Curious about AI but not sure where to start? This session is for you! Discover how artificial intelligence is transforming science classrooms and helping do the heavy lifting of teaching. This session will empower you to use AI to personalize learning, boost engagement, and streamline NGSS-aligned lesson planning and assessment—without replacing the essential role of the teacher. Participants will explore examples of how AI can help teachers adapt high-quality instructional materials to local contexts, effectively manage assessment and feedback, and differentiate learning activities to support student sensemaking. The session also will include strategies for how to critically evaluate AI tools to ensure technology integration promotes equitable access to rigorous and meaningful science instruction. Whether new to AI or ready to go deeper, educators will be equipped to integrate AI into their teaching practices responsibly, ensuring alignment with student needs and educational goals.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will be equipped with practical strategies and tools to use AI responsibly in middle level science classrooms. They will be able to use AI to adapt NGSS-aligned science learning activities to personalize student learning and streamline lesson planning, assessment, and feedback.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Forsythe

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has been developing grades 3-8 science performance assessments to provide open-source examples of high-quality science assessments for educators to use in the classroom. These are designed to meet the expectations of the NGSS and be coherent with high-quality instructional materials.  During the presentation, DESE staff will provide an overview of the performance assessment system design, opportunities to explore the open-source classroom science performance assessments, and resources for implementing the assessments and analyzing student work.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore open source, NGSS-aligned performance assessments and engage in a protocol to analyze student work.

SPEAKERS:
Corrine Steever, Sonia Neuburger, Michele Snyder

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

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

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

SPEAKERS:
Hoover Herrera

Come learn a set of activities that engage students in real-world agricultural problems. Participants will explore challenges like food shortages, climate change and crop sustainability, while using strategies like selective breeding, GMOs, and innovations to develop potential solutions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Session emphasizes the importance of understanding modern agriculture, providing educators with resources to engage students in discussions about sustainable practices and genetic technologies. Participants will leave with activities about selective breeding, GMOs, and the development of short corn.

SPEAKERS:
JESSICA JONES, Megan Sprague

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

In this interactive workshop, participants will step into the role of students by examining videos of lab procedures that may or may not involve chemical reactions. Working collaboratively, they will make observations, generate investigative questions, and identify what information is necessary to determine if a chemical change has occurred—modeling key NGSS Science and Engineering Practices. The second half of the session transitions to a class lab focused on the concept of limiting reactants. Participants will analyze provided experimental data from a reaction between antacid tablets, vinegar, and water. After completing calculations, participants will enter their data into a shared spreadsheet to generate a collective class graph. Small groups will analyze the results, pose new questions, and engage in a discussion that leads to an introduction to the concept of limiting reactants. A brief outline of the subsequent lessons following each of these activities will be provided.

TAKEAWAYS:
Experience student-centered, inquiry-based approaches that engage learners in collaborative data analysis and question generation to support deep thinking about chemical reactions in the chemistry classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Heather Johnson, ChrisAnn Johnson

This session invites participants to explore before, during, and after reading strategies and computational thinking opportunities to enhance sensemaking in the middle school science classroom. Attendees will construct an argument and make a claim based on evidence from an investigation and use writing strategies to strengthen their understanding while communicating scientific information.

TAKEAWAYS:
Leverage the science of reading and computational thinking strategies to boost sensemaking in science.

SPEAKERS:
Madison Weary, Dina Dormer

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

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

SPEAKERS:
Brendan Finch

Sponsoring Company: Activate Learning

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

SPEAKERS:
Brian Klaft

Problem- and place-based units are highly engaging, and they lead students to develop real solutions to problems in their community. How do we know which of the solutions is best? A decision matrix is a mathematical engineering tool that students can use to evaluate and rank possible solutions when making complex decisions. Useful across a spectrum of real-life situations, it’s especially appropriate for classrooms deciding the best actions for solving local problems. Attendees will work through several phases of our free 5E lesson introducing students to the Decision Matrix tool. 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:
A decision matrix is a sophisticated tool used by engineers to evaluate and rank potential solutions to make objective, informed decisions. After experiencing a variety of classroom-tested activities, teachers will be ready to use our free 5E, NGSS-aligned Decision Matrix lesson with their students.

SPEAKERS:
Tony Matthys, Lindsey Watch

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Frankie Valenzia, Vincent Fosco, Deborah McMullen

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Cynthia Gay

Join us to consider how leveraging high quality instructional materials in professional learning can strengthen the shared vision of the instructional shifts called for by the NGSS and engage educators in three dimensional phenomena driven teaching and learning. Hear how a state level partnership with multiple district’s deepened teacher’s knowledge of the NGSS and three dimensional instructional practices.

TAKEAWAYS:
Using high quality instructional materials as a lever to further NGSS implementation across multiple district/school contexts can support teachers and leaders to deepen their understanding of the NGSS and three dimensional teaching and learning.

SPEAKERS:
Jenine Cotton-Proby, Guy Ollison, Nancy Hopkins-Evans

Amid a groundswell of exciting instructional materials and meaningful professional learning that reflects A Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards, our assessments are still a black box. Science assessments remain confusing, and often disappointing: most science assessments, and guidance for assessment practices, that are currently available fail to achieve that precise balance between reflective of our teaching and learning priorities, practical for classroom implementation, and useful to both students and teachers for guiding learning. In this interactive session, we focus on four practical and distinctive priorities for science assessment: things that really distinguish meaningful, future-focused assessments from all the noise. Participants will engage with each of the priorities, inventorying their existing assessments, and planning for ways they can incorporate these strategies—and sample tasks—into their practice immediately and over time.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this interactive session, we focus on four practical and distinctive priorities for future-focused science assessment: the things that really distinguish meaningful assessments designed to prioritize learning for our rapidly changing world from all the noise.

