Corn is the most important food crop grown in the U.S., yet climate change threatens our ability to improve yields to continue meeting rising human demand. Solving this global problem requires knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and math. In this session, we will bring real-world STEM to life through modern agriculture. This hands-on session reveals how agriculture extends far beyond traditional farming as we dive into authentic storylines that connect students to pressing global challenges. Framed around the journey of corn’s artificial selection and the real-world problem of feeding our growing population can spark critical thinking and problem-solving skills among students. You’ll leave with activities and strategies that can be easily implemented that showcase cutting-edge technology and engineering in food production. Join us to see how agriculture offers powerful, real-world STEM career pathways that are accessible for all students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore how food can provide relatable entry points for students using STEM skills to solve real world problems. Engage in several activities from a new storyline unit that challenges students in figuring out how to solve this food production challenge as they engage in 3-dimensional learning.

SPEAKERS:
Rachel Skelton, Alicia Burge, Chris Embry Mohr, Kristin Rademaker, Jessica Holman

Corn is the most important food crop grown in the U.S., yet climate change threatens our ability to improve yields to continue meeting rising human demand. Solving this global problem requires knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and math. In this session, we will bring real-world STEM to life through modern agriculture. This hands-on session reveals how agriculture extends far beyond traditional farming as we dive into authentic storylines that connect students to pressing global challenges. Framed around the journey of corn’s artificial selection and the real-world problem of feeding our growing population can spark critical thinking and problem-solving skills among students. You’ll leave with activities and strategies that can be easily implemented that showcase cutting-edge technology and engineering in food production. Join us to see how agriculture offers powerful, real-world STEM career pathways that are accessible for all students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore how food can provide relatable entry points for students using STEM skills to solve real world problems. Engage in several activities from a new storyline unit that challenges students in figuring out how to solve this food production challenge as they engage in 3-dimensional learning.

SPEAKERS:
Rachel Skelton, Alicia Burge, Chris Embry Mohr

Nearly a quarter of all jobs in the U.S. are devoted to providing food and fiber products to consumers required of future employees. This means our students must understand the intersection of STEM in producing and providing food and related products and services. Agriculture is a diverse industry that includes fields essential to sustaining life, advancing technology (precision agriculture, biotechnology, AI), and addressing global challenges (climate change, water conservation). In this session, participants will engage in several hands-on activities that can be incorporated into their classroom as well as access a variety of valuable resources that will support student’s connection to real-world careers. Agriculture offers powerful, real-world STEM career pathways that are accessible to all students, whether they live in cities, suburbs or rural communities; many of whom have never explored these fields or seen themselves in them. Let’s help them see what is possible.

TAKEAWAYS:
Help your students connect classroom learning to real-world opportunities, increase engagement, and prepare them for the future. Equip your classroom with hands-on activities and gain access to a variety of valuable resources to support your students' exploration around careers.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Embry Mohr, Jessica Holman

Sensemaking begins with in-depth experiences using rich and relevant phenomena. Food provides powerful motivation for students in making sense of the world around them as they use scientific practices and make real-world connections for how to develop the perfect apple. Join us in a hands-on immersive storyline for how students make sense of the phenomenon for why it took 30 years to engineer the perfect apple. Engaging students’ senses of taste, smell, and feel launches their motivation to think critically and deeply about the food that they eat. Experience how students use the scientific practices and apply the lens of the crosscutting concepts to build STEM ideas around plant reproduction. Discover the design process to build storylines immersing students in real-world phenomena and problems to engage in sensemaking across an entire unit. Deepen your understanding around the design of storylines and learn how to bring those strategies back to your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Unpack how to use phenomena, lesson level performance expectations, and the 3 dimensions of NGSS to scaffold learning for students. Gain access to tools to design authentic storylines that engage students in real-world phenomena and problems framed around food and agriculture driving their learning.

SPEAKERS:
Alicia Burge, Chris Embry Mohr, Jessica Holman

Sensemaking begins with in-depth experiences using rich and relevant phenomena. Food provides powerful motivation for students in making sense of the world around them as they use scientific practices and make real-world connections for how to develop the perfect apple. Join us in a hands-on immersive storyline for how students make sense of the phenomenon for why it took 30 years to engineer the perfect apple. Engaging students’ senses of taste, smell, and feel launches their motivation to think critically and deeply about the food that they eat. Experience how students use the scientific practices and apply the lens of the crosscutting concepts to build STEM ideas around plant reproduction. Discover the design process to build storylines immersing students in real-world phenomena and problems to engage in sensemaking across an entire unit. Deepen your understanding around the design of storylines and learn how to bring those strategies back to your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Unpack how to use phenomena, lesson level performance expectations, and the 3 dimensions of NGSS to scaffold learning for students. Gain access to tools to design authentic storylines that engage students in real-world phenomena and problems framed around food and agriculture driving their learning.

SPEAKERS:
Alicia Burge, Chris Embry Mohr, Jessica Holman

Building connections around familiar phenomena related to milk and composting can drive student curiosity and engagement. Scientific and engineering practices can deepen understanding of science ideas inherently found in food systems and environmental conservation practices. In this session, participants will engage in two examples for how students can use elements of the SEPs such as conducting investigations or developing models to make sense of why some humans cannot drink milk and how their food choices could affect climate change. Join us to gain a deeper understanding for how elements of the practices and crosscutting concepts push students to think more deeply about scientific content as they make connections to their own lives. Identify strategies for supporting student sensemaking through real-world connections to food systems and environmental conservation practices.

TAKEAWAYS:
Experience how students authentically make connections between the classroom and their homes through the phenomena of milk and compost. Deepen your understanding and prepare to implement strategies and activities that actively engage students in all three dimensions of learning in your classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Kathlyn Van Hoeck, Chris Embry Mohr, Jessica Holman