What if everyday food and agriculture could become the foundation for meaningful science learning? In this interactive featured session, discover how the Illinois AgBio Storylines use familiar phenomena to engage learners in biology, chemistry, environmental science, engineering, and sustainability through three-dimensional science learning. Experience multiple storylines while exploring instructional routines, curriculum resources, and implementation strategies that support meaningful science learning across K–12 settings. Whether you're teaching students, coaching educators, or leading curriculum implementation, you'll leave with adaptable resources and practical ideas for using food and agriculture to make science more relevant, accessible, and connected to students' lives and future STEM careers.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will leave with classroom-ready instructional resources, implementation strategies, and practical ideas for integrating food and agriculture into science instruction that inspires curiosity and prepares students for future STEM careers.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Embry Mohr, Zoe Evans

To fully understand genetics, students must be able to use the science practices to connect the proteins produced via gene expression and an organism’s traits. During this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore a free HHMI BioInteractive resource focused on helping students understand the relationship between molecular biology and classical genetics by exploring Leber congenital amaurosis, an inherited form of blindness. We’ll engage with several science practices including data analysis, modeling, and constructing explanations as we model classroom implementation strategies to help students build mastery of genetics. Workshop participants will also engage as practitioners to reflect on their own classroom implementation related to incorporating and adapting resources and strategies shared in the workshop to deepen student understanding of how the inheritance of traits is the result of the mechanism of gene expression.

TAKEAWAYS:
Workshop participants will engage as learners and as practitioners to reflect on their own classroom implementation of resources and strategies to deepen student understanding of how the inheritance of traits is the result of the mechanism of gene expression.

SPEAKERS:
Sherry Annee, Ann Brokaw

This session proposal outlines a student-driven, guided inquiry approach to teaching molecular properties and ionic bonding using tactile models. The activity is structured into five key phases:Foundation & Model Building: Students use LEGO bricks to establish that molecular properties are rooted in composition, setting class-defined rules for using the bricks as elements. Ionic Inquiry: Through experimentation with over 15 compounds (e.g., $CaO$, $Al_{2}O_{3}$), students assign specific ions to LEGO configurations to discover unique chemical combinations. Pattern Recognition: Students map charge numbers onto a periodic table, allowing them to independently identify ionic charge patterns across groups. Application: The lesson concludes with thinking questions and traditional formula writing for compounds like sodium chloride. Extension: The framework allows for natural exploration of periodic trends and nomenclature once students have mastered formula balancing.

TAKEAWAYS:
The main takeaway of this session is a student-driven, guided inquiry approach that uses tactile LEGO models to bridge the gap between abstract chemical composition and the concrete patterns of ionic bonding and periodic trends.

SPEAKERS:
Jeff Sesemann

Why do mammals drink milk? Why can some people digest milk throughout their lives while others cannot? In this interactive session, participants experience the Illinois AgBio Milk Storyline, where everyday food becomes the entry point for rich, three-dimensional science learning. Experience how students investigate real-world phenomena through modeling, data analysis, and evidence-based explanations while building understanding of digestion, genetics, natural selection, and human biology. Along the way, discover how food science naturally sparks curiosity, empowers students to ask meaningful questions, and connects classroom learning to authentic careers in agriculture, nutrition, genetics, healthcare, and food science. Leave with practical strategies and a classroom-ready approach that uses familiar, relevant phenomena to make science engaging, accessible, and meaningful for all learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
Experience how everyday food can spark meaningful science learning. Explore the Illinois AgBio Milk Storyline and leave with practical strategies for using familiar phenomena to engage students in three-dimensional learning while connecting science to real-world careers.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Embry Mohr, Zoe Evans

A hallmark of three-dimensional assessment is making student thinking about a DCI, a CC, and an SEP visible at the same time. In this interactive session, you'll step into the role of a student to experience a model Phenomenon-Driven Task and see how it brings sensemaking to life. Together we will unpack what makes a PDT useful, identify the key features that distinguish it from traditional science assessments, and practice analyzing student responses to reveal patterns in learning. The agenda includes: What is a PDT and Why Does It Matter? (10 min): Key features of 3D assessment; Hands-On PDT Experience (30 min): Complete a model task as a learner; Analyzing Student Responses (10 min): Surface patterns in student thinking; Design Your Own (5 min): Begin sketching a PDT for your classroom; Q&A and Next Steps (5 min): Resources and support.  You'll leave with strategies for designing meaningful assessments that surface student thinking and inform next steps in instruction.

TAKEAWAYS:
Phenomenon-Driven Tasks mirror three-dimensional instruction and can be used to make students' thinking about and with DCIs, CCs, and SEPs visible at the same time.

SPEAKERS:
Victor Sampson

In this interactive session, teachers will experience the science practice of Asking Questions from the perspective of their students. Participants will engage in phenomena-based tasks that spark curiosity, generate investigable questions, and refine those questions through collaborative routines. By functioning as learners, teachers will develop a clearer understanding of how questioning supports sensemaking and drives investigations at different grade levels. Educators will leave with questioning structures, talk moves, and classroom-ready tools to empower students to lead their own learning. Experience the science practice of Asking Questions from the perspective of their students. Engage in phenomena-based tasks that spark curiosity and prompt authentic, investigable questions. Refine and improve questions through collaborative routines and discussion. Leave with questioning structures, talk moves, and classroom-ready tools that empower students to take ownership of their learning

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will engage in phenomena-based tasks to spark, refine, and prioritize student-led questions. By practicing collaborative routines and talk moves, you’ll leave with classroom-ready tools to shift ownership to students, using their curiosity to drive deep sensemaking and investigation.

SPEAKERS:
Heather Galbreath, Misty Richmond

This poster showcases CLUES (Crucial Literacy for Understanding Essential Science), an innovative professional learning model designed to support middle school educators—particularly in rural and under-resourced settings—in integrating disciplinary literacy within NGSS-aligned science instruction. CLUES equips science and special educators with strategies to embed reading, writing, reasoning, and communication into three-dimensional science learning. Attendees will explore a lesson showcase featuring before, during, and after instructional supports, with adaptable tools to meet varied learner needs. This work advances NSTA’s mission by promoting equitable, high-quality science instruction through professional learning, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and scalable, practice-based resources that empower all students to engage meaningfully in science.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be introduced to how to integrate disciplinary literacy into NGSS-aligned science instruction using practical, classroom-ready strategies that support diverse learners, including students with disabilities, and strengthen equitable science learning outcomes.

SPEAKERS:
Brooke Moore

Teachers have expressed a desire to incorporate authentic climate data into their curricula, but struggle to find accessible and meaningful datasets that can be easily integrated into modern teaching practices. In response to this problem, climate scientists and instructional specialists from the University of Colorado Boulder have collaborated to create "Data Puzzles", a free resource that utilizes instructional practices as outlined by Ambitious Science Teaching (AST) to engage students in data analysis in the context of important scientific research. Data Puzzles challenge students to analyze and interpret climate datasets to construct explanatory models for important questions like, "What is causing the megadrought in the Colorado River Basin?” and "Why might the Arctic be warming faster than the rest of the world?".

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be introduced with AST practices and authentic climate datasets in the context of the Data Puzzle resources.

SPEAKERS:
Jonathan Griffith

We will showcase newly developed, middle school STEM lessons that interweave Native American stories, language, and culture to positively impact student learning. The lessons are a part of Native Earth | Native Sky (NENS) curriculum that can be accessed through our website and downloaded for free. The poster will showcase cultural connections with STEM, a 5E lesson overview, the pedagogical approaches of Two-Eyed Seeing and Place-Based Learning, implementation strategies, and NASA resources and tools through graphics, illustrations, and text. As we highlight our standards-aligned lessons in the poster presentation, we will include feedback from students and teachers to demonstrate the positive impact of interweaving stories, culture, and language with STEM.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to connect all students’ cultures to engage students in STEM lessons, using Native American stories as a starting point for standards-based, 5E science lessons and discussion. Attendees will also learn about other free lessons and activities published on our website.