SPEAKERS:
Aneesha Badrinarayan

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

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Come experience a hands-on model lesson from OpenSciEd for High School and discover how the new Carolina Certified Edition enhanced these high-quality instructional materials, making them more accessible, user-friendly, and safer for classroom use. Engage in the featured Serengeti board game from the Biology 1 unit. Participants will walk away with valuable resources to take back to the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Meredith Currie

Sponsoring Company: Activate Learning

A shift to three-dimensional assessments provides opportunities for students to demonstrate their use of science practices, application of crosscutting concepts, and understanding of science content. Participants will learn about the elements of three-dimensional assessments, analyze assessments with student work, and become familiar with the OSE Assessment System and OSE Grading Planning Tool.

SPEAKERS:
Brian Klaft, Michelle Tindall

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

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

SPEAKERS:
Emily Miller

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Assume the role of a crime scene investigator to solve a realistic crime scenario. Students use fingerprint, hair analysis, tire track impressions, blood typing, forensic entomology, and a police log review to identify a primary suspect from a pool of 6 alleged perpetrators.

SPEAKERS:
Laurie Nixon

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Susan Codere

Are you tired of the same three students raising their hands while others seem to sit back and let them carry the discussion? Do you not feel quite right about the anxiety your students feel around popsicle sticks? Then we’ve got a routine for you: Silent Counts. Silent counts are incredibly effective at giving students time to think of responses before sharing with a partner. They are extremely effective regardless of the age of the students you teach. Come learn about the Silent Count routine and its uses. The Silent Count begins by having students put their fists to their chest and then raise one finger on the fist when they have one idea and other fingers as they have different ideas. The students turn and talk once the teacher sees everyone has at least one finger raised. We will then share some ways the Silent Count can be valuable for launching Initial Ideas, Building Understanding, and Consensus-Type Discussions. The Silent Count is particularly effective for questions.

TAKEAWAYS:
You can use the Silent Count Routine to engage ALL your learners in thinking and talking scientifically. You’ll experience the routine, explore why this routine matters, understand how to introduce the routine, and find ways to incorporate this routine into your sensemaking discussions.

SPEAKERS:
Joel Donna

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Kelsie Fowler, Philip Bell

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

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

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

SPEAKERS:
Hoover Herrera

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

This presentation will explore the intersection of 3D learning applied to support sense-making around climate science and global change, emphasizing how integrated, hands-on approaches can enhance understanding of human and non-human influences on complex environmental systems. It will highlight crosscutting concepts, science and engineering practices, and disciplinary core ideas within the context of climate-change and related global change phenomena. Through models and real-world data, the presentation will demonstrate how students can engage in evidence-based reasoning about global change, climate impacts, and sustainability solutions. The goal is to foster critical thinking and informed action on pressing environmental challenges.

TAKEAWAYS:
The Understanding Global Change conceptual framework uses 3D learning to empower student sense-making around climate change, global change, and sustainability, by connecting scientific practices, core ideas, and real-world data to inform critical thinking and evidence-based action.

SPEAKERS:
Joseph Levine

This session focuses on designing, building, and using three-dimensional formative assessment tasks. The session will feature ways to use assessment within scientific investigation to inform teachers and students of learning three-dimensional science learning progress. The role of crosscutting concepts in focusing performance tasks will be modeled in the sessions. The session will feature discussions about the effective alignment of assessment tasks to three-dimensional science standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will take away lessons that include formative assessment tasks and how to use formative assessment to enhance classroom instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Brett Moulding

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

Sponsoring Company: Activate Learning

Classroom communities make sense of what’s being investigated through discussions; it’s key to ensuring all students’ ideas are shared and valued. This session focuses on discussion types used to help draw out student ideas, negotiate and refine them, and support communicating in scientific ways.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Tindall

Engage in hands-on, standards-aligned investigations across physics, life science, and Earth-space science that use real-world data to uncover patterns and drive inquiry. Participants will analyze phenomena such as pendulum motion, global temperature trends, and population growth through the lens of mathematics—graphing, calculating rates, identifying trends, and modeling relationships. This session will provide practical strategies for embedding mathematical thinking into science instruction and equip teachers with ready-to-use lessons, data sets, and planning tools to help students use data to make sense of the world.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to engage students in science inquiry by using real-world data and mathematical analysis to identify patterns, build models, and make evidence-based claims across physics, life science, and Earth-space science investigations.

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Szentmiklosi

Join us to explore how to leverage students' communication tools in the high school science classroom. This session will focus on strategies and approaches integrated into the OpenSciEd Chemical Reactions unit which challenges students to investigate chemical processes impacting oyster populations.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to guide students in articulating their ideas, collaborating effectively, and constructing evidence-based explanations while encouraging the use of their own language and perspectives to make sense of complex scientific concepts and connect them to pressing environmental issues.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker, Kristin Rademaker

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Delaney

Sponsoring Company: Stile Education

Banish “I don’t know” from your classroom! In this energetic, hands-on workshop, you’ll learn a set of practical strategies to ensure every student feels confident to contribute. From low-stakes response structures to evidence-based questioning techniques, you’ll discover how to create a culture of accountability, equity, and joy in participation. You’ll leave with a ready-to-use playbook of strategies that drive engagement and keep all learners actively involved.

