Ticket Price:

• $75 earlybird
• $100 advance

If you have not yet registered for the conference, you may purchase tickets when you register online.

Please note that if you are already registered for the conference and wish to purchase this ticket, click the "add to cart" button above.

Assessment tasks for NGSS classrooms are different from the typical tasks that require students to recall what they know. A Framework for K–12 Science Education and the NGSS call for assessment tasks that ask students to use and apply the three dimensions of science proficiency: disciplinary core ideas, scientific and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts. With three-dimensional tasks, the expectation is that students will use and apply the three dimensions of science proficiency together to make sense of phenomena or solve problems.

In this session, we focus on designing three-dimensional assessment tasks for classroom use with an emphasis on assessment for teaching and learning. A good assessment task should provide actionable information of value to teachers and their students. Importantly, it should provide insight into how students are building toward an NGSS performance expectation.

How can we use performance expectations to construct assessment tasks that can be used during instruction? Participants will learn an approach for designing three-dimensional assessment tasks and explore how to use them formatively in classrooms to help students build toward the performance expectations.

Participants will also be able to preorder our assessment book Creating and Using Instructionally Supportive Assessments in NGSS Classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn: 1. what is meant by three-dimensional assessment; 2. how to design classroom-based assessment tasks aligned with the NGSS; and 3. how to make use of formative assessment tasks to support instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Joseph Krajcik (CREATE for STEM Institute, Michigan State University: East Lansing, MI), Christopher Harris (WestEd)

Ticket Price: $65; with conference registration

If you have not yet registered for the conference, you may purchase tickets when you register online.

Please note that if you are already registered for the conference and wish to purchase this ticket, click the "add to cart" button above.

The purpose of the session is to present our conceptual approach to developing yearlong NGSS-designed instructional materials that integrate science and language for all students, especially multilingual learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Our conceptual framework integrates science and language for all students, including multilingual learners; 2. Our design process leverages the synergy of NGSS performance expectations, phenomena (with a focus on local phenomena), and students (with a focus on multilingual learners); and 3. instructional materials that promote teacher professional learning.

SPEAKERS:
Okhee Lee (New York University: New York, NY), Gregory Borman (New York City Dept. of Education: New York, NY), Theresa Ocol (New York City Dept. of Education: New York, NY)

Ticket Price: $65; with conference registration

If you have not yet registered for the conference, you may purchase tickets when you register online.

Please note that if you are already registered for the conference and wish to purchase this ticket, click the "add to cart" button above.

High-quality instructional materials (HQIM) designed for next generation science can make a difference in the quality of equitable science teaching and learning throughout the system and for all learners (i.e., for all leaders, teachers, and students). So how can HQIM designed for next generation science help? How can local leaders take a systems approach to the selection, broad and effective implementation, and sustained improvements offered by such materials? What are some practical ways to make this work in our community?

Participants, working in teams or small groups, will consider these questions as they delve into a vignette describing how one large district took on the challenge of implementing high-quality instructional materials at the middle school level and hear from leaders of such efforts. Participants will consider their own context and readiness for such an initiative.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Curriculum implementation for next generation science requires a clear vision shared by a strong partner, funding, a long-term plan for implementation, a robust professional learning program with ongoing support, advocacy and support capacity-building, and a robust kit distribution and/or refurbishment process; and 2. Some aspects of our current system support the changes required to implement high-quality instructional materials designed for next generation science and support new approaches to teaching and learning; others are barriers and present challenges to achieving this vision of science teaching and learning.

SPEAKERS:
Jody Bintz (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Susan Gomez Zwiep (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

By Invitation Only

Shifting from traditional professional development to curriculum-based professional learning is a simple concept but complex to design and execute well. At its core, it means teachers experience the same kind of inquiry-based learning we expect them to provide their students. Learn more about a Carnegie Corporation of New York report, The Elements, which identifies a core set of research-based actions, approaches, and enabling conditions that effective schools and systems have put in place to reinforce and amplify the power of high-quality curriculum and skillful teaching.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Examine beliefs and assumptions regarding the relationship between high-quality instructional materials, curriculum-based professional learning and student success 2. Gain understanding of the foundation for The Elements, a challenge paper from Carnegie Corporation of New York 3. Learn from science practitioners whose successful curriculum implementation efforts are grounded in the elements and essentials.

SPEAKERS:
Jim Short (Carnegie Corporation of New York: New York, NY)

Ticket Price:

• $75 earlybird
• $100 advance

If you have not yet registered for the conference, you may purchase tickets when you register online.

Please note that if you are already registered for the conference and wish to purchase this ticket, click the "add to cart" button above.

This workshop is designed for instructional coaches and leaders who want to support their teachers in making the instructional shifts required by three-dimensional science standards. Participants will receive NSTA’s suite of instructional coaching tools and gain experience using the protocols and providing feedback.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Become familiar with a suite of instructional coaching tools and protocols; 2. Gain experience using the instructional coaching tools and protocols; and 3. Identify ways to use the tools to provide feedback to teachers and document growth over time.

SPEAKERS:
Kate Soriano (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Kristin Rademaker (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Tricia Shelton (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

Ticket Price: $65; with conference registration

If you have not yet registered for the conference, you may purchase tickets when you register online.

Please note that if you are already registered for the conference and wish to purchase this ticket, click the "add to cart" button above.

Learn how the NextGen Science Storylines approach is implemented in the OpenSciEd Middle School Science Program. Storylines are coherent from the students’ perspective, in which students see their science work as making progress on questions and problems their classroom has committed to address, rather than simply following directions from textbooks or teachers. Participants will experience key Storylines routines as a learner, reflect on them as an educator, and learn how they embody principles of equitable instructional design. As part of the reflection, participants will have the opportunity to analyze student work and classroom videos. Examples will be drawn from Unit 6.4 “What Causes Earth’s Surface to Change?” and other middle school OpenSciEd units.

TAKEAWAYS:
How the OpenSciEd Storylines Instructional Model: 1. implements phenomenon-driven, three-dimensional science learning that connects to students’ own ideas and questions; 2. supports teacher learning and development; and 3. supports equitable instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Daniel Edelson (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Brian Reiser (Learning Sciences, SESP, Northwestern University)

Ticket Price: $65; with conference registration

If you have not yet registered for the conference, you may purchase tickets when you register online.

Please note that if you are already registered for the conference and wish to purchase this ticket, click the "add to cart" button above.

Have you wanted to implement a Project-Based Learning unit in your classroom? Engage in a Multiple Literacies in Project-Based Learning (ML-PBL) unit called “Why Do I See So Many Squirrels and I Can’t Find Any Stegosauruses?” All lessons are designed to be adaptive, responsive to student questions and ideas and cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and both enjoyable and intellectually satisfying for the teacher and students.

The multidisciplinary-integrated design supports a high level of student engagement and includes performance-based equity and social emotional learning goals.

ML-PBL integrates English Language Arts, math from the Common Core State Standards, and Next Generation Science Standards and provides embedded supports for Multilingual Learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. How Project Based-Learning and the NGSS work together; 2. Strategies for using formative, informal, and summative assessment to guide teaching; and 3. How to use ML-PBL materials to teach grades K–5.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Adah Miller (University of Georgia: Athens, GA), Susan Codere (CREATE for STEM Institute, Michigan State University, Retired), Joseph Krajcik (CREATE for STEM Institute, Michigan State University: East Lansing, MI)

Calling all yoga enthusiasts. Regardless of whether you’re a newbie or veteran, schedule time to join Jasmine for a gentle warm-up; traditional vinyāsa-style yoga (balance poses, core, strength building); deep stretching for hips and hamstrings; and, of course, meditation for relaxation and de-stressing. Beginner friendly!

Elevator to the rooftop garden is located near Skyline Ballroom W375e.

Grab a cup of coffee (or tea) and join us for an informal get-together with your peers. Each day of the conference will feature a morning coffee chat, providing participants an opportunity to share ideas and experiences, expand their network, and connect with colleagues and friends from around the country. All are welcome to attend!

Located at the Starbucks adjacent to the exhibit hall entrance.

Feeling overwhelmed by all there is to see and do at an NSTA conference on science education? Join us for an interactive exploration through the conference app and NSTA’s social media. By the end of the session, you will know just how to get the most from your conference experience in addition to building new networks with your science colleagues.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth Allan (University of Central Oklahoma: Edmond, OK)

Hurricanes, flash floods, and wildfires. Climate change brings more extreme weather, and the results can be catastrophic to our communities. As the weather becomes more severe, there is an increased need for shelters that can be easily transported and assembled to provide relief shelter for families who have been displaced from their homes. In this session, attendees will engage in an authentic STEM inquiry implemented in third and fourth-grade classrooms. The inquiry was designed so that students would be able to explore homelessness caused by natural disasters and design a tiny house prototype for a family in need. Participants will learn about planning and implementing a place-based and integrated STEM inquiry during this session. A major focus will be on planning and sensemaking as students learn through authentic opportunities and real-world mathematics and science. The presenter will share experiences using the Design Thinking Framework and place-based methodology as a guide for implementing and designing integrated STEM inquiries. In addition, the presenter will give specific strategies for developing problem statements to engage students in empathetic responses within STEM inquiries. The presenter will also share specific strategies for developing empathy during STEM inquiries for elementary-aged students. Participants will have the opportunity to experience key parts of the inquiry and view student examples.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Engage participants in NGSS-based engineering design challenge where participants are required to design a solution for homelessness caused by natural disasters (hurricane, floods, wildfire); 2. Learn the role of empathy in authentic STEM inquiries by using Design Thinking principles; and 3. Outline possible place-based strategies for implementing STEM inquiries in upper elementary classrooms that engage all learners in STEM.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Williams (Isidore Newman School: New Orleans, LA)

Since its release, the NSTA Quick-Reference Guide to the NGSS has become an essential tool for many educators across the country. A new version titled the Quick-Reference Guide to the Three Dimension has been developed to not only support teachers in all states that have standards based on the Framework for K-12 Science Education. This new version of the Quick-Reference Guide still contains the most useful features of the original, including descriptions of the practices and the crosscutting concepts from the Framework of K-12 Science Education and K-12 progressions of the elements of all three dimensions. In addition, the new Quick-Reference Guide contains several new features that should make it even more helpful. For example, every element now has a unique code (based on the codes in the NSTA Atlas of the Three Dimensions) that makes it much easier to reference a particular element. In addition, there is an entire chapter devoted to the Performance Expectations. Finally, the guide also contains a number of tools for working with standards. This session will outline all of the features of the guide through the process of unpacking the crosscutting concepts to better understand how to make curriculum, instruction, and assessment more three-dimensional.

TAKEAWAYS:
A deeper understanding of the Crosscutting Concepts and how a well-designed reference guide can make it easier to unpack the three dimensions for work in curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

SPEAKERS:
Ted Willard (Discovery Education: Silver Spring, MD)

Participants will learn strategies and receive numerous resources that increase students’ scientific literacy. The hands-on approach has participants engaged in the activities, games, and more.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will: 1. learn new strategies for incorporating scientific literacy into their lessons; and 2. receive numerous activities, templates, games, and other resources to help with doing this. These resources can be used “as is” or modified to allow for differentiation based on the needs of the learners. Strategies and resources will include ones effective with ELL and EC students.

SPEAKERS:
Iris Mudd (Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools: Winston Salem, NC)

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines are a tool that can be used to design learning experiences that meet the needs of all learners (CAST, 2018). Instructional designers and teachers can use these principles to create learning environments that reduce barriers to access for all students, while keeping in mind the learning goals of the lesson. The three guiding principles of UDL are engagement, representation, and action and expression. In this session educators will be provided with examples of these principles in action in sample materials from OpenSciEd and classroom videos. In these examples, participating will identify how the materials have been purposefully designed with multiple avenues for engagement, representation, and action and expression. Additionally, they will identify the built-in supports for teachers to highlight student assets and to address potential barriers to learning for their local student population. Teachers will utilize a tool to help them analyze their own lessons to identify goals, potential barriers, and ways to use the UDL Principles to remove barriers and create flexible paths to learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will utilize a tool to help them analyze their own lessons to identify goals, potential barriers, and ways to use the UDL Principles to remove barriers and create flexible paths to learning.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Delaney (OpenSciEd: San Carlos, CA)

After learning about computational thinking, participants will apply the framework to determine where students engage in computational thinking within the activity. Participants will engage in activities where students engineer as part of the investigations. Participants will be able to use a pre-programmed microcontroller (loaned by the presenters) to experience 3 different short investigations each tied to a different phenomenon. 1) Does angle matter? How does the angle of the collector affect how warm it is? Using the microcontroller and lamps participants will collect data to build a model that explains why the tilt of the Earth creates different seasons. 2) Transparent, Translucent, and Opaque. When working in a greenhouse, different materials can be used to cover the greenhouse. Which is the best material for your area? Using the light level sensor on the microcontroller, participants test different materials to recommend their uses when designing a greenhouse. 3) Making an alarm - using the microcontroller accelerometer sensor, participants arm an alarm and see how the accelerometer works in three dimensions. Participants will be provided printed copies of the lesson plans and how to engage students with using the microcontrollers. Note that no knowledge of coding or any equipment brought is necessary to participate in this workshop.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn (1) Microcontrollers are small computers that come with several integrated sensors. Their functionality makes them useful for both investigations and engineering projects. Some of the basic functionality of different microcontrollers (2) One definition of computation thinking is how to use computers to solve problems. Computational thinking activities that connect students to everyday phenomena. The development of algorithms or the decomposition of problems into simple steps are just two examples of processes associated with computation thinking. It is a powerful problem-solving technique that is used in the modern world (3) How engineering tasks provide opportunities for student sensemaking

SPEAKERS:
Susan German (Hallsville Middle School: Hallsville, MO), G. Michael Bowen (Mount Saint Vincent University: Halifax, NS)

Without out a doubt the recent pandemic has demonstrated that, the efforts in the science classroom towards scientific literacy are more relevant than ever. In this session participants will learn simple effective visual literacy tools and strategies that make learning science visible to all students, supporting diversity and reinforcing scientific literacy skills that help students make sense of the world. The strategies and tools used in this presentation will highlight the need to incorporate visual literacy as current brain research shows that around 60% of information we process every day comes in visual form. Sometimes chunking content to smaller learning bites can lower the understanding of concepts and ideas, especially if these concepts are abstract in nature; learning how to maximize the use of visuals both student and teacher made supports deeper understanding not just on a particular concept but of how they are connected making sense of the world. These strategies support cultural competency as they support learner diversity while working on scientific literacy skills such as use of evidence/data, pose questions, find answers. By having a common visual as point of reference along with strategy and tools not only closes the gap on background knowledge and makes accessible to all students but also helps student and teachers have meaningful discourse highlighting students strengths to solve real world problems.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this session participants will learn simple effective visual literacy tools and strategies that make learning science visible to all students, supporting diversity and reinforcing scientific literacy skills that help students make sense of the world.

