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)

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 learn about and use the engineering design process to build and perform a drop test of a satellite using NASA’s BEST activities. Educators will learn how to integrate the process skills of measuring, calculating, designing and evaluating while teaching the engineering design process. 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)

Learn how a science teacher incorporated HOTS (higher-order thinking skills), technology, and alternative assessments in her classroom and doesn't want to go back to traditional assessments.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Describe higher order thinking skills and how educators need to help students obtain these skills. 2. Show examples of how technology can be used as a tool to help students learn HOTS. 3. See examples of how alternative assessments were used in a science classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Emilie Tekely (Dauphin County Technical School: Harrisburg, PA)

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)

Did you realize that elders used inquiry, a multidisciplinary project-based approach, hands-on learning, and innovation? Incorporating these ideas will improve your classroom for ALL students.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. All teachers can adapt their teaching methods to match those of our elders. 2. The sequence and methods that were used by our elders insured that students were active learners. 3. The elders not only had students build a foundation of knowledge, but also they accomplished this by using inquiry, exploring phenomena, implementing a hands-on approach, and concluding with an innovative extension.

SPEAKERS:
Joel Truesdell (Kamehameha Schools Hawaii Campus: Keaau, HI)

Experience hands-on Science and ELA investigations with the FoodPrints Curriculum’s interdisciplinary approach to teaching nine major food and garden education themes.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Engage in hands-on investigation from three different elementary lessons: Edible Plant Parts, Seed Dispersal, and the Garden Ecosystem for grades 1–3 that can be used in the classroom and in outdoor learning using literacy-based approaches aligned to Common Core ELA and hands-on science investigations aligned to NGSS; 2. Learn methods for teaching and assessing vocabulary using live worms, engage students in discourse as they sort real food to classify edible plant parts, create seed packets using nonfiction text features while addressing speaking and listening standards, using student discourse, real-world and authentic vocabulary and incorporating read alouds to support instruction and learning methods for authentic assessment with each investigation; and 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 preK—5.

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

Are you interested in climate change lessons to engage students? Discover activity-filled lessons that explore natural cycles and what can be learned from proxies.

TAKEAWAYS:
1) Participants will engage in activities that involve natural cycles including sun cycle and the Carbon Cycle. 2) Participants will explore a variety of proxies and what information we can learn from them about Earth’s history. 3) Participants will explore Earth’s seasons and their effect on climate.

SPEAKERS:
Kathleen Brooks (CREC: No City, No State), Karin Jakubowski (eesmarts: No City, No State)

We are awash in assessment data, but often it’s overwhelming to make sense of it. Come learn tips and strategies for wrangling data.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Explore new ways to organize data collection and raw data to aid in exploring the data for stories after it is collected; 2. Acquire skills in tying questions, data types, and data visualizations to enhance your ability to make sense of the assessment data; and 3. Identify next steps to better utilize and leverage your assessment data to help you measure students’ success and know what steps to consider next.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Hunter-Thomson (Dataspire Education & Evaluation, LLC: No City, No State)

Successful environmental science education needs to balance data with compassion and equitable sensemaking. How do we manage student anxiety and invite them into the problem?

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will form support groups to recognize their own anxiety in order to prevent burnout and deliver content effectively and sensitively. Subtractive problem solving will be highlighted as a means to ease "hopelessness" in climate discussions. The role of sensemaking, as it applies to students of various backgrounds and with various needs, will be brought into the climate discussion as well.

SPEAKERS:
Margaret Epstein (The Baldwin School: Bryn Mawr, PA)

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)

Engage with Research Quest, free, online, NGSS-focused, phenomenon-based investigations that use authentic museum objects and research to build students' literacy, critical-thinking, collaboration, and communication skills.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will: 1. experience an exemplar set of free resources that successfully integrate NGSS and ELA standards to provide students with meaningful, self-directed learning; 2. recognize that providing students with opportunities to research phenomenon-based problems professional scientists devote their careers to using the collections and data they build new knowledge from can empower students to better understand the enterprise of science, the natural world, and the natural history of our world—while building their literacy and critical-thinking skills; and 3. understand that creating opportunities to make critical thinking visible is an essential scaffold necessary to support student efficacy with problem-finding and problem-solving.

