The Model-Based Argument Critique Tool facilitates perspective-taking by prompting students to agree/disagree with peers' conceptual claims about phenomena using evidence, to encourage engagement with different interpretations. Furthermore, the tool directs students to analyze visual representations designed by peers, specifically focusing on how they depict unseen objects or processes. By requiring critiques of varied representations within models, students must consider alternative ways of visualizing abstract concepts and evaluate their effectiveness in communicating scientific ideas. Evaluating others' representations helps students identify strengths, weaknesses, and diverse approaches, broadening their understanding of representational choices and the limitations inherent in visualizing the unseen. This structured peer feedback fosters meta-representational competence, enabling students to appreciate multiple perspectives on the phenomenon and how it can be visually communicated.

TAKEAWAYS:
Viewers will examine the layout of the critique tool, which separates conceptual claims from visual representations. The poster displays examples of preservice teachers' written critiques and drawings of different phenomena, illustrating how their feedback on peer models evolved.

SPEAKERS:
Jaclyn Murray

Creating culturally relevant STEM activities for elementary learners that truly integrate Science, Engineering, and Mathematics is challenging. In an elementary STEM Methods course, we engage preservice elementary teachers in developing discovery boxes, kits designed to integrate a science activity, a math activity, and an engineering activity all aimed to address a culturally relevant problem. Through discovery box creation, preservice teachers develop a deeper understanding of NGSS Science and Engineering Disciplinary Core Ideas and Practices and CCSS Mathematical Practices while building from elementary students’ funds of knowledge. Recent projects include problems such as re-designing an unsafe intersection, protecting deer from roads, and repairing the lights on a bridge. In this session, attendees will have the opportunity to explore several discovery boxes and learn more about the parameters of the project.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use discovery boxes to integrate elementary science, math, and engineering learning around a culturally relevant problem. We will examine discovery boxes created by preservice teachers to engage with the components and gain insight into how to implement similar projects.

SPEAKERS:
Stephanie Purington

Reform-based science instruction, as outlined in the Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2012) integrates science content, practices and concepts. This paradigm shift requires professional development (PD) for teachers. Since "systems" can be used as a unifying framework, we hypothesize that longitudinal PD rooted in systems will allow teachers to revamp and align their existing instructional units with the purpose of The Framework. Further, we propose that longitudinal professional learning cohorts will support teacher implementation of these changes. We ask: What challenges do high school biology teachers experience in using a systems-based lens to transform existing instructional units into units aligned with The Framework?

TAKEAWAYS:
Systems-centered professional development changed teachers lesson design and planning and empowered teachers to move to content parsimony.

SPEAKERS:
Steve Bennett, Sara Wyse

Popular science books are written to engage a wide variety of readers who are interested in learning about science topics. These books are especially important in today’s world as they address scientific misconceptions, explain how science is done, and make connections between science and our society. This session will share how I implemented popular science books into science courses with both high school students and undergraduates. Topics explored will include how books were evaluated for connections to NGSS disciplinary core ideas, how student learning of science content was evaluated while reading, how connections were made to literacy standards, and how students demonstrated their learning through the construction of a mini zine. Participants will have a chance to make their own mini-zine, which can be easily reproduced, and brainstorm classroom ideas with peers. Sample zines by students will be shared along with templates and rubrics.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with the tools to facilitate the implementation of science books in their own classrooms while also guiding students in the construction of mini-zines to assess learning. Sample zines, templates, and rubrics will be provided.

SPEAKERS:
Carrie Sharitt

This workshop presents an instructional tool developed through ongoing research on scientific modeling resources. It aims to elicit students' initial conceptions of phenomena via visual and written modalities, facilitating science engagement across diverse learners. Participants engage in a two-part modeling activity that employs model-based inquiry principles. Part one involves documenting direct observations through written descriptions and drawings. Part two centers on articulating inferred explanations for the phenomenon's cause or process, utilizing writing and drawing to represent underlying mechanisms. This structured approach helps learners differentiate between observation and interpretation, providing educators with valuable insights into student cognition. The session highlights practical techniques, exemplified by this tool, for encouraging participation and surfacing student ideas.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will practice using the Observation and Inference Tool to model phenomena and learn to analyze the resulting student visual and written work to gain insights into their initial scientific ideas.