SPEAKERS:
Marjorie Miles Dozier (Polk County Public Schools: Bartow, FL)

Introducing students to real-world engineering problems is a key component to engaging them in the science classroom. In this project, students solve the problem of saving pets from a hot car. Many students are aware of this issue and would have many ideas on how this could be achieved. This projects gives them the tools to help solve such a problem by building a model and finding a solution. Participants in this session will get to build the model themselves to see how information from sensors (input) can determine what should be done (output) through simple lines of code. No coding or engineering experience is needed, just imagination and logical thinking. Projects like these can expose students to STEM Careers. The exposure to coding and engineering design can also get them interested in doing more in the STEM field.

TAKEAWAYS:
Solve a real-work problem with coding and engineering design - no prior experience needed.

SPEAKERS:
Jessica Kohout (Independent Contractor: Ellicott City, MD), Stacy Thibodeaux (Southside High School: Youngsville, LA)

Analyzing and interpreting data and using mathematical and computational reasoning are complex at the high school level, which requires students to employ correlational and causational thinking while manipulating visualizations using tools. CODAP, a product of the Concord Consortium, is designed to give students access to these powerful practices with minimal software requirements and with a mission to make data literacy accessible for all students. InquiryHub uses CODAP to provide students with agency because they can determine the variables of interest, in which to create graphical representations from the same data set. In our free, open-source program, students can work with authentic datasets from the CODAP website, data they gather, or data from professional studies. Inside our storyline instructional sequences, inquiryHub leverages CODAP as students analyze the rainfall on the Serengeti and how it correlates to wildebeest populations. In the session, participants will try out CODAP by adding multiple variables of data to answer the question, “What’s happening to large animals on the Serengeti plain?” and how to apply CODAP in their classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
CODAP can be used in many different three-dimensional ways to have students analyze and interpret data to make sense of phenomena while providing student agency.

SPEAKERS:
Kerri Wingert (Good Question Research: Boulder, CO)

This workshop highlights Blood Glucose Balance, a web-based game modeling the impact of food choices and health care access on glucose metabolism.

TAKEAWAYS:
How to use this gamified model of glucose metabolism to foster student engagement by making sense of the environmental access and life choices on glucose metabolism and by analyzing data collected from the game results.

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

According to the 2018 NSSME Survey, 77% of elementary teacher’s self-report that they feel very well prepared to teach reading/language arts and only 31% rate their preparedness for science at the same level. Furthermore, the description of activities that elementary teachers indicate students participate in show reading about science or engaging in hands-on laboratory activities at just under 50%. Furthermore, students gain a deeper understanding of a text when they make authentic connections. Science investigations that incorporate phenomenon are perfect vehicles for students to make authentic connections. Students who make connections while reading are better able to understand the text they are reading. It is important for students to draw on their prior knowledge and experiences to connect with the text. Students are thinking when they are connecting, which makes them more engaged in the reading experience. The Framework even stresses that “students should be asked to engage in the communication of science, especially regarding the investigations they are conducting…” (p. 76) This session will focus on the expansion of a common strategic reading strategy related to “text to connections”, elementary teachers can support students in constructing understanding and connecting it to their own life.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore and learn how to how to expand a common literacy strategy of “text to” connections when using picture books in the elementary science classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Christine Anne Royce (Shippensburg University: Shippensburg, PA)

Participants will use a graphic organizer to record their thinking as I describe a unit I taught in which students in grades 9-12 explored issues related to artificial intelligence. Students crafted op-Eds advocating for what we should do in our community about emerging technologies like driverless cars and facial recognition. As I describe the unit, I will highlight how I (1) kicked off the unit with a phenomenon that raised questions about convenience, safety, security, equity, and justice; (2) layered on texts and encouraged students to grapple with multiple perspectives on AI-related issues; (3) used routines and mentor texts to support students in crafting claims and connecting evidence to their claims; and (4) engaged students in processes of revision. Then, participants will work in self-selected groups to explore science/technology/society text sets on topics like lab grown meat and space debris. As they explore the text set, they will engage with a classroom routine to develop a compelling, debatable, defensible, and nuanced claim. Participants will share what they discovered as they explored the text set and wrote claims in their group and will reflect on how these text sets and routines might become part of their classroom practice.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about freely available text sets and classroom routines developed by teachers for supporting civically engaged argument writing about science and technology issues in society.

SPEAKERS:
John Smith (Chester A Arthur School: Philadelphia, PA)

Science literacy is essential to be informed and engaged citizens in the 21st century. Data are what we use to do science. Thus, reading and making sense of real-world data are fundamental skills to being scientifically literate and a fun way to engage learners with science. However, how do we incorporate data into K-8 science without feeling overburdened with yet another thing to teach? By integrating it into what we are already doing! Join us to explore the connections between data, science, and literacy. We will experience research-based strategies and freely available resources for integrating phenomenon-based and local data into our science instruction to promote science literacy. We will participate in activities ourselves and reflect on approaches for how to bring these into our classrooms. The goal is to increase our data toolkit of strategies and resources to increase science literacy and relevance for students. Participants will leave more empowered to integrate data into their science content in purposeful ways to better helps students do and communicate science. Working with and learning from data fosters critical thinking skills, lifelong interests in science, and facilitates learners’ literacy skills. Let’s set our students up for success now and in the future!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will identify how data literacy is a critical aspect of science literacy in the 21st century and how to leverage existing strategies to authentically integrate data into K-8 science instruction to teach their science content and increase literacy simultaneously.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Hunter-Thomson (Dataspire Education & Evaluation, LLC: No City, No State)

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Software & Technology

Guests are getting sick at a dinner party. White powder is collected at a crime scene. Use pH and conductivity sensors to identify the powder. Bring your own device with our Graphical Analysis app installed or use our devices. All activities are available as a free download for attendees.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Gain experience with hands-on technology that encourages students to explore and test different solutions and make connections to the real world; 2. Get access to free resources to keep students engaged while learning key scientific concepts either remotely or in the lab; and 3. Gain hands-on experiences with innovative products that increase student engagement, promote creativity and collaboration, and develop problem-solving skills.

SPEAKERS:
Nüsret Hisim (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR), Colleen McDaniel (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

Sponsoring Company: Simulation Curriculum

Discover more new and interesting facts about plate tectonics, volcanism, Earth materials, geological processes, astronomy, and cosmology using NGSS-focused lesson plans and interactive and thought-provoking exercises and simulations.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will come away from the workshop with more knowledge and information about the subject matter, a new understanding of what is available for convenient teaching tools, and a general increase in the level of confidence while teaching the topics of Earth and space science.

SPEAKERS:
Dave Farina (Cosmos Safari LLC: No City, No State)

Sponsoring Company: Center for BioMolecular Modeling

COVID 19: Science to the Rescue! The COVID19 pandemic has created many challenges for educators over the past two years. Amidst all this chaos, there is one positive outcome of this pandemic – it has provided educators in the molecular biosciences with an opportunity to highlight the power of modern biology and the many ways in which this science has been used to provide solutions to the control of this virus. This workshop will tell the story of the COVID19 pandemic from the perspective of the CoV-2 virus, the structure of the spike protein, the molecular mechanism of the infections process and the successful application of an mRNA vaccine to provide protection from infection. Workshop participants will use physical models of the CoV-2 coronavirus – enhanced by Augmented Reality – to explore these topics.

TAKEAWAYS:
The nucleotide sequence of the CoV-2 RNA genome was the first step in vaccine development.

SPEAKERS:
Tim Herman (3D Molecular Designs: Milwaukee, WI)

Sponsoring Company: HHMI BioInteractive

Illuminate photosynthesis for your students using free, classroom-ready resources! During this workshop, we’ll build, revise, and disrupt models to help students understand photosynthesis. Model the use of BioInteractive resources using a scaffolded approach to develop and strengthen data literacy skills in students. Provide hands-on opportunities to explore Biointeractive resources that make strong connections to science practices. Inspire participants’ use of these resources in their own classrooms in multiple content areas. Model best practice pedagogical strategies to develop data literacy skills.

TAKEAWAYS:
Model the use of BioInteractive resources using a scaffolded approach to develop and strengthen data literacy skills in students.

SPEAKERS:
Mark Eberhard (St. Clair High School: Saint Clair, MI), Ann Brokaw (Rocky River High School: Rocky River, OH)

Sponsoring Company: SAE International

Attendees will explore different methods and student & teacher resources for enhancing real-world STEM skills with meaning-making literature. Using AWIM's award-winning STEM curriculum and complementary comic & children's books as examples, teachers will engage in discussions and hands-on activities they can facilitate in their classrooms. This workshop will also address how diverse representation in storytelling can foster more accessible & impactful STEM learning for all students. Participants will receive a free AWIM book.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn methods and resources for incorporating age-appropriate literature into hands-on STEM activities.

SPEAKERS:
Bonnie Thibodeau (SAE International: Warrendale, PA)

Sponsoring Company: STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning

Students get engaged with practical and inquiry-based engineering experiences by using the DIVE-in method. This program was developed in partnership with the New York Hall of Science. Transform your classroom into an authentic makerspace with the DIVE process. Learn how to facilitate and use the design process through consensus.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to create a stomp-rocket using the engineering design process.

SPEAKERS:
Leslie Spaeny (STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning: Houston, TX)

Sponsoring Company: Edvotek

Respiratory viruses like influenza or COVID can lead to worldwide pandemics. We’ll discuss how diseases spread and perform experiments to explore how disease testing works.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will explore pathology of common diseases, including clinical testing and epidemiology of pathogens.

SPEAKERS:
Brian Ell (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC), Danielle Snowflack (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: Lab-Aids

What does pH actually measure? In this investigation, you will measure pH indirectly using indicators and absorption using the Lab-Master. Using their data participants generate a graph of absorbance vs. pH. This graph can be used to determine the pH of solutions, within the measured pH range. Join us for this activity from The Natural Approach to Chemistry program.

TAKEAWAYS:
How to calculate the pH of a basic solution.

SPEAKERS:
Wendy Jackson (The Lawrence Hall of Science: Berkeley, CA)

Sponsoring Company: PASCO scientific

Clear up misconceptions about respiration only occurring in the dark, or that only green light is used
for photosynthesis! In this workshop, you'll learn how to use common plant leaves to illustrate how plants
convert light energy into chemical energy and carry out investigations using real-time carbon exchange data.  Attend for a chance to win equipment for your school!

TAKEAWAYS:
Enhance student understandings of photosynthesis and cellular respiration by observing carbon exchange in real time!

SPEAKERS:
Barbara Pugliese (PASCO Scientific: Roseville, CA)

Sponsoring Company: Amplify

How can we boost student success in literacy and fit science into packed schedules? Join us to explore the efficiencies of instruction that incorporate both!

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Capitalizing on the overlaps, or convergences between the standards, can support reaching both CCSS-ELA and NGSS goals; 2. Infusing literacy across the instructional day, rather than in siloed subject blocks, can support students in developing essential conceptual background knowledge in science and critical literacy skills; and 3. Having literacy-rich science instructional materials is part of a systematic solution to bring robust science instruction back into the K–5 instructional day.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Abbott (The Lawrence Hall of Science: Berkeley, CA), Kyla Cook (The Lawrence Hall of Science: Berkeley, CA)

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Add excitement to your class with live organisms! Discover simple hands-on ways to explore evolution, adaptation, and behavior with  insects and arthropods. Learn care, handling, and integration of organisms with NGSS standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will takeaway firsthand knowledge and skills to select, handle, and successfully keep insects and arthropods in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Laurie Nixon (Watauga High School: Boone, NC)

Sponsoring Company: Fisher Science Education and Eisco Scientific

Participants will have the opportunity to build a Rube Goldberg machine and engineer an overly complicated process to accomplish a simple task. Put your engineering and creative skills to the test as you create your own Rube Goldberg machine out of cardboard, tape, rubber bands, a toy car and other everyday items. Attendees will be broken into teams of five and given a set of raw materials. They will then have approximately forty minutes to work as a group to create a complex series of steps to pop a balloon. Attendance will be limited to the first twenty-five people to register. This is a joint workshop presented by Fisher Science Education and Eisco Scientific. This workshop has a maximum capacity of 25 participants.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn how to create a Rube Goldberg lab using excess materials and common laboratory items.

