Join us to explore the free online student notebook and facilitator’s guide, make your own mosquito larvae trap, and do NASA citizen science.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Students will learn where, how, and when to safely find mosquito larvae, and how to identify three medically important mosquito genera; 2. Mosquitoes and the diseases they spread are everywhere; students will learn how to reduce the number of mosquito breeding sites in their local community and contribute their citizen science data; and 3. Facilitators will learn about the insights, answers, recommendations, background information, applications, and supplements (games and book lists) found in the Facilitator’s Guide.

SPEAKERS:
Liz Burck (Institute for Global Environmental Strategies: Arlington, VA), Cassie Soeffing (Institute for Global Environmental Strategies: Arlington, VA)

Turning on a string of electric lights is the anchoring phenomenon in this storyline. Students ask questions about electricity sources, production, and uses.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. The system of producers and consumers of electricity we call the power grid is changing, and users are becoming more active participants; 2. Generators use magnetism and mechanical turning to create electricity, and burning carbon-based resources provides much of the energy that powers these generators; and 3. Energy efficiency and renewable and clean energy sources are important to the energy system of the future.

SPEAKERS:
Jana Sebestik (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Champaign, IL), Christina Tran (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Urbana, IL)

In this hands-on workshop, participants learn how a culminating student performance task provided evidence of student learning while having a lasting impact locally.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn: 1. building knowledge across units ensures success on culminating performance tasks; 2. a diversity of assessments allows access to a variety of learners to effectively assess student learning; and 3. building engaging performance tasks provides evidence of student learning while impacting the larger community.

SPEAKERS:
Vanessa Robertson (Envirolution: Reno, NV), Kristina Hadley (Swope Middle School: Reno, NV), Sylvia Scoggin (Washoe County School District: Reno, NV)

My NASA Data will present the wealth of NGSS-focused NASA resources that promote learning in flexible Earth science classroom spaces such as hybrid, in-person, and virtual environments.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Test out the newly updated Data Literacy Cubes to scaffold Earth science data exploration for a variety of learners; 2. Explore a wealth of three-dimensional resources that support teaching and learning with NASA Earth data; and 3. Navigate through the My NASA Data offerings to locate resources that support your teaching and learning goals.

SPEAKERS:
Desiray Wilson (Science Systems and Applications, Inc.: Hampton, VA), Janet Struble (: Toledo, OH), Jessica Taylor (NASA Langley Research Center: Hampton, VA)

This session focuses on the core messages of the book Crosscutting Concepts: Strengthening Science and Engineering Learning, published by NSTA Press in 2021.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. The power of crosscutting concepts is most fully realized when they are used in conjunction with science and engineering practices and disciplinary core ideas; 2. Crosscutting concepts serve as lenses on phenomena, supporting all students in question-asking and sensemaking; and 3. Teacher leadership is critical to realizing the power of crosscutting concepts in practice.

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

Connect your school with local colleges and STEM employers using relevant, standards-based, hands-on activities that spark interest in science and STEM careers. Sample activity included.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. How to identify and reach out to potential community and industry partners; 2. How to build a program or event that meets the needs of all stakeholders; and 3. How to develop authentic learning experiences to impact student perspectives of locally available STEM careers.

SPEAKERS:
Bethany Kenyon (BioNetwork: Greenville, NC)

We are awash in assessment data, but often it’s overwhelming to make sense of it. Join us to learn tips and strategies for wrangling data.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Explore new ways to organize data collection and raw data to aid in exploring the data for stories after it is collected; 2. Acquire skills in tying questions, data types, and data visualizations to enhance your ability to make sense of your assessment data; and 3. Identify next steps to better utilize and leverage your assessment data to help you measure students’ learning and know what steps to consider next.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Hunter-Thomson (Dataspire Education & Evaluation, LLC)

Learn how to apply for NMLSTA’s Classroom Teacher Awards and Hurd Award. This interactive workshop will provide information and an opportunity to begin an application.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. NMLSTA Classroom Teachers awards provide up to $200 to support science in your classroom and has a quick and easy application. 2. The Hurd Award is for exemplary science teaching performance including leadership in sharing these ideas and a great way to showcase what you are doing in science education. 3. This workshop will cover eligibility, requirements, and timelines along with how to write a successful application, an opportunity to brainstorm ideas and start an application.

