A key part of learning science is developing language to talk about your ideas. Traditional methods of introducing a science lesson or unit with a vocabulary list and definitions don’t help students develop understanding of science ideas or hold onto the language. In this session, participants will explore instructional strategies for introducing and earning science vocabulary that support understanding for all learners, and especially multilingual learners. Attendees will analyze classroom video to identify teacher moves that embed vocabulary instruction within investigations and discussions. Participants will leave with practical strategies for helping students actively develop and use new science terminology in their sensemaking.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to embed science vocabulary development within investigations and discussions to strengthen student sensemaking and support all learners, especially multilingual students.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth Pawlowski, Ji Sun Ham, Zoe Evans

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

Sponsoring Company: BrainPOP

Your students can tell you what happened. Can they tell you why? This hands-on session tackles the part of CER most students (and teachers) find hardest: building the bridge between evidence and reasoning. Using BrainPOP Science, you'll practice feedback moves and instructional strategies that help students construct stronger scientific arguments — not just restate conclusions. Walk away with approaches you can try this week

SPEAKERS:
Bobbi Bear

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

AI tools can now generate NGSS-style assessment items in seconds — but how do we know these questions are truly three-dimensional, instructionally sound, and valid? This session examines new research on the promises and limitations of AI-generated assessments and contrasts them with human-designed, field-tested items grounded in real student data. Participants will leave with a clear, classroom-ready checklist for reviewing assessment quality—giving you the confidence to evaluate both AI-generated items and traditional assessments with the same high standards.

SPEAKERS:
Brendan Finch, Emily Miller

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

Ready to transform your science teaching? Discover Cultural Bridges - an equity strategy connecting students' lived experiences with NGSS phenomena through culturally responsive questioning. This hands-on workshop guides PreK-8 educators through adapting existing lessons using the Framework's emphasis on connecting to students' interests and experiences. Participants will experience student perspectives while transforming their chosen lesson using Cultural Bridge questions, witnessing increased engagement for multilingual learners and students who may face barriers to access or engagement. Leave with your revised lesson, implementation rubric, and practical tools. Bring any PreK-8 science lesson you teach. Address equity while maintaining three-dimensional learning rigor.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will adapt an existing science lesson using Cultural Bridge questions, experiencing how this simple addition transforms student engagement and deepens NGSS learning for multilingual learners and students who may face barriers to access or engagement.

SPEAKERS:
Almitra Berry

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

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

Splash into the molecular world of water and membranes through hands-on learning. Experience simple, powerful models that bring water’s abstract properties to life and reveal how they drive membrane structure and behavior. Step into your students’ shoes as you tinker with models to wonder, investigate, and revise your own ideas about biological membranes. We’ll spotlight strategies that center student discovery and thinking, support NGSS practices, and connect microscopic interactions to big biological ideas. Join us to explore ways to make membrane chemistry tangible, visual, and fun.

SPEAKERS:
Keri Shingleton

Artificial intelligence is rapidly entering science classrooms, yet many educators are unsure how to begin using it in purposeful and responsible ways. In this introductory session, participants will explore what AI is, what it is not, and how it can support NGSS sensemaking without replacing student thinking. Through live demonstrations and simple classroom examples, educators will learn how AI can help students ask better questions, strengthen reasoning, and engage more deeply with phenomena. The session highlights ethical use of AI as a partner in science learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will understand how to use AI as a tool for sensemaking that strengthens student questioning and reasoning while supporting phenomenon-based science learning routines.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Lazzaro, Velma Itamura

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Science

Come experience what Carolina + OpenSciEd Elementary is all about through a hands-on model lesson in which students explore water in natural systems, determine if it is healthy or unhealthy, and discuss what can be done. Discover how the new Carolina Certified Version of OpenSciEd’s high-quality instructional materials are more accessible, more user-friendly, and enhanced for classroom safety. Participants will walk away with valuable resources for their classroom.    

SPEAKERS:
Hoover Herrera

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 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

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 explores the crucial lessons learned during the first year of our OpenSciEd high school materials rollout and details the successful instructional shifts observed in the second year. We will share a multi-faceted model for systemic change, focusing on three core strategies: building effective school-based leadership, leveraging trailblazing teachers to support reluctant implementers, and proactively minimizing barriers to high-quality science instruction for all students. Join us to gain actionable insights into supporting science educators and accelerating the transition of high school instruction to align with A Framework for K-12 Science Education.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how a phased rollout strategy provided scalable affordances, built a robust network of administrators, and leveraged science teacher leaders to address challenges and remove barriers to support all students with a high-quality science learning experience at scale.

SPEAKERS:
Anne Craddock, Kristin Lilley, Kristoffer Carroll, Mary Shane, Dawn Bien, Audri Rosen

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

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Science

Discover how STCMS brings NGSS to life through purposeful design and hands-on learning. See authentic student work, brief classroom clips, and clear evidence of 3D sensemaking. Participants will perform sample tasks and learn how STCMS supports diverse learners and strengthens NGSS instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Holly Baldwin, Heather Toothaker

Sponsoring Company: Discovery Education

Grab your goggles and dive into the Discovery Education Phenomena Science Playground. Explore hands-on experiments and walk away with classroom-ready resources, fresh ideas, and practical tools to bring science to life. Step into the Discovery Education Phenomena Science Playground—a hands-on experience designed to spark curiosity and connect classrooms to real-world science. Participants rotate through interactive stations featuring engaging activities and classroom-ready resources. Through a phenomena-driven approach, educators explore tools and content co-created with industry partners that support inquiry-based learning and student engagement. Whether the goal is to enhance hands-on instruction, integrate STEM, or bring more relevance into the classroom, this session offers both inspiration and practical takeaways.

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Hampton, Justin Karkow

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

Join us as we share and discuss how leadership can support NGSS implementation through professional learning experiences that center the needs of teachers and students through the use of high quality instructional materials. We will discuss specific strategies, resources and tools leveraging high quality instructional materials to strengthen the shared vision of the instructional shifts called for by the NGSS and engage educators in three dimensional phenomena driven teaching, learning and leadership. Hear how a state level partnership with multiple districts deepened teacher’s knowledge of the NGSS and three dimensional instructional practices.

TAKEAWAYS:
Using high quality instructional materials as a lever to further NGSS implementation across multiple district/school contexts can support teachers and leaders as they enhance and expand their practice to improve outcomes for their students and learning communities.

SPEAKERS:
Guy Ollison, Jenine Cotton-Proby, Nancy Hopkins-Evans

Discover incredible opportunities in STEM education with a range of NSTA-administered K-12 opportunities that engage through innovative programming and recognize achievement with amazing awards. We’ll explore programs and awards that are sure to ignite a passion for discovery and innovation.

TAKEAWAYS:
Empower your teaching with dynamic STEM programs and awards administered by NSTA as you learn about innovative opportunities to boost engagement and enthusiasm for K-12 students and teachers.

SPEAKERS:
Kathryn Lasky, Sue Whitsett, Brian Kutsch

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

Many biology students approach graphing as a purely procedural task, focusing on format selection and adherence to rubrics without fully engaging with its scientific significance. This roundtable session will delve into undergraduates' perceptions of the role of graphing in inquiry, argumentation, and identity within biology labs. Drawing on qualitative data from an introductory lab course and sociocultural theory (Vygotsky), we will examine how students' graphing perceptions may reflect or obscure their epistemic value. The discussion will feature student quotes, connections to identity (Lockhart et al., 2022), and insights into graphing as an effective tool for science communication (Alderfer, 2023). Participants can share strategies for reframing graphing as a meaningful and communicative practice that aligns with the NGSS.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore student perceptions of the purpose of graphing in biology labs, connect findings to science identity and Vygotsky’s theory, and discuss strategies for reframing graphing as a communicative, inquiry-based practice aligned with NGSS.