SPEAKERS:
KIRTIKA PANWAR, Kena Hawkins, Kathryn Gardner-Vandy, Sarah McDowell

This poster will present an exploratory qualitative study examining how high school science teachers conceptualize students’ science identities and how these understandings shape their use of the curriculum and instructional decision-making. Although science identity has been widely recognized as important for students’ participation and persistence in STEM, less is known about how teachers define science identity in practice and how these definitions influence how they adapt, evaluate, and enact the curriculum. Drawing on sociocultural theory, particularly figured worlds and teacher sensemaking, this study uses semi-structured interviews with high school science teachers in the greater Seattle area to investigate how teachers imagine who belongs in science and how curriculum can support students’ identity development. Findings will contribute to conversations on identity-supportive teaching, teacher learning, and science curriculum design.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn that supporting science identity is not only about STEM pathways but also about helping students build academic confidence, engage in scientific reasoning, critically question information, and see science as meaningful for their community.

SPEAKERS:
Anqi Zu

How do we move beyond traditional assessments to truly measure three-dimensional learning? This poster session explores the differences and connections between Transfer Tasks and Case Studies as high-quality NGSS-aligned assessment strategies. Using agriculture-based phenomena, participants will examine how each approach supports sensemaking, increases cognitive demand, and provides meaningful opportunities for students to apply scientific understanding in real-world contexts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Clear comparison of two high-impact assessment strategies Ready-to-use examples grounded in real-world agricultural contexts.

SPEAKERS:
Angela Gulotta, Hannah Wedger

How did corn become one of the world's most important crops? How will it meet the challenges of a changing climate? Through the Illinois AgBio Corn Storyline, participants investigate how genetics, environmental pressures, engineering design, and technology work together to improve crop production and address challenges such as climate change. Educators experience instructional strategies that engage students in using evidence to explain agricultural phenomena while exploring innovations in precision agriculture, biotechnology, data-driven farming, and genetic modification. Participants will leave with a classroom-ready storyline that connects to NGSS performance expectations and Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources (AFNR) Career Cluster pathways and helps students see the science behind one of the world's most versatile crops.

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore the surprising science behind one of the world's most important crops. Experience a classroom-ready storyline that uses corn to spark curiosity, investigate real-world challenges, and connect science learning to biotechnology, engineering, and STEM careers.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Embry Mohr, Zoe Evans

How do we move students beyond climate anxiety to evidence-based advocacy? Join us for an immersive experience with the New Visions Earth & Space Climate Change unit. Participants will step into the role of science learners to compare past natural climate cycles to current warming trends and then reflect to see how students uncover the "fingerprint" of human activity. This three-dimensional, phenomenon-driven unit empowers students to counter common misconceptions, such as "it's just a natural cycle," by interpreting the same data that has led 99.9% of climate scientists to conclude humans are the culprit. Learn how to build durable skills in reasoning and evidence-based explanation through structured and collaborative sensemaking routines. Leave with classroom-ready materials, including storyline-based lesson sequences and consensus-building protocols, designed to support evidence-based explanations and arguments and empower students to educate their community.

TAKEAWAYS:
Climate science curricula should empower students to move from anxiety to empowerment. Experience a free HS ESS unit and learn to use sensemaking routines to help students collaboratively analyze data and build 3D explanations that clarify human impact on climate change and debunk misconceptions.

SPEAKERS:
Dora Kastel

The NSTA Sensemaking Tool can help educators be critical consumers of instructional materials and create/revise lessons that reflect the shifts required by new standards (sensemaking). Gain experience using the tool and facilitating criteria-based consensus conversations with your colleagues!

TAKEAWAYS:
Use the NSTA Sensemaking Tool to evaluate instructional materials (lessons) and provide feedback.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Mathews

The science practice of developing and using models supports students in applying crosscutting concepts such as recognizing patterns, making claims about cause and effect, and explaining system changes, to make sense of disciplinary core ideas. This session focuses on designing ‘look-to-learn’ items to guide all students, including learners with varied language and literacy backgrounds, in analyzing visual models from high-content diagrams to simplified comics used as sensemaking prompts. These items can be used at any point in a lesson as group or individual assessments that provide feedback supporting student discussion and explanation revision. Workshop materials include clear examples of look-to-learn items and design rationales, links to effective visuals, and a list of tools to support development. Item types include open-ended, scaffolded performance tasks and closed-ended, multi-modal questions for life & earth sciences, chemistry & astronomy (6-12+, including AP & Onramps).​

TAKEAWAYS:
Expect brief modeling and an overview of materials; spend the workshop collaborating or working solo to design ‘look‑to‑learn’ items (low‑ or ed‑tech) or select from a gallery. Return to your classroom with items that support student sensemaking through structured model analysis.

SPEAKERS:
TeNeal Metcalf

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

In this hands-on session, participants will explore the science and engineering practice of Developing and Using Models by stepping into the shoes of K–12 learners. Teachers will assume the role of the student as they create, revise, and refine models that represent their own learning and understanding of phenomena. Through this immersive experience, educators will uncover how modeling deepens sensemaking and progresses across grade levels. Participants will leave with ready-to-use modeling routines, templates, and strategies that make student thinking visible. Experience the science and engineering practice of Developing and Using Models from a K–12 student perspective. Create, revise, and refine models to represent their own understanding of phenomena. Explore how modeling supports sensemaking and conceptual progression across grade levels.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will leave with ready-to-use modeling routines, templates, and instructional moves that help students create, revise, and use models to make their thinking visible and build understanding of scientific phenomena across K–12 grade levels

SPEAKERS:
Misty Richmond, Heather Galbreath

The Science of Purification: Hands-On Water Filtration Lab is an engaging STEM activity that allows students to investigate how water can be cleaned through physical filtration methods. Working collaboratively, students design and build their own filtration systems using common materials to remove impurities from contaminated water samples. Throughout the lab, students explore concepts such as mixtures, particle size, engineering design, and environmental science while collecting and analyzing data to improve their models. This interactive experience promotes critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork while helping students understand the importance of clean water access and the real-world applications of science and engineering in water purification systems.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will design and test water filtration systems to explore purification methods, engineering design, and environmental science concepts while developing problem-solving, collaboration, and data analysis skills through a hands-on STEM investigation.

SPEAKERS:
Jonathan Bailey

How can we redesign a better school lunch to meet the nutritional needs of all students? In this workshop, participants will explore a 8-lesson high school biology unit that engages students in authentic sensemaking by connecting biochemistry, nutrition, anatomy, and engineering design to their own school meals. Built using OpenSciEd design principles, the unit launches with an anchor phenomena routine where students investigate USDA changes to school lunches and create timelines of how meals have evolved. Lessons then examine added sugars, how carbohydrates fuel the body, balancing energy from macronutrients, protein sources, and the impact of cooking on nutrition, culminating in student-designed lunch menus. Participants will engage in key routines, analyze student-generated questions, and take part in a gallery walk of student work, assessments, and redesign projects. All student-facing slides, worksheets, rubrics, and assessments will be shared as open educational resources.

TAKEAWAYS:
Experience an OpenSciEd-inspired anchor phenomena routine and leave with a complete, freely available 8-lesson biology unit—featuring 3D assessments, student work, and strategies to adapt length and scaffolds to support all learners.

SPEAKERS:
William Baur

The Science and Engineering Practices help students show how they question, investigate, model, analyze data, construct explanations, and argue from evidence. In this interactive session, participants will examine traditional science assignments and identify where student thinking may remain invisible. Using the SEPs as a design lens, educators will revise tasks so students must use evidence, make decisions, critique ideas, and explain their reasoning. The session helps participants strengthen existing lessons so student sensemaking remains central, even when students have access to AI tools.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to use the Science and Engineering Practices as a design lens to revise science tasks so student reasoning, evidence use, critique, and sensemaking remain visible, even when students have access to AI.

