Certified Version enhanced these high-quality instructional materials, making them more accessible, user-friendly, and safer for classroom use. Participants will walk away with valuable resources to take back to the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Hoover Herrera

Teaching OpenSciEd brings exciting shifts—and some real challenges. This session introduces a growing library of short, on-demand resources designed to support teachers as they make those shifts. Whether you're just getting started or deep into implementation, these videos and tools offer actionable guidance on everything from launching a Driving Question Board to navigating student-led discussions. You'll hear how they’re being used in PLCs, coaching cycles, and planning time, explore examples tied to real teacher questions, and help shape what gets built next by sharing your own ideas and needs. Come explore, reflect, and contribute to building a resource that’s truly teacher-powered.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover bite-sized, teacher-driven videos designed to support real OpenSciEd challenges—ready to use when and how you need them.

SPEAKERS:
Renee Affolter

Science and data are all around us just waiting to be explored…sometimes we just need to know where to look. This session will share student-centered approaches to inquiry-driven data exploration while working through the Science and Engineering Practices. Examples shared are targeted to K-8 educators and will provide methods of integrating local phenomena and current issues as part of larger PBLs and Citizen Science projects to engage students and put the ownership of learning in their hands. Classroom projects that will be shared include mapping sea turtle nesting sites to determine whether human action or nature has more impact on location, graphing bacterial advisories for local beaches to find correlations with temperature and location to identify a cause, tracking local butterfly and larva observations to monitor seasonal changes, and identifying Red Knot migration patterns based on GPS coordinates from tagged birds. Join us to learn how to bring the outdoors into your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will leave with strategies they can put into practice as they create opportunities for place-based exploration. We will discuss how to use CER as a sensemaking component of data analysis as well as look at methods to help students share their data and explanations visually with others.

SPEAKERS:
Kaleena Jedinak

Sponsoring Company: Gardyn for Schools

Hydroponics is the future of food production! Come learn the basics of hydroponics and how Gardyn can enhance your classroom experience, while being on the cutting edge of technological trends. Most importantly, learn how to integrate hydroponic gardening into your curriculum.

SPEAKERS:
Alicia Kuntz, Renee Egan

What does it really mean to teach for sensemaking in science? In this interactive meta-lesson, participants will experience two contrasting lessons, one that supports student sensemaking and one that does not, through the lens of NGSS and the Framework for K–12 Science Education. Together, we’ll explore how students build understanding through phenomena-driven, three-dimensional learning and unpack strategies teachers can use to design lessons that deeply engage all learners in thinking, equitably. Participants will leave with practical, ready-to-use tools and instructional moves to strengthen sensemaking, promote student voice, and create more meaningful, inclusive science learning experiences.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to spot when sensemaking is (and isn’t) happening in a lesson and leave with practical tools they can use right away to help students build their own explanations and understanding in science class.

SPEAKERS:
Nicole McRee

Immerse yourself, as a student, into a scientific inquiry sparked by an appropriately leveled storybook.The goal is to help teachers confidently teach science while integrating reading, writing, and math. The Science Process through the Magic of Literacy (SPML) is designed to bring science back into the elementary classroom. Since the incorporation of high stakes testing, students in the primary levels have had minimum exposure to science as a way of thinking. The spark is my desire that all students will love learning through exploration. Come and carry out a scientific exploration through a group generated hypothesis from questions proposed from a storybook. See where student autonomy can lead to procedure development, data collection, reasoning and further inquiry through justification by analysis of the data. Learn to use guiding questions to allow AI to assist in content and process clarity while discovering how literacy can be a powerful launchpad into scientific thinking.

TAKEAWAYS:
You will work collaboratively witnessing how storybooks can spark student-led science investigations, helping teachers confidently integrate science with reading, writing, math, and communication while fostering critical thinking and a lifelong love of learning through inquiry.

SPEAKERS:
CHERYL FARRER

Experience and explore how OpenSciEd Elementary’s free high-quality units are designed to support teachers in making time to engage their students in 3D science.

