This presentation shows how the UConn-URI Navy STEM Coalition employs modular K-12 outreach to engage students from 2nd grade to high school along a few like-activities. Participants take part in our most successful activity, build-a-boat, in both the middle and high school configurations.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn strategies for engaging students across grade levels to cultivate STEM curiosity while conserving resources through building scalable, modular lesson plans which serve a wide swath of ages with minimal design changes.

SPEAKERS:
Kevin Logue

Sponsoring Company: PASCO Scientific

Engage students in a real-world engineering challenge! Learn how students can design and test crash barriers with live collision data to explore the link between momentum and impact forces. Analyze the resulting data to improve upon further design iterations.

SPEAKERS:
Shelly Riley

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

Join award-winning science educator Griff Jones and members of the IIHS Vehicle Research Center to explore a sample of engaging demos and video-supported, inquiry-based activities from the IIHS’s free, online “Crash Science in the Classroom” program.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will see a selection of discrepant events and learn how to access other classroom-tested lessons plans, teacher/student tips videos, lab sheets, and answer keys to teach crash-related science and engineering concepts.

SPEAKERS:
Pini Kalnite, Joe Young, Griff Jones

Engage with STEM Design Challenges by designing solutions in the aftermath of a fictional hurricane or stranding on a deserted island. Collaborate to evacuate citizens, build shelters, and develop alternative energy systems while redesigning the city’s infrastructure for future disaster prevention.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to integrate hands-on, real-world engineering design into your classroom, equipping students with critical thinking and collaboration skills to address complex challenges like disaster preparedness, sustainability, and engineering solutions.

SPEAKERS:
Sandra Ryack-Bell, Regan McKinnon, Kathryn Atkins

This presentation provides a window into students’ thinking and reasoning as they propose, develop, and test engineering design solutions in small groups. We focus on how students use STEM content knowledge and the design context to make engineering decisions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about the different ways students engage in the process of engineering in small groups and how to better support student learning.

SPEAKERS:
Muhammad Purwanto, Gillian Roehrig

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

Sponsoring Company: UL Research Institutes

This workshop focuses on sense-making about lithium-ion batteries and the phenomenon of thermal runaway. Participants will develop models to understand the phenomenon, applying cross-cutting concept of matter and energy. Participants will then ideate solutions for safer battery enclosures.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Gilbert, Jessica Sparacino

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

Interested in bringing river ecology to your classroom? This presentation will introduce strategies to engage learners in place-based ecology on a budget. In this unit, students will research local riparian plant species, design a tank to house them, and monitor the ecosystem health over time.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students are more engaged when the learning they are doing resembles their surroundings. Viewers of this lesson can expect to encounter strategies to bring local riparian ecology into the classroom and how to adapt their lessons to reflect their local ecosystems.

SPEAKERS:
Tobias Kochenderfer

A Research Experience for Teachers (RET program) could be an inspiration for science and engineering lessons for the classroom. Our research rekindled our passion for STEM education and we believe it is contagious! Learn about the RET program and check out lesson materials for physics and math.

TAKEAWAYS:
How can you convert a university research experience into a high school classroom lesson?

SPEAKERS:
Tanima Mukherjee, Faith Palombi

Access to supplies is often a barrier to learning yet amazing projects can be made with just paper, tape and scissors. Paper is great for introducing students to engineering fundamentals. Together we will explore how to use just  paper, tape and scissors to make amazing engineering projects

TAKEAWAYS:
Science and engineering can be done with inexpensive materials

SPEAKERS:
Godwyn Morris

Teach Engineering and the AspireIT Toolkit offer educators free resources to enhance K-12 STEM education through inclusivity, hands-on learning, sensemaking, and student-centered instruction. These tools empower educators to create engaging and accessible STEM learning experiences for all.

TAKEAWAYS:
This poster session introduces the Teach Engineering K-12 STEM digital library and the NCWIT AspireIT Toolkit. These tools are designed to enhance K-12 education with a strong emphasis on inclusivity and hands-on learning, addressing the need for equitable access to high-quality STEM education.

SPEAKERS:
Dua Chaker, Jennifer Kracha, Ellen Sukovich

Join us at this Share-A-Thon to discover a treasure trove of educational materials and resources provided by the United States Patent and Trademark Office of Public Engagement. Our poster session aims to showcase innovative teaching tools that empower educators to foster inventing and creativity.

TAKEAWAYS:
Engage with live demonstrations of free educational tools and trading card lesson plans designed to enhance student learning across STEM at various grade levels. Learn about professional development opportunities for enhancing invention and intellectual property education.

