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

What if elementary students could explore real careers while building essential STEM skills? In this session, discover how micro:bit and the engineering design process can introduce students to CTE pathways through hands-on, career-connected learning. Participants will experience ready-to-implement lessons that integrate coding, problem-solving, and career exploration in fields such as engineering, marketing, transportation, and animal science. These engaging strategies help students build early awareness of workforce opportunities while making learning relevant and meaningful. Walk away with practical tools, lesson ideas, and a framework for embedding career-connected STEM into your classroom—starting tomorrow.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use micro:bit and design-based STEM lessons to introduce elementary students to CTE career pathways through engaging, real-world, hands-on experiences.

SPEAKERS:
Lauren Kelly

A significant shortage of healthcare professionals is currently observed. To mitigate this challenge, multiple approaches have been implemented, including efforts to promote medical careers among K-12 students. The National Cancer Institute is actively working to increase the pool of entrants into cancer-related medical fields. Increasingly, initiatives are emphasizing career education at the middle school level, supported by research demonstrating its critical role in career development. Successful outcomes depend on the active participation of middle-level teachers, a principle foundational to the Medical Research Education Project at Indiana University. This poster presentation will provide an overview of the project and describe engagement opportunities for teachers. Presenters will highlight selected hands-on, inquiry-driven medical lessons collaboratively designed by educators, biomedical researchers, and education faculty. Emphasis will be placed on the alignment with NGSS.

TAKEAWAYS:
The Medical Research Education Project at Indiana University is collaborating with middle-level teachers to identify optimal methods for teaching students about medical inquiry. This poster presentation highlights this program, shares previous outcomes, and provides paths to involvement.

SPEAKERS:
Adam Scribner, Gayle Buck

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

Help students see themselves in a STEM career through career-connected science learning that illustrates real-world applications and can build their confidence in their knowledge and skills. Learn how media-based career resources can broaden students’ ideas about different types of careers within an industry, the range in points of entry, and the problems these careers solve. Strategies will help you support students in reflecting on their strengths and goals as they explore careers that align with their interests and plan potential pathways to prepare for their futures.

TAKEAWAYS:
Leave the session with a list of FREE resources from PBS LearningMedia for sustaining career-connected learning that integrates seamlessly into your curriculum throughout the year.

SPEAKERS:
Paula Menta Rodriguez

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

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

Participants will explore a classroom-ready video and engineering task using research from the University of Rhode Island Robotics Lab, where drones are programmed to monitor algae blooms in local ponds. Educators will engage in hands-on algorithm design, pattern recognition, and optimization challenges that mirror authentic engineering practices. This session provides additional classroom-ready videos, tasks, and facilitation strategies to foster an engineering mindset while introducing students to STEAM careers in robotics, environmental science, and computer science. Attendees will leave with ready-to-use materials that promote problem-solving, collaboration, and real-world community connections.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will leave with ready-to-use, classroom-tested open source resources and strategies to engage students in real-world engineering with drone technology, strengthen problem-solving skills, and explore STEAM careers.

SPEAKERS:
Charlene Tuttle, Rachele Limberakis

This session explores how the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) can serve as a powerful foundation for helping students connect phenomena-driven learning to high-skill, high-wage, in-demand careers. This session will offer practical insights into the current postsecondary and workforce landscape and demonstrate how career-connected learning can increase student engagement by making science more relevant and purposeful.

TAKEAWAYS:
Using state science standards as a foundation for career connected learning helps students see science as purposeful and relevant by directly linking science content and application to in-demand career pathways boosting both engagement and motivation.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker

Talking is learning! As students make sense of their ideas about phenomena and solve problems, there are ample opportunities for students to talk to one another, deepening their learning. In this session, participants will explore how productive science talk helps students build durable skills related to communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and leadership and how to support students in understanding how these skills are durable and transferable.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with strategies for using discourse strategies to build both conceptual understanding of science ideas and durable skills.

SPEAKERS:
Brianna Reilly Oliveira

Help students see the link between textiles in their lives and science and engineering, through hands-on experience, language development, and a virtual lab visit! We will investigate textiles and sample an open source video for classroom use. In addition, we will share language-rich card games, linked to the video content. This session connects classroom learning to outside research and answers the question, “How does this lesson connect to the real world?” These resources were developed through a research collaboration among the Colleges of Education & Engineering at URI and the School of Engineering at UCONN through an Office of Naval Research grant addressing STEM workforce development needs. The resources expose elementary students to careers in STEM fields, and offer an invitation for future work in STEM. We will address opportunities for localized learning and connecting with industry partners, including maritime careers. Leave with materials to implement the next day!

TAKEAWAYS:
Through exploring open source resources, you will see the impact of textile engineering on our daily lives and how to translate this into your classroom. Leave with a deeper understanding of how to link engineering and future STEM careers to existing early childhood lessons.

