Engage with Conservation Nation’s unique resources featuring diverse role models in wildlife conservation. Explore topics ranging from mindful birding with leaders of Black Birders Week to innovative uses of DNA in conservation with scientists from the de-extinction company Colossal Biosciences.

TAKEAWAYS:
You can build student engagement and help more students see themselves represented in environmental spaces by bringing diverse conservation professionals and careers into your classroom via free lesson materials and resources from Conservation Nation.

SPEAKERS:
Diane Lill

Science is a social endeavor! Gain strategies to transform your classroom into a community of learners in which students and teachers actively try to make sense of the natural and built worlds.

TAKEAWAYS:
Leave with strategies for developing classroom norms in collaboration with your students.

SPEAKERS:
Kate Soriano

Learn how to support your students in connecting phenomena based on genetics and epigenetics to their own lives and communities through engineering practices using a free, EQuIP-reviewed unit designed for HS NGSS.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use engineering practices to teach genetics and epigenetics while facilitating a classroom environment that privileges connecting phenomena to their own lives and communities through engaging in a design-based challenge to recommend modifications to their school.

SPEAKERS:
Devin Foschi, Elizabeth Chatham, Dora Kastel

Join us to discover how to enhance AP Biology with phenomena-based storylines that make curriculum topics relevant and fun! Gain skills to integrate student questions with science practices while implementing inquiry-driven lessons to increase student engagement and deepen understanding.

TAKEAWAYS:
After an introduction to Lab Hamster’s AP Biology Unit 1 storyline, participants will leave with the knowledge and skills needed to implement student inquiry activities, apply science practices, and use pedagogical strategies that boost student engagement and reduce teacher workload.

SPEAKERS:
Angela Tatum, Joshua Anoff, Noel Pauller

This workshop will describe methods used to engage a range of learners, including neurodivergent and English Language Learners, in grades 3-5, in place-based investigations of plants and weather. Lesson descriptions and student work will be used to initiate discussion with attendees.

TAKEAWAYS:
This workshop will describe methods used to engage a range of learners, including neurodivergent and English Language Learners, in grades 3-5, in place-based investigations of plants and weather. Lesson descriptions and student work will be used to initiate discussion with attendees.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Feit, Andreia Ferreira, Soraya Santana, Peter Garik

In a learner stance, participants will explore productive talk based on observations and development of a model to explain a phenomenon. Switching to a teacher lens, participants will identify types of talk they used, how it shaped deep learning, and apply these ideas to existing tasks/lessons.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will take away ideas for increasing productive talk when students engage in collaborative science tasks. Considerations include different types of talk students use to share ideas and move toward deep content understanding. Time will include strategizing how to inform existing lessons.

SPEAKERS:
Takumi Sato, PhD

Build, test, and change ramps and consider ways to help early elementary students answer some BIG questions: How do different objects move? How can we change the way an object moves?

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave this workshop with the hands-on experience and curricular materials needed to support young elementary students as they explore and make sense of forces and interactions.

SPEAKERS:
Adrien Kaye

Many curriculum materials minimize elevating students’ brilliance with teacher directed, pre-designed activities. COESEE envisions classrooms where students’ ideas are foregrounded and learning is centered in students’ lived experiences.

TAKEAWAYS:
Working collaboratively, educators will investigate ways to understand and elevate students' brilliance by centering science in their everyday experiences.

SPEAKERS:
Molly Ewing, Mary Starr, Carla Zembal-Saul

Discover engaging activities that help students explain the significance of Gregor Mendel’s pea plant experiments. Attendees will use glitter to represent the dominant and recessive traits of two parent plants and their offspring and complete a pompom Punnett square.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be able to explain that Gregor Mendel’s experiments on pea plants laid the foundation for the study of heredity, Punnett squares are a tool used to predict the traits of an offspring, and Mendelian genetics enables animal and plant breeders to produce new varieties with more accuracy.

SPEAKERS:
Lynn Wallin

Make student thinking come to life with notebooks! Increase the rigor of student work—learn new strategies for organizing content and how to use templates for any science class. Take home many current NGSS classroom examples to get yourself started.

TAKEAWAYS:
Notebooking in science should focus on sensemaking and creating ownership of the work. Moving away from worksheets and discovering-1.) The how and why of science notebooks; 2.) How to engage ALL students in science; and 3.) Templates scaffold student learning for success.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Weibert

This workshop will incorporate the phenomena of underwater sound into science activities and investigations. Resources such as an audio gallery of underwater sounds produced by animals and people and activities challenging students to produce spectrograms and explore the science of sound.

TAKEAWAYS:
Using the topic of underwater sound can be an engaging vehicle for students to explore physical science concepts and connect these fundamental principles with the undersea environment and science of sound.

SPEAKERS:
Liesl Hotaling

This experience provides educators with strategies to shift from the IRE (Initiate-Response-Evaluate) talk pattern to productive classroom discussions. Learn how to foster deeper student engagement, encourage critical thinking, and create a more interactive, collaborative learning environment.

TAKEAWAYS:
This hands-on, immersive experience offers practical strategies to help teachers transition from the IRE (Initiate-Response-Evaluate) pattern to productive talk, promoting deeper student engagement and meaningful dialogue.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Garelli

Learn how to incorporate sensemaking and engineering design into your K-12 STEM classroom using the Teach Engineering Digital Library! In this hands-on workshop, participants act as students and tackle a real-world design challenge while engaging in phenomena-based and three-dimensional learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn effective strategies to integrate sensemaking and engineering design into their STEM classrooms. They will experience firsthand how engineering involves designing solutions to problems that arise from phenomena while engaging in student sensemaking and 3D learning.

SPEAKERS:
Dua Chaker, Jennifer Kracha, Ellen Sukovich

Racism is prevalent in our society. Participants will examine resources for engaging students in respectful and productive activity that contrast the social construct of race with scientific understandings of genetics. Examples of how science education can be a form of social justice will be shared.

TAKEAWAYS:
Anti-racism work in science education is difficult. Resources to support teachers in engaging in controversial topics will be examined and used by participants to rehearse effective pedagogical moves in engaging in classroom discussions of racism and science. Curricular resources will be shared.

SPEAKERS:
Deb Morrison, Kelsie Fowler

Problem solving? Creativity? Collaboration? Design Challenge? Learn about an instructional strategy that provides students opportunities to participate that focuses on local and state environmental issues. Join a mini design sprint and develop your own challenge before you leave.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn about the design sprint, an instructional strategy that provides students with a unique opportunity to participate in a challenge that focuses on local and state environmental issues. Participants will create the initial ideas for their own student design challenge.

SPEAKERS:
Liz Martinez, Peggy Steffen

Data collection probes and sensors provide the phenomenon and data to drive 3D student learning. This session will focus on how to utilize this technology to drive instruction. Teachers will experience a lesson using sensors to model photosynthesis, with a focus on sensemaking.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will experience parts of a model lesson. Additionally, teachers will explore other examples of using probes to drive instruction. Lastly, teachers will have time to work collaboratively with other teachers to modify one of their lesson plans to effectively utilize probes in sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Justin Ingram

We all want students to become critical thinkers, retain & transfer learning, and have a deep understanding of science ideas. Transform your instruction so students construct their own explanations of scientific phenomena that mirrors the process scientists use to make sense of the natural world.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be able to define, identify, and apply characteristics of sensemaking into instruction. They will also become familiar with lesson models and resources that support sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Jessica Oakley, Tina Hovance

Help students build empathy and connect science to their lives using a STEM picture book (Dr. Rosie Helps the Animals). Engage in science phenomena embedded in the story and learn how open-sourced interdisciplinary lessons can address literacy, science content, and inquiry skills.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will engage in student activities that show how NGSS content and inquiry skills can be addressed by investigating real-world phenomena introduced through a STEM picture book. Teachers will leave with the resources and background knowledge to facilitate these activities with students.