SPEAKERS:
Kathy Hoppe

Engage students in the engineering design process by having them design and create candy dispensing machines. The project will be presented from the perspectives of different educators at different grade levels.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover how to use Halloween candy dispensing machines to engage students in exploring the Engineering Design Process. We will share project rubrics, instructions, and examples to guide the implementation. Discussion on extending the project to reflect additional themes will be included.

SPEAKERS:
Fernando Azcona, Eileen Koenig

An annual high school competition organized as a team-based student project to design a creative solution for a fire safety problem. Student teams work in their high school, are provided with educational material, a small-scale house model, mentoring, and compete on Burn Day to test their solution.

TAKEAWAYS:
An example of how high school science teachers can introduce exciting and instructive educational material on STEM and Safety Science into their classroom. Attendees will learn about the unique field of Fire Protection Engineering (FPE) and learn how to include FPE material into their curriculum.

SPEAKERS:
Nicole Hollywood, Arnaud Trouve

No time for science? Tap into children’s curiosity and wonder to bring joyful, student-led STEM experiences into your classroom. Engage in teacher-play as you design and engineer kinetic balance sculptures and imagine how you can make STEM learning happen daily in your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
PreK-2 educators will be provided a framework for integrative STEM learning that fits into their scheduled day, and learn how it easily integrates with existing curriculum. By designing and engineering a kinetic balance sculpture, participants will view STEM from the perspective of PreK-2 children .

SPEAKERS:
Beth Dykstra VanMeeteren

How can we bring STEM to life by weaving in history? Explore exciting activities that link groundbreaking discoveries and innovations with historical events, helping students connect STEM to the real world and see its role in shaping our past, present, and future!

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover fresh, innovative ways to fuse history with science! Attendees will explore hands-on, interdisciplinary activities that bring science lessons to life, deepening student engagement and making complex concepts more relatable by linking them to historical breakthroughs and events.

SPEAKERS:
Lauren Verdeflor, Yishan Lee

A hands-on experience for understanding how to utilize Micro:bits as a tool for manually or automated data collection, analyzing data sets, introducing data science concepts, and using phenomena to evoke curiosity and connecting to a STEM project.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will explore how students can use Micro:bits to log motion data in and egg and spoon race and then improve the design of their spoons to reduce motion. Extensions to the use of the data logging function include designing earthquake proof structures and a mini house moving project.

SPEAKERS:
Eileen Koenig

Sponsoring Company: BrainPOP

Spark engagement and deepen understanding with BrainPOP Science! This workshop explores phenomena-based learning, investigations, and STEELS-aligned strategies for grades 6-8. Discover how to differentiate instruction and empower students to become confident scientific thinkers and writers.

SPEAKERS:
Hannah Bonville

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Rockets zoom and race cars zip through hands-on activities that engage your middle and high school students. Apply creative problem-solving skills and engineering practices to chemistry and physical science challenges. Experience how Carolina makes it easy to incorporate STEM into your classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Patti Kopkau, Alexandra Felts

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

Air Camp is a hands-on educational adventure in aviation and aeronautics for students in grades 4-12 and K-12 STEM educators. Aiming to connect, inspire, and provide STEM learning opportunities while offering teachers professional development, valuable resources, classroom materials, and much more.

TAKEAWAYS:
Access to teacher resources and professional development opportunities designed to integrate aviation-focused STEM lessons and real-world applications into the middle school classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Stormer, Christina Davis

Explore how students can change a metal’s properties through alloying, heat-treating, and/or cold-working. Classroom activities that will enhance chemistry understanding of atomic structure and real world engineering relevance. Deepen understanding of binary phase diagrams.

TAKEAWAYS:
How do architects and manufacturers manipulate common metal properties to get the metals to behave in the desired way for a specific use? Participants will make a simple low-melt tin-based alloy and explore a binary phase diagram. Heat-treating of steel and cold-working of copper is also explored.

SPEAKERS:
Scott Spohler

Join us as we simulate a mini unit on sound which integrates 1st grade reading, math, and science standards through an engineering task assessment.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will experience a project based learning task which integrates standards from multiple content areas.

SPEAKERS:
Nicole Bay, Margaret Strehle, Alyssa Larkham

How to incorporate climate change education into cross-curricular Problem Based Learning for K-12 students. The session emphasizes hands-on learning through solution oriented design challenge collaborative activities, where attendees collectively engage in tackling critical climate change issues.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will get the opportunity to work through several parts of different Climate Change PBLs.

SPEAKERS:
Edward Cohen, Brielle Kociolek

Sponsoring Company: BrainPOP

Unlock the full potential of multidimensional science learning through engineering! Discover how to engage students with hands-on learning and digital tools that bridge science content and practices. Boost critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity!

