This session will focus on a large-scale bioplastics investigation that has now spanned multiple years and become a school-wide topic of discussion outside of the chemistry lab. Students are extending the project to determine if the shells of invasive snails in the campus pond can be used to create bioplastics. These projects can deepen learning and instill a sense of rightful presence as students learn to see themselves as scientific researchers. They develop key skills and communicate their work through scientific writing, graphic design, and even video production. This session will share this and other field-tested project-based learning experiences, large and small, including local water quality analysis, electroplating, corrosion, soapmaking, water treatment, and more. Open-ended investigations and real-world chemistry applications do NOT have to conflict with the push to cover a substantial range of topics and maintain a level of rigor in accelerated chemistry courses.

TAKEAWAYS:
It is possible to increase student engagement with project-based chemistry explorations while still maintaining content and rigor. Tackling real-world chemistry problems can create a model environment for students and faculty to learn alongside one another while fostering key 21st-century skills.

SPEAKERS:
Hannah Sullivan

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

Do you ever feel exhausted by the end of the day AND wonder if the students gained understanding? Do you have students who demonstrate excellent thinking on lab days but not on daily, written tasks? Do you wonder how to best group students of different abilities for success? This session will help you meet all students where they are and engage them in sensemaking all while energizing yourself as a teacher through applying ideas from Peter Liljedahl's "Building a Thinking Classroom in Mathematics" in your science classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
You will leave with a set of easy-to-implement strategies that will engage your students in thoughtful participation and sense making, allow you to interact with students in meaningful and fulfilling ways, and help build a community of thoughtful, independent learners in your classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Sharon Churchwell

In this hands-on workshop, participants will explore a fun and easy way to teach science using everyday materials, such as straws and cotton swabs. Through playful blow dart activities, students explore how the strength of a push and the time it is applied affect how things move, offering a simple entry point into motion. This lesson is based on the Hypothesis-Experiment Class (HEC), a student-centered approach from Japan. Students make predictions, share ideas, try experiments, and reflect on their findings. Examples from Japanese classrooms show this method helps build curiosity, confidence, and critical thinking in science. A small trial in Kenya also showed positive engagement. The workshop supports NGSS and STEM goals by promoting Science and engineering practices, such as asking questions, making predictions, investigating, and communicating results. Using low-cost, everyday materials makes science more accessible, promoting equity in STEM learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to use the Hypothesis-Experiment Class (HEC) approach with simple materials to create NGSS-aligned, inquiry-based science lessons that support prediction, experimentation, and communication, making science more accessible and engaging for all students.

SPEAKERS:
Mariko Kobayashi, Haruhiko Funahashi, Tomoko HASEGAWA, Koji Tsukamoto, Momoko Sanada, Kumiko Matsudaira

This hands-on, immersive experience is designed to help teachers deepen their understanding of an effective, 5-step instructional routine for developing student’s proficiency with the Science and Engineering Practice of Developing and Using Models. Educators will experience a OpenSciEd Middle School lesson that includes observing a phenomenon, using models to make sense of the phenomenon they observed, collaborating with a small group using intentional discourse structures and strategies, which showcases how to engage students in equitable discussions. A digital resource collection of all resources used will be provided.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will gain an understanding of an effective, 5-step instructional, collaborative routine for developing student’s proficiency with the Science and Engineering Practice of Developing and Using models and discover how it supports sensemaking and phenomena-based instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Garelli

The Framework for K-12 Science Education urges us to promote scientific literacy among all the nation’s people as a democratic ideal worthy of focused attention, significant resources, and continuing effort. Promoting equity and justice should be approached as a never-ending, detailed pursuit of collective liberation by everyone involved in education (Bell,2019). Science is about explaining phenomena. Doing so requires knowledge and creative imagination. The Minnesota Academic Science Standards (2019) require Minnesota Students to demonstrate proficiency in the science and Engineering Practices adapted from the Framework. How can science educators, especially in Minnesota, transform these practices into justice-centered, equitable practices for all students? In this presentation, we will review some of the tools and strategies, develop our capacity, and examine our collective mindset in advocating for justice-centered science education for all students in Minnesota.

TAKEAWAYS:
Science education devoid of justice-centeredness is a misrepresentation of the essence of science

SPEAKERS:
Angela Osuji

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

What happens when general biology students choose the lens through which they learn biology? In this session, we present a flexible, phenomenon-based curriculum where learners explore core biology concepts through themed “lenses” such as medical, sustainability, animal science, and forensics. These lenses give context to content, deepen engagement, and empower students to drive their own learning. Rooted in NGSS and sensemaking strategies, the curriculum uses anchoring phenomena, real-world problems, and student inquiry to connect life science to future careers and personal interests. We’ll share classroom-tested units, student work, and tools that support choice, equity, and relevance in the biology classroom. Participants will leave with ready-to-use resources and ideas for integrating themed pathways that shift the focus from memorization to meaning-making.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students engage deeply in biology by choosing a personalized pathway through themed lenses—medical, sustainability, animal science, or forensics. This lens-based approach supports sensemaking, increases relevance, and empowers student-driven, inquiry-based learning.

SPEAKERS:
Caroline Milne

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

An essential scientific and engineering practice is having students develop and use scientific models, but it can be challenging to facilitate modeling to ensure students’ effective engagement and sensemaking. This workshop will demonstrate how to model with students in different formats and for various purposes. Modeling can be utilized in the classroom to assist students in making their learning visual and communicating scientific information. Engaging in modeling can also enhance student engagement and sense-making. The modeling process can also serve as a formative or summative assessment. During the workshop, teachers will engage in various types of modeling that they can implement in their classrooms. All information presented is based on research. This is listed as a 9-12 Earth and Space Science session since most examples will be from this area. Yet, the activities and information could also be utilized in middle school and other secondary disciplines.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will experience a variety of methods of modeling to utilize in their classroom that allow student learning of science concepts to be visualized. Leave this workshop with activities and pedological moves related to modeling that you can implement in your class immediately.

SPEAKERS:
Missie Olson, Haley Kalina

If you have done inquiry based learning you know that it can be challenging when students don’t seem to have any questions they want to investigate! The good news is that you can build and foster a classroom community that makes curiosity the default rather than something you have to manufacture. Whether they realize it or not, students want to understand the world around them, they just often don't think it's worth the work to actually do so. By creating a culture where questions are normal, expected, and encouraged, I'm able to push students to continue working towards content mastery rather than deciding they "know enough to pass the test". Strategies like question boxes, science hot seat, question stems, and others have been invaluable in bringing back the curiosity in my middle and high school students that is so inherently present in younger grades.

TAKEAWAYS:
Curiosity isn’t something that exists naturally in all groups of students, but fear not and come join me to discover how to build a curious classroom culture!

SPEAKERS:
Anneliese Johnson

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

The Summer Research Academy is a series of two-week research opportunities for students in grades 7-12, developed as a collaboration between our school and a local college with sessions co-lead by faculty from both institutions. We’ve developed a model for engaging students in the research process by introducing accessible topics and techniques, and facilitating the research process in an developmentally-appropriate manner. This includes developing research questions and experiments that can be answered in our limited time together. As students work through the experimental design and data collection process, they learn that science is not a linear process, continually revisit their hypothesis, and modify their experiment. The week ends with a research symposium where results are shared with their families and the community. SRA sessions have included a range of topics, such as: water quality of the local watershed, biodesign, astrophysics, zebrafish physiology, and microbiology.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to scaffold authentic science research experiences across a range of disciplines. We will present a model to help students develop research questions, design experiments, collect and analyze data, and present results - all in a two-week period.

SPEAKERS:
Rachael Lancor

While student investigation using authentic data-driven phenomena can be a powerful tool for sensemaking, the process of identifying and integrating high-quality data can be overwhelming and time consuming. This session supports educators in tackling both of these challenges. Join us as we highlight sources and strategies for identifying locally relevant data-driven phenomena and share practices for transforming these into engaging and accessible phenomena for your students. Participants will leave with a curated directory of data-sources and classroom-ready strategies to bridge the gap between raw data and rich phenomena-based learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with a curated directory of data-sources and classroom-ready strategies to bridge the gap between raw data and rich phenomena-based learning.

SPEAKERS:
Christopher Like, Tiffany Morgan

In this dynamic, hands-on session, participants will explore how drone technology can be integrated into inquiry-based STEM learning to engage students in meaningful, real-world investigations. Through interactive activities, educators will experience student-centered lessons that combine drone flight, authentic data collection and analysis. Participants will explore relationships by collecting data using drones and analyze their findings to draw conclusions. The session will also cover beginner-friendly drone programming tools and strategies for scaffolding coding skills to support students at different levels. Emphasis will be placed on aligning activities with science and math concepts, promoting student agency, and using technology to foster critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity.

TAKEAWAYS:
Drones should not be seen as supplementary tools but as essential resources in teaching math and science. By integrating drones into lessons, educators can create immersive, inquiry-driven learning experiences that deepen student understanding and bring core concepts to life.

SPEAKERS:
Adam Pennell

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

Are you interested in learning how to have your students conduct their own research in your science class? How can you do this in ways that support their interests, engagement, and development of their science identity? We will share how we do this through a mini-Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (mini-CURE) in a biology course at a community college using CO2 sensors. In this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to learn how to design research questions using CO2 sensors to explore place-based, culturally relevant questions about CO2 in their own communities. You will plan an investigation, collect some initial data, and conduct some preliminary data analysis. We will provide examples of students’ research questions and share how we have scaffolded this experience for students, including worksheets that were used to support the development of their research questions, data analysis, and examples of their final product, scientific posters.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this workshop, participants will learn how to use CO2 sensors to integrate students’ own research projects into your course in a way that is culturally relevant, engaging, and can increase student engagement, interest, and identity in science.

