A vision to support collaboration of district teachers, administrators, scientists and educators working to integrate Earth and environmental science phenomena into high school biology, chemistry, and physics courses in Baltimore City Schools. The 5+1 framework guides the integration of earth science by incorporating the following components: 1) 3-Dimensional instruction, 2) phenomenon driven units, 3) student-centered learning (specific to ML with language and content objectives) , 4) responsive instruction with “in the moment” resources, tools, and strategies;, and 5) Earth science content for all students (+1). The framework ensures the curriculum developed is aligned to NGSS, infuses Earth science content, and is accessible to all students. Participants will use the 5+1 model to examine specific unit/lesson examples, in biology, to develop instruction that is responsive, phenomena driven with considerations to use language objectives to build instruction for ML students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Using the 5+1 model for Earth science integrated instruction, participants will analyze units and lessons in biology for the presence of key components designed to differentiate instruction for all students with a focus on diverse learners with a specific focus on multi-language learners (ML).

SPEAKERS:
Kevin Garner, Andrew Collins, Edmund Mitzel, Jr., Ph.D.

Don’t have time to build a project-based learning (PBL) science unit from the ground up? Learn how to adapt high-quality open educational resources (OER) for your students and community. This session is designed for science educators interested in working with PBL science OERs to increase student engagement and deepen learning. Learn three principles that guide adaptation. 1) Make It Authentic: revise projects to connect with local issues and phenomena that matter to students. 2) Center Students’ Identities and Interests: adapt PBL experiences to affirm students’ backgrounds and increase relevance. 3) Localize to the Community: embed projects in local histories, resources, and cultures so learning feels meaningful and connected. We’ll share how teachers in Guam adapted K-8 PBL science OER units to center students’ cultures and geographies in a unique Pacific island context. Participants will apply lessons learned from Guam and explore strategies for adapting for their own students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Informed by the experiences of educators on Guam, attendees will learn to apply tools and strategies for adapting free project-based learning science curriculum to increase authenticity, center students’ identities, and localize to their communities.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Nachtigal, Alexandra Goodell

Discover how to transform everyday recyclables into a dynamic, learning-rich project. This session provides a practical blueprint for creating an engaging force and motion science lab centered around building a balloon-powered car. We'll guide you through the materials needed and the step-by-step setup, teaching you how to use this fun activity to illustrate key physics principles, including Newton's Laws of Motion, friction, and aerodynamics. Participants will gain the skills to lead a hands-on, inquiry-based lesson that fosters creativity, problem-solving, and an understanding of engineering concepts. Leave with a ready-to-implement lesson plan that turns a simple craft into a powerful STEM exploration.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn to implement a full force and motion lesson plan by using a hands-on balloon car project with recycled materials, effectively teaching key physics principles like Newton's Laws, force, and friction in an engaging, inquiry-based lab setting.

SPEAKERS:
Daniell Cossey

This workshop offers a hands-on experience with a simple, structured approach to science notebooking designed for both new and experienced teachers. Participants will explore how to transform everyday classroom activities into clear, student-friendly notebook pages that support deeper sensemaking. The session covers the entire process—from planning and designing notebook pages to setting up student notebooks and using straightforward daily templates in class. Attendees will examine examples of high-quality student work for inspiration, create an assignment based on their own subject matter, and receive editable slides ready for immediate use in the classroom. By the end of the workshop, each participant will have the materials and confidence to implement this game-changing approach in their own science teaching right away!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore how to transform everyday classroom activities into clear, student-friendly notebook pages that support deeper sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Kurt Dragomanovich

Discover how to engage students in sensemaking of natural phenomena with Stellarium, a free online planetarium tool. With Stellarium, students can make observations, collect and interpret data, and investigate how the sky changes throughout the year. They can track the motion of the Sun, Moon, and stars, deepening their understanding of Earth’s place in the universe. In this session, participants will learn how to access and use Stellarium to guide students in recognizing patterns and systems. All activities are adaptable across grade levels, align with NGSS science and engineering practices, and include interdisciplinary connections to math, social studies, and ELA.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore ready-to-use Stellarium lessons that ignite student curiosity, deepen inquiry into Earth and Space Science standards, and build meaningful interdisciplinary connections.

SPEAKERS:
Shefali Mehta

Explore interactive strategies to inspire student engagement in complex science discussions. Using genetic engineering as a focus, this session highlights how you can support students in discussing the intersection of innovation with bioethics and public policy. Learn approaches to guide students in researching diverse perspectives on GMOs and CRISPR use and regulations, analyzing case studies, and participating in discussions. Discover ways to foster civil discourse on ethical debates while building independent research and synthesis skills. You will leave with practical tools and free resources to make real-world connections, helping students strengthen communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills. Aligned to honors and AP Biology (Unit 6), the session also connects to environmental science, ethics, government, and economics, offering interdisciplinary connections for deeper learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will learn strategies and gain resources to engage students in real-world science conversations, with a specific focus on the intersections of genetic engineering, bioethics, and policy. This is to better support building student research, communication, and critical thinking skills.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Lane

Participants will make sense of a phenomenon by engaging in 3D tasks that require the explicit use and application of Disciplinary Core Ideas to develop system models and construct explanations. Participants will discuss how the Principles of Learning (How People Learn, 1999) and recommendations from the Framework (NRC, 2012) require us to rethink the role of Core Ideas to promote conceptual understanding. We will show and discuss several unique classroom videos to illustrate what this looks like in a classroom and how it motivates all students to learn science. We will share examples of student models and explanations and as well as tools and strategies to support students in using and applying Core Ideas to phenomena. Participants will have open access to these tools, which can be used with any investigation, and they will leave with strategies that build community, spark passion for science, and ensure all learners have access to meaningful science experiences.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will deepen their understanding of Core Ideas in science learning and gain strategies and tools to help all students use and apply these ideas to explore and explain phenomena in any 3D investigation.

SPEAKERS:
Wil Van der Veen, Brielle Tesauro

Current teaching and practice in preschool classrooms often includes limited exposure to informational science texts; which are essential to building all children’s sensemaking of disciplinary core ideas. In this 60-minute presentation, participants will learn strategies for embedding language-rich discussions into read-alouds of informational science texts focused on life, Earth and Space, and physical science topics. Participants will also learn about conducting hands-on science activities based on informational science texts and real-life phenomena. High-quality nonfiction science texts and hands-on activities will be presented. Videos and pictures captured in authentic preschool classrooms will be used to help participants gain firsthand accounts of evidence-based discussion strategies for building children’s language around science using information science texts and hands-on activities in preschool classrooms. Feedback from teacher implementation will also be included.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will take away practical, evidence-based discussion strategies and hands-on activities that foster understanding of disciplinary core science ideas for all children in preschool classrooms. Participants will also come away with a list of texts and materials for classroom use.

SPEAKERS:
Robin McGinnis

This session will highlight strategies for supporting two key attributes of sensemaking: student ideas and science ideas. Presenters will share an NSTA tool for evaluating lessons, focusing on equitable instruction. In small groups, participants will experience hands-on strategies that promote student discourse and equitable access, such as chalk-talk, QFT, card sorts, and whiteboarding. These strategies will be grounded in classroom evidence from Physics, Chemistry, and Environmental Science, using examples of engineering design, data analysis, and models. The session includes dedicated time for reflection, allowing participants to connect these techniques to NSTA's sensemaking criteria and plan for implementation in their own teaching. Through small-group discussions and large-group share-outs, participants will personalize their learning and gain valuable insights from their peers.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will experience and review student work from strategies that create equitable, sensemaking science environments. Focusing on science and student ideas, participants will identify strategies to implement in their own practice to improve sensemaking for all learners.

SPEAKERS:
Emilie Cross, Kevin Henson

This presentation will share a full kinematics PBL unit based on speed walking and highlight the key activities. The presentation will begin with an overview of the project and rationale for leveraging PBLs to engage students in science and engineering practices. The PBL begins with the anchoring question “How do you win a race?”. The presentation includes an overview of the scaffolded activities to get students comfortable with the software and sensors used to collect their own speed walking data. The PBL unit includes activities to support students to analyze their collected speed walking data. Finally, the presentation details the two peer review cycles students engage in to improve their presentation skills and to get feedback on their work. Throughout the presentation, attendees will be encouraged to ask questions in addition to reflecting on how this PBL unit could fit into their context.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will gain access to a complete kinematics PBL unit that can be adapted to their context, including a unit outline, activities, and assignments. Attendees will learn about the unit structure, how to implement the key activities, and consider how to modify the resources to meet their needs.

SPEAKERS:
Jessica Estes

Step into the shoes of your students and experience the power of puzzles firsthand! In this interactive session, participants will begin with a mini escape room challenge—working together to unlock a mystery box using science clues and critical thinking. Then, we’ll break down how to design and implement your own classroom escape experiences to deepen engagement, collaboration, and content mastery. From low-prep paper puzzles to more immersive breakouts, you’ll leave with practical strategies, templates, and inspiration to make any middle or high school science lesson feel like an adventure.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn strategies for using escape rooms and puzzles to transform science learning—boosting engagement, collaboration, and critical thinking while making your classroom an unforgettable experience.

SPEAKERS:
Lisa Yi, Kim Bathker

Grab your coffee and pull up a seat. This is your chance to connect live with the Class CrunchLabs team and other educators who are building the future of science class. Ask questions, share wins, swap stories, and get real-time tips from the people designing the units and using them with students. Whether you are just getting started or deep into your first mission, this is a space for honest conversation, curiosity, and community. No slides. No pressure. Just real talk with your Class CrunchLabs crew.

TAKEAWAYS:
Bring your questions, feedback, and curiosity. This is your space to connect live with the Class CrunchLabs team, swap ideas with other educators, and get support from real humans.

SPEAKERS:
DeAnna Lee Rivers, Arash Jamshidi, Tommy Clayton, Rebecca Garelli, Jesse Semeyn, Megan Kuehl, Spencer Martin, Tara Graham

This session focuses on the trilogy of NSTA Press books on the Three Dimensions and is led by NSTA’s former in-house expert on science standards who recruited the lead authors of all three books. Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices provides a play-by-play understanding of the practices. Disciplinary Core Ideas: Reshaping Teaching and Learning provides an in depth perspective on the disciplinary core ideas. Crosscutting Concepts: Strengthening Science and Engineering Learning is designed to help educators grasp the foundational issues that undergird crosscutting concepts. These books are written in clear, nontechnical language. Many of the authors contributed to the development of the Framework and NGSS. The authors also share a wealth of real-world examples drawn from their own classroom experiences to show what’s different about three-dimensional teaching and learning at all grade levels.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn techniques to use these three books to help educators have a deep understanding of practices, core ideas, and crosscutting concepts to foster better student learning in their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Ted Willard

[10 min] Participants will be provided with and introduced to our phenomena-based planning tool for content instruction that is both meaningful to students and shows how science disciplines work together. [40 min] Participants will use our tool to develop unit plans that they can take back to the classroom. First, they will: 1) identify phenomena and interdisciplinary connections for an upcoming lesson/unit; and 2) identify anchoring questions. Second, they will outline a plan for a unit. Participants will work in groups by their needs based on content and teaching context. Facilitators will circulate to each group and use timed check-ins during the workshop as a way to monitor progress, address whole group questions and offer feedback and support. [10 min] In groups, participants will share their outline for an phenomena based, interdisciplinary lesson, exchange feedback and respond to questions. To conclude, participants will map out their next steps to prepare for implementation.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with a phenomena-based planning tool and a draft of an interdisciplinary unit plan that promotes engaging, experience-driven learning aligned with NGSS, OpenSciEd and other curricula.

SPEAKERS:
Anthony Stetzenmeyer, Takumi Sato, PhD

Broaden young students’ environmental literacy while developing skills in scientific inquiry, modeling and data analysis. In this hands-on session, engage in creative games and collaborative problem solving on natural resource use, ecosystem health and pathways to sustainability. Create 3-D representations of global land use, model natural resource extraction, and simulate carrying capacity in nature and habitat fragmentation. Discuss the power of cumulative action for environmental stewardship with an elementary art project. The NGSS-aligned activities nurture students’ sensemaking, critical thinking and communication skills. Participants will receive lesson plans and background materials in an electronic format.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn ways to introduce elementary students to human ecology concepts, including natural resource use and interdependence in ecosystems with NGSS-aligned hands-on activities (3D simulations, collaborative problem solving and games).

SPEAKERS:
Helen De la Maza

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 view and discuss the ten years of Best STEM Book winners and ways to incorporate them into their classrooms to teach the SEPs.

SPEAKERS:
J Carrie Launius, Anne Lowry, Simone Nance, Jennifer Williams

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. Science education can help build a more just and equitable world. Come explore how instruction can support science learning that is consequential to your students, their communities, and the broader world.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn about and apply two equity project frameworks for science education to support 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:
Kelsie Fowler, Philip Bell

Discover how food can bring science to life in the classroom! In this interactive 60-minute workshop, we will model Pilot Light’s integrated food education approach, connecting science concepts to real-world experiences. Participants will engage in a sample live lesson, experiencing firsthand from the student perspective how food-based learning deepens understanding of NGSS-aligned practices. Through reflection, discussion, and hands-on activities, attendees will learn strategies to overcome barriers such as time, access, or uncertainty in linking food to standards. The session provides practical tools, frameworks, and digital resources to design authentic, student-centered lessons that connect science, nutrition, and sustainability, foster curiosity, and strengthen classroom and community connections.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will gain hands-on strategies to connect food-based experiences to science learning, and leave with practical tools, resources, and ideas to design engaging, NGSS-aligned, student-centered lessons that make science tangible and relevant.