SPEAKERS:
Hannah Bonville, Sara Classen

This hands-on session is designed to engage elementary science teachers in a model lesson on building and testing ziplines using an engineering design process as advocated by the Next Generation Science Standards. We will also explore the physics, and energy and forces involved in a zipline.

TAKEAWAYS:
The experience within the session will help teachers develop a shared understanding of NGSS in action, 5E model, and engineering design process. Participants will work collaboratively to experience designing and testing ziplines for them to engage their future students in engineering design.

SPEAKERS:
Derek Cox

Integrating STEM design challenges into Science and STEM classrooms for students in grades 4-8 offers valuable opportunities to emphasize and practice the Engineering Design Process, while fostering the development of essential soft skills like collaboration, communication, and critical thinking.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain strategies for incorporating real-world problem-solving into their classrooms, along with differentiation techniques. Educators will complete a Make and Take project that can be adapted for their own classrooms, so they leave with a practical resource ready for implementation.

SPEAKERS:
Jamie Swanson, Kristin Slota

Invention Education supercharges STEM for all K-12 students! Learn how invention meets the needs of all learners and become an inventor yourself! Through one of our invention activities you will transform ordinary items into extraordinary inventions, igniting creativity and problem-solving skills.

TAKEAWAYS:
Experience the power of creative problem solving through an innovation activity to help educators prepare students to become inventors. Learn how invention becomes a vehicle for connecting your students with their community. The session will connect educators with free resources too!

SPEAKERS:
Denise Henggeler, Christine Lawlor-King

Commonwealth Charter Academy is leading the way for workforce development through our innovative Works Programs. Our career readiness programs align with the PA STEELS standards. K-12 educators/administrators are welcome to learn how we are changing the landscape in TechWorks, AgWorks and MedWorks.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn about CCA's innovative workforce development programs

SPEAKERS:
Debbie Reynolds

Join us for an interactive workshop on promoting resilience in students through STEM education. Discover strategies such as hands-on problem-solving projects, fostering a growth mindset, and embracing failure as a learning opportunity.

TAKEAWAYS:
Engage students in hands-on STEM projects that encourage them to persist through challenges and setbacks, developing resilience when faced with complex tasks.

SPEAKERS:
Stephen Bowen, Ashish Gilbert Bowen

We will share how we have helped our students see themselves as engineers. Using picture books that lend themselves to engineering tasks, students build to solve a problem. Then record what they built through drawing and writing. Participants will get to experience this and plan for their classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with plans on how to integrate reading, writing, and science into their classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Sheri Geitner, Jennifer Mouland

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

Inspire your students to think like scientists and engineers with this hands-on STEM approach. Test variables, make predictions, and design the perfect plane—a new twist on straw rockets! Engage in reverse engineering to analyze existing designs. Get resources to elevate your STEM lessons today!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn hands-on strategies to help students develop measurement, data collection, and analysis skills they can apply in engineering design lessons. You will learn methods to differentiate this in any K-12 setting and leave with free resources to implement this in your classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Stormer, Christina Davis

Complete a distracted driving hands-on activity and discover award-winning videos and more inquiry-based activities from IIHS’s Crash Science in the Classroom program that illustrate the vital connections between biology, physics, mathematics, medicine, engineering, and teen driver safety.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will measure their reaction time and complete a distracted driving simulation using a series of 4 activities simulating the 4 major types of driving distractions. Participants will also learn how to access detailed lesson plans, teacher tips videos, student lab sheets and answer keys.

SPEAKERS:
Pini Kalnite, Joe Young, Griff Jones

Feeding birds can spark kids’ curiosity, interest in the outdoors, and engagement with science. You can make the experience more meaningful by incorporating engineering practices and challenging students to design their own feeders to help their local birds by using our Feeder Design Guide.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to develop students’ science and engineering skills with a feeder design challenge. Students will work together to consider the needs of birds, develop an understanding of what makes a good bird feeder, brainstorm designs, build the feeder, and evaluate its performance.

SPEAKERS:
Kelly Schaeffer

This workshop will discuss the value of a HFE course to K-12 education and how to adapt HFE to technology education and vocational high school curriculum environments. Workshop activities will reinforce hands-on analysis, decision making and redesign methods, with a Q&A discussion to follow.

TAKEAWAYS:
Consider Human Factors Engineering as a means of adding valuable practical hands-on, project-based, user-centered design, and transferable skill experiences with authentic real-world application.

SPEAKERS:
Lisa Tenenbaum

Sponsoring Company: Texas A&M University / NASA Texas Space Grant Consortium

Astronaut and Professor Greg Chamitoff will share some of his personal journey in Space while explaining a new STEM program called Space Teams Academy that immerses student teams in virtual collaboration, design, and execution of their own space mission.

