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: 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

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: 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: 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: 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: Beyond Labz

Workshop Summary: Beyond Labz is a set of sophisticated and realistic virtual laboratories that have been used by millions of students over the past 20 years. Subjects covered by the virtual labs include general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, physical science, and biology. We have recently updated the virtual labs so they are browser-based with a number of new features including tracking student lab books and the student journey through the lab. With over 20 years of experience and feedback from students and teachers worldwide, we have learned much about how to enhance and augment classroom and laboratory instruction using the virtual labs. In this presentation we will provide a brief update on the new features in Beyond Labz, and we will provide onboarding instructions and describe how to use the virtual laboratories in various curriculum settings and use cases, and we will show the labs can be used to enhance inquiry-based instruction. We will also describe some of the recent research we have performed using these and other simulation products we have created.

TAKEAWAYS:
Beyond Labz simplifies and reduces the cost and expertise needed to provide crucial laboratory experiences and practice for Secondary and Higher Ed students. Attendees will learn how the labs are used for pre and post lab experiences, credit recovery and lab make-up, student engagement in class, and meeting NGSS standards. Basic onboarding and startup instructions will be provided for drop-in solutions, and instructions for using some of the more sophisticated features will also be described.

SPEAKERS:
Brian Woodfield (Brigham Young University: Provo, UT)

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: Edvotek

Explore the relationship between genotype and phenotype using your sense of taste and biotechnology! Examine variations in your bitter taste receptor with PCR and electrophoresis.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will explore the link between genotype and phenotype using PCR and a PTC tasting assay.

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

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

This “real” classroom autopsy revitalizes your mammalian structure and function lesson to three-dimensional instruction and addresses standards. Participants dissect a Carolina’s Perfect Solution® pig by modeling the protocols of a professional forensic pathologist.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants dissect a Carolina’s Perfect Solution® pig by modeling the protocols of a professional forensic pathologist.

SPEAKERS:
Patti Kopkau (Carolina Biological Supply Co.: Hale, MI)

Sponsoring Company: Edvotek

HIV is a sneaky virus. Once inside the body, it suppresses the immune system. Learn about testing, tracing, and treatment using a simulated diagnostic ELISA!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will explore medical testing for common diseases, including how they work and what they mean.

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

Self-paced classrooms are a means to run a STEM class where the teacher becomes a facilitator of learning to their students. A self-paced classroom is one where the students will engage with the class material at a rate that is appropriate for them. Assignments are rated into different categories worth different point values so that students can make a choice each day in how they want to approach their learning. This kind of environment encourages development of executive functioning skills, cooperative learning skills, and other soft skills necessary to be successful as a 21st century learner, scientist, or engineer. It also meets the needs of both the highest and the lowest functioning learners. In this session, we will learn in more detail about self-paced classrooms, how to implement them, and how to develop different types of activities and locate resources that work well for this kind of environment, including interactive digital notebooks, pixel art, EdPuzzles, digital crossword puzzles, lab experiments, digital and live escape rooms, and more! Join me as we learn how we can make equity for all enjoyable for all the students.

TAKEAWAYS:
How to use various computer programs, specifically in the Google Suite, to create an equitable classroom environment.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth Stewart-Miranda (Greater Lowell Technical High School: North Chelmsford, MA)

Sponsoring Company: Edvotek

Creating colorful transformed bacteria is an unforgettable way to teach the central dogma of molecular biology. Learn how to use transformed bacteria to create bio-art!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn about bacterial transformation and the ways that the technique explores the relationship between genotype and phenotype.

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

Teacher describes installation of two solar arrays, and how students use the arrays to investigate alternative energy and effect of array angle on electricity production.

TAKEAWAYS:
Solar arrays allow students to interact with a real world technology changing sunlight into usable electricity. Two solar arrays that tilt independently allow students to evaluate data from a controlled experiment. Solar energy is part of response our society needs to respond to the challenge of global warming and our need for energy.

SPEAKERS:
Bruce Rose (Greenbrier East High School: Hillsboro, WV)

STEM classrooms can be exclusive if teachers do not identify the lack of prior learning opportunities and misconceptions early in the year. Come learn how one teacher uses coding to bridge the gap in her STEM classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
STEM inclusion activities; coding in the classroom; and STEM project ideas.

SPEAKERS:
Jessica Kohout (Educational Consultant: Ellicott City, MD)

Empathic engineering design can help develop students’ cultural competence as well as inform the design of more useful innovations for people with limb differences.

TAKEAWAYS:
School-based activities that are oriented toward improving community members’ lives can simultaneously support the development of students’ cultural competence and integrated STEM literacy.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Meabh Kelly (University of Connecticut: Bridgewater, CT), Brittany Klimowicz (NYC iSchool: New York, NY)

Student understanding of how science and STEM ideas and concepts are applied within their chosen career pathway is a critical component of many Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, but for a variety of reasons these connections are often overlooked. Some states even provide CTE courses and Career Pathway standards that seem to go against the three-dimensional and student-centered learning grain. Yet, to truly meet the vision of the K-12 Framework, students in CTE and Vocational Education pathways should also be provided opportunities to engage in three-dimensional sensemaking in the context of their CTE course. In this session, we explore explicit connections between three-dimensional science learning and Agricultural, Food and Natural Resources as just one example of how three-dimensional student learning and sensemaking can be incorporated into CTE. We then explore how similar strategies can be utilized in other pathways with the goal of bridging the gap between science learning and practical application for students in CTE.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn strategies for integrating scientific sensemaking into CTE courses to support their students' mastery of the scientific concepts they will apply in those fields.