SPEAKERS:
Ann Murkowski, Kalyn Owens, Blakely Tsurusaki

Accessing a suite of regional data exploration tools can broaden the ways that students make sense of complex climate stories and science ideas while connecting to their own stories and curiosities. A teacher-researcher partnership designed a learning progression where students access and use climate data visualization platforms and interpret social science-derived future narratives that connect data with human impacts (SEP: Analyzing & interpreting data; CCC: Stability & change; DCI: ESS3.C Human impacts on Earth systems and ESS2.D Weather and climate). Together, learners use this evidence to make sense of phenomena rooted in projections and uncertainties around climate impacts that they already see and will see in their communities. This session shares a learning progression that embeds approaches to localizing anchoring phenomena in context, means of engaging students’ initial and emergent ideas, platforms and resources embedded in the progression, and examples of students’ work.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will experience a data- and sensemaking-driven learning progression, explore its three-dimensional and phenomenon connections, and consider how to connect to student ideas. They will leave with concrete ideas for accessing data and helping students explore the stories data tell.

SPEAKERS:
Clare Gunshenan, Martha Inouye

In this session, participants will explore how to build a Content Storyline to support coherent, discipline-rich, and equitable STEM project-based learning (PBL). Just as phenomena are used to anchor conceptual development in 3D science instruction, we’ll highlight how meaningful end products can serve as anchoring experiences in PBL—driving student sensemaking, surfacing key standards, and promoting authentic engagement with disciplinary practices. Participants will be introduced to a PBL planning framework designed to center science content and equity, analyze a completed Content Storyline to trace how learning builds and spirals across a project, and explore tools to begin developing their own. The session will support teachers in ensuring that their PBL units are grounded in rigorous, student-centered science learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
The PBL Project Planning Pyramid Framework highlights Content Storylining as a key element and an effective structure to ensure rigorous discipline-rich PBL projects. Let’s consider the project end product in parallel to a phenomenon and explore Content Storylining for STEM PBL.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah DiMaria

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

In this workshop you will explore the physics of sound waves. We will investigate how waves interfere and how resonance works. We will make small sound canons to feel sound and then explore resonance in slinkies, boom-a-wackers, singing rods and tuning forks. Finally, we will use sound to wiggle a glass plate at its resonant frequency to break it (safely). This workshop has lots of activities so come prepared to interact with other participants and resonate with sound!

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore sound waves and resonant effects. Everything has a resonant frequency - from a swing, your stomach and a wine glass. If we use sound to push a glass plate at its resonant frequency it will break.

SPEAKERS:
Isaac Skalsky, Steve Lindaas

Take a deep dive into the practice of developing and using models! We’ll explore how creating and using models help students build science ideas and can support students’ in developing and writing explanations. Experience the power of building science ideas together as part of a learning community.

TAKEAWAYS:
Developing models individually, in groups and as a class makes all students essential members of the knowledge-building community.

SPEAKERS:
Ann Guglielmo, Brianna Reilly Oliveira

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

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

This session will focus on how using peer feedback in classrooms can drive students' ability to collaborate, evaluate phenomena, and deepen their skills of modeling and constructing explanations based on evidence. Emphasis will be on how collaboration through feedback creates an environment that allows students to enhance their growth mindset through the feed up, feed back, and feed forward framework. This method provides all students an opportunity to develop life skills through scientific practices. In this session, participants will observe classroom examples of how to implement the feed up, feed back, and feed forward framework supported by examples of students' work. Participants of this session will leave with adaptable tools that can be implemented with ease into their classrooms and strategies to help them create equitable learning environments driven by classroom collaboration.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave this session with adaptable tools and strategies on how to use peer feedback to empower students to take charge of their learning.

SPEAKERS:
Danielle Hoenig

Empower your teaching with Scientist Circles! Discover research-backed strategies to foster collaborative learning, critical thinking skills and ignite curiosity in the classroom. Engage in immersive activities, share best practices and leave empowered to implement Scientist Circles effectively.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave equipped with proven methods and practical implementation tips to enhance student engagement and communication skills in the middle school classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Ann Guglielmo, Brianna Reilly Oliveira

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

“Ecology isn’t rocket science— it’s much harder” (Hilborn and Ludwig, 1993). Natural resource management provides rich, meaningful phenomena for classrooms that support students in the complex science- and data-driven decision-making that all students will face, regardless of their ultimate career trajectories. This presentation will showcase a unit that, through a natural resource management and decision-making lens, provides students with rich learning about complex ecosystem dynamics through a 3D lens grounded in student interests. This phenomenon-based unit progression compares ecosystem dynamics between two local reservoirs. I will share the methods students used to integrate multiple real-time data sources to predict and model food webs and trophic structures. Students confirm their predictions and models by engaging in a fish dissection and stomach-content analysis, and interpretation of stable fish isotope data to make management decisions about our two local reservoirs.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will take away a unit progression for ecosystem dynamics, practical implementation resources to support and engage all students, tools for students to collect and critically analyze data, and assessment ideas.

SPEAKERS:
Jenny Edwards

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

This hands-on, immersive experience is designed to help educators deepen their understanding of the effective and practical strategies to facilitate academic discourse that promotes inclusive science classrooms. Educators will engage as learners in a variety of intentionally planned instructional strategies and collaborative group discourse structures, that promote access to scientific discourse and opportunities to collaborate with peers. In addition, we will be discussing how teachers can shift away from traditional talk patterns- like I-R-E (Initiate, Response, Evaluation)- and towards Productive Talk to promote inclusive science classrooms. Resources from the Talk Science Primer and OpenSciEd will be incorporated. A digital resource collection of all resources used will be provided.

TAKEAWAYS:
This hands-on, immersive experience offers practical strategies to help teachers transition from the IRE (Initiate-Response-Evaluate) pattern to productive talk, promoting deeper student engagement and meaningful dialogue.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Garelli

How can one rubric serve as a roadmap for sensemaking, assessment, and student feedback? In this session, explore how educators use NGSS-aligned, three-dimensional, standards-based rubrics to design instruction that supports phenomena-based learning and centers student thinking. Participants will learn how to create rubrics that integrate SEPs, CCCs, and DCIs using NGSS evidence statements and apply them across multiple grade levels. We’ll highlight student work, formative checkpoints, and summative tasks that show how these rubrics support equitable, transparent expectations for all learners. Classroom-tested examples will illustrate how 3D rubrics make student sensemaking visible and support lesson coherence. Participants will leave with adaptable templates, classroom samples, and strategies for using rubrics to design, assess, and advance student learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to design NGSS-aligned, 3D rubrics that center student sensemaking, clarify expectations, and guide assessment. Leave with templates, student work examples, and strategies to plan, assess, and give feedback that supports equitable and coherent science learning.

SPEAKERS:
Deborah McMullen, Vincent Fosco, Frankie Valenzia

Unlock student potential in writing and reasoning skills! This session dives deep into Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER), focusing on the crucial link between evidence and reasoning. Explore feedback strategies to empower students to apply their knowledge and construct strong scientific arguments.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will explore resources that expand literacy skills, specifically targeting writing, in the middle school science classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Robert Vossel

The session will focus on the shift from traditional instruction to three-dimensional, phenomenon-based teaching. Participants will explore how students learn better with phenomena that stimulate student questions and a storyline where each lesson builds on what students have learned in earlier lessons and sets the stage for learning in later lessons. Participants will review examples of anchor phenomena and review a storyline to see how investigative phenomena can be used to support student collection of evidence to answer their questions about the anchor phenomena. We will emphasize having students construct explanations and develop models of phenomena to gather insights into student thinking. Finally, participants will learn a process of developing a phenomenon-based storyline. Through this process, they can see how a coherent storyline can be developed to address all three dimensions, leading to greater student engagement, and fostering a more equitable learning environment.

TAKEAWAYS:
How having students make sense of phenomena leads to greater engagement and better understanding.

SPEAKERS:
Ted Willard

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

Building data skills in today’s learners can often feel very dry, but it’s arguably the most essential skill to succeed in the future workforce. And in a time where so many adults use data poorly to prove a point, why not use these “What not to do” stories to help teach these skills and build their digital literacy at the same time! In this session, we’ll describe multiple data misuses such as Cherry-Picking, Correlation vs Causation, and Sampling Bias to help learners see and interpret data through a more sophisticated lens. While highlighting the type of error, students also break down fundamental components of graphic organizers and how they should be decoded. Pulling from relevant and familiar examples of how data is misused in society to make arguments allows for a natural bridge to your 6 - 12 science classroom and builds confidence in analyzing the data you provide them!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be provided with multiple student-friendly examples of how data misuses and biases lead to argument fallacies that span the societal spectrum. They will also see the learning opportunities found within each example and how they can be implemented immediately in any 6-12 classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Ramy Mahmoud

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

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

Come engage in activities (elementary, middle, and high school) to experience how to embed social-emotional learning alongside the NGSS! We will explore teaching strategies that can be used in any lesson, connect with the 3 dimensions, and embed essential SEL skills along the way.