SPEAKERS:
Erika James

Do your students struggle with data interpretation? We have a student-centered, classroom-proven lesson to help students at any level learn how to read graphs. Come experience how students use metacognitive prompts to make their thinking visible, and then compare their thinking process with both peers and experts. Along the way, students build a personalized, step-by-step tool they can use to make sense of new graphs. No matter the curriculum you use, this lesson helps students more confidently approach a variety of graphs, make their thinking visible and reflect on their sensemaking process. Participants will leave with the resources and activities needed to implement this lesson in their classroom tomorrow. 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 experience a classroom-proven, NGSS-aligned lesson plan with activities to help students create their own graph interpretation tool. In the process, teachers facilitate making student thinking visible and improve students’ ability to interpret any graph used in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Tony Matthys

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

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

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Brett Moulding

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Deb Morrison, Kelsie Fowler, Philip Bell

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Come experience a hands-on model lesson from OpenSciEd for Middle School and discover how the Carolina Certified Edition enhanced these high-quality instructional materials, making them more accessible, user-friendly, and safer for classroom use. Engage in the featured light box model activity from the 6.1: Light & Matter unit. Participants will walk away with valuable resources to take back to the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Meredith Currie

How can we assess the quality of sampling and variability of the data to help us in decision-making? The various metals and alloys used in the minting of the penny over the years will provide for rich explorations, which are part of the chemistry curriculum. We will highlight the important cross-disciplinary aspect, linking the science content (mass/chemical composition) to the mathematical models outlined in the NGSS section on Systems and Models to show how to use it to simulate systems and interactions. Through hands-on activities and the use of technology, participants will explore a variety of data sets and use this knowledge to better understand and use statistics to make accurate and fair arguments related to everyday topics and explore how the sample mean varies from sample to sample to get a better understanding of quality control.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will use real data to develop mathematical models and learn how to test your hypothesis by performing an experiment and analyzing the results, combining chemical analysis with statistical sampling for a cross-curricular approach.

SPEAKERS:
Karlheinz Haas

Phenomena, from wireless charging and chemical reactions to climate change and population growth, involve energy transfers. Most students, unfortunately, find it challenging to understand the flow of energy in systems. Our research indicates that students can best explain phenomena and see how energy is conserved by tracking energy transfers within and between systems. We will demonstrate to teachers how to use energy transfer diagrams (ETDs) to support students’ understanding of learning goals linked to the NGSS performance expectations. ETDs use a systems approach, allowing learners to follow the flow of energy within and between systems that make up familiar phenomena. Activities in this workshop are linked to physical science NGSS Performance Expectations, but participants can adapt the approach to the biological sciences, chemistry and earth and space science. In the workshop, teachers will develop plans for using ETDs in your classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers learn the energy-systems transfer approach and how to construct energy transfer diagrams (ETDs) to support students in tracking the flow of energy within and between systems. ETDs provide an approach for tracking energy flows that occur in phenomena that students experience in their lives.

SPEAKERS:
Erin Lewis, Joseph Krajcik, Weiwei He

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

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Delaney

Sponsoring Company: PASCO Scientific

Join us to explore the OpenSciEd Certified PASCO version Biology curriculum. First discover a unit's storyline through a tour of PASCO Portal, our online platform for organizing and distributing teacher and student OpenSciEd resources. Then dive into the unit's first lesson to experience the anchoring phenomenon, used to elicit student questions that they'll work to answer throughout the unit. Finally participate in a hands-on activity from a subsequent lesson, using PASCO technology to develop an evidence-based response to one of those student questions. In this lesson, you will use our Wireless CO2 and Temperature sensors to investigate what affects the rate of decomposition and cellular respiration.

SPEAKERS:
Shelly Riley

OpenSciEd’s free, upcoming middle school Contact Forces + Computer Science unit helps students develop a deep conceptual understanding not just of forces, but also of computer science and engineering principles. Rooted in the phenomenon of collisions (just like the science-only unit), students figure out that their work would be easier if they could measure forces with a digital sensor. They engage with a variety of sensor systems, make sense of hardware and software, and develop and test a series of increasingly complex and independent designs that allow for measurement of forces in collisions or a variety of other applications. Participants will see how micro:bit devices and MakeCode block coding are integrated into the unit and leveraged for deeper physical science sensemaking.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students’ investigations of forces are enhanced by development of sensor systems that measure forces for a variety of applications, with students also having opportunities to build computer science and engineering practices and understandings along the way.

SPEAKERS:
Dan Voss

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Join the excitement, escape the rat-race, and experience the superior quality of Carolina's Perfect Solution® specimens with our preserved rat dissection! During this hands-on guided dissection, each participant explores the rat’s external anatomy, internal body systems, and individual organs. We also discuss the relationship between structure and function, as well as the interdependence between systems. These specimens are economical, simple to dissect, and great mammalian models for your next lab!

SPEAKERS:
Laurie Nixon

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Molly Leifeld, Abraham Lo

This session 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

Sponsoring Company: Stile Education

Turn struggling readers into confident scientists! Discover simple, high-impact literacy strategies that help students tackle tough science texts, master vocabulary, and make meaning of complex ideas. See how a few tweaks can transform reading time into real science learning—and send your students’ confidence soaring.

SPEAKERS:
Erika James

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 show teachers how to quickly but effectively design smaller modeling activities to maximize student understanding in minimal class time. We will showcase how to select everyday phenomena and simple hands on activities. We will then help teachers in understanding the design process of the activity itself, showing that, with a little bit of prep and foresight, teachers can design incredibly impactful modeling activities. The goal is for all in attendance to leave with the ability to design short meaningful modeling activities with maximum impact to their students' learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendess will leave with the ability to design a Mini Model of their own. All attendees will learn the thought and design process behind these efficient learning activities.

