Discover how to create engaging lessons, connecting to student interests and to the science and natural phenomena that surround us. Pick up strategies to engage K–6 students in explorations, helping them recognize and understand real-world science, while creating a lifelong love of science. Handouts!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn: 1. innovative strategies to help children identify, explore, and understand a variety of interesting, real-life science that surrounds them in their everyday world; 2. how to design lessons that emphasize exploration, and give students the opportunity to test variables and analyze their effects; and 3. effective questioning strategies to engage students and increase the depth of student thinking, also helping to make student thinking visible; and to help teachers use effective questioning strategies to help students clarify and articulate their understanding of essential science phenomena and concepts.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Knoell (Educational and Technology Consultant: Prairie Village, KS)

Explore ways to integrate science and ELA with picture books to help students master science concepts, while at the same time enforcing literacy standards!

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Using picture books will help bring the science to life while enforcing ELA National and State Standards; 2. Inquiry can be embedded and implemented with the use of interactive picture books; and 3. You can use any picture book to engage and help students practice crosscutting concepts and engineering skills.

SPEAKERS:
John Taylor (Marvin Ridge High School: No City, No State), Douglas Hunnings (Elkhart Community Schools: Elkhart, IN), Aliya Caldwell (ETHOS Innovation Center: Elkhart, IN)

Authors of this report from the Board on Science Education of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will give an overview of the report’s key issues, conclusions, and recommendations.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Challenges facing elementary science education; and 2. Solutions for increasing elementary science education.

SPEAKERS:
Heidi Schweingruber (The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: Washington, DC), Amy Stephens (The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: Washington, DC)

Grades K–8 teachers—please join us for this hands-on workshop using biomimicry to design a system to land payloads safely to the surface of Mars.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: 1. integrate data using pocketlab sensors; 2. learn about modifications to this lesson that can help increase equity for all learners; and 3. see examples of formative assessments that can be used to assess student learning.

SPEAKERS:
Lisa Pitts (Oakdale School: Edmond, OK), Sheryl McCarthy (The Good Shepherd Catholic Montessori: Cincinnati, OH)

Join us for a hands-on FoodPrints lesson that explores the Three Sisters Garden to teach teamwork, SEL practices, cooperation, groups discussion, and more!

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Engage in a hands-on engineering investigation to design and build a Three Sisters Garden model and learn the Native American legend of the Three Sisters Garden as participants work in groups to explore the themes of teamwork, cooperation, and empathy as it relates to their investigation and the legend. 2. Participants will practice strategies to engage students in discourse and develop habits for discussion and collaboration through a series of hands on investigations, as well as explore tools for assessing through discourse. 3. Explore the FoodPrints Curriculum’s interdisciplinary approach to teaching elementary science lessons with garden and food education themes, and gain free access to our lessons and resources for Pre-K through 5th grade.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Ramsey (FRESHFARM FoodPrints: Washington, DC), Susan Bandler (FRESHFARM FoodPrints: Washington, DC)

This session provides ideas for engaging students in Science, Math, and Literacy while addressing learning loss and school culture.

TAKEAWAYS:
Ideas on how to address leaning loss through fun and engagement. Integration of Science, Math, Literacy, and local studies Building a school culture based on positivity and love

SPEAKERS:
LaCosta Hodges (Oakvale Elementary School: Oakvale, WV), Racine Stefancic (Oakvale Elementary School: Oakvale, WV), Summer Thomas (Oakvale Elementary School: Oakvale, WV)

Attendees will actively engage with innovative, technology-rich tools and learning strategies to teach data collection and analysis, engineering design processes, coding, and robotics. Come learn 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: Prairie Village, KS)

The challenges presented to our students by the world in which they will live require committed problem solvers with the academic, life, and social skills promoted through an education utilizing design learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how each step of the design process can promote essential skills in their classroom. Attendees will learn where effective and appropriate technology use enhances the design process and problem solving. Attendees will learn how design learning fosters leadership skills in those facilitating the learning and in those participating in the challenges.

SPEAKERS:
Dr. Chad LeDune (Southwest School Corporation: Sullivan, IN)

Sponsoring Company: Beyond Labz

Built on a platform developed over 20 years, Beyond Labz creates an open-ended environment providing students the opportunity to experiment, practice, fail, discover, and learn.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Beyond Labz simplifies and reduces the cost and expertise needed to provide crucial laboratory experiences and practice for Secondary and Higher Ed students; 2. Attendees will learn how the labs are used for pre- and post-lab experiences, credit recovery and lab make-up, student engagement in class, and meeting NGSS standards; and 3. Basic onboarding and start-up instructions will be provided for drop-in solutions, and instructions for using some of the more sophisticated features will also be described.

SPEAKERS:
Brian Woodfield (Brigham Young University: Provo, UT)

In this workshop, participants will discuss how NGSS-focused instructional materials can support an equitable classroom that empowers all students to design solutions to real-world problems.

TAKEAWAYS:
(1) In the NGSS, problems are defined as “situations somebody wants to change,” which is different from construction or design projects, where the ultimate goal is achieving a design or tinkering. (2) Problems that describe real-world situations grounded in compelling contexts that students care about can create intrinsic motivation for all students to learn science and engineering ideas. (3) The presence of an authentic and compelling problem in instructional materials is not enough; it also needs to be used in instruction in a way that will effectively support students’ learning and motivation.

SPEAKERS:
Neelo Soltanzadeh (WestEd: San Francisco, CA), Jenn Brown-Whale (Howard County Public School System: Ellicott City, MD)

Calling K–5 teachers to explore and get hands on with engineering habits and practices using the new Framework for P—12 Engineering Learning and sample integrative STEM lessons!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use the P12 Framework for Engineering Learning to identify, create, add, and revise STEM units to enhance true engineering practices. You will also learn how one school division is using the Framework to intentionally engage with engineering practices for all K-5 students. Lastly, begin planning your own integration of the framework into your own or an existing STEM lesson.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Sabarre (Harrisonburg City Public Schools: Harrisonburg, VA)

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

SPEAKERS:
Douglas Hunnings (Elkhart Community Schools: Elkhart, IN), John Taylor (Marvin Ridge High School: No City, No State)

Through STEM notebooks and the Engineering and Design Process, transform your literacy block to become more engaging and inquiry based.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. The steps of the engineering and design process and what each step means and how it looks in the classroom 2. STEM notebooks and how to use them effectively 3. Using STEM notebooks and the EDP during your literacy block specifically but demonstrate how the EDP is cross curricular

SPEAKERS:
Lindsey McAlister (McKissick Academy of Science & Technology: Easley, SC), Abbigail Ramey (McKissick Academy of Science & Technology: Easley, SC)