SPEAKERS:
Velma Itamura

Our year-long STEM Buddy Program fosters enthusiasm for science, builds essential skills and strengthens our school community through meaningful cross-grade interactions. This program is intentionally aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards, with a strong emphasis on the Science and Engineering Practices that foster essential, transferable skills. While students engage in hands-on engineering challenges, the primary purpose of these experiences is to develop critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. This cross-age STEM buddy program supports STEM for All by creating equitable access to meaningful, hands-on engineering experiences for all students. By pairing 8th grade mentors with 4th grade partners, the program reduces barriers to participation and fosters an inclusive learning environment where students of varying abilities and backgrounds can engage in collaborative problem solving.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session highlights a yearlong STEM buddy program that pairs 8th grade students with 4th grade partners for monthly, hands-on engineering challenges. Attendees will explore examples of low-cost, easily implemented challenges and gain strategies for establishing a program in their own school.

SPEAKERS:
Nicole McJunkin

How do science teachers help students determine what climate information is credible? This qualitative case study examines three Indonesian science teachers' approaches to teaching epistemic evaluation, the practice of critically assessing claims and sources, within interdisciplinary Science classrooms. Findings reveal three key patterns: the instructional strategies teachers use to scaffold information evaluation, how teachers conceptualize this practice, and the curriculum and contextual challenges they face. Although situated in Indonesia, the challenges these teachers navigate:  misinformation, fragmented curricula, and limited frameworks for teaching evidence evaluation, mirror those faced by science educators globally. This session offers practical insights and transferable strategies for science teachers seeking to strengthen students' ability to critically evaluate information about climate change and other natural phenomena in today's complex information landscape.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees, particularly teachers, will gain insight with transferable strategies for teaching students to critically evaluate climate change information, grounded in real classroom practice across any kind of teaching contexts

SPEAKERS:
Anna Rahmadianty

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

Great ag-based science lessons already exist! But do they align with your standards...? NASELI (Nebraska Agricultural Science Education Leadership Initiative) developed a simple cover sheet model that helps teachers localize existing agricultural curriculum to fit both state science standards and NGSS's three-dimensional learning framework. In this session, you'll see how NASELI teacher leaders create localized guides to connect agricultural phenomena, such as corn genetics and water management, to disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts. The result: ready-to-use lessons grounded in local agriculture and aligned to the standards you already teach. Walk away with a replicable model you can use to adapt agriculture curriculum in your own classroom or region, plus access to a free, growing repository of localized and aligned agriculture guides and curriculum on OER Commons.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to use NASELI's localization model to utilize existing ag-based science curriculum and connect it to your state standards and NGSS's three-dimensional learning framework.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Jones

This presentation explores the integration of three-dimensional thinking into science curriculum and assessment, emphasizing a deeper understanding of scientific concepts and practices. Attendees will discover practical strategies to design curricula that foster critical thinking, inquiry, and real-world application. The session will also highlight effective assessment techniques aligned with three-dimensional learning, ensuring that student evaluations reflect their conceptual knowledge, scientific practices, and crosscutting concepts. Ideal for educators seeking to enhance science instruction and improve student engagement, this presentation offers insights to transform traditional teaching approaches into dynamic, interconnected learning experiences that prepare students for future scientific challenges.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to effectively incorporate three-dimensional thinking into science curriculum and assessments, enhancing student engagement and understanding by connecting core concepts, scientific practices, and crosscutting themes for deeper, real-world learning experiences.

SPEAKERS:
Treshana Weise

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

This session introduces educators to the process of identifying agricultural phenomena and connecting them to NGSS science concepts and emphasizes how to make science instruction more relevant by integrating agriculture as a lens for exploration and inquiry. Participants will engage in hands-on activities including an agriculture phenomena sort, a game designed to evaluate and align examples of agricultural phenomena with the NGSS three dimensions and science standards. Teachers will brainstorm local phenomena and leave with tools like a phenomena checklist and a ready-to-use list of agricultural phenomena that can be used across disciplines.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers leave with tools to identify and incorporate agricultural phenomena that are observable, puzzling, and connected to NGSS three dimensions.

SPEAKERS:
Hannah Wedger, Angela Gulotta

The NSTA Sensemaking Tool can help educators be critical consumers of instructional materials and create/revise lessons that reflect the shifts required by new standards (sensemaking). Gain experience using the tool and facilitating criteria-based consensus conversations with your colleagues!

TAKEAWAYS:
Use the NSTA Sensemaking Tool to evaluate instructional materials (lessons) and provide feedback.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Mathews

How do we transform standard instructional materials into powerful showcases of three-dimensional learning without increasing teacher workload? This workshop aligns with the Three-Dimensional Teaching, Curriculum, and Assessment strand, demonstrating how to adapt OpenSciEd and ClassCrunchLabs units into authentic transfer tasks. Participants step into the student hat to experience a mini design challenge modeled after Shark Tank and ExploraVision formats. We connect to NGSS goals like MS-PS2 magnetic fields and engineering design. To ensure Science for All, we provide multiple equity examples, including accessible scaffolding templates for diverse learners and inclusive team structures. Shifting to the teacher hat, participants will analyze student-facing pitch templates and use a provided crosswalk tool. You will map these formative and summative assessment strategies directly to your local Portrait of a Graduate competencies, leaving with classroom-ready diagnostic rubrics.

TAKEAWAYS:
Stop rewriting curriculum from scratch. Transform OpenSciEd or ClassCrunchLabs units into thrilling Shark Tank or ExploraVision style transfer tasks. Gain inclusive strategies to make three-dimensional thinking visible and incorporate your school's Portrait of a Graduate durable skills.

SPEAKERS:
Kathleen Boucher-Lavigne

Tornado Alley is shifting - can your students explain why? Step into the role of a learner and tackle this real-world phenomenon by analyzing data, spotting patterns, and building an evidence-based explanation. Then switch to a teacher lens to uncover what three-dimensional learning actually looks like in practice and how to assess it. You’ll dig into student responses, identify evidence of real thinking, and turn traditional questions into meaningful 3D assessment tasks. Walk away with ready-to-use strategies, templates, and tools that make student thinking visible, without adding to your workload.

TAKEAWAYS:
Design and use three-dimensional assessments that turn real-world phenomena into opportunities to make student thinking visible, revealing what students truly understand, not just what they can recall.

SPEAKERS:
Shelby Irvin

What happens when young learners are invited to notice first and explain later? This session challenges PK–2 educators to reimagine science instruction by stepping outside—literally—and embracing a phenomena-based, inquiry-driven approach that nurtures curiosity, sensemaking, and a lasting connection to the natural world. Through practical examples, we’ll share strategies for lesson design, integrating STEM and literacy, and using themes like birds or trees to build connections. Learn how to overcome barriers, use available space and resources, and embrace “messy” science without needing all the answers. Leave with simple, adaptable ideas, increased confidence, and a clear message: meaningful science learning can happen anywhere—starting just outside your door.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn to use curiosity and everyday outdoor spaces to drive phenomenon-based, inquiry science. You’ll gain practical, easy-to-apply strategies, integrate STEM and literacy, build confidence, and leave thinking, “I can do this.”

SPEAKERS:
Joel Eichenauer, Susan Gnagy

Join us for an engaging workshop that brings cutting-edge particle physics into your classroom. Explore how scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN tackle fundamental questions about the universe—and how their discoveries connect to high school science. Through hands-on activities from the NSF-supported QuarkNet program, you'll experience ways to integrate real data, current research, and core physics concepts into your curriculum, all aligned with national science standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with examples of standards-based classroom activities that link cutting-edge physics research to core concepts taught in high school physics and physical science.

SPEAKERS:
Kenneth Cecire, Shane Wood

This session highlights practical, classroom-ready strategies for strengthening three-dimensional sensemaking in high school science courses, with an intentional focus on courses with heavy content standards (e.g. honors and AP classes). Participants will engage with coherent lesson sequences that intentionally integrate DCI's, SEP's and CCC's through anchoring phenomena and the use of student voice. Concrete examples of instructional routines, assessment tasks and student work samples will demonstrate how to make student thinking visible and actionable. Emphasis will be placed on designing and using assessments that capture evidence of reasoning, model development and evidence-based explanation, while informing real-time instructional decisions. Attendees will explore adaptable templates, scoring tools, and planning protocols aligned to typical classroom constraints, ensuring feasibility without increasing workload.

