Students often see science as a static body of knowledge instead of a dynamic human endeavor. Join the author of Notable Notebooks, Exemplary Evidence, and Wild Wonderings to learn how these books (and the stories of the scientists in them) can illuminate the nature of science. We’ll use the classic Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST, Chambers 1983) to guide reflection on our own perceptions of scientists, as well as that of our students, and we’ll learn more about scientists featured in each book through story, primary source analysis, and discussion. Finally, we’ll utilize portions of the NGSS’s Appendix H (Understanding the Scientific Enterprise) and discuss how this integrated approach can help students gain age-appropriate understanding of the nature of science. Chambers D.W. 1983. Stereotypic images of the scientist: The draw-a-scientist test. Science Education 67 (2): 255–265.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about the lives and work of historical and contemporary scientists, why telling these stories is an important strategy for helping students understand the nature of science, and how they might use these books in their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Jessica Fries-Gaither

Learn how to connect your students with nature and inspire them to write about it with Emily Morgan, author of the "Next Time You See" picture book series, and Terri Collins, Senior Lecturer of Elementary Education at Kennesaw State University. They will share free resources - teacher guide, videos, and templates - to guide your students through writing their own “Next Time You See” book about a natural object of their choice.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with everything they need to guide a mentor text study where their students can write their own "Next Time You See" book.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Morgan

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

Learn how to use the Uncovering Student Ideas probes in an explore-before-explain instructional sequence to support a classroom where all students' ideas matter!

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn about a new NSTA press resource for formative assessment and explore-before-explain teaching.

SPEAKERS:
Patrick Brown

Join Dr. Carlotta A. Berry, professor, engineering, researcher, advocate, NoireSTEMinist®, and children’s book author, for the launch of her latest children’s picture book, The STEM Kids Make a Robot published by NSTA kids. This engaging book follows a diverse team of fourth graders as they design a recycling robot to solve a problem in their elementary school cafeteria. Along the way, the students model teamwork through the cooperative learning cycle (forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning) and the engineering design process, from identifying a need, research, brainstorming a solution, prototyping, testing, evaluating results, all the way to deployment and presentation. She will also share her robotics children’s book series, There’s a Robot! for baby through 4th grade, and Robot Explorations for 1st – 5th grade at DrCarlottaABerry.com/childrensbooks. This event will celebrate the power of imagination, collaboration, and problem-solving to change the face of STEM.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will: Understand the steps of the engineering design process as demonstrated in The STEM Kids Make a Robot; recognize the importance of teamwork and the cooperative learning cycle in solving complex problems; and connect the book’s diverse characters and storylines to real-world problems.

SPEAKERS:
Carlotta Berry

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

This workshop incorporates principles of student-driven science notebooking with practical realistic applications for today’s science classrooms. Building on the ideas and strategies in Jessica Fries-Gaither’s NSTA Press publication, Science Notebooks in Student-Centered Classroom, participants will discover how using notebooks increases student engagement and ownership when attempting to make sense of a phenomenon using the three-dimensions. Participants will experience authentic notebooking from the student perspective in either K-4 or 5-8 grade bands, connect their experiences to Jessica’s four principles of student-centered science notebooks, and apply these ideas by incorporating science notebook principles and strategies to a lesson/unit of their own choosing. This session will demonstrate how well-selected science notebook scaffolds that are removed over time help students gain confidence and motivation to use notebooks as authentic sensemaking tools.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with a science notebook of their own that contains strategies, scaffolds, and organizational structures that increase realistic use of student-centered science notebooks as sensemaking tools.

SPEAKERS:
Kristen Moorhead, Jessica Fries-Gaither

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

One of the greatest challenges facing teachers as they adopt a science notebooking practice is assessment. Should notebooks be graded? What might formative and summative assessment look like in a science notebook? How can teachers balance providing meaningful, constructive feedback with the large volume of notebook entries? Building on Jessica Fries-Gaither’s NSTA Press publication, Science Notebooks in Student-Centered Classrooms, this workshop allows participants to explore, reflect, and discuss research about assessment and feedback as well as experience assessment and grading techniques from both a teacher and student perspective. This session will demonstrate how these techniques can increase student authentic use of the science and engineering practices, increase students’ independent use of practices, and ultimately, support student growth.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave the session with assessment techniques that increase student authentic use of the science and engineering practices, increase students’ independent use of practices, and ultimately, support student growth.

SPEAKERS:
Kristen Moorhead, Jessica Fries-Gaither