SPEAKERS:
Adriana Quiros

What happens when you hand teachers powerful tools but no blueprint for how to use them? There is likely a lot of confusion and inconsistency. As school systems work to align instruction to NGSS, many turn to open educational resources (OER) to advance opportunity and access, but real transformation requires more than merely adopting new materials. They need skillful, intentional, and high-quality practice. This roundtable brings together leaders from J.S. Morton High School District (IL) and Great Oaks Legacy Charter Network (NJ) to share how they’re implementing NGSS-aligned OER curricula at scale. Participants will explore leadership structures, professional learning systems, and data tools that enable coherence across classrooms and grade bands. Attendees will leave with practical considerations for balancing fidelity with local adaptation, building teacher capacity, and leading sustainable, systemwide improvement in science teaching and learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Gain strategies to lead sustainable, systemwide science improvement by aligning leadership, professional learning, and data systems to support effective, consistent implementation of NGSS-aligned OER.

SPEAKERS:
Solona Hollis, Solona Hollis

Sponsoring Company: BrainPOP

What if the background knowledge you build in science helped students write better arguments in every class? This session explores how BrainPOP and BrainPOP Science work together to support Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) across subjects. Whether students are explaining why ecosystems change or analyzing a primary source document, the same thinking framework applies. You'll see how giving students the shared understanding they need to construct evidence-based arguments—from ecosystems to the Electoral College —and leave with strategies that transfer across your curriculum

SPEAKERS:
Bobbi Bear

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Science

Join us for an interactive, hands-on model lesson from OpenSciEd for High School to discover how the Carolina Certified Version takes these high-quality instructional materials to the next level— more accessible, more user-friendly, and enhanced for classroom safety. Dive into the Biology 1 unit and experience how the Serengeti board game transforms complex concepts into engaging learning. Participants will leave with practical strategies and valuable resources to energize their classrooms. 

SPEAKERS:
Cory Ort

Sponsoring Company: Discovery Education

Literacy instruction does not have to compete with science for instructional time. When thoughtfully designed, science lessons can serve as a powerful context for building reading, writing, and academic language skills—particularly in elementary classrooms. In this session, participants will explore how phenomena-driven science instruction advances literacy by using purposeful reading, evidence-based writing, and structured discussion to support student sense-making through the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs). The session focuses on practical approaches to lesson design that support diverse learners and promote sense-making across disciplines. Participants will review classroom examples from Discovery Education’s Science Techbook, illustrating how three-dimensional, phenomena-driven lessons can be structured to deepen engagement and reinforce core literacy skills within science instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Hampton, Justin Karkow

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Science

Join our interactive workshop where literacy meets exploration! Experience through hands-on modeling, playing a card game, and reading stories about how students can build explanations of confusing weather phenomena. Learn strategies to build your students’ literacy skills. Leave with classroom resources. Smithsonian Science for the Classroom earned an All-Green rating from EdReports. 

SPEAKERS:
Hoover Herrera, Rachel Patton, Dr. Sarah Glassman

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

This transdisciplinary experience links human biology, geography, and economics through student exploration. Students use an interactive website to produce maps by comparing health-related and non-medical factors in their region. After reflecting on observed patterns, students turn to two maps of state ZIP codes with the lowest and highest median incomes. In groups balanced for individual strengths, they compare/contrast features of the two regions based on non-medical factors they explored in the opening activity. Students then enter data for a “patient” into a professional disease risk prediction calculator that incorporates ZIP codes. By varying the ZIP code, they compare output to see how predicted risk changes with "place." Finally, they develop a map visualization that explains how non-medical factors related to place act on health. The activity reflects Framework elements that include obtaining/evaluating/communicating information and identifying patterns and cause and effect.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this transdisciplinary activity, students observe phenomena, draw out patterns they detect, and then test the real-world health outcomes of these patterns for people based on where they live, arriving at a deep understanding of the role of place in human health.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Willingham

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

How do we cultivate students’ ability to read and understand quantitative displays quickly and confidently? At the heart of NGSS is developing students’ skill in detecting and interpreting patterns in the natural world (SEP-Analyzing and Interpreting Data; CC-Patterns). In this hands-on workshop, participants will step “into students’ shoes” for a sequence of short bell-ringer investigations using historical, real-word primary-source graphs pulled from the Library of Congress. Working in small groups, educators will analyze real historical datasets, practice inquiry prompts designed for 5–10-minute bell ringers, and use a versatile formative rubric to assess understanding. We will model scaffolds for multilingual learners, neurodiverse students, and learners with limited math confidence. Participants leave with bell-ringer packs (sample graphs, teacher prompts, exit tickets, and a 3-level formative rubric) that can be used the next day in diverse classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will use short, primary-source graphs/data sets as 5–10-minute bell ringers that prompt both discipline-specific and historic sensemaking while applying a concise 3-level formative rubric to quickly assess students’ quantitative sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Apfeldorf, Michael Lowry

Sponsoring Company: Discovery Education

Ready to experience the next generation of science instruction? In this interactive session, educators will explore how real-world phenomena drive authentic three-dimensional learning. Using Discovery Education’s Science Techbook as a model, participants will see how coherent, phenomena-based storylines engage students in the Science and Engineering Practices to make sense of Disciplinary Core Ideas through Crosscutting Concepts. Be among the first to experience this innovative approach to learning, featuring classroom-ready slideshow lessons, phenomena-driven investigations, built-in differentiation, and hands-on learning designed to strengthen literacy and math while supporting authentic three-dimensional learning. You will leave with practical tools and a clear framework for moving from activities to deeper understanding—empowering students to think like scientists.

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Hampton, Justin Karkow

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

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

Sponsoring Company: HHMI BioInteractive

Join us as we explore the phenomenon of lactase persistence in humans and engage in the science practices of asking questions, analyzing data, and developing scientific explanations using free resources from BioInteractive. Participants will explore the underlying genetic mechanism of lactase persistence and analyze data from human populations to make sense of how natural selection drove its evolution. Educators will have opportunities to consider ways to adapt the resource for their particular teaching contexts, sharing ideas with and learning alongside other educators. Participants will deepen their understanding of the phenomenon and walk away with new strategies and classroom-ready resources.

SPEAKERS:
Kristen Short, Kathlyn Van Hoeck

Are you interested in helping students make sense of the phenomena in their communities? Are you looking for ways to incorporate more data in your science classroom? When sensemaking is focused on local phenomena, there are more opportunities to center students’ community and incorporate personal interests. This session, co-facilitated by the NSTA Professional Learning Team and Tuva, will highlight the value of using data from local phenomena in science learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Data from local phenomena can be leveraged to create engaging learning for students. Participants will learn how to find and select local data that is instructionally productive, based on their goals for student learning and the data available.

SPEAKERS:
Jocelyn Foran, Brianna Reilly Oliveira

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

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

Sponsoring Company: Publisher Spotlight

Let’s be real: the word “research” doesn’t exactly make most students' hearts race with excitement. But when research becomes an act of curiosity, discovery, and storytelling—suddenly, it’s irresistible. As an award-winning STEM author and illustrator for kids, I’ve spent years turning tricky science topics into page-turners. (Yes, even farts and garbage.) And in the past year, I’ve taken that process into classrooms—guiding students to not only love research…but write about it, too. This interactive workshop is the grown-up version of those popular school sessions, built for educators who want to help their students investigate like scientists and communicate like authors. You’ll learn how to help kids ask curious questions, spot stronger sources, and—here’s the “cheat code”—write nonfiction using narrative structure and their unique author’s voice. When students start to see how STEM topics show up in their everyday lives, everything clicks.

