These sessions explore creative strategies to promote equity and inclusivity in your Grades 6-8 science classroom, fostering a learning environment where all students can thrive and discover their passion for STEM.

Advancing Accessible Place-Based Learning Through Immersive DIY Virtual Field Trips
Imagine your learners exploring virtual field trips about local research, places, and communities! Learn how you can use Infiniscope's Tour It to create customized immersive field trips with 360 degree spaces and media hotspots using just your computer and a smartphone.

DIY Digital Lessons: Create Custom Online Lessons for Your Varied Learners
Create interactive digital lessons that students can explore anytime. From single lessons to multi-unit courses, you can build a library of digital content that can be used at scale, increasing accessibility. Embed assessments, collect data and guide your learners with customized real-time feedback.

Teaching with the updated USGS Water Cycle Diagram
Discover engaging teaching resources related to the updated USGS water cycle diagram! Participants will become familiar with ways the model can be incorporated into curricula as a pre-assessment, teaching tool, learning activity, and post-assessment.

SPEAKERS:
Sina Kirk, Sina Kirk, Diane Ripollone, Lindsay Mossa, Jessica Kreter, Ed Robeck, Sequoyah McGee, Lauren Brase, Jessica Mckay

Dive into strategies for making science inclusive and engaging for all students in grades 6-8.

Equitable AI: Three tips how to support diverse learners using Chat-GPT
Enhance your lesson planning to foster differentiation and equity in your science classroom with the assistance of Chat-GPT! Join our dialogue where we use Chat-GPT to elevate practice by generating tiered reading activities, language supports for ESL students, and culture integration strategies.

NMLSTA: Strategies to Create a More Equitable Science Classroom
Most classrooms are diverse. Meeting the needs of all students can be difficult for teachers. Learn strategies to support equitable learning.

TeachEngineering: Free, Teacher-tested K-12 STEM Resources
The TeachEngineering Digital Library is a free, online collection of K-12 curricular STEM resources. This session highlights the key features and benefits of TeachEngineering, shedding light on how this digital collection empowers educators to explore the “E” in STEM: engineering.

SPEAKERS:
Andrew Kipp, Dawn Konieczny, Kim Nagle, Ellen Sukovich, Jennifer Kracha

Explore how Earth and space science concepts like ocean currents, atmospheric pressure, and solar activity can be used to understand hurricane formation, predict their paths, and prepare communities for their impact. Engage in interactive activities and learn best practices for incorporating hurricane resilience into your grades 9-12 curriculum.

Advancing Data Literacy with NSF's NOIRLab
NSF’s NOIRLab has developed a variety of free data-based science education programs for elementary through high school classrooms. Strategies will be shared for bringing authentic data and experiences into classrooms that support three-dimensional learning, critical thinking, and problem-solving.

Hurricane Resilience: A Curriculum for High Schools in the Cone of Uncertainty
Explore the Hurricane Resilience curriculum, which aims to empower high school students in hurricane-prone areas to have a voice in resilience planning and help them understand the relationship between hurricanes and climate change and the local impacts of these storms on people and places.

Long-Term Data Collection Projects in an Earth Science Classroom
Check out two long-term data collection projects that have been implemented in a high school earth science classroom to allow students to connect what they’ve learned about earthquakes and seasons to patterns they can observe in real-world data.

SPEAKERS:
Robert Sparks, Justine Schaen, Lisa Gardiner, Kori Bowns-Kamphuis

These sessions delve into effective strategies for teaching climate science to grades 9-12 students. Explore engaging hands-on activities, data analysis, and discussions that foster critical thinking, build scientific literacy, and empower students to become informed and active participants in addressing climate change.

Bringing Heatwaves into Classrooms: A Framework for Education
This presentation discusses a framework that can be used to integrate the concept of heatwaves into formal education via the school curriculum. It aims to promote students’ climate literacy and empower individuals and communities to respond to the challenges due to climate change.

