Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the education landscape, with new tools and features transforming what’s possible for science teachers. This session will explore both the how and the when of using AI intentionally in everyday teaching practice. Participants will learn strategies for writing effective prompts, selecting the right tools for different tasks, and creating classroom-ready materials during the session. They will also consider how to decide when AI can serve as a powerful support for teachers and when more traditional methods remain the most effective. Throughout the session educators will consider AI as a teacher-directed tool that enhances instruction through teacher-expertise. Participants should bring a laptop or device capable of connecting to AI platforms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to select appropriate AI tools for both instructional and non-instructional tasks, practice writing effective prompts, and create a classroom-ready resource. They will also develop a personal framework for deciding when and how AI can support teachers.

SPEAKERS:
Ariela Ikezawa

This study examined elementary teachers’ perceptions of integrating science, math, and ELA as part of interdisciplinary STEM teaching. Surveys and interviews with K–6 teachers showed that most believe students understand concepts better through integration than when subjects are taught separately. Teachers most often integrated ELA and science and reported the greatest confidence in this pairing, while full three-subject integration was less common and approached with lower confidence. Teachers highlighted benefits such as increased engagement, stronger conceptual connections, and multiple exposures. Key barriers included limited time, curriculum misalignment, resource shortages, and lack of collaboration. Supports identified to support integration included leveled nonfiction texts, hands-on investigations, targeted professional development, and dedicated planning time. A first-grade 5E light and sound unit was developed to model the integration of these subjects and will be shared.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will gain insight into K-6 teachers’ perceptions of integrating ELA, math, and science, including the benefits they see for students, the challenges of interdisciplinary teaching, and supports to assist interdisciplinary teaching, as well as an example interdisciplinary unit.

SPEAKERS:
Catherine Kurniawan, Heather Bliss, Kelly Hutchinson-Anderson

Our Earth’s surface is continually impacted by the physical forces of nature: weathering and erosion. What is the impact of plants and soil amendments in preventing water runoff and soil erosion? Students will use soil tray models set at specific angles to measure water outwash and soil erosion. If soil is level, students will explain why and how water seeps into the soil and, if soil is on a slope, how water runs downhill. Students will be able to explain how slope, wind and precipitation affect the movement of water across soil surfaces and how soil is carried by water on a slope using terms from their geography vocabulary lists (sediments, weathering, etc.). The terms detachment, transport, and deposit (DTD) will be introduced. Students will discuss how rainfall and slope affect water outwash and soil erosion. Students will quantitate the percentage outwash and erosion, graph results, and compare various amendments preventing such occurrences.

TAKEAWAYS:
Water is the major force in shaping our planet. Students use simple models to measure water outwash and soil erosion. Simple models show students how plants and plant residue play major roles in preventing water outwash and soil erosion.

SPEAKERS:
Suzanne Cunningham

Join the NSTA PL committee for one or all of these sessions in our Interdisciplinary Connections strand to explore the what, why and how of interdisciplinary science teaching and learning. Each session will engage participants in interactive experiences to solve problems or investigate phenomena using science while focusing on a particular pairing of interdisciplinary opportunities. In this session, you will explore the connection between math and science. Attendees will engage in activities to demonstrate how math can be vertically aligned and supported throughout a student’s education, K-12. Participants will use the phenomenon of why some storms cause more damage as an example of how math and science learning are inextricably linked. Using real-world data to analyze and model storm effects and develop risk assessments using probability and statistics, attendees will learn how every age can collect and use real-world data to explore a phenomenon and increase their learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will explore how teaching math is inextricable from teaching science and be given examples of how that looks when vertically aligned in K-12. Participants will use real-life data to model a phenomenon mathematically, boosting both math and science understanding in a meaningful way.

SPEAKERS:
Holly Dong, Jesse Wilcox

In this session, participants will be introduced to practices used in visualizing data. Presenters Sara Moren and Rachel Langley collaboratively teach middle school math and science. This year, they worked together to enhance their students' understanding of why and how data is used in making decisions. Using puzzle cubes to teach students about data collection, data organization, and using proportional reasoning to make predictions, the presenters will share what they did, what worked, and what ideas they have for further development of these lessons.

TAKEAWAYS:
Using puzzle cubes, participants will engage in a hands-on activity that can be used in both middle school math and science classrooms to help students learn how to visualize data.