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore instructional shifts that can be implemented immediately in your high school classroom. Participants will leave with small, practical adjustments to lesson planning that allow student voice to drive instruction while still addressing rigorous, content-heavy standards.

SPEAKERS:
Matthew Bulman

Why doesn't an apple seed grow into the same kind of apple? Explore this surprising question through the Illinois AgBio Apple Storyline, where an everyday fruit becomes the foundation for investigating genetics, heredity, plant reproduction, and engineering design. Experience how students use models, evidence, and problem-solving to discover why grafting preserves desirable traits, how new apple varieties are developed, and how engineers and scientists address challenges in modern orchards. Along the way, explore how food production connects biology, engineering, and innovation while highlighting careers in horticulture, biotechnology, agricultural engineering, and plant science. Leave with a classroom-ready storyline that brings genetics to life through an authentic agricultural phenomenon.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover how an everyday apple can unlock big ideas in genetics and engineering. Experience a classroom-ready storyline that helps students investigate heredity, innovation, and food production while connecting science learning to authentic STEM careers.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Embry Mohr, Zoe Evans

Scientific sensemaking requires students to question claims, evaluate evidence, revise ideas, and defend decisions. In this interactive session, participants will explore how AI can be positioned as a reasoning partner within SEP-based classroom routines. Rather than treating AI as an answer source, educators will consider how structured routines can prompt students to analyze information, test claims against evidence, identify gaps in reasoning, revise ideas, and explain their decisions. Participants will examine adaptable routine structures and consider how they could support purposeful AI use, productive struggle, and evidence-based discussion in their own science classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to facilitate SEP-based classroom routines that position AI as a reasoning partner while keeping students responsible for evidence, critique, revision, and sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Velma Itamura

When students have access to AI, a polished final product may not provide enough evidence of what they understand. This interactive session helps educators use the Science and Engineering Practices to identify what student reasoning should look like and how it can be assessed. Participants will explore how different types of student work, discussion, revision, and explanation can provide evidence of reasoning when tasks are designed around the Science and Engineering Practices. The session focuses on designing assessment approaches that value evidence use, critique, revision, explanation, argumentation, and decision-making in science learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to use the Science and Engineering Practices to identify and assess evidence of student thinking, critique, revision, and reasoning defense in AI-resilient science learning.

SPEAKERS:
Velma Itamura

This presentation will explore how Formative Instructional Practices (FIP) can transform classroom instruction. FIP is a research-based approach that emphasizes continuous feedback, student involvement, and clear learning goals to improve academic achievement. The goal of this session is to equip educators with practical strategies to implement FIP effectively, helping students take ownership of their learning while enabling teachers to make informed instructional decisions. FIPs are not new, but when used consistently, they can be a game-changer in classrooms. This presentation will begin by reviewing the core principles of FIP, including the importance of setting clear learning targets, using descriptive feedback, involving students in the learning process, and adjusting instruction based on evidence of student understanding. Participants will reflect on their current practices and identify opportunities to integrate FIP more deeply into their teaching routines.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session delivers formative instructional practices (FIPs) that are easy to implement, but will make a big difference. Participants will walk away with a cache of strategies that elevate student learning and engagement without adding extra work to their plates.

SPEAKERS:
Mesa Davis

Ready to take your sensemaking skills to the next level? In this extended, in-depth session, participants will use the NSTA Sensemaking Tool to thoroughly evaluate instructional materials and provide meaningful, criteria-based feedback. You’ll apply the tool to real lessons, identify key strengths and growth areas, and engage in collaborative discussion to build consensus. The session will also include an overview of the NSTA evaluator process for those interested in becoming formal reviewers. Walk away with increased confidence, practical experience, and a clearer pathway to serving as an NSTA reviewer.

TAKEAWAYS:
Apply the NSTA Sensemaking Tool with confidence to support teachers as they make instructional shifts that promote student sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Brianna Reilly Oliveira

Driving Question: How do environmental conditions influence plant growth?  This hands-on workshop demonstrates how to use plant processes to investigate how environmental conditions influence plant growth through a three-dimensional model aligned to NGSS (e.g., HS-LS1-5). Participants will engage in a classroom-ready activity manipulating variables such as light and temperature, collecting and analyzing data, and interpreting a sample dataset to construct evidence-based explanations using a Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) framework to determine the cause and effect relationship between environmental factors and plant growth.  The session emphasizes coherence across curriculum, instruction, and assessment by aligning learning goals, inquiry-based investigation, and CER assessment to make student thinking visible. Attendees will explore how disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts support sensemaking.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to implement a coherent, three-dimensional lesson using plant investigations and CER to support student sensemaking and explain how environmental conditions influence plant growth.

SPEAKERS:
Macon Beck

How can we help students see themselves in STEM careers they may have never considered? In this interactive session, participants will engage in hands-on activities, learn strategies for facilitating meaningful classroom conversations about STEM careers, and explore free resources that help students connect science learning to authentic opportunities beyond the classroom. Discover how career exploration can become a natural extension of science instruction while helping students understand the people, technologies, and innovations that shape the world around them. Leave with ready-to-use tools and resources that make career conversations engaging, relevant, and accessible for all learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn practical strategies for making STEM career exploration a meaningful part of science instruction. Leave with ready-to-use resources, conversation tools, and activities that help students connect classroom learning to future opportunities.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Embry Mohr, Zoe Evans

An integral focus of this session is providing concrete examples of curriculum structures embedded within an established, high-quality curriculum: OpenSciEd. Rather than asking teachers to build culturally responsive units from scratch, this workshop provides explicit scaffolds to overlay cultural assets onto existing OpenSciEd middle school units. Reviewers and participants will actively examine middle school student artifacts from OpenSciEd Units, demonstrating how Latin-American folktales can be utilized as an equitable entry point for multilingual learners to engage in complex spatial modeling and data analysis. By showing actual student-generated models that map tectonic data directly onto the geography of oral myths, the session provides clear, classroom-tested evidence that leveraging students' linguistic and cultural resources as assets directly strengthens their capacity for evidence-based scientific reasoning.

TAKEAWAYS:
We don’t need to reinvent the curriculum wheel to be inclusive. We just need to provide the tools that allow students to navigate that wheel using the rich, ancestral roadmaps they already bring from home.

SPEAKERS:
Ivan Ochoa Martinez

Experience how leveraging complex culturally relevant societal challenges as phenomena in 3D teaching and learning supports student motivation and engagement and develops student agency within and beyond the classroom! The Framework for K-12 Science Education and NGSS call for learning grounded in real world phenomena and problems to ensure that science learning is relevant to all students. The AIL instructional model succeeds the 5Es and utilizes complex and culturally relevant societal challenges to anchor multiple cycles of inquiry and sensemaking, culminating with student explanations/design solutions. AIL employs science education research emphasizing coherence from students’ perspective. In this session, participants will 1) consider their own ideas about teaching complex societal challenges, 2) experience 3D learning, and 3) consider the science concepts of a societal challenge (antibiotic resistance, heart disease, food sustainability, anthropogenic changes to biodiversity).

TAKEAWAYS:
The research-based BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning instructional model succeeds the 5Es and leverages complex societal issues as anchoring phenomena/problems, culminating tasks, and performance assessments in 3D units of instruction to motivate students and develop agency in addressing these issues.

SPEAKERS:
Cynthia Gay

Contact forces might be all around us, but the juicy nuggets in this unit help them make sense. This session helps you uncover key features in Carnival of Collisions that make it easier to plan, teach, and guide students through puzzling ideas like balanced and unbalanced forces, motion, and collisions. We will walk through the built-in teacher tools, prompts, and routines that support deep thinking and epic classroom moments. Whether students are knocking down bowing pins or smashing watermelons, you will leave with ready-to-use moves that help the learning stick.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover classroom-ready tools in Carnival of Collisions that help students explore contact forces and investigate what really happens when objects crash, bounce, or come to a sudden stop.