TAKEAWAYS:
You will learn strategies to embed SEL instruction into existing NGSS lessons in ways that engage students with both content and social-emotional growth. Combining these practices facilitates a deeper understanding and more effective use of both.

SPEAKERS:
Kathryn Borton

How can we move beyond rote learning to create classrooms where students think, talk, and act like scientists? In this workshop, participants will experience Building Thinking Classrooms strategies in action through an inquiry-based biology lesson that launches with the real-world phenomenon. Working in randomly assigned groups at vertical whiteboards, attendees will explore data, collaborate on sensemaking, and practice the same processes our students use to develop scientific literacy and thinking skills.
We will unpack how the BTC framework supports:
Vertical learning to make student thinking visible.
Discourse and literacy by requiring explanations, justifications, and evidence use.
Authentic science practices such as modeling, analyzing data, and constructing arguments.
Attendees will leave with:
A concrete model lesson they can adapt for their own classrooms.
Strategies for embedding literacy and sensemaking into science content.
Practical tools to foster student collaboration, curiosity, and deeper understanding.
Whether you teach biology, environmental science, or other STEM courses, this workshop provides a hands-on look at how BTC principles transform passive note-taking into active problem-solving — and how anchoring instruction in real world phenomena makes science come alive.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain practical strategies to adapt outdoor/place-based, sensemaking 3D biology lessons for diverse learners, including English Language Learners and various biology contexts.

SPEAKERS:
Devon Bowker, Karen Maier

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

Don’t reinvent the wheel; no one has time for that! Many traditional “cookbook” labs and teacher demos contain the seeds of deeper learning. In this interactive session, educators will follow a step-by-step method to transform existing labs, demos, or activities into rigorous, student-driven investigations that support sensemaking. We’ll explore how to shift the focus toward phenomena, integrate science practices, and center student thinking, while still maintaining content-alignment goals. Participants will choose a lab or activity to “flip” using a framework that highlights student thinking and grade-appropriate science concepts. A classroom example focused on modeling convection currents will demonstrate how small instructional shifts can deepen understanding and expand meaningful access to learning for all students through inclusive prompts and scaffolds. Walk away with tools and strategies to redesign lessons that help students make sense of science without starting from scratch.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn a step-by-step process for transforming traditional labs into student-driven investigations. They will walk away with tools and strategies to redesign lessons that help students make sense of science without starting from scratch.

SPEAKERS:
Alyssa Weisenstein

Experience NGSS-aligned, hands-on ecology activities designed to engage diverse learners through inquiry and collaboration. In this 60-minute session, participants will explore interactive activities, including constructing food webs to analyze energy flow and ecosystem stability, conducting a biodiversity hunt to collect data on ecological phenomena and population dynamics, and investigating sustainable practices by creating eco-friendly toothpaste while connecting human impact to ecological health. Participants will also receive bonus ecological instructional materials and resources created by the presenter. Through these activities, educators will gain tools to inspire critical thinking, foster collaboration, and build real-world connections, promoting environmental stewardship and making ecology concepts accessible for every learner.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will receive instructional materials ready for immediate implementation, along with editable versions and differentiated instruction strategies to accommodate diverse learners. This will ensure flexibility and accessibility in bringing NGSS-aligned ecology activities to their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Mary Ann Palencia

Asking good questions and making sense of data are key aspects of the scientific method that students struggle with. In this workshop, you will put on your student hat as you demo free lessons that showcase the research of diverse STEM role models as you practice asking higher-level questions. Students will gain confidence deeper understanding of phenomena as they flex and hone their powers of inquiry. Dive into data as you learn about and practice the PPSTT framework for making sense of any graph. (Psst…it’s the secret to data literacy). Don your teacher hat as you discuss ways to incorporate the resources and approaches you learn into your classroom. Supporting videos have been thoughtfully crafted to engage your students, minimize lecture, and include pause points for student activities. The workshop will be led by Matt Wilkins—a scientist, middle school teacher, and founder of Galactic Polymath Education Studio.

TAKEAWAYS:
You will leave this workshop with a treasure trove of high-quality, free and editable resources developed in partnership with scientists and Galactic Polymath Education Studio, along with exciting new ideas for how to help students make sense of phenomena and data.

SPEAKERS:
Matt Wilkins

Do you struggle to help your multilingual students (MLP) engage with and understand your science lessons? If so, please join us to explore specific, practical strategies that you can use immediately to assist your MLP students.

TAKEAWAYS:
How to apply various strategies for Scientific Literacy, such as using, Language Objectives, graphic organizers, and color-coding key vocabulary to any science unit.

SPEAKERS:
Sydnie Chouery

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

Data is the heart of science practice, but many students are stymied by real-world datasets. In this workshop, learn how to guide students in identifying the structure and limits of the datasets they encounter and in framing investigable questions that unlock the potential of data.

We’ll begin by “getting to know” a dataset- its cases, attributes, and source. Then, with student hats on, participants will engage in activities to determine what questions can—and can’t—be asked of the data. Next, using Tuva’s free data literacy handouts, teachers will learn six types of questions that can be used to unlock data insights (variability, comparisons, relationships, time, proportion, and geographic distribution). They will practice determining whether or not each type is appropriate for a given dataset and drafting questions. Finally, participants will pick a dataset and draft a brief lesson that scaffolds the process of framing investigable questions about data.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn strategies for helping students: identify different types of data, clarify what data they have to work with, determine the types of questions that can and cannot be answered with a given dataset, and frame six different types of questions about data.

SPEAKERS:
Jocelyn Foran

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

This session focuses on the trilogy of NSTA Press books on the Three Dimensions and is led by NSTA’s former in-house expert on science standards who recruited the lead authors of all three books. Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices provides a play-by-play understanding of the practices. Disciplinary Core Ideas: Reshaping Teaching and Learning provides an in depth perspective on the disciplinary core ideas. Crosscutting Concepts: Strengthening Science and Engineering Learning is designed to help educators grasp the foundational issues that undergird crosscutting concepts. These books are written in clear, nontechnical language. Many of the authors contributed to the development of the Framework and NGSS. The authors also share a wealth of real-world examples drawn from their own classroom experiences to show what’s different about three-dimensional teaching and learning at all grade levels.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn techniques to use these three books to help educators have a deep understanding of practices, core ideas, and crosscutting concepts to foster better student learning in their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Ted Willard

More schools are adopting Physics First—but how can we ensure mathematical rigor without leaving students behind? In this session, you’ll explore concrete strategies to support students of all levels in building math-based models, interpreting physical phenomena through patterns, and using multiple representations to deepen conceptual understanding. Learn how to streamline your curriculum around a toolbox of essential functions, design assessments that balance rigor and accessibility, and collaborate with math colleagues to align support. Walk away with adaptable lessons and practical tools for bringing 3D teaching and meaningful math into your physics classroom—starting on day one.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to structure a Physics First course that supports all learners by anchoring instruction in physical phenomena, modeling patterns with mathematical tools, and using multiple modes of representation to build lasting understanding.

SPEAKERS:
Meg Harms

This hands-on, immersive experience is designed to help educators deepen their understanding of an effective and practical strategy to support students with the Science and Engineering Practice of Asking Questions called the Question Formulation Technique (QFT), a method that teaches students to generate and refine their own questions, fostering critical thinking and enhancing phenomena-based learning. Participants will observe a phenomenon from a OpenSciEd High School Lesson, collaborate in a small group utilizing intentional discourse structures, to revise and develop testable questions for the causes of the phenomenon. Resources include an OpenSciEd Lesson, a structured, collaborative questioning form for engaging students with the QFT, guidance and question stems for helping students revise questions, student discourse table structures, and sentence stems for support with developing a whole class Driving Question Board (DQB).

TAKEAWAYS:
In this hands-on experience, educators will discover how to utilize an effective instructional strategy, the Question Formulation Technique (QFT), to customize OpenSciEd lessons and support students with developing questions for a Driving Question Board (DQB) about the causes of a phenomenon.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Garelli

This presentation explores Newton's Laws of Motion within the framework of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), emphasizing both scientific concepts and their real-world applications. By aligning with NGSS Performance Expectations, such as HS-PS2-1 and HS-PS2-2, educators will gain strategies to guide students in making sense of DCI through the SEP by asking questions, developing models, constructing explanations of the relationship between force, mass, and motion. The session will highlight instructional approaches that foster student engagement through inquiry-based learning promoting the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Through practical classroom examples and collaborative discussions, educators will be equipped with physics strategies that nurture students’ ability to apply physics principles beyond the classroom and through the NGSS framework.

TAKEAWAYS:
This presentation equips educators with NGSS-aligned strategies to teach Newton’s Laws of Motion through inquiry-based learning, emphasizing real-world applications, critical thinking, and student engagement using practical classroom examples.

SPEAKERS:
Zahera Zahreldin

Want to transform student writing from vague claims to powerful, evidence-based explanations? In this interactive workshop, discover SPARK – a flexible, student-friendly writing framework that deepens scientific thinking. SPARK (Statement, Proof, Analysis, Reasoning, Knowledge) expands CER and scaffolds students to write like scientists while encouraging ownership of their ideas. Participants will experience the framework firsthand, analyze student samples, and leave with editable tools for both in-person and cyber classrooms. Aligned with NGSS SEPs and ELA writing standards, SPARK supports diverse learners in constructing high-quality scientific explanations and arguments from evidence.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to use the SPARK writing framework to help students construct clear, evidence-based science explanations aligned with NGSS and CER, using templates, prompts, and digital tools that support writing in all learning environments.