SPEAKERS:
Tom Wright (Thermo Fisher Scientific: Waltham, MA), Tim Montondo (Eisco Scientific LLC: Victor, NY)

Sponsoring Company: Great Minds

Interact with PhD Science® module to discover the benefits of engaging in activities that deepen conceptual understanding before introducing terminology to students.

TAKEAWAYS:
PhD Science is rooted in the belief that complex scientific language and vocabulary terms are not a prerequisite for conceptual science understanding, but rather a product of it.

SPEAKERS:
Ranell Blue (Great Minds: Washington, DC), Isaac Stauffer (Great Minds: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

Genes in Space is an experimental design competition that invites students in middle and high school to design biology experiments addressing challenges faced by space travelers. Each year, one winning project is launched to the International Space Station, where it is carried out by astronauts. Join us to learn how the contest can engage your students in authentic research combining science and engineering practices. We will also share how you can access free Genes in Space classroom resources, including lesson plans, classroom activities, explainer videos, and biotechnology equipment loans.

TAKEAWAYS:
Engage students in an experimental design contest, access free classroom resources including lesson plans, activities, videos, and biotechnology equipment loans, and make a real-world scientific contribution for a chance to launch your experiment to the International Space Station

SPEAKERS:
Bruce Bryan (miniPCR: Cambridge, MA)

Sponsoring Company: Legends of Learning

Attendees will learn how employing game-based learning (GBL) engages and develops all learners. Understand how games empower students, develop critical thinking skills, provide instant feedback (and more) to develop content mastery as well as social-emotional learning. Game-Based Learning: encourages players to take risks without fear of failure, provides instant feedback that takes advantage of the richest teachable moments, creates individualized experiences through student agency, develops 21st century skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity, allows students to experience that actions have ramifications, and invites all students to engage, providing expanded opportunities for equitable learning. Attendees will experience examples of each of these benefits, discuss how they could apply to their own classrooms, and will learn about the research that supports them. Attendees will collaborate with each other as they explore and discuss concepts during the session. They will also investigate how to apply game-based learning to creating experiences that address their own learning objectives.

TAKEAWAYS:
Apply game-based learning to make a difference to your students.

SPEAKERS:
Janet Pittock (director: , CA)

Trade books are often used to support science instruction, and are an effective way to connect ideas about how science works to classroom science experiences. In this workshop, we will share a rubric for evaluating trade books for science read-alouds and discuss how the tool can be used to inform instruction (e.g., developing discussion questions). The rubric focuses on four concepts related to humanizing science, and aligned with views of nature of science in the Next Generation Science Standards: Science is done by diverse people, Scientists interpret empirical evidence to support their claims, Scientists use a variety of methods, and Scientists are creative at all stages of their investigations. These four concepts support students’ understanding of how science works, laying the foundation for being an effective consumer of science. Additionally, these four concepts present a more accurate representation of scientists, in contrast with many long-standing stereotypes about scientists. Attendees will have the opportunity to use the rubric to analyze elementary-level science trade books and develop a plan for implementing the read-alouds in class. We will conclude by examining how teachers can layer selected trade books effectively into their existing science curriculum.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn why representing science as a human activity is important for students’ understanding of how science works, and will learn how to select and plan for read-alouds of books that humanize science into their existing science curriculum.

SPEAKERS:
Jeanne Brunner (University of Massachusetts Amherst: Amherst, MA), Kathleen Mahoney (Doctoral Student)

How can a change in human action impact carbon sequestration, biodiversity and soil health? In this hands-on investigation teachers will look for patterns in ecosystem diversity to determine cause and effect relationships for the services provided for by those ecosystems. We will capture mesofauna and calculate its species richness and relative abundance using Simpson’s Index of Diversity. Then, we will investigate soil structure to compare the species diversity to soil health. Is there a connection? How can improved soil health help to mitigate climate change? This investigation will spotlight how human impact has altered natural ecosystem services and discuss how this change has reduced carbon sequestration. How can we use symbiotic relationships and biogeochemical cycles to reverse this trend? Teachers will: - Investigate soil ecosystems - Calculate Simpson’s Index of Diversity - Determine cause and effect relationships between human impact and ecosystem services - Use foldscopes to identify organisms and collect data - Talk to industry experts in food production to connect science and technology to their classrooms. Free professional development and curriculum available from Nourishthefuture.org.

TAKEAWAYS:
Investigate patterns in biodiversity, soil health, and carbon sequestration to determine human impact on ecosystem services and changing climate.

SPEAKERS:
Heather Bryan (Nourish the Future - Education Projects, LLC: Columbus, OH)

Online investigations with digitized specimens offer broad opportunities for teachers to engage their students in authentic scientific research. EPIC Bioscience investigations are free, online, NGSS-aligned research investigations that guide students to participate in science practices: asking a question, collecting data, analyzing and interpreting findings, and communicating to others. Investigations use specimens from natural history collections in entomology, vertebrate zoology, mycology, and botany to provide fully-supported, online investigations centered on real phenomena and aligned to NGSS MSLS2-1 through NGSS MSLS2-4. These investigations offer key opportunities to enhance scientific literacy through effective sensemaking with student-collected data on compelling specimens. This session focuses on two key goals to help teachers support sensemaking during phenomena-based student investigations: (1) Identifying and remediating common student errors and confusion during data collection and analysis. (2) Practicing effective instructional strategies focused on enhancing students’ scientific reasoning and data interpretation. This session will involve hands-on experiences with student activities, as well as interactive discussion of classroom examples and evidence.

TAKEAWAYS:
Identify common student errors and sources of confusion during data collection, analysis, and interpretation and deploy strategies designed to enhance student sensemaking from data.

SPEAKERS:
Kirsten Butcher (The University of Utah: Salt Lake City, UT), Madlyn Larson (Natural History Museum of Utah: Salt Lake City, UT)

The NGSS is very complicated. The Institute for Quality Science Teaching at the Museum of Science and Industry provides professional learning opportunities for science teachers in Chicagoland and surrounding areas. Our approach is to ground everything we do in the NGSS and take a deep dive into all the elements of 3-dimensional learning. Professional learning programs at MSI are invested in helping teachers understand how to teach science effectively to meet these standards. Teachers in our programs learn science content in the context of 3-dimensional lessons, as instructors demonstrate instructional practices that enable NGSS-aligned teaching and learning. This presentation will review the basics of the NGSS, the 3 dimensions, how they’re combined in Performance Expectations, and the basics of enacting the NGSS in the classroom. If you need a refresher, just want a review, or still don’t have all those acronyms straight in your head, this is the presentation for you.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will leave with a basic understanding of the structures of the Next Generation Science Standards and how they inform 3-dimensional standards and 3-dimensional science teaching.

SPEAKERS:
Lauren Slanker (Museum of Science and Industry: Chicago, IL), Karin Klein (Museum of Science and Industry: Chicago, IL)

From A Silent Spring, The Limits to Growth and Population Bomb of the 1960s and 70s to today’s planetary boundary science, overshoot, and creating a safe and just space for humanity, some would say that “the science is in” and that it is pretty gloomy. Additionally, now in the frenetic information age, humans are overwhelmingly aware of the multitude of crises we face as a species. Our collective mental health is tanking. Knowing our predicament is one thing, but knowing what to do about it is another. Education may be one of our most powerful tools. However, delivery, content, and reach are impaired by multiple factors including politics, economics, religion, and the numerous influences affecting everyone’s social construction of knowledge. This presentation will share examples from the fields of environmental, conservation, and humane education and then focus on the potential promise of comprehensive education for ecological justice.

About the Speaker
Sarah M. Bexell is clinical associate professor with the Graduate School of Social Work and Director of Humane Education with the Institute for Human-Animal Connection, both at the University of Denver, Colorado. Sarah is also a faculty member teaching Animal Protection for the Institute for Humane Education at Antioch University New England and senior advisor to the Education Department of the Chengdu Research Base for Giant Pandas, China. She teaches and does research in the areas of ecological justice, humane education, and animal protection.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Bexell (University of Denver: Denver, CO)

The 1974 discovery of the iconic Lucy fossil in Ethiopia changed our understanding of human origins. Almost everyone today knows of Lucy, but over the last 48 years the field of human origins has exploded thanks to new discoveries all over the world as well as critical new developments in the realm of molecular biology. Few biology classes address these advances. However, the tools and techniques students learn in STEM classes have a direct connection to the advances and changes that have shaped modern work with human origins. Attending this session will give you the chance to appreciate the revolution that has occurred since “Lucy” and offer you tools to bring new understanding to your students in ways you can weave into your curriculum in less controversial ways connected to evolution, fossils, DNA, proteomics, genealogy, biogeography, 3D printing, as well as topics related to more recent human evolution (skin color, lactose tolerance, and high-altitude adaptation). As a 32-year K-12 human evolution educator who has been fortunate to work with leaders in the field, I have had a front row seat to many of the milestones of human evolution in the 21st century and I’m eager to share them with you.

TAKEAWAYS:
Since the discovery of Lucy, our understanding of human origins has grown and changed thanks to new discoveries and technologies – participants will learn about these amazing changes and how to integrate these new discoveries into their biology curriculum.

SPEAKERS:
John Mead (St. Mark's School of Texas: Allen, TX)

The purpose of the presentation is to model how to flip a classroom from the traditional methods to more innovative methods to engage students. The participants will be able to create a deck by the end of the session. Participants will be given the background and research based strategies that Pear Deck uses to ensure that equity and inclusion are met while ensuring the seamless integration of the platform. Participants will be given the pedagogy of why this tool is needed in their classroom. Participants will be introduced to EdPuzzle and Screencastify to highlight how these tools can be used as well to flip their classrooms. A Pear Deck interactive slide will be presented to the audience. The audience will log in with the given code. As I present the audience will have my screen on their device. The audience will participate in a series of interactive activities designed to immerse them platform and give them the experience that students will have. The presentation is highly interactive with the first half of the presentation be using to interact with the platforms and the second half given for participants to explore and ask questions. The audience will be engaged with device-based activities from the beginning to the end of the presentation. The presentation style will be catch and release. I will capture their attention for some time and then I will release them to navigate through the platforms while I offer support. Attendees will learn how to create a Pear Deck, a screencastify recording and how to navigate through EdPuzzle to either create or utilize existing videos. Attendees will learn how to take the materials they are already using to flip them into a more blended learning model. The attendees will walk away with a Deck that can be used immediately in their classroom and my information to reach out to me if they have any questions during implementation.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will walk away with the basic knowledge of how to flip their classroom and be able to implement the strategies immediately into their classroom so that they are able to increase equity and inclusion.

SPEAKERS:
Cecelia Gillam (Hahnville High School: La Place, LA)

As a K-5 English Learner Teacher, I work with all grades, and for the last five years I've been helping students reach NGSS Performance Expectations through inductive, hands-on science lessons. I’m also a Science Methods Professor at North Central College, where I coach pre-service teachers in how to create and teach NGSS-aligned, three-dimensional science lessons. In this session, teachers will experience several hands-on mini-lessons and explore the meaning of inductive learning in science. Teachers will inductively discover how circuits work and engineer solutions for erosion. We’ll also use digital microscopes to explore the needs of plants and the structure and function living things, so please bring a device with a USB port if you can. Throughout the session, I’ll showcase digital portfolio examples from my K-5 students over the last 5 years. Elementary teachers are often intimidated by teaching and assessing the ambitious performance expectations of the NGSS, especially given the limited class time available for science instruction. Incorporating experiential science lessons with reading, writing, and speaking allows cross-curricular connections with ELA. Teachers will see many examples of digital notebooks used with English Learners and special education students for ongoing performance assessment of both Science and ELA standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Inductive, and inclusive hands-on science experiences and the use of digital portfolios lead to deeper learning as well as ELA & Math connections for K-5 students.

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Eaton (Cowlishaw Elementary School: Naperville, IL)

“You’re good at math; be an engineer.” Isn’t there more to it? Who is an engineer? Engineering helps society by solving problems. Let’s explore “why.”

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn that engineering is more than math + science and take away classroom activities addressing engineering identity, ethics, and society (not your typical engineering activities).

SPEAKERS:
Ken Reid (University of Indianapolis: Indianapolis, IN)

Get ready for the 2023 and 2024 solar eclipses. See how learning activities about Earth, Moon and Sun provide three-dimensional learning experiences that connect to these events, which will be more spectacular than the 2017 eclipse.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will have a better understanding of what is meant by three-dimensional learning, see how 3-D learning can lead to knowing what causes lunar phases and eclipses, and be prepared to enjoy the solar eclipses in 2023 and 2024.

SPEAKERS:
Dennis Schatz (Institute for Learning Innovation: Beaverton, OR)

General-education science classes are often the last chance we have to empower students with the science literacy skills necessary to navigate today’s world. But what is science literacy? Memorizing facts and following recipe-like labs? Or is it understanding how the process of science learns about the world by testing explanations and critically scrutinizing the evidence? A good science education teaches students how, not what, to think. Science isn’t just what we know; it’s how we know. This presentation explores a novel course developed using a backward design approach designed to teach the essential skills of critical thinking, information literacy, and science literacy. By focusing on the process of science over content, students learn how to evaluate the evidence for claims to determine how we know something. Directly including pseudoscience (e.g. astrology, psychics, homeopathy, Bigfoot) and science denial (e.g. climate change, evolution, GMOs) increases engagement, addresses common misconceptions, and teaches students how to recognize the characteristics of good science. Assignments and activities in which students actively create misinformation inoculates them against the real thing. Finally, providing students with a structured toolkit to evaluate claims (with lots of opportunities to practice) helps students apply what they’re learning to the “real world.”