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

Build a working solar oven and your students’ empathy for global issues in this inquiry-based lesson on convection, conduction, and radiation with an authentic audience!

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Having an authentic, global audience for a STEM inquiry project can be engaging and inclusive for your students and can promote empathy in your classroom; 2. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (https://sdgs.un.org/goals) can pair wonderfully with STEM lessons to enhance project-based lessons and make them meaningful to students; and 3. Organizations like iEARN (https://www.iearn.org/) partner with teachers to help provide platforms and opportunities for global learning.

SPEAKERS:
Kate York (The University of Texas at Dallas: Richardson, TX), Katherine Donaldson (The University of Texas at Dallas: Richardson, TX)

Come find out how to involve your students in learning how AI and ML can be taught to your students, how it can be used to promote equity in the classroom, and how it can make YOUR teaching job easier! If you can, bring a data set and computer.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. AI and ML can help equitize the science classroom by allowing students to participate in learning; 2. AI and ML can be taught to students in the classroom and is an excellent 21st-century skill for all students; and 3. AI and ML hold the possibility to make the science teacher's job easier.

SPEAKERS:
Holly Amerman (University of Georgia: Athens, GA), Anna Herdliska (Gwinnett County Public Schools: Suwanee, GA)

Learn how using NextGen TIME can help you get the best possible science instructional materials into the hands of teachers prepared to use them.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. NextGen TIME is a suite of tools and processes that support district leaders in: a. preparing to evaluate instructional materials; b. evaluating instructional materials for their quality and design for next generation science; and c. planning for next steps including customization to improve student outcomes and effective implementation in classrooms throughout the district; 2. NextGen TIME is a collaborative, evidence based suite of tools and processes for professional learning that helps teachers and others operationalize the characteristics of high-quality instructional materials designed for next generation science; and 3. Using NextGen TIME represents an investment in curriculum-based professional learning to increase the likelihood that all students and teachers have access to the best possible materials for the local context.

SPEAKERS:
Jody Bintz (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Jenine Cotton-Proby (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

Empower students through real experiences, engage them in learning about natural phenomena occurring locally, and teach them how to make the world a better place.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: 1. explore current research findings from educators in the field who utilize place-based learning and review various ways educators can strengthen environmental literacy by addressing content standards related to interdependent relations between ecosystems, human impact, and conservation; 2. evaluate various ways to integrate inquiry-based learning activities related to their local environment into their existing curricula by engaging students in place-based learning; and 3. generate ideas for ways they can empower students to explore their sense of self in relation to their sense of space, through stewardship in person on a local level and realize a collective impact on a global scale through interdisciplinary literacy applications.

SPEAKERS:
Alvera McMillan (Louisiana Sea Grant)

Introduce the extremophiles of Yellowstone National Park into your classroom to strengthen students’ understanding of the importance of resource availability, even in the harshest ecosystems.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will: 1. increase their content knowledge of how Yellowstone's extremophiles are dependent on their environmental interactions, both with living things and nonliving factors; 2. increase their pedagogical content knowledge about the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in Yellowstone's hot springs; and 3. learn how to bring Yellowstone's "sense of place" into their classroom curriculum.

SPEAKERS:
Julie Angle (Oklahoma State University: Stillwater, OK)

Explore free hands-on, inquiry-based learning activities using real national and local data and models to explore how to clean, conserve, and manage local water resources.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will: 1. explore geographic, social, political, and environmental concepts and problems related to their watersheds; 2. use maps, models, and simulations of their environment to learn the factors involved in interacting with and protecting water in their surroundings; and 3. investigate a systems approach to problem solving through hands-on, inquiry-based watershed-related activities while incorporating national and local data and geospatial analysis.

SPEAKERS:
Carolyn Staudt (The Concord Consortium: Concord, MA), Jerry Valadez (Fresno State and SAM Academy CSW)

Learn how to use citizen science and inquiry to observe, describe, and document your own environment. Be ready to go outside!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn: 1. inquiry strategies to investigate the environment around them; 2. how to incorporate citizen science into their classrooms; and 3. how to empower their students to explore and take action in their own community.