SPEAKERS:
Rachel Langley, Sara Moren

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

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

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 interactive session, participants explore how Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) transforms math and science instruction into engaging, student-centered STEM experiences. Educators will learn a practical framework for designing lessons where students think, question, and work like scientists and engineers. Using authentic classroom examples, the session highlights IBL-STEM projects that connect mathematical modeling to real-world phenomena, including linear regression (height vs. handspan), exponential decay (ball bounce), quadratic motion (projectiles), and sinusoidal patterns (city temperature data). Participants will see how students generate questions, design investigations, collect and analyze data using tools such as Desmos, Google Sheets, and video analysis, and build models to explain patterns and make predictions.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session empowers educators to create classrooms where students are not just learning math and science—they’re doing STEM. Through IBL, they discover how their learning connects to the world, preparing them to become confident, innovative thinkers ready to solve the challenges of tomorrow.

SPEAKERS:
Marcellin Mutuyimana

Bricks can be used as models to represent simple sugars. Students build macromolecules as they link these sugars together. Models may be simple or complex, and complexity can assist students’ understanding of molecular function. The simple sugar, glucose, can form the complex carbohydrate starch, which stores energy, or form the structural carbohydrate, cellulose. Certain polygons can form tessellation patterns and are used to show how simple cellular functions lead to organism complexity. Tessellation patterns may be discussed in Mathematics and Art classes as simple 3- and 4- sided polygons can be transformed into works of art. Students participate in activities and extrapolate chemical and life science concepts using English, too. Engaging in multiple learning styles assists a wide range of student learners. Simple models are terrific tools for addressing science misconceptions like there is only one way to illustrate a concept or idea.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students discuss how 3-D molecular structures affect their chemical properties as they “Act as Enzymes”. The students use geometric shapes to create tessellation patterns (X-cutting concept) and English analogies to explain cellular processes and growth. Students learn in inclusive environments.

SPEAKERS:
Suzanne Cunningham

In this session, participants will discover how integrating structured conversations around visuals can significantly enhance their students' academic language development. By engaging with thoughtfully designed visuals, educators can foster an environment where students actively participate and articulate their understanding, leading to deeper learning outcomes. Also, attendees will take part in an interactive lesson simulation that models these strategies in action. This hands-on experience will provide insight into how visuals can be effectively paired with discussion to ignite curiosity and promote equitable participation. In addition, participants will also gain access to free, high-quality resources tailored to support classroom implementation. These resources are designed to seamlessly integrate into various subjects and grade levels, empowering teachers to craft language-rich lessons that inspire students and build confidence in their academic language abilities.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this session, participants will discover how integrating structured conversations around visuals can significantly enhance their students' academic language development while ensuring equity and active participation.

SPEAKERS:
Isaac Marquez

Take your students on a design adventure by building a miniature city out of paper. Using only simple materials—paper, tape, and scissors—you’ll learn a “paper engineering alphabet” of shapes and connections that quickly turn flat sheets into buildings, bridges, and streets. This presentation blends creativity with STEM concepts, while encouraging reuse of everyday supplies like printer paper, magazine pages, and cereal box cardboard. Learn to cut, fold, and construct your own cityscape and bring easy, low-cost design projects back to your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
That engaging STEM activities can be done with simple supplies.

SPEAKERS:
Godwyn Morris

This presentation explores an innovative instructional model designed to strengthen the preparedness and confidence of apprentice teachers in STEM classrooms through a dual approach: pre-teaching core math and science concepts and intentional co-teaching with experienced educators. Grounded in adult learning theory and cognitive apprenticeship, the model addresses common gaps in pedagogical content knowledge and classroom readiness often observed in teacher preparation programs. By introducing STEM content to apprentice teachers in advance of their instructional responsibilities, and pairing them with skilled mentors in a co-teaching environment, this approach fosters both conceptual understanding and real-time pedagogical refinement. Preliminary outcomes from implementation across multiple school sites suggest that apprentices who engage in this model demonstrate increased instructional clarity, improved student engagement, and stronger classroom management skills.

TAKEAWAYS:
Design and implement a structured pre-teaching model that introduces STEM content to apprentice teachers prior to classroom instruction, allowing them to internalize key concepts, anticipate student misconceptions, and enhance content delivery.