SPEAKERS:
Judith Newcomb, Jennifer Welborn

Participants will engage with different stations that focus on 3D models and activities that are modified to help students who are blind experience inquiry in an appropriate and parallel way as sighted peers.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave this 60 min workshop with strategies for modifying their own labs and hands-on class activities to better ensure that every child can “see” biology.

SPEAKERS:
Steffanie Shoop, Hellanna Koflowitch

Give your students the chance to take on the role of a genetic counselor and apply their understanding of genetics to real world scenarios, including creating a pedigree, using NCBI and interpreting primary literature.

TAKEAWAYS:
Work through the genetic counselor project from a patient background, solving a pedigree, learning how to use NCBI, and interpreting primary literature. You will take home the student directions, exemplar projects, list of relevant primary literature articles, and teacher key.

SPEAKERS:
Ilana Saxe

Experience how classroom agreements can create productive and safe spaces for elementary students to share their ideas, let those ideas change and grow, and engage with each other as a community of learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
Elementary students can co-construct classroom agreements that support an environment where they recognize that science can be done in many ways, feel safe and compelled to share their ideas and questions, listen/look/respond to others' ideas, and let their ideas change and grow.

SPEAKERS:
María González-Howard, Carla Robinson, Leticia Garza, Janna Mahfoud

Learn what representations and data your students can use to bridge phenomena and mathematics, and how to use data tasks to assess 3D kinematics understanding, as opposed to rote algebra skills.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to assess student problem-solving ability and conceptual understanding through students' use of multiple representations and approaches in physics classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Christopher Moore

Unlock the secret to engaging middle school minds! Dive into dynamic discussion tools and powerful questioning techniques that will ignite classroom conversations. Elevate your teaching game with enhanced pedagogical insights, ensuring science becomes irresistible to your students. Don't miss out –

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain practical discussion and questioning tools, rooted in the crosscutting concepts, to transform quiet classrooms into spaces of students actively engaged in sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Brianna Reilly Oliveira, Kate Soriano, Ann Guglielmo

How can we teach concepts like ions, ionic compounds, & chemical rxns in a fun, meaningful, & rigorous way? Through the phenomenon of popping boba! We will walk through a series of investigations and hands-on labs to explore its properties and how it is made.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with a phenomenon-based lesson rooted in core chemistry concepts. They will engage in easy, investigative, and fun hands-on labs and see how we unpack how a gel-encapsulated liquid (popping boba) forms by exploring ions, charges, ionic bonding, and electrostatic attractions.

SPEAKERS:
April Thompson, Jocelyn Puett, Alyssa Wachsman, Megan McCall, Kate Strangfeld, Makala Woods, Hannah Holt

Learn how Blue Origin's Club for the Future is helping students get excited about space careers via hands on STEM lessons. Explore the lesson Cosmic Clutter: The Mission to Clean Up Space Debris and learn how to implement the lesson into your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to implement the lesson into their classroom and learn about the free resources Club for the Future has to offer.

SPEAKERS:
Kristen Yip

You will learn how to use MFLOW, a web-based programming platform that makes it extremely easy to play with sounds and create sound compositions while learning the basics of programming. You will gain access to an NGSS-aligned curriculum to support students with coding and sound engineering.

TAKEAWAYS:
You will learn how to use MFLOW to sound engineer and code your own sound or music composition. Also, you will learn how to engage your students with coding through engineering design challenges.

SPEAKERS:
Alec Barron

Join us to learn how to use a place-based approach with data from NASA’s Earth System Data Explorer tool. Participants will take part in hands-on activities and pedagogical discussions to think about implementing place-based, data-rich activities using NASA resources in their own classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to access and use both primary and secondary data from NASA’s Earth System Data Explorer and other NASA resources (e.g., My NASA Data Literacy Cubes) to explore global phenomena at local scales, and reflect on instructional trade-offs for using different tools.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Salisbury, Karen Lionberger

Learn how to engage your students with the rich phenomena that stars and exoplanets can provide through the use of a free EQuIP-reviewed high quality ESS unit.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will deepen their understanding of how prioritizing phenomena-driven learning supports key HQIM features through exploring a free NGSS-badged ESS unit that engages student interest and relevance while integrating the three dimensions of argumentation, stability & change, and various DCIs.

SPEAKERS:
Devin Foschi, Dora Kastel

This workshop is designed to equip elementary teachers with strategies for fostering science inquiry through dialogue and discussion. By emphasizing collaborative learning and critical thinking, the workshop aims to enhance student engagement, understanding, and scientific literacy.

TAKEAWAYS:
The workshop aims to provide teachers with strategies for creating a supportive and inclusive classroom environment for discussion.

SPEAKERS:
Mary Sanvictores, Michelle Velho

Deepen student data literacy and build engagement with data sets that will surprise you! Activate critical thinking and questioning in data readers with innumerable and creative ways to represent data. Experience data representation as a scientist and artist.

TAKEAWAYS:
Experience graphing in artful and innovative ways. Modeled after ‘Dear Data,’ attendees will obtain and organize data, then create data visualizations to view as a community. Participants will receive lesson and activity plans to expand students’ thinking around graphing and data representation.

SPEAKERS:
Nina Hipps, Amanda Becker

Explore modern livestock farming practices and their environmental impacts. Classroom activities will be shared to help students understand why plant-source and animal-source foods differ in their environmental impact as they think critically about the trade-offs involved in various food systems.

TAKEAWAYS:
Animal-source foods have a larger environmental footprint than plant-source foods (per unit of food produced). Evaluating the sustainability of food production systems requires critical thinking and an evaluation of socioscience to understand factors outside of science that impact our food choices.

SPEAKERS:
Andrea Gardner

Come learn about Data Puzzles, a free resource co-designed by climate scientists and instructional specialists from the University of Colorado Boulder that combine authentic data with Ambitious Science Teaching instructional practices to help students make sense of phenomena.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore the Data Puzzles instructional framework in the context of the Wind Farms of the Future resource and leave prepared to implement these 2-3 day sensemaking lessons in their own middle and high school classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Ann Marie Dubick, Kerri Wingert

Performance Learning Instruction shifts from traditional content based teaching to a hands-on approach, where students, like "aspiring MacGyvers," construct knowledge by solving problems and sense-making, rather than simply verifying and recalling information.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this workshop, you will engage in instructional design by viewing performance learning and phenomena from the perspective of students and then teachers. Learning by doing, participants will collaborate to learn how to design instructional units grounded in phenomena and promoting sense-making.

SPEAKERS:
Beth Penney, Heather Wheeler, Sue Downer

Participants will explore hands-on stations as they use inquiry analysis tools to dive into phenomena, primary sources, and discovery boxes about coastal phenomena. Participants will share, engage, and connect with multiple tools, strategies and PreK-2 resources to use to analyze coastal phenomena.

TAKEAWAYS:
Inquiry-based teaching focuses on moving students beyond general curiosity into the realms of critical thinking and understanding. We must encourage our students to ask questions and support them through the investigation process, understanding when to begin and how to structure an inquiry activity.

SPEAKERS:
Betsy Glisson

Teachers rotate among stations to explore air quality activities, sensors, service projects, and games aligned with NGSS/CC standards followed by discussion. Phenomena-based lessons and assessments that address wildfires, climate change, and environmental justice will be prioritized.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers can confidently engage students with air quality topics to empower them with skills, content, and actions to protect their communities. Includes free activities from the Air & Waste Management Association, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and Clean Air Partners.