SPEAKERS:
Megan Gottlieb

In a science classroom, accountable and productive talk is essential for developing students’ understanding of scientific concepts and for fostering critical thinking. In this session, participants will engage with a breakdown of what this looks and sounds like, and how it contributes to student growth. Included learnings in the session: how to encourage students to actively participate in discussions, not just listening passively; how to encourage peer-to-peer dialogue, not just student-to-teacher talk; teaching respectful debate and understanding of multiple viewpoints; and encouraging students to apply concepts to new situations or real-world problems.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn and practice the classroom-tested practices of accountable and productive talk that turns science class into a space for thinking, not just knowing and helps students become inquirers, analyzers, and communicators (core components of scientific literacy and critical thinking.

SPEAKERS:
Annette Venegas

Experience how leveraging complex culturally relevant societal challenges as phenomena in 3D teaching and learning supports student motivation and engagement and develops student agency within and beyond the classroom! The Framework for K-12 Science Education and NGSS call for learning grounded in real world phenomena and problems to ensure that science learning is relevant to all students. The AIL instructional model succeeds the 5Es and utilizes complex and culturally relevant societal challenges to anchor multiple cycles of inquiry and sensemaking, culminating with student explanations/design solutions. AIL employs science education research emphasizing coherence from students’ perspective. In this session, participants will 1) consider their own ideas about teaching complex societal challenges, 2) experience 3D learning, and 3) consider the science concepts of a societal challenge (antibiotic resistance, heart disease, food sustainability, anthropogenic changes to biodiversity)

TAKEAWAYS:
The research-based BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning instructional model succeeds the 5Es and leverages complex societal issues as anchoring phenomena/problems, culminating tasks, and performance assessments in 3D units of instruction to motivate students and develop agency in addressing these issues.

SPEAKERS:
Cynthia Gay

Join for an interactive session, where we will explore how the Flipped Classroom model and the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) framework can transform student learning and engagement. This session will highlight practical strategies for shifting direct instruction outside the classroom, freeing up valuable in-class time for collaborative, inquiry-based learning in chemistry classroom. Participants will discover how integrating CER into flipped lessons empowers students to think critically, construct scientific explanations, and support their claims with evidence and logical reasoning. Through real-world examples, hands-on activities, and discussion, educators will leave with actionable tools to foster deeper understanding, promote student voice, and enhance formative assessment practices. Whether you're new to flipped learning or looking to refine your use of CER, this session offers insights and inspiration to elevate your teaching practice.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session equips educators with practical strategies for designing flipped lessons that incorporate CER seamlessly. Participants will explore real classroom examples, tackle common challenges, and engage in hands-on activities that model the CER process.

SPEAKERS:
Bhagyashree Kulkarni

Developing a future-focus for science education with emphasis of music and arts. Bridging out for cross-curriculum among various disciplines, however, focus upon STEM education. Utilizing the ODE State Science Standards, along with state standards from various content, as well as the connections to the Next Generation Science Standards. My proposal is for the audience of 6-12 general science educators. Educators from outside of the 6-12 parameter are always welcome to attend the proposed session. The information provided for the proposed session presentation is to help all STEM educators with the integration of music and arts into the STEM education and curriculum (STEAM). Empower and equip educators thinking outside of the bun to utilize music with the STEM curricula. Teachers will learn how to improve their critical thinking to achieve the talented and gifted students who may not be advanced in science, but advanced in arts and music.

TAKEAWAYS:
Empower and equip educators thinking outside of the bun to utilize music with the STEM curricula. There are digital programs the educators can utilize without costs to improve the connections of arts and music with STEM. Teachers will learn how to improve their critical thinking to STEAM TAG kids.

SPEAKERS:
John Davis III

Student agency involves students taking ownership of their learning, and it can have many positive benefits, including motivation and self-efficacy. However, cultivating agency requires opportunities to do so. What kinds of agency opportunities do educators provide? How receptive are educators to providing them? Do science teachers differ from teachers in other subjects in these regards? In this session, I’ll share what we know about student agency, what it can look like in science, the findings of recent research, and what else we have yet to learn about it. Session participants will engage in conversation about the unique affordances and challenges of providing students with agency opportunities and leave with ideas, strategies, and a report on recent research findings.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about ways to define agency, what research tells us the benefits of agency are, what agency can look like in science, and the latest research on student agency, both generally and in science.

SPEAKERS:
Nicholas Balisciano

This vocabulary strategy engages students in authentic research and visual learning. Using Google and Google Images, students investigate science terms to build accurate definitions and context. They then transform their research into labeled diagrams, comparisons, and sketches, reinforcing meaning through both inquiry and visualization. By moving beyond rote memorization, this method helps students actively “piece together” vocabulary, fostering deeper understanding, stronger retention, and connections between words and concepts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave this session with a ready-to-use vocabulary strategy that combines digital research with visual synthesis, making abstract terms more concrete and memorable for students.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Davis

I have found students’ fear of science, scientific concepts, and deeper understanding lingers, even in preservice undergrads. Many found science as unrelatable and something to get through. Students tended to not understand the “big picture” and concept connection to personal interests/ activities. I use alternative writing assignments to elevate HOTS levels while supporting cross-curricular understanding. I created a rubric that was general in the sense of product development but precise in the understanding conveyed. The rubric guides students to widen their understanding and incorporate individualism. Although full rubric completion takes students to an average, C letter grade, it provides multiple avenues for personal interests with the ability to exemplify superior work for them, physically linking sensemaking between science ideas and student ideas. The culminating products have been more unimaginably diverse and deeply engaging for their peers, the instructor, and themselves.

TAKEAWAYS:
My AWA (alternative writing assignment) rubric will be explained and shared, showing how concepts can be created, taught, and presented by students.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Bechtel

The National Earth Science Teachers Association (NESTA) empowers educators to advance their instructional practice through professional learning, high-quality resources, and a supportive community aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). This session highlights how NESTA—through strategic partnerships—helps teachers integrate Earth and space science phenomena that inspire student-centered inquiry and authentic sensemaking. By fostering educator resilience, collaboration, and leadership, NESTA promotes excellence in Earth and space science education. Participants will explore NESTA’s wide range of offerings, including timely classroom resources, professional development opportunities, access to best practices through our peer-reviewed journal The Earth Scientist, and strategies for building interdisciplinary connections across the sciences.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn about a community that elevates Earth and space science teaching! NESTA helps educators connect, grow, and lead—transforming curiosity into discovery through shared resources, collaboration, and real-world phenomena that inspire student learning.

SPEAKERS:
Kellyn Hardin, Natalie Macke

This poster showcases how you can transform your Canvas courses into inclusive, dynamic, and enriching learning experiences for all students. Swing by to tap into essential strategies, tools, and best practices to foster inclusivity, diversity, and accessibility through your school's Canvas site!

TAKEAWAYS:
Visitors will learn how to implement tools like Canvas Groups for collaborative learning, media opportunities with Canvas Studio, and using Canvas to showcase student understanding while harnessing student strengths!

SPEAKERS:
Tanya MacMartin, Ed.D.

See the 5E instructional model, Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate, come to life in a complete phenomena-based science lesson. This simple five-step framework makes teaching NGSS, inquiry-driven science easy, structured, and fun for any classroom. In this poster session, you will explore each phase through visuals, lesson examples, and student work samples. Discover how the 5E model sparks curiosity, strengthens sensemaking, and turns real-world phenomena into meaningful learning experiences without adding extra work. You will leave with ready-to-use lesson ideas, practical strategies, and a digital toolkit that makes implementing the 5E model approachable, playful, and completely doable. This session demonstrates how even teachers new to phenomena-based science can confidently design lessons that engage students and support lasting understanding.

TAKEAWAYS:
The 5E model gives teachers a simple, five-step framework to design phenomena-based science lessons that spark curiosity, support sensemaking, and engage students, all with low prep and tools ready to use immediately.

SPEAKERS:
Paddy Rich

Step into the spotlight with this interactive poster session featuring the current Grand Prize Winners of the Shell Science Lab Regional Challenge! Connect one-on-one with these outstanding science educators as they share their journey—from transforming under-resourced labs into hubs of innovation, to winning one of science education’s most prestigious awards. Learn firsthand how they’ve elevated student learning, built strong safety practices, and used the Challenge as a platform for professional growth and leadership. Whether you’re curious about applying or simply looking for inspiration to energize your own classroom or lab space, this is your chance to ask questions, gather tips, and walk away empowered by educators who’ve done it.

TAKEAWAYS:
Personal conversations with Grand Prize Winners will inspire attendees with practical ideas and confidence to transform their own science classrooms and consider applying for the Shell Science Lab Regional Challenge.

SPEAKERS:
Amanda Upton

How can we make chemistry more interesting, relevant, and exciting to students while still keeping rigor? Hear from teachers across the U.S. who have used lessons centered around food-based phenomena that teach chemistry concepts like atomic structure, bonding, thermal energy, intermolecular forces, and chemical reactions, and are aligned to NGSS. Learn how this has helped student engagement, disposition, and understanding of science concepts, and their ideas about what science is. Teachers can answer questions about what this can look like logistically and how to support common classroom challenges like supporting students of different levels and backgrounds, lab equipment, and providing 3D assessments that align to NGSS.

TAKEAWAYS:
See how other teachers have used different series of lessons centered around different food-based phenomena and labs and how this has helped student engagement, disposition, and understanding of science concepts, and their ideas about what science is.

SPEAKERS:
April Thompson, Jacob Rice, David Meyer, Kate Strangfeld

How can we use cheese to explore science concepts like evidence of chemical changes, solubility, and pH? Experience how we can investigate these concepts in a fun, exploratory way that emphasizes building science practices (intended for Grades 6-8 or Grades 9-12). In this session, participants will engage in parts of a lesson that center around the phenomenon of fresh cheese. They will participate in a mini-lab and then “unpack” and make sense of the results through various second-hand data and information. This session strongly highlights how a lab can be framed in an investigative, rather than confirmatory, way. This introductory part of the lesson can be used for grades 6-8 (targeting standards MS-PS1-1, MS-PS1-2, MS-PS1-3) or grades 9-12 (HS-PS1-3, HS-PS1-5). It is a great way to teach about ways to identify if a chemical reaction occurred and introduce precipitates.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will do a simple hands-on lab that can be easily scaled up or down and see how students can make sense of curd formation by drawing on what they already know, making meaningful observations, analyzing data, asking questions, and applying an understanding of how chemical reactions work.

SPEAKERS:
April Thompson, Jacob Rice, David Meyer, Shawn Boggs, Ashley Vandgrift, Kate Strangfeld, Miriam McMillian

This workshop will provide participants with strategies to use the ELIPSS feedback rubrics to assess a variety of skills within their courses and provide feedback that leads to student mastery. Student engagement with the science and engineering practices is necessary to help them meet the NGSS expectations. However, research has shown that it is not enough to provide assignments that cause students to USE particular skills; assessment of these skills is critical for student skill development. The Enhancing Learning by Improving Process Skills in STEM (ELIPSS) is an NSF-funded project that developed resources that aid instructors in aligning their intended outcomes, tasks, and assessments to address science practices and durable skills.

TAKEAWAYS:
-Overview of the ELIPSS rubrics and strategies for using rubric components in combination to assess targeted skills and science practices -Strategies for including skills in traditional content-based rubrics -Practice combining rubric categories to develop customized rubrics for your assignments

SPEAKERS:
Renee Cole, Juliette Lantz

Attendees will use data collection technologies such as software, probeware, and calculators to collect, graph, and analyze data. Attendees will then use veritcal whiteboarding to discuss and share the data collected through gallery walks. Topics will include, density, velocity and acceleration, temperature, solubility and conductivity, and force.

TAKEAWAYS:
Ideas and inspiration on how to get a more student centered data collection and analysis discussion with students with authentic data that is collected by the students.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Coker

Explore the rich diversity of butterflies through data-driven conservation! In this hands-on workshop, participants will act as student scientists using real-world datasets—expert range maps, citizen science observations, and historical records—to identify priority areas for butterfly protection at the state level. Using California as a model, attendees will analyze species richness and habitat suitability data to locate biodiversity hotspots, then design localized action plans that maximize butterfly diversity through host plant selection and habitat design. The session models NGSS-aligned practices in analyzing and interpreting data, using models, and designing solutions to real-world challenges. Participants will receive adaptable lesson materials and digital resources to localize the activity anywhere in the country—empowering students to use and collect authentic data to protect butterflies in their community.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use real butterfly biodiversity data to identify conservation priorities, analyze habitat potential, and guide students in designing localized, data-driven actions that protect diverse pollinators—moving beyond individual species to broader ecosystem awareness.

SPEAKERS:
Claire Lannoye-Hall

How can we make room for art in our science classrooms? Join us as we share our experiences infusing art into science lessons. Learn how art can turn science into engaging, creative experiences that support sense-making, foster critical thinking, encourage personal expression, spark curiosity, and more!

TAKEAWAYS:
In this session, attendees will explore practical strategies for infusing art and design into science instruction, helping students master scientific concepts while staying engaged. Together, we’ll reimagine science classrooms as spaces where creativity and curiosity go hand in hand.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Kim, Yishan Lee

The relatively new emphasis on engineering across educational settings and standards, has early childhood educators working to understand how to best engage young children in engineering experiences that develop children’s interest and skills and prepares children for future engineering learning. To do this, early childhood educators need to be aware of the foundational knowledge and skills needed for our young learners to engage in age-appropriate engineering experiences and to learn systematic ways for developing children’s engineering knowledge and skills throughout their preK and early elementary years. This session will present a continuum for Early Childhood Engineering, describing appropriate engineering experiences for preschool through the primary grades and explaining how each set of experiences prepares children for the next. And, of course, we will do some engineering!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will understand what engineering is and appreciate the need for and benefits of engineering experiences in early childhood education, while learning meaningful classroom strategies for implementing engineering with young children.