SPEAKERS:
Bethany Barton

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

Artificial intelligence is rapidly entering science classrooms, and education leaders play a key role in shaping how it strengthens student sensemaking. This session explores how AI can help students ask stronger questions, reason with evidence, and engage more deeply with phenomena. Leaders will learn how to communicate a clear, purposeful vision for AI use, one that promotes thoughtful integration and supports high-quality science investigations. The session also highlights ways to partner with parents to build understanding and shared confidence in AI’s role in learning. Participants will leave with tools to assess readiness, articulate guiding principles, and position AI as a productive thinking partner in phenomenon-based science instruction.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to guide AI use to deepen science sensemaking, promote purposeful rather than restrictive practices, and engage parents as partners in supporting students’ phenomenon-based investigations.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Lazzaro, Velma Itamura

Sponsoring Company: BFW Publishers

Capture high school chemistry students’ curiosity by inviting them into a truly phenomenon-based curriculum. Explore a hands-on periodic table card sort and investigate whether it’s really possible to turn a copper penny into gold. Along the way, ground in NGSS - experience how Living by Chemistry’s guided-inquiry and three-dimensional learning approach helps students build deep conceptual understanding. Presented by Living by Chemistry author Dr. Angelica Stacy.

SPEAKERS:
Angelica Stacy

In a world where algorithms compete for our students’ attention, teachers can reclaim the brain’s oldest—and most potent—learning technology: story. Neuroscience shows that when we hear a story, not a list of facts, our brains fire in synchrony—engaging emotion, motion, and imagination. In this session, teachers become narrative architects, designing lessons around the “And–But–Therefore” (ABT) framework to build curiosity, tension, and resolution. Through pop-culture examples, short demos, and brain-based insights, participants will see how storytelling transforms abstract STEM ideas into memorable, emotionally resonant learning. Attendees will leave ready to analyze any lesson for its narrative flow, reframe it with ABT, and harness the same storytelling circuitry that makes students binge their favorite shows—to make them binge your class instead.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers can become narrative architects—using story structure, neuroscience, and the ABT framework to design lessons that capture attention, spark curiosity, and make STEM ideas stick in an age of constant distraction.

SPEAKERS:
Matt Brady

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

Multilingual learners bring diverse strengths, experiences, and language resources to the science classroom. Using a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) lens, this session explores how teachers can make intentional instructional choices to support meaningful participation for multilingual learners and benefit all students. Participants will analyze classroom video to identify how teachers proactively make choices that provide multiple ways for students to access ideas, engage in sensemaking, and communicate their thinking. Participants will leave with classroom-ready strategies for supporting multilingual learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to use a UDL-informed approach to design science instruction that leverages multilingual learners’ strengths and provides multiple pathways for all students to engage in sensemaking and communicate their thinking.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth Pawlowski, Ji Sun Ham, Zoe Evans

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

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Science

Assume the role of a crime scene investigator to solve a realistic crime scenario. Students use fingerprint, hair analysis, tire track impressions, blood typing, forensic entomology, and a police log review to identify a primary suspect from a pool of 6 alleged perpetrators.

SPEAKERS:
Laurie Nixon

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

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

Sponsoring Company: PASCO Scientific

Experience firsthand how PASCO has integrated our award-winning sensors and technology into OpenSciEd investigations. See how students engage in real-time data collection and analysis, while teachers save valuable preparation time using PASCO's One-Way Mirror Model. Discover how the PASCO Portal® streamlines and organizes the entire OpenSciEd curriculum, simplifying planning and instructions while providing additional supports such as on-demand professional learning and more. Whether you're interested in starting a pilot or moving toward full implementation, PASCO has you covered.

SPEAKERS:
Heidi Brennan

Citizen science provides students with an authentic entry point into real-world scientific inquiry by allowing them to collect, analyze, and contribute meaningful data to ongoing research projects. By engaging with established citizen science platforms, students develop critical observation skills, identify patterns, and generate their own investigative questions. This natural progression—from participating in community-based data collection to designing independent research—empowers students to think like scientists, build confidence, and explore topics that genuinely spark their curiosity. Through hands-on experiences, collaboration with broader scientific networks, and opportunities for reflection, citizen science becomes a powerful launching pad for student-driven research and deeper scientific understanding.

TAKEAWAYS:
Citizen science turns classrooms into real research spaces, empowering students to use authentic data as a launchpad for meaningful, self-driven scientific investigations.

SPEAKERS:
Jonathan Bailey

EL NINO is the largest year-to-year climate variable. There are numerous local science stories to use for relevance for students. But agency definitions, educational lessons, science-communicator descriptions, and Youtube depictions of this phenomenon are convoluted! A clear and concise conceptual lesson needs to be developed. Elementary school scaffolding can be used to build a simple and memorable model for students, teachers, and policy makers. Ocean and Climate Literacy's Principle #3 (The Ocean is a major influence on weather and climate) can be used as a 'bingo card' to help students build their models. And the NGSS 7 crosscutting concepts can be launch pads for students' discussion the interconnectedness of the ocean and the atmosphere; dance partners across a 10,000 long dance floor.

TAKEAWAYS:
A memorable conceptual model of El Niño: A wave, a water cycle, a geyser.

SPEAKERS:
Joe Witte

Discover engaging, classroom-ready strategies that connect literacy, language, and science thinking. In this session, participants will explore innovative prompts, such as "Twitter-aided Socratic Circles" and "Science Tweets," that strengthen students' ability to reason, write, and communicate scientific ideas.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how these quick, adaptable routines can spark curiosity, deepen understanding of science phenomena, and support the three dimensions of learning. Walk away with ready-to-use examples, templates, and inspiration for making sensemaking both fun and rigorous in your classroom!

SPEAKERS:
Sara Tolman

From historical photographs, to scientific notebooks, to sketches of early inventions, the Library of Congress has millions of free digitized primary sources online, many of which are related to STEM curriculum and standards. Visit our table to explore some of these sources and chat with us about how you can engage your students through hands-on, inquiry-based primary source analysis. Analyzing primary sources can be particularly useful for building critical thinking skills, while helping students reflect on 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. Primary sources can serve as phenomena to launch units, offer opportunities for exploring real-world data, illuminate the history nature of science, and more. We look forward to learning about your work with students and discussing what resources and strategies might be beneficial to you!

TAKEAWAYS:
Come learn how to access millions of free digitized primary sources – photos, manuscripts, maps, multimedia, and more – to facilitate hands-on activities that build critical thinking, while providing insights into the nature of science, STEM practices, and the relationship between STEM and society.

SPEAKERS:
Lora Taylor, Michael Lowry, Michael Apfeldorf

This session will demonstrate how middle and high school students can use science models and interactive activities from NOAA Ocean Exploration lessons to visualize and explain complex ocean processes such as hydrothermal vent formation, deep-sea food webs, and seafloor mapping techniques. Participants will engage with modeling strategies that align with NGSS practices, helping students develop scientific reasoning by predicting, testing, and revising hypotheses. By modeling real-world ocean phenomena, students strengthen their understanding of systems thinking, scale, and cause-and-effect relationships—mirroring the work of professional ocean scientists. Attendees will leave with ready-to-implement activities that deepen student curiosity about Earth’s least explored environments.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will dive into simple, hands-on modeling strategies demonstrated in NOAA Ocean Exploration lessons that help students visualize and explain complex deep-ocean processes while strengthening scientific reasoning and NGSS-aligned practices.