SPEAKERS:
Joann Held, Madelyn Percy, Amelia Cavazos, Elizabeth Spike

Urban tree populations have a unique ecology that you can bring into your classroom! Join the Wade Institute for Science Education and the Forest Service’s Springfield and Philadelphia Urban Field Stations to explore storyline teaching, inquiry investigations and local phenomena.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be introduced to strategies central to storyline teaching, including phenomena-based instruction, and learn how to collect data using tools and methods to evaluate urban forest and tree health, and share that data through participatory science.

SPEAKERS:
Sandra Ryack-Bell, Kathryn Atkins

This workshop teaches methods for schoolyard investigations aligned with Pennsylvania STEELS standards. Students collect and analyze local environmental data, designing solutions to enhance community well-being. It emphasizes 3-dimensional learning and fosters student-led change.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants investigate the links between climate change, environmental impacts, and human health. They gather and evaluate data for sensemaking, connecting it to environmental justice topics. The focus on instructional practice enhances educators' capacity to teach environmental literacy.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Peglow

Discover chemical reactions and animal adaptations through fireflies! We'll explore chemiluminescence, build a circuit, and practice communicating like beetles. This workshop is half chemistry lab, half engineering design challenge, and 100% fun!

TAKEAWAYS:
Learners will walk away with a clear understanding of how to run the lab activity, including access to all digital and printable materials. A hyperlinked list of affordable consumable materials is included.

SPEAKERS:
Megan Leys

Discover how to engage students in hands-on 3D learning through sourdough fermentation! This workshop shows how "bread pets" can bring microbial life and biological concepts to life while fostering critical thinking, inquiry, and collaboration in your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to engage their students using sourdough fermentation as a hook to explore core biological concepts and foster critical thinking and collaboration skills in a hands-on, real-world context.

SPEAKERS:
Shannon Barlow, Alexis Custer

Collaboration is essential in science. This session covers groupwork challenges, introduces "groupworthy" tasks, and shares strategies for fostering effective collaboration. Come gain the tools to improve collaboration and inspire curiosity-driven learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will identifying common challenges in designing and implementing groupwork and learn strategies to improve collaborative learning experiences for students while engaging in science group tasks.

SPEAKERS:
Anna Monteiro

Looking to build student thinking about data? Come learn how the “Data Discussion” talk routine scaffolds class discussions about patterns in data. We’ll explore key features of the routine, participate in enactments, and brainstorm how to bring quality three-dimensional talk time to your lessons.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will be able to provide opportunities for elementary students of all language proficiency levels to engage in “data discussion” talks in which they make data public and analyze meaningful patterns in their own and their classmates’ investigations.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Forsythe

Join us to explore how to leverage students' communication tools in the high school science classroom. This session will focus on strategies and approaches integrated into the OpenSciEd Chemical Reactions unit which challenges students to investigate chemical processes impacting oyster populations.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to guide students in articulating their ideas, collaborating effectively, and constructing evidence-based explanations while encouraging the use of their own language and perspectives to make sense of complex scientific concepts and connect them to pressing environmental issues.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker, Holly Hereau

Engage in an OpenSciEd Elementary unit and see how classroom discussions can support ALL students’ in using their ideas, experiences, and evidence for collective sensemaking.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about how to engage elementary students in classroom discussion to share initial ideas, build understanding and come to consensus about the phenomenon they are trying to collectively figure out.

SPEAKERS:
Guy Ollison, Susan Gomez Zwiep

Discover how PBS LearningMedia, a free and trusted resource for PreK-12 classrooms, utilizes media-rich resources from PBS shows like NOVA, NATURE, Weathered, and PBS Eons to spark students' curiosity, facilitate student sense-making, and support 3D learning frameworks.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn strategies for seamlessly incorporating multimedia content from PBS LearningMedia into curriculum and learn new methods to encourage critical thinking and problem-solving as students learn about and discuss challenges posed by environmental issues and the potential solutions.

SPEAKERS:
Merek Chang, Lori Brittain

Empower your teaching with Scientist Circles! Discover research-backed strategies to foster collaborative learning, critical thinking skills and ignite curiosity in the classroom. Engage in hands-on-activities, share best practices and leave empowered to implement Scientist Circles effectively.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain effective strategies and actionable tips to boost student engagement and foster meaningful whole-class discussions.

SPEAKERS:
Holly Hereau, Kate Soriano, Ann Guglielmo

Explore Shared Waters, a NGSS-aligned, hands-on curriculum for grades 3-6. This 10-lesson unit empowers students to investigate local watersheds and develop action projects to protect them. Perfect for educators looking for classroom-ready resources to engage students in environmental science.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will walk away equipped with a ready-to-use, NGSS-aligned curriculum that brings environmental science to life. They'll learn how to inspire students to explore, investigate, and protect their local watersheds through hands-on activities and impactful action projects.

SPEAKERS:
Nanette Marcum-Dietrich

Writing is an essential skill for students to communicate scientific reasoning. Students can develop and use scientific models to organize the evidence for effective writing. This session provides educators with strategies, tools, and lesson plans to improve student writing skills and sensemaking.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants receive a set of lessons aligned to the NGSS and STEELS standards that use strategies to engage students in writing scientific explanations and arguments. Participants learn how to use models to support student writing and how to apply these strategies to their instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Brett Moulding, Candace Penrod

This session will use the attributes of sensemaking (phenomena and science ideas) through tactile, auditory and visual simulation to examine how organisms adapt to their environments. Participants will walk away with a free whale vision simulator which they can replicate to create a classroom set.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will participate in a “student hat” to explore the power of sensemaking via simulation to learn how whales have adapted to their environment. A “make and take” and lesson plan will allow teachers to apply the lesson easily in their own classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Robert Snyder

Physical computing allows students to design and create interactive objects that encourage inquiry investigations and emphasize computational thinking skills. Participants will engage in activities designed for middle school students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Microcontrollers are small computers that can come with several integrated sensors making them useful for bothc investigations and engineering projects. Participants will learn about and experience hands-on various microcontrollers & their use in inquiry investigation tasks & student sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Susan German, Michael Bowen

Join NSTA Early Childhood-Elementary & BSB Committees as they explore how these award-winning books support STEM learning. Educators will engage in interactive activities, leaving with a head full of ideas on how these books enhance science & engineering practices (SEPs) in the classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants can view and discuss the 2025 Best STEM Book winners and ways to incorporate them into their classrooms to teach the SEPs.

SPEAKERS:
Simone Nance, Emily Brady, Melissa Parks, Mary Lynn Hess, Jennifer Williams, Anne Lowry

In this session, participants will learn how to use data-collection technology to investigate the albedo of different surfaces. Teachers will walk away empowered to make their albedo effect lessons more relevant and engaging by using hands-on, real-world data-collection methods that connect climate

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with the confidence to integrate data-collection technology and analysis software into their classrooms. They will learn how to help students collect, analyze, and interpret real-time environmental data using graphical tools that make science more interactive and meaningful.

SPEAKERS:
Cecelia Gillam

Are your students actively making sense of the instruction you're delivering in the classroom? Driving Questions Boards help students generate questions, increasing engagement, maximizing learning, and deepening understanding.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators attending this workshop will understand how Driving Question Boards increase engagement, amplify student voice and choice, deliver more equitable instruction, and help students make sense of phenomena through inquiry based practice. Participants will develop a plan to implement a DBQ.

