2025 Minneapolis National Conference

November 12-15, 2025

4/9/2026 12:00PM EST: All sessions added to My Agenda prior to this notice have been exported to the mobile app and will be visible in the app when you login, under your profile. Any sessions added now will also have to be added in the app.
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13 results
Save up to 50 sessions in your agenda.

Climate Justice Overview: Priority Areas and Educational Approaches

Thursday, November 13 • 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM

Minneapolis Convention Center - 102 A



(Only registered attendees may view session materials. Please login with your NSTA account to view.)
Climate Justice Overview: Priority Areas and Educational Approaches

Show Details

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

Adapting OpenSciEd Curriculum to Focus on Climate Justice, Local Solutions, and Issues of Indigenous Self-Determination

Thursday, November 13 • 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Minneapolis Convention Center - 102 A



(Only registered attendees may view session materials. Please login with your NSTA account to view.)
Adapting OpenSciEd Curriculum to Focus on Climate Justice, Local Solutions, and

Show Details

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

Engaging Students in Talking about Indigenous Sovereignty and Climate Systems

Thursday, November 13 • 2:20 PM - 3:20 PM

Minneapolis Convention Center - 102 A



(Only registered attendees may view session materials. Please login with your NSTA account to view.)
Engaging Students in Talking about Indigenous Sovereignty and Climate Systems

Show Details

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

Implementing Climate Learning Across an Educational System

Thursday, November 13 • 3:40 PM - 4:40 PM

Minneapolis Convention Center - 102 A


Show Details

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

Supporting Equity and Justice Through Science Instruction: The Road Traveled and the One Ahead

Friday, November 14 • 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM

Minneapolis Convention Center - 102 A



(Only registered attendees may view session materials. Please login with your NSTA account to view.)
Supporting Equity and Justice Through Science Instruction: The Road Traveled and

Show Details

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

Youth As Climate and Environmental Scientists: Collecting, Analyzing, and Reporting on Local Community Climate and Environmental Justice Data

Friday, November 14 • 9:20 AM - 10:20 AM

Minneapolis Convention Center - 102 A


Show Details

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

Get Your Students Outside to Learn Science and Care for the Living World!

Friday, November 14 • 10:40 AM - 12:10 PM

Minneapolis Convention Center - 102 A



(Only registered attendees may view session materials. Please login with your NSTA account to view.)
Get Your Students Outside to Learn Science!

Show Details

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

Supporting Youths’ Climate Emotions as Authentic Dimensions of Sensemaking

Friday, November 14 • 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM

Minneapolis Convention Center - 102 A


Show Details

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

Using Art Pedagogy in Science Class to Teach Climate Justice

Friday, November 14 • 2:40 PM - 3:40 PM

Minneapolis Convention Center - 102 A



(Only registered attendees may view session materials. Please login with your NSTA account to view.)
Using Art Pedagogy in Science Class to Teach Climate Justice

Show Details

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

Designing Learning for Climate Action

Friday, November 14 • 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Minneapolis Convention Center - 102 A


Show Details

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

Supporting All Students in Making Sense of Phenomena By Building All of Their Intellectual Resources

Saturday, November 15 • 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM

Minneapolis Convention Center - 102 A



(Only registered attendees may view session materials. Please login with your NSTA account to view.)
Supporting All Students in Making Sense of Phenomena By Building All of Their In

Show Details

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

Climate Learning Share-a-Thon!

Saturday, November 15 • 10:20 AM - 11:20 AM

Minneapolis Convention Center - 102 A



(Only registered attendees may view session materials. Please login with your NSTA account to view.)
Climate Learning Share-a-Thon!

Show Details

Are you interested in teaching about climate change, sustainability or the environment? Come explore open educational resources and design practices from a variety of organizations with expertise in these areas! These include professional learning, curriculum, and pedagogical resources!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be able to interact with experts in climate change and sustainability instruction and walk away with free resources and design advice to support their own teaching practice.

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

Core Practices that Center Justice in Ambitious Teaching

Saturday, November 15 • 11:40 AM - 12:40 PM

Minneapolis Convention Center - 102 A



(Only registered attendees may view session materials. Please login with your NSTA account to view.)
Core Practices that Center Justice in Ambitious Teaching

Show Details

Teachers developed the Justice-Centered Ambitious Science Teaching framework and practices as part of professional learning communities to be responsive to students' cultures and communities, build upon expansive forms of student meaning-making, and committed to disrupting injustice in society.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn about teaching practices aimed at building a welcoming, joyful, and critical community that is meaningful for youth and centers justice, elicits local stories, nurtures revisions of scientific thinking with diverse and local expertise, and uses science to advocate for justice.

SPEAKERS:
April Luehmann, James Kostka, Breanna Uckermark

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