SPEAKERS:
Spencer Martin

This session focuses on building authentic assessments tied to agricultural phenomena. Teachers will role-play a condensed transfer task centering around a relevant agricultural phenomenon, analyze its components, and discuss the potential design of their own using a provided template. The session emphasizes how transfer tasks connect classroom learning to real-world challenges, encouraging students to apply science concepts meaningfully. Participants will leave with a blank and sample template to use in their own instructional setting.

TAKEAWAYS:
Agricultural transfer tasks give students authentic assessment opportunities where they can apply their science learning.

SPEAKERS:
Angela Gulotta, Hannah Wedger

The NOAA-supported resource, “Ocean Protector,” is a free, online educational game that teaches students about the impacts of ocean acidification and solutions to address it. This decision-making game serves a full curriculum designed explicitly to bring ocean science to high school students with little or no connection to the ocean. Teachers will have a complete classroom-ready educator guide, instructional module, standards alignment and assessment tools. Students will learn about the causes and effects of ocean acidification and evaluate real world solutions. In the game, students choose a character representing specific ocean sectors (e.g. fishing boat captain) and make real-time analytical decisions and evaluate their consequences. This experience helps students construct explanations, reason effectively, and become self-directed learners of ocean science. Attendees will have ample time for informal discussion. Ocean Protector: https://outreachgames.org/OceanProtector/main.html

TAKEAWAYS:
ring the ocean inland! Use the free and classroom ready, decision-based 'Ocean Protector' game for high school students, complete with curriculum, educator guide, standards align and assessment tools.

SPEAKERS:
Liz Perotti

Looking for strategies that support all learners in your science class? Join experienced co-teachers as they share how they’ve built an inclusive biology course for both traditional diploma students and those earning an alternate diploma, typically students with significant cognitive disabilities. Learn how teachers use Indiana standards and modified Content Connectors to build assessment, class supports, and more to support the sensemaking of a wide range of students. This session will include a comparison between assignments, assessment, and tools that we use between our traditional and alternate diploma students. We will share our biology curriculum map that shows our approach on reaching standards for learners with disabilities. While the focus is on co-teaching, many of these approaches can be used by teachers that do not co-teach to help support students.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this session, teachers will discover practical strategies, planning tools, and alternate assessments that support sensemaking for both traditional diploma students and students with significant cognitive disabilities in inclusive science classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Fabian Lopez, Zackary Lopez

Dr. Michael Wysession, NGSS co-author and geophysics professor, presents engaging place-based Midwest-centered storylines that allow students from all backgrounds to more effectively develop sensemaking of up-to-date, research-driven climate science and how it relates to their home communities. For example, the establishment of many Midwestern states (Indiana-1816; Illinois-1818; Missouri-1821) was directly impacted by global and regional climate changes that included the Little Ice Age (creating a demand for animal furs for clothing) and the 1815 eruption of the Indonesian volcano Tambora, which caused the “year without a summer” famines and drove easterners westward into the Midwest. Examining current local extreme weather events and regional Midwest geology (e.g., glacial deposits and limestone bedrock) can foster student sensemaking of the many different cycles of climate change required by NGSS performance expectations.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students effectively develop sensemaking of NGSS performance expectations concerning weather and climate using place-based storylines anchored by Midwest regional phenomena. Instructors will leave with multiple ideas for incorporating the latest climate science into their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Wysession

Who's the parent? Who's the offspring? In first grade, students learn that "young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents." In this workshop, the presenter will share the activities he leads so that his first graders make this discovery for themselves. By engaging in various picture matching exercises, a shared family traits homework assignment, and an aliens' family tree assessment, the presenter will show how he teaches the concept of inherited traits in fun, kid-friendly way.

TAKEAWAYS:
Children may have heard that they have their moms eyes and their dad's nose because they are a mix of traits and physical features that they have inherited from their mom and dad. People in families might look alike, but they can also be different. These differences are an important part of life.

SPEAKERS:
Cezar Simeon

This session provides a deep dive into a phenomenon-driven chemistry unit centered on climate change. Participants will experience how a full unit can be built around the question: “How do we use chemistry to help solve the climate crisis in a fair way as a global community?” The unit uses fossil fuel combustion, ice core data, and greenhouse gas chemistry phenomena to teach mole conversions. stoichiometry, limiting reactants, percent composition, and molecular structure. Participants will engage with student-facing materials, data sets, and modeling tasks that connect chemical equations to real-world climate impacts. A key focus of the session is integrating climate justice into chemistry instruction by examining how emissions, energy systems, and environmental harm are distributed unevenly across populations. Participants will leave with a fully mapped unit storyline, assessment ideas, and instructional routines for supporting student sensemaking.

TAKEAWAYS:
We will explore how we can use molecular-level explanations to support student climate reasoning, allowing students to integrate climate justice and equity considerations into chemistry-based solutions.

SPEAKERS:
Christine Gustafson

How do robotics competitions spark deeper science learning? In this high-energy 60-minute workshop, participants will explore how robotics programs can engage students in authentic challenge, teamwork, and problem-solving while supporting three-dimensional, NGSS-aligned science learning. Led by a robotics team mentor, this session shares practical strategies for using competition experiences to build student sensemaking, strengthen science and engineering practices, and sustain teams over time while widening access for all learners. Attendees will leave with ready-to-use ideas, planning tools, and sustainability strategies they can apply immediately.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use robotics competitions to energize student engagement, strengthen NGSS-aligned science learning, and sustain equitable teams through sensemaking, teamwork, and problem-solving.

SPEAKERS:
Dana Lupton

Join BSCS as we share and discuss how leadership can support NGSS implementation through planning for professional learning experiences that center the needs of teachers and students through the use of high quality instructional materials. We will discuss how leaders can leverage high quality instructional materials to strengthen the shared vision of the instructional shifts called for by the NGSS. Hear how a state level partnership with multiple LEAs deepened teacher’s knowledge of the NGSS and three dimensional instructional practices.

TAKEAWAYS:
Using high quality instructional materials as a lever to further NGSS implementation across multiple district/school contexts can support teachers and leaders as they enhance and expand their practice to improve outcomes for their students and learning communities.

SPEAKERS:
Jenine Cotton-Proby

Why does food in a solar cooker end up overcooked, undercooked, or just right? In this session, educators will explore the juicy nuggets inside the Class CrunchLabs Solar Cook-Off unit that help students make sense of energy transfer, particle motion, temperature, and thermal energy. Through hands-on investigations, modeling routines, discussion strategies, and classroom-ready teacher supports, participants will experience how students build explanations for how and why different foods cook differently in solar cookers. We will highlight the embedded tools, prompts, and sensemaking routines that support three-dimensional learning and student-driven investigation. Whether students are testing reflectors, comparing what factors affect how materials heat up, or debating how energy moves through a system, attendees will leave with practical strategies and engaging ideas they can immediately bring into their classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover classroom-ready strategies and tools that help students investigate thermal energy transfer and explain why different foods cook differently in solar cookers.

SPEAKERS:
Spencer Martin

HS-ESS3-5 asks students to analyze data and global climate models to forecast rates of regional climate change and future impacts. We share a 5E set of place-based activities in which students collect NOAA climate data from a city of their choosing and forecast what their community will look like by 2100. Students collect 30 years of temperature and precipitation records, analyzing trends and calculating rates of change to identify patterns. Using the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios, students explain cause and effect between policy decisions and outcomes by matching news articles to scenarios. Then, students forecast local climate at mid- and end-of-century and identify cities already at those conditions. Next, students explore fall temperature and first frost dates. Using ice core records students compare their findings to warming rates of the last 400,000 years. Each activity builds toward the evidence-based forecast, rooted in data students collected from their own community.

TAKEAWAYS:
We share a 5E set of place-based activities in which students collect NOAA climate data from a city of their choosing and forecast what their community will look like by 2100. All data guides, Google Sheets templates, worksheets, and readings provided.