TAKEAWAYS:
OpenSciEd Elementary lessons are organized in four components: Navigate, Explore, Connect, and Synthesize. These components support teachers in understanding the purpose of each part of a lesson, allow for more flexible timing, and can be implemented in various parts of the school day.

SPEAKERS:
Gail Housman, Guy Ollison

Sponsoring Company: Adventerra Games

Come play unique environmental board games with other teachers and discuss best practices to engage students. Potential discussion topics: • How students in all grade bands (PreK-12) respond to our eco games • Ways educators have used Adventerra’s games and puzzles to: a) fit environmental concepts into a tight schedule; b) fit a curriculum by linking a game to the NGSS core ideas (content), science and engineering practices, and cross-cutting concepts; c) teach environmental literacy • Teacher-support materials to dig further into the topics explored in our games • Modifications for students’ support. Expert educators will also share research on the efficacy of games to teach environmental concepts in a fun, efficient way that “sticks.” Learn how to help with future research projects to develop eco games that are useful in classrooms! Enter our raffle to win a free game or puzzle, with three lucky winners!

SPEAKERS:
Bryan Mundell, Cynthia Crockett, Sue Mundell, Ruthie Mundell

Help students build empathy and connect science to their lives using a STEM picture book (Dr. Rosie Helps the Animals). Engage in science phenomena embedded in the story and learn how open-sourced interdisciplinary lessons can address literacy, science content, and inquiry skills.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will engage in student activities that show how NGSS content and inquiry skills can be addressed by investigating real-world phenomena introduced through a STEM picture book. Teachers will leave with the resources and background knowledge to facilitate these activities with students.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Welborn

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

In this session, we’ll explore strategies and tools to dig deeper into your assessment data, identify gaps, and turn insights into action. Leave with practical ideas to better support your students and inform your instruction!

SPEAKERS:
Emily Miller, Brendan Finch

Learn how to use the NSTA Student Work Analysis tool and protocol to evaluate students’ three-dimensional learning. We’ll focus our discussions on what counts as evidence of students’ ownership of targeted elements of the three dimensions and how to use collected student data to inform instruction.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to evaluate students’ three-dimensional learning using the NSTA Student Work Analysis tool and protocol.

SPEAKERS:
Brianna Reilly Oliveira, Zoe Evans

The word Phenomena is used 276 times in the current MN Science Standards. NGSS emphasizes that students need to be able to observe, explain, and interpret phenomena. Nature provides limitless opportunities for students to observe phenomena and pursue authentic investigations to help explain and interpret that phenomena, yet very few teachers feel comfortable teaching their students outside. After a brief review of fundamentals in classroom management for teaching students outdoors, we will dive into how to structure authentic, nature-based science investigations even in the hard scape of an urban environment. Teachers will learn how to prepare their students for authentic, outdoor, nature-based investigations, and will weave culturally responsive teaching techniques throughout their outdoor teaching practice.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn how to prepare their students for authentic, outdoor, nature-based investigations - even within the hard scape of an urban environment. We will weave culturally responsive teaching techniques throughout our outdoor teaching practice. You will spend most of the time outdoors.

SPEAKERS:
Josh Leonard

Saint Paul Public Schools has developed two science units to meet the 2019 Minnesota Science Standards related to Indigenous tribes and communities in Grades 1 and 3. Learn about our multi-year, collaborative process involving science content specialists, the American Indian Education Department, Indigenous staff members, and classroom teachers. In this session, we will highlight the Grade 1 unit, Indigenous Communities and Ecosystems, which features Dakota and Ojibwe perspectives and science understanding through storytelling, hands-on activities, and culturally relevant texts. In the unit, students explore Indigenous communities’ relationships with the land, emphasizing sustainability, respect, and interdependence. Join us to explore how embedding Indigenous knowledge can enrich science learning for all students. Hear about lessons learned, teacher feedback, and how this work supports equity and representation.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how one urban district approached integrating Indigenous knowledge into elementary science by collaborating with Indigenous educators, highlighting a Grade 1 unit developed to begin addressing the 2019 Minnesota Science Standards.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Bosch, Jason Bresette, Jaime Dery

