Augmented Reality (AR) tools, including Merge Cubes, offer an engaging way to make abstract science concepts more visible (and interactive) for elementary students. This poster highlights how pre-service teachers (PSTs) integrated AR into inquiry-based, NGSS-aligned lessons within an educational technology course. Using a 5E instructional model, PSTs learned to move beyond the novelty of using AR to embed purposeful questioning and scaffolding strategies that support student sensemaking. We will share common implementation challenges and offer practical supports such as lesson templates and classroom routines. Findings suggest that intentional, pedagogy-driven integration of AR builds confidence and supports meaningful science learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
AR tools like Merge Cubes can enhance elementary science learning when paired with intentional pedagogy. Using the 5E model and structured supports helps teachers move beyond novelty to create meaningful, inquiry-based lessons aligned to standards.

SPEAKERS:
KIRTIKA PANWAR, Sarah McDowell

This poster showcases a two-lab sequence (a candy DNA model followed by a card-based protein synthesis activity) connected by an explicit bridge activity that transforms two standalone labs into a coherent learning arc. Students build a physical DNA model, use it to generate an mRNA transcript, and decode that transcript into a protein, carrying the same sequence through all three steps. A Teacher Lens reflection asks pre-service teachers to explain the DNA-to-protein process to a 4th grader, building pedagogical content knowledge alongside science content. Materials cost under $3 per group. Attendees will be given access to the full lab sequence, bridge activity, lab report, and a framework for designing conceptual bridges between two related activities.

TAKEAWAYS:
A low-cost, two-lab DNA-to-protein sequence with a built-in conceptual bridge activity that eliminates the "why did we build the candy thing?" problem and a Teacher Lens reflection that builds pre-service teachers' capacity to explain molecular biology to children.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth Hasenmyer

The Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs) are abstract, everywhere, and often overlooked. The good news is that your students are likely already using these powerful conceptual tools every day. Come see how you can make them visible and leverage their power as sensemaking lenses. We developed a straightforward framework to help you build students’ sensemaking skills through use of the CCCs. See how this framework can help you set meaningful learning goals and scaffold students toward success. No matter the curriculum you use, this workshop will help you build student competency using CCCs to make sense of phenomena. Participants will leave with the resources and experience needed to bring CCCs to the foreground of their NGSS classroom. Anchored Science by Mi-STAR is a middle school curriculum project created by teachers in collaboration with engineers and scientists from Michigan Technological University, dedicated to quality NGSS-aligned curriculum and OER resources since 2015.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with a roadmap for building student competencies with the Cross Cutting Concepts as conceptual tools. Attendees will be able to use this roadmap to set meaningful learning goals, scaffold students toward success, and make the CCCs a visible part of their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Tony Matthys

This session demonstrates how science methods instructors can leverage an "AI Portfolio" to bridge the gap between AI as a convenience and AI as a cognitive catalyst for pre-service teachers (PSTs). By guiding PSTs through a structured cycle of "Quick Writes" and "AI Interaction Evidence," instructors can challenge students to evaluate the quality of AI-generated outputs against established content and pedagogical knowledge. This process pushes PSTs to go beyond passive consumption, requiring them to generate new knowledge by synthesizing AI suggestions with their own emerging expertise and creativity. Attendees will see how this framework builds essential skills in critical decision-making, as students must explicitly justify why they keep or reject specific AI outputs. Ultimately, this session provides a roadmap for methods instructors to help PSTs refine their professional judgment and develop the durable skills needed to use AI as a sophisticated thought partner in the classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
A digital checklist and set of reflection guiding questions that can be immediately integrated into university science methods courses to facilitate responsible AI use.

SPEAKERS:
William Thornburgh

What if one prompt, added to the end of every lecture, lab, and assignment, could deepen student sensemaking, surface misconceptions before the exam, and build professional identity, all without additional prep or grading? The Teacher Lens does exactly that. Embedded throughout a college biology course for pre-service elementary educators, the prompt asks students to explain each concept to a child in their future classroom. The consistency is the mechanism: students begin to anticipate it and do the cognitive work during instruction rather than only at the end. This session shares three concrete examples showing how the same prompt surfaces different depths of understanding across biology topics, plus one formative use that requires no collecting or grading.

TAKEAWAYS:
A single reusable prompt: "How would you explain this to a student in your future classroom?" that deepens sensemaking, reveals misconceptions, and builds pedagogical thinking across any science course or grade band. Zero new prep required.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth Hasenmyer

University instructors using NSTA resources, designed for 3-dimensional teaching and learning, in lieu of a textbook (or as a supplement to a textbook) have students who create a library of resources, grow their professional network, and enhance their content and pedagogical knowledge. Instructors get a class landing page to manage their course, a private forum for asynchronous discussions, and an instructor's dashboard to monitor their students' work on the NSTA website. All instructors receive a free NSTA membership, and their students become NSTA members for a year or through graduation. In this session, various instructors share how they integrate NSTA resources in their courses. Come and listen to their stories and ask questions. Find out the benefits of this program so you too begin using NSTA resources with your preservice teachers.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants meet & ask questions of instructors who are using NSTA resources, webinars, & tools in courses for preservice teachers. Participants will learn how to integrate NSTA resources in their courses. They will also learn about the benefits of the program and how it can be easily implemented.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Mathews, Flavio Mendez

Have you read great articles in the NSTA journals that changed or added to the ways you and your students do science for the better? You could inspire other educators across the country in the same way by sharing your teaching ideas, activities, or lessons as an NSTA journal author!