SPEAKERS:
Stephen Mattox

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 session pulls back the curtain on the NSTA/CBC Best STEM Book award, examining the selection process and how titles can anchor complex, three-dimensional learning. Participants will first explore the committee's specific criteria, looking beyond standard narratives to identify books that authentically model the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) and the iterative nature of design. In a hands-on workshop format, you will act as a committee member to evaluate a variety of high-quality trade books. Can you identify which titles meet the "Best STEM" threshold and which fall short? We will analyze how these books highlight real-world problem-solving and divergent thinking. Finally, we will demonstrate how to move beyond "read-alouds" by using these books as catalysts for these practices. You will leave with instructional strategies and ideas for support materials to help students engage with complex content through the lens of award-winning STEM literature.

TAKEAWAYS:
Go beyond read-alouds by learning how the NSTA/CBC committee selects Best STEM Books. Evaluate titles using the Science and Engineering Practices to anchor three-dimensional learning. You'll leave with strategies to integrate these books into instruction, making the practices come alive for students

SPEAKERS:
Simone Nance, Elizabeth (Betsy) O'Day, Christine Anne Royce, J Carrie Launius

Get ready to channel your inner builder. In this 2-hour session, you will learn how to teach the kinetic energy hands-on classroom challenges created by the CrunchLabs toy engineers, the same crew behind some of Mark Rober’s most memorable builds. These challenges are more than just fun. They power deeper science understanding and give students the chance to design, test, and think like engineers. We will walk through how to launch a challenge, organize your space, support student testing, and help learners reflect on what they discovered. You will leave with practical strategies to keep the mess under control, the ideas flowing, and the energy high.

TAKEAWAYS:
Get practical strategies for setting up and running CrunchLabs classroom challenges. These hands-on experiences build student confidence, creativity, and sensemaking skills.

SPEAKERS:
Spencer Martin

Over six years, our science department transformed assessment from a traditional grading model to a skills-first competency-based system. Beginning with NGSS-inspired exploration and classroom pilots, we gradually developed shared competencies, common assessment practices, and department-wide expectations that emphasize scientific skills, feedback, and student growth. In this session, participants will explore the evolution of our framework, the challenges and successes of implementation, and the lessons learned from moving from isolated experiments to a fully integrated competency-based program. Through examples of assessments, rubrics, student reflections, and feedback systems, attendees will examine practical strategies for building competency-based assessment in their own classrooms and departments.

TAKEAWAYS:
Leave with a roadmap for implementing competency-based assessment in science, including competencies, rubrics, feedback systems, student reflection, and lessons learned from six years of implementation.

SPEAKERS:
Joseph Grissom

How can chemistry feel more relevant, coherent, and connected to the real world across an entire course? In this session, participants will explore a year-long chemistry course redesigned around Earth and Space Science phenomena anchored in NGSS storylines. Rather than treating chemistry as a sequence of isolated units, this approach uses compelling phenomena—such as climate change, stellar life-cycles, geomorphology, and water quality—as the driving narrative structure for learning. Participants will experience how chemistry content standards can be purposefully embedded into Earth and Space Science contexts to build coherence and deepen conceptual understanding. We will also examine how storylines support student sensemaking, increase engagement, and create authentic opportunities for modeling and explanation.

TAKEAWAYS:
We will explore how the use of Earth & Space phenomena make the abstract world of chemistry more visible and equitable for students.

SPEAKERS:
Christine Gustafson

Indigenous practices of sustainability provide powerful entry points for teaching K–12 students about climate change. These traditions emphasize long-term relationships with the land, cycles of renewal, and reciprocity between people and ecosystems. By examining practices such as seasonal harvesting, controlled burns, rotational planting, and respect for biodiversity, students see concrete examples of how communities have lived in balance with their environments for generations. These practices highlight the importance of observing natural patterns, valuing interdependence, and considering the impact of decisions on future generations. In the classroom, Indigenous perspectives can help students move beyond seeing climate change as abstract science toward understanding it as a lived reality that requires responsibility and care. This approach not only deepens ecological literacy but also encourages students to think critically about sustainability solutions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how Indigenous sustainability practices can enrich climate change teaching, gaining practical strategies supported by handouts and classroom case studies to integrate cultural and scientific perspectives into K–12 learning.

SPEAKERS:
Jim McDonald

This session explores how graphical representations can be leveraged to develop elementary students’ understanding of Scale, Proportion, and Quantity, one of the NGSS Crosscutting Concepts. Using examples from OpenSciEd Grade 5 Earth in the Universe, participants will examine how students use standard units of measure, data displays, number lines, and comparative models to make sense of patterns in the Sun, Moon, and stars. Attendees will explore the role of graphical representations in helping students make sense of patterns and relationships across scales that are otherwise difficult to observe directly. Participants will leave with practical strategies for leveraging graphical representations and digital tools to support student sensemaking, develop Scale, Proportion, and Quantity thinking, and deepen understanding of Earth and space science phenomena.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how graphical representations can make otherwise inaccessible Earth and space science phenomena observable, helping elementary students develop Scale, Proportion, and Quantity thinking while making sense of patterns in the Sun, Moon, and stars.

SPEAKERS:
Jacob Noll

This interactive session will explore the benefits of authentic problem-based learning (PBL) while addressing challenges that teachers encounter during its implementation. Participants will engage in group activities that spark reflection and creative thinking while sharing ideas that will equip them with practical strategies and ready-to-use tools for their classrooms. Educators will also be introduced to a free STEM competition that offers resources designed to support teachers and students, such as grants, classroom-ready lessons, student incentives and so much more.

TAKEAWAYS:
Engage in interactive activities centered around problem-based learning (PBL) as we explore classroom challenges with implementing PBL, potential solutions and free resources that you can utilize to engage students.

SPEAKERS:
Laura Wilbanks, Kathryn Lasky

Wondering where familiar chemistry topics like naming compounds, stoichiometry, and gas laws fit into OpenSciEd High School Chemistry? In this interactive session, participants will explore how and why these traditional topics are woven into OpenSciEd's five chemistry units in ways that maintain rigor while supporting student sensemaking. Through examples from across the course, participants will examine how concepts such as atomic structure, the Periodic Table, acids and bases, and the mole are integrated into coherent storylines that preserve students' "aha" moments. For example, students develop models of ions and polar molecules to explain phenomena such as lightning before using atomic models to explain bonding. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of how OpenSciEd blends essential chemistry content with engaging, phenomenon-driven learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover how "traditional" chemistry topics are incorporated into OpenSciEd High School Chemistry storylines without giving away students' aha moments and still mantaining rigor.

SPEAKERS:
Kristy Lathrop

Every Place Runs on Science is a place-based NGSS model that helps teachers turn local environments into meaningful science learning experiences. Instead of starting with a textbook, this approach begins with real places and phenomena, allowing students to investigate the science happening in their own communities. Each location serves as a ready-to-use lesson anchor that includes a short explanation of the science, NGSS alignment across grade bands, and practical classroom ideas. The model integrates AI and digital tools to support research, data analysis, and student-driven inquiry. Students can explore their own interests by creating and contributing new place-based entries, making the learning scalable and personalized. This approach supports three-dimensional learning by connecting practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas through real-world systems, while also building relevance, engagement, and connections to culture and community.

TAKEAWAYS:
Start with place, not the textbook. When students investigate real locations and phenomena, science becomes relevant, engaging, and meaningful. Using NGSS, AI tools, and student-driven inquiry, this model helps learners explore their world and discover that science is already all around them.

SPEAKERS:
Chelsea Lucas

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

In this session, teachers will explore research-based strategies for teaching science in the era of  the science of reading and how to aid the development of understanding in reading, as well as science content, nature of scientific knowledge, and scientific inquiry.

TAKEAWAYS:
Strategies for combining reading and science teaching will be shared.

SPEAKERS:
Gayle Buck, Valarie Akerson

In this session, we will share our motivation for adopting competency based grading and the reasons we will never go back to traditional, “average of total points,” grading. As part of the session, we will ask participants to consider what they believe grades communicate and examine their current grading practices to determine if their stated priorities match their grading practice. We will offer advice and suggestions for a smooth implementation of a competency based grading system including how to use generative AI to reduce your workload and make the writing process more efficient, and win over colleagues, administrators, and parents. Finally, we will share our standards for our chemistry and physics courses as well as examples of how our integration of the 3D NGSS standards with and have improved our classroom instructional practices, homework alignment, and assessments.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn the advantages, philosophy, and basic mechanisms of 3D, competency-based assessment and grading in the high school science classroom utilizing the NGSS and generative AI.

