2021 Los Angeles Area Conference - Sessions

Does Black English Stand Between Black Students and Success in Science?

Discussion centers on tools to properly analyze Black students’ scientific work to determine if the misconceptions and misunderstandings are a learning issue or language issue. This workshop focuses on the use of language to reduce the ethnic achievement gap in science.

Takeaways: 1. Analyzing students’ work from a linguistic lens; 2. Recognizing biases when it comes to student language; and 3. Pushing Black students academically forward without making them feel torn between two language worlds.

Speakers

Jonte' Lee (Calvin Coolidge Senior High School: Washington, DC)

NASA's Space Food and Nutrition

Explore caloric and nutritional values of NASA's space food. Discover a menu of inquiry activities/resources to integrate into the classroom to satisfy your STEM appetite.

Takeaways: 1. Explore NASA STEM activities that investigate space food and nutrition for astronauts living on the Space Station; 2. Construct sample space food menus to develop a better understanding of nutrition for human space exploration; and 3. Make connections between math, science, nutrition, and exercise while exploring the impact of living in space and in our gravity-filled environment here on Earth.

Speakers

Barbie Buckner (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: Greenbelt, MD)

Presenter Materials for this Session:
(Please login with your NSTA account to view the materials)

ASEE Session: Coding in an Elementary School

Let's teach students, teachers, and families how to code. Learn how to promote creativity, problem solving, higher-order thinking, and digital literacy in your classroom.

Takeaways: Teachers will: 1. learn to incorporate unplugged activities; 2. gain skills to integrate coding into their classroom using multiple platforms; and learn how to involve families during Hour of Code Event.

Speakers

Gabriela Arroyo (Santa Monica Boulevard Community Charter School: Los Angeles, CA), Jennifer Nishimoto (Santa Monica Boulevard Community Charter School: Los Angeles, CA)

Presenter Materials for this Session:
(Please login with your NSTA account to view the materials)

STEM Teaching Tools: Resources for Justice-Centered Science Instruction

Choose which of these free resources for equitable science instruction are most relevant to your work. Then read, discuss, and plan!

Takeaways: 1. Science learning is culturally rooted, and strong instruction should take an asset-based approach to young peoples’ ways of thinking and knowing; 2. Developing more inclusive classrooms is a constant process. There are always steps educators can take to support equity, no matter where they are in their journey; and 3. These resources offer tangible next steps educators can take toward equity in their classroom, from identifying meaningful anchor phenomena (stemteachingtools.org/brief/42) to teaching biology in more gender-inclusive ways (stemteachingtools.org/brief/76) to fostering more student talk (stemteachingtools.org/brief/35).

Speakers

Deb Morrison (University of Washington: Seattle, WA), Abby Rhinehart (University of Washington: Seattle, WA)

Develop Engaged, Future-Ready Science Learners

Attendees will actively engage with innovative, technology-rich tools while learning strategies to teach data collection and analysis, engineering design processes, coding, and robotics. Discover engaging ways to apply coding to make devices “work,” adding rigor and complexity as learners gain skills and understanding.

Takeaways: Attendees will learn how to: 1. design accessible, equitable hands-on learning experiences, in which ALL students actively participate and engage with innovative technology tools, helping students learn essential science concepts, engineering processes, and learn how to collaborate with peers to increase understanding; 2. teach authentic data collection and analysis, so that students can learn how to explore and test variables and measure and analyze their effects; and 3. use programmable technology tools and devices as effective teaching tools, helping students learn how to input code to achieve a desirable outcome, and how to analyze, diagnose, and correct the code when the device doesn’t perform as intended.

Speakers

Donna Knoell (Educational and Technology Consultant: Overland Park, KS)

Synthetic Biology: The Intersection of Biology, Engineering, and Computer Science

Participants will combine engineering and biology as they work through a free activity from a no-cost introductory curriculum on the emerging field of Synthetic Biology.

Takeaways: Looking for free resources and innovative ways to introduce engineering into K–12 classrooms? American Society for Engineering Education’s (ASEE) pre-college division will share them!