TAKEAWAYS:
The goal of general education science should not be memorizing facts, but learning the essential skills of critical thinking, information literacy, and science literacy.

SPEAKERS:
Melanie Trecek-King (Massasoit Community College)

Human activities have caused changes in global temperature and weather patterns. This generation of students will need to understand climate science in order to adapt to this changing environment. In this session, participants will explore a project in which students incorporate engineering and basic coding - no experience necessary. We will use micro:bit technology to connect basic coding commands to collect authentic data using embedded sensors. Participants will use this collected data to modify design solutions based on human vulnerabilities to severe weather. Participants will find ways to expose their students to the engineering capabilities needed to solve problems. This project allows students to compare design solutions to identify which is best for the problem at hand and experience the interactive process of evaluating solutions. This project allows for the authentic integration of technology, mathematics, crosscutting concepts, science practices, and easy implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Use technology to expose students to coding and engineering design solutions for severe weather.

SPEAKERS:
Jessica Kohout (Independent Contractor: Ellicott City, MD), Stacy Thibodeaux (Southside High School: Youngsville, LA)

To effectively engage audience members, I will balance their readiness to learn, cognitive load, and stimulating activities. Using real-world examples, I will demonstrate the power of STEM in elementary classrooms to grow all learners and provide necessary 21st-century skills. Often STEM is an enrichment offered to high-achiever but struggling learners have even more to gain from STEM including confidence and leadership. I will focus on practical application, but valuable references and data will be included to support my practices. I will begin the session with a survey to identify the needs and perceptions of participants regarding STEM integration. Based on input, I will share research-based strategies, classroom integration examples, or dispel misconceptions. I will include an interactive STEM activity using index cards and paper clips to provide a STEM lesson model and demonstrate the ease of integrating STEM with simple, classroom supplies. Participants will leave the session with a better understanding of the benefits of STEM in K-5 classrooms and feel more comfortable integrating STEM into their own classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will understand the value of STEM integration beyond the four letters of the acronym, including the benefits of productive struggle of high achievers and how the grit of struggling learners are paramount in the success of STEM challenges.

SPEAKERS:
Erika Neuman (University of Texas at San Antonio: No City, No State)

Students may commonly hear the terms carbon dioxide, greenhouse gases, global warming, and climate change. It is important to understand climate science and climate change, and how energy use and consumer choices impact our environment, economics, and standard of living. Session participants will learn hands-on activities to use with their students to develop a better understanding of climate science. They will first explore NEED’s Greenhouse in a Beaker to observe how greenhouse gases, like CO2, act in our atmosphere through the use of common lab equipment. Can I Really Fry and Egg on the Sidewalk uses an infrared thermometer to showcase how radiant energy is absorbed by various surfaces at different rates and be able to see how different surfaces and the spaces surrounding them can have elevated temperatures, leading to a heat island effect. Road Trip involves calculating the carbon impact of transportation choices to learn about their carbon footprint.

SPEAKERS:
Cori Nelson (The NEED Project: Manassas, VA), Sharon Bird (The NEED Project: Manassas, VA)

For years, research on the language of classrooms explored how the way we say things impacts students’ sense of belonging. This session uses the NSTA Teacher Tip Tuesday—The Meaning Beyond The Words: How Language, Race, and Culture Impact Science Teaching and Learning web seminar to consider how we signal to students that we value their ideas and how they communicate those ideas in the science classroom and what we can do as educators to help ensure our students know they belong in the classroom and can do science. Participants will learn about opportunities to continue the learning after the session ends through NSTA’s new Professional Learning Units.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Become aware of how we signal (or don’t signal) to students their ideas and how they communicate their ideas are valued in the science classroom; and 2. Learn strategies to support students in building on their ideas and each other's ideas to move toward building deep conceptual understanding of big ideas in science (disciplinary core ideas).

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Phillips (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Kate Soriano (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

By the end of this session, participants will be able to: - Explain the impact of roads on wildlife - Analyze data to design wildlife-friendly crossing structures - Use hands-on tools to teach STEM concepts The majority of this session will focus on real world data analysis and problem solving. Working in small groups, participants will propose solutions to a number of related scenarios. First, they’ll analyze data to determine if highways pose a significant threat to wildlife. Relevant vocabulary will be introduced – including fragmentation, migratory barriers, porosity and passage rates – as we explore the need for ways to move animals across highways without impacting humans. Once a need is determined, they’ll continue their exploration by looking at potential crossing structure solutions. They’ll identify structure location and wildlife-friendly designs to ensure the highest use. They’ll be asked to either create a model or blueprint of their design. Finally, participants will discuss ways to determine the crossing structure effectiveness. This will include a cost/benefit analysis. Additional resources to expand learning will be shared, including links, books, videos, contacts and professional development.

TAKEAWAYS:
Science and Engineering Practices are used by wildlife biologists to help manage wildlife populations and those same skills can be developed in students.

SPEAKERS:
Eric Proctor (Arizona Game and Fish Department: Phoenix, AZ)

The basic physical science principles of gravitational force and air resistance are explored as students design, build, test, and evaluate parachutes. K-W-L charts are used to assess students’ knowledge of the engineering design process and the scientific method. The book, “Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot” by Margot Theis Ravin, is read to students and they discuss whether the pilot acted like an engineer as he wanted to share sweets with children during the Berlin Airlift. The students are presented with a problem, getting food and water to islanders whose homes and roads have been damaged by hurricanes. Simple materials such as paper napkins, paper towels, crocheting thread, and paper clips are used to build the parachutes. The students use the five ‘E’s’: engagement, exploration, explanation, evaluation, and elaboration as they compare their various parachute models. Students learn that air contains particles, and it is these particles that place forces on bodies moving in the air and counteract the force of gravity. Students use math in the analysis of their models. Students learn that models representing parachutes can be designed in many ways and may behave differently when tested. Students learn the many ways engineering and science are used to explore and explain nature and are employed in manufacturing and technology processes.

TAKEAWAYS:
Student groups learn that the engineering design process and the scientific method are circular processes as they design, build, test, and evaluate a parachute model then improve it.

SPEAKERS:
Suzanne Cunningham (Purdue University: West Lafayette, IN)

We live in a data-driven world, and our students will be working in a data-driven workforce. Therefore, it is critical that our Pre-K-12 students learn foundational data literacy skills. However, currently these skills are too often only taught in upper-level classes. All students need these skills and all students, down to our little Pre-Kers, can work with and make sense of science data. Let’s make sure data is an equalizer, rather than another divider in our educational system and society! Join us as we explore what perception and learning science tell us about how our brains process data. We will experience research-based strategies and freely available resources to build science knowledge and self-efficacy through data. Finally, we will explore ways to adapt our existing curriculum activities and data visualizations to help our students more equitably access science. Through hands-on activities and group discussions, participants will leave more empowered to leverage data and data visualizations into their science content in purposeful ways for all learners. Working with and learning science from data fosters critical thinking skills, lifelong interests in science, and facilitates learners’ overall 21st century skills. Let’s set all of our students up for success!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will identify how data literacy is a critical aspect of science literacy in the 21st century for all students and ways to adjust existing curriculum to leverage data as entry points into science inquiry, sensemaking, and knowledge for all learners to see themselves in STEM.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Hunter-Thomson (Dataspire Education & Evaluation, LLC: No City, No State)

Sponsoring Company: Great Minds

Explore the five social-emotional competencies as defined by CASEL. Research instructional routines that foster these competencies and learn how to incorporate these routines in your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
PhD Science® was designed with the research-based understanding that social, emotional, and academic learning are interconnected multidirectionally.

SPEAKERS:
Ranell Blue (Great Minds: Washington, DC), Isaac Stauffer (Great Minds: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning

Literacy strategies—such as analyzing, discussing, and summarizing—can be utilized while reading science-based articles, authentic science research, journals, and textbooks. The use of these strategies provides a cross-curricular bridge that not only increases understanding but also increases a student's ability to think critically. Our professionally trained STEM coaches know what it takes to effectively integrate literacy and writing into the science content. Using a constructivist approach, participants will experience hands-on learning that will give them a greater understanding of literacy in science.

TAKEAWAYS:
Work in a collaborative group to understand the importance of a constructivist approach.

SPEAKERS:
Jacque Garcia (STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning: Houston, TX), Alicia Chiasson (STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning: Houston, TX)

Sponsoring Company: PASCO scientific

Give your students a real-world engineering challenge! In this PASCO workshop, you will explore the relationship between momentum and impact forces with real-time measurement of collisions. You will design your own crash barrier to minimize the maximum collision force of a moving cart colliding into your barrier. Next, you will analyze your results to iterate and improve on your original design.  Attend for a chance to win equipment for your school!

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to design a crash cushion to minimize the collision force of a moving cart and analyze the results to iterate and improve on your design.

SPEAKERS:
Jonathan Hanna (PASCO Scientific: Roseville, CA)

Sponsoring Company: Cereal City Science

Inspire your students’ sense of curiosity and wonder with Cereal City Science! Gone are the days of students just “learning about science”. With a high quality, K-8 NGSS curriculum, like Cereal City Science, students are doing science as they take on the roles of scientists and engineers to figure things out. Developing models and activity summary boards gives students tools to explain phenomena. The “Let’s Give Them Something to Think About!” workshop begins with the introduction of a phenomenon and discussion on how to facilitate inquiry, Science Talk, and student-led investigations. Participants engage in modeling as a practice-rich tool for figuring out phenomena, use a summary board to document learning - keeping the storyline visible, and experience bringing it all together in the context of a multiple literacy lesson.

TAKEAWAYS:
Developing models is a practice-rich tool for figuring out phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Sandra Erwin (Cereal City Science: Battle Creek, MI)

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Software & Technology

Get active and participate in hands-on experiments. Explore limb position and grip strength, balance, and EKGs/EMGs experiments designed to encourage students to think about the physiology of various human organ systems. Walk away with valuable information, including sample labs and teaching tips.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Gain experience with hands-on technology that encourages students to explore and test different solutions and make connections to the real world; 2. Get access to free resources to keep students engaged while learning key scientific concepts either remotely or in the lab; and 3. Gain hands-on experiences with innovative products that increase student engagement, promote creativity and collaboration, and develop problem-solving skills.

SPEAKERS:
Colleen McDaniel (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR), Nüsret Hisim (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

Sponsoring Company: Lab-Aids

With the Tinkering Labs Electric Motors Catalyst, your students can create their own inventions using real wood, real hardware, and real motors. They will learn STEM through project based design challenges that allow them to wonder, test, invent (and yes, play!) while learning important physical science and engineering core ideas, such as force, motion, electricity and energy. The Tinkering Labs STEM curriculum was designed for grades K-5 by a team led by Gever Tulley, founder of the award-winning, independent Brightworks School in San Francisco. This hands-on workshop challenges participants to make a vehicle to move a toy or other small object using motors, wheels, wires and other equipment. This activity is one of 10 engineering design challenges in the Electric Motors Catalyst, a STEM curriculum for grades K-5 that comes complete with equipment, lesson plans, assessments, embedded support for ELA, and is fully aligned to NGSS. The program is distributed exclusively by Lab-Aids.

TAKEAWAYS:
A project based design challenge that allows participants to wonder, test, invent (and yes, play!) while learning important physical science and engineering core ideas, such as force, motion, electricity and energy.

SPEAKERS:
Matthew Brocchini (Tinkering Labs: Ronkonkoma, NY)

Sponsoring Company: Edvotek

Want to learn today’s top biotechnology techniques? Join us for a hands-on exploration of PCR and electrophoresis in one hour using the EdvoCyclerJr and the EDGE!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will explore the science behind the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and learn strategies for performing PCR in short class periods.

SPEAKERS:
Brian Ell (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC), Danielle Snowflack (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: Texas Instruments

Attendees will explore disease modeling through the use of real (virtual) ZOMBIES!

TAKEAWAYS:
1. This session will explore disease-spread modeling using fictional zombies; 2. Attendees will also see how using Hollywood themes combined with actual STEM careers can be a fun way to engage students in learning science and STEM; and 3. Attendees will find out about free science and STEM lessons from Texas Instruments.

SPEAKERS:
Jeffrey Lukens (Retired Science Teacher: Sioux Falls, SD)

Sponsoring Company: Savvas Learning Company

What's so phenomenal about phenomena? Join the Savvas science team for an engaging, hands-on workshop as we explore the purpose of phenomena, the power of using it to drive your instruction, and the way it will support your students as they bring their own life experiences into your classroom. Attendees will leave with purposeful strategies they can replicate in their classrooms immediately.

TAKEAWAYS:
Experience 3 different phenomena-based teaching strategies that can be used in your own classroom.

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

Sponsoring Company: HHMI BioInteractive

Explore free HHMI BioInteractive resources to help students construct an explanation as to how different patterns of inheritance lead to gene expression and how gene therapy can be used to affect that gene expression. Consider ways in which these resources can be used, adopted and/or adapted for different learning levels. Reflect on different ways models can be used in science and the teaching of science.

