Many biology students approach graphing as a purely procedural task, focusing on format selection and adherence to rubrics without fully engaging with its scientific significance. This roundtable session will delve into undergraduates' perceptions of the role of graphing in inquiry, argumentation, and identity within biology labs. Drawing on qualitative data from an introductory lab course and sociocultural theory (Vygotsky), we will examine how students' graphing perceptions may reflect or obscure their epistemic value. The discussion will feature student quotes, connections to identity (Lockhart et al., 2022), and insights into graphing as an effective tool for science communication (Alderfer, 2023). Participants can share strategies for reframing graphing as a meaningful and communicative practice that aligns with the NGSS.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore student perceptions of the purpose of graphing in biology labs, connect findings to science identity and Vygotsky’s theory, and discuss strategies for reframing graphing as a communicative, inquiry-based practice aligned with NGSS.

SPEAKERS:
Adriana Quiros

Undergraduates in teacher preparation programs often take a capstone class before student teaching. While these courses vary by institution, capstones provide students with a culminating experience. These classes are important as they help students deepen their content knowledge, connect science content to teaching practices & standards, and develop their identity as educators. Yet, these classes also run the risk of being repetitive and not meeting the current demands of the teaching profession. As we plan future capstone classes for 7-12 grade pre-service science teachers, we seek input from both new and experienced teachers as well as other college faculty. This roundtable discussion will explore a) beneficial experiences from capstone classes and b) topics that educators believe that pre-service teachers need in capstone classes. Data will be collected from participants, and a summary of results will be shared. Future course syllabi will also be made available.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will assess various capstone frameworks, discuss the knowledge and skills needed to be successful science educators, and contribute feedback to ensure future capstone courses support 7-12 grade pre-service science teacher development. Roundtable results will be aggregated and shared.

SPEAKERS:
Carrie Sharitt

Join us for a discussion on how to advocate for and build capacity in elementary science education in rural, high-needs school districts. As part of an NSF-funded project, we've launched the Midwest STEM Alliance to elevate science teaching in rural elementary schools in Iowa, Minnesota, and Kansas44. This roundtable will explore the initial strategies we've implemented in Year 1 to recruit and select a small number of STEM Teacher Corps members from this often-overlooked demographic of teacher leaders. We will share key findings from our Rural Elementary Science Needs Assessment to identify and address the specific challenges faced by rural elementary teachers. We invite participants to share their own experiences and collaborate on developing an advocacy agenda that centers on the unique needs of rural schools and creates a foundation for a long-term professional network that extends beyond the project's funding period.

TAKEAWAYS:
Engage in a dialogue about how to advocate for and support elementary science teachers in rural areas by establishing a sustainable professional community.

SPEAKERS:
Selin Akgun, Gillian Roehrig, Imogen Herrick, Dana Atwood-Blaine

Join for an interactive session, where we will explore how the Flipped Classroom model and the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) framework can transform student learning and engagement. This session will highlight practical strategies for shifting direct instruction outside the classroom, freeing up valuable in-class time for collaborative, inquiry-based learning in chemistry classroom. Participants will discover how integrating CER into flipped lessons empowers students to think critically, construct scientific explanations, and support their claims with evidence and logical reasoning. Through real-world examples, hands-on activities, and discussion, educators will leave with actionable tools to foster deeper understanding, promote student voice, and enhance formative assessment practices. Whether you're new to flipped learning or looking to refine your use of CER, this session offers insights and inspiration to elevate your teaching practice.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session equips educators with practical strategies for designing flipped lessons that incorporate CER seamlessly. Participants will explore real classroom examples, tackle common challenges, and engage in hands-on activities that model the CER process.

SPEAKERS:
Bhagyashree Kulkarni

NAMs—including organs on a chip, 3D cell cultures, and computational models—are rapidly advancing scientific research and testing while reducing reliance on animal experimentation. These breakthroughs promise not only more relevant, human-based results, but also foreshadow the tools and technology that today’s students may encounter in higher education and future STEM careers. This roundtable will bring together experts in experimental methods, classroom teaching, and humane education, to discuss how NAMs are reshaping science and how K-12 educators can begin preparing students now. Participants are invited to consider how familiarity with NAMs may promote science literacy, college preparation and career-readiness, and discuss how these technologies could filter into classroom science practice. The session is intended for secondary teachers, curriculum developers, STEM coordinators, and any educators who are interested in humane, innovative teaching.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of NAMs, exploring potential connections to disciplinary core ideas and cross-cutting concepts, as well as practices to equip students with the competencies needed to thrive in a science landscape that is moving beyond animal use.