SPEAKERS:
William Straits

Transform your classroom and make a lasting impact on education with one philosophical shift that puts learning back into the hands of students. Join one teacher’s journey to revolutionize assessments with renewed focus on critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. Research suggests that a standards-based electronic portfolio promotes a positive learning environment that emphasizes student mastery, develops self-regulated learning, and strengthens the classroom community. This real-world application in Physics confirms it! Explore how the systems approach has promoted equity and accessibility through universal design for learning (UDL) strategies and purposeful implementation of peer reviews, self-assessments, and revisions. See examples of how an “Ask 3” protocol and “Actionable Norms” positive behavior intervention shift student thinking from compliance to continuous growth. Let’s turn theory into practice and leave energized to effect change together.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how implementing a comprehensive learner-centered electronic portfolio system with NGSS (& AP) standards-based grading plus a clear revision process can positively impact student learning to address the 4 Cs while it also transforms teaching into a more sustainable practice.

SPEAKERS:
Albert David Valderrama

As classrooms continue to retool for the Next Generation Science Standards, many teachers are finding that they and their students are uncomfortable with the sustained uncertainty that is central to phenomenon-and-problem-driven instruction. However, uncertainty is an important and valuable aspect of sensemaking, as students draw on their prior knowledge and grapple with new information to figure out and explain complex scientific ideas. In this session, attendees will workshop a series of hands-on activities that require students to sit with unanswered questions for multiple lessons. Participants will practice new strategies for mitigating students’ anxieties with not knowing the answer, and share their own experiences managing students' different levels of comfort with uncertainty in their classrooms. Attendees will walk away with a new set of elementary lessons and strategies they can put into practice right away.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participate in a series of hands-on phenomenon-based lessons, and practice new strategies for encouraging K-5 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:
Rachel Patton, Dr. Emily Harrison

This workshop invites secondary science and STEM teachers to explore strategy guides for enacting Language and Racial Equity Practices (LaREP) to support linguistically and racially diverse students’ sense of belonging, academic success, and STEM identity development. Participants will (1) explore the LaREP framework, (2) review strategy guides that translate LaREP into actionable classroom practices with instructional designs and student work examples, (3) experience two model activities—one focused on language equity and another on racial equity—and (4) discuss with participant teachers their feedback and comments on the LaREP’s potential and challenges. Participants will gain access to all resources via our project website, including the full LaREP Strategy Guide Package: one overview guide, three Language Equity Strategy Guides (e.g., Connecting Science and Everyday Words), and four Racial Equity Strategy Guides (e.g., Disrupting Structure, Funds of Knowledge and Raciolinguistics).

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will bring with them the practical strategies, lesson examples, and insights for enacting Language and Racial Equity Practices in secondary STEM classrooms to strengthen linguistically and racially diverse students’ sense of belonging, academic success, and STEM identity.

SPEAKERS:
Won Jung Kim

It is essential for middle school science students to learn to generate new ideas, interpretations, and solutions collaboratively. In this presentation, we first convey a stance that values and leverages multilingualism and multilingual learners' (MLs) lived experiences. We then share work done with science teachers and teacher educators through the federally funded Biliteracy and Content Area Integrated Preparation (BCAIP) Project to translate this stance into moves that mobilize MLs' full linguistic repertoire (i.e., translanguaging). Specifically, we use a middle school science unit, Ecosystem Interactions and Resources, to model how bilingual texts, collaboration norms, and multilingual assessment performances serve as translanguaging moves to scaffold data and text analysis along with collaborative language development. Attendees come away with resources and tips to designing a trajectory of collaborative inquiry for their own classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Multilingual learners benefit when are supported in mobilizing their full linguistic repertoire (i.e., translanguaging) for the purpose of generating new ideas, interpretations, or solutions collaboratively.

SPEAKERS:
Edward Lyon

The 6th-8th grade students at AuTrain-Onota Public School, are in their fourth year building and wiring underwater remote operated vehicles (ROVs). The students have worked with local conservation districts on a fish habitat project, as well as won trophies at ROV competitions. This past school year, the teacher, Amy Pihlainen-Gabler, contacted the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, (WHOI), regarding their use of ROVs. WHOI scientists, including a senior scientist on the Titanic wreckage expedition, have spoken to the students several times about the real-world applications of these ROVs. Mrs. Pihlainen-Gabler traveled to Woods Hole in Massachusetts this past March and will discuss her trip to WHOI and how the scientists welcomed her on tours and provided materials and information to further inspire her students. She will also discuss future plans for the program with Kall Morris Inc. and the Lake Superior SCUBA harbor clean up effort.

TAKEAWAYS:
The most important thing as a teacher is to show students the real-world applications of what they are learning. The "why do I care/need to learn this?"

SPEAKERS:
Amy Pihlainen-Gabler

This session explores how the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) can serve as a powerful foundation for helping students connect phenomena-driven learning to high-skill, high-wage, in-demand careers. This session will offer practical insights into the current postsecondary and workforce landscape and demonstrate how career-connected learning can increase student engagement by making science more relevant and purposeful.

TAKEAWAYS:
Using state science standards as a foundation for career connected learning helps students see science as purposeful and relevant by directly linking science content and application to in-demand career pathways boosting both engagement and motivation.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker

Discover how NSTA Kids Press books can move from page to practice in your classroom. Presenters will share encore favorites and premiere new titles, highlighting how these books support the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs). Participants will see practical ways to launch inquiry projects, connect to other curricular areas, and integrate literacy into science instruction. Each featured book will include classroom-ready ideas, from hands-on activities to assessment strategies, plus suggestions for extending learning with related texts. Whether you are looking to spark curiosity, strengthen student understanding, or make cross-curricular connections, you will leave with new ideas for teaching science and engineering practices through engaging stories.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore the integration of science and engineering practices and children’s literature through cross disciplinary connections and hands-on activities. Resources provided.

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Parks, Patricia Vermillion, Rina Zampieron, Katie Morrison, Simone Nance, Jennifer Williams, Anne Lowry

Consumer DNA testing sits at the intersection of cutting-edge genomics and personal identity. This session pulls back the curtain on how direct-to-consumer tests generate and deliver results, from raw genotyping data to ethnicity estimates and migration inferences. We’ll explore scientific concepts such as reference populations, SNP arrays, population structure, and statistical modeling that underlie tools like ancestry composition and historical matching. Alongside the science, we’ll examine the powerful implications of these results—how they shape students’ understanding of uniqueness, shared origins, and global connections. Attendees will gain strategies for translating the science of commercial DNA testing into classroom lessons that are rigorous, relevant, and resonant.

TAKEAWAYS:
Understand the testing methodology behind consumer DNA tests and how they can be used to teach both genetics and human connection.

SPEAKERS:
Diahan Southard

Sponsoring Company: Kiddom

What does it take to make sense-making of phenomena through investigating the center of science instruction, not just in theory, but in daily practice? Join Dr. Mike Flanagan and explore how intentional curriculum design, when paired with powerful learning intelligence technology (LIT), can transform instruction and empower all learners. Featuring actionable strategies, this session will leave you inspired and equipped to design learning experiences that are coherent and genuinely engaging.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how thoughtful curriculum design and digital tools work together to support sense-making in science instruction, with practical strategies they can apply immediately to create more coherent, equitable, and engaging learning experiences.

SPEAKERS:
Mike Flanagan

Implementing hands-on, student-centered models of instruction such as the 5E through labs and other activities can be challenging in practice because of unavailability of time and materials. Additionally, it is a challenge to help students understand the science phenomena behind each experience, and not just the experience itself. Structured visuals bridge that gap: they are easy to make or find, and they intuitively engage students in deep, rich thinking and academic conversation. Additionally, they help level the playing field by providing all of the needed background information for students to access critical thinking opportunities about science concepts. Participants in this session will experience exploration of science phenomena from students’ perspective by engaging in peer-to-peer academic conversations using structured visuals. Participants will also be shown how to create structured visuals and structured visual resources such as The Visual Non-Glossary.

TAKEAWAYS:
Structured visuals are easy to prepare and implement, and they can either replace labs or dramatically enhance them. Structured visuals get students talking and making inferences and connections. This session shows how to find, make, and use them.

SPEAKERS:
Stephen Fleenor

Educators are trying to find the time to engage students in authentic science learning experiences, but they are restricted by schedule and curricular demands. INTEGRATING science and literacy ALLEVIATES challenges such as time constraints, disconnected learning, and low engagement. Utilizing science trade books stimulates knowledge building, which engages, equips, and empowers our students by contextualizing their comprehension. This session includes evidence-based research, practical insights, and hands-on application. Participants will: EXPLORE an integrated lesson using the 5E model and literacy strategies for reading, writing, speaking, and listening that deepen students’ understanding of science content connected to NGSS standards. CREATE an integrated lesson using a template and collection of science trade books. REFLECT on their experience, challenges encountered, and key takeaways. They will leave the session empowered with practical tools to elevate their teaching practices.

TAKEAWAYS:
INTEGRATING science and literacy ALLEVIATES challenges (time constraints, disconnected learning, low engagement). This presentation includes evidence-based research, practical insights, and hands-on application, to empower educators with knowledge and practical tools to contextualize comprehension.

SPEAKERS:
Stephanie Westhafer

Contact forces might be all around us, but the juicy nuggets in this unit help them make sense. This session helps you uncover key features in Carnival of Collisions that make it easier to plan, teach, and guide students through puzzling ideas like balanced and unbalanced forces, motion, and collisions. We will walk through the built-in teacher tools, prompts, and routines that support deep thinking and epic classroom moments. Whether students are knocking down bowing pins or smashing watermelons, you will leave with ready-to-use moves that help the learning stick.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover classroom-ready tools in Carnival of Collisions that help students explore contact forces and investigate what really happens when objects crash, bounce, or come to a sudden stop.

SPEAKERS:
Tommy Clayton, Arash Jamshidi, Spencer Martin

Join us for an exciting and hands-on workshop designed specifically for educators! In collaboration with Estes Rockets and Blue Origin’s Club for the Future, this session will provide you with the tools and knowledge to inspire your students through the power of rocketry and space exploration. Learn how you can implement this New Glenn inspired lesson into your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Enhance your understanding of rocket science and space exploration and equip yourself with practical, engaging lesson plans and activities.

SPEAKERS:
Bela Power, Kristen Yip

Science sparks students’ excitement and curiosity about the world! Explore research and discuss how to build your toolbox for engaging others in prioritizing phenomenon-based instruction in elementary students’ curricular experiences; go beyond special activities.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with strategies to advocate for integrating science into students’ elementary classroom experiences, on par with ELA and Math.

SPEAKERS:
Yanira Vazquez

Discover how the Next Gem Innovators program is transforming STEM education across the Dayton Region through a powerful collaboration with the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA). This session will introduce the structure, impact, and opportunities within the program—designed for educators who are ready to lead real-world, innovation-driven learning both in and outside of the classroom. Participants will engage in a collaborative discussion around current challenges in bringing innovation into the classroom and explore how programs like NGI can empower educators to lead change. The session will conclude with a hands-on activity rooted in one of NGI’s core STEM principles—industry integration, pedagogical innovation, or leadership development—giving attendees a taste of the NGI experience.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with a model for empowering educators to lead innovation-driven, real-world STEM learning through strategic partnerships, strong pedagogy, and leadership development—along with practical strategies they can adapt within their own schools and regions.

SPEAKERS:
Jessica Short, Colleen Biers

The Next Generation Science Standards describe a vision of scientific literacy that emphasizes informed and participatory citizenship on issues related to science in society. Many elementary teachers, however, avoid debatable socioscientific issues such as whether we need zoos, the value of a national space program, or whether certain sports are too dangerous for children because of concerns about arguments in their classrooms and fear of broaching moral/ethical issues. During this interactive session, participants will be introduced to the theoretical framework behind the Socioscientific Issues (SSI) approach. They will then collaboratively engage in an activity from the NSTA Press book, It’s Still Debatable, during which they will model negotiation of a debatable issue while analyzing the lesson’s use of SSI, NGSS three-dimensional science learning, alignment with interdisciplinary standards, and multiple means of assessment for all learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
During this interactive workshop, participants will learn an array of strategies for using debatable societal issues related to science to develop their elementary students’ scientific literacy while modeling interdisciplinary, inclusive, three-dimensional science teaching and learning.

SPEAKERS:
Sami Kahn

This session demonstrates sensemaking in action by integrating all four pillars: phenomena (observable oxygen changes during breath holding), science practices (authentic data collection and analysis with pulse oximeters and Python), student ideas (predictions about body system responses), and core disciplinary ideas (cellular respiration and homeostasis). Participants will experience a complete research-validated lesson where students collect their own physiological data, use Google Colab for visualization, and connect personal observations to ATP production and cellular processes. The lesson includes real-world biomedical applications through a hydrocephalus case study featuring VP shunts with Doppler sensors. Successfully implemented with 36 diverse high school students, this approach makes abstract molecular concepts tangible and personally relevant. Participants will leave with ready-to-use materials, including a 5E lesson plan, pre-written Python code, and samples of student work

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will gain practical, research-backed strategies to make cellular respiration tangible and relevant through authentic data collection, technology integration, and real-world biomedical connections.