SPEAKERS:
Deborah McAllister, Jennifer Lynberg

This session showcases an interdisciplinary set of lessons that connect middle school science and math standards across 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. Participants will explore how life science, physical science, and earth science concepts can be paired with grade-level math practices to deepen student understanding of real-world phenomena. From applying the constant of proportionality in physical science, to writing in scientific notation the energy released in an earthquake in earth science, these lessons emphasize inquiry, problem-solving, and data analysis. Attendees will leave with ready-to-use strategies that integrate NGSS and math standards, fostering critical thinking and demonstrating the power of interdisciplinary learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn ways to implement lessons that seamlessly integrate middle school science and math standards, helping students apply mathematical reasoning to scientific phenomena for deeper, real-world understanding.

SPEAKERS:
Ariel Raymond

With their natural beauty, tactile interest, and observable wide intraspecies variation, seashells offer wonderful opportunities to teach various key science themes to elementary learners. In this session, I will present a hands-on data analysis lesson that I conduct at my local science center and libraries for early elementary learners. The lesson is based on my upcoming book, a story about a blind seashell scientist. The activities are directly inspired by the main subject’s research and even draw upon some of his authentic data. The book enhances the lesson but is not required to carry it out. The audience will leave understanding why it is important to teach variations in traits within a species to build a foundation for understanding natural selection. They will also learn practical strategies for teaching nature of science themes, including observation, inquiry, data analysis, and constructing explanations. Free copies of the lesson plan will be available.

TAKEAWAYS:
Audience members will receive concrete strategies for using seashells to teach variation in traits, tactile observation, inquiry, data analysis, and relevant common core math skills, as well as a copy of the full lesson plan.

SPEAKERS:
Suzanne Sherman

This poster shares findings from a systematic review of secondary writing interventions in math and science. We describe how technology is used to support writing in secondary math and science, specifically examining the use of digital tools, AI, and multimodal supports that are part of interventions. Attendees will gain insight into how technology can be used to leverage learning when using writing in math and science.

TAKEAWAYS:
secondary math and science, examining the use of digital tools, AI, and multimodal supports.

SPEAKERS:
Tessa Arsenault, Kathleen Conley

Sponsoring Company: ExploreLearning

Ready to make science class more engaging and meaningful? Join us to explore how easy-to-use technology can help your students think, investigate, and explain like real scientists. We’ll dive into interactive simulations that put students in the driver’s seat, empowering them to collect evidence, analyze data, and build strong explanations for real-world science phenomena. Join this session to discover how digital tools like Gizmos Simulations, Investigations, and STEM Cases can turn your most reluctant learners into curious problem-solvers, using authentic experiences that mirror what scientists do on a daily basis. You’ll leave with practical, classroom-ready strategies to spark student curiosity and deepen scientific thinking, no matter what subject or grade you teach.

SPEAKERS:
Cassie Harrelson

Our collaborative team of teachers and researchers describes how we integrated and scaffolded data science throughout a 3-week STEM unit focused on a societal challenge. First, we describe the storyline of the instructional unit, which uncovers disproportionate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on marginalized communities. Then, we describe how four lesson clusters in the unit integrate real data from the COVID-19 pandemic to uncover injustices through data. In the unit, students (a) interpret and problematize comparisons of raw data, (b) compare proportions of population to proportions of infected people, (c) interpret population-adjusted data to identify disproportionality; and (d) use evidence from data to design solutions for a future health crisis. Finally, we provide suggestions for teaching data science.

TAKEAWAYS:
As students make sense of science-related societal challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, they engage with various representations of data. Attendees will unpack our conceptual approach to scaffolding instruction in data science so that students learn to reason with data.

SPEAKERS:
Stephen Kos, Alison Haas, Abigail Schwenger

Discover how mathematics becomes a powerful tool for science sensemaking in elementary classrooms through the lens of OpenSciEd Elementary units. In this session, participants will experience how elementary age learners engage with mathematics and computational thinking and data—measurements, observations, sketches, photos, and recordings—to make sense of real-world phenomena featured in OpenSciEd investigations. We’ll explore how children notice and describe variability, create visual displays to organize their ideas, and analyze and interpret patterns to answer questions and spark new inquiries. Through an immersive experience grounded in OpenSciEd materials, participants will experience how integrating mathematics and computational thinking and data science practices into elementary science instruction deepens reasoning, supports a range of learners, and empowers children to think critically about the data they encounter every day.

TAKEAWAYS:
OpenSciEd K-5 units create rich opportunities to use math as a tool for sensemaking by exploring variability, creating data displays, and analyzing and interpreting patterns—strengthening their mathematics and computational thinking and data literacy while supporting grade-level standards.