SPEAKERS:
Jaime Camero

Looking to amplify your elementary students’ sensemaking? Come learn how slight tweaks to how you use phenomena might be the answer for you. We’ll explore how to use phenomena to make science relevant to students, support sensemaking talk routines, and ground the development of academic vocabulary

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will be able to improve how their curriculum supports students in critical thinking about phenomena and adjust their lesson activities and assessments to better support student engagement, sensemaking, and academic vocabulary.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Forsythe

Speaker will model and actively engage attendees with strategies and explorations, where children investigate, explore and manipulate materials and technology-rich tools, to see the effects of their actions, creating sense-making and increasing sustained curiosity and engagement. Handouts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn strategies and engaging exploration ideas, to create sense-making opportunities for young children, and to inspire children’s sustained curiosities. Activities will be easy and inexpensive to replicate and will help launch a trajectory of learning for young children.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Knoell

Organic Chemistry is a highly relevant topic which can be made accessible for students at all levels. In this workshop, participants will learn how to create a dynamic elective course that will help students experience relevant content, and also try out some of the experiments used in the course.

TAKEAWAYS:
Organic Chemistry courses can offer highly relevant science content, and with the right approach can be made into an engaging, memorable, and accessible experience for students with diverse backgrounds.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Alvarez, Derrick Wood

Hands-on activities aimed to help secondary and CTE students become acquainted with careers that exist in the energy industry and beyond, as well as to understand personality traits and soft skills that are essential to being a good worker and team player.

TAKEAWAYS:
Activities to conduct with secondary students to showcase career opportunities in energy-related fields and help students to identify skills and traits for career readiness, not just with a four-year degree but also certification and trade school career paths.

SPEAKERS:
Paula Miller

This workshop will expand teachers’ attunement to the diverse communicative resources that can support multilingual learners’ (MLLs) sense-making in science classrooms, how teachers can integrate these resources into their practice, and the role of personal narratives in enhancing student engagement.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore and leave with actionable strategies they can use in their classrooms to leverage students’ diverse semiotic resources for supporting MLLs’ productive engagement in science investigations.

SPEAKERS:
Eve Manz, Diana Garity, Souhaila Nassar

Teaching approaches that incorporate different perspectives are often discussed in classrooms and school districts, but why is it important to understand their benefits for all students? Immerse yourself in a Papakū Makawalu science lesson and be open to potential discomfort, confusion, and new learning experiences.

TAKEAWAYS:
Expand your awareness of the knowledge that students bring into the classroom by engaging in a science setting that values multiple ways of knowing and learning. Identify and discuss opportunities to implement teaching methods that reflect a variety of perspectives in the science classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Toni Marie Kaui, Whitney Aragaki

Do your students think copying notes is learning? Join this interactive workshop to discover how we can elevate our students' learning experiences through active note-taking practices. Let’s explore a variety of strategies that empower students to take ownership of their sense-making.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with a toolkit of versatile note-taking strategies to transform students from passive recipients into active knowledge-seekers.

SPEAKERS:
Cathy Xiong, Evonnia Smith, Yishan Lee

Learning projectile motion can be a challenge for many students in physics. This session will immerse participants on student-centered activities that allow students to work together to understand projectile motion both horizontally and at an angle.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will go through two lab-based activities to see how students can use mathematical thinking to see projectile motion. They will also be shown a third option to use in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Kyle Thompson

The modeling-focused activity centers on interpreting student work and providing effective feedback on students' modeling and argumentation practices using the Argumentation and Modeling Science Practice Instructional Tools.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn techniques to offer feedback on (1) the reasons behind the differences in particle motion during freezing and melting and (2) the most effective ways to depict particle motion visually.

SPEAKERS:
Alex St. Louis, Jaclyn Murray

Students’ notebooks should be more than just piles of papers! In this session we’ll discuss the multiple ways available to organize students’ science notebooks, ultimately making it students' go-to tool for sensemaking, evolving their use from more than just papers, into their daily essential tool.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with specific strategies and ideas to help students manage and use their science notebooks as resources for sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Tonya Brainsky

Explore how UDL principles are integrated into the OpenSciEd Natural Selection unit. This session will focus on using high quality instructional materials that meet the needs of all learners, ensuring accessibility and engagement for diverse student populations.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain practical strategies for scaffolding complex concepts, providing multiple means of representation and expression, and fostering student agency in collaborative, real-world problem-solving.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker, Holly Hereau

Students feel capable of taking risks and challenging themselves when they feel a sense of community in class.You will learn how to use community circles and metacognitive reflections to promote belonging in the classroom, while helping students to make authentic, intentional connections to content.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about using metacognitive reflections and community circles to build community and connection to content. Participants will review examples of these reflections and plan how to implement them, and engage in a circle and receive resources on how to build a circle practice.

SPEAKERS:
Casey Nolan

Struggling with student engagement in your science classroom? Incorporating the use of phenomena will spark student interest and engagement. Learn how to incorporate phenomena, and the Ambitious Science Teaching practices of student discourse and student created models in your elementary classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will utilize the Ambitious Science Teaching practices of Eliciting student ideas and developing models. In this session we will use a phenomenon to spark interest and work through getting students to engage in science discourse and develop a science model to explain their understanding.

SPEAKERS:
Leslie Sauder

In this workshop, explore nationwide weather and climate data through an online graphing tool that simplifies data visualization. The tool makes it possible for students to focus on analysis and interpretation, rather than getting stuck on complex data. http://uanyc.science/pwc

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use the free AMNH Weather and Climate graphing tool with their students, and will walk away with worksheet resources that make this graphing tool even more accessible to their students.

SPEAKERS:
Jasmina Nikolov, Rachelle Travis

Come try an activity from DESIGN SQUAD LATINX and experience how the program materials connect students' funds of knowledge (skills, interests, and talents acquired from family, community, culture, and lived experiences) to the engineering design process, deepening student engagement and interest.

TAKEAWAYS:
Leave this workshop with an understanding of why it is important to champion a funds of knowledge approach in your classroom and program, and gain tips and ideas for how to bring a funds of knowledge approach to STEM education.

SPEAKERS:
Nicki Sirianni

Discover how to foster a classroom culture where students actively contribute to knowledge building in science learning. This session will highlight practices and strategies embedded in the OpenSciEd Electromagnetic Radiation unit.

TAKEAWAYS:
Gain insights into facilitating discussions, promoting equitable participation, and supporting sensemaking and explore how to create an inclusive learning environment that empowers students to collaboratively engage in sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker, Holly Hereau

Want to digitally capture all students' sensemaking in chemistry? Discover the potential of Canva’s infinite whiteboard for fostering collaboration and creativity through modeling and QFT. Leave with practical tips, editable protocols, and fresh inspiration to start implementing immediately!

TAKEAWAYS:
This interactive session uses Canva’s whiteboard as an effective platform for all students to collaboratively engage in SEPs, such as creating models and asking questions in an equitable learning environment. This chemistry focused session provides student examples and tips for implementation.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah English

An active workshop for participants to make music using their bodies, tables and/or chairs to create sounds, individually and with others. They will hum tunes and create accompaniments. They will be encouraged to include music exploration daily in their classrooms. Music vocabulary included.

TAKEAWAYS:
The focus is young children’s explorations of music-making and connections to science and mathematics. In every culture, people tap/hit items and use their mouths to create specific sounds. Adult explanations of music terms will include pitch, rhythm, tempo, volume, melody, harmony, and timbre.

SPEAKERS:
Ellen Cogan

Have you presented a phenomenon to your class only to have students ask for the answer? Uncertainty is uncomfortable, and figuring things out is not easy. Explore and discuss challenges and opportunities that arise when teachers encourage students to sit with unresolved phenomena.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participate in a series of hands-on phenomenon-based lessons, and practice new strategies for encouraging students to embrace uncertainty as an exciting opportunity, rather than a potential risk. Receive print copies of high-quality instructional materials to bring back to your students.