SPEAKERS:
Demvia Maslian

Learn how to write assessments to then identify, document, and address student learning deficiencies and implementing RTI in the Science Classroom. Participants will also learn how to add a built in intervention time during the day and how we provide extensions and also include our elective teachers into providing interventions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn concrete ways to identify students who need RTI, creating spreadsheets to track student data, and developing a intervention plan to address student needs.

SPEAKERS:
Kyla Glasser

Why do some burned hillsides suddenly flood or slide after a storm? This session uses phenomena-based instruction to explore how soil chemistry and structure regulate water movement, nutrient transport, and pollutant filtration. Participants will engage in hands-on activities that model how soils can absorb or repel water, store and release nutrients, and contribute to hazards such as flooding, landslides, and fire-altered soils that become water-repellent. Investigating soil data and maps, educators will uncover how soil processes connect to essential Earth and environmental science concepts. Participants will leave with freely available resources, professional development opportunities, and strategies for guiding students to explain natural hazards and ecosystem functions through the lens of soil science.

TAKEAWAYS:
Why do burned slopes flood or slide? Engage your students in hands-on soil investigations to uncover how structure and chemistry regulate water flow, stability, and susceptibility to hazards and take home free resources to spark phenomena-based learning in your classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Lauren Brase, Lindsay Mossa, Natalie Macke

Are you wanting to learn some fun and engaging physics activities in-line with the NGSS Standards? This session will give you a lesson to bring back to school and use or share with your colleagues. In our session we will be looking at balanced and unbalanced forces, calculating speed and motion graphs.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will experience physics fun for 6-8 Science as they apply to the NGSS MS-PS3-1 standards. We will use hot wheels to collect data to calculate speed and create motion graphs using hands-on technology.

SPEAKERS:
Becky Walker, Amy Rush

The presenter situates Hip Hop pedagogy in children’s literature as a tool for helping students discover their STEM identity. Hip-hop pedagogy and identity-centered teaching practices bridge students' cultural knowledge with mathematics. This interactive workshop will demonstrate how educators can utilize identity-centered teaching as one pathway to accessing high-quality STEM instruction and one approach that empowers students to envision themselves as future STEM leaders. Attendees will gain insights into instructional strategies and activities that support the development of student agency in STEM.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to apply a cultural identity framework in conjunction with hip-hop pedagogy to design culturally relevant STEM tasks that enhance student agency and foster inclusive environments in STEM classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Sherita Flake

Students bring amazing intellectual resources to make sense of science phenomena based on their personal and community experiences—including languages, perspectives, gestures, as well as knowledge, interests, and values. Come learn how to notice and leverage those intellectual gifts in your teaching! By analyzing a series of awesome learning situations, this session asks participants to work with others to ‘learn to see’ students’ diverse sense-making resources—and connect these pedagogical strategies to their own classroom practice. Come join us for this fun, interactive session!

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

PBL has been proven to be an effective teaching strategy in the science classroom. This session will provide an overview of Project Based Learning including the difference between project and problem based learning, how to manage a PBL, and how to maintain a legacy PBL.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with strategies to implement PBL in their classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Nadene Klein

Discover how STEM goes beyond traditional math and science. This interactive session helps teachers find hidden STEM jobs, and plan learning pathways for students of all grades, from early exposure to high school specialization. Educators will leave with a wide range of tools they need to help every student believe that they can succeed in STEM.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will uncover a wide range of STEM-connected careers, begin to map learning pathways from elementary to high school, and leave with ready-to-use tools assisting teachers in helping students see themselves as capable problem-solvers with real-world futures in STEM..

SPEAKERS:
Kia Thomas, Randy Kolset

The first year implementing OpenSciEd is often about keeping pace with the flow of units. In this session, we’ll share what we’ve learned about going deeper within the curriculum by tapping into valuable tools that often get overlooked in the first year. The GEMS-Net project, based at the University of Rhode Island’s College of Education, has been collaborating with teachers in their first few years of OpenSciEd implementation to explore supports, including the Teacher Handbook, Teacher Tools and Resources, and Unit Overview documents. Teachers have found this work to be valuable for planning, instruction, and supporting student sensemaking. Join us to dig into these resources together and leave with concrete strategies for elevating your OpenSciEd implementation beyond the first pass.

TAKEAWAYS:
Join us for a deep dive into often overlooked OpenSciEd resources and leave with strategies for advancing your instruction beyond the first year of implementation. Discover how to leverage valuable resources to deepen planning, instruction, and student sensemaking when teaching with OpenSciEd.

SPEAKERS:
Holly Emery, Catherine Knasas, Sarah Reis, Caroline Stabile

This workshop introduces an innovative online platform coupled with in-class activities to engage students in STEMM. Each module is anchored in a real-world case study woven into a story where students assume the role of scientists or clinicians, making decisions using authentic data from pediatric research. The modules build scientific literacy and problem-solving by utilizing inquiry-based modules, classroom discussion and manipulatives. Students are guided through diagnostic reasoning, data analysis, and treatment exploration leading to a deeper understanding of research. The interactive workshop will demonstrate how narrative-driven learning makes complex biomedical concepts accessible while highlighting emerging areas such as genomics, gene therapy, and data science. Participants explore strategies for integrating the platform into science curricula to inspire curiosity, connect the classroom to current research, and promote career pathways in health and biomedical sciences.

TAKEAWAYS:
This workshop highlights an online platform that uses narrative-driven learning modules about pediatric cases to teach life science concepts. Teachers will learn practical ways to integrate the modules into their courses to inspire curiosity and health science career interest.

SPEAKERS:
Amanda Etherington, Summer Jasper, Kyle Bichsel

Look up at the ceiling when you’re at the grocery store, your school, or offices. What will you often see? Fire sprinklers! What role do fire sprinklers have in engineering and designing fire-safe spaces? In this workshop we evaluate the structure and function of a fire sprinkler to understand how thermodynamics lead to the bulb breaking and how a system of fire sprinklers work to limit the impact of fire. Xplorlabs: The Science of Fire Safety was developed in partnership with UL Research Institutes' Fire Safety Research Institute and the National Fire Sprinkler Association. Participants will preview the no-cost Science of Fire Safety pathway and consider its potential as part of their classroom curriculum. During which they will observe the effectiveness of a home sprinkler system using actual lab footage from ULRI, explore the phenomenon of thermal expansion to activate a sprinkler, and ideate how students can use this to design fire safe spaces.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants leave inspired to consider ways for students to design safer spaces and make informed fire safety decisions based on safety science. Participants also consider the opportunity to integrate any of the no-cost Xplorlabs pathways as part of their classroom curriculum.

SPEAKERS:
Daniel Sternberg, Jessica Sparacino, Abi NeSmith, Justin Guida

Experience the joy of inclusive science learning! This interactive session begins with a brief review of NGSS instructional shifts and its three dimensions: Disciplinary Core Ideas, Science & Engineering Practices, and Crosscutting Concepts. Engage in a collaborative "Notice and Wonder" exercise, followed by a two-part pen dissection using the "Parts, Purposes, and Complexities" routine. Participants will explore Strategic Shifts from the Exploratorium’s Institute for Inquiry—Discourse, Equity, and 3D Learning—through a hands-on Making Thinking Visible activity from Harvard’s Project Zero. This session emphasizes modeling, reflection, and strategies to support multilingual learners and students with disabilities. Walk away with practical tools to make science accessible, meaningful, and fun for every student.

TAKEAWAYS:
Empower every learner through inclusive, NGSS-aligned engineering instruction that advances students’ cognitive, emotional, and social growth.

SPEAKERS:
Bella Githere, Delgel Pabalan

Participants will learn how using children's literature in science instruction can help students get interested in science topics, gain needed context about phenomenon, and share prior knowledge. We will share how interactive read alouds can generate student collaboration and facilitate discussions.

TAKEAWAYS:
We want participants to take away a list of recent children's literature about science topics and how to use these books in their science teaching and learning. Techniques will be shared and lesson plans tied to NGSS will be handed out.

SPEAKERS:
Alexandra Chester, Jordan Kobielus, Jim McDonald

Join our session to learn about resources developed to support instruction in inclusive classrooms. These resources, designed within the Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) Assessment System at the University of Kansas, are based on “learning maps”—cognitive models that specify multiple pathways for student learning, accounting for diverse learning needs. Learning maps show progressions of knowledge and skills in all three science dimensions, allowing for flexible integration of dimensions to help educators meet students where they are and work toward common learning goals for all students. This session will use the SEP Planning and Carrying Out Investigations to illustrate how learning maps can support planning targeted and individualized inquiry-based instruction in middle school. Teachers of science in general education classrooms, special educators who teach science, and science educators interested in supporting all students’ learning are encouraged to attend.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about 3-D science learning maps and how to use related resources from the Dynamic Learning Maps system that are publicly-available, aimed at planning targeted and individualized inquiry-based instruction in inclusive classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Richardson, Dante Cisterna

Discover how to create a more functional and engaging classroom by empowering students through meaningful roles and validated scientific inquiry. This session will explore how a structured system of classroom and lab jobs can foster student responsibility, build a strong sense of community, and develop critical skills. It will also highlight the benefits of centering student ideas in science, which boosts confidence, encourages risk-taking, and deepens learning. Learn how to combine these strategies to cultivate an environment where students feel valued, confident, and motivated to contribute to their learning community. The second half of the session will demonstrate how celebrating student ideas in the science classroom can encourage responsible risk-taking and promote deeper learning. By validating student contributions and framing mistakes as growth opportunities, educators can create a collaborative environment that boosts confidence and fosters student-driven discovery.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with a toolkit of actionable strategies to implement both systems, empowering students to take ownership of their learning and become valued, contributing members of the classroom community.

SPEAKERS:
Caitlin Quinn, Amy Couch

How do we balance innovation, private rights, and civic responsibility? This session connects America’s founding principles to modern challenges in science and engineering. Using primary sources and considering modern challenges, you will explore activities and civil discourse practices that help students analyze whether discoveries should be shared for the public good or protected as private property. Gain strategies to guide students in designing inventions that address civic needs and in proposing how innovations should be shared. With alignment to engineering and civics standards, and integration of literacy and technology, the session offers an engaging way to connect the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, or U.S. history more broadly, to science and engineering classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn strategies to guide students in examining the balance between scientific innovation, private rights, and the public good in U.S. history and today. This integrates engineering, civics, and civil discourse as students design solutions to civic needs.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Lane

We show how instructional materials can be adapted for local contexts—and how to elevate issues of climate justice and ethical responses to the climate crisis. Participants will learn about how a high school physics unit from OpenSciEd about reliable energy sources was adapted to attend to Indigenous land rights and sovereignty.

TAKEAWAYS:
Related to STEM projects in society (e.g., energy transition, ecological restoration), teachers will learn how to engage students in exploring moral and ethical dimensions of trade-offs in project approaches. A broadly applicable framework for equity-focused curriculum adaptation will be shared.

SPEAKERS:
Kelsie Fowler, Philip Bell

In this session, we will model close reading lessons using both a document camera (traditional method) and a computer (technology integration) to demonstrate intentional annotation in science texts and assessments. Participants will engage in simulated classroom experiences, gaining a clear understanding of what effective text analysis with purposeful annotation looks and sounds like, as well as how to facilitate it. Short, manageable science passages will be used to ensure active participation and meaningful discussion. We’ll begin by exploring traditional annotation techniques using the document camera, then transition to digital tools—showing how uploaded texts can be annotated to support 21st-century learners. This hands-on approach will equip participants with practical strategies for blending traditional and modern methods to enhance comprehension and critical thinking in the science disciplines.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session empowers teachers to use intentional annotation (AI) to guide students in navigating grade-level science texts. AI, Please! boosts close reading and comprehension by combining purposeful annotation with practical classroom strategies to elevate science literacy.

SPEAKERS:
Yolanda Williams

Engineering in K-5 classrooms creates rich, authentic opportunities for students to communicate and make meaning. In this hands-on workshop, you will experience an engineering design challenge that optimizes opportunities for language learning and sensemaking. You will discover how engineering can surface students' assets and connect to their community and lived experiences - and how it naturally encourages all students to communicate. We will share tools to support multilingual students that include and go beyond scaffolding. You will then apply these insights to your own work and context by modifying and adapting your existing curriculum materials, or creating your own activities, to amplify opportunities for sensemaking in engineering. This session builds on work done in collaboration with teachers in the San Diego Unified School District as a part of the Elevating Engineering with Multilingual Learners (EEMLs) research project.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to amplify language learning opportunities for all students through engineering! You will leave the workshop with practical tools and strategies to take back to your classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Tanya Warren, Nico Janik

Capture your students’ imagination with a journey into the world of bats! From blood-loving vampires to tiny bumblebee bats and giant flying foxes, this unit explores the science behind these misunderstood creatures while answering the question, “Why should we save bats?” Students dive into science, engineering, math, and literacy activities, learning about bats’ structure, function, and role as keystone species. The session highlights how to use trade books to teach science and literary standards. The culminating activity—a Save the Bats Breakout—immerses teachers in an escape-room style challenge that applies ELA standards, Greek/Latin stems, science, and math. Along the way, students uncover how misconceptions create prejudice and how knowledge empowers them to advocate for positive change. Fly away with a unit full of unforgettable, hands-on learning!

TAKEAWAYS:
This integrated STEAM/Literary unit immerses learners in the fascinating world of bats to explore science, math, engineering, and literacy. Discover how bats function as keystone species, bust myths, and learn how to use argumentation to advocate for this misunderstood creature.

