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. Science education can help build a more just and equitable world. Come explore how instruction can support science learning that is consequential to your students, their communities, and the broader world.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn about and apply two equity project frameworks for science education to support 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:
Kelsie Fowler, Philip Bell

Students bring amazing intellectual resources to make sense of science phenomena based on their personal and community experiences—including languages, perspectives, gestures, as well as knowledge, interests, and values. Come learn how to notice and leverage those intellectual gifts in your teaching! By analyzing a series of awesome learning situations, this session asks participants to work with others to ‘learn to see’ students’ diverse sense-making resources—and connect these pedagogical strategies to their own classroom practice. Come join us for this fun, interactive session!

TAKEAWAYS:
Culturally responsive education supports student sensemaking and learning in science. Inclusive science strategies help teachers learn to see and leverage students’ diverse sense-making resources. These methods help us create and adapt curriculum that is equitable and centered on justice.

SPEAKERS:
Philip Bell

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 about reliable energy sources was adapted to attend to Indigenous land rights and sovereignty.

TAKEAWAYS:
Related to STEM projects in society (e.g., energy transition, ecological restoration), teachers will learn how to engage students in exploring moral and ethical dimensions of trade-offs in project approaches. A broadly applicable framework for equity-focused curriculum adaptation will be shared.

SPEAKERS:
Kelsie Fowler, Philip Bell

With the quickly expanding interest in and integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into education, we believe it is vital to explore fundamental questions about when, how, and even if it should be used in education. Initiatives and products focused on educational applications of AI are outpacing the discussion of responsible and ethical approaches to doing so. This concerns us. The session will offer principled and evidence-based analysis of the implications of AI for teaching, lesson planning, tracking and supporting student progress, assessment, and educational monitoring. Together, we will learn about AI and how to think with and against its use in education in specific ways. Productive approaches for framing the use of AI with students will be shared. We invite you to join us for this important and urgent discussion of AI in education.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about uses of AI in science education along with ways to think about ethical dimensions and the evidence base for specific pedagogical uses. We will explore possibilities, tensions, trade-offs, uncertainties, and strategies of resistance in this quickly shifting landscape.

SPEAKERS:
Deb Morrison, Philip Bell

Science education has a key role to play in supporting a just transition to the climate crisis.. Participants will learn about 20 priority areas associated with climate and environmental justice—and then will explore educational approaches, resources, and groups related to these areas. Many free resources that support climate justice education will be shared.

TAKEAWAYS:
Working towards climate justice involves a multifaceted set of issues and priorities. Teachers will identify which priority areas relate to their goals and context and learn about related resources. A climate justice framework will help teachers learn about different dimensions of climate justice.

SPEAKERS:
Deb Morrison, Kelsie Fowler, Philip Bell

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:
Kelsie Fowler, Philip Bell

How can science learning experiences help students develop ecological caring approaches to the living world? Come explore educational approaches to multispecies justice with us! Expanding how students connect to and care for the living world around them is vital at this time of climate crisis. We will draw on resources from STEM Teaching Tools (stemteachingtools.org) and Learning in Places (learninginplaces.org) to support these experiences.

TAKEAWAYS:
People’s relationships to nature are culturally and historically rooted and are embedded in approaches to science teaching and learning. Science can be used to guide ecological caring responses and support the thriving of people and ecosystems.

SPEAKERS:
Kelsie Fowler, Philip Bell

Without local data it is impossible to fully understand community environmental and climate problems and their effects on different groups. Attendees will explore different environmental and climate data sets and learn how to use these with students to create well-informed solutions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participatory methods for collecting and acting upon environmental and climate data is more important now than ever. Yet students are not taught about this data or how to use it. Resources and examples for supporting youth in collecting and using data to create real community change will be shared.

SPEAKERS:
Deb Morrison, Kelsie Fowler, Kathryn Boyd

Many students are quite concerned about climate change, but surveys show that most do not know what actions they can take. Come explore ways to engage students in community centered collaborative climate action now and on into the future. This workshop will engage participants in frank conversations about avoiding indoctrination, designing for varied forms of action, and building community collaborations.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain skills in how to weave different forms of climate action into their current learning resources as well as design new lessons that center locally contextualized and appropriate collective action efforts; such work can be framed for the goals of any educational environment.

SPEAKERS:
Deb Morrison, Sarah Sterling

Are you interested in teaching about climate change, sustainability or the environment? Come explore open educational resources and design practices from a variety of organizations with expertise in these areas! These include professional learning, curriculum, and pedagogical resources!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be able to interact with experts in climate change and sustainability instruction and walk away with free resources and design advice to support their own teaching practice.

SPEAKERS:
Deb Morrison, Kelsie Fowler, Philip Bell

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:
Deb Morrison, Kelsie Fowler

Teachers developed the Justice-Centered Ambitious Science Teaching framework and practices as part of professional learning communities to be responsive to students' cultures and communities, build upon expansive forms of student meaning-making, and committed to disrupting injustice in society.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn about teaching practices aimed at building a welcoming, joyful, and critical community that is meaningful for youth and centers justice, elicits local stories, nurtures revisions of scientific thinking with diverse and local expertise, and uses science to advocate for justice.

SPEAKERS:
April Luehmann, Samantha Stickley