SPEAKERS:
Gary Pritts, Amanda Horan

Collecting and analyzing data to inform decision-making is an important step in sustaining broad and effective implementation of HQIM and the practices likely to improve each student’s learning. Join BSCS to dig into one district’s efforts to enact and monitor a curriculum implementation plan.

TAKEAWAYS:
One important step in sustainability of teacher and leader practices that are likely to improve the learning of each student is to collect and analyze implementation data to inform decision-making.

SPEAKERS:
Jenine Cotton-Proby

Teachers face the challenge of making NGSS-aligned instruction meaningful for students with diverse identities, interests, and community and workforce contexts. The K-12 Framework emphasizes student sensemaking through authentic engagement with real-world phenomena, but teachers need more than materials to do this well. They need practical strategies and adaptable frameworks for customizing curriculum without losing coherence. This session shares guidance for modifying curriculum and OER using place-based design to better reflect students’ lives, communities, and workforce connections. Drawing on work with national STEM initiatives, participants will explore models that support three-dimensional learning, strengthen equity, and expand access for diverse learners. Through classroom examples and adaptations, attendees will leave with concrete approaches for designing rigorous, culturally responsive STEM learning grounded in place.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn practical strategies to customize curriculum for local contexts by using community assets, relevant phenomena, and culturally responsive place-based practices.

SPEAKERS:
Rick Henningfeld, Brian Beierle

When runaway trucks enter the classroom, they bring the kind of chaos, danger, and mayhem that immediately makes students want to figure out how something so massive and fast can actually be stopped. The juicy nuggets in this unit help students uncover the science behind those ideas.This session helps you uncover key features in the Rocks vs Big Rigs unit that make it easier to plan, teach, and guide students through puzzling questions like: How can tiny pieces of gravel stop huge semis? And why are faster trucks harder to stop than heavier ones? We will walk through the built-in teacher tools, prompts, and routines that support deep thinking and epic classroom moments. Whether students are testing mini rigs of different weights on ramps or sending trucks crashing into rice beds, you’ll leave with ready-to-use moves that help the learning stick.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover classroom-ready tools that help students explore kinetic energy and investigate what makes some things harder to stop than others.

SPEAKERS:
Spencer Martin

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

Wondering where familiar biology topics like cell structure, genetics, and photosynthesis fit into OpenSciEd High School Biology? In this interactive session, participants will explore how and why these traditional topics are thoughtfully woven into OpenSciEd's five biology units. Through examples from across the course, participants will examine how concepts such as ecosystems, evolution, human body systems, and molecular biology are integrated into coherent storylines that support student sensemaking while maintaining rigor. Along the way, participants will reflect on the instructional design decisions behind these storylines and consider how similar approaches might be adapted to their own contexts. Educators will leave with a deeper understanding of how OpenSciEd blends essential biology content with engaging, phenomenon-driven learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover how "traditional" biology topics are incorporated into OpenSciEd High School Biology storylines without giving away students' aha moments and still mantaining rigor.

SPEAKERS:
Kristy Lathrop

Science is a fundamental right for every student, starting in the earliest grades. However, elementary science is often reduced to simplified facts or infrequent activities. This session challenges that narrative, presenting a framework for consistent, complex, and equity-based science instruction across all grade levels. We will explore how to transition from traditional "experiments" to student-led investigations where sense-making is the primary goal. Participants will learn how to leverage three-dimensional instruction (SEPs, CCCs, and DCIs) to build student agency and ensure that every learner—regardless of background or language proficiency—has access to high-level scientific thinking. We will discuss the selection of support materials that reflect diverse voices and the development of non-biased assessments that prioritize conceptual complexity. By treating science as a core pillar of the elementary experience, we create a more equitable landscape for all students. Attendees wi

TAKEAWAYS:
Science belongs in every grade level. Equity is achieved when students are "doers" of science. Use Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) to create inclusive, complex environments where all students have agency to make sense of the world, regardless of their reading level or background.

SPEAKERS:
Tyrone McNichols, Mike Szydlowski, J Carrie Launius, Nicole Williams

This session will help secondary science educators design 3-dimensional transfer tasks for district summative assessments, like finals, that align with NGSS. Participants will explore what makes an assessment truly 3-dimensional and practice using a practical tool to unpack Performance Expectations (PEs), select focal Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) and Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs), and design tasks that require students to apply knowledge in new contexts. Examples based on OpenSciEd High School Assessment System will be shared, along with strategies for scaling this work across classrooms and districts. Attendees will leave with a clear framework and sample tools to start developing their own transfer tasks.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to design 3-dimensional transfer tasks, based on OpenSciEd Assessment System, that assess students' ability to apply science ideas in new contexts, using a practical tool to unpack PEs, SEPs, and CCCs—perfect for creating common district summative assessments aligned with NGSS.

SPEAKERS:
Jacob Noll

Ever wish Mark Rober could co-teach your class? This session shows how Class CrunchLabs uses video, voice, and story to spark curiosity and launch rigorous learning. We will break down how to introduce a storyline, use Mark’s videos as authentic investigation starters, and weave hands-on challenges through episodes of science and engineering. You will also get a peek behind the scenes at how the team builds each unit to help students explain ‘the how’ after experiencing ‘the wow.’ Optional bonus: watermelon smashing included.

TAKEAWAYS:
See how NGSS storylines, teacher supports, and Mark Rober’s videos work together to launch engaging science units that get students asking questions and thinking like scientists from day one.

SPEAKERS:
Spencer Martin

NASA Data, Building Block by Block with Legos offers an innovative, hands-on approach to simplify complex NASA Earth science datasets for K-8 learners. In this workshop, participants will discover how to transform abstract NASA Earth observations into physical 3D models and graphs using Legos. By leveraging the tactile nature of brick-building, educators can bridge the gap between "big data" and learner understanding. We will explore a suite of classroom-ready activities that integrate mathematical thinking and data literacy within the scope of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) 3D learning. Participants will practice using Legos to represent data points, build land cover maps, and visualize sea ice and sea level changes in Earth’s systems, while exploring frameworks for scaffolding data literacy for diverse learners, and gaining access to curated NASA datasets specifically selected for elementary and middle school classroom integration.

TAKEAWAYS:
NASA Data, Building Block by Block with Legos offers an innovative, hands-on approach to simplify complex NASA Earth science datasets for K-8 learners. In this workshop, participants will discover how to transform abstract NASA Earth observations into physical 3D models and graphs using Legos.

SPEAKERS:
Angela Rizzi, Tina Harte - Ballinger

Instructional and assessment frameworks were developed to support coherent NGSS‑aligned science instruction in Indiana. The instructional frameworks for Grades 4, 6, and Biology organize each performance expectation into disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, evidence expectations, academic vocabulary, and driving questions to guide instruction. The corresponding assessment framework translates the same performance expectation into phenomena, task demands, content limits, and proficiency‑level descriptors to support item design and formative assessment. During the session, participants will examine and use these frameworks to analyze how three‑dimensional sensemaking can be supported in classroom instruction and assessment. Frameworks for additional grade levels will be updated at a later date. The tools presented illustrate an approach that can be applied in any state using NGSS or NGSS‑aligned standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Clear strategies for supporting three‑dimensional instruction will be gained by examining and using science instructional and assessment frameworks for Grades 4, 6, and Biology, demonstrating how NGSS performance expectations can be translated into coherent classroom practice.

SPEAKERS:
Eimear Towler

Wondering where familiar physics topics like Newton's laws, energy conservation, and kinematics fit into OpenSciEd High School Physics? In this interactive session, participants will explore how and why these traditional topics are thoughtfully woven into OpenSciEd's six physics units. Through examples from across the course, participants will examine how concepts such as forces, momentum, energy, waves, electricity, and magnetism are integrated into coherent storylines that support student sensemaking while maintaining rigor. For example, students develop ideas about unbalanced forces and energy transfer in P.2 and apply them in P.3 to investigate momentum and Newton's second law. These ideas are then extended to explain gravity, orbits, and electromagnetic radiation. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of how OpenSciEd blends essential physics content with engaging, phenomenon-driven learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover how "traditional" physics topics are incorporated into OpenSciEd High School Physics storylines without giving away students' aha moments and still mantaining rigor.

