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: Derwood, MD)

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)

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 (Fulton County Public Schools: College Park, GA)

Improve inclusive classroom dynamics between teachers, families, and students by reflecting on disability model perspectives, identifying barriers to collaboration, and determining effective avenues of communication.

TAKEAWAYS:
The triangle of inclusion presents pathways that can be used by administrators and teachers to recognize and overcome barriers faced within the inclusive classroom and includes strategies such as early open communications, student advocacy, professional learning opportunities, and mentorships.

SPEAKERS:
Nicole Wack (East Penn School District: Quakertown, PA)

Misconceptions are both worrisome and problematic to STEM educators because students continue to build knowledge on their current understanding, negatively impacting their learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this session, participants will be provided with a framework to deconstruct, reconstruct, and construct (D.R.C. Model) the teaching and learning experience in the STEM classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Jackson-Osagie (Southern University and A&M College: Baton Rouge, LA), Catherine Alexander (Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University: Baton Rouge, LA)

Hispanic students are a growing minority in school systems. However, the number of Hispanic students earning certificates and degrees in STEM fields at the post-secondary level is far below that of other students. To address this problem, Hispanic students and their families need to be introduced to STEM subjects (including hands-on activities) and STEM professionals (including professors and students majoring in STEM fields) beginning in elementary school. This communication and relationship building needs to continue in both middle school and high school. It then culminates with dual enrollment classes, mentorships, and internships at the community college level. In this presentation, you will be introduced to the RHiTA (recruiting Hispanics to achieve) program at Walters State Community College and the Hispanic STEM engagement pipeline. You will hear about the successes and the failures of this program and the plans for the future. You will be given tips and advice to create a similar program at your college.

TAKEAWAYS:
Develop and implement a pipeline from elementary school to community college in STEM subjects to engage Hispanic students.

SPEAKERS:
Kelly Moore (Walters State Community College: Rutledge, TN), Elesha Goodfriend (Walters State Community College: Morristown, TN)

Energy is the second largest expenditure in American schools. Managing energy use in a school setting is difficult without having students, faculty, and staff engaged and actively participating in a management program. This presentation will serve as the steppingstone for how to conduct one’s own educational energy audit in their classroom and school building. The hands-on investigations turn the school building into a living laboratory to explore energy efficiency, monitor energy use, and decide on the best behavioral changes based on data collected. The lessons introduce students to the concepts of energy, energy consumption, economic and environmental effects of the energy industry and its consumers, and the difference between conservation and efficiency. Activities encourage the development of cooperative learning, math, science, comparison and contrast, public speaking, and critical thinking skills. By engaging students in an energy management program, you have hundreds of enthusiastic mini energy managers ready to help identify things like broken water fountains, leaky doors or windows, inappropriate lighting use, vampire loads, and unwanted temperature variations within their own building. Students take ownership of their school and take better care of it while leading their peers to be conscientious users of energy. They learn these skills to bring back to their home and community.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn hands-on activities that introduce students to the ways in which we use energy in the home and at school while helping teach students to take ownership and lead their peers to be conscientious users of energy.

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

Engage students, families, and the community in STEAM through Family STEAM Nights in order to equitably build understanding and interest in STEAM.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to create, recruit, and implement a Family STEAM Night to engage students, families, and the community in STEAM.

SPEAKERS:
McKenna Serowka (Lake Zurich High School: Lake Zurich, IL)

Explore the many ways dinosaurs and paleontology can be integrated into STEM curricula to attract all learners. Resources and collaboration ideas will be shared.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will walk away with a plethora of hands-on ideas and resources (including children's literature) relating to dinosaurs, paleontology, and community resources to help inspire all learners in their contexts.

SPEAKERS:
Catherine Pangan (Butler University: Indianapolis, IN), Becky Wolfe (The Children's Museum of Indianapolis: Indianapolis, IN)

Computer science CAN be integrated into high school science classes. Here are some ideas from the STEMcoding Project!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will work on three "STEMcoding" activities on: 1. climate change with connection to spreadsheets; 2. orbital motion for Earth science; and 3. the first of the "physics of video games" activities.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Orban (The Ohio State University at Marion: Marion, OH)

Join us for a chance to learn more about  NSTA-administered competitions and awards from NSTA staff and past participants. NSTA-administered competitions include NSTA Teacher Awards, the Army Educational Outreach Program, Shell Science Lab Regional Challenge, and Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision competitions. This engaging hour will include discussion and tips on how to engage K–12 students in project-based learning opportunities that are no cost to participate.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Engage with educators that have participated in NSTA-administered competitions and awards; 2. Learn more about opportunities to engage students in project-based learning; and 3. Share best practices and tips to foster inquiry-based learning and showcase ideas.