SPEAKERS:
Madlyn Larson (Natural History Museum of Utah: Salt Lake City, UT)

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)

Argument-Driven Inquiry is an instructional model that gives students an opportunity to learn how to use DCIs, CCs, and SEPs to explain natural phenomena and creates a learning environment where students are able to talk, read, and write in the service of sensemaking.

TAKEAWAYS:
• How to use this instructional model, or way of teaching, to give students an opportunity to learn how to use the DCIs, CCs, and SEPs to make sense of natural phenomena. • How to give students an opportunity to use their own ideas and ways of communicating to talk, read, and write in the service of sense-making • How to give students more opportunities to decide what counts as valid and acceptable and develop new criteria for what counts evidence in science.

SPEAKERS:
Todd Hutner (The University of Alabama: Austin, TX)

Explore climate science and justice intersections in teaching and learning through practical examples and resources for classroom engagement.

TAKEAWAYS:
Climate science justice Learning activities and resources to build capacity within the educational systems to engage in this much needed work, and specifically to foster inquiry and civic practices for both educators and students. Resources to help educational leaders navigate the implementation of such learning across varied educational systems and community contexts

SPEAKERS:
Deb Morrison (Educator and Learning Scientist: Seattle, WA), Michael Heinz (New Jersey Dept. of Education: Trenton, NJ)

This workshop focuses on how high-quality instructional materials designed for the NGSS provide for language skills to be developed by all students, including emerging multilingual students, by engaging in Science and Engineering Practices.

TAKEAWAYS:
(1) By engaging with content first before learning science-specific vocabulary, students of varying language proficiencies are provided with an opportunity to express their ideas using the language they have. (2) Implementing meaningful student discourse in the science classroom can shift the focus on science and engineering practices and away from academic vocabulary. (3) Strategies that support emerging multilingual learners actually support all learners in developing proficiency in the science and engineering practices.

SPEAKERS:
Neelo Soltanzadeh (WestEd: San Francisco, CA)

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:
Teachers will: 1. learn how to use articles to make their content more applicable to the lives of their 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 (Whittier Elementary: Kansas City, KS)

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)

Discover Switch Classroom, a free, online, objective curriculum about energy use and nonrenewable and renewable resources centered on AP Environmental Science and NGSS Energy standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Explore the Switch Energy Alliance resources, including Switch Classroom, energy videos, and full-length documentaries. The Switch Classroom curriculum covers six units of comprehensive lessons detailing renewable and nonrenewable energy sources, energy production fundamentals, and how energy decisions are made; 2. Learn how to set up your own class using Switch Classroom, creating a customized energy unit for your students that includes video and your choice of activities (multiple-choice quizzes, critical-thinking writing and diagramming, and lab and math-based calculation activities); and 3. Increase your students' ability and skills to explain concepts, analyze visual representations, and propose solutions to complex energy decisions in a nonpartisan and objective manner.

SPEAKERS:
Lynn Kistler (Upper St. Clair High School: Pittsburgh, PA), Ruthann McComb (Elkin High School: Elkin, NC)

Participants will learn about the successful and varied informal and formal science partnerships developed by members of the NSELA leadership community.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Successful partnerships between formal and informal science institutions increase student and community engagement in STEM education; 2. Success stories include STEM ecosystems; and 3. The NSELA Learning Center provides resources and support for ongoing learning about formal and informal science partnerships.

SPEAKERS:
Andy Weatherhead (National Science Education Leadership Association (NSELA): Downingtown, PA)

Join me for a multidisciplinary, open-ended investigation that incorporates absolute and relative dating, anomalies, historical context, volcanoes, solar proton events, energy cycles, Earth systems, terrestrial events, and supernovas.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students will have a better understanding of the process of constructing knowledge. Students will have to analyze and defend their results. Sometimes there is no answer key, only possible solutions from constructing and analyzing data from several sources that cross traditional disciplines.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Young (NASA/NSO/UoL Program Manager: Laughlin, NV)

Connect the human impact of trash pollution to engineering design. Get your students thinking critically and creatively as they collaborate in real-world problem-solving.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Connecting the human impact of single-use plastics and their effect on aquatic ecosystems; 2. Exposing students to basic coding and engineering design in an NGSS-focused content classroom; and 3. Developing a project that enhances STEM skills in students such as collaboration, curiosity, and creative problem-solving.

SPEAKERS:
Jessica Kohout (Independent Contractor: Ellicott City, MD), Stacy Thibodeaux (Southside High School: Youngsville, LA)

This session models how to teach Environmental Justice and how to assess student learning. Participants design and test a landfill liner.