Earth's Energy Budget Story Map from My NASA Data
This 5E, NGSS aligned story map includes NASA data for different components of Earth's energy budget, how the energy is absorbed and reflected, and what contributes to variations in the flow of energy into and out of the Earth System. It incorporates the Claim, Evidence, Reasoning model.

"Unveiling the Oceanic Tango: Exploring the Enigmatic Dance of El Niño and La Niña in Ocean-Atmosphere Warming and Climate Change”
The educational materials presented in this speed sharing session will allow educators to vividly convey the intricate science of El Niño and La Niña phenomena, and its effects on the climate. The speed sharing session will offer a brief explanation of the atmospheric and oceanic dynamics at play.

SPEAKERS:
Evangelia Mavrikaki, Apostolia (Lia) Galani, Jessica Taylor, Diane Ripollone, Angela Rizzi

Equip yourself with engaging strategies to empower high school students to make sense of complex environmental issues, fostering critical thinking, problem-solving, and a passion for positive change.

Connecting talk, task and doing for deep science learning for all
This presentation invites attendees to examine the connections between talk, task and doing in science with emphasis on strategies to promote talk.

Effects of a Video Project on Students' Science Affinity
This study measures the effects of a video project competition using a science, technology, and society (STS) approach on students in Grade 4-11.

Live and Local: Connecting Students with Living Organisms and the Environment
Three strategies using live animals and plants will be presented to help connect students to topics ranging from traits of living things to food webs to energy flow and ecosystem services. The activities focus on using local, on-campus resources and budget-friendly organisms.

SPEAKERS:
Takumi Sato, PhD, Jiyoon Yoon, Chris Barnett

These sessions equip grades 6-8 science teachers with the skills and strategies to become impactful leaders within their schools, fostering a vibrant and effective science learning environment.

Evolution for Middle School Educators
The Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science helps teachers teach evolution with confidence. Participants will receive a free unit of materials, including many active learning ideas. We focus on content, hands-on activities, and online resources. (www.tieseducation.org)

NMLSTA Awards for Middle School Teachers
What do you need to support your students and build your classroom inventory? The National Middle Level Science Teachers Association offers Classroom Teacher Awards twice each year. Learn how and where to apply. It’s easy!

SPEAKERS:
Bertha Vazquez, Anne Schoeffler

Spark curiosity and empower your students in physical science! Explore innovative assessment strategies that go beyond the textbook, foster critical thinking, and celebrate diverse learning styles in grades 6-8.

(Trans)Formative Assessment Planning Template: Explicitly Welcome Translanguaging During Formative Assessment in Your Science Classroom
Come learn about a planning tool that will help you develop or modify science formative assessments that welcome multilingual students to demonstrate their science ideas through translanguaging (all language resources) and multimodality. Participants leave with blank and example planning templates.

Investigating the Effect of Microplastics on Algae
Learn about a hands-on inquiry lesson where students explore the impact of microplastics on aquatic life. Students observe the interaction between live brine shrimp and fluorescent microplastics, helping them to understand the effects of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems.

Wonder Games: A Curriculum-Based Engagement Strategy
Unlock the secret to engaging your students all year long with Wonder Games, a competitive, curriculum-based engagement strategy. Wonder games motivates students to stay focused and invested in their learning, as they may be chosen to compete and bring victory to their class.

SPEAKERS:
Maren Getz, Caitlin Fine, Kathy Biernat, Leora Kurtz, Christopher Lucht

Explore how Interactive network graphs can help you explore the NGSS standards and find aligned resources, while a guide offers NGSS-aligned solar eclipse activities, including a chance to contribute data to NASA.

Effectively Engage Students in the SEP Asking Questions with the Question Formulation Technique + OpenSciEd
Participants will engage in an effective instructional strategy, the Question Formulation Technique (QFT), to help students develop questions after observing a phenomenon from an OpenSciEd Lesson.

NGSS Explorer – An Alternative Way To Explore and Navigate the Next Generation Science Standards
The NGSS Explorer offers an alternative way of exploring, searching and navigating the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Instead of presenting the NGSS as a set of linked tables, the NGSS Explorer exploits the connectivity between the standards to display them as interactive network graphs.

