Opening a lab is a daunting process. Learn about how Fairport developed a vision, wrote a horizontally and vertically aligned curriculum, and utilized intentional decision making to design the Elementary STEAM Lab experience.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with recommendations for creating STEAM Labs in their districts based on the blueprint that Fairport used to launch Labs that incorporate the NGSS Engineering Design standards, Computer Science and Digital Fluency Learning Standards, and a focus on social-emotional learning.

SPEAKERS:
Travis Wood (Fairport Central School District: No City, No State), Kristin Larsen (Honeoye Falls- Lima CSD: Honeoye Falls, NY)

Technology has opened the pathway of art creation, making it accessible for all learners, no matter their artistic skill level. Utilizing Pixel Art, educators across the spectrum can leverage the inclusion of customized and unique artistic creations to engage the creativity of all students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain hands-on exposure creating a personal avatar with multiple modes used to construct authentic designs through Pixel Art including using various types of websites and applications but also strategies for unplugging Pixel Art with physical mediums.

SPEAKERS:
Claudeen Denning (Metro Nashville Public Schools: Nashville, TN), Claire Williams McGee (Metro Nashville Public Schools: Nashville, TN)

Culturally responsive pedagogy can help bridge the diversity gap in STEM. This session shares how our Dream City program supports all students in thinking like urban planners to design beautiful neighborhoods that are not only structurally sound but also inclusive and responsive to all who come.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will have a chance to see how IMSA Outreach provides inquiry-based, hands-on STEM learning. Attendees will see how inquiry-based teaching and learning is, by its very nature, inherently culturally responsive and can leave with practical ideas to use in their own classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Elaine Wu (Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy: Aurora, IL)

STEAM focused lesson plans integrating garden-based learning and the arts. In this hands-on workshop, learn how printmaking, nature journaling, bookmaking techniques, and Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) can reinforce sensemaking of science cross-cutting concepts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will engage in teacher-tested STEAM lessons connected to garden-based learning that can be implemented into the K-6 classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Aurora Hughes Villa (Utah State University: No City, No State), Lisa Saunderson (Edith Bowen Lab School / Utah State University)

Participants will explore data literacy through guided activities create, analyze and interpret data and explore creative and innovative ways to represent data.

TAKEAWAYS:
Data literacy in more in important than ever in our world. Showing teahcers how to help students understand data in a creative way allows all students access to knowledge gained from intepreting data.

SPEAKERS:
Anna Suggs (Teacher: Las Cruces, NM)

For teachers looking for tools to foster student achievement, participation, and growth. The key way to do this is by teaching students about a positive growth mindset and applying thinking routines to make the mindset part of the classroom's culture (free routines from Harvard's Graduate School of

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn the importance of focusing on student effort and growth during the problem-solving process which results in an increase in student participation and achievement.

SPEAKERS:
Diana Lockwood (Author & Executive Director)

Use chemical reactions to create colorful paintings in an activity designed around research-based STEAM practices that support identity and mindset in diverse learners. Leave with an understanding of the STEAM Practices framework, and an NGSS-aligned activity that can be modified for various ages.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn equity-focused strategies for integrating art and science in instruction, supporting STEAM-linked identities in learners, and fostering a STEAM mindset that emphasizes learners’ creative capacity to understand and transform the world around them.

SPEAKERS:
Perrin Teal Sullivan (University of Alaska Fairbanks: Fairbanks, AK), Laura Carsten Conner (University of Alaska Fairbanks: Fairbanks, AK)

The sky belongs to everyone - including middle-school age youth. Learn how to join the Youth Astronomy Network (YouthAstroNet) of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, where your students can tell their own star stories using images they capture from real robotic telescopes.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn YouthAstroNet’s strategies for engaging students from culturally diverse backgrounds in accessible, relevant and meaningful exploration of their place in the cosmos and find out how they can join the YouthAstroNet online community, supported by the National Science Foundation

SPEAKERS:
Erika Wright (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian: Cambridge, MA), Mary Dussault (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian: Cambridge, MA)