SPEAKERS:
Caroline Combemale

Upon witnessing poverty in South Africa 14 years ago and wanting to make an impact, the idea of storing “Sunshine in a Jar” was developed. Through the years, like-minded teachers, engineers, and social entrepreneurs collaborated on the research and development of materials that will empower students across the globe with safer, cleaner solar energy. Participants will convert a glass canning jar into a solar lantern using photovoltaic panels, rechargeable batteries, and a customized PCB. This STEAM based workshop demonstrates how students can construct their personalized take-home solar lanterns with an eye towards a greater good.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to make solar lanterns while addressing the middle and high school NGSS Physics standards as well as the NRC Framework Standards for Matter, Energy, and Human Impacts. Connect this simple lantern to the collective work of teachers and engineers working towards alleviating energy poverty.

SPEAKERS:
Pamela Ulicny

Attempting to support 20+ teachers transitioning to the NGSS for all our science students, we used a state STEM Integration grant to gain tools for teaching using sensemaking/storylines/NGSS. Large PLC’s and singleton teachers of various science content areas (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, ICP, Environmental) participated in the PD throughout the school year. We found some successes and setbacks. We hope to be able to help other schools as they plan and work toward more sensemaking and NGSS-based science classrooms. Attendees will learn what strategies have worked well to take back with them and also be made aware of challenges to expect. [NOTE: COULD BE A 30 minute Presentation/Panel, however, to unlock the TEACHING for SENSEMAKING STRAND, we had to click the 60-min session]

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn some of what worked well and could have been better in attempting a large, school-wide, science PD initiative in their district.

SPEAKERS:
Zackary Lopez, Fabian Lopez, John Gensic

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

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

The NGSS and other standards based on the Framework of K-12 Education are quite complicated and often tricky to interpret. What teachers need is an easy-to-use reference guide to the standards, and since its’ release in 2014, the NSTA Quick-Reference Guide (aka The Purple Book) has become a perennial bestseller and an essential reference tool for many educators across the country. A new version of the Quick-Reference Guide was released in 2022, specifically designed to support not only NGSS, but all standards based on the Framework. This session will review the features of the Quick-Reference Guide and show how to use various tools in the guide to unpack the crosscutting concepts. Crosscutting concepts (CCCs) are ideas such as patterns, cause and effect, and systems that are not unique to any one discipline but that cut across several disciplines. By better understanding the CCCs, students are better prepared to make sense of the phenomena they see in the world about them.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to unpack the three dimensions using the tools and resources in the Quick-Reference Guide and will gain insights into the meaning of the crosscutting concepts.

SPEAKERS:
Ted Willard

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

Looking for ways to integrate engaging, hands-on sensemaking into your classroom? Explore activities, sample foods, and bring home ready-to-use materials from three standards-aligned food science lessons featuring low-allergen, gluten-free and vegan recipes. In Chia Pudding Profiles, participants will model soil properties while sampling high-protein desserts. Participants will then learn about the effects of anti-inflammatory compounds on the immune system as they sample oat-and-pumpkin scones. In Sustainable Somali Sambusa, an upcoming addition to the National Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Matrix, participants will survey a sustainable farm design activity and sample basbaas, a spicy Somali dip rich in vitamin C and capsaicin. Chia Pudding 5 Ways, Stress-Less Pumpkin Spice Scones, and Basbaas are featured in Megan’s newest book, Fresh Food Science: 101 Healthy, Easy, Delicious Recipes; three copies will be awarded as door prizes.

TAKEAWAYS:
Making and tasting food connects sensemaking with real-life phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Megan Hall

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 and all subjects. Teachers working to meet the NGSS need to understand what the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) are and how they can be leveraged in classroom instruction to drive science learning in all grades. This presentation will use the SEPs to teach the SEPs, so that teachers gain a deeper understanding of the basics: What are the SEPs?, How are they organized? How do they progress across grade levels?; as well as learning more about how to use them in classrooms: How do the SEPs support a culture of sensemaking with the NGSS so that students move from “learning about” to “figuring out”? We’ll answer these questions and more in this interactive deep dive into the most active of the 3 dimensions of the NGSS - the SEPs.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of the SEPs, how they show up and build in complexity across all grades K-12, and will be provided with resources to better support students’ authentic use of the SEPs when learning 3-dimensionally.

SPEAKERS:
Sean Murphy, Tara Foster

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

Modeling activities can sometimes seem like a burden to teachers and students alike. Large phenomena, taking several days or weeks to cover, can feel abstract and disconnected. But "not all phenomena need to be phenomenal." We will be showing how teachers can design simple, tangible, one period modeling activities to connect complex content with hands' on labs and activities. With proper lead in instruction, the discipline to allow students to discover, a few alka seltzers, and water with varying temperatures students can explore collision theory and its relationship with energy. They can discover the general principles and create a permanent, real connection. With a few drops of various liquids on different surfaces students can explore intermolecular forces and colligative properties. Not all models and phenomena have to be wondrous. Some can be as simple as dissolving sugar in water. The level of understanding gained is only limited by the lead in to the activity and the prompt.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with the knowledge of how smaller, segmented, and quick modeling activities can enhance student understanding by linking content with a hands on activity or analysis.

SPEAKERS:
Patrick Reidy, Kevin Wessler

Come see how we use a 5E lesson with geologic maps, many of which are free online, to help students determine plate boundaries. We also highlight nature of science with Marie Tharp and her discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Finally, we will discuss sense-making and model-building strategies.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore how modeling can be used to improve student sense-making of science concepts.

SPEAKERS:
Alexa Clements, Jesse Wilcox

Do you want to add local phenomena to your class and to make investigations more engaging and relevant to students, but you don't know where to start? The process of identifying, capturing, and aligning relevant phenomena can be overwhelming and time-consuming. That is where Iowa PBS comes in! Launched in 2018, Iowa Science Phenomena is a free website that curates a peer reviewed collection of media-based phenomena designed by educators, for educators. We invite teachers from every state to come learn how you can take advantage of this growing collection to connect student interests, experiences and community with the science standards of your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how Iowa Science Phenomena can take the guesswork out of finding engaging, standards-aligned, relevant phenomena, and giving them the tools to spark curiosity in a three-dimensional classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Tiffany Morgan

Join us for an interactive session that will empower you to bring the rich, student-centered learning experiences called for by the NGSS into your own classroom. In this workshop, you'll engage in collaborative, small-group activities designed to deepen your understanding of how to use meaningful tasks to spark productive and inclusive student conversations. You'll walk away with practical strategies for designing lessons that foster active sense-making through talk, as well as routines and norms that ensure every student has a voice in the discussion. Here’s what you can expect: • The Power of Talk in Learning (10 min): Why meaningful conversations are essential for student growth. • Hands-On Experience (30 min): Engage in two examples of tasks that encourage inclusive, collaborative student discussions. • Designing for Engagement (10 min): Learn key principles for structuring discussions that increases participation and sensemaking. • Q&A and Next Steps (5 min): Share insights

TAKEAWAYS:
The establishment of routines and norms and the use of meaningful tasks are critical for increasing productive participation in small group and whole class discussions.

SPEAKERS:
Victor Sampson

Discover incredible opportunities in STEM education with a range of NSTA-administered K-12 opportunities that engage through innovative programming and recognize achievement with amazing awards. We’ll explore programs and awards that are sure to ignite a passion for discovery and innovation.

TAKEAWAYS:
Empower your teaching with dynamic STEM programs and awards administered by NSTA as you learn about innovative opportunities to boost engagement and enthusiasm for K-12 students and teachers.

SPEAKERS:
Kathryn Lasky, Brian Kutsch

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

Science teachers are comfortable with teaching and assessing the content of courses (DCIs), but struggle with the how to teach and assess the SEPs and CCCs. This presentation will offer a framework and strategy for instruction and assessment of the SEPs (what scientists do) and CCCs (how scientists think) across a unit or even a course. Using the mindsets of feedback and continuous improvement, allow student to grow over time in these important components to become a science-thinking student citizen.

TAKEAWAYS:
The SEPs (what scientists do) and CCCs (how scientists think) should be emphasized and assessed across time.

SPEAKERS:
Mark Peterson, Haley Kalina

An open-ended ice core 3D investigation that incorporates absolute and relative dating, patterns and anomalies, volcanoes, solar proton events, and terrestrial and supernova events. The GISP2-H 125.6-meter ice core is a record of liquid electrical conductivity (LEC) and nitrate concentrations. The LEC sequence contains signals from a number of known volcanic eruptions that provide absolute dates. Terrestrial and solar background nitrate records show seasonal and annual variations and unique events. Several nitrate anomalies within the record do not correspond to any known terrestrial or solar events, There is compelling evidence that some nitrate anomalies could be supernova events. This investigation provides participants with a better understanding of the scientific process of analyzing data from multiple sources, developing models, constructing knowledge, and defending their results. Sometimes there are no answer keys. The investigation is aligned with NGSS cross-cutting concepts.