SPEAKERS:
Gregory Chamitoff

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

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Rockets zoom and race cars zip through hands-on activities that engage your middle and high school students. Apply creative problem-solving skills and engineering practices to chemistry and physical science challenges. Experience how Carolina makes it easy to incorporate STEM into your classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Alexandra Felts

Explore how computer science (CS) can enhance students’ engineering designs and scientific sensemaking in middle school CS modules that use algorithms and simple block-based coding. Apply math and science knowledge for data collection and analysis embedded in authentic engineering design challenges!

TAKEAWAYS:
Technology, the T in STEM, can enhance 3D learning by integrating computational thinking, science, and engineering through real-world problems. This session will guide participants in using open-source materials that link algorithms and block-based coding to authentic contexts, enabling students to

SPEAKERS:
Kathryn Bateman

Inquiry based lessons aligned with NGSS will be reviewed with a particular emphasis on low cost activities involving rocketry. Supported through a USAF grant experimentation, 5E model and Project Based Learning activities focused around topics launch, descent and reconnaissance are covered.

TAKEAWAYS:
That many rocketry based science concepts (e.g., Laws of Motion) can be taught on a "shoe string" budget.

SPEAKERS:
William Sumrall

With NE, classroom texts are the context for engineering design problems with characters acting as clients and finding characters’ problems, identifying design constraints and criteria through close reading of the text, and then designing and building physical solutions to selected problems.

TAKEAWAYS:
The session will include an introduction, examples of K-8 student work, how to put students’ ideas are at the forefront as they work on ELA and engineering, and several short Novel Engineering introductory activities in which audience members can participate to give them first-hand experience.

SPEAKERS:
Elissa Milto

We will explore equitable ways to engage multilingual learners (MLLs) in science and engineering practices. Participants do hands-on activities followed by reflective, pedagogical discussions to amplify their instructional resources for MLLs as they engage in collaborative, scientific sensemaking.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants leave with explicit instructional strategies for leveraging multilingual learners’ (MLLs) linguistic and cultural assets. These strategies allow more equitable and accessible opportunities for MLLs to engage in collaborative, scientific sensemaking with their peers.

SPEAKERS:
Nico Janik, Karen Lionberger

Balance phenomena permeates our lives. Explore the phenomenon of balance in playful ways that include rotational balance, kinetic balance sculptures, and mobiles. Take a handout with you with ideas on how to provide your students daily opportunities to investigate balance using simple materials.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be empowered to introduce space, time, and materials for their students to investigate balance for stability, kinetic balance, and balance to compare.

SPEAKERS:
Beth Dykstra VanMeeteren

Air Camp is a hands-on educational adventure in aviation and aeronautics for students in grades 4-12 and K-12 STEM educators. Aiming to connect, inspire, and provide STEM learning opportunities while offering teachers professional development, valuable resources, classroom materials, and much more.

TAKEAWAYS:
Access to teacher resources and professional development opportunities designed to integrate aviation-focused STEM lessons and real-world applications into the elementary school classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Stormer, Christina Davis

Explore basic physics principles while learning to make creative roller coaters from just paper, tape & scissors. Kids love hands on projects and learn best when they create their own experiments. Join us for a hands on activity using simple supplies and simple methods to build amazing projects.

TAKEAWAYS:
You don't need expensive equipment to engage students in hands on activities

SPEAKERS:
Godwyn Morris

Participants will explore an engineering design challenge that engages upper elementary students in the creation of tiny homes as a solution to homelessness after a local natural disaster. Explore Design Thinking principles and how empathy plays a role in authentic and inclusive STEM inquiry.

TAKEAWAYS:
Engage in an NGSS-based engineering design challenge where you design a solution for homelessness caused by natural disasters and learn the role of empathy in STEM inquiries by using Design Thinking principles and place-based strategies that engage all learners in STEM.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Williams

Come learn about the resources that zoos, science centers, out of school time programs, government agencies, and other Informal Learning partners provide that can help you improve your students’ learning beyond just field trips or joining the program.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn about resources and opportunities that zoos, science centers, out of school time programs, government agencies and other Informal Learning partners, offer classroom teachers to expand their students’ knowledge, borrow classroom resources, or develop themselves.

SPEAKERS:
Lindsay Milner, Karen Hays, John Loehr

Sponsoring Company: Ward's Science

Challenge and inspire your middle school students using the OpenSciEd curriculum. Perform hands-on experiments in Chemistry and Physics through problem-based learning activities from a 3D framework. Get a taste of Ward's Science kits that complement this open-source program.

