Want to help high school students analyze community and citizen science data? Want to use real data in your classroom to support your existing curriculum? FieldScope and BSCS Science Learning offer "Invitations to Inquiry," free instructional activities designed to connect learners with real-world environmental data. These free lessons build student confidence in using scientific evidence to answer critical questions about our planet and the natural world. BSCS Science Learning's Invitations to Inquiry help high school students work with community and citizen science data from projects hosted on FieldScope—BSCS’s platform for collecting, displaying, and analyzing data. Invitations to Inquiry are activities in which students explore FieldScope’s mapping and graphing tools to dig into data in the context of meaningful questions. Each lesson engages students in interpreting graphs and maps to learn about where the data are collected and what they mean.

TAKEAWAYS:
Free, ready to use, and adaptable lessons, datasets, and visualizations for your classroom, using community and citizen science projects! Learn how to use the lessons as is or to build them into your existing curriculum! Teacher guides, slides, handouts, and other instructional resources included!

SPEAKERS:
Jamie Noll

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

As the climate continues to change, so should our approach to teaching environmental science. Join the Children's Museum of Indianapolis as we showcase how we adapted a beloved water cycle game to teach about climate change. In this program, students have the chance to become a water droplet and roll their way through the water cycle. During their first round, the dice will represent the standard way water has moved around the planet. On their second trip, dice will be swapped with our climate change dice. This trip will illustrate the changes in how water moves and where water is stored as the planet warms. After the two trips, students will compare their two trips by mapping their journey, allowing them to directly compare how climate change affects the water cycle.

TAKEAWAYS:
With a few tweaks, existing lessons can be adapted to teach about our changing world.

SPEAKERS:
Meghan Carpenter

One area of ongoing research at IU Indianapolis is understanding past climate conditions through lake sediment cores. This lesson covers key principles of stratigraphy and how prevailing climate conditions can be interpreted from climate proxies found in lake sediment cores. Students will explore how to understand what past climate events are represented in lake sediments and what those events say about climatic conditions. The lesson PDF includes a PowerPoint, worksheets and a materials list for conducting the activity with groups of 2-4 students. This HS science lesson is intended to be used after students have received an introduction to climate change. The lab focuses on group work to investigate a Climate Layer Cake made from Playdoh that will have distinct layers representing historical climate events. Students are guided through coring and interpreting the events represented in their cake. The groups will gather their data on the whiteboard for full group discussion at the end.

TAKEAWAYS:
Do you need an engaging lesson designed to build student understanding and discourse around the topics of historical climate change, climate proxies and the three key principles of stratigraphy? This lesson covers it all and it is easily adaptable to teaching rock layers and geologic events.

SPEAKERS:
Brian Plankis

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

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

Under the philosophy of "We Do Science," The Citizen Science Lab (TCSL) positions students not as consumers of science content, but as practicing scientists. In this hands-on workshop, participants will do the same, designing and prototyping their own microbial fuel cells (MFCs), devices that use living microorganisms to generate electricity from organic matter. TCSL's ICE-T Project requires young scientists to simultaneously engage microbial metabolism, electrochemistry, circuit design, biosensor data collection, and computational modeling as a single integrated experience. Students author their own prototypes, propose hypotheses, iterate, and present findings of authentic research inside a community nonprofit. Educators will experience the ICE-T model firsthand, leaving with a replicable framework for bringing genuine cross-disciplinary research into their own classrooms regardless of budget, building, or zip code.

TAKEAWAYS:
A replicable framework for designing cross-disciplinary STEM programs that treat science as a unified practice. Strategies for building science identity in youth who have historically been excluded from science culture, including how space, story, and community change who feels like a scientist.

SPEAKERS:
Dr. Andre Samuel

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

This hands-on session will showcase engaging low-prep activities from Project WET, Project WILD and Project Learning Tree that are correlated with NGSS and have a STEM and Career Connection. Participants will leave with 3 data collection activities that model earth systems and ecological community interactions. These activities can be adapted for use in grades 6-12 classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
This hands-on session will showcase engaging low-prep activities from Project WET, Project WILD and Project Learning Tree that are correlated with NGSS and have a STEM and Career Connection. Participants will leave with 3 data collection activities that model earth systems and ecological community

SPEAKERS:
Kristen Poindexter

Explore online tools that enrich forest & watershed activities from Project WET and Project Learning Tree that will help you localize the phenomena desired in the environmental science classroom. These ecosystem activities are designed for grades 6-12 instruction and have extensions that can be used at the AP/IB level.

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore online tools that enrich forest & watershed activities from Project WET and Project Learning Tree that will help you localize the phenomena desired in the environmental science classroom. These ecosystem activities are designed for grades 6-12 instruction and have extensions that can be use

SPEAKERS:
Kristen Poindexter

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

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

This workshop will introduce the Educating for Environmental Change project at Indiana University and provide information on how teachers can get involved. The presenter will also facilitate exemplar activities from the project that are designed to engage students in the practice of scientific argumentation. Surfacing student thinking, addressing student misconceptions, and alignment to the NGSS will also be emphasized. The EFEC project is designed to elucidate and deepen understanding of environmental issues through hands-on lessons co-designed by IU's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, the School of Education, and veteran K-12 science teachers. EFEC utilizes the following driving questions: how do we know the climate is changing; what are the impacts of these changes; what can be done moving forward; and how do we cultivate optimism in our students?

TAKEAWAYS:
The Educating for Environmental Change (EfEC) project utilizes the following driving questions: how do we know the climate is changing; what are the impacts of these changes; how can we mitigate these changes; and how do we cultivate optimism in our students while teaching them about climate change?

