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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)