Take your students beyond your classroom walls through virtual speakers and field trips with those on the front lines of science, exploration, and conservation.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Discover the benefits of bringing exciting scientists, explorers, and conservationists live into your classroom through virtual guest speakers and field trips; 2. Explore how easy it is to do with exciting resources like Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants, Explorer Classroom, Google, and more; and 3. What to do before, during, and afterwards so your students get the most from these experiences.

SPEAKERS:
Joe Grabowski (Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants: Elora, ON)

Discover how to successfully launch and retrieve payloads engineered by your students into the stratosphere. In the 21st century, the sky is truly the limit!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to design, predict and track stratospheric ballooning projects. Attendees will learn about the FAA guidelines and regulations associated with unmanned balloons. Attendees will learn about the challenges and pitfalls of gathering data from extreme environments up to 20 miles from the surface of the Earth.

SPEAKERS:
Robert Ferrell (St. Georges Technical High School: Middletown, DE), Michael Oberly (Springer Middle School: Wilmington, DE)

Unpack executive functioning and best practices for increasing students with learning challenges' efficacy in Project Based Learning. We'll discuss workshop barriers and pitfalls you've experienced.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Unpack executive functioning for students with learning challenges in science education. 2. Identify the best practices, tools and strategies, to help students manage Project Based Learning (PBL) in Science. 3. Model the continuum of more hand-holding to less when facilitating PBL in science education for both primary and secondary students.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Chambers (The Siena School: Silver Spring, MD)

Fulbright's DAST program is seeking U.S. teachers for two- to six-week projects all over the globe. Come hear from 2020 Uzbekistan Fellow Allan Miller and learn how you can apply.

TAKEAWAYS:
What is the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teacher Short Term Program for US Teachers and how can a teacher apply? An understanding of the presenters experience in Uzbekistan in Jan / Feb 2020 training the first cohort of STEM teacher trainers at the Samarqand Institute for Teacher Education An overview of the 3 Dimensions of the Next Generation Science Standards, which served as the foundational learning for grounding the Uzbek Teacher Trainers in an understanding of "What is STEM?"

SPEAKERS:
Allan Miller (Champlain Valley School District: Shelburne, VT)

Consideration of both the NGSS and Environmental Education Guidelines can help teacher educators prepare K–12 teachers who are developing environmental curricula that humanize and democratize education for all K–12 students by being inclusive, anti-racist, and working to achieve equity and sustainability for all communities.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Integration of of environmental education into preservice and inservice science teacher training; 2. Developing an environmental curriculum that humanizes and democratizes education for all; and 3. Preparing activist teachers who are ready, willing, and able to create activist students.

SPEAKERS:
Brian Gordon (NYU Steinhardt School of Education: New York, NY)

Using pop culture references creates relevant opportunities for teachers to authentically assess students' ability to design/speculate models to revitalize endangered species and vulnerable ecosystems.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn about the intersection between project-based learning, anchoring phenomena and authentic assessments Learn about a model that uses pop culture to create anchoring phenomena and opportunities for authentic assessments Collaboratively identify examples of pop culture that can be used as anchoring phenomena and/or authentic assessment and link them with NGSS standards

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Chambers (The Siena School: Silver Spring, MD)

Discover ideas, curricula, and lessons/activities from the Space Station Explorers Program. They inspire curiosity, develop skills, and promote learning in scientific, mathematical, life science, and Earth science spheres by engaging students with the International Space Station.

TAKEAWAYS:
How to access the ideas, curriculum, and lessons/activities of the Space Station Explorers Program How the program integrates appropriately and easily into the classroom (physically or virtually) as well as activities for learning at home. How to become a Space Station Explorer Ambassador

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Pore (Bishop O'Connell High School: Arlington, VA)

Explore how to take advantage of NSTA’s vast resources and pathways—including both asynchronous and synchronous options—to create personalized professional learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Discover the value of being a School or District NSTA Partner; 2. Explore how to maximize online professional learning for all teachers; and 3. Discover how to utilize NSTA's online learning resources to support in-person professional learning.