SPEAKERS:
Dr. Emily Harrison

Educators will engage as student learners to experience an anchoring phenomenon from a middle school OpenSciEd lesson to discover an effective, 5-step modeling routine for helping students make sense of phenomena adapted from the text, Ambitious Science Teaching.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will gain an understanding of an effective, 5-step instructional, collaborative routine for developing student’s proficiency with the Science and Engineering Practice of Developing and Using models and discover how it supports sensemaking and phenomena-based instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Garelli

This workshop will delve into the critical role of soil in the sustainability of our planet, incorporating the four pillars of sustainability: economic, social, environmental, and cultural. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the impact of human activities on soil health.

TAKEAWAYS:
Using classroom-ready resources shared, participants learn about the economic benefits of healthy soil, the social implications of soil degradation, the environmental importance of soil conservation, and the cultural significance of soil in different societies.

SPEAKERS:
Melanie Szulczewski, Margaret Holzer

Experience learning opportunities designed for early elementary students and reflect on strategies used to build instruction around students’ ideas and questions and support students in figuring out phenomena. Explore free, NGSS-aligned, research-based, resources for your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Children are naturally curious; let’s use that curiosity to foster and facilitate students’ questioning and discourse about phenomena in an elementary classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Amber Richmond, Chiara Kirkland, Cory Miller

All students have the right to develop a deep understanding of how the world works in ways that support their personal goals and the interests of their community. Come explore how instruction can more equitably support science learning that is consequential to your students and their communities.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will develop an understanding of an equity project framework for science education for supporting professional learning and implementation projects. They will learn how open education resources (http://stemteachingtools.org/) can help them develop equitable approaches to science teaching.

SPEAKERS:
Philip Bell

The excitement around the PA K-12 STEELS Standards involves opportunities to engage students in three-dimensional learning. In this session, we’ll explore what the three dimensions are, why they matter for student learning, and how they are implemented in the classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Be familiar with the three dimensions of the PA K-12 STEELS Standards

SPEAKERS:
Holly Hereau, Emily Mathews

Explore a hands-on lesson answering utilization of soil, water, and land use data to make decisions. Put on your student hat and see how they will analyze data to construct a solution for a relevant land use concern. Then, switch over to teacher mode and discuss ways to apply in our classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will leave with experience in a versatile lesson that can be applied as an assessment tool, an engagement tool, or both. These tools are phenomenon based and use science and engineering practices.

SPEAKERS:
Megan Sprague, JESSICA JONES

Learn how to modify and implement the NASA Data Literacy Cubes with students in a co-teaching model. Experience a lesson with combined Science and Social Studies content that provides students a unique opportunity to learn about oil and gas deposits and landforms in Ohio.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will experience a co-taught lesson using the NASA Data Literacy Cubes. They will be provided with the opportunity to adapt the lesson to fit their own content, curriculum, and state standards. Attendees will receive copies of the lesson plan, the Data Literacy Cubes, and student materials.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Creech, Michele Lewis

Explore the expanded ways of communicating and negotiating meaning children use as they engage in sensemaking at all ages. Work with us as we share ways to becoming more attuned to the multiple ways children explore meaning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will engage in meaning making around children's communication and processes of negotiating meaning to become more familiar with various strategies and their importance.

SPEAKERS:
Molly Ewing, Mary Starr, Carla Zembal-Saul

We will begin by exploring a puzzling phenomenon; a "machine" that claims to tell you how in love you are. Participants will self assess their depth of engagement in the Science Practices during the task using the K-12 grade band articulation of each practice. Appropriate for K-12 science teachers!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to support their students' engagement with the science practices at the depth and complexity called for in the Framework for K-12 Science Education.

SPEAKERS:
Laura Shafer, PhD, Megan Fretz

If you have ever wondered about NSTA's Picture Perfect STEM lessons, and how they will fit into your classroom, this session is for you. Come and learn about these dynamic lessons written in the 5E model that engage your youngest learners in sensemaking through investigation and problem-solving.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to engage students in trade books that launch each science unit and how NSTA's science kits make each lesson easy to incorporate into your classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Lauren LoPorto, Kristen Crawford

Participants will convert a glass canning jar into a solar lantern using photovoltaic panels, rechargeable batteries, and a customized PCB. This STEAM based workshop demonstrates how students can construct their personalized take-home solar lanterns with an eye towards a greater good.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to make solar lanterns while addressing the middle and high school NGSS Physics standards as well as the NRC Framework Standards for Matter, Energy, and Human Impacts. Connect this simple lantern to the collective work of teachers and engineers working towards alleviating energy poverty.

SPEAKERS:
Pamela Ulicny

Learn how to seamlessly incorporate engineering and design into your science content lessons with fun, hands-on design challenges and lessons!

TAKEAWAYS:
The activities are intended for students to develop the skills necessary to problem-solve and design solutions to well-defined challenges, but that will also only take a class period or two to complete.

SPEAKERS:
Paula Miller

Learn what representations and data your students can use to bridge phenomena and mathematics, and how to use tasks to assess 3D stoichiometry understanding, as opposed to rote algebra skills.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to assess student problem-solving ability and conceptual understanding through students' use of multiple representations and approaches in chemistry classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Christopher Moore

Through engagement in examples of K-12 lessons and materials, this session will focus on how to identify phenomena, problems, and sensemaking in order to support participants to make informed decisions on using and adapting materials to best meet students' needs.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain an understanding of the characteristics of phenomena/problems and sensemaking opportunities and how to identify them in materials. With example lessons, they will use tools to evaluate materials for NGSS-aligned instruction in order to effectively identify aspects of quality.

SPEAKERS:
Shannon Wachowski

Participants will use the engineering design process to create models that support science, literacy, and math standards. Energetic engineering activities will be linked with nursery rhymes for research-based learning that can be easily replicated in the classroom. Come engineer with us!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to teach science and engineering practices to young learners who undoubtedly need these foundational skills. Engineering explorations will be seamlessly integrated with language, literacy, and math standards, leading to valuable cross-curricular learning.

SPEAKERS:
Pam Nolan-Beasley

Models are excellent tools assisting students’ understanding of chemical structure and function. Different models highlight different aspects of the chemical they represent.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students can discuss how the 3-D structures of molecules affect their chemical properties as they “Act as Enzymes”. The students use another analogy, the English language, to explain cellular processes and growth. Models are used to develop questions, predictions, and explanations.

SPEAKERS:
Suzanne Cunningham

Parallax is hard to understand from traditional illustrations. Here's a fresh take on parallax, and how to use your cellphone with google apps and a little dance to measure angular displacement between images, calculate distances, and validate your results.

TAKEAWAYS:
You'll learn to measure your phone camera's field-of-view, and use that information with layout tools in the Google Suite (or any similar suite) to measure angular displacement between views and calculate distances. We'll also discuss the Gaia mission to use parallax to make a 3-D map of our Galaxy.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Kaiser, Vincent Urbanowski

Our innovative approach to science and STEM engages students through hands-on and minds-on physical computing curricular units. Through this approach you can enable students to leverage computational thinking to investigate, develop models and ultimately enact local and global change.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to effectively bring computational thinking and programming into the middle school classroom, based on curriculum units developed by Schoolwide Labs at the University of Colorado Boulder. Our place-based focus is a powerful promoter of equity for all students.