TAKEAWAYS:
Instructions and tips on how to prepare and submit your manuscript for publication in NSTA's journals.

SPEAKERS:
Peter Lindeman

Discover the power of NSTA Collections – curated "bundles" designed to organize your NSTA Library with resources from NSTA and beyond. This hands-on workshop guides you through creating your own collection, a vital tool for saving time when searching for topic-specific materials. Learn how to effectively share these collections with your colleagues or make them public to benefit the wider NSTA community. Leave ready to build and leverage collections to streamline your resource management.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave knowing how to create NSTA Collections, add NSTA and external resources, and manage sharing options. They will grasp the benefits of organizing, including time savings and collaboration, and gain practical skills to build and share curated resource lists.

SPEAKERS:
Flavio Mendez

This presentation shares findings from a study of preservice science teachers using a custom AI chatbot designed to support NGSS-aligned, phenomenon-based lesson and unit planning. Drawing on analyses of chatbot interactions, interviews, and teacher reflections, we highlight how participants used the tool to identify engaging phenomena, align instruction to standards, generate lesson ideas, and strengthen unit coherence. We also discuss challenges, including evaluating AI-generated suggestions and avoiding over-reliance on AI. Participants will leave with practical strategies for using AI to support science teaching and teacher learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Custom AI tools can be a valuable planning partner for science teachers when it helps them think more deeply about instructional decisions rather than making those decisions for them.

SPEAKERS:
Kate Henson

This project focused on work with the Ozobot Evo robot, which is programmable through block-coding and color-coding. During the summer of 2025, teachers participated in three, 6-hour sessions to learn how to integrate Evo into their classroom activities. Training activities included work with learning programming structures and how to use Evo in the block-coding and color-coding (with markers and magnetic tiles) formats. Each teacher self-evaluated knowledge and skills, before and after the 3-day workshop. Nine teachers provided paired survey data for a self-efficacy scale and responded to open-ended questions. The goal was to provide high-quality, teacher professional development to increase knowledge and instructional skills for integrating robotics into the elementary, middle, and secondary grades classroom. Results showed a significant improvement in programming self-efficacy.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this initial project, results showed a significant increase in computer programming self-efficacy and significant increases in all five sub-scale scores. In a follow-up session, teachers provided qualitative data regarding use and modifications for the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Lynberg, Deborah McAllister

The tech tool is designed to help preservice science teachers (PSTs) practice STP 1.1: Selecting or sequencing age-appropriate, grade-level instructional goals or big ideas for a topic that explicitly involve developing, using, and revising models for MS‑PS2‑5 PSTs play the role of a new teacher planning a 3–4 lesson sequence. They first interpret MS‑PS2‑5 and choose among alternative big‑idea framings, revealing whether they see the PE as primarily about “doing a lab” or about using evidence to support and refine a model of fields. Next, they select from competing lesson goals: some low‑level (recall, definitions, confirmatory labs) and some 3D (students develop, use, and revise field models to design, interpret, and critique investigations). Each choice triggers feedback and classroom vignettes that make the consequences of their selections visible. Finally, PSTs sequence their chosen goals and see outcomes that highlight coherent vs. fragmented modeling progressions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Preservice science teachers (PSTs) practice STP 1.1 for MS‑PS2‑5 by choosing and sequencing lesson goals that move beyond recall toward 3D learning, in which students develop, use, and revise models of fields to design, interpret, and critique investigations of non‑contact forces.

SPEAKERS:
Jaclyn Murray

Distinguishing observation from inference is a persistent conceptual barrier for preservice elementary teachers, hindering their capacity to teach science as inquiry. This poster explores a study that engaged preservice teachers in creating initial models of novel phenomena (e.g., a marshmallow in a vacuum, a chemical reaction, and a moving toy train). Using a two-part modeling tool, 23 participants documented observations and represented inferences through writing and drawing. The poster will visually display findings revealing a distinct rhetorical shift. Observations rely on definitive language and sequential visual narratives, while inferences employ tentative language and symbolic visual arguments to explain unseen mechanisms. Attendees will view qualitative examples from student artifacts to see these differences firsthand.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will explore a practical modeling tool to help preservice teachers distinguish observation from inference. The poster provides a framework to analyze how drawn and written models reveal the shift from describing the visible to explaining unseen mechanisms.