TAKEAWAYS:
1-Attendees will learn how to describe Environmental Justice as an environmental ethical principle. 2-Attendees will learn how to design an Environmental Justice lesson, incorporating multiple learning styles. 3-Attendees will learn how to assess student learning of Environmental Justice.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth Spike (Clean Air Partners)

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 utilize the technology you’ve come to love in innovative ways not discussed by their accompanying user guide for both instructional and noninstructional purposes.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Technological platforms can be used creatively to do more than what each platform is marketed for 2. Technology is beneficial for both instructional and non-instructional practices 3. Technology is a powerful tool for educators whether students are in person or virtual

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Allessio (Robbinsville High School: Robbinsville, NJ)

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. Emphasis will be placed 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 (Whittier Elementary: Kansas City, KS)

Model stellar evolution processes using NASA images, plotting H-R diagram transitions, and determining the chemistry and physics of supernovas using NASA STEM image analysis tools.

TAKEAWAYS:
Knowledge of the process of how stars form and change over time ending in catastrophic events, providing conditions for the formation of planets. Students will understand that all knowledge of celestial events is determined by analyzing the light from these events and provide possibilities – not definitive answers, as the data can be interpreted differently. Image analysis software tools allow scientists to gain detailed information of stellar physical and chemical processes and constantly refine our evolving models of stellar evolution.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Young (NASA/NSO/UoL Program Manager: Laughlin, NV)

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 use data to do science; data literacy is its own set of skills. Young learners benefit when we integrate data, literacy, and science together.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Identify how data literacy is a critical aspect of literacy and science literacy in the 21st century; 2. Explore strategies and resources to use to authentically integrate data into K–5 science instruction; and 3. Develop a plan for next steps to elevate data as an aspect of meaningful connections between literacy and science.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Hunter-Thomson (Dataspire Education & Evaluation, LLC: No City, No State)

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)

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)

What is bioinformatics? This session introduces bioinformatics with the goal of identifying organisms from lists of DNA sequences, providing real-world context to classroom DNA extraction.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: 1. Learn how the classroom DNA extraction is an important stepping stone to discoveries in biology and genetics through bioinformatics. 2. Explore public databases that provide free tools to submit and analyze DNA sequences and require only a computer with internet capabilities. 3. Connect biology and computer science departments at a time when biology is becoming an increasingly collaborative and digital discipline.

SPEAKERS:
Zack Bateson (National Agricultural Genotyping Center: Fargo, ND)

Participants will learn about the key pedagogical model of CT and see how it can be incorporated into lessons by teachers at all grade levels.

TAKEAWAYS:
Critical Thinking Coastal land erosion phenomenon ake a complex problem, deconstruct it, and use data to reason a testable answer

SPEAKERS:
Jamie Mixon (Louisiana Dept. of Education: Baton Rouge, LA), Tana Luther (Louisiana Dept. of Education: Baton Rouge, LA), Molly Talbot (Louisiana Dept. of Education: Baton Rouge, LA), Michelle Lewis (Louisiana Dept. of Education: Baton Rouge, LA)

Sponsoring Company: Legends of Learning

From unplugged to plugged-in game design, explore how games create an authentic learning experience in which students collaborate, communicate, and have fun in the process!

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Use an innovative approach to game-based learning as a primary vehicle for science instruction; 2. Make lessons fun and accessible while encouraging students to take personal responsibility for their education; and 3. Create an equitable learning environment where students can progress at their own rate, allowing for differentiation based on student needs.

SPEAKERS:
Joselyn Whetzel (Legends of Learning: Laurel, MD), Joshua Goldberg (Legends of Learning: Laurel, MD)

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)

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)

Connect your school with local colleges and STEM employers using relevant, standards-based, hands-on activities that spark interest in science and STEM careers. Sample activity included.

TAKEAWAYS:
How to identify and reach out to potential community and industry partners How to build a program or event that meets the needs of all stakeholders Developing authentic learning experiences to impact student perspectives of locally available STEM careers

SPEAKERS:
Bethany Kenyon (BioNetwork: Greenville, NC)

Gain important insight on how to easily and gently integrate lessons on Climate Education and Environmental Justice using project-based and class-tested activities.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to offer students ways to understand events, make changes and be a voice for changing the current climate dilemma and environmental injustices. Attendees will learn about activities that can be used to support students to drive social change or offer citizen science. Attendees will be inspired by the innovative ways shared on best practices to communicate effectively with students.