SPEAKERS:
Wendy Wing

Come hear about how our NSF-funded informal science education project inspired bilingual (English/Spanish) 5th–6th grade Latinas and their parents through hands-on rocketry and culturally responsive science learning. This 7-week program, grounded in Family Problem-Based Learning and Community Cultural Wealth, fostered curiosity, confidence, and family engagement in science. Presenters will share key curriculum elements and artifacts from three successful iterations, highlighting strategies that bridge home and school learning. Attendees will participate in two interactive activities. In the first activity, we will design personalized NASA mission patches while exploring their symbolism and history. In the second activity, we will model an activity that celebrates contributions of Latino/a scientists and engineers by designing a social media post. Come ready to create, collaborate, and take home practical ideas to launch inclusive family science experiences in your own community.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how culturally responsive, family-centered rocketry experiences can ignite young Latinas’ curiosity and strengthen science identity through hands-on, bilingual engagement for both students and parents.

SPEAKERS:
Caitlyn Ishaq, Peter Rillero, Margarita Jimenez-Silva

Modeling is everywhere in NGSS, but too often it’s treated as a final product instead of a thinking process. This session reframes modeling as an iterative cycle of develop → revise → predict that makes student sensemaking visible at every stage. Participants will walk through the cycle themselves, starting with initial sketches, updating as evidence is introduced, and ending with predictive models. Alongside their own work, they will examine authentic student examples from lessons on seasons, energy systems, and engineering. To lower barriers, attendees will explore ready-to-use templates and a universal flowchart that help teachers choose the right modeling pathway for a given standard. Grounded in equity and accessibility, this approach ensures that modeling is not reserved for advanced learners, but a core practice that empowers all students to build, test, and refine ideas.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain tools—including modeling templates, prompts, and a decision flowchart—to support equitable student engagement in the complete NGSS modeling cycle.

SPEAKERS:
Reyna Rivera

This workshop will provide participants with strategies, practice, and feedback in writing skill-rich questions and assignments. Skills such as teamwork, critical thinking, and problem solving are important outcomes for STEM courses, but these skills are not always explicitly developed during class time. Research has shown that it is not enough to provide assignments that cause students to USE particular skills; questions and tasks must reveal use of these skills in student written work or group interactions. The ELIPSS project feedback-focused rubrics will be used to support efforts in constructing tasks that support student development of skills. Enhancing Learning by Improving Process Skills in STEM (ELIPSS) is an award winning, NSF-funded project that focuses on the development and assessment of durable skills and the NGSS science and engineering practices.

TAKEAWAYS:
-Evaluate questions for their ability to produce evidence of skills and support their development -Practice strategies for constructing questions in assignments that develop skills such as teamwork and critical thinking -Identify ELIPSS rubrics that support the assessment of these skills

SPEAKERS:
Renee Cole, Juliette Lantz

This workshop equips both middle and high school teachers to use My NASA Data’s Earth System Data Explorer to investigate the Urban Heat Island Effect as a phenomenon for teaching heat transfer and thermodynamics. Participants will work with authentic NASA satellite datasets—land surface temperature, albedo, and vegetation indices—to explore how urban and rural environments differ in absorbing and releasing energy. Case studies from California and North Carolina provide contrasting examples of geography, land cover, and climate, helping participants connect conduction, convection, and radiation to real-world contexts. Educators will leave with NGSS-aligned, classroom-ready lessons and strategies for guiding students in analyzing satellite data, constructing explanations, and applying science concepts to local and global challenges of urbanization and climate resilience.

TAKEAWAYS:
Middle and high school science teachers will gain classroom-ready, phenomena-based lessons using NASA satellite data to investigate Earth’s energy budget, making heat transfer and thermodynamics meaningful through the Urban Heat Island Effect.

SPEAKERS:
Kellyn Hardin, Natalie Macke

Data collection and robotics are accessible, engaging learning experiences, offering ALL students opportunities to explore, engage in hands-on learning, and experience success, using technology-rich devices, while learning essential science processes and concepts. Testing variables, analyzing their effects, and watching a device ‘work’ are positive learning experiences. Attendees will actively engage with a wide range of technology-rich devices and learn how to implement engineering design processes and robotics concepts, providing accessible portals of learning for ALL K-6 students, including ELL’s and special needs learners, as students develop computational and critical thinking skills and become successful, innovative problem solvers. Attendees will learn how to add complexity and rigor to tasks, as students gain skills and understanding. Practical strategies and applications will be explored, maximizing opportunities for equitable, accessible learning for ALL students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to design accessible learning experiences using innovative devices, helping students learn essential science concepts, data collection and analysis, engineering design processes, and robotics, and how to add rigor and complexity as learners gain skills and understanding.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Knoell

Complete a fun, distracted driving hands-on activity and discover award-winning videos and more inquiry-based activities from IIHS’s free Crash Science in the Classroom program. This lesson integrates timely, real-world phenomena — e.g., car crashes, crash-avoidance technologies, and other teen driving issues—so students can see science, engineering, and technology’s influence on society (a NGSS Crosscutting Concept). The scaffolded lesson and website design ensures accessibility and promotes equitable classroom practices through multimodal strategies: high-interest videos, guiding questions, formative assessments, exciting demos, English/Spanish captions, and virtual 3D 360° tours. This lesson offers teachers a high-interest, high-impact way to integrate core STEM concepts and practices, crash science research, and real-world relevance into their classrooms while equipping students with knowledge that could save lives.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants 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 lesson plans, assessments, teacher tips videos, student lab sheets and answer keys.

SPEAKERS:
Pini Kalnite, Griff Jones

Addressing climate change can be challenging. Students are given tools for evaluating information then provided a series of myths about climate change. Using reputable data, they dispel the myths with accurate information and use multiple explanations to understand common misconceptions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students are provided with a checklist to determine if information is accurate on a fictional web page. Through small group discussions, students share their perceptions of accurate data and what it means, then challenged to decide if this information is valid in helping to understand climate change.

SPEAKERS:
Laura Tucker

Students often wonder how the science they learn in class connects to life beyond school. This session tackles that question by showcasing practical strategies for bridging core science instruction with Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways and career applications. Participants will explore how phenomena-driven, three-dimensional science learning naturally aligns with the skills and knowledge used in engineering, health sciences, technology fields, agriculture, and more.

TAKEAWAYS:
Through examples, discussion, and ready-to-use ideas, attendees will discover how to help students see the relevance of scientific thinking in authentic career contexts.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker

Down to Earth is a free program with six design challenge missions using International Space Station (ISS) research to inspire middle schoolers to address real-world environmental challenges. Each mission includes hands-on investigations, engineering design challenges, background information, worksheets, and implementation materials. This session showcases two new missions focused on food science in space. Cosmic Crops explores how NASA's hydroponic systems grow fresh food in microgravity and how these technologies combat food insecurity on Earth. Orbital Eats explores how scientists develop safe, nutritious meals for extreme environments, with applications for food access challenges on Earth. Attendees experience sample activities and design challenges while learning implementation strategies for diverse settings. Activities align with NGSS standards, UN Sustainable Development Goals, and Career and Technical Education pathways. Walk away with ready-to-use resources.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will gain hands-on experience with activities that use ISS food science to engage students in solving local food security challenges, plus free lesson plans, assessment tools, and implementation strategies for connecting space agriculture technology to community-based action.

SPEAKERS:
Sandra Roberts

Indigenous practices of sustainability provide powerful entry points for teaching K–12 students about climate change. These traditions emphasize long-term relationships with the land, cycles of renewal, and reciprocity between people and ecosystems. By examining practices such as seasonal harvesting, controlled burns, rotational planting, and respect for biodiversity, students see concrete examples of how communities have lived in balance with their environments for generations. These practices highlight the importance of observing natural patterns, valuing interdependence, and considering the impact of decisions on future generations. In the classroom, Indigenous perspectives can help students move beyond seeing climate change as abstract science toward understanding it as a lived reality that requires responsibility and care. This approach not only deepens ecological literacy but also encourages students to think critically about sustainability solutions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how Indigenous sustainability practices can enrich climate change teaching, gaining practical strategies supported by handouts and classroom case studies to integrate cultural and scientific perspectives into K–12 learning.

SPEAKERS:
Alexandra Chester, Jordan Kobielus, Jim McDonald

Learn how your eyes perceive light and color from your phone’s screen. Join us as we investigate how your eye–brain system sees your phone through fun, content-rich, easy-to-do, NGSS-aligned hands-on activities from the Exploratorium Teacher Institute. All materials are designed to be effective, inexpensive, and easily obtainable. The Exploratorium is a hands-on science museum located in San Francisco, CA. The Teacher Institute has been a home for professional development for teachers since 1984.

TAKEAWAYS:
The technology in your phone is based on how your eye–brain system perceives the world. We’ll explore how various wavelengths of light (PS4.B) interact with specialized cells in your eye (LS1.A) and influence the engineering and technology (ETS1.A) of your phones' display (PS4.C).

SPEAKERS:
Desiré Whitmore, Eric Muller

Harness the power of the Infinity Stones to teach the rock cycle! Each stone represents a rock type (igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic), and students journey through Earth processes in Marvel-themed stations and comic-style CER writing. This geology unit blends superheroes, hands-on modeling, and NGSS-based Earth science.

TAKEAWAYS:
Walk away with an NGSS-aligned, Marvel-themed rock cycle unit that makes geology unforgettable and fun.

SPEAKERS:
Ricardo Padilla

Data sensemaking is the process by which students explore, analyze and interpret data as they seek to make sense of science phenomena (Griffith et al. 2026, in press). It is central to students’ ability to think critically, draw evidence-based conclusions, and engage in authentic science practices. In this workshop, participants will unpack what data sensemaking practices (e.g., interpret patterns in context) are and how they were designed to enhance students’ SEP 2, 4, 5, and 6 skills. We will explore various strategies (e.g., Hypothesis Array), in the context of real-word climate data and freely available lesson plans and resources, to broaden participants' toolkits for integrating data into their own curricula. Through hands-on learning with data, small-group collaboration, and whole-group reflection, participants will gain strategies for increasing students’ data skills and leave equipped with free, research-based resources to bring authentic data sensemaking into their classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn research-based data sensemaking practices and strategies, experience them with real-world climate data, and explore Data Puzzles lessons and Puzzle Piece resources they can adapt to strengthen NGSS-aligned data use in their own classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Bridget Walsh, Kristin Hunter-Thomson, Annette Brickley

This session will highlight activities that we have done K-5 to weave science lessons with math and ELA standards to make sure all subjects get the time they deserve. They also use real world experiences to make the ideas tangible and relatable for students. The presentations will include background information of how we narrowed down the standards taught, and how we developed the lessons. THen participants will get to try out some of the activities and walk away with lesson plans and worksheets .

TAKEAWAYS:
Science lessons easily incorporates ELA and Math standards, so why not write your lessons this way? Making science an interdisciplinary study allows students to use their lessons in a new and meaningful way, and allows teachers to hit all their standards in a reasonable amount of time!

SPEAKERS:
Samantha Levine

This session focuses on a NSTA and Johns Hopkins University lesson, connecting the ocean exploration and marine technology expertise of Dr. James Bellingham, author of How Are Marine Robotics Shaping Our Future?, to the classroom. Participants will explore how the lesson fosters student sensemaking.

TAKEAWAYS:
The Johns Hopkins Wavelengths lesson explored in the session provides opportunities for secondary students to use physical science ideas to explain how marine technologies aid in seafloor mapping.

SPEAKERS:
Jim Bellingham, Patrice Scinta

Helping students make sense of the natural world is at the heart of science teaching. This session explores how thinking strategies make student reasoning visible and serve as powerful assessment tools. Participants will see examples from 7th- and 8th-grade classrooms where students use prompts and data to explain Earth and chemical processes, including a local water quality study that connects chemistry, geography, and human impact on ecosystems. These strategies help students explain ideas clearly, test them with evidence, and revise their understanding as they connect scientific concepts to real-world systems. They also support diverse learners, including multilingual, neurodivergent, and differently engaged students, by offering multiple ways to represent and share their thinking. Teachers can use this evidence to assess both understanding and process as all students engage in authentic scientific sensemaking.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn how to use thinking strategies as assessment tools to make student reasoning visible, support diverse learners, and deepen understanding through authentic, evidence-based scientific sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Lara Kossiakoff

Ever wish Mark Rober could co-teach your class? This session shows how Class CrunchLabs uses video, voice, and story to spark curiosity and launch rigorous learning. We will break down how to introduce a storyline, use Mark’s videos as authentic investigation starters, and weave hands-on challenges through episodes of science and engineering. You will also get a peek behind the scenes at how the team builds each unit to help students explain ‘the how’ after experiencing ‘the wow.’ Optional bonus: watermelon smashing included.

TAKEAWAYS:
See how NGSS storylines, teacher supports, and Mark Rober’s videos work together to launch engaging science units that get students asking questions and thinking like scientists from day one.

SPEAKERS:
DeAnna Lee Rivers, Spencer Martin

Reach that hard-to-address uneven distribution of mineral resources standard head on with an innovative Catan-style game! Students will learn as they trade and build. Add some mineral play and songs for all-around fun!

TAKEAWAYS:
Minerals are everywhere around us and their use impacts us in a personal way as well as socially and economically.

SPEAKERS:
Jen Taylor

This session features an 8th grade unit designed to connect science learning with students' local community. Anchored in the importance of biodiversity for humans and other species to thrive, the storyline invites students to ask what impact access to nature and biodiversity has on our mental health and how can we make biodiversity accessible to everyone? Participants will engage in selected lessons that show how teachers can launch learning with student questions and investigations that ultimately build toward understanding of the influence of environmental conditions on trait frequencies and the importance of green space corridors to serve as wildlife bridges for species. Effective field experiences inspire students to take action and implement design solutions in their community that expand the benefits of biodiversity and ecosystem services, illustrating how careful classroom design can link three-dimensional science learning with meaningful opportunities for action.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use the phenomenon of biodiversity impacting mental health to engage students in rigorous, three-dimensional science learning while highlighting the power of community partnerships and field experiences to inspire students to explore local solutions and enact change.