SPEAKERS:
Regina Terlau-Benford

What happens when you hand teachers powerful tools but no blueprint for how to use them? There is likely a lot of confusion and inconsistency. As school systems work to align instruction to NGSS, many turn to open educational resources (OER) to advance opportunity and access, but real transformation requires more than merely adopting new materials. They need skillful, intentional, and high-quality practice. This roundtable brings together leaders from J.S. Morton High School District (IL) and Great Oaks Legacy Charter Network (NJ) to share how they’re implementing NGSS-aligned OER curricula at scale. Participants will explore leadership structures, professional learning systems, and data tools that enable coherence across classrooms and grade bands. Attendees will leave with practical considerations for balancing fidelity with local adaptation, building teacher capacity, and leading sustainable, systemwide improvement in science teaching and learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Gain strategies to lead sustainable, systemwide science improvement by aligning leadership, professional learning, and data systems to support effective, consistent implementation of NGSS-aligned OER.

SPEAKERS:
Solona Hollis, Solona Hollis

How can department chairs cultivate trust and collaboration that allow every teacher to thrive? Drawing on 24 years in the classroom and over a decade as department chair, I’ve learned that effective leadership is less about fixing problems and more about nurturing relationships. This roundtable invites science leaders to share strategies for building inclusive, flexible, and human-centered departments. Discussion will include practices such as differentiated goal-setting, rotating peer-learning structures, flexible meetings that build connection, and feedback tools that elevate all voices. Participants will leave with ideas for fostering trust, shared purpose, and professional growth across diverse teaching teams.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will gain ideas to lead with trust and collaboration to sustain thriving, human-centered science departments, through practical strategies that can be implemented immediately.

SPEAKERS:
Ellie Beyers

So you are here at the conference… what’s next? Come learn from a panel of experienced science education leaders about opportunities to grow professionally by being involved in local, regional, and national science education professional organizations. Professional organizations like NSTA, its state and regional chapters, National Marine Educators Association (NMEA), National Middle Level Science Teachers Association (NMLSTA), and other associated member organizations that can be found on the NSTA website are rich with opportunities to collaborate and grow professionally and personally. Regardless of your years of experience, educators in settings like yours and unique from yours can share experiences, problem-solve, share resources, elevate and celebrate your great work, lift you on tough days, and so much more. Learn how to get involved and grow professionally by volunteering, running for office, or participating in conferences, professional learning, or networking opportunities.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to get involved and grow professionally by volunteering, running for office, or participating in conferences, professional learning, or networking opportunities.

SPEAKERS:
Peter Kelly, Kellie Boquet, Amy Tankersley, Kevin Niemi, Tami Lunsford

Developing a future-focus for science education with emphasis of music and arts. Bridging out for cross-curriculum among various disciplines, however, focus upon STEM education. Utilizing the ODE State Science Standards, along with state standards from various content, as well as the connections to the Next Generation Science Standards. My proposal is for the audience of 6-12 general science educators. Educators from outside of the 6-12 parameter are always welcome to attend the proposed session. The information provided for the proposed session presentation is to help all STEM educators with the integration of music and arts into the STEM education and curriculum (STEAM). Empower and equip educators thinking outside of the bun to utilize music with the STEM curricula. Teachers will learn how to improve their critical thinking to achieve the talented and gifted students who may not be advanced in science, but advanced in arts and music.

TAKEAWAYS:
Empower and equip educators thinking outside of the bun to utilize music with the STEM curricula. There are digital programs the educators can utilize without costs to improve the connections of arts and music with STEM. Teachers will learn how to improve their critical thinking to STEAM TAG kids.

SPEAKERS:
John Davis III

Every lab comes with risk, and when there is a significant injury, the average settlement in the US exceeds $ 4 million. However, with the right tools, teachers can make every activity safer, smarter, and more engaging. In this interactive session, explore how VERA AI, a teacher-centered safety system, supports lesson planning, lab prep, and classroom management through real-time risk analysis and safer material substitutions. Using real K–12 scenarios, participants will experience how AI “safety wrappers” transform everyday lab routines into proactive safety checks that build student awareness and confidence. Learn how to integrate these AI tools to save time, strengthen compliance, and foster a shared culture of safety in science and makerspace learning. Walk away with free access to VERA AI and ready-to-use strategies for your next lab day.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn how to utilize free VERA AI tools to proactively identify lab risks, make safer substitutions, and save planning time—enabling them to focus more on meaningful, hands-on learning and feel confident teaching students in a safe learning environment.