Solar Eclipse One-Week Pacing Guide
The Solar Eclipse GLOBE Educator One-Week Pacing Guide provides a five-day sequence of NGSS aligned activities to learn about, prepare for, safely observe and collect citizen science data using The GLOBE Program’s GLOBE Observer app during a solar eclipse whether on not you are in totality.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Garelli, Reindert Reitsma, Rosalba Giarratano, Jessica Taylor, Angela Rizzi

These sessions dive into engaging and effective ways to teach environmental science to middle schoolers, fostering their understanding and inspiring real-world action!

Investigating Pollutants in the Ecosystem: What's the Point (and Non-Point)?
Congrats! You’ve won the lottery and decide to develop a plot of land along a local river. After choosing, designing, and sketching the locations of your developments, investigate the various types and amounts of pollutants these cause using a pollutant guide and color-coded beads.

Students who are blind and visually impaired can learn science too!
Learn how tools such as a talking calculator, handheld electronic magnifier, and Colorino (handheld talking device to identify colors) can assist students with low vision as well regular education students with normal vision too.

Using Satellites to Learn About Animals
Explore a collection of free, NGSS-aligned classroom activities and comic book stories designed to help upper elementary and middle school students understand how scientists study animals around the world using satellites.

SPEAKERS:
Amber Meeks, M. Gail Jones, Kathleen Bordewieck, Lisa Gardiner, Rhea Miles, Madeline Stallard

Explore engaging, inquiry-based approaches to science instruction in college. Learn how to design student-centered activities that spark curiosity and deepen understanding.

Keep It Simple: Teaching Students to Talk Science Without Jargon
Students may use science terms without fully grasping their meaning, which can interfere with conceptual understanding. I created a team project requiring students to explain a science concept using only simple English. Students expressed confidence and a sense of mastery after the project.

SCST Presents Online Course Success Stratigies
This session reviews effective online course strategies for post-secondary sciences classes, including instructor training, organization, and student demographics. These strategies have been refined over 15 years in 20 different online geosciences courses showing these strategies effectiveness.

SPEAKERS:
Ann Davis, Athena Nagel

Explore practical strategies to create a science classroom where every student can learn, engage, and thrive. Build clarity through accessible explanations, diverse representation, and inclusive materials. Spark curiosity and a sense of belonging for all!

Composting with Cockroaches in Northeast Iowa K-12 Schools
Do you and/or your students find composting to be dirty, smelly, and overall a bore? Welcome to the future of composting! Blatticomposting, a form of composting with cockroaches that are a non-evasive exotic species, Blaptica dubia, is a modern take on an age-old classroom classic.

Leadership skills developed utilizing teamwork in the creation of a case study during an anatomy and physiology course.
This presentation will include the development of leadership skills, teamwork readiness, time management, and group cohesiveness based on the presenter's personal experience collaborating with different individuals.

Marching through Boundaries
At Wartburg College I had the opportunity to work with a high school student with autism. He has a strong interest in ants, so we started research on ants and how to bring them into the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Holderness, Alex Holden, Zeyuan Li, Mikayla Prusha

Are you looking for ways to make your Introductory/General Education College Science Classes more engaging for students? Join your colleagues as they share how they have put research into practice in their classrooms.

NSTA Postsecondary & SCST Presents: Moving Beyond Lecture - Proven Pedagogy for the 21st Century College Science Classrooms
Are you looking for ways to make your Introductory/General Education College Science Classes more engaging for students? Join your colleagues as they share how they have put research into practice in their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Richard Jones, Renee Clary, Victor Pereira, Flavio Mendez, Orinna Clark

Are you looking for ways to make your Introductory/General Education College Science Classes more engaging for students with special needs? Join your colleagues as they share how they use culturally relevant pedagogies, anti-bias teaching, and other resources to support STEM instruction for students

NSTA Post-Secondary Presents: Supporting Students with Disabilities in the College Science Classroom
Are you looking for ways to make your Introductory/General Education College Science Classes more engaging for students with special needs? Join your colleagues as they share how they use culturally relevant pedagogies, anti-bias teaching, and other resources to support STEM instruction for students

SPEAKERS:
Richard Jones, Rachel Hallett-Njuguna, Rhea Miles, Flavio Mendez, Kelly Moore, Elesha Goodfriend

Join us to discover innovative approaches to integrating physics, robotics, and engineering into your high school curriculum. Engage students through hands-on activities, explore design challenges, and learn about leading STEM education resources.