SPEAKERS:
Guy Ollison, Amy Belcastro

Without local data it is impossible to fully understand community environmental and climate problems and their effects on different groups. Attendees will explore different environmental and climate data sets and learn how to use these with students to create well-informed solutions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participatory methods for collecting and acting upon environmental and climate data is more important now than ever. Yet students are not taught about this data or how to use it. Resources and examples for supporting youth in collecting and using data to create real community change will be shared.

SPEAKERS:
Deb Morrison, Kelsie Fowler, Kathryn Boyd

Sponsoring Company: Comak

Teachers still think with pencils, markers, and quick sketches. The challenge comes when those ideas need to become clean, reusable teaching materials. Join this session to see how you can preserve the human side of teaching while creating clearer, easier-to-update lesson visuals without losing momentum.

How can we assess the quality of sampling and variability of the data to help us in decision-making? The various metals and alloys used in the minting of the penny over the years will provide for rich explorations. We will highlight some important cross-disciplinary aspects, linking the science content (mass/chemical composition) to the mathematical models to show how to use it to simulate systems and interactions. Through hands-on activities and the use of technology, we will explore with you a variety of data sets and use them to better understand and use statistics to make accurate and fair arguments related to everyday topics and explore how the sample mean varies from sample to sample to get a better understanding of quality control.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will use real data to develop mathematical models and learn how to test your hypothesis by performing an experiment and analyzing the results, combining chemical analysis with statistical sampling for a cross-curricular approach.

SPEAKERS:
Karlheinz Haas

Geography is an interdisciplinary curriculum spanning social sciences, mathematics, science, engineering design, and technology. Cross-curricular instruction is an impactful teaching and learning methodology to provide students with the tools to understand phenomena and to increase their global understanding of the world. Learn to incorporate geography topics into your science lessons in this hands-on workshop. Use the World Almanac to bring in real-world data for math- and geography-based middle school science lessons.

TAKEAWAYS:
Integrate geography topics with science phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Kelli Bergheimer

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

What happens when rocket science and storytelling collide? This session explores how meaningful stories can emerge from data and how those narratives help build data literacy for diverse learners. Rather than treating data as static numbers, we’ll look at ways to guide students in shaping those points into a story arc where numbers transform into characters, tension, and resolution. Teachers will see how narrative frames can make data less intimidating and more engaging, turning abstract points into arcs that learners can follow, question, and retell. Along the way, we’ll share classroom-tested examples from VASFA’s programs and highlight datasets and resources that connect data-driven storytelling with NGSS practices. The back-and-forth between story and data reveals a powerful lens for inquiry: stories guide what we notice, while data reshapes the tale we tell. Participants will leave with strategies to help students read data like a story and write stories from data.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to help students turn raw data into story arcs, using rocket flights, datasets, and classroom-tested resources that make numbers feel approachable, stories memorable, and inquiry-driven learning more powerful.

SPEAKERS:
Kenji Nomura

Stoichiometry is frequently one of the most difficult units in a chemistry course. While dimensional analysis is a powerful tool that can be applied to a wide range of problems, novice chemistry students struggle when required to chain multiple conversion factors together. Even for many students who do succeed, the approach is algorithmic and non-intuitive. This session will use the NGSS cross cutting concept of scale, proportion, and quantity to provide an alternative approach to solving questions involving theoretical yields, limiting reactants, and other stoichiometry aligned concepts. Not only will students find greater success with solving the problems, they will have much better intuition about the process and understand the significance behind each step in the calculations. This presentation is also great for teachers with a non-chemistry background who have been assigned to teach chemistry and have concerns about the stoichiometry unit.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn an alternative approach to solving stoichiometry problems that will allow students to experience success much more quickly in solving stoichiometry problems while simultaneously improving the intuitive understanding behind each step in the calculations.

SPEAKERS:
Eric Carlson

This research presentation shares findings from a systematic review of secondary writing interventions in math and science. We describe how the writing process was incorporated, what additional literacy practices students engage in, and which research-based writing practices were emphasized. Attendees will gain insight into how writing can be used to support learning in math and science, and more specifically, what evidence-based practices should be prioritized to strengthen students’ writing and content learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how writing can be meaningfully integrated into secondary math and science, highlighting the evidence-based practices and strategies that shape student learning.

SPEAKERS:
Tessa Arsenault, Kathleen Conley

Elementary students often see math and science as separate subjects. This session shows how to bridge them through hands-on investigations that embed measurement, data, and number sense into meaningful science contexts. Participants will explore tasks—such as graphing plant growth, calculating rainfall, or measuring motion—that make math purposeful. Walk away with strategies and classroom-ready lessons that strengthen both science sensemaking and mathematical reasoning.