SPEAKERS:
Adam Scribner

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

In this hands-on professional development workshop, teachers will use physical and conceptual models of atoms and isotopes to explore how scientists reconstruct past climates. Participants will investigate how isotopic signatures preserved in ice cores and sediments reveal information about vegetation, temperature, precipitation, and Earth’s climate history. Model-based reasoning and alignment with NGSS and Indiana science practices will be emphasized. The goal of this workshop is to support teachers in translating authentic climate science research into engaging classroom investigations. This workshop will be led by Dr. Julia Kelson, IU Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and Dr. Robyn Embry, high school science teacher, Mitchell High School. This workshop was developed for Indiana University’s Educating for Environmental Change project (EfEC) project.

TAKEAWAYS:
The Educating for Environmental Change (EfEC) project utilizes the following driving questions: how do we know the climate is changing; what are the impacts of these changes; how can we mitigate these changes; and how do we cultivate optimism in our students while teaching them about climate change?

SPEAKERS:
Julia Kelson, Adam Scribner

ndigenous 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 poster describes a field-based biochemistry laboratory designed to integrate scientific inquiry with Ignatian pedagogy and the mission of Jesuit higher education. Implemented in an undergraduate biochemistry course, the multiweek experience engaged students in environmental sampling, water quality assessment, biodiversity observations, community cleanup, and proteomics-based laboratory analysis. Guided by the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm and the Universal Apostolic Preferences, students connected biochemical concepts to ecological stewardship, environmental justice, and ethical discernment. Assessment through student reflections, surveys, discussions, and instructor observations suggests increased engagement, systems thinking, and awareness of the relationship between scientific knowledge and care for our common home. The project provides a replicable model for integrating experiential learning, service, and student formation within STEM education.

TAKEAWAYS:
Field-based biochemistry laboratories can integrate scientific rigor, Ignatian pedagogy, and ecological stewardship, helping students connect molecular science to environmental responsibility, ethical discernment, and care for our common home.

SPEAKERS:
Corey Damon

Climate change will bring uneven effects to different communities around the world, with poorer and less advantaged communities hit harder by extreme weather events, crop failures, sea-level rise, and more. Incorporating this reality into science classrooms can be a challenging endeavor, from both a practical and a conceptual perspective. The MacArthur Foundation and TERC have begun a nationwide program to address this pedagogical gap by bringing together teachers from across the country, in order to begin conversations and share ideas. Practical activities, such as using mapping programs rich with demographic as well as climate data, can begin conversations in your classroom about the disconnect between advantaged and disadvantaged communities. Join us as we show you examples of how to use these programs in your classroom and incorporate ideas of climate justice alongside NGSS modeling and data analysis.

TAKEAWAYS:
Addressing climate anxiety in the classroom and talking about concrete solutions with students, whether in terms of broad policy decisions, or hands-on ecosystem restoration solutions, shows students that no matter where they live, they can have a meaningful impact on their future.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Young, Carl Armstrong

This workshop will present a climate engineering teaching module that was co-designed by Indiana University atmospheric scientists and veteran high school educators for the Educating for Environmental Change (EfEC) project. The module consists of five complete lessons that encourage students to design technological solutions to slow global warming: including in-class experimentation demonstrating the potential cooling effect resulting from brightening marine clouds. The hands-on activities are supplemented with cutting-edge climate engineering and climate modeling research – including discussions on geoengineering’s potential to limit the negative impacts of climate change. Each lesson is aligned with Indiana state science standards and the Next Generation Science Standards. This workshop will be led by Dr. Ben Kravitz and Dr. Paul Goddard from Indiana University’s Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

TAKEAWAYS:
The Educating for Environmental Change (EfEC) project utilizes the following driving questions: how do we know the climate is changing; what are the impacts of these changes; how can we mitigate these changes; and how do we cultivate optimism in our students while teaching them about climate change?

SPEAKERS:
Ben Kravitz, Paul Goddard, Adam Scribner

Why do some natural hazards become disasters while others do not? This workshop explores the complex relationship between natural processes, human decision-making, and community resilience. Through data analysis and case studies, participants will examine hazards such as floods, droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, extreme heat, and earthquakes while considering the social, economic, and environmental factors that influence their impacts. In this workshop, teachers will engage in activities to better understand how climate change, land-use decisions, infrastructure, and public policy shape vulnerability and resilience. Participants will explore classroom-ready activities that integrate environmental science, geography, and civic decision-making, helping students investigate real-world challenges through inquiry-based learning. This workshop was developed for Indiana University’s Educating for Environmental Change (EfEC) Project.

TAKEAWAYS:
The Educating for Environmental Change (EfEC) project utilizes the following driving questions: how do we know the climate is changing; what are the impacts of these changes; how can we mitigate these changes; and how do we cultivate optimism in our students while teaching them about climate change?

SPEAKERS:
Michael Hamburger, Adam Scribner

The Educating for Environmental Change (EfEC) Galápagos Islands Collaborative Education Project is an international professional development initiative that connects K12 educators from Indiana with teachers, researchers, and community partners in the Galápagos Islands. This workshop will share the design, implementation, and early outcomes of this international collaboration. Participants will learn how the project leverages the Galápagos Islands—one of the world’s most significant ecological and evolutionary laboratories—as a context for teacher learning, place-based education, and global environmental literacy. Presenters will discuss strategies for building international partnerships and creating opportunities for teachers and students to engage with authentic environmental challenges. The session will examine how international partnerships can enrich teaching by helping educators connect global environmental issues to the communities where their students live.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with practical ideas for integrating global environmental issues into STEM instruction and fostering meaningful cross-cultural learning experiences that promote environmental stewardship and scientific literacy.

SPEAKERS:
Ben Kravitz, Adam Scribner