SPEAKERS:
Jaclyn Murray

Ready to take your STEM lesson planning to the next level? Join us for an interactive and inspiring session where you’ll discover how artificial intelligence—specifically ChatGPT—can become your new favorite teaching assistant. Explore how preservice teachers in a pilot program used ChatGPT to blend South Dakota Science Standards with Engineering and Technology standards to design innovative, classroom-ready STEM lessons and kits. Learn how to craft effective prompts, refine AI-generated content, and apply human feedback to ensure every lesson is developmentally appropriate and tailored to your students' needs. Whether you're new to AI or looking to deepen your practice, this session will give you practical tools and real-world examples to boost creativity, save planning time, and spark student engagement. While we’ll focus on STEM, the strategies shared can be adapted to any grade level or content area. Come curious- leave inspired!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with practical strategies for using ChatGPT to streamline lesson planning, align with science and engineering standards, and design engaging, grade-appropriate STEM lessons and kits—tools they can immediately apply in any classroom setting.

SPEAKERS:
Betsy Schamber

Discover the power of NSTA Resource Collections – curated "bundles" designed to organize your digital library with resources from NSTA and beyond. This hands-on workshop guides you through creating your own collection, a vital tool for saving time when searching for topic-specific materials. Learn how to effectively share these collections with your school or district colleagues, or make them public to benefit the wider NSTA community. Leave ready to build and leverage collections to streamline your resource management.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave knowing how to create NSTA Resource Collections, add NSTA and external materials, and manage sharing options. They will grasp the benefits of organizing, including time savings and collaboration, and gain practical skills to build and share curated resource bundles.

SPEAKERS:
Flavio Mendez, Jaclyn Murray

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

Some people call it the Central Dogma of molecular biology. But we prefer to call it the Flow of Genetic Information – from DNA to RNA to Protein. Whatever you call it, it is a foundational concept in the molecular biosciences. 3D Molecular Designs has created a hands-on modeling kit that will allow your students to explore the molecular logic of living systems by creating physical models of the three phases of this process -- from DNA replication to RNA transcription to Protein Synthesis (Translation). This workshop will focus on last phase of this flow of genetic information process – Protein Synthesis. This Flow of Genetic Information kit will allow your students to feed mRNA through a ribosome – 3 nucleotides at a time – while the ribosome decodes the triplet codons into a specific sequence of amino acids that are joined together to make a protein. This modeling kit will help your students make sense of all those words you have been using to explain how the process works.

SPEAKERS:
Tim Herman

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Shelly Engle

Research indicates that girls begin to drop out of certain STEM fields after the age of 12 (the start of a leaky pipeline), as girls tend to underestimate their ability to succeed in STEM fields (Gonzalez-Perez et al., 2020; Van Camp et al., 2019). Pre-service teachers (PSTs), especially female PSTs aiming for K-8 teaching certifications, often are reluctant to engage with science and mathematics due to a lack of confidence in personally doing science and mathematics (Adams et al., 2014). To address this, a university-sponsored summer camp was designed to engage middle school girls in STEM activities while providing female preservice teachers with valuable teaching experience. This session explores the experiences of middle school girls and female preservice teachers who participated in this all-girls STEM camp. This session will provide an in-depth look at the camp’s design, implementation, and impact on both student and teacher participants.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will gain insights into the camp’s design, implementation, and impact on both students and teacher participants. This session will also offer practical recommendations for educators and program coordinators to implement similar initiatives.

SPEAKERS:
Li Sun

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Ly Do, Stephanie Arthur

Instructors using NSTA in lieu of a textbook (or as a supplement to a textbook) have students who create a library of resources, grow their network, and enhance their content and pedagogical knowledge as they complete their assignments. Instructors get a class landing page to manage the course, a private forum for asynchronous discussions, and an instructor's dashboard to monitor students' work. All instructors receive a free digital professional membership, and their students become members for a year or through graduation, depending on the price selected by the instructor. In this session, instructors talk about how they integrate NSTA in their courses. Come and listen to their stories and ask them questions. Find out the benefits that this opportunity provides you and your teacher candidates.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will meet and ask questions of instructors who are using NSTA resources, webinars, and online community in courses for preservice teachers of science. Participants will learn how others integrate NSTA in their courses and about the benefits of the program for easy implementation.

SPEAKERS:
Flavio Mendez

The problem to be answered was two-fold: What is the fidelity of AI-generated lessons for elementary-grades STEM topics? What are teacher perceptions of using an AI tool? Teachers evaluated the standards-based, AI-generated lesson plans. Scores for lesson plans were compared by content area (mathematics, science, technology) and elementary level (lower versus upper) to determine if fidelity is better for a particular content area or level. Teacher perceptions, regarding the use of an AI tool, were surveyed. Results showed significant differences in score, by grade level, for science and technology lesson plans. There were significant differences in score for lesson plans by content area. Qualitative results for the survey showed an increase in participants’ confidence in their understanding of AI, participants learned more ways AI could assist them, and workshops were effective in dispelling common misconceptions about AI use in schools.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers evaluated AI-generated lesson plans using portions of teacher evaluation rubrics used in Tennessee. The lesson plans were scored differently by content area (mathematics, science, technology) and grade level (grades K-2 versus grades 3-5).