TAKEAWAYS:
In constructing knowledge, there is no definitive answer, only plausible conclusions based on constructing, analyzing, and comparing data and research from multiple disciplines. This investigation provides a better understanding of the scientific process of developing models and defending results.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Young

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 NSTA Atlas of the Three Dimensions maps out learning progressions based on the Framework for K–12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The 62 maps in the Atlas organize all of the elements from standards on a particular topic (e.g., modeling, patterns, or definitions of energy) on a single page. The elements from grades K–2 are at the bottom of the page, and those from grades 9–12 are at the top. Arrows connect elements to indicate how ideas in a particular topic build on each other and how elements in different topics connect to one another. Studying the maps in the Atlas and the additional resources in the appendixes can provide educators with new insights about the standards. This session will provide an overview of how to read a map, the other features of the Atlas, and how educators can use this powerful navigational tool to develop and implement curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to read the maps and use other tools in the Atlas to understand and interpret standards and plan instructional sequences as part of their work in curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

SPEAKERS:
Ted Willard

This interactive 120-minute workshop invites educators to explore how Hip Hop culture can be a powerful tool for climate justice education. Participants will examine the limitations of standardized curricula and consider how core elements of Hip Hop, such as lyricism, beatmaking, cyphering, storytelling, and social critique, can transform science learning into culturally relevant, creative inquiry. The session features a curated playlist of artists whose work explores ecological and justice-centered themes, including Mos Def, Bad Bunny, Prince Ea, Malik Yusef, will.i.am, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, and Climbing PoeTree. Participants will engage in hands-on activities such as constructing scientific arguments through rap battles, using AI tools to generate backbeats, and designing eco-graffiti inspired by local climate issues. Attendees will leave with NGSS-aligned lesson ideas, a climate justice playlist, and strategies to help students use both science and art to advocate for a sustainable

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore how to fuse Hip Hop, science literacy, and spoken word as culturally responsive practices to engage in a critical evaluation of climate science mindsets, elaborate through environmental justice dialogue, and amplify student voice through creative experimentation.

SPEAKERS:
José Morales Collazo, Kelly Thelen

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

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

Looking for strategies that support all learners in your science class? Join experienced co-teachers as they share how they’ve built an inclusive biology course for both traditional diploma students and those earning an alternate diploma, typically students with significant cognitive disabilities. Learn how teachers use state standards and modified content connectors to build assessment, class supports, and more to support the sensemaking of a wide range of students. Instructional strategies in this session can be used to enable students to make their own ideas about science and the world around them. While the focus is on co-teaching, many of these tools and approaches can be applied by teachers to better support students in all classroom settings.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this session, teachers will discover practical strategies, planning tools, and alternate assessments that support sensemaking for both traditional diploma students and students with significant cognitive disabilities in inclusive science classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Fabian Lopez, Michelle Miller, Zackary Lopez

Discover how spreadsheets can transform your stoichiometry lessons into engaging, hands-on experiences that build both chemistry understanding and real-world computational skills. In this interactive workshop, you’ll explore how students can model chemical reactions using spreadsheet formulas to visualize mole ratios, mass relationships, and percent yields. We’ll begin with the everyday phenomenon of baking cookies to introduce the concept of static vs. dynamic cells and to practice creating spreadsheet formulas. Then, we’ll transition to designing spreadsheets that solve limiting/excess reactant stoichiometry problems and support post-lab data analysis. This approach engages students in mathematical thinking and computational modeling to illustrate the conservation of mass in chemical reactions, with student-created spreadsheets serving as evidence of their understanding and application of these concepts. Participants are encouraged to bring a device with Google Sheets capabilities.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use spreadsheets to teach stoichiometry in a way that reinforces chemistry concepts, introduces foundational computational thinking, and empowers students with real-world problem-solving skills.

SPEAKERS:
James Didier

This session will empower educators to create engaging, hands-on science lessons centered around compelling phenomena. Participants will delve into the importance of phenomena in fostering inquiry-based learning and develop their own phenomena-driven lessons. They will learn to integrate science and engineering practices, leverage student ideas, and align lessons with educational standards. By viewing phenomena through the eyes of their students, educators will experience each domain of science and cultivate student-driven questions, emphasizing the significance of learning through exploration and discovery. This session is an interactive workshop for creating and refining lesson plans, ensuring educators leave with practical tools and strategies to inspire their students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will be empowered to create engaging, hands-on science lessons centered around compelling phenomena, fostering inquiry-based learning and student-driven exploration.

SPEAKERS:
Alicia Doty, Haley Smith

Math teachers are excited Peter Liljedahl's "Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics," and for good reason. Liljedahl spent years observing students and teachers, researching what led to deeper thinking on tasks, and compiling his results into an accessible framework to help math teachers implement the evidence-based practices. In this session we will learn more about the practices, the research behind them, and how the same methods can be implemented in science classes to capitalize on student skills transfer between math and science.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will experience some of the Thinking Classroom practices, discuss research, and explore implementation crossover between math and science classrooms, particularly in terms of sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Casey Rutherford

2025 is the 100th anniversary of the infamous Scopes trial and the 20thanniversary of the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial, which took place in Harrisburg, PA. We will examine the lessons for science educators today that can be drawn from the similarities and differences between these trials. As lead witness in the Kitzmiller trial I will briefly review the history of that case and summarize scholarship on the Scopes trial. While both cases are interesting legally, their relevance to science education extends to every educator dealing with issues of science denial. I will examine these challenges at multiple levels, including topics routinely designated as “controversial,” including evolution and climate change.

TAKEAWAYS:
The motivations, strategies, and tactics of science denial have changed little in the 100 years following the Scopes “Monkey” trial. I will review today’s threats to evolution education and will suggest strategies that educators can use today to defend the integrity of science in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Kenneth Miller

The Framework for K–12 Science Education emphasizes that all students, regardless of background, should have access to rigorous science learning. This session will demonstrate how we can support multilingual students through the four pillars of sensemaking: phenomena, science and engineering practices, student ideas, and science ideas. Participants will also explore "The Bridge" methodology, a transformative approach that helps dual language learners develop metalinguistic awareness by transferring knowledge across languages. Through classroom examples, student work, and language-bridging strategies, attendees will learn how to design lessons that make students’ full linguistic resources visible and valuable. Learn how to support students in analyzing scientific vocabulary, comparing sentence structures, and making meaning across languages through intentional contrast. Walk away with tools to raise rigor, equity, and engagement for all learners in 3D instruction.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to support multilingual learners at all steps of the sensemaking process. Explore real classroom examples and leave with practical tools to plan instruction, scaffold language, and elevate student voice across all dimensions of 3D science learning.

SPEAKERS:
Deborah McMullen, Gloria Verastegui, Frankie Valenzia

Upgrade your science teaching! NSTA's bite-sized PLUs fit any schedule and will deepen your understanding of three-dimensional teaching and boost student learning. Earn credit, conquer challenges, and unlock equitable classrooms - all on your terms!

TAKEAWAYS:
Lead your professional learning community’s learning using NSTA PLUs.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker, Zoe Evans

This interactive workshop will focus on how to use the DiscoverE Future City Program and Xplorlabs resources by UL Research Institutes to engage students in safety science principles through data, case studies and the Engineering Design Process so they can design cities of the future. Attendees will be introduced to the DiscoverE Future City program and Xplorlabs Thermal Runaway and Extraction to E-Waste Pathways via hands-on and interactive resources. With this background established, attendees will use these resources to address the question: “How can renewable energy be safely stored and used to reliably power a city of the future?” Attendees will choose a location for their city, decide on a renewable energy source, and use The Engineering Design Process and Xplorlabs resources to come up with a solution.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will come away with an introduction to the Future City program and Xplorlabs’ free resources; as well as strategies for how to use these programs to lead engaging, real-world phenomena around safety science and engineering.

SPEAKERS:
TRAVIS KOUPAL

Unlock deeper student understanding by exploring the power of scientific modeling! Through hands-on activities, participants will discover how developing models empowers students to observe, analyze, and visualize the unseen, making science truly make sense. Explore actionable strategies for relating concepts to students' individual experiences, demonstrating how this enhances neural pathways for long-term retention. We will engage in the process of making initial observations, modeling what we think is happening, performing and discussing an experiment for clarification, and revising our original model.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover how encouraging students to develop scientific models, supported by their own experiences and observations, reveals the remarkable way this process strengthens neural pathways, leading to deeper comprehension and retention.

SPEAKERS:
Molly Horn

What if the power goes out, stores are closed, and there’s no help on the way? In this exciting, hands-on class, teach students real-world survival skills through science. They’ll purify water with solar stills, cook outdoors (solar brownies, orange peel muffins!), build fires, make charcloth, and practice wilderness first aid. Students will also create spears, atlatls, and clothing, predict weather, navigate with maps and compasses, and identify wild edibles. They'll explore microbiology to prevent illness and make all-natural chapstick, bug repellent, soap, and detergent. Fun, functional, and unforgettable—because when the world gets weird, science is survival.

TAKEAWAYS:
Using the Zombie Apocalypse, or any natural disaster from tornado to hurricane, earthquake to ice storm, this workshop illustrates how many different science fields are relevant to everyday life! This workshop includes chemistry, biology, physics, and engineering concepts.

SPEAKERS:
Melanie Carden-Jessen

In this workshop, science teachers will learn the applications of action research and storytelling to transform classroom practices and deepen students’ learning. Using the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle, participants will determine classroom problems, design research-based interventions, and analyze data to refine instructional strategies. Elements of storytelling will be used to document the teaching and learning process and fostering culture of reflection for continuous improvement. Teachers will learn to integrate real-world phenomena, science and engineering practices, and the 5Es instructional framework to promote the pillars of sensemaking. Through hands-on collaboration, data-driven inquiry, and creative documentation, teachers will walk away with action plans to promote success of their students for life.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn to enhance science teaching through the pillars of sensemaking by using the PDSA cycle and storytelling to design, implement, and evaluate classroom practices for continuous instructional improvement.