SPEAKERS:
Suraida Nanez-James

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) have brought forth a new way of learning for students and new instructional demands for teachers. Instead of the traditional approach to science instruction that focused on memorizing facts and terminology while reading the textbook, students are now called to engage in science learning through investigations. Investigations are more effective than traditional approaches in supporting science learning and increasing students' understanding of how the world works (NASEM, 2019). However, this calls for science teachers to change their approach to instruction by placing investigations at the center of teaching and learning. One resource to help teachers make this shift is Phenomenon/Problem, Information Gathering, Explanation, Reasoning (PIER) Investigations. The instructional sequence of PIER Investigations translates contemporary research on teaching and learning into an actionable structure for high-quality middle school science instruction.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will gain an increased awareness of research-based PIER investigations to support teachers in implementing the NGSS with fidelity. Evidence shows that implementing PIER investigations students viewed themselves as confident in their ability to make sense of scientific phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Kenneth Huff

Over the last few years, I have created worksheets and supporting documents to help my students create successful Science fair/Science Expo projects. A lot of this is based on information I learned attending and later while facilitating Professional Development sessions with Urban Advantage NYC. During this session, I will share my worksheets, which carefully scaffold the elements of a great Science fair project, making a successful project attainable by the average middle schooler. I will talk about my own experience leading students through topic selection all the way to a final product. I will also share some ideas about hosting a successful science fair.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will walk away with editable worksheets, rubrics, and pacing calendars that they can use to help them plan successful long term student led science fair projects.

SPEAKERS:
Jasmina Nikolov, Rachelle Travis

This session introduces “A Misadventure in Teaching,” a Unit 5 storyline for AP Biology. Attendees will view a video about a biology student who learns she is colorblind and the unexpected turn of events that follow when she tells her parents. After the creation of a driving question board (DQB), participants will engage in inquiry activities, collect and analyze data, examine strategies to integrate FRQ practice with interactive notebooks, explore the use of SpiderWeb discussions, and learn how to apply initial and final models in storylining pedagogy. A brief question-and-answer session will conclude the session.

TAKEAWAYS:
After an introduction to the Lab Hamster AP Bio Unit 5 storyline, participants will leave with advanced knowledge and skills needed to implement student inquiry activities, apply science practices, and use pedagogical strategies that boost student engagement and reduce teacher workload.

SPEAKERS:
Laura Christiansen, Chandra Mitnik, Kristin Clements, Noel Pauller

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

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

Workshop Overview Through hands-on exploration and collaboration, teachers will engage in three-dimensional learning using The Three Billy Goats Gruff. This workshop builds confidence in designing and teaching lessons that integrate children’s literature to support science content, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts. Participants will experience how stories can drive meaningful connections between literacy and science while engaging in real-world inquiry, storytelling, creative problem-solving, and classroom discourse—speaking and writing about science. Emphasis will be placed on three-dimensional assessment and sensemaking as essential components of authentic science teaching and learning. Teachers will leave with practical strategies, classroom-ready lesson ideas, and a deeper understanding of how to use literature to inspire curiosity, strengthen science understanding, and promote student voice through talk and writing.

TAKEAWAYS:
3D assessment and sensemaking are key components of science learning. Teachers will leave with practical strategies, lesson ideas, and a deeper understanding of how to utilize literature to spark curiosity, enhance science comprehension, and foster student voice through discussion and writing.

SPEAKERS:
Jason Harding, Julie Jackson

Empower your teaching with “Supporting Multilingual Learners with a Science Scaffold Toolkit.” This session is designed for educators seeking effective strategies to help multilingual learners thrive in science classrooms. Explore a step-by-step science lesson sequence that integrates the Science Scaffold Toolkit—an innovative resource focused on supporting language development, facilitating science inquiry, and enhancing student engagement with scientific content. You'll learn how to leverage practical scaffolds such as vocabulary supports, sentence frames, and visual aids to make science accessible and meaningful for all students. Join us to gain hands-on experience, discover adaptable tools, and leave equipped to foster both language acquisition and scientific thinking in your multilingual learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with the Science Scaffold Toolkit in hand, along with practical strategies for seamlessly integrating it into daily instruction—all aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards.

SPEAKERS:
Anthony Quan

No set of materials are perfect. Teachers require a systematic approach to customize HQIM for use in their local context. This session will outline work that Saint Paul Public Schools and BSCS Science Learning have done to customize the OpenSciEd middle school science materials to support standards implementation and district goals. The session will describe key considerations and modifications needed to align materials with domain-specific standards, while maintaining curricular coherence from the students’ perspective, and students’ interests. The team will explain their approach to customizing select units and the professional learning approach used to support teachers in customizing summative assessments to better engage their students’ interests and science-linked identities. Leaders will analyze example customized units and teacher-designed assessments and identify important components to include in their own HQIM customization plans.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will identify what considerations are important for developing a well-crafted plan for implementing and customizing high quality instructional materials for use in local contexts.

SPEAKERS:
Molly Leifeld

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

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Science

Construct an eco-column to model ecosystem interactions and human impacts. This workshop provides materials and experiment ideas—such as testing fertilizer effects on water quality—while connecting investigations to NGSS concepts like energy flow and matter cycling. Ideal for middle and high school science.

SPEAKERS:
Julie Stubbs

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

The process of science is driven by questions. While it’s easy to ask a general question, crafting an investigable question requires deeper thinking and intentionality. Doing so within the constraints of an existing dataset creates an additional challenge. This session, co-facilitated by the NSTA professional learning team and Tuva, will highlight strategies for helping students clarify what data they have to work with, determine the types of questions that can and cannot be answered with a given dataset, and frame six different types of questions about data.

TAKEAWAYS:
The types of questions you can ask depend on the data you have. Participants will learn how to guide students in identifying the structure and limits of the local datasets they encounter and in framing investigable questions that unlock the potential of data.

SPEAKERS:
Jocelyn Foran, Brianna Reilly Oliveira

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

While HQIM are an important lever that can impact students’ science experiences, access to HQIM is not consistent across schools and impacts marginalized students most. And, claims around NGSS in materials is common. How might educators sift through all this information to identify materials that best meet their students' needs? Participants will learn about the characteristics of high-quality phenomena, problems, and sensemaking and how to identify those characteristics when selecting and using materials. They will utilize sample lesson materials, identifying the presence and use of phenomena/problems and sensemaking and considering how these factors contribute to student experiences. Through guided practice and discussion, participants will learn how to begin to narrow materials selection through a critical lens. Participants will also orient to EdReports' free reviews of instructional materials and other resources for making materials selections for their school or classroom.

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

SPEAKERS:
Sam Shaw

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 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

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

As AI becomes a routine part of science learning, educators across roles are looking for ways to lead its purposeful and productive use. This leadership session provides practical guidance for communicating about AI in ways that inspire curiosity, strengthen science sensemaking, and support phenomenon-based investigations. Participants will explore clear, consistent language and implementation strategies that empower teachers, engage families, and encourage thoughtful experimentation with AI as a reasoning partner. The session highlights supportive structures and approaches that help diverse learners and build educator confidence. Attendees will leave with insights and strategies they can adapt to guide AI-enabled science learning in their own classrooms, departments, schools, or districts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to communicate and implement AI in ways that inspire curiosity, strengthen sensemaking, and reshape classroom culture through purposeful routines, while partnering with parents and the community.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Lazzaro, Velma Itamura

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

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

Students are witnessing the effects of climate change and want both knowledge and hope. This workshop introduces Seeds to Solutions: a free, solutions-focused set of supplemental K–12 units designed to help educators integrate climate change and environmental justice into their practice. Using an inquiry-based, storyline instructional approach, this interdisciplinary curriculum supports data literacy, place-based learning, and the development of models to explain the effects of climate change while allowing students a chance to plan local solutions. Lessons are aligned to California Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), and participants will learn how to adapt the units to their own state/local context. Participants will experience a sample lesson that fosters student inquiry and addresses different learning styles. The sample lesson is from a middle school unit, but the program offers resources for all K–12 educators.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will experience a sample middle school lesson to see how the Seeds to Solutions storyline instructional model engages a wide range of learners in grades K–12. Participants learn how to create a sense of agency in the face of climate change and adapt units to their state/local context.

