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 Next Time You See books can connect students with nature and inspire them to write their own books about natural objects and phenomena.

TAKEAWAYS:
• Explore research about the positive effects of time in nature on children and adults • Learn how literacy and science can be connected through writing activities • Receive classroom-ready resources (videos and graphic organizers) to guide your students through a Mentor Text Study

SPEAKERS:
Debra Sawyer-Moulton (NSTA Sales Rep for DC, DE, MD, PA, VVA, WV: Charlestown, MD)

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)

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)

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)

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

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)

This session will provide an overview of the design, resources, and impact of integrating Literacy into the Science Methods for Preservice Elementary Teachers Course.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Attendees will be introduced to the curricular design of a Science Methods course for Pre-service Elementary Teachers (grades pre-k-6) that uses a Science/Inquiry/Literacy integration resource book as the textbook. 2. Attendees will be introduced to other resources and instructional methods that are used throughout the course to help Pre-service Elementary Teachers learn how to integrate literacy and science in their classrooms. 3. Attendees will be involved in a hands-on activity that students of this course experience as part of the literacy integration instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Tracie Reding (University of Nebraska Omaha: Omaha, NE)

Curriculum compacting allows students who have shown mastery of course material to challenge themselves and work on more difficult content.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. The logistics of how curriculum compacting works 2. Data analyzing the effectiveness of curriculum compacting 3. Pros and cons of curriculum compacting from the viewpoints of the students, the professor, and the teaching assistants

SPEAKERS:
Nicole Hesson (York College of Pennsylvania: York, PA), Jessica Fautch (York College of Pennsylvania: York, PA)

Use your smartphone to see geomagnetism through a 3-D immersive experience and explore how planetary magnetic fields are used in space science.

TAKEAWAYS:
Visualize the Earth's magnetic field, including dip angle (inclination) and declination. Describe the shape of a magnetic field around a simple dipole. Explain how magnetic field sensors are used by spacecraft to make conclusions about the nature of planets (including their suitability for life).

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Vieyra (PhET Interactive Simulations, University of Colorado Boulder: Boulder, CO), Chrystian Vieyra (Vieyra Software: Washington, DC)

Are you an instructor of preservice teachers of science? Learn about NSTA's digital resources, virtual experiences, and website tools to help your students become the BEST teachers they can be. More than membership, learn about what’s on the NSTA website…and more.

TAKEAWAYS:
(1) Pre-service teachers create a library of resources, grow their network of professional colleagues, and enhance their content and pedagogical knowledge of science by actively engaging with NSTA digital resources and online tools within the NSTA website. (2) Instructors receive a class landing page to manage their course, a private forum for asynchronous discussions, and gain access to an administrator's dashboard to monitor and assess their students' engagement within the NSTA website. (3) All instructors using NSTA as their textbook get a free NSTA membership and their students become members of the Association through their graduation date at a cost that is competitive and gives the students access in perpetuity to the entire suite of NSTA’s Interactive E-Books+ Professional.

SPEAKERS:
Flavio Mendez (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

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)

Learn how to integrate STEM and literacy through the use of high-quality STEM-related picture books.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Strategies for integrating STEM and literacy in K–5 2. Suggested picture books that integrate STEM and literacy 3. A STEM lesson you can use right away.

SPEAKERS:
Debra Sawyer-Moulton (NSTA Sales Rep for DC, DE, MD, PA, VVA, WV: Charlestown, MD)

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:
With a properly scaled solar system scroll, participants will identify inner and out planets and readily SEE why they are named as such (ESS1, ESS2). 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. 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)

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)

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

Hear how a college partnered with a local urban elementary school to build a greenhouse and its impacts on K–8 students and the preservice teachers who are completing field experiences in the partnership school.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Logistics of how a college partnered with a local, urban elementary school to build a greenhouse 2. The impact of utilization of the greenhouse on preservice teacher self-efficacy for teaching science 3. Tips for how host teachers can support preservice science teachers will be provided

SPEAKERS:
Nicole Hesson (York College of Pennsylvania: York, PA)

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)