SPEAKERS:
Melaine Rickard (Western Middle School: Elon, NC), Rachael Polmanteer (Center for Inquiry Based Learning: Durham, NC)

Engage in a variety of activities, collect information and resources, and network with middle level leaders from NSTA and NMLSTA. Discover new ideas and materials that you can use next week.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will: 1. have networking opportunities with other middle level science educators; 2. discover resources to help them in all aspects of their teaching; and 3. engage in a variety of new activities to use with their students.

SPEAKERS:
Mary Lou Lipscomb (National Middle Level Science Teachers Association: Naperville, IL), Rebecca Kurson (Collegiate School: New York, NY), Wendy Abshire (American Meteorological Society: Washington, DC), Alison Seymour (Science Teacher: Winchester, 0), Bruce Boehne (Zion Lutheran School: Dallas, TX), Marissa Nalley (The Algae Foundation: Midland, TX), Abigail Stimach (American Meteorological Society: Washington, DC), Kylie Wynaker (The Algae Foundation: Midland, TX), Amanda Clapp (The Catamount School: Sylva, NC), Covey Denton (Greenfield School: No City, No State), Katy Garvey (The Source for Learning, Inc.: Reston, VA), Edralin Pagarigan (Golden Ring Middle School: Rosedale, MD), Emily Ong (Girls Who Code: New York, NY)

Join us for a hands-on experience and discussion about modeling! It will feature quick-start guides, student work examples, and modeling assessment strategies.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: 1. learn how to use a model with a given natural phenomenon; 2. learn how to scaffold models for all diverse learners; and 3. be given ready-to-use resources to start modeling in their classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Brittany Blair (Charles H. Barrows STEM Academy: North Windham, CT), Nicole Vitello Lowell (Charles H. Barrows STEM Academy: North Windham, CT)

July 2021–highest temperatures recorded on Earth! Get your students to collect and upload surface temperature data to study the urban heat island in your area.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Activities to introduce Urban Heat Island Effect to your students; 2. Resources to help your students to do inquiry-based student research projects; and 3. My NASA Data activities aligned to NGSS.

SPEAKERS:
Janet Struble (: Toledo, OH), Susan James (St. Peter's School: Mansfield, OH)

WaterViz lesson plans allow all learners to equally engage with real scientific water cycle data uniquely represented as art, music, and scientific graphs.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students will: 1. learn about weather and the water cycle; 2. be able to predict relationships between components of the water cycle, analyze data, and use evidence to support their claims; and 3. learn about STEAM and that data can be explored in many creative forms.

SPEAKERS:
Mariella Mannino (Science Teacher: Brooklyn, NY)

Focusing on wetlands and the connection to flooding puts STEM in a real-world context that is relatable to students, and virtual reality makes it fun.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: 1. gain experience in developing virtual field trips using free software and a 360-degree camera; 2. experience a virtual field trip focused on ecosystems, participate in activities covering standards related to ecosystems components, and identify ways to incorporate their local context to the virtual environments; and 3. learn about relevant local connections and partnerships that they can leverage to design a more varied student experience unique for their classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Nastassia Jones (Southern University and A&M College: Baton Rouge, LA), Nikita LaCour (Scotlandville Pre-Engineering Magnet Academy: Baton Rouge, LA)

Join us for engaging data sets and hands-on labs that will generate data for students to graph and interpret. You'll love seeing your students draw real conclusions from simple real-world data. Handouts!

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Practice interpreting and representing data; 2. Participate in a lab to collect, graph, and interpret data; and 3. Receive data sets and lesson plans to use with students.

SPEAKERS:
Katie Busch (The University of Alabama at Birmingham: Birimingham, AL)

Discover inquiry-based simulations and modeling activities that explore “Human Impacts” topics, including global land and water use, wildlife habitats, and interdependent relationships in ecosystems.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: 1. learn ways to incorporate modeling and simulation activities into classroom instruction around the topic of interdependent relationships in ecosystems; 2. learn ways to incorporate modeling and simulation activities into classroom instruction around the topic of human-environmental interactions; and 3. be able to identify how the presented hands-on activities use 3-D learning strategies for middle grades science and how the activities can be used to reach all kinds of learners in the middle school classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Tammy-Lee Tracy (Social Studies Instructional Specialist: Spring, TX)

This session will introduce the gamification of ecological modeling within a biology classroom, through both playing and analyzing student-developed games that demonstrate ecological interactions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: 1. develop a greater understanding of modeling as one of the crosscutting concepts of NGSS; 2. learn the DCI related to ecology and SEP of modeling, including developing, using, and evaluating models; and 3. learn the importance of modeling, the revision process when it comes to modeling, and limitations of modeling.