This presentation focuses on the intentional integration of health and physical education (PE) content within the elementary classroom to enhance teaching and learning. Emphasizing the connection between physical, mental, and social-emotional well-being (Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child, 2017), the session will provide strategies for seamlessly incorporating health concepts and PE activities into science curricula. Participants will gain actionable insights on designing engaging learning experiences that break away from traditional, isolated teaching methods. Participants will learn how movement can improve cognitive function and engagement (Jensen & McConchie, 2020). The session will demonstrate how to deepen student understanding by connecting scientific concepts to real-world contexts while incorporating movement-based learning to improve retention. Educators will leave with practical strategies and resources to create a more active, health-conscious learning environment.

TAKEAWAYS:
One main takeaway from this presentation is the practical value of intentionally blending health and physical education concepts into elementary science instruction to create a more engaging, relevant, and holistic learning experience that can deepen student understanding and promote well-being.

SPEAKERS:
Suzanne Lindt, Stacia Miller

Sponsoring Company: Savvas Learning Company

Today’s Chemistry classrooms are more diverse than ever—so why use a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching? This dynamic, strategy-packed session will show you how to reach all learners, including multilingual students, striving learners, and those with special needs, without starting from scratch. Discover easy-to-implement tools that help students connect chemistry concepts to their everyday lives. You’ll learn how to leverage students’ cultural and linguistic strengths, embed cooperative learning for deeper understanding, and present complex content in multiple accessible ways. Walk away with classroom-ready strategies that integrate seamlessly into your existing lessons—no overhaul required.

SPEAKERS:
Ramy Mahmoud

Want to deepen student sensemaking in your elementary science lessons? To make sense of phenomena students need structured opportunities to share, refine, and build on their ideas through talk. This session will explore how to purposefully use phenomena to center student ideas, support sensemaking talk routines, and connect everyday experiences to core ideas while building vocabulary naturally. We’ll examine lessons that show how spiraled engagement with phenomena—supported by consistent talk structures—can deepen understanding over time. We’ll also model how to introduce and sustain talk routines that elevate student voices, connect everyday thinking to science practices, and support the development of academic vocabulary in context. Examples will illustrate how local or familiar phenomena can make science more equitable, ensuring all students have meaningful access to high-quality science. Teachers will leave with the tools needed to apply these strategies in their own classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will be able to design learning activities and adapt district instructional materials to more effectively use phenomena to center student ideas and use whole class talk routines to support student sensemaking, vocabulary development, and fluency in science practices.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Forsythe

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are complex. And their methods represent a powerful way to learn, not only in science classrooms, but in all classrooms. Teachers working to meet the NGSS need to understand what the Cross-Cutting Concepts (CCCs) are and how they can be leveraged in classroom instruction to drive science learning in all grades. They can be useful tools for all teachers at all grade levels. In this presentation, participants will engage actively with the CCCs so they gain a deeper understanding of the basics: What are the CCCs?, How are they organized?; as well as learning more about how to use them in classrooms: How can these thinking tools be used as lenses for investigating more deeply? How do the CCCs support a culture of sensemaking? How do students actually engage in them? We’ll answer these questions and more in this interactive deep dive into the most mysterious of the 3 dimensions of the NGSS - the CCCs.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the CrossCutting Concepts (CCCs), discover how to intentionally leverage them to support students during 3-Dimensional teaching and learning, and leave with resources to better integrate these amazing “thinking tools” into their lessons.