SPEAKERS:
Greg Benedis-Grab

Is it important to distinguish between data and evidence in science? YES! We’ll observe young students engaged in analyzing data and then broaden our focus to explore how data and evidence are woven through the science and engineering practices and across students’ K-12 science experience in school.

TAKEAWAYS:
Distinguish between data and evidence and why the difference matters in the science classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Kate Soriano, Brianna Reilly Oliveira

Have you ever wondered why the excited chatter during a science investigation disappears when teachers ask their students to write science explanations? Students enjoy hands-on investigative activities but need support to shift from their provisional language to science-specific language.

TAKEAWAYS:
Writing strategies and talk moves can improve students’ ability to develop clear writing. Appropriate scaffolds benefit all students, particularly multilingual learners and students with disabilities. Participants will learn how to support students’ development of ideas into written explanations.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Haverstick

This interactive workshop empowers educators to embrace the Engineering Design Process as an instructional pedagogy for fostering critical thinking, problem-solving, and engagement across all subjects. Participants will explore how the EDP supports 3D learning and can be integrated into any class.

TAKEAWAYS:
This workshop focuses on a mindset shift: embracing the Engineering Design Process as an adaptable instructional framework that enhances student learning and engagement in any classroom or subject, fostering a deeper sense of ownership, inquiry, and problem-solving.

SPEAKERS:
Devin Canaday

Learn how to support meaningful student sensemaking through the integration of the three dimensions of the NGSS by engaging with a complex phenomenon on the genetics of isolated big cat populations in a free storyline-based HS biology unit.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to support meaningful student sensemaking by effectively integrating the three dimensions of the NGSS, a key feature of HQIM, through experiences from a HS biology unit exploring the conservation of megafauna through the lens of the genetic viability of isolated populations.

SPEAKERS:
Devin Foschi, Dora Kastel

Attendees will learn strategies to engage students in designing models to make sense of a local phenomenon focused on watersheds. Attendees will practice sense making of topographical and pH data to design three dimensional models, then use said models to make predictions about future phenomena.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students build models in classes all the time; but how can we guide students to use models the way scientists do? Urban schools face the challenge of explaining natural phenomena students have not experienced. These models allow students and scientists to make sense of these phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Tobias Kochenderfer, Anna Verdiguel Gillet, Michael Bogan

Are you tired of hearing, "I’m done"? Add side quests as an extension to your science curriculum. Side quests can add a gamification element to your science classes that will extend the learning and deepen the creativity of your students no matter what grade you teach.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave this session with ideas and templates to add side quests to any science curriculum. Participants will also receive ideas for creating a badge system as a currency to gamify their class.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Simmons

This session will show how integrating Success Criteria with sensemaking pillars enhances 3D learning for elementary students. Participants will learn to create clear Success Criteria that guide young learners through authentic phenomena and foster equitable engagement in science practices.

TAKEAWAYS:
Success Criteria empower elementary students to engage deeply with scientific phenomena, connecting their ideas to practices and achieving clarity in their learning, promoting a more equitable 3D learning environment.

SPEAKERS:
Laura - Ashley Hayes

Equations are central in physics, but how can we ensure students understand them on a conceptual level? In this workshop we will conduct a short lab activity demonstrating how labs can be entry points to derive equations, allowing students to better understand where they come from and why they work.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn lab strategies to help their physics students make connections between observations, data, and equations. The goal is to help teachers ensure their students understand physics equations beyond just using them to "plug-and-chug" answers with numerical values.

SPEAKERS:
Joshua Paugh

Discover the equitable assessment system applied in the OpenSciEd Thermodynamics in Earth’s Systems unit. Examine assessment practices that value and elicit diverse ways of knowing, supporting all students in demonstrating their understanding.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore how formative and summative assessments are designed to be inclusive and culturally responsive, providing students with multiple opportunities to engage with, reflect on, and communicate their learning.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker, Holly Hereau

Join the CDC team (NSTA’s version) to create a virus prototype and share it with the public. Explore practical strategies and resources to make the fascinating world of viruses engaging, relevant and accessible for all students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will engage in a PBL unit that applies the Engineering Design Process to design and build a virus prototype.

SPEAKERS:
Andrew Kipp, Carlos Perez

In this hands-on workshop, participants will engage in activities to develop a shared understanding of observable features that can help them decide when students are hitting grade-level targets for engaging in sensemaking using the science and engineering practices.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will hone their definitions of the science and engineering practices to better develop strategies that engage students in grade-level appropriate sensemaking using the science and engineering practices.

SPEAKERS:
Lisa Brosnick

Teachers are introduced to micro fossil material from the Pungo River formation, Aurora, North Carolina. Session will include ways to incorporate the materials into the early childhood science classroom (ages 4-10).

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will receive teaching materials as well as a hands on lesson in searching for and identifying micro fossils that are dated from 25 million t 5 million years old.

SPEAKERS:
Ginny Switt

Understanding magnetic fields can be challenging for students. This hands-on session will show how to use engineering design to help students make sense of the core ideas of magnetism, properties of fields, magnetic levitation, and how maglev trains work.

TAKEAWAYS:
This lesson can be easily implemented to help students understand magnetic fields and their role in maglev trains. The engineering design component allows students to use magnets to levitate an object and draw connections to other types of levitation such as quantum levitation.

SPEAKERS:
Karen Matsler

Every science lesson is a chance to build student literacy skills! Accentuating language and literacy skills is sure to build student science understanding while cultivating science knowledge. This session will provide actionable techniques that build student literacy skills through rigorous science

TAKEAWAYS:
Teaching science with a literacy mindset accentuates the learning of both science and literacy. Participants will be provided with the tools they need to support literacy in their daily instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Jessica Talada

Take a deep dive into the practice of developing and using models! We’ll explore how creating and using models help students build science ideas and can support students’ in developing and writing explanations. Experience the power of building science ideas together as part of a learning community.

TAKEAWAYS:
Developing models individually, in groups and as a class makes all students essential members of the knowledge-building community.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker

How did humans turn a simple grass into a staple food crop? And, how are scientists working to ensure that corn can continue to feed billions of people as the world’s climate changes? In this new storyline on popcorn, students will think like scientists as they enjoy this yummy snack food.

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore a new storyline on popcorn that engages students in constructing explanations from evidence. Students investigate how teosinte evolved into one of the most important food crops on Earth-corn, as they learn about genetics and future evolution in order to meet the needs of a changing planet.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Embry Mohr

This essential biology investigation requires students to compare hominid skulls, studying the morphological changes as humans evolved. Skull models cost thousands of dollars. Do this important investigation for free with our slide presentation, student instructions, 2D skulls, and online resources.

TAKEAWAYS:
With a free slide show, informational handout, blank data table, links to a 3D skull collection, and assessment questions, teachers will identify basic trends in hominid evolution from early ancestors six million years ago to modern humans, including brain/jaw size, language, locomotion, etc.

SPEAKERS:
Bertha Vazquez

Educators can integrate Minecraft Education with academic standards. They can create challenges for students to gauge students' interests and provide creativity using Minecraft. Educators will also discover that there are built in lesson plans on Minecraft Education to assist with standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
After this session, participants will be able to create lesson plans, integrate standards from multiple academic content with Minecraft Education. Educators will be able to instill enthusiasm and positive learning outcomes using Minecraft Education to teach students their core academic content.

SPEAKERS:
Veena Black

Using the fishbowl strategy, you can turn classroom discussions into an event where students all participate, actively listen and then reflect on the conversation. This strategy works really well for engaging students who are quiet as well as moderating students dominate the conversation.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to use a fishbowl discussion to create space for all student voices in a discussion and reflect on the discussion using a rubric. Take home an editable and Canvas-ready copy of the rubric.

