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)

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), 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)

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)

Learn how to leverage the power of the sensors nearly every student has in today’s physics classroom so that all students get experience in experimental science.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Phone physics increases equitable access to experimental science in the classroom or at home as a flipped lab or distance learning; 2. Phone sensors match or improve upon precision and accuracy of classic physics equipment; and 3. Phone physics has a low floor/high ceiling and is appropriate for all levels.

SPEAKERS:
Ryan Wasurick (Tracy High School: Tracy, CA), Michael Tobler (Moreau Catholic High School: Hayward, CA)

Argument-Driven Inquiry is an instructional model that gives students an opportunity to learn how to use the DCIs, CCs, and SEPs to explain natural phenomena. It creates a learning environment where students are able to talk, read, and write in the service of sensemaking.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. How to use this instructional model, or way of teaching, to give students an opportunity to learn how to use the DCIs, CCs, and SEPs to make sense of natural phenomena; 2. How to give students an opportunity to use their own ideas and ways of communicating to talk, read, and write in the service of sensemaking; and 3. How to give students more opportunities to decide what counts as valid and acceptable and develop new criteria for what counts evidence in science.

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

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 (Portland Public Schools)

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)

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)

Join museum educators and classroom teachers to learn how data collection and analysis can help students make meaningful connections with content and with each other.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn: 1. how to create a unit of study around authentic data collection and analysis; 2. data collection and analysis can connect teachers (or students) who can't connect in person; and 3. about tools for data collection and analysis.

SPEAKERS:
Shannon Baldioli (Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Washington, DC), Kate Kogge (AFOSR: No City, No State), Michelle Rahn (Will Rogers Junior High School: Claremore, OK)

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)

Participants will work in cooperative teams to explore how POGIL supports CRT to help close the achievement gap for culturally and linguistically diverse learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
I can: 1. describe how the three stages of learning in Zaretta Hammond’s book Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) and the Brain (2015) relate to the learning cycle used in POGIL activities; 2. describe how team roles contribute to improved learning in small cooperative teams; and 3. share the three guided inquiry activities (Roles, CRT and POGIL, and a middle school science activity) with my peers and students.

SPEAKERS:
Mare Sullivan (Seattle Pacific University: Seattle, WA), Lori Stanton (Canyon Park Middle School: Bothell, WA)

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)

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)

Formative assessment through scientific discourse and argumentation regarding evidence for scientific phenomena or theory gives authentic insight into student understanding of difficult science concepts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will: 1. understand the importance of formative assessment in the learning process; 2. value argumentation as a form of formative assessment; and 3. identify that scientific discourse with peers is a valuable learning tool within a classroom that gives insight into student thinking.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Mansell (Washington Fields Intermediate School: Washington, UT), Jessica Jones (Washington Fields Intermediate School: Washington, UT)

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)

Model stellar evolution processes using NASA images, plotting H-R diagram transitions, and determining the chemistry and physics of supernovas using NASA STEM image analysis tools.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Knowledge of the process of how stars form and change over time ending in catastrophic events, providing conditions for the formation of planets; 2. Students will understand that all knowledge of celestial events is determined by analyzing the light from these events and provide possibilities—not definitive answers—as the data can be interpreted differently; and 3. Image analysis software tools allow scientists to gain detailed information of stellar physical and chemical processes and constantly refine our evolving models of stellar evolution.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Young (NASA/NSO/UoL Program Manager: Laughlin, NV)

Students engaged in this project-based learning unit master a variety of STEAM skills and content by creating pinhole cameras and coding a virtual reality environment.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Participants will learn how to create an interdisciplinary STEAM unit using the design-engineering process to employ differentiation in both process and product. 2. Participants will learn how to incorporate a virtual reality product into a project-based learning unit. 3. Participants will learn how to incorporate a wide variety of topics and skills into a project-based learning unit that spans multiple disciplines and incorporates both old technology (pinhole cameras) and new technology (virtual reality) while meeting the performance standards laid out by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

SPEAKERS:
Jonathan Olivera (Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School: New York, NY)

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)

Learn what representations and data your students can use to bridge phenomena and mathematics, and how to assess kinematics understanding, as opposed to rote algebra skills.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Using authentic data from real, open-access journal articles to model motion; 2. Students using multiple representations to shift back and forth from pictures, graphs, and math; and 3. Assessing students' understanding through their performance using real data.

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

Sponsoring Company: Savvas Learning Co.

This workshop will include a design challenge that will highlight tools to support gender equity, economically disadvantaged youth, English learners, students with disabilities, and advanced and gifted learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. The engineering and design process provides support for all groups of learners we find in our classrooms; 2. Teachers will leave with strategies they can immediately implement into their classrooms; and 3. This challenge will highlight tools to support gender equity, economically disadvantaged youth, English learners, students with disabilities, and advanced and gifted learners.

SPEAKERS:
Jessi Davis (Savvas Learning Co.: Paramus, NJ)

In this session, a teacher new to project-based learning, cognitive skills assessment, and virtual school shares her learning from SY20–21!

TAKEAWAYS:
We CAN: 1. create authentic engineering design experiences using online tools!; 2. assess student learning based on the application of cognitive skills AND content knowledge!; and 3. support the development of Science and Engineering Practices in virtual school!

SPEAKERS:
Ayla Wilk (Summit Atlas High School: Seattle, 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)

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)

EdReports is expanding into high school instructional materials reviews. Learn about the High School Learning and Listening Tour, provide feedback on our current thinking, and hear about opportunities to become a reviewer.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Build an understanding of the challenges educators face in finding quality materials and how EdReports aims to address those challenges; 2. Learn about the expansion into High School science and develop an understanding of the findings from our High School Learning and Listening tour, characteristics of alignment to the NGSS and usability, and discuss smart adoption processes; and 3. Hear about opportunities to engage as an EdReports reviewer in upcoming reviews, which includes NGSS training, an extended learning community, and a paid stipend.

SPEAKERS:
Sam Shaw (EdReports.org)

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)

This session is for teachers new to and experienced with Patterns Physics, a 3-D, student centered curriculum that meaningfully integrates across the STEM disciplines. Participants will engage with several phenomena across multiple storylines and walk away an overview of a yearlong curriculum.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Model guide step aside; 2. Exposure practice mastery; and 3. When students talk, students learn.

SPEAKERS:
Connie Robbins (Crane Union High School: Crane, OR), Bradford Hill (Mountainside High School: Beaverton, OR), Matt McCollum (Mountainside High School: Beaverton, OR)

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 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)

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)

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)