AI is rapidly transforming the landscape & will soon be a regular part of your students' everyday experiences. Join me to discover how to utilize AI tools to enrich your professional growth & instruction. We'll delve into the potential pitfalls of AI & how it might mislead you and your students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn to explain the workings of AI tools like ChatGPT, leverage AI to enhance their professional expertise & incorporating it into your planning and lessons. They will also become aware of the limitations of AI tools in aspects such as safety and questioning techniques.

SPEAKERS:
Christine Anne Royce

Commonwealth Charter Academy is leading the way for workforce development through our innovative Works Programs. Our career readiness programs align with the PA STEELS standards. K-12 educators/administrators are welcome to learn how we are changing the landscape in TechWorks, AgWorks and MedWorks.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn about CCA's innovative workforce development programs

SPEAKERS:
Debbie Reynolds

In this presentation, Dr. Whitecraft will draw upon the works of Hammond, Gorski and Hebb to demonstrate how experiences that are intense, prolonged or repeated will physically change the anatomy and the chemistry of the brain.

TAKEAWAYS:
Per Parker Palmer: academics ignore all the research-based knowledge we have on the role of emotions in learning largely because embracing the implications of that knowledge would take them out of their emotional comfort zones! It is enough to make one’s head spin.

SPEAKERS:
Michele Whitecraft

Pre-service teachers (currently student teaching) had some hands-on experience preparing and presenting an environmentally themed field trip for high school students. Challenges faced included sudden change of venue and preparing for the unexpected when doing field trips.

TAKEAWAYS:
Field trips should continue to be a FEATURE of any science curriculum, but the messaging must be clear.

SPEAKERS:
Kathleen Jones, Jalen Steiner

AI has taken the education world by storm, reshaping and transforming traditional teaching methods at a breakneck pace. As it evolves, the question for educators, students, and institutions becomes clear: Will you survive the chaos, thrive in this new era, or strive to adapt and remain relevant?

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will better understand transformative AI tools in the current education landscape.

SPEAKERS:
Charles English, David Barnes, Christine Anne Royce

PA built upon NGSS to include Environmental Literacy & Sustainability, fostering partnerships between cross-sector educators to implement the Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEE) framework. Discover how MWEEs connect environmental science to STEM, enhancing authentic science learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Leave with resources that include activities to engage learners in local phenomena and promote future leaders of sustainable practices. Gain experience with this student-centered framework that includes investigation cards and the MWEE think cloud which reflect real-world science practices.

SPEAKERS:
Shannon Fredebaugh-Siller, Tamara Peffer, Ellen Schultz, Diana Potts, Maryann Molishus, Michelle Niedermeier

A thorough understanding of the CCCs & SEPs naturally leads to phenomena-based lessons and shifts the focus within the lesson from covering disciplinary topics to using the DCIs as the context for mastering important CCCs & SEPs necessarily infusing the three dimensions within each science lesson.

TAKEAWAYS:
A proper interpretation of science standards of STEELS can help teachers see them as the guide for what is really important rather than a rearrangement of the same old list of things to cover.

SPEAKERS:
Robert Cohen

The purpose of this session to help participants use meaningful strategies to adapt their curriculum to the STEELS standards. The new standards are a shift in both content and pedagogy which can feel overwhelming to teachers.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will receive strategies to take already written curriculum and make it three-dimensional.

SPEAKERS:
Karianne Chessario

Join us to learn how to support and inspire your educators through our presentation on AG-SEEDLINGS (Agricultural Sciences in Elementary Education, Learning in Gardens at Schools), a program and curriculum designed to support K-5 educators in Pennsylvania to integrate agriculture into the classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will receive free resources to help implement K-5 elementary STEELS lessons that are aligned to other core subjects such as ELA, Math, & Social Studies.

SPEAKERS:
Kathleen Hill, Stephanie Klixbull

Participants will explore elementary engineering activities that also support students’ engagement in environmental literacy. In this hands-on workshop, educators will explore STEELS-aligned engineering design challenges that connect with environmental literacy such as designing a hand pollinator.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be able to use engineering to support STEM instruction that synthesizes the three dimensions of the STEELS curriculum framework in developmentally appropriate, scaffolded ways.

SPEAKERS:
Kathryn Bateman, Stephanie Klixbull