SPEAKERS:
Acacia McKenna (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

An introduction for teachers to free standards-based lessons focused on scientific breakthroughs and the positive role of science in our lives provided by #ScienceSaves.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Teachers will become familiar with free resources to teach how science has benefited human outcomes with lessons, including teacher notes with curriculum standards, student response sheets, rubrics, and lesson plans; 2. Lessons include a variety of topics from handwashing to CRISPR, and several are cross-curricular with Language Arts and Math; and 3. Various activities have students plot data, research topics such as medical inventions, design experiments, and design lifesaving inventions.

SPEAKERS:
Alison Seymour (Winchester College: Scottsdale, AZ)

Science inquiry is a powerful process and learning environment that embraces exploration and sense-making, as students question phenomena and explore real world science/STEM. Inquiry is an “attitude” that seeks understanding and continually questions how our natural world works. Student achievement, engagement, and sense-making of phenomena, increase when students are taught in an instructional environment that embraces inquiry, where students are encouraged to ask questions, gather evidence, seek answers, and formulate explanations. Speaker will discuss the many varied ways that inquiry manifests itself in the elementary STEM classroom, including ways to increase participation of ELL’s. She will actively engage participants, as she shares strategies and lesson ideas that promote inquiry, and as she demonstrates effective questioning, modeling how to guide students in their own questioning and explorations, as they gather data, formulate their explanations, and draw conclusions. Speaker will emphasize the importance of ‘testing’ the ‘known’, as well as the ‘unknown’, so students can validate their processes and thinking. Creating environments of inclusivity, collaboration, cooperation, and sharing of ideas will be emphasized. Participants will embrace the power that inquiry offers: content, strategies, process, engagement, and the desire to ask, answer, and understand scientific phenomena. This session will help teachers establish effective classroom practices, guiding students in understanding the ways scientists think and study our natural world, as teachers nurture students’ sustained curiosity and love of science/STEM. Handouts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to create STEM classroom environments that fully embrace and create the inquiry process: emphasizing explorations, the formulation of questions to guide student inquiry and their understanding of scientific phenomena, the importance of collaborative sense-making and assuring the inclusivity of ALL students, the importance of assisting ELL’s with language accessibility, and the fulfillment of learner curiosity as part of the sense-making process and as a trajectory for guiding their continual learning.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Knoell (self: Shawnee Mission, KS)

Recursion is a challenging topic for some students. In this session, we’ll present a blended approach to introducing recursion, wherein a textual description of natural phenomena is presented in an easy-to-understand, attractive, and informative graphic format. Fundamental rules of production systems are also presented, all in a format specifically targeted to high school students. Students generally gain mastery of this topic within a few weeks through this approach, achieving both a deep understanding of the concepts and a rewarding sense of accomplishment. As a bonus, they usually enjoy the topic and appreciate the opportunity this approach gives them to be creative.

TAKEAWAYS:
How to enable students to be creative while learning about recursion

SPEAKERS:
David Ben-Yaakov (Educator: Allen, TX)

Using the Dual Range Force Sensor, participants will determine how many helium balloons are needed to lift themselves and the house from Disney’s film Up.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Using the phenomenon of the helium balloon lifted house from the movie "Up," attendees will leave with a lab using the Dual Range Force Sensor to determine the amount of balloons needed to lift themselves and the house; and 2. the session will show how this can be used for any level of student, and as a bonus will also incorporate how the data collection and analysis can be collected using Python coding.

SPEAKERS:
Todd Graba (Crystal Lake South High School: Crystal Lake, IL), Brad Posnanski (Comsewogue High School: Port Jefferson Station, NY)

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)

In this session, attendees will extend their understanding of learning design for the NGSS specifically focused on developing scientific literacy in the elementary grades. Participants will learn about selecting instructional phenomena and/or problems that can effectively anchor student learning experiences and create authentic needs for students to engage deeply with other content areas to make sense of phenomena and design solutions to problems, thus supporting meaningful integration of science with other STEM and content areas. Attendees will explore ways to design for elementary learning that meets at the intersection of three-dimensional standards, phenomena/problem driven learning, sensemaking, and integration. Participants will also be connected to a variety of Open Education Resources (OERs) and other freely available resources that support integrated elementary learning design.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how anchoring learning in phenomena and problems and leveraging integrated content as sensemaking resources for students supports scientific literacy development in grades K-5.