Speakers

Leonardo Morsut (University of Southern California: Los Angeles, CA), Wendy Wooten (Reseda Charter High School: Reseda, CA)

Presenter Materials for this Session:
(Please login with your NSTA account to view the materials)

Build a Probe to Stimulate Muscle Movement

This workshop provides participants with materials to construct a probe that can safely stimulate muscle movements in the arms and hands to build understanding of the nervous system’s interactions with the muscular skeletal systems.

Takeaways: 1. How the nerves utilize electrochemical energy to create muscle movements; 2. How muscles when stimulated can move limbs; and 3. How to repurpose and utilize a TENS unit to demonstrate interactions of the neural and muscular skeletal systems.

Speakers

Mark Malone (University of Colorado at Colorado Springs: Colorado Springs, CO)

Presenter Materials for this Session:
(Please login with your NSTA account to view the materials)

NMLSTA-Sponsored Session: The Great Water Design Challenge

Problem solving? Creativity? Collaboration? Design Challenge? Join in a mini design challenge and develop your own challenge tailored for your class before you leave.

Takeaways: Design sprints: 1. support innovation by solving a problem in a quick and creative manner; 2. engage students in 21st-century skills; and 3. incorporate many of the Next Generation Science Standards Science and Engineering Practices.

Speakers

Liz Martinez (Curriculum/Professional Development: Escondido, CA)

Presenter Materials for this Session:
(Please login with your NSTA account to view the materials)

Engineering for STEM Literacy in Support of Workforce Readiness—Presented by Teacher Fellows from the 2020–2021 Northrop Grumman Foundation Teachers Academy

Come experience quality engineering lessons inspired by externships with engineers that require students to acquire and use elements of disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) from physical, life, or Earth and space sciences together with elements of DCIs from engineering design to solve problems.

Takeaways: 1. Experience how to create an authentic need to integrate science and engineering ideas to solve an authentic problem, making the interdependence of science and engineering explicit; 2. Explore examples of engineering lessons that provide access for all students that are grounded in sensemaking; and 3. Discuss what it means to be career ready and the skills that are inherent in three-dimensional learning as espoused by NGSS and the K–12 Framework for Science Education.

Speakers

Wendy Binder (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

Presenter Materials for this Session:
(Please login with your NSTA account to view the materials)

Welcome to the Inquiry Zone!

Elementary teachers can become comfortable teaching science without "adding to their plate." Our strategies have led to a natural approach to cross-curricular instruction.

Takeaways: Participants will learn: 1. an approach to decrease the load or stress for elementary teachers to help them feel more comfortable implementing inquiry; 2. how literacy is foundational to a robust cross-curricular science inquiry approach; and 3. an approach to help students "think like a scientist."

Speakers

Douglas Hunnings (Elkhart Community Schools: Elkhart, IN), John Taylor (ETHOS Innovation Center: Elkhart, IN)

3-2-1 Lift-Off! NASA’s Beginning Engineering Science and Technology (BEST) Curriculum

Use each stage of the Engineering Design Process to complete a team challenge of building and launching a satellite while making connections to NASA missions.

Takeaways: Participants will: 1. learn about and use the engineering design process to build and perform a drop test of a satellite using NASA’s BEST activities; 2. learn how to integrate the process skills of measuring, calculating, designing, and evaluating while teaching the engineering design process; and 3. make real-life connections to how NASA engineers use the engineering design process and work as teams to accomplish their mission goals.

Speakers

Barbie Buckner (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: Greenbelt, MD)

Presenter Materials for this Session:
(Please login with your NSTA account to view the materials)

Getting Students to Read in Science

Reading should not be limited to English courses. Leave with strategies on how to motivate students to explore science through scientific novels. Review three years of qualitative data on how novels increased  literacy, scientific fluency, scientific connectivity, and college preparation in a marine biology course.

Takeaways: Teahers will: 1. learn how to use articles to make their content more applicable to the lives of the students; 2. receive strategies on how to get students to read more scientific articles; and 3. receive resources on selecting grade-appropriate scientific articles.

Speakers

Jonte' Lee (Calvin Coolidge Senior High School: Washington, DC)

NMLSTA-Sponsored Session: Oil Spills and Dust Bowls

The Dust Bowl and oil spills and disasters. What do they have in common? Engage in hands-on activities that investigate the interaction of Earth’s four spheres.