SPEAKERS:
Patty Muscatello, Michelle Linn, Norman Marshall

Connect your current science lessons to cutting-edge engineering research and inspire students to pursue careers in STEM. Receive access to K-2 NGSS-aligned resources that immerse students in meaningful hands-on engineering tasks with real-world applications.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to enhance student engagement and promote STEM college and career pathways by connecting classroom learning to current engineering research at URI and UCONN. Leave with access to video and instructional resources aligned to NGSS and connected to the research.

SPEAKERS:
Valerie Maier-Speredelozzi, John Koziatek, Charlene Tuttle, Kelly Houle

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

Do you have an innovative idea for improving Science, technology, engineering and math learning in your classroom? Is your idea project based learning with measurable outcomes? What do you need to make learning STEM fun for your students? Engage with teachers who received funding!

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will learn tangible tips on how to complete their grant application online before the October 1 annual deadline.

SPEAKERS:
Megan Stotz, Ariel Coff, John Anderson, Miz Fischer, Eddie Temistokle

Sponsoring Company: PASCO Scientific

Engage students in a real-world engineering challenge! Learn how students can design and test crash barriers with live collision data to explore the link between momentum and impact forces. Analyze the resulting data to improve upon further design iterations.

SPEAKERS:
Shelly Riley

The same problems often crop up with group work. Learners that want to work individually, trouble with ideation, and kids who feel they don't belong in this activity or field. I will share a workshop with the goals of supercharging group work with empathetic design and fostering empowerment.

TAKEAWAYS:
You will see pictures from programs, example setups, and sample student projects. I will share how to set up a budget-friendly drop-in makerspace, manage students' creativity reservoirs, and how this culminated in high-quality focused group work.

SPEAKERS:
Scott Sieke

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

Learn how DoD scientists & engineers in Philadelphia work with educators and students to translate complex emerging technologies and concepts into classroom projects that make STEM relevant and enticing to all students. You will also learn how to access the vast portfolio of DoD STEM resources.

TAKEAWAYS:
The DoD serves as one of the world's largest incubators of STEM innovation. Learn how to access its vast portfolio of resources and tools, such as lesson plans, classroom projects, internships, scholarships, and fellowships for students and educators.

SPEAKERS:
Julie Stolzer, Tristan Wolfe

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

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 will share the results of my research on whether transdisciplinary learning is the best student-centered method to foster deep learning, and how leveraging tools from multiple disciplines can build students’ capacity to address global challenges through critical "transfer skills."

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how transdisciplinary learning transcends conventional subject boundaries, enabling higher-order thinking for deep learning. This student-centered approach proves to be a highly effective method for developing cognitive skills in reasoning and solving real-world problems.

SPEAKERS:
Cecilia Duenas

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

This session shares strategies and drives inquiry around the topic of building and integrating community partnerships in schools beyond field trips and guest speakers to enhance learning, belonging, and access for students, particularly those traditionally marginalized.

TAKEAWAYS:
Broaden your understanding of what community connections look like and how purposeful partnerships generate meaningful student engagement. Use storyboarding techniques to link partnerships with student outcomes and take away practical strategies and resources for integrating them into your practice.

SPEAKERS:
Mari Thiersch, Jennifer Flonacher

Can 3D printing improve engineering efficacy? This mixed-method study analyzed the changes in engineering attitudes of middle school students before and after an engineering-design-based intervention that included peer mentors and 3D printing. Applications of 3D design in the classroom included!

TAKEAWAYS:
3D printing and design can be an effective modeling tool for increasing engineering efficacy in middle school students. There are many practical applications for 3D design in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Janet McGrath

This presentation will share the results of my research on whether transdisciplinary learning is the best student-centered method to foster deep learning, and how leveraging tools from multiple disciplines can build students’ capacity to address global challenges through critical "transfer skills."

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how transdisciplinary learning transcends conventional subject boundaries, enabling higher-order thinking for deep learning. This student-centered approach proves to be a highly effective method for developing cognitive skills in reasoning and solving real-world problems.

SPEAKERS:
Cecilia Duenas, James Borden

Lydia Denton was named one of the 16 Under 16 in STEM and has been recognized nationally for her inventions. Come hear her story of how a drawing in 2nd grade and access to STEM materials led her to this path of problem solving and innovation. She will inspire you to create student problem solvers!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how introducing problem solving in elementary classrooms can inspire a generation of inventors who feel empowered to tackle problems within their own communities.