SPEAKERS:
Holly Steele

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

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

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

What happens when art becomes a lens for exploring science and intelligence? In this hands-on workshop, participants will investigate how nature, technology, and humanity intertwine to shape our future. Attendees will engage in participatory science by observing natural and technological artifacts, sketching and recording patterns, and comparing their perceptions with an AI’s interpretation of the same objects. These layered perspectives will be transformed into collaborative “intelligence tiles” and assembled into a collective mural. Along the way, facilitators will model how storytelling, place-based exploration, and cross-curricular art-making can deepen student engagement and enhance sensemaking. Participants will leave with a replicable process for classroom use: observe, analyze, translate across mediums, and create. This session highlights how art-infused science learning can connect students to timely conversations about intelligence, technology, and humanity.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to blend observation, participatory science, AI, and art-making into a replicable process that helps students explore the interplay of natural, human, and digital intelligence through hands-on, interdisciplinary learning.

SPEAKERS:
Lisa Robinson, Katie Musick, Jesse Wren

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

Sponsoring Company: BrainPOP

Some science concepts are hard to teach because students can't see them — molecular reactions, energy transfer, plate tectonics. Animation makes invisible processes visible. But it's not just about the visuals; this session explores the learning science behind why BrainPOP's animated movies support understanding. You'll learn before/during/after movie strategies that turn watching into active sensemaking, grounded in research you can reference and results you can see in your classroom

SPEAKERS:
Hannah Bonville

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

Grading that supports student sensemaking doesn’t have to keep you at school all night. Learn practical approaches to grading that prioritize three-dimensional sensemaking while using technology, collaboration, and existing resources—so you can support students and still have your evenings back.

TAKEAWAYS:
Giving meaningful feedback and assigning grades becomes easier with strong instructional materials and assessments in place—and technology can streamline the process without sacrificing effectiveness for students.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Delaney

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

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Science

Join the excitement, escape the rat-race, and experience the superior quality of Carolina's Perfect Solution® specimens with our preserved rat dissection! Engage 3D instruction as we discuss the relationship between structure and function, as well as the interdependence between systems. During this hands-on guided dissection, each participant explores the rat’s external anatomy, internal body systems, and individual organs. These specimens are economical, simple to dissect, and great mammalian models for your next lab!

SPEAKERS:
Patti Kopkau

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

Videos are fun to watch, but they can be even more powerful when they help students think, talk, and show what they know. In this session, we will explore how to use Class CrunchLabs video supports to turn viewing into an interactive experience. Learn how to embed checkpoints, create choice-based reflections, and invite students to investigate instead of just observe. You will leave with ready-to-use strategies for building in meaningful assessment moments that are way more choose-your-own-adventure than sit-and-get.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to transform Class CrunchLabs videos into interactive learning and assessment tools that spark engagement, surface thinking, and let students drive the experience.

SPEAKERS:
Jesse Semeyn, Spencer Martin

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

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

Participants will actively engage with authentic, research-based science phenomena that illustrate core physics concepts and support NGSS-aligned instruction. They will observe and analyze demonstrations such as a child on a sled remaining stationary when a dog pulls the sled (illustrating inertia), the Whack It! experiment comparing the motion of ping pong and golf balls, and a pendulum showing how force affects motion. Attendees will practice prompting student reasoning, connecting observations to Crosscutting Concepts and Science and Engineering Practices, and translating phenomena into strategies that foster curiosity, questioning, and deep conceptual understanding.

TAKEAWAYS:
By the end of the session, participants will leave with ready-to-use examples, tools, and approaches for making sense of science in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Annie Smith, Stephanie Wendt

As AI becomes more accessible, many traditional science assignments no longer reveal what students truly understand. This session helps educators move from policing AI use to designing tasks that encourage reasoning, reflection, and deeper engagement with phenomena. Participants will analyze why certain activities are vulnerable to AI shortcutting and learn practical strategies for redesigning them into AI-resilient tasks that surface student thinking. Through live demonstrations and sample routines, attendees will explore approaches that require students to critique, revise, justify, and apply ideas during phenomenon based investigations. The session include a framework to identify non-AI resilient tasks and reivse them into tasks that promote purposeful, sensemaking focused AI use.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will learn strategies for transforming traditional assignments into AI-resilient tasks that reveal student reasoning and strengthen sensemaking during phenomenon based investigations.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Lazzaro, Velma Itamura

3D science assessments can be difficult for learners with skill set discrepancies. When students are given time to collaborate with other learners during data analysis and modeling tasks, this increases equity of learning in the classroom. Then, by independently reflecting and reevaluating group efforts, students are better able to synthesize personal ideas and provide solid evidence-based claims that truly reflect individual student achievement.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn processes of 3D assessment using group and independent science performance tasks. Please bring an assessment from your practice to workshop, discuss, and receive feedback.

SPEAKERS:
Mallory Davis

With the quickly expanding interest in and integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into education, we believe it is vital to explore fundamental questions about when, how, and even if it should be used in education. Initiatives and products focused on educational applications of AI are outpacing the discussion of responsible and ethical approaches to doing so. This concerns us. The session will offer principled and evidence-based analysis of the implications of AI for teaching, lesson planning, tracking and supporting student progress, assessment, and educational monitoring. Together, we will learn about AI and how to think with and against its use in education in specific ways. Productive approaches for framing the use of AI with students will be shared. We invite you to join us for this important and urgent discussion of AI in education.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about uses of AI in science education along with ways to think about ethical dimensions and the evidence base for specific pedagogical uses. We will explore possibilities, tensions, trade-offs, uncertainties, and strategies of resistance in this quickly shifting landscape.

SPEAKERS:
Deb Morrison, Philip Bell

Multilingual learners often need targeted language support in the moment—without interrupting sensemaking or lowering cognitive demand. In this session, participants will explore just-in-time instructional strategies that support multilingual learners during science discussions, investigations, and explanation-building. Attendees will analyze classroom video to identify teacher moves that provide timely language scaffolds while keeping students engaged in authentic science and engineering practices. Participants will leave with concrete strategies they can immediately apply to support student talk, writing, and reasoning in science classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to use just-in-time language scaffolds to support multilingual learners’ talk, writing, and reasoning while maintaining high cognitive demand and authentic science sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth Pawlowski, Ji Sun Ham, Zoe Evans

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

How can classroom NGSS assessments provide an early, reliable window into readiness for state science tests? Explore district case studies—including findings from the CAST—that show how NGSS-aligned assessments can predict and support readiness for state science tests. We’ll dig into the data from district case studies and then demonstrate how to design 3D summative assessments in InnerOrbit so districts can recreate these patterns and monitor state test readiness with confidence. Whether you’re in California or another NGSS-aligned state, you’ll leave with concrete tools for monitoring state test readiness long before testing season.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Miller

Sponsoring Company: NOAA

This session will demonstrate how middle and high school students can use science models and interactive activities from NOAA Ocean Exploration lessons to visualize and explain complex ocean processes such as hydrothermal vent formation, deep-sea food webs, and seafloor mapping techniques. Participants will engage with modeling strategies that align with NGSS practices, helping students develop scientific reasoning by predicting, testing, and revising hypotheses. By modeling real-world ocean phenomena, students strengthen their understanding of systems thinking, scale, and cause-and-effect relationships—mirroring the work of professional ocean scientists. Attendees will leave with ready-to-implement activities that deepen student curiosity about Earth’s least explored environments.