SPEAKERS:
Tricia Shelton (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Flavio Mendez (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

Learn how to bring the Amazon to life in your classroom through learning from Indigenous community elders, entomologists, primatologists, ornithologists, other formal and informal educators.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will learn how to connect the Amazon to their classroom through engaging, thoughtful activities Develop an understanding of the Indigenous Tribe of the Maijuna people and how we can support them and their work Make connections with scientists in different fields of study to collaborate and engage students

SPEAKERS:
Kate Price (Moore Square Magnet Middle School: Raleigh, NC)

We’ll start with direct observation of the daytime Moon. Based on our findings, we’ll determine its direction of revolution, location in space, and phases…before building models.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Learn how to do daytime observations of the Moon and use this data to determine how it moves in its orbit around Earth; 2. See, firsthand, how the geometry between the Sun, Earth, and Moon determines the Moon’s phases; and 3. Walk through multiple astronomy models that build on one another and are helpful for developing mental models that are so important to understanding scientific concepts.

SPEAKERS:
Carolyn Balch (Teacher: Great Falls, VA)

We present the EQuIPD coaching model used in establishing collaborations between teachers and coaches in a professional development to improve teaching practices and student outcome.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. The attendees will learn how coaching can foster collaborations among teachers and coaches to effect improvement in teaching practices. 2. The attendees will reflect on their practices by engaging with a facilitative coaching method by EQuIPD experts. 3. The attendees will learn the critical features of the EQuIPD facilitative coaching model.

SPEAKERS:
Nancy Ruzycki (University of Florida: Gainesville, FL)

How does toxic ammonia from fish waste end up serving as a nitrogen source for plants? Attend this informative session to learn about aquaponics.

TAKEAWAYS:
How the nitrogen cycle influences both plant and fish health. How to use a modular design philosophy to allow students to innovate and create an aquaponics system in the classroom. How to incorporate Virginia's Trout in the Classroom program into your aquaponics system.

SPEAKERS:
Eric March (Browne Academy: Alexandria, VA), Kristen Oberhofer (Browne Academy: Alexandria, VA)

How do science teachers and students rebound after a year of interruptions, remote learning, and a compromised learning experience last year?

TAKEAWAYS:
Tips offered on how to engage prior learner experience and content knowledge without student fear of judgement or negative evaluation Looking at 3-dimensional science teaching in terms of broad, transferable skills that can be backfilled if learning loss took place last year Creating opportunities for purposeful, personal self-reflection to help drive instruction and allow learners to connect with material in ways that couldn’t occur with COVID restrictions

SPEAKERS:
Shawn Sutton (Long Valley Middle School: Long Valley, NJ)

What is an effective and engaging way to get students to care about climate change and take action? This session will focus on how to help students teach the story of climate change through the creation of their podcast episodes and the publication of their class podcast series.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Teach students how to create podcast episodes in partnerships and a podcast series as a class; 2. Integrate authentic assessments into a unit of study on climate change that will be incorporated into the climate change podcast series; and 3. Structure a unit of study on climate change into different parts with a logical sequence of NGSS work products leading to the creation of the class podcast series.

SPEAKERS:
Brian Gordon (NYU Steinhardt School of Education: New York, NY)

This session will take a deep dive into how to engage students experiencing chronic trauma in the science classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Participants will be exposed to the signs and impacts of chronic trauma on science students. 2. Participants will be provided with strategies for engaging these students in the science classroom. 3. Participants will be provided with ideas and techniques for developing a science classroom environment that supports students living with chronic traums.