Developing Students into STEM Advocates
Students who can share their passion about STEM subjects are making a difference as advocates. They are making an impact by providing opportunities for all students to study in these important areas, and earn the skills needed in our future workforce.

Picture Yourself in a STEAM Career with Rubin Voices Trading Cards
Rubin Voices Trading Cards showcase the many types of people required to make the design and operation of the Observatory possible, as well as enable discoveries in science. Students will use these cards as a guide to create and share their own personal Rubin Voices Trading Card.

Teaching Physics With Real World Support: Collaborating with Local Organizations and Universities to Foster Equitable and Inclusive Learning Environments for High School Students
Come explore how collaborative relationships with a local university foster equity, inclusion, and engagement to support STEM career readiness and choices. The implementation of a lesson plan co-created through collaboration for the Physics classroom will be shared.

SPEAKERS:
Nancy McIntyre, Ardis Herrold, Karen Covil

Explore innovative teaching methods, cutting-edge technologies, and best practices to transform your postsecondary biology classroom.

NARST-Sponsored - Teachers' Choices of Multiple Visual Representations for Teaching about the Cardiovascular System
It is widely recognized that the use of various representations play an important role in teaching/learning. Drawing on a study which investigated teachers’ choices of representations for teaching the cardiovascular system, this session will discuss what factors led to good or poor decisions.

SCST Presents: Community science in the classroom - Using Budburst to enhance student learning and broaden participation in scientific research.
This session will focus on community science and its role in increasing equity and engagement in STEM. National Louis University has partnered with the Chicago Botanic Garden in its Budburst Project, which entails students collecting local phenology data with a mobile application.

SCST Presents: Creating creative memories: Teaching students to use what they know to learn what they don’t
This presentation will introduce creative memory association techniques used by memory masters and student’s alike. These simple techniques can make learning both fun and easy.

SPEAKERS:
Narendra Deshmukh, Orinna Clark, Ian Moncrief, Thayne Sweeten

These sessions delve into innovative strategies to ignite a passion for science and technology in grades 9-12, empowering students to become leaders in the future workforce.

Information Literacy in the Classroom: Key K-12 Education Stakeholder’s Perspectives of Scientific Information Literacy
Information Literacy (IL) is an important skillset in the digital age but is underrepresented within chemistry classrooms. To evaluate why, we must open conversations with key stakeholders in K12 science education. These conversations with K12 educators provided key insights into obstacles.

Unlocking Science for All: XR Strategies to Support Students with Disabilities
Come learn how extended reality (XR) can support students with disabilities in science settings. Leave with foundational behavior expectations for implementing XR in the classroom and selection criteria for identifying the XR for the classroom aligning with student needs and NGSS.

SPEAKERS:
Matilynn Lam, Shalece Kohnke

These sessions ignite a love for science, technology, engineering, and math through engaging activities and resources designed specifically for young learners in grades 3-5. Get ready to explore, experiment, and create as we delve into the exciting world of STEM education!

Using Storytelling and Role-play to Teach Hurricane Science
Join the UCAR Center for Science Education as we share our experience and tips for creating energetic and engaging lessons that blend storytelling, role-play, and authentic science to turn students into collaborative meteorologists-in-training who work to track a developing hurricane.

Exploring Professional Development as a Barrier to Teaching STEM in an Elementary Classroom.
The research project shows a significant gap; many teachers lack access to relevant and ongoing professional development opportunities in integrated STEM. As a result, teachers express reduced confidence in their ability to effectively teach STEM concepts and employ innovative teaching strategies.