SPEAKERS:
Deborah McAllister

Do you teach courses for science preservice teachers? Learn how NSTA's resources, webinars, and online community can help students become the BEST teachers they can be. Instructors using NSTA in lieu of a textbook (or as a supplement to a textbook) have students who create a library of resources, grow their network, and enhance their content and pedagogical knowledge as they complete their assignments. Instructors get a class landing page to manage the course, a private forum for asynchronous discussions, and an instructor's dashboard to monitor students' work. All instructors receive a free digital professional membership, and their students become members for a year or through graduation, depending on the price selected by the instructor. Resources include all NSTA-member resources (like articles and lesson plans) and fee-based resources like Interactive E-Books+ Professional and Professional Learning Units.

TAKEAWAYS:
University instructors walk away ready to implement a program through which they “adopt” NSTA as their textbook for a course, allowing their students access to a great variety of professional learning resources, many that are not included with NSTA’s regular membership.

SPEAKERS:
Flavio Mendez

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

The T4 bacteriophage is a fantastical E. coli killing machine. It has evolved – over several billion years – the ability to walk around in the tall grass that covers the outside surface of an E. coli cell until it finds its specific receptor protein embedded in the E. coli outer membrane. This binding the long, spindly legs of the T4 phage with its receptor then triggers the subsequent events that results in the efficient infection of the E. coli cell. Once the T4 phage has injected its DNA into E. coli, it begins choreographing the many processes that lead to the replication of hundreds of new T4 phage particles. In the last phase of the T4 phage infection cycle, the infected E. coli bursts open releasing hundreds of new phage particles. This session will introduce a physical model of a T4 phage that students can use to explore all phases the phage’s life cycle. This model is enhanced by a digital exploration of a molecular landscape of the T4 Life Cycle by David Goodsell.

SPEAKERS:
Tim Herman

Inviting all Preservice Teachers and Instructors to learn about NSTA’s Preservice Teacher Chapters. Chapters support individuals entering the profession with leadership experiences, networking opportunities, and professional learning resources available at NSTA. The NSTA Preservice Teacher Chapter Program consists of two types of chapters: (1) The National Preservice Teacher Chapter and (2) The Local Preservice Teacher Chapters at Universities. In this session, NSTA staff will share concrete examples of leadership experiences, networking events, and professional learning resources available at NSTA to all preservice teachers of science, members and non-members of NSTA. Similarly, a current faculty advisor of a local chapter will talk about the benefits of student-led organizations. For those interested in starting their own chapter, the faculty advisor will share information about how to start, grow, and maintain a chapter at a university.

TAKEAWAYS:
Preservice teachers and potential faculty advisors walk-away informed about how to engage with NSTA opportunities and resources and with ideas about how to start, grow, and maintain their local preservice teacher chapter.

SPEAKERS:
Jim McDonald, Flavio Mendez

This workshop presents an innovative approach within a science methods course designed to equip future elementary educators with the knowledge and skills to incorporate Indigenous perspectives into science instruction. This workshop will share details about the course design and delivery, present the shared perspectives of the elementary teacher candidates’ as they navigated the course, and provide hands-on, community-based experiences with the final teacher candidate products – the Indigenized science lessons.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave the workshop with basic knowledge of a successful model of integrating Indigenous ways of knowing science into an elementary methods course, and experience with research-based, local Indigenous Elder approved science lessons.

SPEAKERS:
Grace Tietz, Brea Tonsager, Sydney Feist, Trish Arnold

Science teacher preparation programs have the opportunity to enhance three-dimensional teaching and learning through forms of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the university and middle/secondary science-level instruction. This session examines seven types of AI tools applicable to science education. Faculty, in-service teachers, and preservice teachers will experience a deeper level conceptual shift in understanding AI through the range and limitations of the following tools: personalized learning, adaptive learning, intelligent tutoring systems, automated grading and assessment, generative AI, language learning, assistive technology, data, and learning analytics, and virtual reality and augmented reality. Session activities support the following outcomes: Develop proficiency in aligning a specific AI tool with a science and engineering practice, and a crosscutting concept to support mastery of a disciplinary core idea. Practice integration of AI to promote equity in STEM for ALL.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will receive the AI Integration Model (AI-IM) tool for guidance to monitor the progress of NGSS three-dimensional or standards-based instruction and student learning. Preservice teachers will increase their ability to assess the effects of AI on students' shifts in scientific reasoning.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Bindis, Kimberly Staples