SPEAKERS:
Brian Learn, Diana Tafoya, Jeremiah Potter, Graham Montgomery

If the idea of integrating computational thinking (CT) feels overwhelming, this workshop is for you! Together, we’ll demystify CT and explore strategies to bring it to life in your classroom. Through hands-on activities—both plugged and unplugged—and practical examples, you’ll discover how CT can spark problem-solving and creativity across subjects, not just computer science.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will walk away with a clearer understanding of what computational thinking entails and practical strategies to make this 21st-century skill accessible to all students.

SPEAKERS:
Bo Yu, Yishan Lee

In this session, we will integrate science with language arts to share hands-on activities about observable patterns in space, including the sun, moon, and stars. The activities address NGSS progressions for elementary space standards. Several children’s books and language arts strategies will be shared. Integrating science and language arts provides students an opportunity “to develop reading and writing skills and to apply comprehension strategies while simultaneously learning about science concepts and processes” (Clark & Lott, 2017, p. 702). Attendees will leave with strategies that integrate science with the six language arts: reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and visually representing. Please join us for an out of this world experience!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with strategies that integrate science with the six language arts: reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and visually representing.

SPEAKERS:
Sandra Lampley, Frances Hamilton

Overwhelmed by OpenSciEd? We were too! Come hear real (sometimes reluctant) teachers share what we’ve learned so far about the transition to a fully OpenSciEd curriculum. We will share practical tips to make Open SciEd easier for newbies, our experiences for a district planning the transition, and how we approached modifications for ELL, Special Ed and substitutes in our classrooms. We will also discuss best practices for scientist circles, notebooks, assessments and progress trackers. Come find that you are not alone in the transition.

TAKEAWAYS:
Practical ideas for implementation of OpenSciEd across middle school grades from real teachers who had to do it.

SPEAKERS:
Jayne Coughlin, Melissa Thomas, Samantha Genier

The session will focus on the shift from traditional instruction to three-dimensional, phenomenon-based teaching. Participants will explore how students learn better with phenomena that stimulate student questions and a storyline where each lesson builds on what students have learned in earlier lessons and sets the stage for learning in later lessons. Participants will review examples of anchor phenomena and review a storyline to see how investigative phenomena can be used to support student collection of evidence to answer their questions about the anchor phenomena. We will emphasize having students construct explanations and develop models of phenomena to gather insights into student thinking. Finally, participants will learn a process of developing a phenomenon-based storyline. Through this process, they can see how a coherent storyline can be developed to address all three dimensions, leading to greater student engagement, and fostering a more equitable learning environment.

TAKEAWAYS:
How having students make sense of phenomena leads to greater engagement and better understanding.

SPEAKERS:
Ted Willard

How can a toy chicken spark wonder, ignite curiosity, and anchor deep scientific sensemaking? In this interactive hands-on workshop, participants will experience how every day objects can be transformed into powerful phenomena that hook students in authentic STEM explorations. Aligned with NGSS and guided by the 5E instructional model, we will facilitate an inquiry sequence beginning with a toy chicken that chirps when a circuit is completed. Next, participants will engage in guided exploration, questioning, and sensemaking to uncover which materials conduct electricity, compare similar phenomena, and build conceptual understanding of circuits. The learning cycle concludes with an integrated STEM challenge that connects the science concepts to the children’s book, Lion Lights by Richard Turere, applies computer science through micro:bits and coding, and explores engineering design to solve real world problems using knowledge of electrical circuits.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore how everyday phenomena can spark curiosity and support sensemaking using the 5E model. Through hands-on science, literacy, computer science, and engineering activities, attendees gain ready-to-use strategies, resources, and assessments for classroom integration.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Ponder, Amanda Cramer

This session will give participants a Birdseye view of how to use PhET SIMS in their science and math classroom to enhance conceptualization of concepts. We will go from just using worksheets with PhET to using PhET to have whole class discussion, create clicker questions and engage students in explorations.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with a better understanding of how to implement PHet into their classroom using various strategies.

SPEAKERS:
Cecelia Gillam

“Doing science” requires students to participate in science practices to figure out phenomena, like analyzing and interpreting data, and engaging in argument from evidence. However, these practices involve students “using language” as they make sense of the natural world. For multilingual learners, this is especially difficult when instruction is often presented or expected in English. In this session, we introduce a list of strategies to help consider how to adapt instructional materials to support multilingual learners in “using language(s) and doing science.” Participants will analyze classroom video from an 8th-grade chemical reactions lesson and a 4th-grade Earth processes lesson. Participants will reflect and unpack how the instructional strategies can be used to support multilingual learners in figuring out phenomena, while expanding what counts as sensemaking in science. Then, participants will reflect on and share how they can apply the strategies in their instruction.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will walk away with a set of instructional strategies to notice, support, and engage with multilingual learners in science and engineering practices to explain a phenomenon.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Gomez Zwiep, Samuel Lee

What is the impact of having a dog park in your community? In this hands-on session, participants explore the chemistry of runoff from dog parks and how excessive phosphates from dog waste can disrupt ecosystems and contribute to water pollution. Participants will test soil samples for phosphate levels and use the data to design eco-friendly dog parks that minimize the impact of dog parks on the local community. Learn how phosphate buildup leads to problems like algal blooms and eutrophication. Copies of lessons are provided.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore the chemistry of runoff from dog parks and how phosphates from dog waste can disrupt ecosystems and contribute to water pollution. Participants will apply analytical skills to measure soil chemistry and use the data to design eco-friendly dog parks.

SPEAKERS:
Cameron Good, Madeline Stallard, M. Gail Jones

Led by NSTA Early Childhood-Elementary Committee members, the session addresses the relationship between the NSTA book series and natural phenomena, providing an interactive platform for educators to discover how this series of books can support & enhance SEPs in the classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore the integration of this series with science and engineering practices through cross-disciplinary connections and hands-on activities. Resources provided.

SPEAKERS:
Simone Nance, Anne Lowry, Melissa Parks, Jennifer Williams

Wildfires severely impact soil through physical, chemical, and biological changes. Physically, they destroy protective vegetation, causing immediate erosion, mudslides, and the formation of water-repellent hydrophobic soil. Chemically, fire releases some nutrients but removes vital nitrogen, leading to long-term soil deficiencies and disrupting the nutrient cycle. Biologically, intense heat kills critical microbial communities and beneficial fungi, slowing post-fire recovery for years. This science is translated into 3-D (DCI-SEP-CCC) aligned learning opportunities, including investigations in soil chemistry, microbiology, and physical properties. Climate change has made wildfires a personal issue for so many students, and therefore, culturally relevant pedagogies are addressed within the workshop and materials. All workshop materials will be freely available.

TAKEAWAYS:
Wildfires cause severe physical, chemical, and biological soil damage, leading to erosion, nutrient loss (nitrogen), and microbial death. This workshop will share freely available, and 3-D NGSS-aligned investigations that engage students in the science and issues related to wildfires.

SPEAKERS:
Margaret Holzer

Children are natural wonderers—always noticing, questioning, and imagining. This session explores how natural phenomena can spark curiosity and serve as a powerful provocation for learning. Through crosscutting concepts such as patterns, cause and effect, and structure and function, we will discover how nature inspires inquiry, reimagines how we live and learn, and opens engaging opportunities for children to explore science with joy and wonder.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover how nature transforms science from abstract ideas into real, hands-on experiences making rich, interdisciplinary connections while sparking curiosity and deep, authentic learning.

SPEAKERS:
Christie Wylie

In this hands-on 120-minute workshop, participants will engage in the design and implementation of data-enabled POGIL (Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning) modules using a no-code to low-code tool, such as CODAP (Common Online Data Analysis Platform), that lowers the barrier to data analysis. These modules are interdisciplinary, culturally relevant and foster natural collaboration around real-world, high social-impact challenges that intersect with science, specifically geosciences, food and water systems, environmental science and health disparities; this aligns well with the conference strand #Trending in Data Science Education. Participants of this workshop will be trained in POGIL and CODAP and will be provided with instruction materials to enable them to deliver data-centric content. Expected outcomes in students include: increased engagement, data analytic skill development and empowerment through action. This workshop material was created through NSF grant #2304100.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will receive training in both the pedagogical approach of POGIL and the technical application of CODAP. This will prepare them to help their students develop the knowledge and skills necessary to work with and learn from data.

SPEAKERS:
Earvin Balderama, Marc Boumedine, Ravanasamudram Uma

Using the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer 2010, attendees will integrate the story with the concepts of energy and basic circuits (PS3.A: DEFINITIONS OF ENERGY). This literary piece focuses on one young man’s quest to build a wind mill to pump water, light two small light bulbs, and power the family’s radio. Attendees will utilize small windmills to convert the mechanical energy of the windmill to light a small light bulb and lift a small mass.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will receive a 5 E learning cycle, linked to English standards, Common Core Math Standards and NGSS as well as the instructions for 3 D printing a Simple Windmill, wires a bulb holder and small bulb.

SPEAKERS:
Jan Mader, Elizabeth (Tommi) Holsenbeck

When students approach complicated science issues through multiple disciplines, they gain the depth needed to find meaningful solutions. Using the 19th century forced diaspora of Native Americans and its lasting impact on the Great Lakes watershed as a lens for understanding today’s environmental challenges. For thousands of years, Native peoples were wise stewards of North America’s waters, protecting ecosystems of great richness. In contrast, non-Native settlement and declared ownership brought devastating consequences—rivers that caught fire, freshwater seas declared “dead,” the evaporation of saltwater lakes, and the collapse of the Colorado River basin. Today, Native communities, such as the Water Walkers, are leading efforts to heal these waters and inspire change. Through storytelling, music, science, writing, and debate, attendees will experience strategies they can take back to their classrooms—helping students imagine, collaborate, and act as responsible stewards of water.

TAKEAWAYS:
Addressing complex environmental issues requires integrated teaching connecting multiple disciplines. Presenters will show how integrating learning helps students make connections, understand complexity, and develop thoughtful, real-world solutions.

SPEAKERS:
Deborah Draper

Engaging students in real world science is an important first step in three-dimensional science instruction, but what do you do with phenomena once students are hooked? In this session, we look at the next steps of learning through phenomena, getting students to ask questions, collect evidence, and make meaning using claim, evidence, and reasoning. Attendees will dive into what makes a good phenomenon, eliciting questions from students, and how to structure instruction to guide students through the CER process. They will leave with strategies for creating a true 3D environment and graphic organizers to help them on their way.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to build true NGSS learning off of strong phenomena, taking the "next steps" in thinking like real scientists.

SPEAKERS:
Obie Martin

What does brain science tell us about how students learn—and how can we design classrooms where all learners thrive? In this interactive session, participants will experience an explore-before-explain lesson and directly connect it to how the brain processes and retains science learning. We’ll examine a redesigned workshop model that blends the 5E framework, student discourse, and equitable practices, all grounded in the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs). This workshop is ideal for teachers and leaders working with diverse populations who want strategies to help every student make sense of science and remember it long-term.

TAKEAWAYS:
Science learning lasts when instruction aligns with how the brain works—engaging the frontal and parietal lobes through exploration, discourse, and purposeful lesson sequencing. Participants will leave with a 5E workshop model and strategies to turn learning into lasting understanding for students.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Rolater, Pam McWilliams

Interested in building a successful science fair for your classroom or school? Want to host a science fair that inspires students, engages families, and strengthens your schools science program with hands on learning and discovery? This session offers a practical roadmap for organizing a science fair at your school- whether you are starting from scratch or revitalizing an existing program. You'll walk away with judging rubics, timelines, templates and communication strategies that have been tested and proven. We'll explore ways to promote equity and access, foster student ownership of projects and align with NGSS and Ohio state standards, and science and engineering practices. Ideal for teachers, STEM coordinators and administrators.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn the essential components and timeline of planning a science fair, gain access to ready to use templates, rubrics, parent/student communications, explore strategies to ensure inclusivity and student engagement and understand how to align science fairs with standards.

SPEAKERS:
Kimberly Pittman, Christina Jandrokovic

This session showcases how a single anchoring agricultural phenomenon can launch and sustain a coherent storyline across a unit. Participants will experience a sample lesson from a high-quality genetics unit, focusing on a phenomenon of the influence of genetics and environment on cattle growth over time. Activities include observation of an agricultural phenomenon, modeling predictions, and developing a Driving Question Board. Teachers will reflect on how anchoring phenomena can be used in their own classrooms and receive a one-page snapshot mapping the phenomenon to NGSS dimensions and teacher moves.

TAKEAWAYS:
Anchoring phenomena rooted in agriculture topics can spark curiosity and drive coherence across lessons.

SPEAKERS:
Angela Gulotta

Discover how the 2025 and 2026 Best STEM Books were selected and explore practical ways to bring them into your classroom. This session will highlight the award criteria, selection process, and the unique power of STEM-rich literature to spark curiosity and critical thinking. Attendees will gain strategies for connecting books to the science and engineering practices (SEPs), along with concrete examples of classroom projects and activities inspired by specific titles from the recent award lists. Whether you are new to STEM literature or already use it in your teaching, you will leave with fresh ideas and ready to use projects that link literacy and STEM learning in meaningful ways

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to integrate the 2025 and 2026 Best STEM Books into their classrooms by connecting them to science and engineering practices and adapting sample projects that make STEM learning meaningful, engaging, and literacy-rich.