SPEAKERS:
Lolita Kiorpes (Thomas Stone High School: Waldorf, MD)

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)

Learn about the partnership between a school system and a field research station and our modification and collaboration of outdoor field activities to virtual teaching.

TAKEAWAYS:
How to create budget-friendly virtual field investigation kits for at home learning. Gain knowledge on teaching collaboration virtually (How we separated the instructional duties.) Examine examples of kit materials and come away with ideas on how to produce their own for their teaching situation.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Ford (UVA’s Blandy Experimental Farm: Boyce, VA), Stephanie McLain (Clarke County High School: Berryville, VA)

This workshop explores a myriad of simple ways science classroom teachers can differentiate their lessons/units/curricula to meet the needs of highly able learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
Highly able leaners often require differentiation to achieve their full educational potential. There are simple strategies that can be employed to enrich the education of high achieving students without adding hours to a teacher’s workload. Using a variety of strategies, teachers can adapt their lessons, units, and projects to meet the needs of highly able learners.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Ellis (Argyle Middle School: Silver Spring, MD), Alaina Piek (Oklahoma Road Middle School: Sykesville, MD)

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)

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)

Participants explore using a "Chemical Reaction of the Week" to target SEPs and CCCs. Related activities require students to connect their thinking to multiple disciplines.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: 1. identify SEPs and CCCs for students to practice and refine and will develop activities related to a chemical reaction that explore those practices; 2. experience the activities from the perspective of a student, responding to prompts, drawing models, analyzing data, and drawing conclusions based on evidence; and 3. make transdisciplinary connections for themselves and their students by exploring various applications of the components of the specified reaction.

SPEAKERS:
Dina Dormer (West Chester Area School District: Exton, PA)

Sponsoring Company: BIOZONE International Ltd.

BIOZONE has published two new exciting titles for the latest CEDs. Listen to the publisher explain their features and get a one-year FREE eBook license.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Discover how the new titles have been structured to follow the latest CEDs; 2. Inquiry, case studies, and data analysis are used to develop enduring understanding of key concepts; and 3. Personal Progress Checks prepare students for the AP exam.

SPEAKERS:
Maureen Rich (BIOZONE International Ltd.: Hamilton, New Zealand)

Scientists are interested in the land cover (water area) where mosquito larvae are found, so they can automate image classification using Artificial Intelligence (AI). Connect yourself and your students with an active citizen science program and contribute to science!

TAKEAWAYS:
Your phone is a powerful data collection tool. NASA satellite data can be connected to the data you collect on mosquito habitats and landcover. You can make observations, Ask questions, Construct explanations, and collect and analyze data using the GLOBE Observer app and the Mosquito Habitat Mapper and Land Cover tool.

SPEAKERS:
Cassie Soeffing (Institute for Global Environmental Strategies: Arlington, VA)

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)

Join us for a hands-on FoodPrints lesson using the garden and kitchen as a venue to discuss equality and fairness with students.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Discover new ways to integrate math, cooking, and garden science using an inquiry-based lesson; 2. Learn and practice hands-on investigations that ask students to consider issues such as equality and fairness in their classrooms and communities through the lens of sharing a snack or dividing a garden bed; and 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 preK–5.

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

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

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore NASA STEM activities that investigate space food and nutrition for astronauts living on the Space Station. Construct sample space food menus to develop a better understanding of nutrition for human space exploration. 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)

It takes a village to build and sustain formal and informal environmental educational partnerships. Join the nonprofit ShoreRivers, Maryland's Wicomico County Public Schools, and funder The Chesapeake Bay Trust, as they share how the "Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience Academy" created 15 unique partnerships and curricula that support Next Generation Science Standards and Maryland's Environmental Literacy Standards, and connected students with their communities.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. The Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience provides a curriculum framework that embraces and enhances formal and informal partnerships that support Next Generation Science Standards. 2. Formal and informal educators can collaborate to support Environmental Literacy through local issue investigations that culminate in students doing science while engaging directly with field professionals and community networks while advocating for community solutions. 3. Best practices for informal and formal collaborations and funding opportunities to support systemic and sustainable partnerships.