SPEAKERS:
Kimberley Astle (Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction: Vancouver, WA)

Educators have a mandate to provide quality science/STEM instruction for ALL students, but making instruction accessible to every student presents enormous challenges. In order to teach students with broad ranging abilities and experiences, differentiating science/STEM instruction is imperative. We must differentiate instruction to accommodate the differences in readiness and background knowledge, fluency and facility with English, differences in learning styles, and the broad range of student interests that comprise our schools. Accessibility, inclusivity, and collaboration must be assured for special needs and ELL learners, whose instructional needs can definitely be accommodated with effective differentiation strategies and resources. When teachers differentiate, they enhance learning, creating environments where instruction and assessment are matched to student abilities and needs. Differentiation is an approach involving numerous strategies, while students all access the same curriculum. Content, process, and products can all be differentiated. Students who lack experience and background knowledge can have targeted instruction, to provide hands-on explorations and build knowledge. Likewise, gifted students can extend and expand their science/STEM experiences, keeping them challenged and interested. Presenter will offer strategies and exploration ideas, tiered assignments that increase levels of complexity, instructional grouping and collaboration techniques, and suggest a variety of resources, to enable teachers to advance and evaluate student learning for ALL children. Attendees will actively engage with discourse and exploration of hands-on resources.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Attendees will learn differentiation strategies to engage all learners actively with hands-on explorations, assuring collaboration and accessibility for ALL, incorporating collaborative explorations where students of varying abilities share the learning experience, to advance learning and deepen conceptual understanding and sense-making for all K-6 students.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Knoell (self: Shawnee Mission, KS)

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)

Dive into (equitable) three-dimensional learning and promote STEM teaching and sensemaking strategies that place equity at the center of learning, making science connections to local context.

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore how placing equity at the center of STEM education changed teacher attitudes about science teaching and learning, developed supportive networks for formal and informal educators to advance science education, created opportunities for teachers to design three-dimensional learning experiences, and provided equitable opportunities for students and families in an urban high-needs district.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth Nunez (New Brunswick Public Schools: Passaic, NJ), Sarah Sterling-Laldee (New Jersey Department of Education: Belleville, NJ), Ashley Delgado-D'Amore (Lord Stirling Community School: New Brunswick, NJ), Grace Lugo (Boston College OEI: Wellesley, MA)

Through the 2021-2022 school year, Pulaski County Special School District sought to scale inclusive STEM experiences throughout grades K-5. Considering the need for sense-making opportunities provided in an inclusive and culturally relevant environment, a new districtwide initiative was birthed- STEM is Lit! STEM is LIT! seeks to take culturally relevant literature as the framework for authentic STEM experiences through sense-making practices. The idea is simple. Find a culturally relevant and diverse piece of literature. Frame a STEM challenge experience around this piece of literature. Design authentic lesson plans and resources for teachers to implement these challenges in their schools. Organize your supplies. Support your teachers and students. By creating districtwide monthly STEM challenges for all students in grades K-5, PCSSD was able to integrate literacy with mathematical sense-making, scientific inquiry, and the engineering design process creating memories that will last a life time. In addition to monthly challenges, STEM is Lit! also became the driving bus behind the Deputy Superintendent's book club for all 4th graders throughout the district, where a special STEM challenge was added and performed at each elementary in the district. This presentation seeks to share those authentic practices that can be scaled in any district to expose broad elementary audiences to equitable STEM experiences and conversation.

TAKEAWAYS:
How can districts expand STEM experiences through culturally relevant and inclusive practices in a large-scaled initiative?

SPEAKERS:
Justin Luttrell (Pulaski County Special School District: Little Rock, AR), Alesia Smith (Pulaski County Special School District: Littel Rock, AR)

Did you know that the Rusty Patched Bumblebee has lost 80% of its range in the last 20 years? Today, it is the first native pollinator to be put on the endangered species list. Why is this happening? And why should you care? Come explore a unit that guides students in using science and engineering practices to make sense of the functioning of the Rusty Patched Bumblebee’s ecosystem. From data on climate change to theories of pathogen spread, students grapple with all that science knows to date and create their own model for how changes to that system are impacting this keystone species. Learning is then extended beyond the walls of the classroom when students engage in intergenerational conversations and design actionable solutions to help this endangered native pollinator. Links to teacher guides and free printable and editable files will be shared with participants. This lesson will be shared through the perspective of a 7th grade life science teacher Amanda Mellenthin and her students, but is appropriate for grades 6-12. This unit is created by NFP: OnlyOneSky and information about the unit is found on skydayproject.com.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will walk through a high quality NGSS lesson that they can adapt to their classroom and supportive teacher resources.

SPEAKERS:
Amanda Mellenthin (Carriel Junior High School: O'Fallon, 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)

Good problem-solving in physics is more than algebraic manipulation. Students can learn and you can assess problem-solving through multiple avenues, including graphs, representations, and more.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to assess student problem-solving ability and conceptual understanding through students' use of multiple representations and approaches in physics classrooms.

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

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)

Cognitive science has identified flexible and often counterintuitive cognitive strategies that boost student learning. Teachers will learn how to implement these techniques within their classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to apply multiple practical, flexible, and research-based cognitive strategies, including retrieving information from memory, distributing practice across time, scaffolding, and mixing together different examples, within their own classrooms to improve student learning.

SPEAKERS:
Jonathan Tullis (The University of Arizona: Tucson, AZ)