SPEAKERS:
Suraida Nanez-James, Bekkah Lampe

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

Sponsoring Company: Switch Classroom

Engaging students in Earth science learning often starts with curiosity, relevance, and meaningful questions. This session explores how short, real-world science stories can be used as low-prep lesson openers, discussion starters, or unit entry events that invite students to wonder, talk, and make sense of Earth science ideas. Participants will examine practical classroom strategies for using brief science media to connect content to real-world contexts, with examples drawn from EarthDate.

SPEAKERS:
Jillian Swets

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

Keeping students engaged in 3D, phenomenon-based science learning is challenging—and when students are absent, it can feel impossible. This session offers practical, teacher-tested strategies to help all students stay connected to the storyline, even when they miss class. Participants will explore simple systems, digital tools, and collaborative routines that make catching up manageable for students and sustainable for teachers.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn strategies and tools to help absent students stay engaged in 3D learning and rejoin classroom sensemaking without adding hours of extra work for teachers.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Delaney

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

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

Crickets, Climate, and Claims. Ready for a science lesson your students will actually dig into (maybe even literally)? In this hands-on session, you’ll experience a full, classroom-ready Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) cycle that helps students make evidence-based arguments in science. Step into your students’ shoes as you explore a real-world 3D task connecting protein, planet, and persuasion. Using OER data on land and water use by different protein sources and a short reading on insect protein (yes, eating bugs!), you’ll learn how students can build and defend a claim with strong evidence and clear reasoning. Practice quick scoring with a simple three-row rubric that separates Practice, Crosscutting Concept, and Core Idea, and explore multilingual supports that maintain rigor and access for all learners. Leave with a ready-to-use task, anchor samples, and next steps to elevate climate literacy, student voice, and curiosity—all aligned with California AB 285.

TAKEAWAYS:
Reflect on the value and challenges of implementing CER in science classrooms and explore how scaffolded CER supports critical thinking around complex climate-related topics. Walk away with a ready-to-use 3D task, rubric, and strategies that spark inquiry and meet NGSS and CA AB 285.

SPEAKERS:
Lucretia Anton, Lauren Reh

Science teachers are increasingly asked to help students write scientifically—using evidence, reasoning, and clear explanations—yet many struggle to meet these demands. The DEFEND strategy, adapted from the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model, gives students a structured, accessible process for constructing scientific arguments and sensemaking through writing. DEFEND guides students to Declare their claim, Elaborate on science ideas, Form evidence-based points, Explain reasoning, Note counterclaims, and Drive home their conclusion. Teachers implementing DEFEND saw students improve in organization, use of evidence, and reasoning, especially those with exceptionalities. This interactive session models how to teach DEFEND through SRSD’s six stages, share student examples, and provide ready-to-use tools—lessons, quick-write prompts, and scaffolds—to strengthen science writing aligned with NGSS and ELA standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn the DEFEND strategy, a structured, classroom-tested approach to help students write, reason, and defend scientific ideas. Participants will see examples, practice steps, and receive tools to support diverse learners and align with NGSS and ELA standards.

SPEAKERS:
Angelique Aitken, Jeff Thomas

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

Students must develop effective disciplinary literacy practices. They must learn the difference between reading with understanding and reading complex texts like a scientist – reading charts and graphs to make inferences about data; reading and using specialized language and text structures; and reading controversial text, to critique and refine knowledge. Students must learn how to formulate questions to be answered; design investigations to help answer those questions; observe phenomena objectively and analyze and annotate observations; apply critical thinking skills to determine effective ways to communicate findings. Disciplinary literacy, the application of knowledge, combined with analytical and critical thinking skills, should enable students to think, act and communicate as scientists. Attendees will learn how to guide and enable students to engage in this process successfully. Handouts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to help students formulate effective questions to guide their investigations, and then apply their critical thinking skills and disciplinary skills (objective observations and analysis of phenomena), to determine cause and effect and analyze results of the investigation.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Knoell

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

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Science

Join us for an interactive, hands-on model lesson from OpenSciEd for High School to discover how the Carolina Certified Version takes these high-quality instructional materials to the next level— more accessible, more user-friendly, and enhanced for classroom safety. Dive into the Biology 1 unit and experience how the Serengeti board game transforms complex concepts into engaging learning. Participants will leave with practical strategies and valuable resources to energize their classrooms. 

SPEAKERS:
Cory Ort

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

Curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking are hallmarks of strong scientific thinking. In this high-energy session, experience four quick, engaging games that spark these skills in just 15 minutes. Walk away with ready-to-use activities that engage learners in science practices—no extensive prep required. Come play, discover, and leave inspired to make your science teaching more interactive and fun!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with everything they need to implement 4 mini-lessons that build sense-making and can be done in only 15 minutes.

SPEAKERS:
Terra Tarango

This session introduces “Survivor–American Southwest,” a Unit 1 storyline for AP Biology. Attendees will view a video showing challenges faced by desert rodents and participate in activities, including building a driving question board that increases motivation for inquiry. Participants will conduct an investigation to collect data for statistical analysis and graphical interpretation to answer questions about the benefits of crypsis. A related investigation of the hygroscopic properties of seeds will show how students explore burrowing behavior while connecting to water properties, macromolecules, statistics, and natural selection. Sample student lab CER posters and impacts on exam performance will be highlighted. The session will end with a question and answer session.

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

SPEAKERS:
Laura Christiansen, Chandra Mitnik, Kristin Clements, Noel Pauller

This hands-on workshop introduces Teach Engineering, a free digital library of 1,900+ classroom-tested, peer-reviewed, standards-aligned K-12 STEM lessons and activities. Participants will act as students and tackle a real-world design challenge in a hands-on activity from the Teach Engineering collection, where they design adaptive features for animals to thrive in specific environments. Through this phenomena-based and three-dimensional learning experience, educators will see how sensemaking and design thinking can be seamlessly integrated into instruction, using science and engineering practices to drive inquiry, modeling, and problem-solving. The session emphasizes interdisciplinary learning by showing how engineering design enriches science instruction, making STEM more relevant, engaging, and accessible for students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use Teach Engineering's free resources to integrate phenomena, sensemaking, and design thinking into STEM instruction, equipping students with deeper understanding and problem-solving skills.

SPEAKERS:
Ellen Sukovich

How can we know which teaching strategies will truly engage students and move their learning forward? The answer lies in listening. In this interactive presentation, participants will explore how teachers can use student talk and questioning to make instructional decisions that directly support sensemaking in science. I will share how I purposefully had students engage as active contributors to figure out phenomena, utilizing science and engineering practices to uncover the necessary disciplinary core ideas. This session will highlight ways to gain real-time insight into what students know, think, and wonder. These insights help educators decide whether to probe deeper, clarify students' initial thinking, or shift instructional strategies altogether.

TAKEAWAYS:
When teachers intentionally listen to students, they gain the clarity needed to choose the most effective instructional strategies to ensure student success through engagement while meeting the needs of all students.

SPEAKERS:
Tonya Woolfolk

This session explores how integrating Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning (CER) into the Engineering Design Process (EDP) makes student thinking visible and strengthens critical problem-solving skills. Participants will examine how CER prompts deepen reflection by moving students beyond “what happened” to “why it happened,” aligning with NGSS practices such as Engaging in Argument from Evidence. Classroom-ready examples, including a "Crash Test" design challenge, will illustrate how students can justify design choices, connect evidence to scientific concepts, and communicate solutions with clarity. Educators will leave with practical strategies for embedding CER into labs, exit tickets, and engineering challenges—transforming everyday activities into rich opportunities for sensemaking, argumentation, and real-world problem solving.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how integrating Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning (CER) into the Engineering Design Process (EDP) makes student thinking visible, moves learning from “what” to “why,” and equips students with critical reasoning, reflection, and communication skills for real-world problem solving.