SPEAKERS:
Ann MacKenzie (Miami University: Oxford, OH)

Explore NSTA’s NEWProfessional Learning Units. Discover these bite-sized asynchronous professional learning experiences that support student sensemaking to earn credit to submit to your school or district.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Discover how NSTA can provide asynchronous and bite-sized continuing education credit options (2 hours per PLU); 2. Explore how each PLU contains reflections or tasks connected to the classroom that are submitted to NSTA for review or feedback; and 3. Explore how we can support professional learning for individuals or schools/districts, including the flexible options available for Professional Learning Unit topics, and how these fit into our Professional Learning pathways.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Phillips (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Elizabeth Allan (University of Central Oklahoma: Edmond, OK), Tricia Shelton (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

This session presents an eesmarts activity using the popular “escape room” format in which students solve clues using science knowledge to complete the challenge.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Using an escape room to explore the concepts of energy transformation and its environmental impact 2. Ideas to enhance distance learning through competitive activities/gamification 3. Suggestions for using and adapting escape room format with eesmarts or your existing curriculum

SPEAKERS:
Kathleen Brooks (CREC: No City, No State), Rebecca Tonkinson (eesmarts: Hartford, CT), Sharyon Holness (eesmarts: No City, No State)

Join us as we explore how NSTA’s three-dimensional resources can be utilized to enhance your teaching. Walk away with effective strategies for science teaching and learning and hear from educators as they provide tips for using these resources.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Hear from classroom teachers about how they are using NSTA Press publications; and 2. Leave with top-notch teaching tips and innovative lesson plan ideas that promote imaginative learning and student engagement.

SPEAKERS:
Tricia Shelton (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Wendy Binder (Program Director, STEM Professional Learning: Arlington, VA)

Students conduct research throughout multiple parts of a unit of study on Hudson River Ecology. The authentic NGSS-focused assessments they produce throughout the unit are in service of a collaboratively authored book that the class creates about the Hudson River.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Develop authentic NGSS-focused assessments throughout a unit of study on Hudson River Ecology; 2. Teach students agency and independence as they create chapters for a collaboratively authored book; and 3. Structure a logically sequenced unit of study on Hudson River Ecology that facilitates student growth as scientific thinkers and learners.

SPEAKERS:
Brian Gordon (NYU Steinhardt School of Education: New York, NY)

Explore innovative approaches to incorporating vocabulary and text in the science classroom using strategies encouraging reflection, critical thinking, communication, and consistent connection to content.

TAKEAWAYS:
1) Immediately applicable, engaging activities that can be used at any grade level 2)How to help students connect what they are doing in science to themselves, their world or the world around them 3) How to create a space in your classroom for weekly vocabulary in order to ensure all students have the same base of information for classroom discussions, activities and content instruction

SPEAKERS:
Kate Price (Moore Square Magnet Middle School: Raleigh, NC), Kim Patterson (West Pine Middle School: West End, NC)

Share our Vermont middle school journey implementing project-based learning and the “ best of times, worst of times" in units involving podcasts, student science videos, and design challenges.

TAKEAWAYS:
What are the key design elements for technology-rich project based learning units? How can a project drive student learning and still keep content learning targets in the center? Is it possible video production, podcasting or engineering design challenges might enhance students’ proficiency based learning in my classroom - and if so, how?

SPEAKERS:
Damon Tighe (Bio-Rad Laboratories: Hercules, CA)

Give students memorable experiences by providing opportunities for learning that extend beyond the classroom through meaningful connections with community partners.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Community partners can come from unlikely places. 2. Partnerships benefit not only students but educators as well. 3. Teachers will learn how to plan and approach building a network of community partners.

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Niemi (Muscogee County School District: Columbus, GA)

Imagine doing daily labs without going crazy. We will discuss the highlights of setting up a self-directed middle school science classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
You'll learn the questions you must ask before embarking on this structural change. You'll consider how to change your environment to accommodate a self-directed classroom. You'll think through your scope and sequence and see how it can be adjusted to a self-directed classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Carolyn Balch (Teacher: Great Falls, VA)

Experience three different digital design challenges using branching scenarios that provide student choice and data sets. Each challenge is presented on a different digital platform.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Participants will engage in a digital design challenge to test efficiency of wind turbine blades. 2. Participants will engage in a digital design challenge to test the strength of electromagnets. 3. Participants will engage in a digital design challenge to test the greenhouse effect in an area of a specific land surface (polar region, water, desert).

SPEAKERS:
Kathleen Brooks (CREC: No City, No State), Rebecca Tonkinson (eesmarts: Hartford, CT), Sharyon Holness (eesmarts: No City, No State)