SPEAKERS:
Sean Murphy, Tara Foster

The Next Generation Science Standards describe a vision of scientific literacy that emphasizes informed and participatory citizenship on issues related to science in society. Many elementary teachers, however, avoid debatable socioscientific issues such as whether we need zoos, the value of a national space program, or whether certain sports are too dangerous for children because of concerns about arguments in their classrooms and fear of broaching moral/ethical issues. During this interactive session, participants will be introduced to the theoretical framework behind the Socioscientific Issues (SSI) approach. They will then collaboratively engage in a series of activities from the NSTA Press book, It’s Still Debatable, during which they will model negotiation of debatable issues while analyzing the lesson’s use of SSI, NGSS three-dimensional science learning, alignment with interdisciplinary standards, and multiple means of assessment for all learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
During this Professional Learning Workshop, participants will engage in a series of in-depth activities in order to learn an array of strategies for using debatable societal issues related to science to develop their elementary students’ scientific literacy while modeling 3D teaching and learning.

SPEAKERS:
Sami Kahn

Learn how K-8 teachers integrate outdoor experiences into their curricula (NGSS) and introduce real-life phenomena in the world’s biggest classroom: outdoors! Get tangible tips for communicating with admin, grounds staff, & parents—outdoor time is never wasted. The more you teach outside, the more you create science experiences your students will remember. Session will cover how outdoor instruction can improve student academic, mental, and behavioral health. Get practical outdoor teaching tips. Address common barriers such as first-timer’s fear, schedules, administrative support (or lack thereof), the supplies you really do need (and don’t need), and finding funding and volunteer help. We’ll share a few of our favorite lessons too. Teachers will get valuable resources from Minn’s School Forest Program: How to Teach Outside and Getting Help and Funding. Even if your school has “no nature,” natural phenomena persist. School grounds can always be improved…it’s worth the investment!

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn how to use the outdoors to teach science: what to look for; how to establish/maintain; and why, what, and how we do it. Learn the critical requirements: administrative support, a map, lessons that can be done outside, student gear. We will share a few NGSS lessons as examples.

SPEAKERS:
Kim Benton, Martha Hovde, Laura Duffey

Far too often equity efforts are relegated to the sidelines instead of embedded in core curriculum leadership tasks. Join us to consider how anchoring science leadership in equity principles can remove barriers to science teaching and learning through curriculum implementation efforts.

TAKEAWAYS:
The implementation of HQIM can lead to more equitable systems when barriers to equity are confronted and removed. The process of confronting barriers includes collaborating for justice, taking small actions to learn, and continual reflection and revision of implementation plans based on data.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Gomez Zwiep

Learn about making art as a way of understanding and engaging climate and environmental justice issues happening in our world today. We will engage the current science related to climate change and produce art to creatively explore and communicate just responses.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will come away understanding of how climate science can be engaged and represented through various artistic forms—and the pedagogical power of art pedagogy. People will use supplies in this workshop to make their own creations during the session.

SPEAKERS:
Nancy Price, Philip Bell

Come explore ways to engage students in community centered collaborative climate action now and on into the future. This workshop will engage participants in frank conversations about avoiding indoctrination, designing for varied forms of action, and building community collaborations.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain skills in how to weave different forms of climate action into their current learning resources as well as design new lessons that center locally contextualized and appropriate collective action efforts; such work can be framed for the goals of any educational environment.

SPEAKERS:
Lindsey Kirkland, Deb Morrison

Interest and identity are key for supporting meaningful science learning for students (NRC, 2012), yet traditional secondary science assessments do not invite students to bring their sensemaking repertoires and interests to assessment tasks. Participants will examine features of meaningful, phenomenon-driven assessments. Teachers will adapt a community survey tool designed by the 5D Assessment Project, a collaboration between BSCS Science Learning and Inquiry Hub, to elicit information about their students’ interests and identities. Teachers will learn about an approach to customizing (or designing from scratch) assessments to better engage their students interests and science-linked identities as knowers, doers, and users of science. Teachers will explore adaptations developed by Minnesota teachers to meet the needs of their students. This session is open to all science teachers, but may be most appropriate for secondary teachers

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will adapt tools to elicit and use information about their students to customize meaningful, phenomenon-driven assessment opportunities to better engage their students’ interests and science linked identities.