SPEAKERS:
Lydia Denton, Covey Denton

Discover how to make engineering accessible for all students. Learn powerful strategies to integrate engineering into your curriculum without taking extra time, making it fun and relevant. Walk away with practical tools to ensure every student can participate in meaningful engineering experiences!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will explore the Van Andel Insitute's model of engineering design and learn strategies to make engineering more integrated and accessible to students. Teachers will walk away with lesson ideas and resources to bring engineering concepts (aligned with NGSS) into the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Cory Kavanagh, Dawn McCotter

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

Invention education is the next logical step to the integration of the STEAM movement and project-based learning. SCAMPER is an easy activity that can be applied to any grade level (K-12) to engage students in the power of improving on or creating an entirely new invention.

TAKEAWAYS:
You will walk away with an engaging lesson you can use the next day. This lesson is easily adaptable to any age group and can be used again and again.

SPEAKERS:
Christine Lawlor-King, Denise Henggeler

Explore the storyline of OpenSciEd Unit K.1 Why Are Some Surfaces Hot and How Can We Make Them Less Hot? and see how students use science ideas they have figured out to design, build, and test solutions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Engaging in engineering to solve a problem that is relevant to them (such as helping part of the schoolyard stay less hot when it’s sunny out) gives students a meaningful opportunity to use their science ideas.

SPEAKERS:
Gail Housman

In this session, participants will work on hands-on activities and use a storybook to teach about motion and forces using the engineering design model and translanguaging for K-2 levels.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to teach about motion and forces for K-2 using a storybook, the engineering design process, and translanguaging (English/Spanish).

SPEAKERS:
Hattie Wommack, Romola Bernard

Air Camp is a hands-on educational adventure in aviation and aeronautics for students in grades 4-12 and K-12 STEM educators. Aiming to connect, inspire, and provide STEM learning opportunities while offering teachers professional development, valuable resources, classroom materials, and much more.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will have access to teacher resources and professional development opportunities designed to integrate aviation-focused STEM lessons and real-world applications into the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Stormer, Christina Davis

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

This workshop on carbon capture and storage integrates the engineering design process and socio-scientific modeling to take social factors into consideration while explaining complex socio-scientific issues like geoengineering.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session provides teachers with the tools to implement a hands-on climate engineering activity and utilize socio-scientific models in the engineering design process that engage students in real-world, ethical, and culturally relevant climate discussions.

SPEAKERS:
Gayle Buck, Arya Karumanthra

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

Participants will explore an engineering design challenge that engages upper elementary students in the creation of tiny homes as a solution to homelessness after a local natural disaster. Explore Design Thinking principles and how empathy plays a role in authentic and inclusive STEM inquiry.

TAKEAWAYS:
Engage in an NGSS-based engineering design challenge where you design a solution for homelessness caused by natural disasters and learn the role of empathy in STEM inquiries by using Design Thinking principles and place-based strategies that engage all learners in STEM.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Williams

Test some heat-treated metal samples; practice your math skills and artistry with a STEAM activity; work in groups for an engineering challenge! There’s a little something for everyone and we won’t judge you for wanting to be hot and cheap in the classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will leave with at least 3 useful lab activities giving opportunities for measurement, math, engineering, collaborative work, and an understanding of the materials around us. All of the activities use easy to find and household materials that are available at low cost.

SPEAKERS:
Briana Richardson

Are you looking to get your entire school excited about STEM? In this session, Mr. Mike French and his AMAZING PRESENTATION STUDENTS will share a high-energy and engaging video presentation of twelve practical STEM projects that can be incorporated into any classroom setting, K-12.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be able to see real examples and step-by-step details of 12 STEM projects that will change your school and get students excited about learning. Attendees will also see how to modify these projects to fit any grade level and classroom setting K-12.

SPEAKERS:
Mike French

Want to integrate hands-on STEM projects with any academic content? Join us to explore how students can show off their learning, creativity, and problem-solving skills as they design cardboard arcade games with integrated tech (such as Micro:bits & LittleBits) for self-scoring.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will walk away with practical steps to help them integrate STEM learning into any classroom. They’ll receive a ready-to-use project-based learning module, tools for effective cardboard design, guidance on Micro:bits and Little Bits, and examples to scale projects to fit their needs.

SPEAKERS:
Lindsay Head, Veronica Serna-Pulido, Dru Humphrey

Using the story, The Great Paper Caper and Let's Fly Planes, participants will experience an inquiry-based lesson through the lens of a student. Come and join us as we design and fly airplanes using the science and engineering practices and the crosscutting concepts to solve a problem.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants take away one lesson in an elementary force and motion unit that uses literacy to identify a problem, unpacks all NGSS dimensions by defining that problem, developing a solution, observing and measuring while testing to show evidence that patterns can be used to predict future motion.