SPEAKERS:
Edward Cohen

Bridging the gap between informal science educators and classroom teachers requires a shared language that fosters collaboration, advocacy, and meaningful learning experiences. This session explores strategies for aligning communication and goals across educational settings, equipping teachers and school leaders with the tools to champion informal science opportunities as integral to student success. Participants will engage in practical frameworks for building partnerships, amplifying impact, and advancing advocacy for science learning beyond the classroom. Together, we will reframe informal science not as enrichment, but as essential to developing curiosity, critical thinking, and lifelong learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with practical strategies and shared language tools to strengthen partnerships between teachers and informal science educators, positioning informal learning as essential to student success.

SPEAKERS:
Hannah Eisla, Dr. Dieuwertje Kast

Urban school districts are uniquely positioned at the intersection of innovation and inequity. This roundtable invites educators, leaders, and community stakeholders to discuss strategies that increase access, engagement, and achievement in STEM for historically underserved students. Together, participants will examine real-world challenges such as resource gaps, culturally relevant pedagogy, and teacher retention, while sharing solutions like community partnerships, after-school STEM initiatives, and project-based learning. The session will serve as a collaborative space to exchange best practices and inspire actionable steps toward equity in STEM education.

TAKEAWAYS:
Equity in STEM education requires more than good intentions—it takes intentional strategies, culturally relevant teaching, and sustainable partnerships that ensure urban students see themselves as scientists, engineers, and innovators.

SPEAKERS:
Tamia Murphy

Student agency involves students taking ownership of their learning, and it can have many positive benefits, including motivation and self-efficacy. However, cultivating agency requires opportunities to do so. What kinds of agency opportunities do educators provide? How receptive are educators to providing them? Do science teachers differ from teachers in other subjects in these regards? In this session, I’ll share what we know about student agency, what it can look like in science, the findings of recent research, and what else we have yet to learn about it. Session participants will engage in conversation about the unique affordances and challenges of providing students with agency opportunities and leave with ideas, strategies, and a report on recent research findings.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about ways to define agency, what research tells us the benefits of agency are, what agency can look like in science, and the latest research on student agency, both generally and in science.

SPEAKERS:
Nicholas Balisciano

How can teachers bring real-world multidisciplinary science into their classrooms? This roundtable features teacher fellows from the Xplorlabs Educator Fellowship, a yearlong program by UL Research Institutes. Fellows learn from scientists and peers to co-develop free, standards-aligned lessons on pressing challenges such as fire safety, batteries, and sustainability. Starting from the same set of science ideas and phenomena, fellows adapt these resources in very different ways to reflect their students’ cultures, prior ideas, and learning goals. Together, their stories highlight the creativity of teachers and the power of diverse perspectives in sensemaking. In this moderated discussion, fellows will share how the experience influenced their practice, engaged students in authentic science, and expanded their professional networks. Attendees will also learn more about the fellowship itself and how to access free classroom-ready resources.

TAKEAWAYS:
Hear directly from Xplorlabs Educator Fellows about collaborating with researchers, co-developing free STEM lessons, and engaging students with authentic science. Learn more about the fellowship and explore free resources for bringing safety science into classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Megan O'Keeffe, Samantha Eddis, Danielle Shaw-Jones, Dominique Thomas, Daniel Sternberg

This session will focus on discussion of best practices and strategies to pass on and take back to improve the implementation of the S.T.R.E.A.M. Room concept, content and community endeavors that occur at Kemp Elementary School within Dayton Public Schools. The Teacher presents hands-on student facilitated S.T.E.M., agriculture and reading cross curricular opportunities for a discussion that promotes curriculum as well as doable collaboration.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will engage in a shared exchange of STEM research–based best practices and classroom insights that strengthen student presentation and analysis skills, while collaboratively informing improvements to future STEM programming.

SPEAKERS:
Arthur Williams

Motivating students can be challenging, especially with so many distractions from the curriculum. At the same time, students are usually left out of the curriculum development process entirely. How can students and educators be authentic partners in designing learning experiences that make them willingly take ownership of their learning? How can educator expertise (in content and pedagogy) be combined with student expertise (in their backgrounds, interests, and life and career aspirations)? What are the benefits and challenges of curriculum partnerships? Whether you have attempted such partnerships before or are curious about doing so, come to share, hear, discuss, and reflect on ideas for how students can be truly involved. You’ll leave with a list of considerations and strategies for student-educator curriculum partnerships.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will share and learn about successes and challenges of partnering with students on curriculum development and the good that can come of it.

SPEAKERS:
Nicholas Balisciano