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore free HHMI BioInteractive resources to help students construct an explanation as to how different patterns of inheritance lead to gene expression and how gene therapy can be used to affect that gene expression. Consider ways in which these resources can be used, adopted and/or adapted for different learning levels. Reflect on different ways models can be used in science and the teaching of science.

SPEAKERS:
Valerie May (Woodstock Academy: Woodstock, CT), Karen Lucci (Retired Educator: Morrisville, PA)

Sponsoring Company: Fisher Science Education

Get your students excited about chemistry and consumer science at one time! Join us as we evaluate various types of shampoo to determine which provides the best value. Investigate pH, viscosity, and other detergent characteristics like foam retention and ink dispersion in this engaging hands-on demonstration. Excellent for helping students understand key surfactant chemistry topics like hydrophobicity and micelles.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn the process of evaluating shampoo for pH, viscosity, foam retention and ink dispersion.

SPEAKERS:
Kymberly Hall

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

Discover a completely new approach to studying DNA and enzymes. Using fluorescence your students can now directly visualize DNA base pairing and explore the effects of temperature, pH, and genetic sequence on DNA structure. Then see how inhibitors, concentration, temperature and pH affect the rate of enzymatic reactions. Go beyond building models; watch biology glow!

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore the connection between DNA sequence and DNA structure and investigate the properties of enzymes including competitive inhibition.

SPEAKERS:
Bruce Bryan (miniPCR: Cambridge, MA)

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

Participants will examine the structure of phospholipids and how it shapes the function of the cell membrane using multiple representations including hands-on models. Cellular processes like active and passive transport will be explored while demonstrating how these models can amplify traditional biology labs and classroom activities. Participants will explore examples of membranes in action that can be applied to units on genetics and evolution to extend the reach of the models throughout the school year.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students can create and revise models to explore how the structure of phospholipids influences the function of cell membranes.

SPEAKERS:
Kim Parfitt (3D Molecular Designs: Milwaukee, WI)

Sponsoring Company: Earth Overshoot

Teaching climate change as a symptom of planetary health using the overshoot model gives students a deeper understanding of environmental science and inspires hope and meaningful action.

TAKEAWAYS:
A more comprehensive systemic approach to our global environmental emergencies that concentrates on the interconnected causes instead of a narrow climate change focus gives students a broader and deeper understanding of our current environmental challenges and sets them up for successfully solving them.

SPEAKERS:
Terry Spahr (Earth Overshoot: Ardmore, PA)

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Come experience a model lesson from OpenSciEd for Middle School and see how the new Carolina Certified Edition makes these high-quality instructional materials even better!

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Experience the pedagogy of OpenSciEd through a model lesson; 2. Learn ways to encourage equitable classroom discourse; and 3. Create a Driving Question Board to explore real-world phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Cory Ort (Carolina Biological Supply Co.: Burlington, NC)

How are you engaging all students in critical skills to ensure they are ready for the future of work? What does the classroom feel, sound, and look like when students are making sense of their world and solving real-world problems? Join the alumni from the 2021 Northrop Grumman Foundation Teachers Academy as they share the ways they have transformed their schools/classrooms to align with the reality of work as experienced alongside engineers, technologists, and scientists.

TAKEAWAYS:
Strategies to integrate workforce skills aligned with the vision of the K–12 Framework.

SPEAKERS:
Rachel Kenning (Spring Creek Middle School: Providence, UT), Anthony Carter (Middle River Middle School: Middle River, MD), Yevgeny Pevzner (Kearns Junior High School: Salt Lake City, UT), Leilani O'Dell (Roscomare Road Elementary School: No City, No State)

Finding support and collaboration, especially in rural settings, can be challenging for educators. The Interstate Science Collaborative (ISC) was formed by state science leaders from a handful of rural states to provide free professional learning for the teachers they serve. Fall and spring book study sessions and a summer learning series were offered with considerations toward equitable participation including making the sessions virtual, being mindful of schedules and capacity, and providing continuing education credits. Feedback from the sessions centered around appreciation from participants for the opportunity to connect with teachers from other states to discuss and share in conversations around common problems of practice. In addition to providing support for educators, the ISC became a safe space for the founding members to share challenges and successes in their own work. Join this presentation to learn about how to set up a professional community in your context that will not only support student learning but can also become a way to create the comradery and community we all need as educators.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will engage in whole and small group discussion to learn about and share strategies to build a professional community that not only focuses on how to improve student learning but also creates a support network for educators.

SPEAKERS:
Sharon Cates (Phenomenon Science Education: Amherst, MA), Christy Krenek (New Mexico Public Education Department: Santa Fe, NM), Shannon Wachowski (EdReports.org: Fort Collins, CO)

While young people are often framed as apathetic towards science class, politics, and the environment, movements like #ClimateStrike demonstrate that quite the opposite is often true. Yet, teachers often do not know how to bring out this type of vigorous engagement in their classes. In this session, learn from students and teachers who have done place-based projects geared towards teaching chemistry, inspiring civic engagement, and working for environmental justice. Recognizing that taking on authentic problems in science class is difficult, the focus of this workshop will rely on honesty, humor, and reflection to learn from each other about how to overcome challenges from complex chemistry content to resistant student attitudes. Using short interactive role plays, this workshop will share lessons we have learned and engage participants in thinking through and acting out what this work looks like in their contexts. With students and teachers as co-facilitators, this workshop seeks to engage educators’ imaginations in bridging sophisticated science learning, student agency, and authentic community involvement.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn to navigate scenarios that can encourage or prevent students' overlapping critical engagement in science class and their communities around issues of environmental justice.

SPEAKERS:
Alejandra Frausto Aceves (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL), Mindy Chappell (North-Grand High School: Chicago, IL), Jasmine Jones (Student)

Built on the idea that, "you can't give what you don't have" (Heibert, 2018), we have intentionally designed our STEM teacher preparation pathway using the NSTA pillar of sensemaking. The undergraduate STEM major integrates the four pillars of sensemaking across the STEM curriculum and is brought together through a seminar to support culturally sustaining STEM teaching. We will share intentionally designed curricular ideas, investigations across the various fields of study (computer science, engineering, biology, chemistry, and mathematics), field experiences, mentorship and research opportunities for our NSF Noyce Scholars and STEM majors. This will be co-presented with undergraduate students and mentor teachers so participants will get an idea of the collaboration and design across various contexts. As STEM teacher educators, we must design and model sensemaking with supports and scaffolding so that our STEM graduates are confident in designing and revising curriculum that holds sensemaking and culturally sustaining pedagogy at the core (Emdin, 2021; Emdin 2022, Paris, 2012).

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will take away specific strategies for designing STEM teacher preparation built on a foundation of sensemaking and culturally responsive pedagogy.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rainville (Sacred Heart University: Fairfield, CT), Bonnie Maur (Sacred Heart University: Fairfield, CT), Sydney Worthen-Jenkins (Sacred Heart University: Fairfield, CT), Nicole Hebert (Sacred Heart University: Fairfield, CT)

The forthcoming OpenSciEd High School chemistry course combines physical science and Earth and space science NGSS performance expectations as a way to engage students in developing understandings around energy and matter. Learn about the focus of the five units that make up this course and their associated performance expectation bundles to see how the three dimensions are used as a way to authentically engage students in making sense of both physical science and earth and space science related phenomena and design solutions. In the session, we will highlight how anchoring phenomena of the first unit, typically associated with earth and space science, helps students make sense of the particulate nature of matter, energy transfers in earth systems, feedback loops, and human interactions with their environment. An in-depth examination of the performance expectation bundles for the following four units will help illustrate the learning progressions students will follow to develop progressively more complex models of the particle nature of matter, its properties, and its interactions using the lenses of all crosscutting concepts, in particular, patterns, energy and matter, structure and function, and stability and change.

TAKEAWAYS:
Incorporation of earth and space science NGSS performance expectations within a chemistry curriculum supports student engagement in and sensemaking of chemistry concepts around properties and interactions of matter and energy.

SPEAKERS:
Nicole Vick (Northwestern University), Dan Voss (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL), Michael Novak (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL), Tara McGill (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL)

Join us to learn what sensemaking is and how to use research-based resources to engage students in making sense of the world around them. Leave with a collection of resources to move your professional learning forward no matter where you are on the sensemaking continuum.

TAKEAWAYS:
Develop an understanding of what sensemaking is and how it can help build classrooms where students are able to make sense of the world around them. Leaders walk away with a consensus-building exercise for their team.

SPEAKERS:
Tricia Shelton (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Elizabeth Allan (University of Central Oklahoma: Edmond, OK)

The Half-Earth Project team-based Mapping Design Challenge engages students in authentic teamwork to use digital mapping to design their own biodiversity conservation choices.

TAKEAWAYS:
Digital mapping motivated by exploring charismatic species draws diverse students into the multidisciplinary science of conservation decision-making where species, human impacts, and stakeholders have to be considered.

SPEAKERS:
Dennis Liu (E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation: Durham, NC)

Hexagonal Thinking ensures the learning environment features a high degree of student engagement by providing a framework for academic discussion where all students participate. Participants will collaborate with colleagues to experience Hexagonal Thinking using science and math content vocabulary and visuals that will then be used to synthesize information into a piece of critical writing.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn a strategy for making thinking, learning and content connections visible in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Yates (Aledo ISD: Aledo, TX), Miranda Rosenhoover (Aledo ISD: Aledo, TX)

In this session, the co-editors of the recent NSTA Press book, Crosscutting Concepts: Strengthening Science and Engineering Learning, will take a deep dive into how crosscutting concepts can be more explicitly leveraged to strengthen science instruction. Presenters will illustrate how two instructional units—one elementary and one secondary—have developed CCCs as lenses on phenomena in order to better connect with students’ everyday experiences and to enhance students’ ability to meaningfully integrate SEPs, DCIs, and CCCs to make sense of authentic phenomena and problems.

TAKEAWAYS:
CCCs are: 1) lenses on phenomena and problems; 2) critical to sensemaking about phenomena and problems; and 3) most useful when meaningfully integrated with SEPs and DCIs.

SPEAKERS:
Jeff Nordine (The University of Iowa: Iowa City, IA), Okhee Lee (New York University: New York, NY)

Confused about what to do post COVID? Thinking about switching careers? Learn about the experiences, challenges, and mistakes made by several esteemed science education leaders in this engaging and interactive panel discussion. This panel will feature current and former teachers, school leaders, district leaders, consultants, academics, national STEM education leaders.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about the increasing number of opportunities available for educators both inside and outside of the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Lach (Township High School District 113)

Please join us for this Exclusive Exhibit Hall time today. During this time there are no teacher sessions scheduled and it’s a perfect opportunity to visit the exhibits and discover all the products and services companies and organizations have to offer. Some exhibitors will offer materials for sale throughout the conference.

Birds of a Feather sessions (BoFs) are informal gatherings of like-minded individuals who wish to discuss a certain topic without a pre-planned agenda.

Come join us as we participate in a Darwinian speculation reimagined as a Thought Experiment. This is a classic STEAM approach.

TAKEAWAYS:
See how to integrate the arts into STEM = STEAM.

SPEAKERS:
Christina Derusha (Science Teacher: , IL), Vito Dipinto (National Louis University at Wheeling: Wheeling, IL)

Explore curriculum of a 10th grade integrated chemistry and biology course that was designed to incorporate the Next Generation Science Standards while placing importance on the Science and Engineering Practices. The course follows the narrative: “Living systems obey the laws of physics and chemistry. Transformations in matter occur in predictable ways and are a function of molecular shape and molecular collisions. Chemical properties are the result of the arrangement of elements and the forces between them. Reception, sequestration, and transfer of chemical elements allow living systems to leverage chemical transformations to survive, grow, and reproduce. Reproduction allows for the transmission of these traits from one generation to the next. Pressures from the environment favors some traits over others which in turn produces new species over time and is responsible for the diversity of all life.” Students were introduced to content via phenomenon and then engaged with the DCIs, Cross-cutting concepts, and SEPs while working towards a culminating project. For example, students learned various topics of chemistry including stoichiometry and gas laws to design and build a functional Class B fire extinguisher. Following this unit, students applied their understanding of cellular respiration, photosynthesis and the carbon cycle to calculate the amount of carbon sequestered on a section of campus trees.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to use phenomena and a 3D design approach to create project -based, integrated Curriculum that assesses SEPS equally with content. Participants will learn how to use student-centered pedagogical practices, hands-on exploration, and more authentic assessment practices. Participants will be familiar with how Integrating biology, chemistry and environmental standards in order to explore an authentic, real-world problem or challenge increases student engagement and performance.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth Helfant (Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School: Saint Louis, MO)

This hands-on workshop will showcase the transformational coaching method in order to shift science instructional practice by addressing the following questions: - What challenges do science teachers face when implementing NGSS? - How can we coach for change? - What tools do we use when coaching? - What does this look like in a coaching conversation? In this session, we will discuss common challenges faced by teachers when implementing NGSS and we will introduce Elena Aguilar’s transformational coaching model of coaching around teaching beliefs as a means to surface and address these challenges. Participants will learn about and discuss both coaching and NGSS tools that support the coaching process. Participants will then view a recording of a coaching session with a science teacher. While watching the video, they will use the tools discussed earlier in the session to determine how the coach surfaced the challenge and what tools were used to move the teacher toward successful practice. Then participants will have the opportunity to practice coaching each other in coaching triads using scenarios of NGSS implementation challenges. Lastly, participants will have an opportunity to reflect and debrief on the successes and difficulties they experienced in their coaching triads.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will walk away with specific strategies and tools on how to move science teachers forward on the NGSS three-dimensional continuum through transformational coaching.