SPEAKERS:
Patrick Reidy, Kevin Wessler

Place-based science teaching positions aspects of place–geographic location, geologic time, identity and community–at the forefront of science practices. This session will focus on the opportunities for place-based learning and teaching to explore our own locations: schoolyards and communities. Examples from the recently released book, Place-Based Science Teaching: Connecting Students to Curriculum, Community, and Caring for our Planet will be highlighted.

TAKEAWAYS:
Place-based learning honors the lived experiences of students and the living beings that form a community. Participants will learn how to implement a NGSS-aligned, place-based science lesson in their own space: schoolyard or community.

SPEAKERS:
Whitney Aragaki

It can be hard to know what to do with relevance in assessment. What counts as “relevant enough”? Is it a must-have, or a nice-to-have? How can we make a single assessment relevant to a whole class—or school, or district, or state—worth of students without personalizing every test? Some topics or core ideas might simply not be interesting to some students—don’t they still need to develop and demonstrate proficiency? What is the difference between cultural and personal relevance? In this session, participants will examine the neuroscience of relevance to better understand exactly why, how, and when relevance matters in assessment. They will then explore evidence-based strategies for approaching relevance in appropriate, manageable, and meaningful ways such that every assessment has the opportunity to surface brilliance and learning edges from each learner.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will examine the neuroscience of relevance to better understand exactly why, how, and when relevance matters in assessment. We will explore strategies for approaching relevance in appropriate, manageable, and meaningful ways.

SPEAKERS:
Aneesha Badrinarayan

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Nanette Marcum-Dietrich

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Take a deeper dive into understanding the importance of learning progressions in 3-dimensional learning using Smithsonian’s STCMS. Experience the importance of a coherent storyline in student understanding and engage in a learning progression using density. Participants will walk away with valuable resources to take back to the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Hoover Herrera

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Meg Vanek, Kim Cashin

Dive into Earth's climate history through the lens of paleoclimatology and proxy data in this hands-on workshop designed for middle and high school STEM educators. Participants will explore evidence of climate change while engaging in authentic explorations of data, engineering design challenges, and strategies for sharing scientific thinking that will easily translate to a variety of classroom settings. We will model oxygen isotope fluctuation, simulate ice core extraction, engineer solutions for core transport, and synthesize data from a wide range of sources to build a compelling case about Earth's past climates and the current rate of climate change. With skills developed in this workshop, educators will help students understand that scientific claims become stronger when supported by multiple lines of evidence, just as no single piece of evidence proves a case in a courtroom, the convergence of many climate indicators provides confidence in our understanding of climate history.

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore how scientists develop an understanding of prehistoric and modern climate change by analyzing proxy data from multiple sources in a hands-on, interactive workshop for middle and high school STEM educators.

SPEAKERS:
Stephen Kos, Sarah Slack

In addition to the two-yearly national conferences on science education, NSTA provides year-round in-person, online, and blended personalized professional learning experiences for groups of K–12 educators. This is the ideal formula for best professional learning, as it must be high quality and on-going. So, what are your plans for the teachers in your district? Join us to learn what NSTA has to offer. The online option, known as the NSTA Partner Program, provides educators with access to digital resources, virtual events, the online community, expert staff, and digital professional membership for all participants. A variety of in-person workshops are available, including OpenSciEd. Presenters will share case studies that are representative of the different professional learning options available.

TAKEAWAYS:
Education leaders will learn about professional learning opportunities that NSTA offers, delivered in-person, online, and blended that give their teachers the power to personalize their learning as well as the ability to learn with their peers. Some programs include membership for all participants.

SPEAKERS:
Flavio Mendez

Experience how embedding literacy supports for reading, writing, and academic discourse in 3D teaching and learning promotes sensemaking and science understanding for ALL learners! Learn how the BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning (AIL) instructional model succeeds the 5Es and embeds literacy supports throughout cycles of inquiry.

The NGSS calls for 3D learning grounded in real world phenomena to ensure science learning is equitable and relevant to all students. The SEPs and CCCs require sensemaking of complex texts and data as well as communicating explanations and arguments and engaging in scientific discourse.

In this session, participants will experience literacy strategies that support student engagement in the SEPs and CCCs, consider how these strategies support all students, particularly below grade-level readers and EMLs, in sensemaking, and consider how embedding these strategies in assessments allows all students to demonstrate their learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
The research-based BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning instructional model succeeds the 5Es and embeds literacy supports for reading, writing, and academic discourse in conjunction with science and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts to promote students in figuring out key science ideas.

SPEAKERS:
Cynthia Gay

This session will bring together ESTEP participants and instructors with the purpose of sharing experiences, strategies, resources and phenomena! Come learn more about our program, and how participants have changed their approach to be student focused!

TAKEAWAYS:
ESTEP participants are leaders in Minnesota science education - come see what they are doing and how you can do it too!

SPEAKERS:
Dana Smith, Haley Kalina

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Emily Mathews, Kristen Moorhead, Patrice Scinta

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Take a tour through the mammalian heart and trace the path of a blood cell on its journey to oxygenation. Participants take blood pressure readings. Then dissect a preserved sheep heart to model blood flow and connect BP to heart anatomy. Don’t skip a beat - it’s going to be hands-on fun!