SPEAKERS:
John Murphy, Mary Dillon

Today’s most urgent challenges—from climate change to food insecurity—are wicked problems that demand new approaches to teaching and learning. This session shares insights from co-design work between Boston University’s Center for STEM Professional Learning at Scale and Relevant Classroom, a Division of Vivayic, focused on developing professional learning experiences that move beyond disciplinary boundaries. Through examples from pathway design and facilitation, participants will explore strategies for creating transdisciplinary, phenomenon-based learning that is adaptable to local contexts while connecting to students’ interests and identities and maintaining coherence. The session highlights design moves that foster systems thinking, teacher and student agency, and equitable participation, as well as lessons learned about scaling professional learning through collaboration and shared ownership.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will experience how convergence-based professional learning equips educators to navigate complex, real-world phenomena and problems and design instruction that connects local relevance with global socio-scientific challenges.

SPEAKERS:
Brian Beierle

Sponsoring Company: Amplify

Teaching students to be scientific, critical thinkers both inside and outside of the classroom is the goal, but it’s no small feat. Discover how we can help students transfer the skills they learn in the science classroom to making thoughtful, reasoned decisions in the face of the pseudoscience they’ll encounter outside of it.

SPEAKERS:
Eric Cross, Melanie Trecek-King

Student perecption data in the third largest county in Michigan is showing that secondary students are struggling in schools with relevance and belonging. Join this session to collaborate, learn, and consider action around Student Engagement Pillars created by Kent Intermediate School District in Kent County, MI, where we will explore strategies to foster meaningful student participation and commitment to learning. This session brings together educators to examine key pillars of student engagement—including relationships, student-centered learning, school climate, instructional moves, and asset-driven teaching. Then, help to crowd source and share some insights on how science education leans into these accelerators with research-based best practice such as classroom discourse and creating a culture and climate for constructing understanding of core principles in science and engineering. Resources included. Please note this is content area agnostic and 6-12 (I had to add a subject).

TAKEAWAYS:
Through interactive discussions, research-based insights, and real-world examples, participants will: Consider student engagement indicators as a phenomenon, learn what reasearch says about student engagement, and relate it to science education.

SPEAKERS:
Wendi Vogel

Engage in an authentic scientific experience that demonstrates how science evolves through evidence-based discovery. As a mystery skeleton is progressively revealed, participants use the ladder of inference—a systems thinking tool—to make their thinking visible as they move from observations to interpretations to conclusions about the animal's identity. Drawing on their knowledge of animal anatomy and adaptations, participants form and revise hypotheses with each new piece of evidence, experiencing firsthand that changing one's mind is the hallmark of good scientific practice. The lesson integrates literacy through the picture book "Boy, Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs!", which extends the learning by showing how paleontological understanding has evolved over time. Participants leave with a complete 5E lesson plan differentiated for PreK-12, ready-to-use templates, and strategies for helping students develop metacognitive awareness about their reasoning processes.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use progressive evidence revelation and the ladder of inference, a systems thinking tool, to help students understand that revising conclusions based on new data is the essence of scientific thinking.

SPEAKERS:
DaNel Hogan

How can storytelling bridge the gap between science and society by supporting youth to grapple with the complexity of real-world sustainability issues? This session showcases contextual storytelling to create nuanced understanding. We will explore ways youth can tell their own stories to establish personal relevance, gather place-based community stories through participatory action research, and analyze causality through storytelling. Through a combination of hands-on activities and student work examples, participants will learn about visual, oral, and narrative storytelling as a method of transdisciplinary sensemaking in a science classroom. Skills covered will include developing systems, futures, and critical thinking through storytelling. The Smithsonian Science for Global Goals team will share how they leverage storytelling as an engaging tool to develop knowledge of complex global issues and build youth confidence in their ability to take action to create the future they envision.

TAKEAWAYS:
Storytelling is an important tool to understand complexity. When learning about sustainability issues this tool can allow youth to localize global topics, engage in community-based research, explore different perspectives, make sense of the world around them, and express their ideas in an engaging way.

SPEAKERS:
Khadijah Thibodeaux, Erika Bonnett

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Science

Come show us your surgical skills in this engaging, hands-on workshop! Participants dissect several mammalian organs and explore the important link between their anatomy and physiology. We explore real-world examples while connecting structure to function in several mammalian organs from different body systems, including the nervous (cow eye), cardiovascular (sheep heart), and reproductive (bull testicle) systems! Use these workshop objectives to bolster your 3-dimensional instruction

SPEAKERS:
Patti Kopkau

In this interactive workshop, a series of middle school Earth Science lessons will be shared to help educators bring local phenomena into their classrooms and engage their learners in sensemaking. Lessons topics include debris flow, wildfire, river velocity, weathering, plate tectonics, and mining of natural resources. These student-centered lessons were developed, peer reviewed, and tested in middle school classrooms as part of multiple National Science Foundation grants. All lessons are aligned with the NGSS and leverage local phenomena to elicit student ideas about the natural world. Participants will have electronic access to all lessons and will experience aspects of the lessons as students in this workshop.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will walk away with multiple NGGS aligned Earth Science lessons to use in their classrooms. Lessons will be shared electronically, teachers will experience aspects of the lessons as students, and time will be spent brainstorming how teachers can use local phenomena to ground the lessons.

SPEAKERS:
Trista McLaughlin, Megan Beckam

Explore how a large, diverse school district tackled the challenge of implementing K–12 Science and Engineering Practice (SEP) progressions to ensure access for all stakeholders. In this interactive session, participants will engage in collaborative sensemaking strategies designed to unpack the SEP progression of Developing and Using Models. Participants will engage in a strategy that can be used in K-12 professional learning and classrooms, making it accessible for all learners through scaffolding and differentiation. Authentic examples will drive participant reflection and planning for their own school communities.

TAKEAWAYS:
The experience provides a professional learning model that can be adapted for multi-functional implementation. Participants will analyze and take action on the SEP progression, leaving with an equity driven strategy that can be applied in professional learning communities and K-12 classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Vikki Romanoski, Noel Wagner, Kenneth LeCompte, Eve Case

This session will describe the CER model for constructing arguments and explanations, break down the components, and provide resources for classroom integration in alignment with content standards. Educators will learn about evidence-based arguments and their importance to the science classroom, explore the role of arguments in the sense-making process as it is used to teach the disciplinary core ideas of the NGSS, and participate in hands-on examples of practical classroom strategies for integrating the CER framework. The workshop will describe and model a sequential process for introducing, teaching, and strengthening writing skills that can be adapted for all content areas without taking time away from required content standards. Teachers will leave feeling better equipped to support young scientists learning the necessary science skills of writing arguments. We aim to improve domain specific literacy skills and authentic writing opportunities aligned with the NGSS.

TAKEAWAYS:
The CER model for writing is an effective framework for engaging in arguments from evidence and constructing explanations. CER can be taught in a sequential process while supporting students' sensemaking of the content standards using a plethora of editable resources that can be easily adapted.

SPEAKERS:
Chloe Tracy

Too many learners see science as something done by others in distant labs. Community science flips this: YOU are the scientist. This session shows how educators transform learners from passive consumers into active contributors who see themselves as part of the scientific community. Discover how to build scientific identity by connecting learners to real research where their observations matter and data creates change. When students contribute to authentic science—documenting biodiversity, analyzing data, tracking patterns—they develop agency and understand science is something they DO. Learn frameworks for facilitating community science that centers learner voice and demonstrates science happens everywhere by everyone. Explore Science Friday's curated resources connecting learners to diverse research topics and settings. Walk away with strategies for building belonging, tools for any learning environment, and an action plan for empowering all learners as scientists.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators learn to use community science to build scientific identity and agency, transforming learners from passive observers into active scientists who contribute to real research and create change through accessible projects in any setting.