SPEAKERS:
Nicole Holman

Come see practical ways to help students make sense of phenomena and how to authentically integrate phenomena into your curriculum! Using phenomena to explore scientific ideas has been an increasing trend in science education. While many teachers are finding phenomena to engage students, helping students connect phenomena to science can be more challenging. This session will explore numerous ways teachers can transition from a phenomenon to 3D learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn strategies for helping students make sense of phenomena without giving them phenomenon fatigue.

SPEAKERS:
Emma Breheny, Jesse Wilcox

OpenSciEd High School units include Electronic Exit Tickets. These are short formative assessments that occur 2-3 times per unit, in between other assessments. They include items to check for understanding of lesson-level PEs, to make connections between content and students’ lives, and to elicit information about their experiences and to help students reflect on their own progress in focal SEPs and CCCs. They are built in Google Forms but can be ported to any survey software. They can also be used in any lesson, and you can make your own. Incorporating Electronic Exit Tickets into your teaching routines can help you reduce the amount of time you spend grading and provide you the information you need when you need it about your students’ three-dimensional understanding. You will also learn how to use the keys that accompany Electronic Exit Tickets to support student learning and their experience of your classroom community.

TAKEAWAYS:
Reduce grading time and get the data you need when you need it with 3D Electronic Exit Tickets.

SPEAKERS:
Kate Henson

Using authentic data in the classroom helps students make meaningful connections to complex topics and supports their development as informed decision-makers in real-world contexts. Finding and using real data to create engaging learning experiences may be easier than expected—and it can boost both teacher and student confidence in science. In this session, participants will explore a ready-to-use curriculum featuring a case study on the moose and wolf populations of Isle Royale, based on one of the world’s longest-running predator-prey research projects. Additional data sources and classroom-ready materials will also be shared with attendees.

TAKEAWAYS:
Using real data in the classroom builds teacher and learner confidence and interest in science.

SPEAKERS:
Jocelyn Miller, Claire Lannoye-Hall

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

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

Developing strong scientific reasoning skills is essential for students to understand and apply core scientific concepts, evaluate evidence, and engage in scientific inquiry. This session will focus on practical, research-based strategies for assessing and improving scientific reasoning skills in both high school and postsecondary science courses. The presenter will examine how students develop these skills over time, identify common misconceptions, and explore instructional techniques that foster critical thinking, logical analysis, and evidence-based argumentation. Additionally, the session will highlight ways to scaffold complex reasoning skills, differentiate instruction, and use assessment data to inform teaching. This session will be valuable for science educators seeking to deepen student understanding and equip them with transferable thinking skills that extend beyond the classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave this session equipped with a deeper understanding of how scientific reasoning develops in students and why it is essential for success in science education and beyond.

SPEAKERS:
Cheryl Robertson

Learn how to use the Uncovering Student Ideas probes in an explore-before-explain instructional sequence to support a classroom where all students' ideas matter!

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn about a new NSTA press resource for formative assessment and explore-before-explain teaching.

SPEAKERS:
Patrick Brown

This interactive workshop will demonstrate how educators can support critical thinking RE: trade-offs of the lithium-ion battery supply chain as well as demonstrate how educators can support student sensemaking related to lithium-ion batteries, and challenge students to take action. The session allows participants to engage with the Xplorlabs Extraction to E-Waste Pathway's interactive resources to explore the life cycle of a lithium-ion battery from raw materials, through its useful life to its eventual disposal. Participants will then complete a place-based case study activity around copper-nickel mining in northern Minnesota. Copper and nickel are both important components in lithium-ion batteries. Attendees will examine the issue from both sides before choosing a position. Finally, participants will see examples of strategies that  motivate their students to take action and make their voices heard.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will come away with knowledge of the Xplorlabs Extraction to E-Waste Pathway as well as how they can use that resource to promote critical thinking, sensemaking, and gather information from multiple perspectives RE: the Twin Metals copper-nickel mine and the BWCA.

SPEAKERS:
TRAVIS KOUPAL

In this session, attendees will explore how scaffolded Data Puzzles resources can be used to enhance student sensemaking of Earth & Life science phenomena. Data Puzzles are concise 3-day lesson sets that combine real-world data with data sensemaking practices to support students explore and explain science phenomena. Participants will first engage with a structured Data Puzzle lesson, which ends with question generation of next steps. Participants will then use their questions to transition to open-ended data investigations using newly developed Puzzle Piece resources around large, secondary datasets in the web-based tool CODAP. Through hands-on activities and collaborative discussions, attendees will gain practical strategies for supporting students' data sensemaking skills from structured lessons to open-ended exploration, empowering them to embrace uncertainty, ask deeper questions, and authentically participate in scientific inquiry.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how data sensemaking strategies in Data Puzzle lessons support students in structured data analysis, and how these practical strategies can scaffold students to do more open-ended, grade-band aligned investigations.

SPEAKERS:
Jonathan Griffith

Cross-Cutting Concepts are like the roots of a tree—essential for growth but often hidden from view. Explore how CCCs enhance sensemaking in science classrooms by aligning with the brain’s natural methods for organizing and retaining information. This interactive workshop offers hands-on activities, collaborative discussions, and practical classroom applications. Participants will learn how CCCs connect big ideas across disciplines, fostering critical thinking and deeper understanding. The session will highlight how CCCs leverage the brain’s tendency to form interconnected knowledge networks, making learning more accessible and transferable. Attendees will gain strategies to help students organize and retrieve complex concepts effectively, strengthening their ability to understand and explain scientific phenomena. This workshop is ideal for educators looking to enhance their teaching practices and empower students to build connections and think critically in science.

TAKEAWAYS:
Access resources and examples to apply CCCs effectively in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth Mayenschein, Chad Janowski, Kim Lemberger

People need to be curious consumers of information shown in data sets and graphs. There are ways to make graphs that show bias and ways that show data “fairly.” In this session, participants will develop the skills to recognize misleading or slanted graphs. We will use data visualization techniques to support evidence-based decision-making in real-world agricultural scenarios. Participants will be presented with a series of visuals to determine whether or not the information depicted within the data visualization is fair or misleading. Then, they will be divided into groups and given a scenario. After researching the scenario and analyzing the given data, participants will create their own visualization and presentation for communication with their class of producers. This presentation should include a fair data visualization yet still persuade the producer to make the best decision for the scenario.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will analyze and interpret agricultural data to identify patterns, make predictions, and construct scientific explanations through argumentation. They will use data visualization techniques to support evidence-based decision-making in real-world farming scenarios.

SPEAKERS:
Heather Bryan

Speaker will help attendees grasp the vast scientific concepts and exploration opportunities that comprise the young child’s everyday world. She will actively engage attendees with explorations and discourse, and offer strategies and ideas teachers can implement, to set up STEM explorations and simple engineering problems for young children that support NGSS. She will discuss the importance of nurturing a child’s natural curiosity and will offer strategies to help children develop their observation and thinking skills. She will emphasize the importance of engaging young children in manipulation of objects and materials so they can recognize the effects of their actions. She will also offer strategies to help children develop their science vocabulary. She will model how instruction that starts with children’s questions and provides rich opportunities for exploration and investigation is the most engaging way to introduce and teach science concepts to young children. Handouts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn strategies and engaging exploration ideas, to create sense-making opportunities for young children, and to inspire children’s sustained curiosities. Activities will be easy and inexpensive to replicate and will help launch a trajectory of learning for young children.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Knoell

As the EV and clean energy sector continues to grow, so does our need for sustainable energy storage. In partnership with KidWind and with support from the Department of Energy, a cohort of secondary education STEM teachers from across the United States are developing a curriculum about the production, use, recycling, and future of batteries. This 60-minute workshop explores the landscape and impacts of batteries globally, introduces the new curriculum, and leads participants through a hands-on activity. Participants will wire a “wet cell battery” using ice cube trays, electrodes, and a simple electrolyte, and measure the voltage. They will then be challenged to extend this learning by wiring the “cells” to light LEDs or run motors and then iterate on the design with the aim of increasing voltage. We will close by considering how hands-on battery focused activities can provide a compelling hook to contend with the current and future sustainability of batteries.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about a new battery-focused curriculum and use “kitchen chemistry” to create a “wet-cell battery,” field testing their designs to increase energy capacity and exploring how hands-on activities can bring to life real-world battery sustainability challenges.

SPEAKERS:
Ray Wu-Rorrer, Pamela Ulicny

Are you looking for a novel phenomenon for your high school students to hook them on the wonder of the natural world? My school has been using slime mold as an intro activity for Biology for over twenty years. Through this amazing organism we can discuss the characteristics of living things, the structure of the cell, how organisms obtain energy, and how populations of organisms have evolved for success. Slime mold is an easy to use organism in the classroom. Through several days of observation, students can review the elements of an investigation. Come and learn how you can use this organism in your classroom to leave students wondering what will happen the next day.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use slime mold in their high school classrooms to hook students on the wonder of the natural world as well as cover a variety of biology topics.