SPEAKERS:
Laurie Nixon

Sponsoring Company: Savvas Learning Company

Immerse your students in a 3D learning experience where problem-solving and real-world phenomena drive engagement. This session shows how storyline-based instruction deepens understanding of science and engineering practices, core ideas, and crosscutting concepts. Discover how phenomena can shift students from asking “What?” to exploring the “Why?” and “How?” while building motivation and mastery. Explore the 5E model, CER, engineering design challenges, and the structure of today’s standards in an interactive, high-impact workshop.

SPEAKERS:
Monica Morton, Mike Larson, Greg Sloan

Learn how we integrate digital mapping tools of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in student-driven, interdisciplinary projects on sustainability. Participants in this workshop will get out of the building, as we engage in a process of data collection, comparison, and analysis. We will collect data through student-created surveys outside the conference center, then learn the process we use with students to analyze quantitative and spatial results using spreadsheets, graphs, and maps - as you compare your own findings to what our students saw. Following data analysis, you will learn how we support our students in constructing evidence-based arguments from those data. Examples of student projects we’ll share include water quality in local ponds, student-developed sustainability indicators for cities, and forest ecology data on relationships between populations and the environment. You’ll walk away ready with concrete ideas on how to add these tools to your own classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Digital mapping tools are increasingly accessible for teachers and students to use to collect and analyze authentic data in unique projects. You’ll learn how to easily incorporate spatial data collection and mapping into different environmental science units.

SPEAKERS:
Billy Koenig, Liz Dengate

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

This presentation weaves together the interdisciplinary perspectives of evolutionary theory, immunology, and epidemiology with insights from the humanities to examine the complex threats posed by the problem of pandemics and strategies to develop solutions to mitigate those threats. It explores how pathogens evolve, how the immune system responds to novel threats, and how disease spreads through populations. In addition, drawing from historical and cultural perspectives, it highlights the societal impacts of past pandemics and the contemporary human behaviors and public health policies that influence disease outcomes. By integrating science with ethics, communication, and public policy, the presentation offers a holistic, transdisciplinary framework for understanding and addressing current and future global health crises.

TAKEAWAYS:
Understanding and responding to pandemics requires a transdisciplinary approach combining knowledge and skills from multiple biological fields and humanities to reveal how diseases emerge and spread, and develop strategies for sensemaking and management through science, policy, and societal action.

SPEAKERS:
Joseph Levine

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

Bring mathematics to life in the science classroom with engaging, hands-on STEM integration! In this interactive session, discover how math can deepen students’ understanding of scientific concepts through real-world problem solving and cross-disciplinary exploration. From calculating force and motion to analyzing experimental data and modeling natural phenomena, you'll explore practical strategies that connect math meaningfully to science content. Learn how to use activities like bridge building, geometric pattern analysis, and data-driven investigations to reinforce key math skills while making science more accessible and exciting. Walk away with classroom-ready resources, implementation tips, and a renewed vision for using math as a powerful tool for scientific discovery.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to enhance science instruction by integrating meaningful mathematics through hands-on STEM activities that promote problem-solving, data analysis, and real-world application of math concepts.

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Szentmiklosi

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

Explore how UDL principles are integrated into the OpenSciEd Natural Selection unit. This session will focus on using high quality instructional materials that meet the needs of all learners, ensuring accessibility and engagement for diverse student populations.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain practical strategies for scaffolding complex concepts, providing multiple means of representation and expression, and fostering student agency in collaborative, real-world problem-solving.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker

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

Sponsoring Company: PASCO Scientific

Join us to explore the OpenSciEd Certified PASCO version Chemistry curriculum. First discover a unit's storyline through a tour of PASCO Portal, our online platform for organizing and distributing teacher and student OpenSciEd resources. Then dive into the unit's first lesson to experience the anchoring phenomenon, used to elicit student questions that they'll work to answer throughout the unit. Finally participate in a hands-on activity from a subsequent lesson, using PASCO technology to develop an evidence-based response to one of those student questions. In this lesson, you will use our Wireless Current Sensor to figure out how increasing the concentration of salt in water affects the rate of charges flowing through it.

SPEAKERS:
Shelly Riley

Sponsoring Company: Lab-Aids

Ever wonder why we don’t see an eclipse every month? Join us for a hands-on session where you’ll explore this puzzling phenomenon using a dynamic modeling activity that reveals the relationship between the Earth’s and Moon’s orbital planes. Discover how simple models can unlock deep understanding—and leave with your own Lab-Aids Orbital Plane model to bring back to your classroom!

SPEAKERS:
Virginia Rehberg

Join us to learn how our AP Environmental Science team assesses student proficiency in NGSS science and engineering practices. By identifying key connections between the NGSS skills and those required for success on the AP exam, we’ve been able to create a framework of understanding to effectively evaluate both skill development and content mastery. We'll share how we've designed our course to allow for skill-building while ensuring students are well-prepared for the AP exam content.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this session, attendees will explore the structure we've developed to assess scientific skills while teaching essential content. Educators will leave with practical strategies and insights to adapt and apply this approach in their own classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Jason Carlson, Jill Lisius

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

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Learn to use Wisconsin Fast Plants to teach experimental design and support student-driven inquiry. This workshop offers hands-on experience, and strategies to guide students from structured labs to independent research projects. Ideal for middle and high school teachers.