SPEAKERS:
Ilana Saxe

Integrated Science Workshops bring science into activities kids already do and love. Science is Elemental has developed several of these involving the arts, music, and soccer. Come learn how we weave (Fabric Arts: Friction and Tension!) science concepts, like vector and power, into fun activities.

TAKEAWAYS:
Integrated Science Workshops can be adapted for the students’ grade-levels and for the time available, all while teaching key science concepts made accessible through activities kids love.

SPEAKERS:
Ann Miller

This session will explore an inquiry-based strategy for redesigning middle school lab notebooks to meet diverse learning needs. This strategy improves student engagement and performance while allowing them to demonstrate their knowledge and skills of all 3 dimensions of the NGSS framework.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn key parts of an effective lab notebook that helps students incorporate all 3 dimensions of the NGSS framework. Through enhanced structures, students will have authentic opportunities to show what they know and can do.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Marino

Using historical contexts, this unit considers industrialization as a catalyst for change over time. Learners analyze environmental data from newspapers and government reports.The unit ends with students contributing to the design of reclaimed 19th and 20th century buildings for 21st century uses.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will learn how historical photos, newspapers and technical reports can inspire students to imagine solutions for current challenges.

SPEAKERS:
Joy Barnes-Johnson

Adapted from companies like Google and 3-M, this 100% student-driving PBL allows students to pursue sense making and learning on a topic of their choosing as it relates to the content area.  Students work through the process from driving questions to public presentations in just 10 class periods.

TAKEAWAYS:
This process/project is accessible for students at any ability level, given the appropriate scaffolds, and EVERY student can find something they are passionate about to research. You can do this in your classroom and make it your own!

SPEAKERS:
Katie Mercadante

This session will engage participants in authentic data using dynamic, publically available interactive tools. The data tools presented empower learners to evaluate biodiversity distribution, protected areas, and human impacts on sustainable development.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be able to construct an explanation of humans' multiple impacts on biodiversity using interactive research tools that are dynamically updated to reveal global and local species distributions and changes in human land use.

SPEAKERS:
Missie Olson, Jocelyn Miller

Use real-world phenomena as class starters to engage students and link science with other subjects. Discover ready-to-use images and prompts for all content areas that spark discussion, deepen inquiry, and foster cross-disciplinary learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use real-world phenomena to show students that science is everywhere. By linking science with other subjects, they’ll discover how to make classroom topics more engaging, relevant, and connected to the world around them.

SPEAKERS:
Erin Sharpe

Engineering design is not just a way to teach STEM—it is a gateway to thrilling problem-solving and innovation for K-12 students! This session dives into Teach Engineering, an incredible FREE resource brimming with over 1,850 dynamic and hands-on STEM activities, lessons, and maker challenges.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teach Engineering is a free, online collection of K-12 STEM resources that integrate engineering into science, technology and math learning. This session will demonstrate key features and benefits of the Teach Engineering digital collection.

SPEAKERS:
Dua Chaker, Jennifer Kracha, Ellen Sukovich

This presentation shows examples of how student choice can be incorporated into culminating group projects to help build collaboration and allow students to share their ideas and teach others what they’ve learned. Examples range across grades K-5 for a variety of topics.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will see how student choice can be incorporated into any unit in grades K-5 to allow students the opportunity to show what they learned, teach others the information they found most interesting, and collaborate with their peers.

SPEAKERS:
Marie Elaina Zuccaro

Presenter will share how using customized checklists have aided in student success and clearer communication among all stakeholders. These checklists are used throughout each unit and detail requirements for mastery as well as necessary assignments.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to better support student learning at all levels by creating their own checklists for student use. These checklists promote mastery of content while keeping all stakeholders updated on the student’s progression of learning.

SPEAKERS:
Andrea Starks

How to set up a long term weather journal project and what to do with the data when you are done using weather apps and sites. With long-term data (6-8 weeks) students can set up a preliminary climatograph and make some assumptions about climate regions for that season of the year.

TAKEAWAYS:
By having students choose a variety of locations globally, each can learn more about the progression of seasons in different hemispheres, day/night cycles, weather and climate to share with others in the class for enrichment of all.

SPEAKERS:
Tina Harris

Bringing a popular film into the classroom can be a great way to increase enthusiasm or engage learners. Movie sheets provide a free treasure trove of guiding questions and concept checks to make sure the students are following along.

TAKEAWAYS:
Over the last decade, my pre-service students and I have been creating free movie sheets that are posted to the free site (moviesheets.com) for anyone to use. The sheets cover all types of genres, academic levels, and disciplines.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Bechtel

In this session, we will examine how to leverage time used to practice and reinforce math and reading skills to also include phenomenon-based science. By using math and ELA standards as a starting point, short units building off of a common science phenomenon are created.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will experience a phenomenon-based, science-focused lesson series that was designed to help reinforce and practice the standards in math and ELA.

SPEAKERS:
Miranda Orellana

Students bring amazing intellectual resources to make sense of science phenomena based on their personal and community experiences—including language, perspectives, gestures, and knowledge, interests, and values. Come learn how to notice and leverage those intellectual gifts in your teaching!

TAKEAWAYS:
Culturally responsive education supports student sensemaking and learning in science. Inclusive science strategies help teachers learn to see and leverage students’ diverse sense-making resources. These methods help us create and adapt curriculum that is equitable and centered on justice.

SPEAKERS:
Philip Bell, Nancy Price

Physics is all around us—let’s analyze it! In this interactive session, we’ll explore how video analysis techniques may be used as a mechanism to investigate local physics phenomena, enhance student understanding, and connect physics concepts to the real world.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with a toolkit of ready-to-use physics activities supported by video analysis techniques that can be applied immediately in their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Eric Walters

As long as there have been CER templates, there have been students who struggle. What’s the difference between evidence and reasoning, or an explanation and an argument, exactly? Our Mi-STAR CER lesson and templates help answer these questions and they are open to all - join us to learn more!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with clear and concise definitions of reasoning, explanations, and argumentation, along with a lesson plan, activities, and templates to help students define and construct all three in the science classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Stephanie Tubman, Barbara McIntyre, Chris Geerer

Unlock the power of the NGSS mindset! Learn to transform your science lessons into captivating, concept-driven experiences that foster scientific practice. Reframe your teaching approach to engage students in meaningful learning, resulting in deeper understanding and active classroom engagement.

TAKEAWAYS:
Through an interactive model lesson, attendees will learn how to transform traditional science lessons into dynamic, concept-driven experiences that make scientific practices come alive. Attendees will leave with a versatile lesson plan template to elevate their own teaching.

SPEAKERS:
Todd Kellman, Dylan Fedell

Interested in learning how to break down an engineering experience to support multidimensional, standards-based, relevant elementary science learning? Get ready to live the steps of the engineering design process as you imagine, plan, and begin to create anemometers to measure wind speed.

TAKEAWAYS:
With materials, methods, ideas, and reflections in hand, attendees will feel more confident planning and implementing a relevant, hands-on engineering experience that enriches elementary science learning.

SPEAKERS:
Adrien Kaye

Participants will learn how to deliver instruction using professional scientific career settings creating friendly competition and engagement. This instruction promotes creativity and problem solving, and it builds communication, collaboration and investigative skills while meeting standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Using physics as a primary example, participants will learn how to teach 3D science classes from the perspective of a professional in the career world. Audience participation will include brainstorming ways this can be applied to any science content area in middle or high school.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Strong

Too much? Too little? Just right? What are some of the potential impacts of the quantity of water in the environment? How can we mitigate negative impacts? Join us as we investigate some of the impacts and develop potential solutions. Leave with access to these and other lessons for your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will put on their student hats and engage in 3-D NGSS lessons as they learn about interactions among the hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere, human impacts on these spheres, and how science may be used to mitigate concerns. Pedagogy behind lesson development will be shared.

