Do you want to learn how to integrate children’s literature into your elementary science block? This workshop will walk you through some children’s books that not only engage students and help build literacy skills but also provide a foundation for NGSS-focused STEM-related projects.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: 1. gain an understanding of developing science literacy in their young students through literature; 2. walk away with resources (ideas and activities) to strengthen literacy and science skills; and 3. use children's literature as a way to enhance STEM learning in their classrooms through hands-on activities.

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Pearcy (Jefferson Elementary School: Spokane, WA), Jayna Ashlock (Logan Elementary School: Spokane, WA), Kendra Robinson-Harding (Jefferson Elementary School: Spokane, WA)

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 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)

Attendees will actively engage with innovative, technology-rich tools, learning strategies to teach data collection and analysis, engineering design processes, coding, and robotics, and 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)

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)

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

I will showcase and demonstrate hands-on, low-cost activities using amateur radio, including speaking with astronauts on the ISS, and tracking transmitters that orbit Earth.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. What amateur radio truly is (and isn’t); 2. Ways to use amateur radio in the classroom; and 3. Hands-on activities using radio, regardless of if you have a radio license .

SPEAKERS:
Joanne Michael (Wiseburn Unified School District: El Segundo, CA)

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. Push Black students academically forward without making them feel torn between two language worlds.

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

Introducing Dream2B, an innovative, integrated curriculum designed to bolster math performance and interest in STEM /information communication technology (ICT) careers.

Note: Laptop/mobile device and head phones/ear pods are necessary to fully engage in this workshop.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Accessible and supportive learning environments are needed to bolster STEM performance and address unique learning abilities; 2. Collaborative challenges embedded in universally designed virtual worlds have the potential to bolster both conceptual knowledge and engagement in relevant STEM workforce skills (aligns with NGSS https://www.nextgenscience.org/pe/3-5-ets1-2-engineering-design); and 3. A proactive curriculum designed with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework addresses diversity in the student population and act as tools teachers can use to ground instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Patterson (University of Central Florida: Orlando, FL), Rohana Swihart (University of Central Florida: Orlando, FL)

Elementary teachers can become comfortable teaching science without "adding to their plate." Our training sessions 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 (Marvin Ridge High School: No City, No State)

Teach homologous structures by having students design and build limbs and compare them with other students’ creations.

TAKEAWAYS:
How to: 1. design a hands-on activity to illustrate homologous structures; 2. design an engineering activity for students to design and build limbs, like arms, wings, and flippers; and 3. use these limbs to begin a discussion about homologous structures and common ancestors.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Rockow (Leslie Middle School: Salem, OR)

Use the Engineering Design Process to build and test a Mars Rover that will carry equipment and astronauts while learning about current NASA missions.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Learn about the Engineering Design Process; 2. Gain in-depth knowledge of NASA's BEST Curriculum; and 3. Attendees will design, build, and test a Mars rover.

SPEAKERS:
Vemitra White (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center: Huntsville, AL), Jamel Alexander (Missile and Space Intelligence Center: Huntsville, AL)

The focus of this presentation is to equip teachers with the pedagogical and technological skills needed to drive three- dimensional NGSS-focused instruction using phenomena.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Help teachers develop and use thought-provoking phenomena to enable students to make connections between the science concept and real-life situations; 2. This session provides participating teachers opportunities to experience lessons in the same manner as students; and 3. Help teachers to use digital platforms for academic dialogue that would spike discontent in the students' understanding of the phenomena, driving them to use science practices to explore their curiosities further.

SPEAKERS:
Chidi Duru (Prince George's County Public Schools: Upper Marlboro, MD)

Looking for ways to connect what students learn at school with their home learning environment? This session will provide participants with many overarching hands-on science lessons that integrate the science and engineering practices and can easily be completed at home or school. Materials are cheap and easily accessible for parents/teachers.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Overarching science concepts at each grade band; 2. Connecting hands-on science activities to at-home learning; and 3. Creating an at-home lessons template.

SPEAKERS:
Curtis Varnell (Guy Fenter Education Service Cooperative: Branch, AR)

Have you ever wondered how using a single picture or object can spark any student’s curiosity about science? Get the tools to help all your students embrace science with open arms and excitement.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will: 1. learn how to use pictures to spark interest in science phenomena; 2. experience a Visual Thinking Strategy (VTS) lesson incorporated with science; and 3. experience how using objects can spark students' interests and leads to students asking their own questions.

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Pearcy (Jefferson Elementary School: Spokane, WA), Carrie Ryan Walls (Woodridge Elementary School: Spokane, WA), Emily O'Halloran (Linwood Elementary School: Spokane, WA)

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-approprite 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, which includes the corresponding Next Generation Science Standards for their upper elementary classroom.

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

Learn how Mid-Columbia Ballet, LIGO, and teachers created an exciting unit combining art and science to engage students. Participants will engage in activities and discussions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: 1. understand how multiple informal and formal educators can work together to achieve their goals; 2. be able to identify possible partners in their region; and 3. learn how informal and formal partnerships can teach content standards, crosscutting concepts, and engineering practices in a unique way.

SPEAKERS:
Renee Kollman (Adams) (Mid-Columbia Ballet: Richland, WA), McKenzie Munn (Marcus Whitman Elementary School: Richland, WA), Amber Strunk (LIGO Hanford Observatory: Richland, WA)