SPEAKERS:
Jaclyn Murray, Alex St. Louis, Kelly Feille

Do you teach preservice teachers? Learn how NSTA's resources, webinars, and online community can help students become the BEST teachers they can be. Instructors using NSTA in lieu of a textbook (or as a supplement to a textbook) have students who create a library of resources, grow their professional network, and enhance their content and pedagogical knowledge. Instructors get a class landing page to manage their course, a private forum for asynchronous discussions, and an instructor's dashboard to monitor students' work. All instructors receive a free digital professional membership, and their students become NSTA members for a year or through graduation, depending on the price point selected by the instructor. Resources include all NSTA-member resources, like lesson plans (sensemaking tasks) and journal articles, and “add-on” resources, such as Interactive E-Books+ Professional and Professional Learning Units (teaching strategies that enrich students’ learning). Bring your computer.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants walk away ready to implement a program through which they “adopt” NSTA as their textbook for a course, allowing their preservice teachers to access a variety of high-quality professional learning resources, including some resources that are not part of NSTA’s regular student membership.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Mathews, Flavio Mendez

Family STEM nights can strengthen school-community relationships, increase STEM engagement, and help students see science and engineering as collaborative, creative, and accessible. Many educators struggle with limited budgets, staffing constraints, activity planning, and concerns about family participation. This interactive session equips educators with practical tools to plan and facilitate successful STEM nights in schools, libraries, museums, and community organizations. Participants will explore adaptable themes, low-cost activity stations aligned to NGSS, volunteer coordination strategies, accessibility considerations, assessment tools, and methods to increase family engagement across diverse communities. Attendees will leave with ready-to-use planning templates, budget examples, NGSS aligned activity ideas, and implementation strategies suitable for a variety of grade levels and settings.

TAKEAWAYS:
Plan engaging, low-cost, engaging Family STEM Nights that build school connections and boost STEM interest. This interactive session provides themes, NGSS aligned activity ideas, volunteer strategies, and ready-to-use templates to support inclusive, effective events across diverse settings.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Wonnacott-Stanley, Liza Basden

How can higher education faculty prepare preservice teachers for a data-rich, AI-driven future? This hands-on, future-focused session shares practical strategies for integrating interactive notebooks, artificial intelligence, and data science into elementary science methods courses. Participants will explore sample K–6 notebook activities that engage students in collecting, organizing, and interpreting data, while modeling effective instructional practices. Faculty will also experiment with AI tools to support instructional planning and reduce workload. Through guided discussion, attendees will consider how to adapt these approaches within their own courses to better prepare preservice educators for today’s classrooms. Leave with ready-to-use ideas that connect pedagogy, technology, and real-world application.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain practical strategies to integrate interactive notebooks, AI tools, and data science into preservice science courses to better prepare future teachers for engaging, data-informed K–6 instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Sumreen Asim

Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) programs provide educators opportunities to participate in science research and connect it to their classroom practice. While positioned as a valuable form of professional learning, participation and experiences within these programs may be influenced by a range of personal, professional, and sociocultural factors. This collaborative discussion will be centered on how teachers experience RET programs and what factors shape access and participation such as motivation, identity and belonging in science learning contexts, and institutional support and structures that may unintentionally support or limit participation. This session is intended for K-12 educators, teacher educators, and RET facilitators interested in equitable and inclusive professional learning opportunities. Participants will leave with discussion-based insights for expanding participation and supporting diverse teacher experiences within RET programs.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will gain shared insights from educators, researchers, and program facilitators about the opportunities and challenges associated with RET participation and will leave with actionable ideas for creating more inclusive and supportive RET experiences for teachers.

SPEAKERS:
Amanda Morrison

I prepare future secondary science teachers in a state that did not adopt the Next Generation Science Standards, but I have teacher candidates who come from states that have adopted NGSS and may plan to return to teach in states where NGSS is used. In this session, I plan to address how I mix both NGSS and state learning standards to develop fluency in the three dimensions of NGSS while preparing teacher candidates to teach in a state that has different learning standards. Discussion following my presentation will center around strategies and tips to prepare future science teachers to navigate a variety of learning standards in order to teach secondary-level students effectively.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees of this session will walk away with ideas on how to prepare future science teachers who can be flexible in their teaching and can provide a quality education along the three dimensions of NGSS even when NGSS is not directly adopted.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Bindis

Discover how preservice teachers at Indiana University Indianapolis are transforming elementary science education through culturally responsive, inquiry-based lesson design that integrates 3D printing, artificial intelligence, and community data. This session highlights a capstone project where future educators co-create lessons with students, connect science standards to lived experiences, and use technology tools to build hands-on investigations and models. Participants will explore practical strategies for leveraging AI and 3D printing to personalize learning, foster equity, and deepen conceptual understanding. The session also shares plans to integrate ePortfolios and career competencies, empowering teachers to curate evidence of growth, communicate impact, and prepare for dynamic STEM careers. Join us for actionable ideas, innovative practices, and inspiration to advance career-connected science teaching.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain practical strategies for integrating AI, 3D printing, and culturally responsive pedagogy to design equitable, inquiry-based science lessons and learn how ePortfolios and career competencies can prepare students for future-ready STEM careers.

SPEAKERS:
Brittany Garvin