SPEAKERS:
Anna Kraftson (Naperville North High School: Naperville, IL)

Participants will organize in groups and receive clues and puzzles to learn about genetic modification then be tasked to “break out” unlocking BreakoutEDU boxes. Puzzles include myths and facts; GMO or not?; Misleading label; and general terms related to genetics, and recombinant DNA. This activity could be used as review of genetics concepts or as a way to engage learners in research about genetically modified organisms. Free curriculum is available from grownextgen.org.

TAKEAWAYS:
Dispelling many of the myths about genetically engineered crops. An engaging way to involve every student in the process of problem-solving. Introduction to more resources about the connection between agriculture and science concepts.

SPEAKERS:
Jane Hunt (Nourish the Future - Education Projects, LLC: Columbus, OH)

One of the key features of the NGSS and other standards based on the Framework for K-12 Science Education is the idea that a “a progression of knowledge occurs from grade band to grade band that gives students the opportunity to learn more complex material, leading to an overall understanding of science by the end of high school.” (NGSS Appendix A, p. 2) The NSTA Atlas of the Three Dimensions has a set of 62 maps that illustrate the how the elements of the three dimensions build on each other and connect to one another. Each map focuses on a particular topic and shows the progression students are expected to make in that topic from one grade-span to the next. Arrows connecting individual elements on a map indicate that competency in one element is useful in learning to achieve the other element. Educators can use maps to deepen their understanding of the standards to plan or improve curriculum, instruction, and assessment. This session will provide participants guidance on how to read the maps in the Atlas and use this powerful tool to deepen their understanding of elements of the standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
A careful review of the connections between elements of the three dimensions can provide a clearer understanding of science standards and important guidance in planning instructional sequences to support three-dimensional teaching and learning.

SPEAKERS:
Ted Willard (Discovery Education: Silver Spring, MD)

This session is an introduction to a new approach to STEM instruction called Argument-Driven Engineering (ADE). ADE is an instructional approach that gives students an opportunity to learn to use core concepts and processes form science, engineering, and mathematics to figure out solutions to a meaningful and authentic problem that will help make the world a better place. This instructional approach also gives students an opportunity to develop disciplinary literacy skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) because they must obtain information, share and critique potential solutions through talk, and communicate what they figured out and how they know the solution is acceptable through writing. In this session, participants will examine the potential benefits and challenges associated with embedding engineering design into science classrooms and learn how the ADE instructional model can help maximize the benefits and reduce the challenges. Participants will also have a chance to experience an example of an ADE design challenge that invites them to design a shipping and storage container for insulin and see examples of how students who completed this design challenge used science, engineering, and mathematics content and processes to figure out how to keep the insulin cold for long periods of time. Participants will also learn about how this new approach was developed through three years of classroom-based research by a team of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and how well ADE instructional materials are aligned with the TEKS for science, mathematics, CTE, and ELA.

TAKEAWAYS:
• How to give students an opportunity to learn how to use concepts and processes from science, engineering, and mathematics to design a solution to an authentic problem that will help make the world a better place.

SPEAKERS:
Todd Hutner (The University of Alabama: Austin, TX)

An open-ended  investigation using the basic elements of the visual arts to compare images of Earth and celestial objects of our universe. Examples of student comparisons and a packet of resources will be shared.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: 1. use images from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and compare them to Earth images taken by Yann Arthus-Bertrand; 2. compare and contrast, using the basic elements in art and the properties of matter used in science, to describe each object; and 3. continue to create their own comparisons using the images made available in the workshop.

SPEAKERS:
Sally Jensen (Retired Educator: Campton, NH)

Gain experience using the NSTA Sensmaking Tool to become critical consumers of curricular materials and support creating/revising lessons for sensemaking.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Learn how to use the NSTA Sensemaking Tool to review science lessons for the four critical aspects of sensemaking; and 2. Understand how to use the Sensemaking Tool to support creating and revising existing science lessons for sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Kate Soriano (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

So many data conversations fall flat because of current methods of data collection. What if we could vary the type and frequency we collect and analyze data using google forms and spreadsheets? This would allow us to have more in-depth conversations about what the data is say and how we can use it to move instruction forward. In this session, 5 different tools will be presented to teachers that allows them to collect data in different ways. With these tools, the focus is no longer on the past and why things happened, but focus on the future of what we can do to respond to the data.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will learn about and receive templates for multiple tools using google forms and spreadsheets to realize the vision of a good data conversation

SPEAKERS:
Rocco Williams (Fort Worth ISD: Fort Worth, TX)

Use innovative video-assisted STEM activities, demonstrations, award-winning videos, and behind-the-crash-tests tours to teach the science of car crashes. Visit classroom.iihs.org for more information.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants learn how to incorporate culminating STEM design challenges (Project Pedestrian Sensors and Egg-Carrying Paper Car Crash) into their curriculum to promote student awareness and understanding of how engineering and technology are used to build safer vehicles.

SPEAKERS:
Griff Jones (University of Florida: No City, No State), Pini Kalnite (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Highway Loss Data Institute: Arlington, VA)

Discover how to implement three-dimensional learning into any science curriculum, all while engaging learners to become phenomenal!

TAKEAWAYS:
How to use SEPs to drive student instruction and molecular-level modeling of processes using data to support claim.

SPEAKERS:
Stacy Thibodeaux (Southside High School: Youngsville, LA)

Come explore creative storylines for integrating up-to-date, research-driven climate science into high school Chemistry courses.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Climate-related storylines provide powerful frameworks for students to learn fundamental chemistry core ideas and reinforce understandings of crosscutting concepts and science and engineering practices; 2. The wealth of Earth-orbiting NASA satellite data now available in real time provides us with an unprecedented understanding of the science of climate change and also provides many opportunities for student experiential learning; and The latest advances in climate modeling can allow all students to both see the inequitable impacts that humans are currently having on Earth systems and build a sense of hope in how future changes in human practices can reverse current impact trends.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Wysession (Washington University in St. Louis: Saint Louis, MO)

Faculty at the University of Indianapolis redesigned their physical science course for preservice teachers based on the 2020 NSTA/ASTE Standards for Science Teacher Preparation.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about and become familiar with the 2020 NSTA/ASTE Standards for Science Teacher Preparation as well as examine our semester guide to a physical science course for preservice teachers based on the 2020 NSTA/ASTE Standards.

SPEAKERS:
Stacy Hootman (University of Indianapolis: Indianapolis, IN), Sarah Reynolds (University of Indianapolis: Indianapolis, IN)

Sponsoring Company: Anatomy in Clay

In this workshop, attendees will build replicas of human anatomy using clay and a specially designed skeletal model in a classroom setting. Educators will learn how to implement a unique curriculum system which helps students create a kinesthetic map of the human anatomy. They will acquire the knowledge to engage science students with immediate, hands-on learning using a proven method that is nationally recognized to increase student retention and test scores. This workshop will emphasize directional terms, planes, cavities and landmarks on the skeletal model and then build several skeletal muscles. Emphasis will be placed on building the rotator cuff showing their origin and insertion, their movement and discuss exercises to strengthen these muscles.

TAKEAWAYS:
They will acquire the knowledge to engage science students with immediate, hands-on learning using a proven method that is nationally recognized to increase student retention and test scores.

SPEAKERS:
Christine Simonsen (Billings Career Center: Billings, MT)

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Software & Technology

Learn how to introduce new scientific concepts to your students through the lens of climate change. We will discuss experiments that let students study climate change in the classroom using data-collection technology, such as an investigation into the effect of carbon dioxide on ocean and freshwater pH. All activities are available as a free download for attendees.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Gain experience with hands-on technology that encourages students to explore and test different solutions and make connections to the real world; 2. Get access to free resources to keep students engaged while learning key scientific concepts either remotely or in the lab; and 3. Gain hands-on experiences with innovative products that increase student engagement, promote creativity and collaboration, and develop problem-solving skills.

SPEAKERS:
Colleen McDaniel (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR), Nüsret Hisim (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

Sponsoring Company: HHMI BioInteractive

Create and revise a model as new information is introduced. Engage in collaborative problem-solving around observed scientific phenomena. Model the "teacher-as-facilitator" approach to students "figuring out" the science concepts from the data provided.

TAKEAWAYS:
Create and revise a model as new information is introduced. Engage in collaborative problem-solving around observed scientific phenomena. Model the "teacher-as-facilitator" approach to students "figuring out" the science concepts from the data provided.

SPEAKERS:
Michele Koehler (Riverside Brookfield District 208: Riverside, IL), Jason Crean (Saint Xavier University: Orlando, FL)

Sponsoring Company: STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning

Explore several intervention strategies to help struggling students in STEM, moving beyond differentiation and scaffolding. Learn other proven intervention techniques and discover how to modify traditional outreach to connect with students so that they gain greater understanding.

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore several intervention strategies to help struggling students in STEM.

SPEAKERS:
Leslie Spaeny (STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning: Houston, TX), Jacque Garcia (STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning: Houston, TX)

Sponsoring Company: Lab-Aids

Use a computer simulation to analyze and interpret mathematical data that explores the evolutionary connection between cystic fibrosis (a genetic disease) and tuberculosis (an infectious disease) and evaluate mathematical representation. Learn about the cause-and-effect relationship between being a CF carrier and experiencing less severe TB symptoms. Explore he mathematical effects of changing environmental variables (prevalence of TB and access to high quality health care) on the frequency of the CF mutation; and make predictions about the future frequency of the CF mutation based on advances in treatment of CF.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn about the cause-and-effect relationship between being a Cystic Fibrosis carrier and experiencing less severe Tuberculosis symptoms.

SPEAKERS:
Wendy Jackson (The Lawrence Hall of Science: Berkeley, CA)

Sponsoring Company: Texas Instruments

An empty field. A human corpse. Maggots and flies. Who is the victim? What happened? Can you solve the mystery? This middle and high school activity will challenge you to apply science and deductive reasoning to determine what happened!

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Forensic science is a STEM career field that combines science, math, and criminal justice concepts; 2. Understanding the natural process of decomposition can help investigators narrow in on identifying victims and causes of death; and 3. Using stories is a great way to engage students and provide context to the science/STEM they are learning.

SPEAKERS:
Jeffrey Lukens (Retired Science Teacher: Sioux Falls, SD)

Sponsoring Company: PASCO scientific

Bridging the gap between science and coding can be challenging without the proper support. In this workshop, you'll learn how to use block-based coding as part of your existing physical and life science activities by integrating it into students' data collection process. Learn how you can help students develop computational thinking skills alongside science literacy without reinventing your curriculum.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to incorporate block-based coding into your current physical and life science activities.

SPEAKERS:
Barbara Pugliese (PASCO Scientific: Roseville, CA), Jonathan Hanna (PASCO Scientific: Roseville, CA)

Sponsoring Company: Amplify

Explore how to elicit and leverage students’ connections to the phenomena-based storylines in your science curriculum using strategies designed to deepen conceptual understanding.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Eliciting and leveraging student ideas, when done strategically, can not only promote equity and relevance, but can also support deep science learning; 2. How to use a particular routine to elicit students’ ideas and experiences at the beginning of a unit and how to leverage these ideas at strategic points along the storyline; and 3. Teachers can effectively use phenomena-based storylines from a research-based national curriculum by incorporating their students' funds of knowledge into those storylines.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Abbott (The Lawrence Hall of Science: Berkeley, CA), Kyla Cook (The Lawrence Hall of Science: Berkeley, CA), Kai Osorio (Professional Learning: Berkeley, CA)

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Apply creative problem-solving skills and engineering practices to chemistry and physical science challenges with race cars and rockets. Experience how Carolina makes it easy to incorporate STEM into your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will take away hands-on experience in designing, making, and testing balloon race cars and reaction rockets.

SPEAKERS:
Patti Kopkau (Retired Educator: National City, MI)

Sponsoring Company: Fisher Science Education

Space exploration is expanding and so are the needs for scientists who look to space for solutions to our current issues. So how do you spark the imagination of your kids? Let’s make astronauts cool again! This workshop focusses on creating that spark in middle school aged children by focusing on products that can relate space to students in a classroom during daylight hours. We will focus on three categories of products. 1) Portable, affordable telescopes designed for night time use that can be loaned out to students. 2) Apps and teaching aids that can be used during class to simulate a nighttime setting. 3) Products that specifically are designed to work during the day such as a sun scope or classroom models.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn about a series of products designed to teach space to students during the day.

SPEAKERS:
Thomas Wright

Sponsoring Company: Great Minds

Dive into a PhD Science® module to explore the six steps of the Engineering Design Process and test a solution to a real-world problem.

TAKEAWAYS:
PhD Science provides students with the opportunity for hands-on experiences that require the practical application of scientific processes.

SPEAKERS:
Ranell Blue (Great Minds: Washington, DC), Isaac Stauffer (Great Minds: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: Edvotek

Forensic science combines disciplines to determine “whodunit.” In this workshop, learn how to merge hands-on biotechnology experiments with literacy exercises to create an immersive lesson.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will perform hands-on biotechnology experiments that will allow them to discuss the implications of genetic fingerprinting and blood testing of forensic samples in class.

SPEAKERS:
Brian Ell (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC), Danielle Snowflack (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

Teach electrophoresis from the inside out. The BanditTM STEM Electrophoresis Kit allows students to build a working gel electrophoresis apparatus. After building it, they use their fully functioning system to run an electrophoresis lab. Link the concepts of circuits, electric fields, and charged particles through this essential biotechnology tool as students will make connections across scientific disciplines. With the accompanying high-quality curriculum, you'll perform molecular biology labs on a budget you didn't think was possible!

