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)

Learn about and experience teacher-created and phenomena-driven hands-on Chemistry and Physics courses designed for ALL students. Walk away with scope and sequences for both!

TAKEAWAYS:
1. A process for creating NGSS-focused lessons and instructional units; 2. A guide and example for creating phenomena-based models; and 3. How to access complete scope and sequences for the Chemistry and Physics courses we have developed.

SPEAKERS:
Zachary Sawhill (Oak Harbor High School: Oak Harbor, WA), Mackenzie Neal (Oak Harbor High School: Oak Harbor, WA), Malia Turner (Oak Harbor High School: Oak Harbor, WA), Jonathan Frostad (Washington Science Teachers Association: No City, No State), Michael Crebbin (Oak Harbor High School: Oak Harbor, WA), Gary Thayer (Oak Harbor High School: Oak Harbor, WA)

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), Kate Soriano (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

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:
Linda Cook (The University of Texas at Dallas: Richardson, TX)

Learn how ungrading works in a science classroom as feedback and reflection replace points to increase student autonomy and connection to learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Connect deep 3-D learning with the tenets of ungrading to see how they work together; 2. Explore concrete ways of tracking student progress and feedback while devaluing points and centering learning; and 3. Leave with access to resources that support ungrading in STEM classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Johanna Brown (Washington State OSPI)

Engage with Research Quest, free, online, NGSS-focused, phenomenon-based investigations using 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 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)

Learn 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)

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)

How can we elevate equity and justice in our work in science education, personally and in community? Learn about Oregon’s efforts in this critical process.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: 1. learn about the Oregon Equity in Science Teaching and Learning Symposium; 2. experience (briefly) several components of the symposium; and 3. contribute to our collective understanding of this critical work.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Mayo (Portland Public Schools: Portland, OR), Jamie Rumage (Oregon Dept. of Education: Salem, OR), Noelle Gorbett (Oregon Dept. of Education: Salem, OR)

Attending to eco-anxiety means collectively reimagining new ways to live in harmony with Earth and one another, which requires the expertise of BIPOC communities. Centering communities impacted by climate change is key to helping students imagine and build healthy futures.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Teachers will engage in critical reflection about romantic, capitalistic, and fatalistic approaches to climate change instruction that can often induce eco-anxiety; 2. Tools and methods for eco-anxiety that are grounded in decolonization and the expertise of BIPOC communities will be provided; and 3. Participants will learn exciting and innovative ways to engage students in thinking and discussing climate change that promote socio-ecological thriving and productive hope.

SPEAKERS:
Anastasia Sanchez (University of Washington: Seattle, WA), Christina Guevara (University of Washington: Seattle, WA), Kaleb Germinaro (University of Washington: Seattle, WA)

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:
Kate Soriano (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Tricia Shelton (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Kim Stilwell (BIOZONE Corp.: Parker, CO)

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)

PERFECT FOOD will instruct teachers how to bundle their diverse science standards and present them in an authentic, empowering, and engaging unit.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will: 1. be shown how the complex food system gives their individual students the power to positively impact the world; 2. participate in unit activities and actively brainstorm how they can integrate their required standards into an authentic Perfect Food unit; and 3. take home templates and activities to initiate the process of developing their own Perfect Food unit.

SPEAKERS:
Daniel Jamsa (Silverton Middle School: Silverton, OR)

Learn how to break down standards, incorporate book clubs, and implement workshops to intentionally teach literacy skills that transfer to all aspects of life.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learners will: 1. learn how to intentionally break down the science standards to focus on the literacy skill to teach the science content; 2. practice breaking down their own science standards into literacy activities that can be run in a workshop classroom; and 3. learn how to use book clubs to support literacy through the workshop method within the science classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Katerina Flanders (Lambert High School: Suwanee, GA), Kelli Schuyler (Lambert High School: Suwanee, GA), Desmond Jackson (Lambert High School: Suwanee, GA)

Engage in three-dimensional learning with hands-on activities to explore human population, biodiversity, climate change, land and natural resource use, and paths to sustainability.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: 1. learn ways to incorporate 3-D learning strategies into hands-on activities around the NGSS topic of Human Sustainability; 2. come away with ideas and lessons to supplement their coursework in High School Biology and Environmental Science (General and AP) with experiential activities for in-person and virtual classrooms; and 3. be able to identify how the presented hands-on activities meet the NGSS Disciplinary Core Ideas, Crosscutting Concepts, and Science & Engineering Practices; and how the activities can be used to reach all kinds of learners, for an inclusive classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Brennan Brockbank (Portland Public Schools: Portland, CT)

We share inclusive approaches to science and engineering “flipped labs” that enabled hundreds of high school students to connect STEM with home and families.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Design guidelines for affordable and accessible STEM design activities that can expand from classroom to home and allow students to engage in inquiry and engineering exploration; 2. Example case studies, from high schools with diverse demographics, of integrated science and engineering “flipped lab” design projects that bridged the classroom to home; and 3. Suggestions for improving flipped labs into full 3-D learning experiences.