SPEAKERS:
Julie Stubbs

Assessment of NGSS performance expectations requires a multi-faceted assessment tool. Multiple-choice and one-word answer questions will not be sufficient to assess the science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and cross-cutting concepts that have been incorporated into the performance expectations. In this session, we will share how we employed the method of backwards design to develop classroom assessments based on NGSS performance expectations for our middle school students in all branches of science. The sample assessments that will be provided require students to engage in performance tasks, develop, incorporate, and analyze models, gather and analyze data, and use both models and data as evidence to support their statements. Along with the assessments, we will share a format that can be implemented by teachers to develop additional assessments for their own classrooms and explain how our teaching of the content changed once these assessments were written.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will examine sample assessments for 3 dimensional questioning and be given a chance to enhance a question on a topic relevant to their teaching.

SPEAKERS:
Nicole McRee

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Emily Mathews, Patrice Scinta

Despite our best efforts, students sometimes struggle to find science content relevant if it is far removed from their everyday lived experiences. In Earth Science, geologic time is longer than students’ lived experiences of days, weeks, and years. Yet, geologic time is an essential earth science concept and part of the NGSS. We make geologic time relevant by using place-based learning. We selected three different time intervals-- Devonian, Carboniferous, and Pleistocene-- to teach students about what the environment of Minnesota looked like long ago. We will show participants fossils from these time periods, what the continents looked like, and scientifically accurate artistic representations of what those environments looked like. We will also explore how participants can easily find geologic information, so you can easily use this activity in your setting and help connect students with place.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how they can engage students in geologic history using place-based learning.

SPEAKERS:
Alexa Clements, Jesse Wilcox

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Leslie Stenger, Rebecca Abbott

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

Sponsoring Company: PASCO Scientific

Join us to explore the OpenSciEd Certified PASCO version Physics curriculum. First discover a unit's storyline through a tour of PASCO Portal, our online platform for organizing and distributing teacher and student OpenSciEd resources. Then dive into the unit's first lesson to experience the anchoring phenomenon, used to elicit student questions that they'll work to answer throughout the unit. Finally participate in a hands-on activity from a subsequent lesson, using PASCO technology to develop an evidence-based response to one of those student questions. In this lesson, you will use our Modular Circuits Generator to investigate how a coil of wire, magnets, and a spinning shaft can work together to transfer energy to wires.

SPEAKERS:
Shelly Riley

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Delaney

Sponsoring Company: Lab-Aids

Get your students talking about evolution by starting day one with the phenomenon of superbugs. In this session, participants will model the development of antibiotic resistance in a population of bacteria. This activity is an engaging launch point for an evolution unit with memorable connections to an immediate and dangerous problem faced by modern medicine. This lesson provides excellent opportunities for students to develop their skills in both the practice of modeling and analyzing and interpreting data and targets some common misconceptions around the evidence for the Theory of Evolution.

SPEAKERS:
Virginia Rehberg

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

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

"Teek and Tom Explore Planet Earth", investigates the relationship between the ocean, weather and climate on global to local scales. This workshop introduces ten hands-on activities for upper ES and MS students to reinforce Earth science concepts related to oceanography, meteorology and climate. The short videos provide a spark of interest and briefly introduce the main focus of further investigation. They are intended to be used with classroom activities that provide learning strategies to translate complex earth science interactions into a format that is understandable to upper elementary and middle school students. The educator guides focus on up-to-date graphs, visualizations, hands-on labs and data that will help students understand the concepts and to engage in sense-making through-out the lessons. The main focus of each lesson was developed by a teacher team who provided guidance and advice on the best ways to help student understanding of Earth, atmosphere, and ocean systems.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will sample the range of activities that incorporate graphing, data analysis, visualizations and sense-making to introduce Earth/atmosphere/climate connections on local and global scales.

SPEAKERS:
Peggy Steffen

Take away strategies and ideas to help reach all students in your classroom. The strategies shared are used in a middle school classroom using a storyline approach with little to no special education support. We will discuss and share how to use manipulatives, video, voice to text, audio, websites, and more to enhance and support all students in your classroom. Walk away with many ideas you could use next week!

TAKEAWAYS:
One main takeaway will be the accommodations and supports that can be created with a little effort that will help most students in your classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Tish Rezac, Kirsten Smith

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Susan Gomez Zwiep, Guy Ollison

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

This activity usually requires very expensive 3D models. The Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Biology has created its own version of this essential investigation for under $10. Each group will only need our free slides, data table, sets of paper copies of seven hominid/primate species, two 12-inch rulers, and one protractor. Teachers will begin by describing, measuring, and comparing cranial drawings from contemporary apes, modern humans, and fossil hominins, discovering the pattern of the gradual accumulation of traits over time, leading to modern humans. Each student group will make measurements of the following: Forehead, Chin, Sagittal Crest, Prognathism, Facial Slope, Supraorbital Brow Ridge, Dental Arcade, Canines, Foramen Magnum, Cranial Module. (Each measurement is carefully described in the classroom presentation and student instructions). An analysis and discussion of the patterns and trends will follow. 3D printed skulls will be raffled off.

TAKEAWAYS:
Over millions of years, human ancestors evolved from small-brained, plant-eating hominids with strong jaws to larger-brained Homo sapiens with flatter faces, advanced thinking skills, and the capacity for speech—highlighting a dramatic shift in diet, cognition, and social behavior.

SPEAKERS:
Kathlyn Van Hoeck

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Jocelyn Foran

This poster will introduce the use of animals in modern biomedical research and will review a lesson plan on animal research useful for a range of grade levels. The lesson includes discussion of animal models, explanation of regulations and practice for research animal care, discussion of diverse careers in research animal care, and a simulated health assessment activity using inexpensive rodent models. Students are introduced to the core ideas of the use of animals in research, bioethics, and related bioscience careers, while engaging them in science practice and integrating cross cutting concepts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn about a lesson plan on animal models in biomedical research, developed by scientists and veterinarians at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The lesson plan includes a hands-on activity that engages students in exploration of simulated rodent models.