TAKEAWAYS:
Connect the physical sciences to biotechnology techniques and implement accessible and affordable electrophoresis for all levels, ranging from Mendelian inheritance to molecular genetics.

SPEAKERS:
Bruce Bryan (miniPCR: Cambridge, MA)

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

During this workshop, participants will work explore cell communication using hands-on models of synapses. Participants will experience how using models to explore abstract concepts deepens student understanding and inquiry for students and provides opportunities for formative assessments of student understanding. Participants will also have opportunities to deepen and challenge their own conceptual understanding of cell communication by altering the biochemical events within the synapses. These changes will reflect what happens when synapses are disturbed by drugs, including both prescription and drugs of abuse, as well as some mental health disorders. Finally, ideas for three-dimensional summative assessments will be explored.

TAKEAWAYS:
Hands on models of synapses let students explore cell communication and the structure and function relationship of proteins and signaling molecules including toxins and drugs.

SPEAKERS:
Kim Parfitt (3D Molecular Designs: Milwaukee, WI)

Water: It’s constantly in use all around us, but did you know that you can recycle water just like paper or plastic? Droughts and water scarcity are becoming an increasingly common phenomenon, and it is estimated that nearly 6 billion people will suffer from clean water scarcity by 2050. Yet, every year, Americans throw 11 trillion gallons of reusable water, also known as grey water, down the drain. In this series of lessons, students will learn about where their water comes from, the human water cycle, the three types of water and the connection between droughts and climate change. These lessons will also tie into the broader themes of sustainability and climate science and incorporate hands-on STEM activities and career connections. The lessons are primarily for elementary students but can be adapted for older audiences. They will be free for all teachers to use in their classrooms and are developed by Shreya Ramachandran, founder of The Grey Water Project in concert with educators. Join us for the presentation to learn more about grey water, why teaching about grey water and water conservation is important and how you can bring this to your classroom!

TAKEAWAYS:
Session participants will learn about grey water reuse and water recycling and how they can be effective drought solutions.

SPEAKERS:
Shreya Ramachandran (Stanford University: Stanford, CA)

Using real-world phenomena asks students to puzzle out answers to problems that occur in their day-to-day lives. It encourages students to enter into sensemaking using their own prior knowledge and tools. One of the best tools to make sense of a phenomenon is math. Learn from CCSS Math and NGSS specialists about using mathematical thinking to promote scientific literacy. This session includes a focus on student agency, sensemaking, and supporting connections between the STEM classroom and real-world phenomena. The presenters will map CCSS Mathematics and NGSS connections while providing strategies for increasing agency and sensemaking in the classroom. Questions we will consider include: How do we support all students in becoming mathematical thinkers? How do we promote agency by providing students with authentic, engaging opportunities to collect, analyze, and interpret real-world data? How can phenomena and questioning techniques support mathematical thinking?  Come explore new possibilities of what high-quality sensemaking with math can look like for all learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will take away strategies to integrate mathematical thinking into student sensemaking about scientific phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Mathews (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Alanna Mertens (DePaul University STEM Center: Chicago, IL)

NSTA Partnerships provide personalized professional learning experiences for groups of K–12 educators. Find out more about this NSTA opportunity that combines membership with access to resources, online tools, and the national network.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will discover the value of becoming a Partner with NSTA for groups of educators.

SPEAKERS:
Flavio Mendez (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Tricia Shelton (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

What are your #LeadershipGoals? All educators are leaders: in their classroom, department, institution, and personal life. During this workshop, participants will reflect on how they envision themselves as a leader, engage with a self evaluation tool, and consider the steps in developing an action plan for making change in their leadership life. Providing resources from the freely available, recently published guide Honoring Teachers as Professionals through AIP Publishing, the authors will share how university/K-12 partnerships led to increases in their own leadership capacity, building of professional networks, and improved professional development opportunities through self-reflective classroom research. We will discuss research and experiences around these partnerships, leadership in education, goal setting, and how participants can work towards the same.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will reflect on how they envision themselves as a leader, engage with a self evaluation tool, and develop an action plan for making change in their leadership life.

SPEAKERS:
Shannon Wachowski (EdReports.org: Fort Collins, CO)

Our students use field work, computer modeling, and long term databases to understand the Earth's changing system. Students collect local weather data. They compare this data with regional and national databases, satellites databases, and climate modeling software (EdGCM).

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn how to introduce climate science in a non-threatening way by empowering their students to take a stand in their communities regarding decisions that affect their future by seamlessly incorporating field studies with professional climate studies.

SPEAKERS:
Carolyn Mohr (University Center of Lake County: Grayslake, IL)

Participants will be introduced to an ongoing partnership between Chicago Public Schools and Loyola University Chicago in which 40 K-8 teachers participated in a Master Teacher Leadership Cohort to support the rollout of a newly-adopted science curriculum. The cohort supports teachers in becoming leaders in their schools and across the district, ensuring a greater impact on underrepresented students by removing barriers to appropriate grade-level content and high-quality instruction. We will begin by highlighting activities from the cohort that develop teacher knowledge of the NGSS and best practices in science instruction, including learning cycle action plans and other strategies to make practice public and engage in collaborative problem-solving (20 min). We will then share strategies for the development of teacher leadership, including case study work, leadership self-assessment and goal-setting, and leadership breakout discussions, where teachers were invited to share individual areas of expertise in science teacher leadership. (15 min) We will then engage participants in preparing for two of the cohort activities: an instructional strategy share-out (“pineapple share”) and leadership breakout discussions. (15 min) We will end with thoughts from a teacher leader in the cohort about how to recruit, retain, and engage teachers in this type of community. (10 min)

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave this session with the tools they can use to develop collaboration, leadership, and high-quality science instruction among science teacher leaders.

SPEAKERS:
Andre Botello (Chicago Public Schools: Chicago, IL), Julie Jacobi (Loyola University Chicago: Chicago, IL), Allison Grandberry (Chicago Public Schools: Chicago, IL), Kayla Cherry (Loyola University Chicago: Chicago, IL)

Learn about the novel approach taken by Illinois to include teacher voice in developing a statewide three-dimensional science assessment.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about the process of developing a state-wide assessment written by local educators.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Harvey Henson (Southern Illinois University Carbondale: Carbondale, IL), ANGELA BOX (Southern Illinois University Carbondale: CARTERVILLE, IL)

Participants will use sensemaking and the engineering design process to solve a real world food production problem in a small scale format. This lesson introduces the Food Delivery Challenge, in which participants must design a gravity feeder to carry food (chicken feed) to twelve hungry chickens for over 24 hours. To accomplish the task students must design and build a model of an efficient gravity feeder using the materials available to them. The scenario presented to the class: One of the feeders in your uncle’s barn has broken down, and a new one will not arrive until next month. You must create a gravity feeder to satisfy 12 chickens for 24 hours consistently to ensure the health of your flock. Participants will research, design, build and test their design before presenting to the group for feedback, Participants will then use the feedback to redesign for an improved feeder.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Use the engineering design process to collaborate, design and build a gravitational feeder system that will feed 10 pounds of feed over a 24 hour period. 2. Present your design plan, and final product to the class for feedback. 3. Provide feedback to the design team for design improvement.

SPEAKERS:
Leah LaCrosse (McCormick Junior High School: Huron, OH), Heather Bryan (Nourish the Future - Education Projects, LLC: Columbus, OH)

This session will provide educators with a clear understanding of environmental justice and give them tools to integrate this topic into science classrooms and student-led initiatives. We will focus on the case study of the Sonoma County Environmental Justice Coalition. During the 2021-2022 school year, middle and high school teams from across Sonoma County were invited to sign up for a year-long learning and leadership development program hosted by the Sonoma County Office of Education. Student teams received training and mentorship around environmental justice throughout the year and created and implemented local action plans to address an environmental justice issue. Students had the opportunity to receive input and mentorship from professionals and share their actions and future plans with local leaders and industries at a culminating showcase. Participants will hear a brief overview of the structure of the coalition and will view testimonials from student members. Participants will receive tools to integrate environmental justice into their classrooms and resources to help student teams develop and implement environmental justice action plans. Finally, participants will work collaboratively to design next steps for scaling environmental justice in their classroom and beyond by using their local resources and networks.

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore how to integrate environmental justice and civic engagement in science classrooms and programs.

SPEAKERS:
Ryan Kurada (Sonoma County Office of Education: Santa Rosa, CA), Anna Babarinde (Sonoma County Office of Education: Santa Rosa, CA)

This session will showcase lessons from around the world focusing on the exchange of ideas and networking. Come view a film created using videos from teachers around the globe, and posters while engaging with other teachers looking to network internationally.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session will showcase lessons from around the world focusing on the exchange of ideas and networking. Come view a film created using videos from teachers around the globe, and posters while engaging with other teachers looking to network internationally.

SPEAKERS:
Alison Seymour (Science Teacher: Winchester, 0)

Building on workshops facilitated by Gholdy Muhammad during the 2020-2021 academic year, STEM teachers will explore how historically responsive literacy can be extended to science teaching and learning. The AJEDII Model considers how accessibility, justice, equity, diversity and identity shape pedagogy. Participants will review the framework, develop units aligned to current student learning standards, and explore resources developed by facilitators for a range of instructional modes and situations. When COVID-19 hit our schools, STEM educators took on the task of processing and fighting misinformation, teaching and training students, parents, colleagues and other adults in their community about a wide range of technical terms and implementing novel pedagogical technologies and techniques like never before. The imagined worlds of science fiction were being realized but the ending still has not been determined and has certainly not been predictable. Unfortunately, the pandemic that became most clear in 2020 was exacerbated by social problems that could no longer be ignored. Participants will leave the session with materials for designing instruction for virtual (asynchronous or synchronous) and face-to-face learning based on facilitators’ experiences.

TAKEAWAYS:
STEM educators will apply Muhammad's (2020) historically responsive framework to secondary STEM education in learning design

SPEAKERS:
Joy Barnes-Johnson (Princeton High School: Princeton, NJ), Shefali Mehta (Princeton High School: Princeton, NJ), Mridula Bajaj (Mount Laurel Schools: Mount Laurel, NJ)

To help develop more scientifically curious and literate students, we use scientific literature or documentaries to engage students in developing the NGSS science practices. Students find an interesting topic, generate a question, collect and analyze data and then develop a Science Installation that communicates their learning to the greater community. Our most recent class project had students study how to grow food in a simulated Mars environment with the conditions controlled by student programmed raspberry pis. High school students organized 6th graders to do hands on data collection. They created a 10x12 foot exhibit that looked like a Martian landscape and highlighted the equipment they used with the plants still growing. The display included QR codes to communicate data and research using student-created videos, infographics, and data tables. Other installations include a monochromatic yellow room where everything looks grey and allowed observers to learn about the properties of light and the ways light energy is used in photosynthesis, the way it can be used to promote electrons, and the way it produces color. Other exhibits include sound waves and a history or music and musical instruments, the chemistry of color, and an environmental study of our use of carbon.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to guide students in the reading of scientific literature or the watching of documentaries in order to generate an authentic question and project. (How can we develop the capacity to farm on Mars? How does yellow monochromatic light produce the absence of color (an episode of Abstract, What can we learn about pollen structure from 3D printed files from Bayer’s agricultural division?) Participants will review a process to take the question and generate an authentic study that transcends a single class, grade, or discipline. (Students in 11th grade worked with students in 6th grade to test growing plants under controlled conditions that simulated Mars. Students in art and physics classes explored the properties of light and created a light-based art exhibit with science lessons on QR codes) Participants will explore a template for guiding students through the creation of an installation/exhibit that creatively shows the question, their experiment, their analysis, and potential solutions or conclusions in a creative and community-informing way. The exhibit is similar to an art installation with QR codes and experiment/study artifacts presented in a museum like scenario.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth Helfant (Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School: Saint Louis, MO)

In this session, participants will be introduced to a framework for identifying the features of a classroom culture that support equitable sensemaking. There are four main features: 1. Who is engaged in (or excluded from) classroom activity? 2. Who is treated as a "knower" in the classroom? 3. What ways of knowing are privileged in the classroom? 4. What science is practiced in the classroom? This framework is based off Kerri Wingert's Classroom Culture Investigations document and utilized as a foundational pieces of the OpenSciEd materials. Participants will unpack this framework and identify in sample pieces of student work and classroom videos examples of each one of these categories in action. They will be provided with tools and resources for self-assessing their own classroom culture including an exit ticket they can give to students to help inform the instruction. Examples of student work and instructional materials will be from the OpenScIEd instructional materials for middle school science.

TAKEAWAYS:
Classroom culture is critical to providing equitable sensemaking opportunities for all students.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Delaney (OpenSciEd: San Carlos, CA)

During this session, I will provide participants with black card stock, needles, string, graph paper and tape. We will start by creating the artwork as this will fuel the discussion later. I will walk participants through the steps using a guided slideshow with pictures. They will be given multiple options and allowed to experiment with their selections. I will give them time to work at their tables to create their art and walk around to help. The discussion portion will happen after the art creation. I will ask the groups to share their art with their table. The valuable portion of the session is when we will brainstorm the modifications that can be done to help all students access this activity. I will ask groups to discuss and share out as I create a list. I will add any modifications not already mentioned. Next, I would like the groups to discuss how this can be used in their classes, including the modifications they would need to suit their students. As a take away, participants will have a note taking sheet, access to the slideshow (includes examples and instructions), list of supplies needed and where to purchase, their beautiful artwork, and valuable discussions.