This presentation will showcase an innovative partnership between a local family-owned hobby farm and an elementary teacher preparation program that resulted in an outdoor, experiential teaching experience for pre-service teachers within their science methods course. This presentation will discuss the planning, design, and delivery of the outdoor, experiential teaching opportunity at the hobby farm, and the shared perspectives of the pre-service teachers as they navigated the research, creation, and rehearsal of their outdoor-based science lessons that were delivered during a one-day field trip for local students at the hobby farm. Additionally, the presenters will share their research findings on the impact of the outdoor, experiential teaching opportunity on the elementary pre-service teachers’ science teaching self-efficacy, and their insights into the planning, implementation, and assessment of the outdoor, experiential teaching experience within the science methods course.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave this presentation with a basic knowledge of how to integrate an outdoor, experiential teaching opportunity within a science methods course for elementary pre-service teachers.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Sanderson, Trish Arnold

Meet fellow MnSTA members for a continental breakfast and networking. Sit with teachers from your region, discipline, grade level, or affinity group (e.g. preservice teachers). Hear a panel of Presidential and MnSTA teaching award winners and finalists share teaching ideas that inspire them. Pick up resources from Minnesota non-profit educational organizations.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will meet educators from their region and teaching situation, share ideas over breakfast, and be inspired by accomplished teachers who share their teaching approaches and strategies.

SPEAKERS:
John Olson, Haley Kalina

First-year science teachers often feel overwhelmed once in their own classroom. Preservice science educators (current college students) and their instructors do the best they can to prepare for this moment, but the best advice comes from individuals that have gone through it themselves. The purpose of this roundtable is to for educators across the nation to share their best piece of advice for the soon-to-be science teacher. You will get to meet with current Biology and Chemistry education students attending Valley City State University, in Valley City ND and help prepare them for their next adventure. Advice including ways to build connections across disciplines and throughout the school is encouraged.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session aims to provide preservice science educators with practical advice and strategies to help them navigate their first year in the classroom successfully.

SPEAKERS:
Megan Lahtonen, Cameron Pero, Michael Ouradnik, Lindsey Kiecker

Given the widespread emphasis for a convergence approach to STEM education and the call for career education awareness in public schools, this workshop supports K-6 pre-/in-service educators to plan and teach transdisciplinary STEM-based lessons that support a career education focus through inquiry-based investigations, engineering design challenges, culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogies, and relevant real-world context-rich applications. The workshop invites educators to engage in the free tools, lessons, investigations based on the collaboration between the facilitators: a STEM education specialist and CEO of Scoutlier - the free learning management and community library program for teachers and a university Science/STEM education methods instructor. Based on their work in one of the largest school districts in the U.S., the Scoutlier platform centers NGSS and state standards-infused rigorous lessons that are contextually relevant and inclusive for all students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore Scoutlier, learning about the research validated resources offered, including modifiable unit plans, a community library of lessons, and a robust lesson design system. Gain insights into frameworks that foster collaboration with STEM community partners for engaging, experiential learning.

SPEAKERS:
Brandy Jackson, Elizabeth Price, Stephanie Arthur

Designing effective anchoring phenomena is challenging. This interactive session will engage participants in a variety of anchoring phenomena examples appropriate for multiple content areas and grade levels. If you are wanting new ideas and something to take home to use immediately, this is the place for you!

TAKEAWAYS:
Examples of anchoring phenomena in a format that is engaging to participants and relevant to any STEM classroom to maintain student interest.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Bindis

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

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

This workshop will present an innovative approach to developing scientific argumentation skills in pre-service elementary teachers through pairing the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) framework within a real-world socio-scientific issue (SSI) role play lesson. This lesson was part of a semester long, undergraduate science methods course at a Midwestern University. This workshop will present details about the SSI Role Play lesson, the incorporation of the CER framework into the SSI Role Play lesson, and the shared perspectives of the pre-service elementary teachers as they navigated the experience of the SSI Role Play lesson with the CER framework. Additionally, the presenters will share their insights about the design, delivery, and assessment of the CER with a SSI Role Play lesson and its implications as a more equitable, inclusive approach to developing scientific argumentation in pre-service elementary teachers.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave this workshop with basic knowledge of how to implement an SSI role play paired with the CER within a science methods course that effectively promotes the scientific argumentation of pre-service elementary teachers.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Sanderson, David Kimori, Trish Arnold

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