SPEAKERS:
Suzanne Sullivan (ShoreRivers: Easton, MD), Mairin Corasaniti (Education & Outreach Coordinator: Easton, MD), Hemalatha Bhaskaran (Wicomico County Public Schools: Salisbury, MD)

Participants will learn about how some districts around the country are using an asset approach to post-COVID learning and will collaboratively share ideas with others.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Some districts around the country are focusing on an acceleration rather than a remediation post-COVID approach to learning; 2. An asset approach to learning and learners supports social and emotional well-being; and 3. The NSELA Learning Center provides resources for continued learning about asset versus deficit approaches to learning.

SPEAKERS:
Andy Weatherhead (National Science Education Leadership Association (NSELA): Downingtown, PA)

Let's discuss ways to get students excited about independent scientific research.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Attendees will learn ways to incorporate independent research in their classroom. 2. Attendees will learn about the opportunities that are available to students who are involved in independent scientific research. 3. Attendees will review what paperwork and student developed materials are necessary for a middle/high school science fair and where to obtain needed resources.

SPEAKERS:
Emilie Tekely (Dauphin County Technical School: Harrisburg, PA)

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)

Join us as we share our journey of collaborating with science leaders to recognize and design quality professional learning to advance 3-D science teaching and learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. An understanding of the science leader’s role in putting the pieces of the NRC Framework together for a coherent science program. 2. Ways to strategically plan and prioritize professional learning based on system and individual teacher needs. 3. Ways to approach addressing what teachers need to know and be able to do if students are to achieve our vision for science learning.

SPEAKERS:
Tonya Woolfolk (Houston County Schools: Perry, GA), Patricia Morgan (Georgia State University: Atlanta, GA)

Are you looking for climate change lessons to engage high school students? Discover activity-filled lessons that explore natural cycles, proxies, and ways to minimize human impact.

TAKEAWAYS:
1) Participants will take part in activities that demonstrate how and why Earth’s climate has changed over time. 2) Participants will learn about activities that show how energy and matter are conserved throughout the Carbon Cycle. 3) Participants will explore proxies and how they can give us information about Earth’s history.

SPEAKERS:
Karin Jakubowski (eesmarts: No City, No State)

Participate in a discussion of how to purposefully integrate problem-based learning into life science instruction while leveraging student choice as part of the assessment process.

TAKEAWAYS:
What problem-based learning looks like in a biology/life science classroom. How to make assessment authentic and as real-world as possible for high school students. The role of student choice in assessment and what that looks like.

SPEAKERS:
Dennis Dagounis (Berkeley Heights Public Schools: Berkeley Heights, NJ)

Love teaching 6–12 climate? Hate it? Stop by either way! We'll share ideas for weaving e-justice into climate change for middle school on up through APES!

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Environmental racism has already created a need for environmental justice. 2. Climate change is exacerbating the need for e-justice by making inequities sharper. 3. Climate justice is, therefore, environmental justice, and we as science educators need to carefully choose our climate change lessons, data, and resources to include e-justice through the lens of climate change.

SPEAKERS:
Christopher Duvall (Appoquinimink High School: Middletown, DE), Steven Sygowski (Appoquinimink High School: Middletown, DE)

Learn the rationale behind hypothesis testing methods like the Student’s t-Test. A classroom activity comparing surface areas of sun and shade leaves will be presented.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will understand… • the logical reasoning underlying hypothesis testing. •how to compare the means of two samples, for example, an experimental and a control group, to see if there is a significant difference between them. Participants will be able to apply… •a simple and elegant procedure for determining the surface area of leaves which is useful in the sun leaf vs shade leaf activity, as well as in activities determining the rate of transpiration of leaves.

SPEAKERS:
Robert Cooper (Pennsbury High School, West Campus: Fairless Hills, PA)

Discover safe ways to lower the barriers to a fair and equitable science education for student groups who have been excluded or marginalized.

TAKEAWAYS:
- Activities that build a positive student/teacher relationship as well as a positive classroom community - Activity to nurture challenging but achievable student created goal building -Activity to differentiate your current science lessons

SPEAKERS:
Donna Kaiser (Stamford High School: Stamford, CT)

Explore proven methods for developing collaborative relationships between students and professionals to utilize science and engineering practices to address authentic challenges.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Attendees will be given clear examples of impactful collaboration between formal and informal educators and professionals through interactive activities; 2. Through a guided work burst, participants will use a framework to develop their own written products to use with their students to develop collaborative relationships with informal educators and professionals, which can be assessed by a single point rubric for their effectivenessl and 3. Attendees will participate in an open panel discussion with experts and seasoned educators to address challenges and concerns, and how to create learning opportunities.