SPEAKERS:
Kristy Lathrop

It has been ten years since Indiana created its K-8 Computer Science Standards and Indiana is the only state to assess computer science content alongside science on state assessments. Over 80% of Indiana students receive Computer Science in K-8, and all high school students will complete a Computer Science course to earn a high school diploma, guaranteeing digital literacy for students around the state. Join the Indiana Department of Education’s Computer Science Specialist to learn about the state’s expansion of computer science, extensive professional development programming, and unique instructional and assessment frameworks that support vertical alignment and three-dimensional computer science instruction. Learn about how Indiana is building on its computer science education coursework to empower students to understand and use AI tools.

TAKEAWAYS:
Indiana has expanded computer science and AI instruction across K-12 and is the only state to assess Computer Science. Find out how Indiana's vertical alignment plan, state funding, and educator-facing resources support students and teachers for a world powered by computing.

SPEAKERS:
Matthew Baron

Storylines are often presented as a powerful way to engage students in authentic science learning, but what does implementation really look like in practice? This session provides an honest examination of using storylines in a secondary science classroom, including both successes and failures. Through classroom examples, participant discussions, and collaborative brainstorming, attendees will explore how storyline instruction compares with traditional teaching approaches in supporting student engagement, curiosity, and scientific thinking. Participants will leave with a realistic understanding of the opportunities and challenges of storyline implementation and ideas they can immediately adapt for their own classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain a realistic understanding of how storyline instruction can transform science learning and identify practical steps for implementing storylines in their own classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Erin Snelling

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

This Biology lab uses common lawn clover to explore genetics, plant physiology, and adaptation. White clover is polymorphic for cyanogenesis, an anti-herbivore defense controlled by two genetic loci. Cyanogenesis frequency varies with climate—over 95% of plants are cyanogenic in the South, but fewer than 10% are in the northern Midwest. During the Clover Project students collect local clover and test it for cyanide production using color-changing paper, and then calculate genotype frequencies and compare with data from other regions. Students can also calculate the rates of herbivory in their area and correlate the frequency to cyanogenesis.This hands-on activity engages students in inquiry-based learning aligned with the AP Biology CED and the Science Practices, while also illustrating how evolutionary pressures shape traits in their local environment. Participants in this session will learn how to implement this dynamic activity in their High School Biology classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to implement a hands-on clover genetics lab where students investigate adaptation by testing cyanogenesis, analyzing genotype frequencies, and connecting local data to evolutionary pressures using authentic, inquiry-based practices.

SPEAKERS:
Carolyn Spangler

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

Your students eat every day. Do they know the science behind it? Corn alone touches genetics, energy transformation, solution chemistry, carbon cycling, and more, making it one of the richest phenomenon-based anchors available to MS/HS science teachers. In this session, presenters from NASELI (Nebraska Agriculture and Science Education Leadership Institute) show how putting teachers in the field with producers and industry partners transforms how they connect agriculture to 3D science instruction. Follow a single storyline: the sun powers everything, and corn is the converter. See how this thread connects biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science, and how NASELI teachers localized existing ag-science lessons to their standards and community. Learn the transferable process for doing the same in your own region. Whether you teach in a rural community or an urban school where students have never seen a cornfield, agriculture is a phenomenon your students already have a stake in.

TAKEAWAYS:
Every student eats, making agriculture a universally accessible phenomenon for any science classroom. Learn the NASELI framework for matching local ag contexts to your standards and walk away with tools to localize lessons in a way that feels relevant to your own students and community.

SPEAKERS:
Jodi Bahr, Jennifer Jones

Differentiation in middle school science is often reduced to modifying assignments or adding extra work for advanced learners. However, effective NGSS instruction requires designing experiences that increase depth, complexity, and authentic scientific thinking for all students. In this interactive workshop, participants will explore how to transform existing lessons into “low floor, high ceiling” tasks that support three-dimensional learning. Attendees will engage in a model science activity, analyze how it can be adjusted to extend advanced learners, and apply practical strategies such as tiered questioning, open-ended investigations, and scientific argumentation. Participants will leave with ready-to-use tools, templates, and lesson redesign strategies that can be immediately implemented in their classrooms without increasing workload.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to redesign NGSS-aligned science tasks using “low floor, high ceiling” strategies to increase depth, extend advanced learners, and support all students—without adding extra work or creating separate lessons.

SPEAKERS:
Michele Shultz

OpenSciEd and other HQIM offer a strong model for phenomena-based, NGSS-aligned instruction, but meaningful 3D learning - integrating Science and Engineering Practices, Disciplinary Core Ideas, and Crosscutting Concepts—requires intentional design in any curriculum. In this session, participants will explore how strategic adaptations to materials can deepen engagement in all three dimensions while maintaining curricular integrity. Drawing from my 6th-grade classroom, I will share customizable tools and routines that support student-driven sensemaking and equitable participation. Key areas include investigation materials that promote data analysis and evidence-based reasoning; interactive science texts that integrate literacy with sensemaking; formative assessments aligned to 3D outcomes; discourse structures that support collaboration and reasoning; and review tools that help students connect ideas and build coherent understanding.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with adaptable strategies and ready-to-use tools to design for 3D learning in any curriculum, empowering students to think, talk, and act like scientists.

SPEAKERS:
Jed Graboys

Come see how two master teachers use targeted, well-defined rubrics for select SEPs to support student goal-setting and year-long growth. Employing the best of NGSS pedagogy with standards-based grading philosophy, Robin and Jessica support students in developing the skills they need to succeed in writing CERs, Modeling, and Analyzing and Interpreting Data. Because these SEPs are woven throughout their curriculum, students are able to record their own growth across units and across the year. This approach allows for flexible and differentiated assessment, giving students multiple opportunities and modalities to demonstrate proficiency, and even opportunities to work beyond the middle school standards. There are no ceilings in this classroom and no one left behind. Attendees will leave with practical strategies, sample proficiency scales, and tools to implement SEP-based grading systems that increase student ownership, motivation, and equity in the classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Empower students to take ownership of their learning while employing standards based grading with the SEPs. Learn how two teachers help students set goals and track growth on three key SEPs over the course of a school year. Walk away with rubrics and a system you can use next week!

SPEAKERS:
Jessica Renfro, Robin Allen

In this hands-on session, participants will explore how to emphasize the “T” in STEM by integrating simple microcontrollers into authentic scientific inquiry. Attendees will use microcontrollers as accessible measuring tools to collect real-time data, observe patterns, and support evidence-based explanations. Through short inquiry investigations, we will examine how technology can deepen students’ understanding of scientific concepts while building their confidence with computational thinking. This session is designed for beginners and those looking to expand their STEM toolkit with meaningful, manageable technology integration.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will use microcontrollers and scientific inquiry to give students a hands-on experience with a technological tool that has sensor integration. The investigation will show the three dimensions and how the microcontroller can be a tool that drives modern STEM exploration.

SPEAKERS:
Susan German

OpenSciEd instructional materials embed formative assessment opportunities through strategic assessment callouts designed to capture student thinking during key moments of sensemaking. However, teachers often need practical systems to consistently use this information to inform instruction across classrooms. In this session, two middle school educators share how one PLC has developed a sustainable process for leveraging OpenSciEd assessment callouts to create common formative assessments, such as targeted exit slips aligned to lesson goals. Rather than adding additional assessments, the team identified meaningful moments within the existing curriculum to gather evidence of student thinking tied to science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts. These formative assessments are brought into PLC meetings, where teachers collaboratively analyze patterns in student responses, focusing on misconceptions and partial understandings rather than correctness

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with a practical process for turning OpenSciEd assessment callouts into meaningful formative assessments, along with strategies for using student data and PLC conversations to identify misconceptions and plan targeted, responsive reteaching that supports student sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Kelly Bonifield, Tanya Mueller