SPEAKERS:
Raewyn Kelley, Michelle Housenga

In this dynamic, hands-on session, participants will explore how drone technology can be integrated into inquiry-based STEM learning to engage students in meaningful, real-world investigations. Through interactive activities, educators will experience student-centered lessons that combine drone flight, authentic data collection and analysis. Participants will explore relationships by collecting data using drones and analyze their findings to draw conclusions. The session will also cover beginner-friendly drone programming tools and strategies for scaffolding coding skills to support students at different levels. Emphasis will be placed on aligning activities with science and math concepts, promoting student agency, and using technology to foster critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity.

TAKEAWAYS:
Drones should not be seen as supplementary tools but as essential resources in teaching math and science. By integrating drones into lessons, educators can create immersive, inquiry-driven learning experiences that deepen student understanding and bring core concepts to life.

SPEAKERS:
Adam Pennell

As the politicization of science grows, teacher educators must ask: Are preservice science teachers authentically prepared—and permitted—to teach science equitably and meaningfully? This session shares findings from a cross-institutional survey of early childhood, elementary, secondary, and higher education science educators, including faculty and in-service teachers. We explore how respondents perceive their preparation for addressing DEI, sociocultural relevance, and controversial topics in science education—and whether they feel they have the autonomy to do so. This work emerges from a collaboration between a science education researcher in biology and a teacher educator in curriculum and literacy, reflecting on their shared but mismatched goals in culturally responsive preparation. Participants will consider the disconnect between teacher education ideals and the constraints of today’s science classrooms, identifying next steps for responsive and realistic preparation programs.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how science teacher candidates and faculty perceive their autonomy to teach science authentically, especially regarding DEI and sociocultural relevance, and will explore how teacher preparation must evolve to meet the realities of 2025 classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Julia Poplin

3-Dimensional, Phenomena-Driven, Student-Centered teaching and learning supports students as they make sense of the world around them. In this session, PL experts from the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago will demonstrate how all of the pieces of the NGSS fit together in high-quality curricula to create coherent, student-driven learning experiences. Teachers know that understanding the standards alone is not enough. We’ll review the standards, then use that theoretical foundation to dig into curricular examples. We'll experience a 3-dimensional lesson as students would, then expand our lens to see how 3-D Performance Expectations are addressed throughout a phenomena-driven unit. Discover how 3-D learning is used on a daily basis throughout units to help students develop skills as scientists and build toward a scientific explanation. Leave with a set of powerful Instructional Practices that teachers can adopt to support 3-D, Phenomena-Driven, Student-Centered learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will feel confident and excited to use their NGSS-aligned curriculum with increased awareness of how it is organized as well as having access to a set of powerful instructional practices that work for any NGSS classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Tara Foster, Betsy Leong

The story of the double helix is standard fare but is usually told in a cursory and superficial way. The actual story, however, can be brought into the classroom in a way that excites students and shows the scientific process, warts and all, in a manner that promotes equity, inclusion, & science. The double helix model of DNA is generally presented as the straightforward product of James Watson and Francis Crick’s interpretation of Rosalind Franklin’s X-ray diffraction photograph of DNA. However, the actual story of the double helix involves many individuals beyond these three scientists. I will describe how clues to DNA’s structure were developed over several decades and how they came together over six remarkable months in 1952 and 1953. I will focus on new research regarding Franklin’s role in the discovery and will examine how the race for the double helix fits into our usual understanding of the scientific process.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be presented with a realistic narrative that departs from the usual step-by-step version of the scientific method, addressing what this work and the reaction to it illuminates about the role of women in science and ethical values in research.

SPEAKERS:
Kenneth Miller

Get ready to think outside the box! "Sim-MAKERS Playbook: Foster Innovation on a Budget" is a hands-on workshop that equips 6th–12th grade science teachers with creative strategies to bring simulation and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) learning to life—without breaking the bank. In just 120 minutes, participants will learn to turn everyday items into powerful teaching tools, build low-cost models, and design engaging curriculum ideas. You'll leave with a DIY guide, ready-to-use activities, and the confidence to spark innovation and excitement in your classroom, no matter your budget!

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn how to turn everyday materials into powerful, low-cost simulation tools, helping them bring STEAM concepts to life and inspire innovation and creativity in their students—no expensive equipment required!

SPEAKERS:
Shannon Egli, Katherine Smith

This interactive session explores how digital storytelling can help students make sense of science concepts through creative, standards-based communication. Participants will engage in a gradual release model (“I do, we do, you do”) to experience how videos, presentations, and infographics can be used to demonstrate understanding of energy flow in ecosystems. Anchored in the three dimensions of science learning, this workshop emphasizes how to support student thinking through visual and narrative expression. Attendees will examine student examples, collaborate to co-design a sample product, and begin drafting their classroom activity using a provided template. The session aligns with middle school standards related to energy pyramids and ecosystem sustainability and offers practical strategies for engaging students with diverse language and learning needs. All resources will be open-access and ready for immediate classroom use.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to guide students in creating videos, presentations, and infographics that demonstrate science understanding through modeling, explanation, and evidence—aligning with the NSTA 3D framework and encouraging creativity in showing what they know.

SPEAKERS:
Gwinn North, Ricardo Lumbreras

“Ecology isn’t rocket science— it’s much harder” (Hilborn and Ludwig, 1993). Natural resource management provides rich, meaningful phenomena for classrooms that support students in the complex science- and data-driven decision-making that all students will face, regardless of their ultimate career trajectories. This presentation will showcase a unit that, through a natural resource management and decision-making lens, provides students with rich learning about complex ecosystem dynamics through a 3D lens grounded in student interests. This phenomenon-based unit progression compares ecosystem dynamics between two local reservoirs. I will share the methods students used to integrate multiple real-time data sources to predict and model food webs and trophic structures. Students confirm their predictions and models by engaging in a fish dissection and stomach-content analysis, and interpretation of stable fish isotope data to make management decisions about our two local reservoirs.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will take away a unit progression for ecosystem dynamics, practical implementation resources to support and engage all students, tools for students to collect and critically analyze data, and assessment ideas.

SPEAKERS:
Jenny Edwards

Whether you're a novice or a seasoned pro, this session offers leadership skills that will empower you with the rationale and tangible, real-world examples to revamp your teaching.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover how simple adjustments in activity order can supercharge your students' knowledge construction and seamlessly integrate the NGSS into your teaching.

SPEAKERS:
Patrick Brown

In this session, educators will explore five powerful learning models backed by neuroscience to enhance teen engagement and learning outcomes. Through a brief brain game, we’ll demonstrate how adolescent brains are uniquely wired for learning. Discover strategies that can be immediately applied in middle and high school classrooms to foster critical thinking, creativity, and deep learning. Participants will walk away with a practical, plug-and-play PBL or PBRL learning template of their choice, as well as an infographic summarizing the five models, making it easier to integrate these techniques into their own teaching. This session will help teachers understand how to unlock the potential of their students by leveraging the way their brains naturally develop and learn.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn five science-based learning models that supercharge teenage brain development, with practical tools for immediate classroom implementation. Participants will also have the opportunity to choose between a PBL or PBRL template, ready for use in their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Ericka Jones

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

Getting students authentically engaged in academic conversations—especially in science—is easier said than done. In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore practical, ready-to-use strategies that promote student discourse and build collaborative group work skills in grades 6–12. Participants will actively engage in several instructional routines designed to spark peer-to-peer conversation, support equitable participation, and deepen content understanding. You’ll leave with a toolkit of talk-based strategies that can be used right away in your classroom or shared with colleagues to support authentic engagement in science classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
You’ll leave with a toolkit of student discourse strategies that promote authentic engagement and collaborative thinking in science classrooms—plus firsthand experience using them through interactive modeling.

SPEAKERS:
John Hesser

Feeling behind on the latest technology? You’re not alone—and that’s okay. In this interactive workshop, we’ll revisit the timeless power of observation and student curiosity. Participants will experience a low-tech lesson that begins with a compelling phenomenon and leads students to ask their own testable questions, build hypotheses, and design experiments—connecting directly to the scientific method. Along the way, we’ll highlight how the activity integrates all of the Science and Engineering Practices. This hands-on session proves you don’t need fancy gadgets to meet NGSS expectations—you just need sharp observation, strategic questioning, and purposeful planning. Walk away with a ready-to-use worksheet, lesson outline, and the confidence to teach 3D science without relying on tech.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to use student observations of phenomena to engage all Science and Engineering Practices in one low-tech, high-impact lesson.

SPEAKERS:
Jonte' Lee

In this unique problem-solving lab, students design their own experiment to test the polarity of solutions and determining which milk solution is best to combat hot sauce. Most students have some experience with eating spicy food. While the exact spices may vary in different regions, the effect is the same. It tastes hot.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session's takeaway is a fun and novel lab that attendees can implement into their own chemistry or biology class.

