Grab a cup of coffee and join the NSTA Professional Learning team for an informal chat about how we can support your district’s goals and priorities related to science and STEM education. Whether you’re navigating a curriculum adoption, building teacher capacity, looking for sustained mentorship and coaching, or just curious about what we have to offer, this is a chance to connect live with the NSTA Professional Learning Team. Come with questions, challenges, or just curiosity to chat about how NSTA Professional Learning can partner with your school or district.

TAKEAWAYS:
Come with questions, and leave with an understanding of the professional learning support options available through NSTA and next steps for starting a partnership tailored to your needs.

SPEAKERS:
Brianna Reilly Oliveira

The Indiana STEM Certified Schools process was redesigned for the 2025–26 school year to strengthen instructional coherence, embed Indiana Integrated STEM Standards, align expectations across science, mathematics, and computer science, and implement a clarified rubric emphasizing data‑driven evaluation. Statewide evidence reviews and school visits conducted through the process indicated strong inquiry‑based instructional culture, increasing cross‑curricular integration, and purposeful incorporation of technology and AI, while also revealing needs in full‑year standards documentation, mathematics alignment, and protocol‑based analysis of student outcome data. End‑of‑school‑year analysis informed minor procedural refinements designed to improve clarity in documentation, expectations for standards mapping, and consistency of evidence submission for the 2026–27 cycle.

TAKEAWAYS:
Clear insights into designing coherent STEM schoolwide systems will be gained by examining how a redesigned STEM Certified Schools process operated in practice and how end‑of‑school‑year findings informed refinements that strengthened clarity, documentation, and implementation.

SPEAKERS:
Eimear Towler

This session will run as a panel of state organizational leaders and other industry leaders. These experts will answer: What challenges are you facing in your state and how are you addressing them? What tools and strategies have you found to be especially useful in supporting educators in your context? How do you support rural schools, educators, and students? How do you collaborate with informal educators, industry partners, and other orgs to provide high quality instruction to students in your region? How have you leveraged local expertise and resources to meet the needs of your educational communities? Have you used a PLC structure to support professional growth for educators in your state and if so, what model have you used and what is working well? In New Mexico, we struggle to meet the needs of our diverse educators from our largest district, Albuquerque with ~70,000 students down to 20 microdistricts with fewer than 200 students each, representing a total of 2,360 students.

TAKEAWAYS:
As we talk with our peers in other states, we realize this is not an uncommon problem. With open communication and collaboration, we can learn from each other to build better systems to support our own educators, and yours. We will see you at the table.

SPEAKERS:
Allison Heneghan, Heather Summers

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Amanda Morrison

This roundtable discussion will use a collaborative approach to develop tips for facilitating teamwork in college classrooms. I have taught using a team-based approach in and out of the classroom, including asynchronous courses, with enrollments ranging from 15 to 180 students. Despite years of experience, I continue to learn more tips whenever I have conversations with my colleagues. Therefore, I am facilitating a round table discussion to promote these conversations with guided questions, such as “What are your ideas and/or experience in assigning roles to students who work in teams?” This conversation will be open to any attendees who teach or are interested in teaching in a college classroom, regardless of their experience implementing teamwork.

TAKEAWAYS:
Collaborate in small groups to discuss and develop tips on facilitating student teamwork in the college classroom, regardless of enrollment size or the level of experience, if any, implementing teamwork.

SPEAKERS:
Andrea Bierema