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Parks, Simone Nance, Katie Morrison, J Carrie Launius, Jennifer Williams

Ditch the workbooks, coloring pages, and foldables! Discover how sensemaking notebooks can transform your K–5 science lessons into powerful tools for learning. In this session, you’ll explore how to help students document their thinking, analyze data, and build literacy while strengthening their 3-dimensional understanding of NGSS. Together, we’ll tackle key questions: What should an elementary science notebook look like? What belongs inside? How do we guide students to record observations, explain their reasoning, and make sense of phenomena? You’ll see examples of how notebooks support the Science and Engineering Practices, integrate writing and drawing, and provide a window into student thinking. Sensemaking notebooks give you the flexibility to adapt to your teaching style and your students’ needs—all while centering the four essences that drive meaningful, lasting learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will walk away with clear strategies and examples for designing flexible sensemaking notebooks that help K–5 students record observations, explain reasoning, analyze data, and connect literacy with 3D NGSS learning—making science meaningful and accessible for all learners.

SPEAKERS:
Lesley Gates

Bring ecosystems to life with “Ecosystem in an Envelope,” an interactive, NGSS-aligned lesson that turns students into ecologists. Designed as an anchoring phenomenon for ecology units, this activity engages learners in analyzing real ecosystems from around the world to explore how biotic and abiotic factors interact to shape stability and change. Participants will experience how students model ecosystems, apply data analysis and argumentation, and use sensemaking to explain energy flow and matter cycling. Leave with classroom-ready strategies that make ecology engaging, evidence-based, and memorable.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover how to use “Ecosystem in an Envelope” as an NGSS-aligned anchoring phenomenon to help students model real ecosystems, analyze interactions among biotic and abiotic factors, and use data and argumentation to explain energy flow and matter cycling.

SPEAKERS:
Shane E Raggio

This workshop tackles the challenge of preparing students for future career success by adopting a backward design approach. We will demonstrate how early, intentional exposure to career fields—starting in the elementary grades—can mitigate the narrowing of student choices that typically begins in middle school. Participants will learn how to select and design Project- or Problem-Based Learning (PBL) units that align with real-world phenomena and connect to the core competencies outlined in the state's pathways. Key strategies will include mapping existing science standards to relevant career clusters and developing AI-supported systems to support student success.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave equipped to use backward design and equitable project-based learning to intentionally align K–5 STEM instruction with future career pathways, ensuring daily classroom experiences connect real-world phenomena to long-term student awareness and success.

SPEAKERS:
Annette Larson

In this interactive session, we will explore the transformative power of science notebooks as a versatile tool for engaging and empowering ELs and high-needs students in science education. Unlike traditional one-size-fits-all approaches, science notebooks can be tailored to meet the unique needs and learning styles of diverse students. Participants will learn how to effectively implement science notebooks, allowing students to take ownership of their learning, build their own science resources, and foster creativity. We will delve into strategies for differentiation, language support, and fostering a safe and inclusive learning environment. Key Topics Covered: - Customizing Science Notebooks: Moving beyond rigid templates to empower student creativity. - Hands-Off Teaching: Allowing students to work through problems and build their own science resources. - Differentiation: Providing translated notes, vocabulary support, and drawing aids for ELs and high-needs students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Empower ELs and high-needs students by embracing flexible science notebooks, fostering creativity, and promoting inclusivity in science education.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth Warren

Speaker will help attendees grasp the vast scientific concepts and exploration opportunities that comprise the young child’s everyday world. She will actively engage attendees with explorations and discourse, and offer strategies and ideas teachers can implement, to set up Science and STEM explorations and simple engineering problems for young children that support NGSS. She will discuss the importance of nurturing a child’s natural curiosity and will offer strategies to help children develop their observation and thinking skills. She will emphasize the importance of engaging young children in manipulation of objects and materials so they can recognize the effects of their actions. She will offer strategies to help children develop their science vocabulary. She will model how instruction that starts with children’s questions and provides rich opportunities for exploration and investigation is the most engaging way to introduce and teach science concepts to young children. 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

Experience how LabXchange’s interactive lab simulations can elevate middle school teaching and learning. In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn how to navigate the LabXchange platform, exploring a variety of virtual lab simulations such as photosynthesis, osmosis, cellular respiration, and using a light microscope. LabXchange simulations encompass the scientific method—from predictions and protocol, to analysis and reflection—all while providing real-time hints and feedback for students. Discover how inquiry-based virtual labs can foster a deeper understanding of science topics, strengthen curiosity, and develop critical skills in a no-cost, safe online environment. Participants will leave with ready-to-use educator resources and new strategies for facilitating science learning in both in-person and virtual settings. Note: Participants should bring a device with Wi-Fi capabilities to actively participate.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover how LabXchange’s free interactive lab simulations can make science learning accessible and engaging to enhance your middle school classroom experience, no matter your budget, time, or experience.

SPEAKERS:
Paul Schwein, Angela Campbell

TryEngineering is a collection of resources developed by the members of IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional association, committed to inspiring the next generation of engineers and technologists. During this session, you will learn how to introduce elementary students to the engineering design process with fun challenges and low cost materials. We will complete an engineering design challenge during this session and share resources to help you bring engineering to your classroom. Engineering habits of mind are important for all children to learn, as they foster creativity, resiliency and problem solving. As a public charity, all of TryEngineering’s resources are free to everyone. Come to the session and learn more!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how beneficial engineering design challenges can be for students, and how easy it is to implement them with TryEngineering resources, available at no cost at tryengineering.org.

SPEAKERS:
Debra Gulick

This session bridges the Science of Reading and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) to help educators design interdisciplinary learning that builds strong readers and critical thinkers. Participants will explore how the five essential components of reading—phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension integrate into the NGSS science and engineering practices when viewed through the STEM4Real Connect, Create, Cultivate Framework. Using this framework, attendees will learn how to connect foundational literacy with real-world scientific phenomena, create lessons that engage students in discourse and evidence-based reasoning, and cultivate a culture of language-rich, inquiry-based classrooms. Through hands-on examples and model lessons, educators will discover how to leverage NGSS to reinforce reading comprehension and vocabulary development without replacing existing curricula. Leave with a curriculum-agnostic lesson that supports reading, literacy and STEM.

TAKEAWAYS:
Walk away with a practical, culturally-responsive and adaptable learning sequence aligned to the Science of Reading and NGSS that strengthens literacy, builds background knowledge, and supports all learners; regardless of curriculum or grade level.

SPEAKERS:
Leena McLean

Rubin Observatory is a major public US observatory funded by the NSF and the DOE. Educational materials are freely available to all under a Creative Commons license. “Exploding Stars” is an interactive, classroom-ready, online lesson that uses real data. Designed to support the NGSS, it includes an investigative phenomenon, teacher guide, presentation slides, videos, and a variety of three-dimensional assessments and scoring guides. The investigation encourages student sensemaking as they progress from their initial ideas by integrating science practices and ideas such as analyzing data and using models and mathematical relationships to discover how supernovae can be used to measure distances in space. During the workshop we will explore the phenomenon and investigation, role-playing both teacher and student perspectives. Active learning strategies for formative and summative assessment will include think-pair-share, using a Driving Question Board, and whiteboarding.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to implement the Exploding Stars investigation and phenomenon designed to support sensemaking and 3D learning, and explore formative and summative assessment strategies that support inclusive techniques for building student data literacy skills.

SPEAKERS:
Ardis Herrold

Have your students take ownership of their learning while strengthening their scientific reasoning by using interactive notebooks. They are a powerful tool for sensemaking, modeling, and tracking growth throughout the year. In this session, you’ll discover how to design and assess notebooks that go beyond simple note-taking. Learn strategies for incorporating activities such as CER writing, card sorts, graphic organizers, and models that help students organize their thinking and make connections. You’ll walk away with practical resources, classroom-ready ideas, and assessment tools to support engagement, accountability, and long-term learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to design and assess interactive notebooks using practical strategies and resources that support student sensemaking, engagement, and growth tracking.

SPEAKERS:
Kyla Glasser

Culturally relevant teaching begins with the tasks we design. In this workshop, participants will learn how to unpack and redesign STEM standards that validate culturally acquired knowledge, which affirms every learner’s cultural identity. Guided by the presenter’s Justice Centered Task Framework, the presenter will model how to transform traditional standards into inclusive, high-cognitive-demand tasks that connect rigorous content with students’ cultural experiences. Grounded in research and real classroom experiences, this session equips educators with practical tools to create STEM classrooms where generational currency drives engagement and deep learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn a process for unpacking and designing STEM tasks to embed culturally acquired knowledge and create tasks that affirm identity, promote agency, and sustain rigorous learning for all students.

SPEAKERS:
Sherita Flake

Teachers seek ways to make learning more meaningful, relevant, and rigorous. We will share a practice-based approach that supports teachers in leveraging students’ cultural resources, such as community knowledge, lived experiences, and local practices, to deepen understanding of the three dimensions of scientific knowledge: disciplinary ideas (DCIs), scientific practices (SEPs) and crosscutting concepts (CCCs). Using classroom-tested frameworks and examples from diverse settings, participants explore how integrating cultural resources serve as powerful vehicles to promote sensemaking and engagement. Teachers will engage with anchoring phenomena, student artifacts, and instructional routines to experience how to weave cultural resources into the three-dimensional design of a unit. Teachers will leave with tools, planning templates, and concrete strategies for implementing instruction that honors students’ identities and enhances mastery of the three dimensions of scientific knowledge.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn how to adapt lessons so that students’ cultural and community knowledge becomes an asset for driving investigations, constructing explanations, and developing disciplinary understanding.

SPEAKERS:
Clausell Mathis, Joseph Krajcik

Engage. Inspire. Innovate! Join us for an interactive session filled with teaching ideas, make-and-take science tools, and creative strategies to make learning exciting and accessible for all students. We are the National STEM Scholar Program (NSS), a group of middle school science teachers from around the U.S who have created and implemented Challenge Projects in our schools to advance science education, strengthen scientific literacy, connect learning to real-world problems, and inspire the next generation. Funded by the National Stem Cell Foundation, the NSS Program selects ten middle school teachers each year from across the US to participate in innovative professional development while networking with each other. At this Share-a-thon, Scholars will showcase their projects, complete with curriculum, classroom resources, and results. Come discover fresh ideas, gather hands-on tools, and connect with fellow science educators from across the country!

TAKEAWAYS:
Come discover new ideas, lessons and effective real-world projects that you can use in your middle school classroom while networking with other middle school science teachers.

SPEAKERS:
Tracy Vassiliev, Rico Tyler, Aprille' Morris-Butler, Kerrie McDaniel, Lalita Khemka, Jo Slavitz, Renae Lewis, Alexandria Wicker, Melanie Hardy

Model organisms may be small, but they’ve unlocked some of science’s biggest discoveries—from genetics to epigenetics and beyond. In this engaging session, explore five model organisms and discover how they can bring authentic science into your classroom. Participants will examine real-life research examples, engage in hands-on demonstrations, and walk away with free resources to adapt for their own teaching. Learn how model organisms connect directly to NGSS practices, inspire curiosity, and show students how scientists investigate questions that impact human health.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with resources and strategies to use model organisms as powerful tools for teaching genetics, epigenetics, and the nature of science in engaging, NGSS-aligned ways.

SPEAKERS:
Cory Kavanagh

Step into the role of a CSI to experience how science can be applied in a real-world investigation. Participants will collect, document, and analyze evidence as they work to solve a simulated crime scene, practicing the same skills their students will use in class. See how storytelling, collaboration, and problem-solving increase engagement and deepen understanding. Participants will gain access to a shared Google Drive with ready-to-use documents and resources, making it easy to replicate these activities in their own classrooms. Teachers will leave with practical strategies to create immersive learning environments such as a body farm, blood spatter chamber, and outdoor crime scenes with limited resources. This session demonstrates how to transform classroom content into engaging, real-world applications that align with best practices and standards, while challenging students to think critically, apply scientific knowledge, and arrive at valid conclusions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to create an interactive learning environment where students act as CSI's to collect evidence, document evidence and analyze evidence and will be able to create these learning environments with limited resources and no additional training required.

SPEAKERS:
Lori Barber

Reading science text can be challenging for students, especially for those who are learning English. Join us for a hands-on learning experience where we will model and discuss evidence-based reading strategies that elicit and leverage students' prior knowledge, lived experiences, and language skills to increase comprehension of complex science ideas.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be able to implement reading comprehension strategies that support multilingual students in reading complex science texts.

SPEAKERS:
Claudio Vargas, Diana Velez

Tracking hurricanes and typhoons offers a powerful way to engage students with the three dimensions of NGSS while exploring real-world climate science. In this session, participants will learn how to use the WUnderground website to monitor global storm development and movement. As they analyze real-time data, students will begin to formulate questions and engage in meaningful discussions about atmospheric processes, climate, and human-environment interactions. This approach promotes scientific practices such as data interpretation, modeling, and evidence-based reasoning. At the same time, it connects disciplinary core ideas in the ESS standards to crosscutting concepts like patterns and cause-and-effect. Teachers will gain strategies for integrating these tools into inquiry-based lessons that make complex phenomena accessible, relevant, and engaging for all learners. Ready-to-use lessons will include options for various grades and classroom situations.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore inquiry-based lessons focused on the phenomenon of global storms as a method to explore Earth’s systems.

SPEAKERS:
Shefali Mehta

Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers bring powerful real-world expertise, but too often, their work sits apart from core science instruction. This session focuses on putting PLCs together so teachers from science and CTE can strategically align units with their disciplines, creating opportunities for authentic, applied learning that benefits both students and teachers. Participants will explore a framework for identifying natural connections between NGSS science domains and CTE pathways, such as welding with physical science, health careers with life science, agriculture with earth and environmental science, and engineering with physical and mathematical modeling. Attendees will learn how collaborative planning between science and CTE educators can result in lessons and projects that meaningfully incorporate scientific ideas and technical applications.