SPEAKERS:
Meredith Tennis

48% of bachelor’s and 69% of associate degree students who chose STEM programs left these fields before graduation. 81% of white women and students of color of both sexes report that poor instructional quality is an issue when they leave post-secondary STEM programs. We developed a modified Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) at a community college that leverages culturally relevant teaching, place-based education, and science identity development. We will share how students learn how to search for and read primary literature, design/ask research questions about CO2 in their communities, plan and carry out investigations, analyze and interpret data, and communicate information by creating and sharing scientific posters. We saw statistically significant increases in students’ confidence in their ability to do science practices, their interest in STEM research, and in aspects related to their identity, such as feeling like they are part of the STEM community.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this poster, we will share how community college students developed science research practices that led to increases in their confidence in their ability to do science, their interest in science, and their identity as a scientist.

SPEAKERS:
Ann Murkowski, Kalyn Owens, Blakely Tsurusaki

Teachers have expressed a desire to incorporate authentic climate data into their curricula, but struggle to find accessible and meaningful datasets that can be easily integrated into modern teaching practices. In response to this problem, climate scientists and instructional specialists from the University of Colorado Boulder have collaborated to create "Data Puzzles", a free resource that utilizes instructional practices as outlined by Ambitious Science Teaching (AST) to engage students in data analysis in the context of important scientific research. Data Puzzles challenge students to analyze and interpret climate datasets to construct explanatory models for important questions like, "What is causing the megadrought in the Colorado River Basin?” and "Why might the Arctic be warming faster than. the rest of the world?".

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be introduced with AST practices and authentic climate datasets in the context of the Data Puzzle resources.

SPEAKERS:
Jonathan Griffith

his session explores how educators can harness AI tools to create high-quality, three-dimensional science lessons in half the time. Participants will learn how AI can support the integration of science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas, making instruction more engaging and NGSS-aligned. From generating inquiry-based activities to visualizing complex phenomena, AI offers practical, time-saving solutions that elevate lesson design and student understanding. Join us to discover strategies, tools, and examples that bring science learning to life through the power of AI.

TAKEAWAYS:
AI helps teachers quickly create engaging, three-dimensional science lessons. Participants will walk away with a practical framework for using AI to design, structure, and build NGSS-aligned lessons with greater ease and creativity.

SPEAKERS:
Kimberly Morton

Teachers will: 1. learn how to use articles to make their content more applicable to the lives of the students; 2. receive strategies on how to get students to read more scientific articles; and 3. receive resources on selecting grade-appropriate scientific articles.

TAKEAWAYS:
Reading should not be limited to English courses. Leave with strategies on how to motivate students to explore science through scientific novels. Review three years of qualitative data on how novels increased literacy, scientific fluency, scientific connectivity, and college preparation.

SPEAKERS:
Jonte' Lee

OpenSciEd is an amazing curriculum that can be really challenging to introduce to students who have never done inquiry-based, low-lecture science instruction before. I've developed some strategies for implementing OSE 7.5 Ecosystem Dynamics unit in my 7th grade classroom that eased the transition into OSE-style learning, made my students excited to dig into the content, and ultimately led to a very successful grasp of ecology topics for my students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how I integrated an OpenSciEd unit with more traditional classroom methods, lab activities, and ecological examples relevant to my students in their home environments.

SPEAKERS:
Anneliese Johnson

The NRC Framework and NGSS strongly emphasize teaching science practice – how scientific knowledge is created. Student engagement with research can be used to teach science practice and improve interest in STEM (Minocha et al., 2025). Examples in K-12 education include science fairs, journals for student-written research, or literature adapted to K-12 literacy (Koomen et al., 2016; Minocha et al., 2025). However, these activities alone cannot guarantee a comprehensive understanding of the sequential, iterative, and collaborative nature of research (Fankhauser et al., 2021). The K-12 “SPIRAL Lesson” (with assessment) is an educational proposal to meet this need. SPIRAL explains each step of the research process (scientific method, manuscript preparation, peer review, scholarly journals) and fosters a holistic understanding of science practice. SPIRAL is intended to increase readiness for college science, enhance representation in STEM, help students identify misinformation, and beyond.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will view SPIRAL Lesson slides and assessment questions, accompanied by a discussion about how SPIRAL enhances current K-12 curricula on research education at a student level. Future directions will be discussed, such as testing SPIRAL in classrooms or developing an open-access resource.

SPEAKERS:
Madison Benson

Imagining and working toward positive futures is vital for students' senses of wellbeing, community, and partnership between themselves and the natural world. This poster will present educators with research, resources, and real experiences of a high school science teacher who shifted their mindset from a problem-based mindset to one of optimism and engagement. The poster will feature snapshots of various approaches to education, such as constructive hope, joyful education, and appreciative inquiry, that can be incorporated into any science classroom. Additionally, links to projects, slideshows, and other resources will be shared with others so that they have jumping-off points for their own journey into climate optimism.

TAKEAWAYS:
This poster will leave educators feeling excited about instructional approaches that foster climate optimism, hope, and collaboration amongst students, and help them understand the importance of climate positivity for student engagement and wellbeing.

SPEAKERS:
Katie Torkelson-Regan

There are many lessons and resources developed or supported by members of the National Earth Science Teachers Association (NESTA) and their affiliate partners that will be shared. While engaging in systems thinking, students participate in a community science project that includes collecting Globe data to explore the impacts of Earth Sciue. These resources exemplifies how NESTA leadership serves as mentors who support quality Earth and space science instruction in every classroom. Resources and activities that highlight and support educators as they shift to phenomena-based instruction as described by Moulding and Bybee (2017) and the framework of the Ambitious Science Teaching (AST) model (Windschitl, Thompson, & Braaten, 2018) will be shared.