SPEAKERS:
Kevin Mason, Gregory Matthias

As long as there have been CER templates, there have been students who struggle. What’s the difference between evidence and reasoning, or an explanation and an argument, exactly? Our 5E, open-source CER lesson helps answer these questions with scaffolded tools and engaging activities. In this session, teachers work together to build CERs and to evaluate arguments written by others. Then, they construct their own arguments using an interactive productive talk routine and persuasive language prompts. Participants gain confidence in supporting students to construct explanations and arguments, along with first-hand experience with a lesson, templates, and activities they can take back to their classroom for immediate use. Anchored Science by Mi-STAR is a middle school curriculum project, created by classroom teachers in collaboration with engineers and scientists from Michigan Technological University, and dedicated to quality NGSS-aligned curriculum since 2015.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with clear and concise definitions of reasoning, explanations, and argumentation, along with a lesson plan, activities, and templates to help students define and construct all three in the science classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Tony Matthys, Chris Geerer

Are you ready to transform your classroom? Join us for a hands-on workshop focused on three-dimensional (3D) instruction. In this session, you'll not only learn what 3D instruction is, but also experience it firsthand with an example. Through engaging, small-group activities, you'll discover how 3D instruction integrates DCIs, CCs, and SEPs to create meaningful learning experiences. Here’s what you can expect: • Understanding 3D Instruction (10 min): Discover the essential features of 3D science teaching and what it is (and isn’t). • Experience a 3D Lesson (40 min): Engage in a hands-on lesson that incorporates all three dimensions to explore matter and energy in living systems. • Q&A and Next Steps (10 min): Reflect on your learning and access resources for further exploration. This workshop is designed to equip you with practical tools and strategies for making science instruction truly unforgettable. Don't miss out on the opportunity to bring 3D teaching to your classroom!

TAKEAWAYS:
Three-dimensional instruction creates unforgettable classroom experiences that helps students learn how to use the three dimensions of science to figure out phenomenon in the world around them.

SPEAKERS:
Victor Sampson

In this interactive session, attendees will take a learner stance and complete a murder mystery from the student perspective. The primary focus will be on strategies designed into this experience that can help motivate ALL students to take the lead in questioning, collaboration, and critical thinking as it applies to the content of the course. While the topic of this lesson ("The Kinematics Crime Scene") will focus on physics and kinematics, there is no expectation of a physics background required to attend this session. Materials for this and other murder mystery lessons will be provided with a discussion about how to incorporate a similar format into any content area.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will experience a group-worthy content task in the format of a “murder mystery”. In addition to receiving the materials for this and other murder mystery lessons, attendees will learn strategies for group-worthy lesson design that can be applied to other classroom tasks.

SPEAKERS:
Joe Cossette

Students often express frustration with their learning: “This is boring,” “Why do we have to learn this?” or “How does this connect to me?” In response to rising apathy and disconnection, we developed a simple, powerful approach called Curiosity Sprints—a co-designed process where students share what they’re curious about before a unit begins. Using this input, teachers adapt existing lessons to better reflect student interests while still meeting standards. The result? More engaged learners, more responsive teaching, and fewer eye-rolls at the start of a new topic. Join us to explore how co-design can transform your classroom from “Why are we learning this?” to “What are we learning next?”

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore how student curiosity can help you co-design lessons that feel more relevant, spark engagement, and bring new energy to your teaching, without tossing out your standards or starting from scratch.

SPEAKERS:
Maureen Griffin, Eric Hall

In today’s diverse classrooms, traditional one-size-fits-all instruction often leaves some students behind while others are left unchallenged. This workshop introduces self-paced mastery learning, a flexible, student-centered approach grounded in differentiation, formative assessment, and creative strategies like visual note-taking, cooperative learning, and student voice and choice. Drawing from my experience designing interdisciplinary projects on topics like electricity and magnetism, water pollution, cell biology, and atomic theory, you will explore how connecting content across disciplines and using real-world applications can spark engagement, deepen understanding, and promote equity. Participants will leave with tools and strategies to build a classroom where students learn at their own pace, show meaningful evidence of understanding, and make lasting cross-curricular connections that go beyond the textbook.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to implement self-paced mastery learning in their classrooms by using differentiation, formative assessment, and creative strategies like visual note-taking and cooperative learning. Participants will leave with tools to create a student-centered, interdisciplinary learning.

SPEAKERS:
Kingsley Ogbonna

Participants will be introduced to a published graphic story related to science and discuss the research paper(s) it relates to. Each participant will choose a science article and I will walk them through the tools I use to have students rewrite the article as a graphic story.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how I use graphic stories as part of my Unified Science curriculum with low level/high need learners by actively participating in a sample lesson.

SPEAKERS:
Robert Palmer

Promoting meaningful science instruction is critical. To support elementary teachers in leveraging equity and sensemaking-oriented instruction, we propose six core sensemaking practices (SPs). Two key SPs include using relevant and meaningful driving questions to spark student wonderment about phenomena, and leveraging multimodal representations to support various ways of expression and explanation. Evidence from research shows that SPs supports teachers as they learn to teach science in a sensemaking, equity and justice-oriented vision. We will introduce teachers with the SPs as a set of instructional strategies. Then, we share NGSS-aligned, open-source project-based learning curricular materials for 3rd grade science classrooms. Teachers discuss how the curricular materials align with SPs by adjusting and modifying them considering their own teaching contexts. At the end, they will analyze student work (assessments) from 3rd grade classrooms and reflect back on their analysis.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers explore six sensemaking practices (SP) on how to promote equity and sensemaking-oriented elementary science instruction. They analyze NGSS open-source project-based learning materials, and student work from 3rd grade classrooms. Teachers incorporate SP by using quality curricular materials.

SPEAKERS:
Joseph Krajcik, Tingting Li, Selin Akgun

Puzzling Anatomy will have participants examine the anatomical differences between animals for anatomical differences and similarities. After creating a data table to show these comparisons, they will develop a hypothesis on how these attributes help the animal carry out its daily life functions. This is a fun way for students to develop their critical thinking and analytical/reasoning skills. All participants in this workshop will receive instruction, have the opportunity to conduct the lesson and materials so they can carry out the lesson in their own classroom!

TAKEAWAYS:
Puzzling anatomy is a fun way for students to develop their critical thinking and analytical/reasoning skills through the use of puzzles.

SPEAKERS:
Heather Bryan

For learners to feel safe taking risks in an increasingly hostile classroom setting, it’s our responsibility to build a foam pit for them; a low-risk environment where they can challenge themselves without the fear of long-term consequences. Attendees will learn why multiple factors have caused a deep slide for many learners into a discomfort with or inability to take risks, collaborate and be challenged. The focus will then be on multiple strategies to rebuild their confidence in risk-taking, including reassessing assessments by changing grading policies, reframing the way teachers praise learners, and gamifying classrooms by implementing the qualities in games that lower the stress and fear for the player. This conversation will be grounded in educational psychology (Dweck, Maslow, Vygotsky), include opportunities for small and whole group discussion, and give specific examples of formative and summative assessments when discussing how to build a foam pit for our learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will receive ready-to-go activities, posters and strategies to help all learners feel safe taking academic risks, while also gaining a clear understanding of three types of challenging learners: Low Performers, Apathetic Underachievers, and High-Achieving Perfectionists.

SPEAKERS:
Ramy Mahmoud

In an era of widespread misinformation, cultivating scientific literacy is essential for preparing students to critically evaluate information and make informed decisions. This session explores evidence-based strategies for improving scientific reasoning and critical thinking in both high school and postsecondary science education. We will discuss how to integrate media literacy, primary literature analysis, and science communication into science curricula to equip students with the skills to navigate scientific claims in a digital age. Additionally, we will address common misconceptions, cognitive biases, and how to help students distinguish between credible science and pseudoscience. Participants will leave with practical strategies, assessment tools, and classroom-ready activities that promote science literacy across disciplines, with an emphasis on fostering collaboration between secondary and postsecondary educators to create a more cohesive approach to scientific reasoning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Gain a clear understanding of why scientific literacy is vital in combating misinformation and helping students critically evaluate scientific claims in today’s digital world.

SPEAKERS:
Matthew Blank, Cheryl Robertson

What is STEM identity? How can we help our students develop their STEM identity and why is a STEM identity important for STEM learning? Build your understanding of STEM identity and gain research-based strategies you can use to help your students develop their STEM identities.

TAKEAWAYS:
Gain research-based strategies you can use to help students develop their STEM identities.

SPEAKERS:
Brianna Reilly Oliveira, Jessica Holman, Kerri Wingert

As a science teacher, are you tired of being told to incorporate ELA, Reading, and Math into your science lessons—but never the other way around? It often feels like our profession is undervalued, and we’re being asked to become everything but science teachers. In this unapologetically science-first session, participants will engage in a student-centered, thematic 5E lesson where science is the foundation—and math and ELA are woven in to support the science, not replace it. Together, we’ll unpack how to plan these kinds of lessons, align them to standards across disciplines, and build collaborative units where science leads the way. Walk away with planning templates, sample themes, and the confidence to advocate for science as essential, not optional.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to design thematic lessons where science leads—and math, ELA, and other subjects are integrated to support student understanding of real-world phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Jonte' Lee

In today’s world, false information spreads faster than ever—thanks in part to powerful artificial intelligence tools that make it easy to create and share fake content. From wild health claims to viral conspiracy theories, students are wading through a convoluted information environment. It’s more important than ever to help young people build sharp critical thinking and disciplinary literacy skills, so they can sort fact from fiction and take better care of themselves and their communities. In this hands-on session, you’ll explore The News Literacy Project’s free resources, including the Checkology® platform, dive into the “Evaluating Science-Based Claims” lesson, and try out the FLOATER toolkit — a fun, easy way to test the credibility of health and science claims. Then we’ll put the toolkit to the test on some buzzworthy but sketchy health trends. Are these trends helpful or hype? You get to decide!

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover how to help students build the critical thinking skills they need to make sense of science-based claims in today’s confusing, AI-powered information world. Explore NLP’s free resources, like the Checkology® virtual classroom, while digging into popular—but questionable—health claims.

SPEAKERS:
Brittney Smith