SPEAKERS:
Charlene Tuttle, Rachele Limberakis

Students often wonder how the science they learn in class connects to life beyond school. This session tackles that question by showcasing practical strategies for bridging core science instruction with Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways and career applications. Participants will explore how phenomena-driven, three-dimensional science learning naturally aligns with the skills and knowledge used in engineering, health sciences, technology fields, agriculture, and more.

TAKEAWAYS:
Through examples, discussion, and ready-to-use ideas, attendees will discover how to help students see the relevance of scientific thinking in authentic career contexts.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker

Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers bring powerful real-world expertise, but too often, their work sits apart from core science instruction. This session focuses on putting PLCs together so teachers from science and CTE can strategically align units with their disciplines, creating opportunities for authentic, applied learning that benefits both students and teachers. Participants will explore a framework for identifying natural connections between NGSS science domains and CTE pathways, such as welding with physical science, health careers with life science, agriculture with earth and environmental science, and engineering with physical and mathematical modeling. Attendees will learn how collaborative planning between science and CTE educators can result in lessons and projects that meaningfully incorporate scientific ideas and technical applications.

TAKEAWAYS:
Through examples, planning tools, and shared experiences, participants will leave with strategies for matching CTE expertise to the science content where it naturally fits and designing instruction that blends scientific sensemaking with hands-on technical skills.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker

This is a poster I am working with the DESC STEM group: Poster explores how cognitive dissonance can transform student misconceptions into powerful learning opportunities in 9th grade physics. The implementation began with a “failed” free-fall lab in which students strongly argued that heavier balls fall faster than lighter ones. Rather than correcting students immediately, the lesson leveraged prediction, experimentation, and evidence-based discussion to challenge deeply held beliefs about gravity and motion. Students conducted investigations using balls of different sizes and masses, then analyzed surprising results showing that objects fall at nearly the same rate. The session also highlights how connecting physics concepts to physical therapy careers increased relevance and engagement through the use of weighted balls and household resistance tools. Attendees will learn how productive struggle, scientific argumentation, and career connections can deepen learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students learn physics more deeply when evidence challenges their misconceptions. In this investigation, cognitive dissonance transformed a “failed” lab into a memorable learning experience, increasing engagement, scientific reasoning, and conceptual understanding through hands-on experimentation.

SPEAKERS:
Eileen Malick

A goal of science instruction is to help students learn about and explain the world around us. Digital media can expand the world students can investigate by making a broader range of phenomena and data accessible to the classroom. Media can also make science and engineering content more engaging and meaningful to students by providing stories that connect it to their daily lives, communities, or greater society. Authentic STEM role models can broaden students’ ideas of who is and can be a STEM professional as well as what they do and model scientific practices to provide students with opportunities to evaluate and argue with evidence they would be otherwise unable to collect in the classroom. We will showcase how free standards-aligned supplemental digital resources can seamlessly integrate into the middle school science curriculum and support three-dimensional phenomena-driven instruction aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

TAKEAWAYS:
You’ll leave with ideas for actively engaging middle school students in science and engineering practices to make sense of phenomena with crosscutting concepts using free media-rich NGSS-aligned resources and strategies for answering the question “why is learning science important?”

SPEAKERS:
Shawn Stevens

The Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) of the Next Generation Science Standards already mirror many of the skills employers value most: problem-solving, collaboration, communication, and iterative design. This session explores how intentionally pairing the SEPs with Career Readiness Competencies can help students build transferable workforce skills while engaging in authentic science learning. Participants will examine classroom examples and instructional strategies that make these connections explicit, allowing students to practice thinking and working like scientists and engineers while developing skills essential for college, careers, and the modern workforce.

TAKEAWAYS:
When the Science and Engineering Practices are intentionally aligned with Career Readiness Competencies, everyday science instruction becomes a powerful way for students to develop real, transferable workforce skills without adding “one more thing” to the curriculum.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker

This session shares the design and relaunch of a district-wide STEAM program integrating AI, data literacy, multilingual learning, and career-connected experiences to prepare students for the future workforce. Originally launched in 2019, the program showed strong engagement but was interrupted by the pandemic. It is now being reimagined for Summer 2027 to include CTE pathways, manufacturing, technology, and community partnerships. Participants will hear from a 2025 Illinois State Board of Education Those Who Excel – Meritorious Service awardee and a 2026 Shell NSTA Urban Science Educator Development Award recipient, sharing insights from implementation and redesign. Participants will explore how to build a teacher cohort, integrate AI and data into student projects, develop meaningful partnerships, and design a scalable, high-impact STEAM program.

TAKEAWAYS:
How to design a district-wide STEAM program that connects AI, CTE, and real-world careers Strategies for building meaningful community and industry partnerships that extend beyond guest speakers A replicable framework for launching or relaunching a high-impact summer STEAM experience.

SPEAKERS:
DANIELLE ENGLISH