Plickers - A Fast, Free, and Fun Assessment Tool for the Science Classroom
Plickers is a mobile app and web-based tool used to conduct formative assessments in classrooms. Instead of using traditional methods, Plickers is an easy-to-use, no-cost solution that allows teachers to quickly and easily gather student feedback. Come learn more about Plickers at this session.

SPEAKERS:
Malorie Wyman, Kylie Swanson, Katie Wolfson, Malorie Wyman, Kylie Swanson

Join us for a dynamic exploration of high-impact strategies to ignite curiosity, build essential skills, and prepare students for thriving careers in STEM fields.

"Frozen Worlds Unveiled: A Journey from Classroom to Climate Change"
Experience an interdisciplinary lesson challenging students to achieve an understanding of climate change by improving their comprehension about the polar areas at the North and South Poles. Data sets and a hands-on experiment will be shared as well as strategies for inclusive, anti-bias teaching.

Patient X Ray Diagnosis Using Free Google AI Tool
In this classroom lesson, students load X Ray images into a Google AI site to create image recognition models. The models will then be trained to classify lung X Ray results into various categories, producing patient diagnoses. Students also analyze the reliability of the AI model using statistics.

Student Science at Sea
Participants will learn how to access hundreds of free classroom activities that will involve students in the authentic science and data of ocean-drilling research expeditions, and how students can interact in real time with scientists aboard the JOIDES Resolution while they are at sea.

SPEAKERS:
Ashley Burkart, Milton Johnson, Maya Pincus, Milton Johnson, Maya Pincus, Ashley Burkart

Ignite a passion for science, technology, engineering, and math in elementary students! These sessions equip educators and advocates with engaging strategies and resources to promote and integrate STEM learning in Grades 3-5, fostering the next generation of innovators and problem-solvers.

Exploring Institutional Expectations as a Barrier to Teaching STEM in the Elementary Classroom
This presentation will discuss institutional barriers such as heavy content demands and time restraints to teaching integrated STEM in the elementary classroom.

Exploring Standardized Testing As a barrier to teaching STEM in the elementary classroom
This presentation will discuss standardized testing as a barrier to teaching integrated STEM in the elementary classroom.

Exploring Teacher Efficacy as a Barrier to Teaching STEM in the Elementary Classroom
This presentation will discuss teacher efficacy as a barrier to teaching integrated STEM lessons in the elementary classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Betsy Barent, Miranda Orellana, Brooke Conrady, Selina Richter, Ari Nguyen, Brooke Conrady, Amber Murphy, Olivia Fate, Eliza Kos, Selina Richter, Ari Nguyen, Amber Murphy, Olivia Fate, Eliza Kos

Dive into engaging activities and explore key environmental science concepts like ecosystems, climate change, and conservation, all designed to spark curiosity and empower grades 3-5 students to become responsible stewards of our planet.

Conservation Classroom at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo
Connect K-5 students with nature by integrating STEAM resources from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo into your classroom. Conservation Classroom is a free collection of videos, programs, and activities that invite students to wonder, engage, act, and connect with animals, science, and sustainability.

Making Science Learning Lifelong, Lifewide and Lifedeep: Incorporating Out-of-School (Informal) STEM Learning experiences in the classroom.
Learn about research on when and where STEM learning occurs, as well as effective science experiences between schools and out-of-school programs.

Making Science Learning Lifelong, Lifewide and Lifedeep: Incorporating Out-of-School (Informal) STEM Learning experiences in the classroom.
Learn about research on when and where STEM learning occurs, as well as effective science experiences between schools and out-of-school programs.

SPEAKERS:
Kaden Borseth, Dennis Schatz, Dennis Schatz

Engage students in collaborative, real-world STEM challenges that connect science concepts to engineering, technology, and math through hands-on activities and critical thinking.

Leveraging Extended Reality to Support Students with Disabilities in Science Education"
Extended reality (XR) can increase access for all. Learn how XR was implemented in inclusive biology classrooms to reduce the achievement gap between students with and without disabilities. Walk away with free resources used in this study and best practices for implementing them in the classroom.

