Ticket Price: $65; with conference registration

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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: $65; with conference registration

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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 (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL)

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

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)

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)

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 Francisco, CA)

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)

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, Rutgers University: Princeton, NJ)