SPEAKERS:
Kristine Wilbrecht (Swope Middle School: Reno, NV), Catherine Pozarski Connolly (Nevada's Northwest Regional Professional Development Program: Reno, NV)

Democratic STEM Teaching (DST) centers student voice, creating inclusive classrooms where all students can thrive. Explore how human-centered design thinking turns DST principles into practice.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will: 1. understand the DST principles and describe practical examples of student voice, shared authority, and STEM criticality; 2. develop ideas of how to use DST principles in their own classrooms in order to create a more inclusive classroom; and 3. use the design thinking approach and protocols to identify a focus area in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Kelly Houston (STEM Ed Innovators: Saratoga, CA)

Learn how winter road salt treatments depress the freezing point of water and how to monitor the impact of these treatments on stream salinity.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how: 1. salt depresses the freezing point of water; 2. to test the salinity of stream water; and 3. to share your results with citizen science projects and your community.

SPEAKERS:
Valerie Stone (Gettysburg College: Gettysburg, PA)

Discover the power of tiny things to promote equity through real-world problem solving with nano@stanford. Learn the biomimicry connection to water-resistant and other engineered materials being developed in nanotechnology to solve real problems that will promote equity by engaging more students.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Learn the biomimicry connections to water-resistant and other engineered materials that are being developed in nanotechnology to solve real problems; 2. All STEM disciplines are needed to solve real problems and nanotechnology provides the tools to develop solutions; and 3. Learn the locations of NGSS-focused activities, resources, and virtual experiences for your classroom connected to Nanotechnology Opportunities for free/ paid professional development with the NNCI and nano@stanford.

SPEAKERS:
Daniella Duran (Stanford University: Stanford, CA)

Discover resources and tools to aid in crafting 3-D assessments. Bring your own assessment for peer feedback or explore OERs to adapt to your setting.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Best practices in 3-D assessment design; 2. Strategies for adapting existing assessments; and 3. Resources for identifying engaging phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Becky McDowell (Independent Contractor: Springfield, PA)

Explore new ways to teach climate change science and discover strategies and resources to engage and empower students in the defining issue affecting their future.

TAKEAWAYS:
Examine how climate change impacts the planet and people, especially people in marginalized communities, and how to explore the inequitable distribution of impact; 2. Learn about resources, activities, and ideas to implement climate change in your curriculum, including a free e-book you can use with your students; and 3. Compare and contrast individual, local, national, and global climate change solutions, and how you, your students, and school might participate and how you, as a science teacher, can inspire action.

SPEAKERS:
Alyson Mike (Presidio Graduate School: San Francisco, CA)

FREE IRIS and UNAVCO resources explore how the earthquake system behaves across long and short time scales using observations; evidence; and simple, interactive physical models.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will be able to: 1. use evidence and reasoning to construct an explanation for earthquake occurrence at varying timescales; 2. model energy inputs and outputs to the earthquake cycle using a simple mechanical model; and 3. describe how the moment magnitude is calculated for an earthquake and how this relates to basic physical science principles.

SPEAKERS:
John Taber (IRIS | Earthscope Consortium: Chevy Chase, MD)

Discover an engaging, hands-on experience for your students that focuses on middle school science concepts using breakout and interactive games with puzzles and clues.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn: 1. how to create their own breakout room or interactive game tailored to specific student needs; 2. the benefits of using games that require the use of multiple learning styles to master content for the grade 8 science assessment; and 3. learn how to use games in the science classroom to increase scientific literacy by using thinking, reading, writing, and discourse strategies to deepen the understanding of the content.

SPEAKERS:
Jonathan Kramer (Dallas ISD: Dallas, TX)

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:
1. STEM inclusion activities; 2. Coding in the classroom; and 3. STEM project ideas.

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