TAKEAWAYS:
Through examples, planning tools, and shared experiences, participants will leave with strategies for matching CTE expertise to the science content where it naturally fits and designing instruction that blends scientific sensemaking with hands-on technical skills.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker

When I began my teaching career in 2005, I was struggling to explain how to create the chemical formulas for ionic compounds to my students. In return, my students struggled to write the chemical formulas for various ionic compounds. Until it hit me...teach them how to DANCE!!! The "Ionic Compound Dance" was born out of determination to create an engaging lesson on teaching students how to write the chemical formulas for ionic compounds utilizing the learning styles of all students in the chemistry classroom. Learn how to DANCE...The "Ionic Compound Dance" method.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use the "Ionic Compound Dance" to effectively teach writing chemical formulas for ionic compounds to all learners from special needs to gifted/talented students across all disciplines of middle school science to AP Chemistry and beyond.

SPEAKERS:
Nichole DePaul

Our fingers help us play instruments, game, communicate, and hold our favorite beverage. How do fingers function when they have no muscles? Using this relatable, everyday phenomenon, students explore the structure and function (DCI LS1.A) of fingers by sharing their own experiences with how they use their fingers in everyday life, asking questions to explain the phenomenon, digging into the histology of the different tissues that make up the parts of the finger, and developing and using models (SEP) to explain their findings. Intentional engagement which encourages students to share their personal experiences as they relate to their own cultural and linguistic norms, including translanguaging, will be explored and modeled. Alternative activities are provided for classrooms that do not have access to microscopes or the needed histology slides. Attendees will participate in the student experience. This lesson is structured to align with NGSS Performance Expectation HS-LS1-2.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be provided with a hand-on experience and lesson plan to explore the structure and function of the fingers. We will use the pillars of sensemaking to study histology. This lesson is relevant to those who teach Anatomy & Physiology.

SPEAKERS:
Sophia Garcia

How might we build equitable and cohesive classroom communities with Ubuntu pedagogy? Ubuntu pedagogy is grounded in the African philosophy of Ubuntu, meaning “humanity to others” in Bantu. It is a transformative decolonial approach that emphasizes social justice, equity, inclusion, and our shared humanity. In this workshop, we will examine the implications of individualism in our communities and share real-world strategies of how we infused Ubuntu pedagogy into classroom practices. Participants will critically examine their practices and brainstorm collaboratively to create learning environments that are supportive, inclusive, and empowering for all students. Participants will walk away with a toolkit of activities and strategies to kickstart Ubuntu pedagogy into their practice and to turn key within their school communities.

TAKEAWAYS:
If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. Learning is not an individual pursuit, but a collective journey. Explore Ubuntu Pedagogy to empower classroom communities, ensuring that every student’s growth is tied to the community’s success.

SPEAKERS:
Amanda Spadaro, Alvis Wilson, Kernita Mwalumogo, Ellie Williamson

This one-hour workshop is designed for secondary science educators in middle and high schools. Participants will learn about the significance of probing questions—open-ended inquiries that encourage deeper thinking and discussion among students. The session will begin with an introduction to the foundational concepts of probing questions and their role in transforming traditional instructional methods into more engaging, student-centered experiences. Through the lens of current educational research, including studies on active recall and cognitive load theory, attendees will explore the neurological impact of inquiry-based learning. Participants will gain insights into how probing questions enhance memory retention and strengthen neural connections, aligning with the NSTA's commitment to science literacy and evidence-based practices.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn to use probing questions in secondary science education to boost student engagement and critical thinking. The workshop will share strategies for a question-rich classroom and highlight the benefits of inquiry-based learning for fostering curiosity and lifelong learning.

SPEAKERS:
Katherine Meraz, Dominic Ramos

Do your students forget the notes they just took? Students love to sketchnote in science! Come learn how visual note taking leads to deep processing and retention of content. Editable templates will be provided. This hands on session provides you with a mini workbook to practice making visual notes. This session is for 6-12th grade teachers.

TAKEAWAYS:
How to greatly increase student processing using templates and a new strategy of sense making called Sketchnotes.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Weibert

Science texts are central to instruction, yet many students—especially multilingual learners and those with IEPs—struggle to access them. Curricula often provide texts without guidance for supporting comprehension. This interactive workshop addresses that challenge by leveraging insights from the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and aligning with the NRC Framework for K–12 Science Education and the NGSS Science and Engineering Practice of Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information. Participants will engage in a model literacy-rich science experience, then apply strategies to spot text barriers, analyze vocabulary demands (focusing on Tier 2 words), and plan scaffolds to support all students. Leave with practical tools to adapt lessons or implement high-quality materials, ready to design inclusive supports that help every student access and succeed in science learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn to analyze vocabulary and structural demands in science texts, identify potential barriers, and apply UDL- and science-of-reading–based strategies to adapt materials so all students can access and make sense of science content.

SPEAKERS:
Althea Hoard, Daniel Sonrouille

What do recipes, kitchens, and food science have to do with STEM? Everything! This session will explore how culinary arts provide a powerful and engaging way to teach science, technology, engineering, and math. Participants will discover hands-on strategies and classroom activities that connect cooking to STEM concepts such as chemistry, heat transfer, measurement, ratios, data analysis, and the engineering design process. From scaling recipes to experimenting with food science, educators will walk away with practical ideas they can bring back to their classrooms. The session will also highlight career connections—from nutritionist and dietitian to food scientist and agricultural engineer—showing students the many STEM pathways that begin in the kitchen. Join us to learn how food can spark curiosity, creativity, and problem-solving while making STEM meaningful and memorable.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use food and culinary arts as engaging, hands-on tools to teach core STEM concepts—linking science, technology, engineering, and math to real-world experiences and career pathways.

SPEAKERS:
Daniell Cossey

In this session, we will explore strategies and use tools to create and adapt lessons that foster sensemaking and active participation. Teachers will engage in a hands-on science task, debrief on how that task supported opportunities for sensemaking, and analyze an assortment of tasks for features that support varied learning opportunities. Attendees will leave with strategies for creating and modifying lessons to promote sensemaking and active student participation.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn practical strategies to design and adapt science lessons that foster student sensemaking and active participation, leaving with tools they can use immediately in their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Laura Shafer, PhD

In this session, we share how authentic STEM projects, curriculum design, and classroom climate work together to help students embrace uncertainty, analyze their own thinking, and build resilience. Participants will explore three cornerstone projects from an 8th-grade curriculum (Rocketry, Soldering, and Amusement Park Design) and consider how each one creates different opportunities for students to test ideas, confront misconceptions, and experience the scientific and engineering process in action. The presenters will connect these experiences to the research-based concept of error climate, the classroom culture around how mistakes are handled, showing how error tolerance, curiosity, and precision can coexist in rigorous STEM learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
STEM learning is about building the conditions where intellectual risk feels safe, and accuracy becomes a shared pursuit rather than a source of shame. Attendees will leave with ready-to-use assessments, prompts, and design strategies to create classrooms that cultivate both rigor and resilience.

SPEAKERS:
Abbie Cornelius, Hannah Bundrick

Do you have an innovative idea for improving Science, Technology, Engineering or Math learning in your classroom? Is your idea project-based learning with measurable outcomes? What do you need to make learning math and science fun for your students? Engage with teachers who received funding for their ideas and learn tips on how to apply.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn about a grant funding opportunity to implement an innovative idea in their classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Sue Whitsett

This presentation examines the crucial role of emotional intelligence (EI) in science education, highlighting effective strategies to foster resilience and engagement among students. Participants will gain a deep understanding of EI's five key components: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. The session will introduce practical approaches for creating an emotionally supportive classroom, such as establishing safe spaces, conducting emotional check-ins, and integrating social-emotional learning activities into math lessons. Engaging interactive discussions will allow participants to share experiences and insights, fostering a collaborative learning environment. Attendees will leave with actionable resources to enhance EI in their teaching practices.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to effectively integrate emotional intelligence strategies into their teaching practices to foster resilience and engagement in science education, ultimately creating a more supportive and collaborative classroom environment.

SPEAKERS:
Katherine Meraz, Dominic Ramos

In today’s data-driven world, the ability to analyze and interpret data is essential for students’ success in science and engineering. This interactive session will provide science educators with innovative strategies to integrate data analysis into their classrooms using engaging games and the New York Times Graph of the Week series. Participants will explore how to transform data into a dynamic learning experience that fosters critical thinking, collaboration, and curiosity. Join in for an engaging session that empowers educators to bring data into their classrooms in fun and meaningful ways. By utilizing low-floor, high-ceiling games and real-world data, we can inspire our students to become proficient in analyzing and interpreting data, preparing them for future scientific challenges.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will leave with ready-to-use, quick, and engaging activities that make interpreting graphs and charts fun while strengthening students’ data literacy and critical thinking skills.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth Reinhold

This session immerses educators in the process of designing an interdisciplinary, project-based unit that uses the phenomenon of climate change to drive sense making and real-world application. Teachers will experience strategies that connect science, social studies, and engineering as students explore the causes and impacts of global warming, examine the historical roots of industrialization, and confront issues of environmental equity affecting marginalized communities. Participants will learn how to scaffold inquiry, integrate NGSS-aligned practices, and use student-driven projects, from 3D-printed sustainable city models to DIY hydroponic kits and climate PSAs, to deepen learning. The session models real classroom examples of step-by-step strategies, rubrics, and classroom-ready tools that empower teachers to transform complex global challenges into authentic, local learning experiences.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn to design interdisciplinary, NGSS-aligned projects where students investigate climate change, explore environmental justice, and engineer sustainable community solutions through hands-on design and activism.

SPEAKERS:
Glenroy Foster, Nicole Marcellin

Digitized versions of Alexander Graham Bell’s notebooks, Robert Hooke’s drawings of cells, photographs from the Dust Bowl, and early 20th century newspaper articles about electric cars all provide opportunities to understand how scientists and engineers think, practice, and apply scientific principles in the real world; how scientific ideas evolve over time; and how science and engineering are related to society. The Library of Congress has millions of free primary sources online. In this workshop, Library education experts will facilitate hands-on activities showing how K-12 students can analyze such sources to make sense of the world, while meeting educational standards and goals, particularly around the nature of science, science and engineering practices, and the relationship between STEM and society. Participants will also reflect on how other teachers and students have used these strategies, and how they build critical thinking skills and highlight interdisciplinary connections.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to access millions of free digitized primary sources and use them to facilitate hands-on activities that build critical thinking skills, while providing insights into the nature of science, science and engineering practices, and the relationship between STEM and society.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Lowry, Lora Taylor, Michael Apfeldorf

Researchers and educators agree that locally contextualized, language-rich science and engineering-based instruction exploring scientific phenomena is essential to achieving access and rigor for all students, including multilingual learners (MLs) (Lee et al., 2019; Marshall, et al., 2021). This session aims to engage participants in exploring innovative science lessons developed through an NSF-funded project and demonstrate tools for integrating language into science content instruction. The session will engage participants in the Instructional Conversation (IC) pedagogy (Mellom, Hixon, & Weber, 2019) – a collaborative, conversation-based, and culturally and linguistically-responsive instructional approach, found to positively impact the academic and linguistic growth of MLs. Participants will explore tools and scaffolds that establish a learning environment where multilingual learners feel safe to take intellectual and linguistic risks and engage in Science and Engineering Practices.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be introduced to the Instructional Conversation (IC) pedagogy (a model for differentiated small group instruction) and explore the application of the IC pedagogy and practice using tools and strategies within ICs to engage multilingual learners (MLs) in science content instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Hixon, John Mativo, Robin Osborn, Paula Mellom, KeShaun White, Wren Cheatum

“Stellar Safari” is a free classroom-ready lesson. Designed to support the NGSS, it includes a phenomenon, teacher guide, and three-dimensional formative and summative assessments. The workshop begins with a data-based phenomenon activity, in which participants will engage in sensemaking as they wonder what causes differences in stars, such as brightness and temperature. During the investigation, students compare data of main sequence stars like the Sun to discover how stellar properties are related and are the result of a star’s mass and fusion rate. Finally, they experiment with stellar models used by astronomers to determine star distances and age. During the workshop we role-play both teacher and student perspectives. Active learning strategies for formative and summative assessment will include think-pair-share, using a Driving Question Board, and whiteboarding. Rubin Observatory is a major public US observatory. All educational materials and services are freely available to all.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to implement the Stellar Safari online investigation and phenomenon designed to support sensemaking and 3D learning, and explore formative and summative assessment strategies that support inclusive techniques for building student data literacy skills.

SPEAKERS:
Ardis Herrold

Discover how the 4-Quadrant Short Inquiry Cycle transforms classrooms into vibrant spaces of sense-making and critical thinking. Rooted in NGSS and equity-driven practices, this model engages students in claiming, investigating, reasoning, and making learning visible through authentic phenomena. During the session, participants will participate in each step of the 4-Quadrant cycle, collaboratively analyze their experiences, and develop their own inquiry sequences. Leave empowered to implement these strategies right away, equipped with practical tools—sentence frames, scaffolds, and exemplars—to support multilingual and diverse learners while fostering curiosity, literacy, and passion for science.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: understand how the 4-Quadrant cycle fosters science literacy, critical thinking as well as strategies for integrating NGSS sense-making pillars into daily lessons to leave with a ready-to-implement lesson sequences.

SPEAKERS:
Henri Shimojyo