TAKEAWAYS:
By the end of the session, participants will: Recognize opportunities to integrate math into science investigations at K–5. Gain strategies to help students use math as a tool for science sensemaking. Leave with ready-to-use resources to strengthen both math and science learning.

SPEAKERS:
Noelle Carter

Data science is essential for scientific literacy, yet many teachers wonder how to bring it practically into their classrooms. This hands-on workshop introduces classroom-ready problem sets in R, a free and widely used statistical language. No coding experience is required to participate. Together, we will explore curated datasets connected to natural and social sciences, focusing on inquiry-driven data analysis. Problem sets are short and flexible and also align with best practices such as analyzing data, constructing explanations, and using computational thinking.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain experience working through problem sets, strategies for scaffolding and ordering data skills, and access to a bank of ready-to-use materials.

SPEAKERS:
Alla Baranovsky

Large Language Models (LLMs) hold promise for supporting physics learning, but their tendency to hallucinate and the cost of open-ended queries limit scalability. We present an approach that scaffolds student input into structured formats that both constrain the AI and deepen engagement. Our approach combines a semantic diagram editor, where students build vector-based representations of forces, motion, and fields with required tagging, with an equation editor that outputs structured math aligned with the diagram. Unlike image uploads, these diagrams are converted directly into a text-based, machine-readable format, eliminating the need for costly image processing. The paired inputs create a precise description of student reasoning that can be processed reliably by the AI, reducing hallucinations and lowering cost. For students, tagging and structuring diagrams makes thinking explicit and reinforces representational fluency.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will see how guiding students to create tagged diagrams and structured equations leads to clearer thinking, more accurate AI support, lower costs, and better feedback for teaching and learning in physics.

SPEAKERS:
Christopher Moore

Sponsoring Company: Comak

Teachers’ most valuable asset is time. A large part of that time is spent redrawing content to keep lessons fresh and engaging. See how Comak turns classroom sketches into editable visuals you can update, reuse, and drop into teaching materials fast.

How do chance events shape evolution? In this interactive simulation, participants will explore natural selection and genetic drift through a probability-based activity. Using coin toss simulations and simple scientific calculator data analysis tools, students model trait survival across generations while adjusting for environmental change. Participants will graph trait frequencies, make predictions, and interpret how chance and selective pressures influence populations over time. A shared digital whiteboard supports collaborative thinking and real-time data visualization.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will gain a ready-to-use simulation that uses probability and data analysis to help students model how natural selection and chance influence trait survival over generations.

SPEAKERS:
Mike Szydlowski

Long trails terminated by heavy rocks called “sailing stones" were discovered along smooth valley floors in Nevada, California, and the surface of Mars. How are these heavy rocks moving across what seems to be desert? In this workshop, you'll learn what productive representations your students can use to assist them in bridging phenomena, words, pictures, and mathematics in kinematics. Can your students solve complex kinematics problems using pictures, graphs, and deep understanding? They will. Can they use real data from recently published journal articles to answer authentic questions in kinematics? They will. Can you assess them based on their performance with real data, instead of rote algebra? You will. Based on research on expert-like problem-solving, the framework attendees will work through takes a three-dimensional approach, requiring science practices and crosscutting concepts that go deeper than the rote algebraic manipulation.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use real data, pictures, and graphs to help students solve kinematics problems, deepen problem-solving skills beyond algebra, and design assessments that support inclusion and align with NGSS and Common Core.

SPEAKERS:
Christopher Moore

Copper, with an average atomic mass around 29 amu, is heavier than all of the most common elements in typical crustal rocks. In some places, however, the concentration of copper rises to levels that have attracted the attention of humans longer than any other mineral. This doesn’t make sense based on what we understand about density and how the planet formed. Until very recently scientists could not explain how copper and other heavier elements could rise from deeper inside the Earth all the way to its surface in some places. In this activity, students will create physical models to illustrate the significant differences between seemingly similar small numbers that represent copper concentrations in different types of crustal rocks. They will then create a different type of physical model to visualize how copper gets to the places where we find and mine it.

TAKEAWAYS:
Session attendees will learn how copper and similar element ores form where we find them and visualize what is meant by very small numbers that represent mineral concentrations.

SPEAKERS:
Joshua Page, Dan Moreno