SPEAKERS:
Liz Martinez

If you’re unsure of what phenomena are and/or why three-dimensional standards rely on phenomena to drive learning in the science classroom, then this session is for you! We’ll define phenomena, and the intentional use of phenomena to engage, connect and drive all students in their science learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Be able to define and recognize phenomena and understand their importance in implementing three-dimensional standards.

SPEAKERS:
Kate Soriano, Brianna Reilly Oliveira

Discover how children naturally engage in science and engineering practices through play! Video examples explore how they investigate, analyze data, develop models, and more. You'll leave with tools, strategies, and inspiration to create purposeful play environments and deepen children's learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
This interactive session will equip you with field-tested tools to support play-based science and engineering. Practice using the tools with video case studies, and gain valuable insights from early childhood educators who have incorporated these strategies in their classrooms and outdoor settings.

SPEAKERS:
Maranda Chung

Explore how episodes of the PBS program Weathered pair with free, standards-mapped support materials to reinforce your Earth science curriculum, grow and flex students' crosscutting skills, and keep your classroom's climate content current.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to integrate dynamic media from the PBS program Weathered into your science classroom through PBS LearningMedia's free resource collection.

SPEAKERS:
Merek Chang, Tania Burchell

In this session, we will explore the intersection between Information Processing as outlined in Culturally Responsive Teaching, Cognitive Routines, and Three-Dimensional Science to enhance science learning experiences for all students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will walk away with an experience that enables them to utilize cognitive routines and develop as independent learners while also building their capacity as culturally responsive educators.

SPEAKERS:
Allison Porzillo

Do you want all students to contribute more of ideas in science class? In this workshop, we’ll present Community Agreements routines that build a culture where students feel safe sharing ideas and caring for one another. Creating a supportive classroom cuture is critical to all NGSS learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Leave with a ready to use plan to implement community agreements in your classroom. It will include eliciting students’ ideas for how to be respectful, equitable, committed to community, and move science thinking forward. It will also have strategies for student reflection on these agreements and ho

SPEAKERS:
Greg Benedis-Grab, William Penuel

Engage in a hands-on Self-Controlled Coaster Challenge that connects physics concepts like potential and kinetic energy with self-control. Learn how integrating SEL into STEAM fosters student understanding and emotional regulation, creating immersive, accessible science learning for all.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain strategies for integrating SEL into NGSS-aligned STEAM lessons. This hands-on activity serves as an example, offering ideas to adapt similar student-centered approaches to make abstract concepts like energy and self-control accessible, engaging, and relevant for all learners.

SPEAKERS:
Le-Marie Thompson, Nuria Gabitova

Modeling is an essential SEP and a pedagogical tool that can elevate science teaching. In this workshop, learn and practice modeling as a pedagogical tool for having students illustrate their sense-making process for scientific concepts while also increasing and assessing learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will experience a variety of methods of modeling to utilize in their classroom that allow student learning of science concepts to be visualized. Leave this workshop with activities and pedological moves related to modeling that you can implement in your class immediately.

SPEAKERS:
Jocelyn Miller, Missie Olson

Join this session to relax and unwind while learning how to provide students with movements of their body to model the molecular geometries that transform 2D Lewis structures into their 3D shapes while deepening their understanding of molecular polarity.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will experience an alternate way for students to understand VSEPR beyond modeling kits and virtual technologies that many students will not have access to on assessments. This also helps students understand the difference between polar bonds and molecular polarity.

SPEAKERS:
Krystle Moos

Experience learning opportunities designed for elementary students and reflect on the use of literacy practices in sensemaking. We will engage in and identify strategies that foster productive talk in science and explore free, NGSS-aligned, research-based resources for elementary classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Pedagogical moves you are already using in ELA can be used in your science instruction to support students in sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Lazarowicz, Cory Miller

Can primary sources lead K-12 students to Disciplinary Core Ideas, Science and Engineering Practices, and Cross-Cutting Concepts? Spoiler alert: they can. Examine, analyze, and discuss free online resources from the Library of Congress featuring the work of women in science.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will discover how to access millions of free digitized primary sources from the Library of Congress, practice strategies for guiding students in critical analysis using a three-dimensional lens, and learn about the contributions of women to entomology, plate tectonics, and chemistry.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Apfeldorf, Jessica Fries-Gaither

Teachers will use the engineering design process to identify sustainability issues, propose concrete actions and explore tools to collect data and analyze the impact of their solutions. The principles in this lesson are scalable from classrooms to communities and across grade levels.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to guide students to use the engineering design process to identify and solve local sustainability problems and to identify data collection methods to evaluate the scale of the problem and the effectiveness of the solution.

SPEAKERS:
Gail Dickinson

The purpose of this session to help participants use meaningful strategies to adapt their curriculum to the STEELS standards. The new standards are a shift in both content and pedagogy which can feel overwhelming to teachers.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will receive strategies to take already written curriculum and make it three-dimensional.

SPEAKERS:
Karianne Chessario

Help your students develop a growth mindset where they can independently develop and refine questions that led them to an understanding of how the natural and designed world works, questions which can be empirically tested and used to help to clarify problems; leading to better solutions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Using the Cross Cutting Concepts as a basis for delineating quality questions allows students to look deeper into phenomena and come up with better ideas of what is happening, which allows them to design better developed experiments to cement their understandings.

SPEAKERS:
Linda Smith

Using data from labs of various science topics from speed to kinetics, attendees will perform simple labs then chart, graph, and analyze their data with the other participants. Attendees will perform a type of vertical whiteboarding carousel walk to analyze other groups' information.

TAKEAWAYS:
Ideas on how to incorporate labs that attendees may already use for specific curriculum, but use for graphing and data analysis.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Coker

Seaworthy STEM in a Box revolutionizes PreK-12 STEM education with Dept. of Navy and NGSS activities, fostering science sensemaking and engineering skills. Designed for versatility, these kits and curriculum accommodate various grades and settings. Session lead by DON staff & STEM educators.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will discover how to integrate Navy-aligned STEM activities into diverse educational environments. With expert-led workshops and comprehensive resources, educators can cultivate problem-solving skills in students, empowering them for future success in science and engineering.

SPEAKERS:
Stephanie Klixbull, Debbie Reynolds, Tom Jenkins, Nathan Diehl

Talking about science is an integral part of sensemaking. Together teachers will experience a phenomenon to explore talk formats, talk moves, and monitoring tools. Teachers will consider how these tools will help students clarify, build, and share their ideas with others

TAKEAWAYS:
Supporting student talk that meets the targeted learning goals for your instruction requires a plan for classroom talk and practice facilitating learning conversations. Teachers will engage in the science practices and employ talk moves, to support students in 3D learning.

SPEAKERS:
Laura Shafer, PhD

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 for classroom observations and providing feedback.

SPEAKERS:
Patrice Scinta, Emily Mathews

Practice activities as a student with simple materials exploring the EM Spectrum and explanatory models that illustrate real world space science applications. Learn about the Virtual Astronomy Academy program.

TAKEAWAYS:
Practice Claim Evidence and Reasoning, and a gallery walk of student work to review models; and practice collaborative learning to investigate filters and wavelengths. Attendees will also be learn how to join NASA Virtual Astronomy Academy professional development program.

SPEAKERS:
Diane Ripollone, Coral Clark, Ann Marie Dubick, P Harman