SPEAKERS:
Sandra Ryack-Bell, Kathy Renfrew

Biomimicry can captivate students' imaginations and deepen their connection to the natural world. In biomimicry lessons, studying animals, plants, or ecosystems is combined with learning patterns, structures, and functions and the engineering design process to inspire new inventions.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session will help teachers define biomimicry, explore elements of the natural world that can be used in biomimicry lessons, practice an engineering design challenge that showcases biomimicry in an elementary classroom, and brainstorm connections to their own classroom lessons.

SPEAKERS:
Leslie Kola, Nicole Glen

Discover how to use Project Based Learning to foster a learning environment where students produce original ideas, objects, and structures through STEM.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to effectively implement STEM PBL’s (Project Based Learning) by integrating the components of STEM and PBL in order to grow students' capacity for creativity, fun, and back-loaded learning in a STEM context.

SPEAKERS:
Adero Carter

Empower your students to solve real problems with the decision matrix. We’ll start by using a decision matrix to select the best snack for the classroom. Next, we’ll use the strategy to evaluate how to manage an invasive fish species in a river. Flexible, classroom-ready handouts provided.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be able to support their students to use a decision matrix to address a real-world phenomenon or problem.

SPEAKERS:
Barbara McIntyre, Stephanie Tubman

Learn how students in a high school earth science class build Lego dams, with working floodgates, on a stream table with a small reservoir to model flood control structures. Students incorporate aspects of the Science and Engineering Practices to complete this engineering challenge.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators who attend this session will learn how to implement this project based engineering challenge, create all the necessary pieces needed to implement the project, and see student examples.

SPEAKERS:
Justin Glen

A team from URI & UCONN developed a model to enhance student engagement by connecting classroom science learning to STEM research and career pathways. Learn about the project directly from participants, take the opportunity to ask questions, and consider similar partnerships in your own community.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn about a model for connecting engineering research to classroom learning. Hear how the collaborative efforts of a diverse team developed practical and impactful resources and discuss the benefits of an interdisciplinary approach to K-12 outreach.

SPEAKERS:
Zachary Orefice, Charlene Tuttle, John Koziatek, Caroline Stabile, Valerie Maier-Speredelozzi

This study investigates the impact of integrating curricula on socio-environmental factors into a Creative Engineering Design course. The goal is to analyze student comprehension and applications of these concepts while fostering broader participation in engineering.

TAKEAWAYS:
Engaging students with real-life examples of socio-environmental challenges is not only an innovative approach to teaching Engineering Design but also essential for preparing future engineers to consider broader social and environmental impacts in their work.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Ramos-Chavez

Design Talks are whole-class discussions that teachers facilitate to help students share thinking about engineering design problems. We will describe 5 types of Design Talks that support science and engineering practices and show video examples from research in first to sixth grade classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Whole-class Design Talks can supplement hands-on engineering learning by helping students clarify their thinking by sharing with others, make connections between their own and others’ thinking, consider certain aspects of their designs, and reflect on the impact of their design in the world.

SPEAKERS:
Chelsea Andrews, William Church

Can 3D printing improve engineering efficacy? This mixed-method study analyzed the changes in engineering attitudes of middle school students before and after an engineering-design-based intervention that included peer mentors and 3D printing. Applications of 3D design in the classroom included!

TAKEAWAYS:
3D printing and design can be an effective modeling tool for increasing engineering efficacy in middle school students. There are many practical applications for 3D design in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Janet McGrath

This workshop will highlight integrated approaches to teaching PreK-Grade 2 STEAM curricula. Examples of curricular projects at different grade levels, as well as collaborative efforts and partnerships between subjects and divisions, will be shared.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will take away how to create interdisciplinary units with STEAM connecting science, art, library, and computer science. The educators should be able to take away one activity from each grade level. We will complete one activity, and I will share others that can be implemented.

SPEAKERS:
Debra Simpson

This presentation explores the process by which a community-based organization engaged 17 youth of color in an integrated engineering problem solving participatory action research program to address challenges within the City of Pittsburgh.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn practical strategies to engage youth in project-based, hands-on research that is meaningful for both youth and community stakeholders.

SPEAKERS:
Deanna Sinex

A team of Primary and Lower School educators will share strategies for effective implementation of STEAM through the Design Thinking Process with students in grades Pre-K - 6. Attendees will have the opportunity to experience hands-on activities and gain experience with various technologies.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to effectively implement various STEAM strategies with elementary students through hands-on activities, technologies, and literature.