How science really works: Enhancing instruction with the Science Flowchart interactive
Find out how to modify your current instruction to better communicate the dynamic process of science using an interactive tool from the Understanding Science website. Help students recognize science as a dynamic, exciting, creative, and intensely human endeavor!

Integration of Scratch Programming into Teacher Education Courses
Scratch programming promotes computational thinking, problem-solving, and creativity. This project focuses on promoting those skills in teachers through a professional learning community. We will share artifacts from teacher implementation, reflections & recommendations for application.

SPEAKERS:
Kirsten Smith, Lindsey Roy, Betsy Barent, Kirsten Smith, Betsy Barent, Chelsea McClure, Chelsea McClure, Lindsey Roy, Shalece Kohnke

These sessions explore innovative ways to integrate chemistry and technology in your grades 9-12 curriculum, sparking student curiosity and preparing them for future STEM careers.

Chemistry and Social Justice -- Applications of Student Learning through Variety of Presentation Modes
Information literacy and scientific communication practice for summative projects provide ways students can demonstrate their learning about complex chemistry and sustainability topics. Increases student engagement and equitable participation in the chemistry classroom.

Using Spreadsheets to Learn Science Inquisitively and via Differentiation
A showcase of using dynamic spreadsheets that provide instantaneous, differentiated feedback to students as they learn or practice new content independently or in small groups. This method amplifies confidence for students of all abilities and frees teachers to assist those most in need.

SPEAKERS:
Nicole Juhl, Tisha Mendiola, Sean Regan

These interactive sessions equip educators with engaging activities and resources to empower grade 6-8 students to understand climate science, explore its impacts, and become agents of positive change.

Around the World with NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission
Freshwater is our most valuable natural resource, and the amount of freshwater resources varies across communities around the world. Learn how freely available precipitation data, collected by a NASA satellite, is being used to bring about positive change in a wide variety of ways.

Engaging students in socioscientific issues by building and using small sensors
Learn how students can build small, low cost sensors to ask and answer their own questions about air quality. We will share results about student impact from our own experiences in the classroom.

Louisiana Wetland Days: Standard Aligned Learning in A Place-Based Context
School districts partner with Louisiana Sea Grant to co-create place-based learning opportunities. Funded through the National Academies of Science, Wetland Days are customized exploration in community wetland areas where students apply scientific principles to locally relevant phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Dorian Janney, Laura Carsten Conner, Nathan Cotten, Alvera McMillan

These interactive sessions equip educators with engaging strategies to nurture students' natural curiosity and cultivate critical thinking skills as they explore science through the lens of sensemaking.

Elementary Science - Students and Sensemaking
Inclusive Argumentation in the Elementary Classroom Engaging students in arguing from evidence supports student sense making and the vision of inclusive instructional strategies. Come explore how students in a fourth grade classroom argue from evidence.

Free Project-Based Learning Resources for Elementary Science
Get a brief introduction to free OER integrated science curricular units for Grades 3-5 and see how well the features of Project-Based Learning provide the tools and routines to support sensemaking.

Integrating Literacy and Science in Elementary Classrooms -- Lessons Learned during the Multiple Literacies in Project-Based Learning (ML-PBL) Study
ML-PBL teachers find ways to further integrate literacy and science throughout their day. ML-PBL's free OER project-based curriculum resources support students in applying their figuring out and critical thinking processes to all subject areas. Access free resources and rationale for integration.

SPEAKERS:
Betsy Barent, Miranda Orellana, Susan Codere, Susan Codere

University/College instructors talk about how they integrate NSTA resources in their courses. Come and listen to their stories and ask them questions! Find out the benefits that this opportunity provides you and your teacher candidates.

Using NSTA in Lieu of a Textbook w/Preservice Teachers: Instructors’ Stories
University/College instructors talk about how they integrate NSTA resources in their courses. Come and listen to their stories and ask them questions! Find out the benefits that this opportunity provides you and your teacher candidates.

SPEAKERS:
Flavio Mendez