SPEAKERS:
Lauren Milord (DreamUp, PBC: Washington, DC)

Learn how a research-backed approach to project-based learning is the best way to develop students who are ready to tackle Earth’s biggest environmental challenges.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn simple yet powerful strategies for integrating PBL into environmental science classes and lessons. Leave with resources you can use to immediately improve how you approach standards focused on environmental science at the secondary level. Learn the results of recent research which proves PBL results in better environmental science learning outcomes for all students, even those furthest from opportunity.

SPEAKERS:
James Fester (Hill-Murray School: Maplewood, MN)

Let's explore student interest and perceived barriers to careers in STEM education and engage with potential STEM teacher candidates through interdisciplinary urban ecology modules.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Generating interest in STEM education through curriculum innovation; 2. Barriers to careers in STEM education; and 3. Developing STEM education recruitment pipelines.

SPEAKERS:
Joseph Stabile (Iona College: New Rochelle, NY), Margaret Smith (Iona College: New Rochelle, NY), Benjamin Gaines (Iona College: New Rochelle, NY)

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)

This session engages participants in the exploration of middle school–oriented, classroom-ready, interactive, online, data-driven, three-dimensional activities and visualizations that present how sea level rise is caused by climate change, how NOAA monitors and measures these changes, how U.S. coastal regions are dangerously impacted by it, and how teachers can get up to $5000 for their school to mitigate its impacts.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Educators will explore a middle school oriented classroom-ready multimedia module, and use data-driven NOAA websites which explain and visualize how climate change is causing sea levels to rise globally, impacting all U.S. coastal areas, and straining community resiliency. 2. Educators will explore NOAA’s classroom-ready, Data in the Classroom modules: Investigating Sea Level Using Real Data, and learn how their students can use data from NOAA’s satellites and coastal stations, to do the analysis to see sea level changing, to understand the impacts on communities, and to learn how they can integrate its inquiry based resources into their classrooms today. 3. Educators will learn about NOAA Planet Stewards, a Federal program which offers educators up to $5000 to engage in hands-on stewardship activities to mitigate climate change and its impacts in their communities.

SPEAKERS:
Bruce Moravchik (NOAA National Ocean Service: Silver Spring, MD)

Learn how to effectively integrate free science-based resources from public land agencies into engaging and rigorous project-based learning experiences for students of all ages.

TAKEAWAYS:
- Learn how to access free lesson plans, data sets, multimedia resources, and experts that can help you create authentic projects focused on NGSS-aligned learning goals. - Learn about recent research that shows how a high-quality project-based learning framework provides the best learning outcomes for science students of all ages. - See exemplar projects that illustrate why PBL is a natural fit for learner-centered, experiential, inquiry-based lessons.

SPEAKERS:
James Fester (Hill-Murray School: Maplewood, MN)

Find out why by studying the phenomenon of the urban heat islands using the GLOBE Urban Protocol Bundle and My NASA Data. Training and ongoing support offered virtually.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Science content on heat islands, cloud formation, Earth’s energy budget, and NASA satellites collecting this data; 2. Face-to-Face interactions in collecting data (clouds and air and surface temperature) using the GLOBE Observer App; and 3. Instructional materials from GLOBE and NASA to teach the science content and protocols aligned to NGSS.

SPEAKERS:
Janet Struble (The University of Toledo: Toledo, OH)

Emphasis will be placed on five-minute daily strategies that will get students to become fluent in scientific vocabulary.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Develop students’ critical-thinking skills through the use of scientific vocabulary words; 2. Provide teachers with five-minute daily strategies to strengthen students’ scientific vocabulary usage; and 3. Provide teachers with exercises that will help students recognize the difference between Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary words.

SPEAKERS:
Jonte' Lee (Whittier Elementary: Kansas City, KS)

Climate change is a global human issue that affects each and every one of us, yet disproportionately impacts some of us. During the closing keynote speech, Jasmine Sanders will speak to attendees about this intersectional, complex issue, its various impacts, how educators are part of the solution, and the organization she leads working with young people on an everyday basis to advocate for change. "Imagine the possibilities when we use our power as educators and tap into young bright minds to make a difference."

SPEAKERS:
Jasmine Sanders (Our Climate: Washington, DC)