SPEAKERS:
Mihir Ravel (Visiting Scholar: Portland, OR), Stephen Scannell (Gresham High School: Gresham, OR), Dan Robinette (Clackamas High School: Clackamas, OR), Cary Sneider (Portland State University: Portland, OR)

Discover how to connect your classroom to America’s best idea, our National Parks System. Participants will get access to engaging science videos that are NGSS-focused and instructional resources to connect classrooms to our public lands.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Integrate lesson plans with instructional materials that connect students to our national parks; 2. -Develop a sense of environmental stewardship and conservation with students; and 3. -Make concepts and current environmental impacts on the parks relevant to your students.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Anderson (Hamilton County ESC: Cincinnati, OH)

Sponsoring Company: National Geographic Learning | Cengage

We all live within the land, the ocean, the rains, the winds. Changes in these due to our climate crisis are everywhere and impact us all. These changes are often slow and subtle, punctuated by intense activity: storms, landslides, fires. If we only notice these catastrophes, then we are missing a critical part of the story. Erin will share two passions of hers. One is the value of spending more time observing and being curious about the slow and subtle changes happening in our own communities, because slow and subtle changes matter. The other is to expand who is doing the observing, because who does the science defines how the science gets done, who benefits from the science, and, ultimately, what science matters.

NSTA wishes to thank National Geographic Learning | Cengage for sponsoring this speaker.

SPEAKERS:
Erin Pettit (Oregon State University: Corvallis, OR)

Take your students beyond your classroom walls through virtual speakers and field trips with those on the frontlines 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)

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)

This session introduces a way to create learning experiences that will give students opportunities to talk, read, and write in the service of sensemaking as they use the DCIs, CCs, and SEPs to explain natural phenomena.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. How to ensure students have access to science by designing investigations that promote and support the use of literacy skills; 2. How literacy can be used to be used in the service of sensemaking; and 3. How to embed formative assessment of science practices and literacy skills into an investigation in a meaningful and informative way.

SPEAKERS:
Victor Sampson (The University of Texas at Austin: Austin, TX)

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)

We’ll explore key stances, strategies, and resources for supporting elementary students to learn about and take collective action in response to authentic socio-ecological challenges.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Young learners are capable of consequential and justice-centered learning about social, political, environmental, and climate issues. Concerns about “developmental appropriateness” can perpetuate dominant forms of science and invisibilize marginalized students’ lived experiences; 2. Science learning should support students in understanding and engaging with local and global challenges through centering the world views, perspectives, and leadership of BIPOC communities; and 3. The use of project-based approaches can allow young learners to develop their voice and leadership capacity as they solve problems that are real and urgent in their communities.

SPEAKERS:
Rae Han (EarthGen: No City, No State), Pranjali Upadhyay (Educational Service District 112: Vancouver, WA)

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)

Climate Science can be a difficult topic, however focusing on hope and action allows students to see they can make a difference. Come see how!

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Gain strategies to support all students, but especially English Learners (using OCDE, Orange County Department of Education, Project GLAD® strategies); 2. Learn the content and the relevant issues that are impacting climate change; and 3. How to focus on the importance of maintaining hope. We do this by showing students how their actions will make a difference.

SPEAKERS:
Kate Lindholm (North Central Educational Service District: Wenatchee, WA)

Explore NSTA’s new Professional 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:
Tricia Shelton (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Elizabeth Allan (University of Central Oklahoma: Edmond, OK)

Learn practical strategies to build a more inclusive class culture in this NGSS-aligned session. Find out how to leverage student experience to promote learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Three-dimensional and phenomena-based teaching routines build classroom equity and inclusion; 2. Developing clear norms together is key to helping students find their voice; and 3. Productive student talk requires planning, but student and teacher tools are available.

SPEAKERS:
Steven Babcock (Louisiana State University Laboratory School: Baton Rouge, LA)

Join me as I share eight short stories about the most significant fossil discoveries in Washington and Oregon combined with a hands-on experience that connects to each story.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Use storytelling to engage students in the NGSS Earth Science Standards that include fossil evidence; 2. Utilize prehistoric animals as motivation to read and research about the place that you live; and 3. Make connections to the John Day Fossil Beds in Oregon and the Burke Museum and Stonerose fossils in Washington.

SPEAKERS:
Mark Watrin (WSTA: Olympia, WA)

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 about a collaboratively designed project-based climate change climate justice high school elective course that was designed by students and teachers from four high schools.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Design principles, including centering student voice and leadership through course co-construction, are used to develop the project-based course that could be used in your own school or district; 2. Equity lens that guided the course development and put social and racial justice in the center of a science course; and 3. Example lessons and projects will be shared.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Holveck (Portland Metro STEM Partnership: No City, No State), Megan Whisnand (Franklin High School: Portland, OR)

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, 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:
Kevin Czajkowski (The University of Toledo: Toledo, OH)

Let me introduce you to 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:
1. Students will have a better understanding of the process of constructing knowledge; 2. Students will have to analyze and defend their results; and 3. 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)

Participants will learn how to create a culturally relevant science lesson using an Earth science unit on conflict minerals in electronic devices as an example.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: 1. learn how to identify concepts that readily lend themselves to connecting and engaging students in culturally relevant content; 2. brainstorm science content that can lead to social activism; and 3. learn how to connect the NGSS crosscutting concepts and science and engineering practices.

SPEAKERS:
Lesley Urasky (Saratoga Middle/High School: Saratoga, WY)

This presentation will focus on how social, political, and biophysical factors structure access to water, using the concept of environmental justice to draw attention to issues of fairness and equality in the ways different social groups gain access to natural resources. It is essential for anyone working in the environmental sciences to acknowledge the human communities that impact and are impacted by those systems. The history of spatial segregation in the U.S. has had real consequences for how water is distributed, diverted, stored, and managed across urban and rural landscapes. This has resulted in uneven access to clean, reliable water and differential access to water-related decision-making. In this talk, Melissa will introduce a theoretical framework based on current research in environmental justice that considers distributive, procedural, and recognition justice. Looking at case studies in the Pacific Northwest, she will demonstrate how water managers and researchers can use this framework to ask questions that will illuminate opportunities to support diversity, equity, and inclusion approaches in their work.

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Haeffner (Portland State University: Portland, OR)