TAKEAWAYS:
Dive into the resources available through the National Earth Science Teachers Association (NESTA) to help foster systems thinking and community science engagement in classrooms. Learn how NESTA cultivates vital connections, enhancing Earth and space science education

SPEAKERS:
Missie Olson

How can we introduce atoms and molecules to younger students? Using molecular models, what kinds of scientific thinking can students try? We will introduce specific lesson plans based on ongoing practice and research of the Hypothesis–Experiment Class (HEC) approach. Although HEC has been practiced extensively in Japan, it aligns with NGSS 3D learning strategies. It supports diverse learners in becoming familiar with the concepts of atoms and molecules and helps them build consistent scientific understanding throughout their lives. This poster updates one presented at NSTA Philly25. Attendees will learn a basic plan for younger students new to atoms and molecules, and for more advanced students who are fed up with reaction formulas. Visitors can view models assembled by students and class data from Year 1 to Year 12. They can also explore how molecular models deepen scientific understanding through photos, student work, and classroom records.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn basic lesson plans in a fun way for adapting 3D learning using molecular models in the classroom. They will learn specific examples of lessons that enable students to enjoy imaging atoms and molecules, learning basic concepts, and participating in scientific discussions.

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Brianna Reilly Oliveira

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Kelsie Fowler, Deb Morrison

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

Experiential learning is a cornerstone of science education. Students learn by doing, engaging directly with materials, experiments, and real-world scenarios. But does “hands-on” always mean minds-on? Too often, experiential activities are mistaken for inquiry simply because they are interactive or engaging. In reality, students can perform tasks, follow procedures, and even have fun without ever engaging in true scientific thinking. This session will unpack the distinction between experiential and inquiry-based learning and explore how educators can design experiences that intentionally bridge the two. While experiential learning offers the context and sensory engagement, inquiry provides the cognitive structure—the purposeful questioning, analysis, and meaning-making that lead to deep understanding. When combined thoughtfully, the two approaches can create powerful opportunities for students to behave like scientists: not just doing science, but thinking scientifically.

TAKEAWAYS:
Using real classroom examples, we’ll show how to shift from procedural tasks to investigations that spark curiosity and deepen understanding. Participants will leave with practical strategies to embed inquiry into existing lessons, helping students think and act like scientists.

SPEAKERS:
Lindsey Onusko

Have you ever posed a scientific question to your students only to hear crickets? Have you ever planned an intriguing investigation only to have it flop because of lack of student engagement? In this session, science teachers will explore practical strategies to cultivate a classroom culture that inspires curiosity, fosters collaboration, and maximizes student engagement. Participants will learn how to create an environment where students feel valued, safe to take risks, and excited to explore the wonders of science. Through guided discussions, case studies, and hands-on activities, teachers will discover techniques to promote active learning, build a sense of community, and develop classroom routines that support inquiry-based and student-centered teaching. By the end of the session, educators will leave with a toolkit of strategies to strengthen student connections, enhance participation, and create a dynamic classroom atmosphere where students are motivated and eager to learn.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover strategies to spark curiosity, foster collaboration, and boost engagement, creating a dynamic, student-centered science classroom where inquiry and active learning thrive.

SPEAKERS:
Chad Janowski, Elizabeth Mayenschein

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

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

SPEAKERS:
Hoover Herrera

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Kaleena Jedinak

Land Acknowledgements are an opportunity for students and teachers to undergo a common learning experience to uncover and expand their understanding of their shared place at school. This is an introductory session on Land Acknowledgements and their role in transformative science education. Examples from the recently released book, Place-Based Science Teaching: Connecting Students to Curriculum, Community, and Caring for our Planet will be highlighted.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be guided in an overview of the research and crafting components of Land Acknowledgements that support equitable science teaching and creates rigorous learning experiences for students.

SPEAKERS:
Whitney Aragaki

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

Sponsoring Company: Lab-Aids

Some of the most powerful moments for students happen when they talk about what they have learned and how it changed their original thinking. Initial understanding of the water cycle is often simpler than reality. We will use the "talking drawing" strategy to identify prior knowledge and expand student understanding of the complexity of the water cycle by tracking a water drop and a pollutant particle using a revised model.

SPEAKERS:
Virginia Rehberg

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Gail Housman, Guy Ollison

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

How do the order of lessons shift when infusing computer science into a science storyline while maintaining student coherence? Discover what is different in a free, upcoming OpenSciEd 8th grade middle school science + computer science unit on Sound Waves, when students use computer tools and engage in computational thinking more extensively to develop disciplinary core ideas related to physical science and life science. Using the same anchoring phenomenon of loud music from a truck making a window move, students use micro:bits (pocket-sized computer) to collect and analyze data to deepen their science understanding of sound wave characteristics. Students use micro:bit devices and MakeCode block coding throughout the unit to make sense of sound waves, how our ears detect them, and design devices to detect sound waves to help people experiencing hearing loss.

TAKEAWAYS:
Student’s investigations into sound waves and hearing are enhanced through the use of computing devices which also allow for the development of computer science and engineering practices embedded throughout the unit.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Novak, Nicole Vick

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

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

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

SPEAKERS:
Emily Miller, Brendan Finch

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Brianna Reilly Oliveira, Zoe Evans

The 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