SPEAKERS:
Bridina Lemmer (Illinois Science Teaching Association: Jacksonville, IL), Chris Embry Mohr (Olympia High School: Carlock, IL)

Toshiba America Foundation wants to work together with teachers who are looking for a better way to engage the community in STEM. Participants will hear from educators that have won money for their school and communities to implement STEM action projects.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how they can receive cash awards and acknowledge for STEM action projects.

SPEAKERS:
John Anderson (Toshiba America Foundation: Irvine, CA)

A challenge that STEM education presents to educators is how to stay current in an ever-evolving field to accurately represent and engage their students with new topics, activities, and careers. Too often STEM teachers become locked-in on a set of topics, activities, and careers because of the resources and opportunities to which they have access. After-school programs, and their ability to foster partnerships within a school’s larger STEM ecosystem, are one mechanism to open up STEM programs within schools to new topics, activities, and careers while offering avenues for professional growth and learning for the classroom teacher. By introducing the Science Olympiad program and the strategies used by our school participants for over three decades to build partnerships, connect to their STEM ecosystem, and expand learning we intend to help attendees draw parallels to their STEM ecosystems and their after-school programs. Building off of this information, attendees will analyze and discuss ways their STEM ecosystem can contribute to their STEM program, develop approaches for asking ecosystem members for support, and recognize opportunities to grow their STEM program through after-school programs. The session will close with a discussion of attendees’ specific challenges and issues ensuring attendees leave with actionable solutions.

TAKEAWAYS:
The big takeaway from this session will attendees examining their STEM ecosystem to identify potential partners who align with their programming and can support student learning.

SPEAKERS:
John Loehr (Science Olympiad: Oakbrook Terrace, IL)

Culturally relevant pedagogy embodies a professional, political, cultural, ethnical, and ideological disposition that supersedes mundane teaching acts; it is centered in fundamental beliefs about teaching, learning, students, their families, and their communities, and an unyielding commitment to see student success become less rhetoric and more of a reality. This session will aid in building awareness and sensitivity to the culture-based genius that students bring to the classroom using science inquiry strategies. Emphasis will be placed on a model for the inclusion of culturally relevant content that accommodates student backgrounds and methods of learning. In this session, we will exhibit how to identify the key characteristics of culturally responsive lessons. Attendees will acquire lesson design methods that employ cultural competence and effective communication. Attendees will use collaborate boards during the presentation to respond and interact. Activities to exhibit how students identify with what they know in the classroom will be utilized to help educators make connections and apply this information when planning lessons.

TAKEAWAYS:
Building awareness and sensitivity to the culture-based genius that students bring to the classroom using science inquiry strategies. Emphasis will be placed on a model for the inclusion of culturally relevant content that accommodates student backgrounds and methods of learning.

SPEAKERS:
Kelly Haynes (Baker High School: Zachary, LA), Jennifer Norwood (Instructional Support Specialist: Zachary, LA), Tara Hollins (Exceptional Student Services Educator: Zachary, LA)

Students find science difficult or non-stimulating particularly when teachers do not consider cognitive, physiological, and socio-emotional disparities in students. Research has shown that engaging the appropriate parts of the brain helps students make a long-lasting, personalized connection to scientific concepts and practices. Studies show that discipline and learning problems in our classrooms may be associated with a lack of student engagement. Engaged students are less likely to be disruptive and are more likely to retain information longer. The focus of this presentation is to equip teachers with the pedagogical skills and strategies needed to drive student engagement and achievement by recognizing and addressing physiological, cognitive, and socio-emotional disparities in students based on an understanding of how a learner’s brain works. Participating teachers will explore the impact of emotions, storytelling, culturally relevant and hands-on learning on the forebrain and consequently on student engagement and comprehension. Teachers will learn to correctly harness the learning power of the forebrain, particularly, those of the hippocampus and amygdala, by appropriately employing suitable learning strategies. These will enhance student engagement, improve learning outcomes and increase academic achievement in the sciences.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn to correctly harness the learning power of the forebrain, particularly, those of the hippocampus and amygdala, by appropriately employing suitable learning strategies

SPEAKERS:
Chidi Duru (Prince George's County Public Schools: Waldorf, MD)

Obtaining food to meet our energy and matter needs is a basic requirement of humans and food also defines our culture. This presentation will share how to use elements of the three dimensions of the NGSS and Framework to engage students in making sense of phenomena and problems related to food. Strategies for how to use driving question boards, lesson level learning targets, and engage all learners will be shared. Specific attention will be given for how to align assessments that challenge students to apply their understandings. Participants will engage in a morsel of a storyline on producing the perfect apple. In this storyline, students notice and wonder about different varieties of apples and are challenged to explain why it took 30 years for the Honeycrisp apple to be available to consumers. Students ask questions for how perfect apples are mass produced, how nutrients and environmental factors affect the quality of fruit, and how to attain the right balance of sweet-tart flavor. This storyline weaves together scientific concepts such as meiosis and mitosis, pedigrees and probability, plant structure and function, nutrient cycles, the role of photosynthesis in producing food, and how plants use cellular respiration to survive the winter.

TAKEAWAYS:
Engage in conversations for how to use the three dimensions of the NGSS and the NRC Framework, storylines, driving questions, formative and summative assessments, and hands-on activities to learn science and engineering skills while making sense of one of our most basic needs – FOOD.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Embry Mohr (Olympia High School: Carlock, IL)