As science educators, what contributions can the disciplines we teach make to ongoing struggles for social and environmental justice? This presentation explains how keeping this question at the center of our work provides opportunities for our students to engage with our disciplines in deeper, more critical, and potentially transformative ways.

SPEAKERS:
Daniel Morales-Doyle (University of Illinois Chicago: Chicago, IL)

Participants will be introduced to the ways you can use your local zoo as a living laboratory to teach STEM content to majors and nonmajors alike. During this interactive session, participants will explore the various ways science is used at the zoo and practice collecting behavioral data.

SPEAKERS:
Grace Fuller (Detroit Zoological Society: Royal Oak, MI)

This interactive workshop will demonstrate the pitfalls and barriers to cultural responsiveness. Participants will gain knowledge and applicable skills in cultural responsiveness that are small changes to what they are currently doing in their professional practice.

SPEAKERS:
Courtney Plotts (Council for At Risk Student Education and Professional Standards: Parrish, FL)

The pandemic has reminded us that learning demands strong teacher-student relationships and opportunities to connect ideas from science to students’ and families’ everyday lives and communities. Equity demands we not return to the “old normal” and that we reject the false dichotomy between learning and students’ social, cultural, emotional, and intellectual well-being. In this panel presentation, authors of the Learning Policy Institute and Spencer Foundation report “Summer Learning and Beyond: Principles for Equitable Learning Postpandemic” will describe principles grounded in the learning sciences for equitable learning in a post-pandemic world.

SPEAKERS:
William Penuel (University of Colorado Boulder: Boulder, CO), Shirin Vossoughi (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL), Christopher Collins (Cajon Valley School District: El Cajon, CA), Ann Ishimaru (University of Washington: Seattle, WA)