You’ve used blood glucose regulation to teach homeostasis. Extend those lessons with classroom-ready strategies that address how policy and place contribute to Type 2 Diabetes.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: 1. become familiar with a research-based storyline that disassociates genetics from health outcomes; 2. learn that type 2 diabetes is a complex condition that is heavily influenced by environmental factors such as access to resources, personal choice, product marketing, public policy, socio-economic status, and stress; and 3. learn that environmental factors can both increase and decrease a person’s risk for type 2 diabetes.

SPEAKERS:
Joan Griswold (University of Washington: Seattle, WA), Atom Lesiak (University of Washington: Seattle, WA)

We will share strategies developed over the past five years to address racial equity issues in our high school science sequence and instructional practice.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Strategies to leverage student voice to inform educator professional learning and decision-making; 2. Equity questions to evaluate current status of high science sequence and materials; and 3. Recommendations for teacher and administrator professional learning and resources focused on support for all learners.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Holveck (Portland Metro STEM Partnership: No City, No State), Andrea Leech (TOSA: Portland, OR), Kristin Moon (MS Math & Science Program Administrator: Portland, OR)

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)

Come discover a curriculum for biology educators that explores how racism, the construct of race, the history of science, and genetic variation intersect.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Race is a socio-political construct with deep implications but race is not a good surrogate/proxy for biology; 2. Understanding human genetic variation can disrupt the idea of genetically meaningful “races”; and 3. Using the idea of “race” uncritically in science can reinforce racist ideas (such as the idea that race, rather than racism, underlies health inequities).

SPEAKERS:
Jeanne Chowning (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center: No City, No State), Hanako Osuga (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center)

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)

Learn how the structure of your inquiry activities can produce roadblocks for emergent bilinguals, and how shifts based on student strengths increase engagement and success.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Good science modeling uses words and picture to make meaning. Working through multiple representations of phenomena shares similarities to translanguaging among bilinguals, resulting in a resource as opposed to a deficit approach to learning; 2. Student collaborations centered around representations, as opposed to language, are more inclusive and improve understanding for all students; and 3. Generative frameworks through chunking steps and heuristics allow for organization of understanding and context transfer.

SPEAKERS:
Christopher Moore (University of Nebraska Omaha: Omaha, NE)