SPEAKERS:
Sandra Roberts

Participants will experience science-themed choice time centers that allow early childhood learners to explore science concepts through play. Earth, Physical, and Life Science standards are highlighted in these centers using cross-cutting concept questioning to engage students in sensemaking as they play.

TAKEAWAYS:
Science in younger grades does not have to be prescriptive to be successful. Students can discover concepts through play. Learn how to structure your centers with guided tasks that will help students make observations of science concepts while engaging in play.

SPEAKERS:
Guida Faria, Kristen Crawford

Making observations, conducting experiments, and collecting data are essential skills for children as they build their understanding of science. A valuable classroom tool, lab notebooks deepen student learning and understanding of scientific concepts, enhance literacy and language skills, and allow for assessment of understanding. Through hands-on experiments, participants can explore data collection tools, recording sheets, lab notebook scaffolds, and other recording strategies for our youngest learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will come away with strategies to scaffold data collection and capture student understanding for the early elementary and elementary classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Katie Morrison

Join the fun as we "play" with gravity and balance and learn about physics concepts that are part of our every day lives. We will have lots of hands on activities testing and exploring balance using simple inexpensive everyday supplies.

TAKEAWAYS:
Hands on interactive activities can be done with simple inexpensive materials

SPEAKERS:
Godwyn Morris

Historical drawings of plants and animals, notebooks of famous scientists, and early sketches that became important inventions – these are all examples of free, digitized primary sources that educators can access from the Library of Congress and use with their young learners. Visit our table to explore some of these sources and chat with us about how you can engage your learners through hands-on activities that will sharpen their critical thinking skills, while providing them insights into how scientists and engineers think, practice, and apply scientific principles in the real world; how scientific ideas change over time; and how science and engineering are related to society. Primary sources are also ideal for interdisciplinary learning, offering a way to integrate such topics as English, math, science, social studies, art, music, and more. What will your students see in these primary sources? What will they wonder? We look forward to discussing possibilities with you!

TAKEAWAYS:
Come learn how to access millions of free digitized primary sources – photos, manuscripts, maps, multimedia, and more – and facilitate hands-on activities that build critical thinking, while providing insights into the nature of science, STEM practices, and the relationship between STEM and society.

SPEAKERS:
Lora Taylor, Michael Lowry, Michael Apfeldorf

Check out and learn how to access free ML-PBL integrated science curricular units for Grades K-5. See how the features of PBL support sensemaking, check out examples of unit overviews, literacy integration and recommended trade books, and research supporting the Multiple Literacies in PBL Project. The session provides a teaser for why PBL in elementary science and for more fully integrating science and literacy. Session handouts include access reminders to increase the likelihood that attendees will consider taking a closer look. Participants will have access to support for implementation.

TAKEAWAYS:
After viewing examples from ML-PBL K-5 units, participants will learn how to access the free K-5 resources on the Sprocket site. Handouts provide information for access and implementation, for adapting current units, and for integrating science and literacy throughout the school day.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Codere

Learn about all the fun ways to engage young children in STEM through map making, tracking and compass use. Children and adults of all ages can have a blast, when mapping is on the table!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will explore a range of age-appropriate activities around reading and making maps, animal tracking and compass work. They will leave with ideas that they can use in their classrooms, no matter the resources or space.

SPEAKERS:
Rina Zampieron

Words are the currency of science instruction, tools teachers use to teach and students use to demonstrate understanding. This session empowers educators to make vocabulary a purposeful part of three-dimensional science learning. Participants will explore a research-based vocabulary selection framework to identify and prioritize key academic terms that anchor lessons in meaningful context. Through hands-on activities, attendees will design age-appropriate, vocabulary-rich experiences that strengthen students’ ability to read, interpret, and produce domain-specific science texts. This vocabulary-driven approach promotes equity, supports standards alignment, and ensures coherent, conceptually focused instruction that deepens students’ sensemaking in science.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to use a research-based framework to review science standards and select academic vocabulary, ensuring that word choice, instruction, and assessment align to promote deeper student understanding and three-dimensional sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Julie Jackson

Explore “The Spirit Bear Phenomenon,” an interactive, NGSS-aligned genetics lesson that connects heredity, probability, and data analysis through the real-world mystery of the Kermode bear. Participants will experience how students use Punnett squares to model genetic outcomes, calculate trait frequencies, and represent data with bar graphs. Through hands-on inquiry and sensemaking, learners explore dominant and recessive inheritance patterns while linking abstract genetics concepts to meaningful, observable phenomena.

TAKEAWAYS:
Experience how to teach heredity and probability through the real-world mystery of the Kermode bear using NGSS-aligned modeling and data analysis—helping students build sensemaking skills and connect genetics concepts to observable phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Shane E Raggio

Using simple materials—dry-erase boards, markers, and curiosity—attendees will engage in modeling tasks, data-sharing discussions, and consensus-building strategies that mirror what students experience in an active science classroom. The session will highlight connections to the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices and demonstrate how whiteboarding supports formative assessment, argumentation, and classroom discourse. Participants will leave with ready-to-use whiteboarding routines, sample prompts, and reflection tools to foster richer inquiry and collaboration in their own classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn practical routines for using white boards to drive student inquiry and discussion. Participants will experence white boarding as a learning and walk away with topics and strategies to implement immediately in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Jessica Wagenmaker

AI can deepen science sensemaking when it is woven into a classroom culture that values curiosity, reflection, and evidence-based reasoning. This session introduces practical, tool-agnostic thinking structures that help students clarify ideas, test explanations, and reflect on their reasoning during phenomenon-based investigations. Participants will explore routines that position AI as a questioning partner, one that surfaces gaps in logic, offers alternative explanations, and supports revision of emerging ideas. Through live demonstrations, educators will see how these structures transform classroom norms by encouraging students to engage more purposefully with evidence, compare ideas, and make their thinking visible.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn AI-supported routines that strengthen student reasoning and help learners make their thinking visible during phenomenon based science investigations.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Lazzaro, Velma Itamura

Avoiding hard conversations often feels kind in the moment, but it can undermine trust and accountability over time. This session reframes accountability as an act of care, grounded in clear, honest, and respectful communication. Participants will explore how instructional leaders can support teachers in strengthening their practice, setting clear expectations, and addressing challenges in ways that advance student sensemaking. Through reflection and practical examples, attendees will leave with tools to navigate feedback and accountability conversations that are transparent, supportive, and grounded in shared values.

TAKEAWAYS:
Reframe accountability as an act of care and leadership by using clear, practical, and empathetic communication to address challenges, reduce avoidance, and engage in growth-focused conversations that build shared responsibility.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth Pawlowski, Kristin Rademaker, Zoe Evans

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Science

Explore how Smithsonian Science for the Classroom and STCMS—supported by structured coaching and ongoing professional learning—drive high-quality NGSS instruction. Engage in a hands-on task, see how NGSS-aligned lessons build academic growth, and identify common classroom pitfalls. Participants leave with practical strategies for building sustainable, high-impact science instruction. 

SPEAKERS:
Holly Baldwin, Heather Toothaker

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

How do you design common assessments that teachers actually use, leaders can trust, and students benefit from? This session breaks down four types of common assessments—Growth Assessments, Curricular Benchmarks, CFAs, and Unit Assessments—and what each reveals about student learning. Drawing on real district examples and InnerOrbit’s Common Assessment Guide, we’ll explore common pitfalls, realistic implementation strategies, and how leaders can build a coherent system that supports instruction, collaboration, and meaningful data use.

SPEAKERS:
Erin Cooke, Jasmine Glasper-Nunez