SPEAKERS:
Abraham Lo

This session explores how schools can effectively utilize natural environments such as school forests and outdoor grounds to create engaging, sustainable outdoor classrooms. Participants will learn about the educational, ecological, and social benefits of teaching outside traditional walls, as well as practical strategies for designing and maintaining outdoor learning spaces. The session highlights student-centered, hands-on learning opportunities that connect science, environmental stewardship, and curriculum goals in meaningful ways.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover the benefits of outdoor learning and explore practical strategies for creating and maintaining outdoor classrooms in school forests or natural areas. Learn how hands-on, nature-based experiences can enhance curriculum, foster sustainability, and strengthen community connections.

SPEAKERS:
Janel Flynn, Amy Benson, Tony Olson, Kelli Ellickson

Sponsoring Company: Inquisitive K-5 Science

By making thinking visible, students are let into the “secret” of learning—seeing how ideas are formed and how peers and teachers reason through questions. In this session, you’ll learn a variety of practical visual thinking strategies that help structure ideation and support deeper reasoning. These research-based tools are simple to use but powerful in impact. Together, we’ll simulate the use of specific visible thinking routines within phenomena-based science lessons, demonstrating how they can spark curiosity, guide inquiry, and deepen understanding. While showcased in science instruction, these strategies are versatile and can be applied across subjects and grade levels. Participants will leave with a digital toolkit of ready-to-use routines and resources to implement immediately in their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Ryan Kelly

The University of Wisconsin-Stout recently hosted a summer STEM Camp for elementary teachers. The purpose of the STEM Camp was to provide professional development and curriculum resources to help elementary teachers to integrate engineering design activities into the elementary classroom. This professional development opportunity was funded by a 3M STEM Education Equity Grant. The attendees of this session will learn about the design of the STEM Camp as a professional development experience, the engineering design process, and strategies for using engineering activities in the elementary classroom that are aligned with the science and engineering practices of the Next Generation Science Standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
The attendees of this session will learn about the design of the STEM Camp as a professional development experience, the engineering design process, and strategies for using engineering activities in the elementary classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Lindsay Barnhart, Kevin Mason

Explore how AI can empower educators to create diverse transdisciplinary STEM learning experiences. The session will showcase AI tools that help identify and address potential bias and generate culturally responsive material, differentiated instruction, and inclusive assessment strategies within STEM contexts.

TAKEAWAYS:
AI can empower educators to create equitable, representative transdisciplinary STEM learning for all students by addressing biases and enabling inclusive materials and strategies.

SPEAKERS:
Tahsin Khalid, Jana Gerard

Translanguaging aligns with culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy and promotes equity in science learning (García et al., 2017). This session explores how translanguaging can be integrated into inquiry-based science instruction in elementary dual language immersion (DLI) classrooms and demonstrates practical applications from Grade 5 Mandarin-English DLI settings. Drawing on classroom experience and research (Du, 2022; Tian, 2020; Zhou, 2021), the presenter shows how educators can create purposeful opportunities for students to use both their first and target languages during hands-on science activities. In an ecosystem unit, for example, students co-construct a food web in Mandarin, read English science texts to deepen content knowledge, and discuss their reasoning in Mandarin. Attendees will see classroom-tested tools and how translanguaging supports science-specific literacy practices such as modeling, reasoning, and argument from evidence.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session offers strategies for integrating literacy and science through translanguaging, aligned with NGSS practices and designed to support multilingual learners in developing deep conceptual understanding.

SPEAKERS:
Hsiaomei Tsai

Utilizing a team of high school student volunteers, the Lower School STEM Club at Mounds Park Academy has become one of the most popular afterschool programs offered in the community and has dramatically improved family perceptions about the level of science and engineering education at the school. In this session, we will share several field-tested approaches to this type of elective STEM program, including a variety of potential formats and settings that can be implemented with or without student volunteers. We will explore how this approach can provide supplemental rigorous experiential STEM education to even the very youngest science students. With creative planning, these clubs can be relatively easy to implement and cost-effective. They can encourage students of all ages to see themselves as scientists and engineers, as innovators and leaders, while enhancing opportunities for rigorous STEM exploration at the elementary level.