SPEAKERS:
Summaya Knight, Tammy Felton, Natalie Rachel

In this hands-on session participants will engage in a biomimicry design challenge. We will examine four different organisms that have evolved strategies for floating and twirling seeds through the air, and use that analysis to complete the ‘Airborn Transport’ design challenge. Design with nature!

TAKEAWAYS:
Biomimicry, or using inspiration from nature to solve problems, is an engaging way to integrate science and engineering. Participants will leave the session with a lesson that integrates biology (structure/function analysis) and engineering design, and ideas about how to integrate robotics and CAD

SPEAKERS:
Debra Bernstein, Geling Xu, William Church, Tyrine Jamella Pangan

This interactive workshop will focus on how to use the DiscoverE Future City Program and Xplorlabs resources by UL Research Institutes to engage students in safety science principles through data, case studies and the Engineering Design Process so they can design cities of the future.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will come away with an introduction to the Future City program and Xplorlabs’ free resources; as well as strategies for how to use these programs to lead engaging, real-world phenomena around safety science and engineering.

SPEAKERS:
TRAVIS KOUPAL

A hands-on beam lab produces graphs critical to understanding properties for engineering. With focus on making, interpreting, and teaching the graphs. Real-world uses and applications of stress-strain curves in engineering will be shared and help to illustrate the importance of this type of graph.

TAKEAWAYS:
Real-world uses and applications of stress-strain curves in engineering will be shared and help to illustrate the importance of these graphs.

SPEAKERS:
Scott Spohler

Be a bioengineer! Preview a free middle school curriculum module that merges engineering design with life science standards.  Students learn about sensory and motor systems through multimedia and kinesthetic activities, and complete a scaffolded challenge to design, test, and improve prosthetic hands.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to access and use a free 3-5 day curriculum module that integrates NGSS middle school standards in life science and engineering design, enabling students to describe how the nervous system responds to stimuli through motor and sensory neurons, and design a solution to a bioengineering problem.

SPEAKERS:
Jen Taylor

We will share how an educator with a background in engineering collaborated with an expert in supporting Multilingual Learners to adapt and develop engineering activities that amplify opportunities for sensemaking in engineering learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants engage in a hands-on engineering activity that optimizes opportunities for language learning and sensemaking through its inherent multimodal nature. They experience how engineering is a powerful tool that surfaces students' assets and connects to their community and lived experiences.

SPEAKERS:
Nico Janik, Tanya Warren

Participants will explore elementary engineering activities that also support students’ engagement in environmental literacy. In this hands-on workshop, educators will explore STEELS-aligned engineering design challenges that connect with environmental literacy such as designing a hand pollinator.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be able to use engineering to support STEM instruction that synthesizes the three dimensions of the STEELS curriculum framework in developmentally appropriate, scaffolded ways.

SPEAKERS:
Kathryn Bateman, Stephanie Klixbull

This interactive workshop will demonstrate how educators can support critical thinking RE: trade-offs of the lithium-ion battery supply chain as well as demonstrate how educators can support student sensemaking about issues related to lithium-ion batteries, and challenge students to take action.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will come away with knowledge of the Extraction to E-Waste Pathway as well as examples of how they can promote critical thinking and sensemaking with place-based case studies l where students gather information from multiple perspectives.

SPEAKERS:
TRAVIS KOUPAL

Scientific innovation takes creativity and in this workshop, you will learn how to ignite creativity in the engineering design process. Working through a student-chosen design challenge, you will see how students can use the storytelling in Science News Explores to design richer solutions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to enhance the first step in the engineering process by using Science News Explores which makes contemporary research accessible to students through scaffolds and lower reading lexiles.

SPEAKERS:
Cara Hale-Hanes

Explore how STEM can boost students' resilience and emotional intelligence! Learn to integrate science and engineering practices with socio-emotional learning using proven, open-source curricula for PK-8 science and STEM classrooms with strategies to strengthen STEM identities and emotional growth.

TAKEAWAYS:
Time for development of students’ socio-emotional development and STEM learning are both limited in classrooms. This session provides key strategies for developing resilience and science and engineering practices simultaneously, using free, open-source science and engineering curricula.

SPEAKERS:
Cory Miller, Kathryn Bateman

Explore science & sustainability resources to inspire students' real-world problem solving! Action-Oriented Pedagogies inspire them to imagine and build a safer, more resilient, and sustainable world. Discover AOP possibilities with Xplorlabs, a free tool with labs, simulations & design challenges.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will discover new ways to support scientific practices to develop and use models, analyze and interpret data, and leverage Action-Oriented Pedagogies to construct explanations and design solutions to safety and sustainability challenges.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Suloff, Andrea Weinberg, Emmanuel Adeloju, Michelle Jordan, Jasmine Coleman