Takeaways: 1. Scientists from various disciplines work together to solve problems; 2. Earth’s atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere are constantly interacting with one another; and 3. Human interaction with Earth’s systems may be detrimental with long-term effects.

Speakers

Liz Martinez (Curriculum/Professional Development: Escondido, CA)

Presenter Materials for this Session:
(Please login with your NSTA account to view the materials)

Teaching Science Standards Through Coding

Learn how to reach the three-dimensional science standards in your classroom through hands-on coding with the BBC micro:bit and free online Microsoft MakeCode simulator.

Takeaways: Participants will: 1. gain personal hands-on experience using a BBC micro:bit to teach the Next Generation Science Standards; 2. learn how to teach problem solving through coding at an age-appropriate level with tips and pointers from presenters who each have over 10 years' experience in the elementary classroom; and 3. walk away with a free sample lesson from CYBER.ORG that includes the corresponding Next Generation Science Standards for the upper elementary classroom.

Speakers

Laurie Salvail (CYBER.ORG: Bossier City, LA), Brittany Pike (CYBER.ORG: Bossier City, LA)

Presenter Materials for this Session:
(Please login with your NSTA account to view the materials)

Leading Conversations Around Identity, Race, Belonging, and Bias in STEM Spaces

Join the UCLA Science Project as we explore structures and formats for science leaders looking to engage teachers around social justice in STEM classrooms.

Takeaways: 1. Co-construct a learning experience centered around inclusion and belonging within school site meetings; 2. Recognize how our identities and lived experiences impact our approaches to science education and leadership; and 3. Establish space and culture that sustains conversations around equity issues.

Speakers

Leticia Perez (UCLA Science Project: Los Angeles, CA), Zachary Cue (UCLA Science Project: Los Angeles, CA)

Inclusive Science Assessments: Supporting and Designing Equitable Formative Assessments to Build on Learners’ Interests and Knowledge

Learn how to integrate the cultural resources your students bring to class with your science teaching and learning. Come explore equity-based cultural formative assessments.

Takeaways: 1. Resources for instructional leaders and educators to support and create meaningful connections between classroom science concepts and the application of those ideas in everyday situations; 2. Discussion of the implementation of these tools and resources in dynamic school environments; and 3. The strategies presented in this workshop can be used with any curricula, at any grade level, and in all subjects of science and engineering.

Speakers

Deb Morrison (University of Washington: Seattle, WA)

Come Explore NGSS Design

See what NGSS looks like in the classroom by building a water filter and learning about the hydrosphere and atmosphere.

Takeaways: 1. Lesson design using 5E + T ; 2. Resources, tools, and apps; and 3. Engineering a water filter that you take back to school.

Speakers

Maddalena Stodart (Mitchell Community School: Canyon Country, CA), Annette Licata (Tracy Elementary School: Baldwin Park, CA)

Presenter Materials for this Session:
(Please login with your NSTA account to view the materials)

NASA’s Scale of Discovery and the Solar System Scroll

Let’s make a pocket solar system scroll. Come learn how to apply ratios to create a scale model of the planets based on your height.

Takeaways: 1. With a properly scaled solar system scroll, participants will identify inner and outer planets and readily SEE why they are named as such (ESS1, ESS2); 2. Understanding the concept of rations and fractions, part-to-whole, participants will leave being able to create a proportional solar system in their classroom, on a football field, or across their state; and 3. This activity takes unique NASA content, places it in context within the curriculum, and makes applications beyond the solar system that include scientific inquiry and scientific discovery while using mathematics to show proportions and relate to the overall structure of our solar system (ETS2).

Speakers

Barbie Buckner (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: Greenbelt, MD)

Presenter Materials for this Session:
(Please login with your NSTA account to view the materials)

Creating and Maintaining an Equitable Science Classroom

STEM classrooms should establish a welcoming environment in which all individuals can use their cultural knowledge and practices to make sense of the world.

Takeaways: 1. A shared understanding of equity and social justice in science classrooms and STEM communities; 2. Approaches to identify and honor student-lived experiences and cultures; and 3. Challenge conventional notions of what counts as science.

Speakers

Jon Kovach (UCLA Science Project: Los Angeles, CA)