TAKEAWAYS:
An elementary school STEM Club facilitated by high school volunteers is easy to implement and can encourage students of all ages to see themselves as scientists and engineers, as innovators and leaders, while enhancing opportunities for rigorous STEM exploration at the elementary level.

SPEAKERS:
Hannah Sullivan

The NGSS calls for the integration of engineering design into K-12 science classrooms. In this session, participants will be introduced to NSTA Instructional materials that provide opportunities for students to design solutions and enact the science and engineering practices.

TAKEAWAYS:
Problem-driven, three-dimensional lessons and units provide students opportunities to actively try to figure out how to design solutions to problems (sensemaking).

SPEAKERS:
Emily Mathews, Patrice Scinta, Kerri Wingert

Elementary science educators face barriers like limited funding, reduced instructional time, insufficient materials, and inconsistent teacher preparation. In response, I developed a 5th grade Earth and Space Science unit grounded solely in pedagogical and content knowledge. This session highlights how meaningful, standards-aligned curriculum can be created without commercial resources. Attendees will explore the design process, instructional strategies for supporting diverse learners, and tools for building teacher content knowledge. The unit emphasizes inquiry-based learning and equitable access for all students. Participants will leave with insights into creating adaptable, student-driven science units for their own classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how an elementary classroom teacher designed an inquiry-based, equitable 5th grade science unit using only content and pedagogical knowledge, proving that rich, student-centered science instruction is possible even without extensive resources.

SPEAKERS:
Kate Bentivoglio

Where we live includes our experience of the sky. Students can collect data, but they can also connect with stars and seasons beyond the facts. Find classroom-tested activities for students to appreciate our skies through direct observations, digital methods, tactile experiences, and personal connections. What we see in our daytime and nighttime skies directly relates to our place on the planet. Appreciate our place on Earth, and evoke curiosity and connection with interdisciplinary lessons. After all, the sky is the primary source for observations around the world throughout time. Take a glimpse of the present, past, and future by looking up.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students collect data about the sky through direct observations, digital methods, tactile experiences, and personal connections to appreciate our place on Earth.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Weaver

In this session, we will present a tool that elementary teachers can use to support children in planning science investigations. The tool was developed as part of a multi-year research project involving a co-design team of teachers and researchers in an urban public school district. We will describe strategies for anchoring investigations in phenomena and providing opportunities for children to make decisions about what materials to use in their investigation, how to use these materials, and what to count as evidence. These strategies can support children to engage deeply in science practice, while also keeping activity manageable for students and their teachers. Our goal is that this session will provide teachers and curriculum designers with a tool that they can use to support children to engage in joyful, meaningful, and productive science investigations.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with ideas about how to involve their students in planning investigations in ways that are exciting, manageable, and productive.

SPEAKERS:
Eve Manz

Students bring amazing intellectual resources to make sense of science phenomena based on their personal and community experiences—including language, perspectives, gestures, and knowledge, interests, and values. Come learn how to notice and leverage those intellectual gifts in your teaching! By analyzing a series of awesome learning situations, this session asks participants to work with others to ‘learn to see’ students’ diverse sense-making resources—and connect these pedagogical strategies to their own classroom practice.

TAKEAWAYS:
Culturally responsive education supports student sensemaking and learning in science. Inclusive science strategies help teachers learn to see and leverage students’ diverse sense-making resources. These methods help us create and adapt curriculum that is equitable and centered on justice.

SPEAKERS:
Philip Bell

Get a brief introduction to free OER integrated science curricular units for Grades K-5 and see how well the features of Project-Based Learning provide the tools and routines to support sensemaking. Review the extensive integration of literacy and mathematics throughout the units. Learn more about the research behind the curriculum and resources available to support implementation.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will get a detailed description of the free resources, look at how PBL works, hear examples from the Multiple Literacies in Project-Based Learning (ML-PBL) Research and Development Project. They will learn how to access the free resources for later review, and connect with free support.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Codere