TAKEAWAYS:
In addition to the art work, participants will leave with ideas, templates and modifications for a variety of students.

SPEAKERS:
Terri Serey (Orange Grove Middle School: Hacienda Heights, CA)

Participants will understand how to develop and effectively implement STEM curriculum units that include project based activities and performance based assessments. Participants will learn to help students answer complex questions and develop solutions for challenges and real-world problems. They will also assist students with extending and refining their acquired knowledge to routinely analyze and solve problems. By the end of this session: 1) Participants will gain a clear and coherent understanding of what a STEM PBL is and how it works. 2) Participants will be able to identify and create effective essential questions. 3) Participants will be able to identify and apply the components of a STEM PBL. 4) Understand how STEM PBL’s will impact instruction for participants and students. Agenda: What is PBL? Why is it important? How does a STEM PBL Work? How to effectively integrate journal reflections. Ways to Implement STEM PBL’s

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to effectively implement STEM PBL’s (Project Based Learning) by integrating the components of STEM and PBL in order to grow students' capacity for creativity, fun, and back-loaded learning in a STEM context.

SPEAKERS:
Adero Carter (Clayton County Public Schools: Jonesboro, GA)

What causes seasons on Earth? How is permafrost affected by climate change? What can we learn from ice cores about climate? These questions are answered through a series of NGSS aligned, hands-on activities. Students design an experiment to test the effect of Earth’s tilt on seasons, explore the effect of climate change on structures built on permafrost, and more! The eesmarts climate change curriculum is composed of adapted lessons surrounding natural cycles that occur on Earth and in our solar system, including the carbon cycle and sunspot activity, how these cycles affect populations, and how humans may affect natural cycles. Activities examine evidence from the past through proxies such as tree rings, cherry tree blossoms, and ice core data. Additional topics include climate and ecosystems, the impact of invasive species, and how to minimize the effect of human activity. The lessons are part of the eesmarts K-12 curriculum, an energy efficiency and clean, renewable energy learning initiative funded by the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund. They are written in the 5-E Instructional Model and include presentation Google Slides and handouts. Select digital resources will be provided to participants. The complete eesmarts program is free and available to all Connecticut educators.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore activities involving natural cycles including the sun cycle, the carbon cycle, and seasons, as well as a variety of proxies and what they can tell us about Earth’s climate past and present.

SPEAKERS:
Kathleen Brooks (CREC: No City, No State), Karin Jakubowski (eesmarts: No City, No State)

This session by members of NSTA’s Professional Learning Committee is designed to help teachers deepen their understanding of the effective and practical strategies to facilitate academic discourse that promotes inclusive science and STEM classrooms. Participants will engage in a variety of instructional strategies to ensure that all students have access to scientific discourse, and opportunities to collaborate with peers, through intentional planning. Participants will engage in a variety of formative assessment classroom techniques (FACTS) from Page Keeley’s Uncovering Student Ideas texts, including commit and toss, pro/con pairs, structured think-pair-share, and more. In addition, we will be discussing the shift away from traditional talk patterns- like I-R-E (Initiate, Response, Evaluation) and towards Productive Talk to promote an inclusive science and STEM classroom where discourse supports student sensemaking. Finally, we will provide resources and discussion around the “lead4ward Instructional Strategies Playlist”, which provides teachers with detailed descriptions of specific, instructional strategies. Links to additional discourse resources will also be provided. The instructional strategies used in this presentation will promote student engagement, differentiation, and scientific understanding to help form a more inclusive learning environment where all students can participate in scientific discourse.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will experience a variety of impactful instructional strategies that promote scientific discourse to help create an inclusive STEM learning environment.

SPEAKERS:
Kimberley Astle (Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction: Olympia, WA), Rebecca Garelli (Arizona Science Teachers Association), Angela McMurry (The Ohio Academy of Science: Dublin, OH)

Connect the human impact of trash pollution to engineering design. Get your students thinking critically and creatively as they collaborate in real-world problem-solving. The global real-world issue of human-generated trash polluting local bodies of water is the main focus of this hands-on session. Using our partnership with the Howard County Conservancy, our students learn about their local watersheds and contribute to a Watershed Report Card. Students see how trash that is often found on our local schoolyards can affect our watershed, and they design a working model for trash removal in a local tributary. Basic coding will be used to design programs that will control sensors and motors through a microcontroller, thus removing the trash from the water source. The model will utilize solar and water power to move the trash into a separate receptacle. Various sensors will also be used to monitor water levels and determine the outcome of the program. This session will allow participants to find ways to increase the environmental stewardship of their students while incorporating engineering design into the science classroom. This project allows authentic integration of technology, mathematics, crosscutting concepts, science practices, and easy implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Design a project that enhances STEM skills in students such as collaboration, curiosity and creative problem solving.

SPEAKERS:
Jessica Kohout (Independent Contractor: Ellicott City, MD), Stacy Thibodeaux (Southside High School: Youngsville, LA)

NEED’s Science of Energy stations provide a hands-on approach to experimenting with objects used in student’s daily lives while incorporating scientific processing skills such as making observations, measuring, recording results, compare and contrast, categorize, make predictions, analyze and graph results, and draw conclusions. Workshop participants will rotate through six stations just as their students would in the classroom or OST Program, to learn about the different forms of energy and energy transformations using objects such as a toy car, apple, yo-yo, compass, bouncy ball, glow stick, etc. Using the same materials, the station guides can be easily differentiated for elementary, intermediate, and secondary levels. Each station includes a "What's Happening" article that provides additional informational text on the energy transformation that took place at the station and ties to more real-life examples for further visualization and understanding. The station guides have been correlated to each state’s individual science and math standards, as well as effectively support Next Generation Science Standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Workshop participants will engage in hands-on experiments just as their students would, using items we encounter in our daily lives that demonstrate energy forms and their transformations and applications to real-life examples for further visualization and understanding.

SPEAKERS:
Cori Nelson (The NEED Project: Manassas, VA), Sharon Bird (The NEED Project: Manassas, VA)

Applying principles of Understanding By Design and Visible Thinking, learn how to design and implement authentic and equitable assessments in any middle school or high school science classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will walk away with easy-to-implement, real-world examples of collaborative lab practicums.

SPEAKERS:
Aruna Chavali (The Spence School: New York, NY), Laura Bader (The Spence School: New York, NY)

Explore EiE’s curriculum design principles for inclusivity and NSTA’s sensemaking pillars as tools to evaluate curricula for inclusivity and equity.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave this session with a framework for evaluating curricula with equity and inclusivity in mind.

SPEAKERS:
Diana Christopherson (Museum of Science, Boston: Boston, MA)

Using data collection , participants will learn how to actively engage students in a conversation about data and the phenomena that it explains. Participants will learn how to create and/or modify old lessons, labs, and activities into opportunities for discussion , inquiry, and discovery using calculators, Nspire, and labquests.

TAKEAWAYS:
Create a dynamic lesson for use in the science classroom using data collection.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Coker (Camden Fairview High School: Camden, AR)

We are naturally curious, prone to ask why? How? What? Unfortunately, somewhere along the way students lose the trust in their voices to ask questions of and from data. But data are what we use to do science and it permeates all aspects of society today. What should we do? Stop teaching the vocabulary of science and data first, and instead leverage classroom-ready strategies to empower students to lead with their innate curiosity to practice critical 21st century data literacy skills and master the science content. Join us to explore connections between our science content, inquiry-based activities, and data skills. We will experience research-based strategies and freely available resources for integrating phenomenon-based and local data into our science instruction to promote science literacy and student empowerment. We will participate in activities ourselves and reflect on approaches for how to bring these into our classrooms. Participants will leave more empowered to integrate data into their science content in purposeful ways to better help students do and communicate science. Working with and learning science from data fosters critical thinking skills, lifelong interests in science, and facilitates learners’ overall self-identity as a scientist. Let’s set all of our students up for success!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will identify how data literacy is a critical aspect of science literacy in the 21st century, how students can do a lot more with data than we often think or presume from their science vocabulary alone, and how to leverage existing strategies to authentically integrate data into 6-12 science instruction to teach their science content and increase literacy simultaneously.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Hunter-Thomson (Dataspire Education & Evaluation, LLC: No City, No State)

Sponsoring Company: STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning

Teaching students to reason and problem solve is the cornerstone of quality math instruction. This session will highlight several engaging strategies such as Three Reads, Numberless Word Problems, and more that will provide multiple entry points for all students to engage in the math and ignite a passion for problem solving in your classroom!

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore several reasoning routines such as Three Act Tasks, Three Reads, and Numberless Word Problems.

SPEAKERS:
Alicia Chiasson (STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning: Houston, TX), Ashley Mathis (STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning: Houston, TX)

Sponsoring Company: HHMI BioInteractive

- Robust student reasoning requires scaffolding and feedback. Attendees will engage in different strategies that provide these for students during the scientific explanation process. -Scientific explanations follow a progression of practice: high school students are asked to provide counter arguments and additional evidence to support their claims. HHMI BioInteractive resources can allow them to do this more effectively. -Explanations can be done individually and as a group, as formative and summative assessments. Participants will engage in different styles of explanation throughout the session. Everyone will leave with at least one new idea for a scientific explanation they can use in their class.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will engage in different styles of explanation throughout the session. Everyone will leave with at least one new idea for a scientific explanation they can use in their class.

SPEAKERS:
James Clark (Director: Pleasanton, CA), Samantha Johnson (Arroyo High School: San Lorenzo, CA)

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Software & Technology

Use Vernier pH and carbon dioxide sensors to learn about the differences between baking soda and baking powder while applying chemistry content skills all while using chemicals used for food preparation. All activities are available as a free download for attendees.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Gain experience with hands-on technology that encourages students to explore and test different solutions and make connections to the real world; 2. Get access to free resources to keep students engaged while learning key scientific concepts either remotely or in the lab; and 3. Gain hands-on experiences with innovative products that increase student engagement, promote creativity and collaboration, and develop problem-solving skills.

SPEAKERS:
Nüsret Hisim (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR), Colleen McDaniel (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

Sponsoring Company: Edvotek

Explore the science of candy colors! In this hands-on workshop, we’ll use electrophoresis and chromatography to separate mixtures of molecules based on their physical properties.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will explore the physical properties of molecules using chromatography and electrophoresis.

SPEAKERS:
Brian Ell (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC), Danielle Snowflack (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: PASCO scientific

How can you tell when a reaction is complete? Why won’t adding a reactant always lead to more product? Help students develop a better understanding of mole ratios, stoichiometry, and limiting reactants through this hands-on activity using household chemicals and a Wireless Pressure Sensor. Attend for a chance to win equipment for your school!

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn simple hands-on strategies for improving student understandings of stoichiometry, mole ratios, and limiting reactants.

SPEAKERS:
Barbara Pugliese (PASCO Scientific: Roseville, CA)

Sponsoring Company: Savvas Learning Company

Come see how to create storylines that scaffold students' thinking and help them make connections between science concepts.

TAKEAWAYS:
* Engage in phenomena from different content areas that can be used at different grade-levels. * Learn strategies to scaffold students' thinking. * Develop strategies to help students generate questions

SPEAKERS:
Jesse Wilcox (University of Northern Iowa: Cedar Falls, IA)

Sponsoring Company: Center for BioMolecular Modeling

Teachers explore strategies that make student thinking visible while engaging all students with models to investigate the elegance of the Central Dogma of biology. Using the Flow of Genetic Information Kit and instructional strategies that promote modeling, revision of models, collaboration, and reflection, teachers will identify how modeling can be used to reveal student understanding of DNA and RNA structure and function. Teachers will investigate their own ideas and anticipate student ideas in using models. Teachers will explore how models for replication, transcription, and translation can provide spiraling instruction throughout a semester in order to enhance student success with complex ideas.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will identify how modeling can be used to reveal student understanding of DNA and RNA structure and function.

SPEAKERS:
Tim Herman (3D Molecular Designs: Milwaukee, WI)

Sponsoring Company: AeroTech/Quest, Div. of RCS Rocket Motor Component

Explore the differences between aerospace-grade solid composite propellant model rocket motors and traditional black powder model rocket motors in science education, STEM programs, TARC Competition, and collegiate rocket team activities. We'll assemble a Quest Astra III model rocket kit during the workshop to take back to your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
In model rocket science education, AeroTech/Quest products have been "STEM from the beginning!”™

SPEAKERS:
Dane Boles (AeroTech / Quest Divison of RCS Rocket Motor Components, Inc.: , United States)

Sponsoring Company: Fisher Science Education & Aldon

Looking for ways to connect your classroom, regardless of whether students are in school or at home? Co-lab-orate is an innovative digital lab notebook that allows educators to easily create, assign, and grade lab reports, while helping students communicate with their classmates and teachers. Co-lab-orate can be used to complete hands-on activities done individually or in a group setting, when working at school or remotely. Join Fisher Science Education and Aldon as we conduct an experiment while showcasing Co-lab-Orate’s game changing and cost-effective teaching platform!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will perform a lab experiment and record the results on their own device experiencing the full power of Co-Lab-Orate.

SPEAKERS:
Kymberly Hall , Alex Molinich (Aldon Corporation: Avon, NY)

Sponsoring Company: Great Minds

Explore a PhD Science® module to uncover how hands-on investigations allow students to develop an understanding of science concepts that apply far beyond the classroom.