Join us to design a prototype for a classroom task using our new Task Design Workbook. We will highlight key elements of 3D assessment design (i.e. problematizing phenomena, centering sense-making, and accessibility features). These high-leverage components of task development prepare you to adapt & design assessments that center your students and engage them in 3D sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Katie Van Horne (Concolor Research: Orlando, FL), Aneesha Badrinarayan (Learning Policy Institute: Washington, DC), Sara Cooper (Contextus), Dawn Novak (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL)

The Stackable, Instructionally-embedded, Portable Science (SIPS) Assessments project is applying current research, theory, and best practice to establish replicable and scalable processes and resources to drive shifts to science instructional practice and assessment as envisioned by the Framework.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators’ ability to design and implement high quality 3-dimensional science instruction, evaluate student learning, and make appropriate instructional decisions will be modeled. Beneficial tools and resources will be shared to ensure a coherent system of curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

SPEAKERS:
Charlene Turner (Senior Associate: Laramie, WY), Mary Nyaema (University of Illinois Chicago: Chicago, IL), Rhonda True (Nebraska Department of Education: Lincoln, NE), Bill Herrera (edCount, LLC: No City, No State)

This intervention combined purposeful planning and innovative academic vocabulary instruction. Easily replicable classroom strategies and examples will facilitate implementation and demonstrate how to make science accessible to all students, including minorities, economically disadvantaged, English

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will strategically target academic vocabulary, visually display connections between inquiry activities and vocabulary, and explore opportunities for students to experience vocabulary in context, actively process word meanings, and practice using vocabulary to speak and write sentences.

SPEAKERS:
Julie Jackson (Texas State University: San Marcos, TX)

COESEE - Join us to learn more about assessment of elementary science learning using elementary learning stories.

TAKEAWAYS:
Creating student learning stories can help support assessment in elementary classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Molly Ewing (The Charles A. Dana Center: No City, No State)

What is the big deal with a phenomenon—and how is it structured for science learning? A phenomenon drives three-dimensional science instruction. Join this session to discuss the importance of phenomena as well as what it is and what it isn’t. Resources will be shared!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about the importance phenomena plays in 3D Science instruction , instructional strategies to use when sensemaking. and how to assess student learning using phenomenon-based assessment tasks.

SPEAKERS:
Judie Beccaro (Georgia Department of Education: Atlanta, GA)

Attendees will participate in a guided walk through the process of developing inquiries to ensure students reach mastery of critical content. This will include analyzing standard(s), participating in hands on inquiry, and using a template to create inquiries for students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will understand how to plan opportunities for students to demonstrate understanding of critical content using methods that allow educators to easily monitor student progress toward mastery.

SPEAKERS:
Ryan Carlson (Orange County Public Schools: Orlando, FL), Desiree Siegel (Program Specialist Elementary Science: Orlando, FL), Matthew Timm (Orange County Public Schools: Orlando, FL), Kimberly Seaver (Orange County Public Schools: Orlando, FL)

Sponsoring Company: College Board

Come for an active conversation about helping introductory learners prepare for AP-level course work in STEM. We will align challenge areas identified using AP exam data with the Pre-AP Course Framework and explore instructional strategies to help students meet these challenges.

SPEAKERS:
Laura Casdorph (College Board: New York, NY), Mitch Price (College Board: New York, NY)

Discover how to build a STEM curriculum from the ground up, from ideation to final product. Design an alarm to protect your stuff, meet the STEM Quality Framework and 50+ free STEM units from Pre-K to High School, and explore amazing resources from the Dayton Regional STEM Center and DoDSTEM.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn the process of designing a high-quality STEM curriculum including; standards alignment, evaluation and improvement of curriculum and implementation within the classroom, along with a library of free, currently available unit plans and resources.

SPEAKERS:
Tim Carey (Xenia Community Schools: Xenia, OH)

Are you excited to learn strategies for science learning in the elementary classroom? Join three educators sharing three different strategies for elementary science learners, including project-based learning, place-based learning, and online assessment materials.

Free Project-Based Learning Resources for Elementary Science
Get a brief introduction to free OER integrated science curricular units for Grades 3-5 and see how well the features of Project-Based Learning provide the tools and routines to support sensemaking.

A Home for Fossils: Bringing place-based education to a museum-based program
Join education staff from Tellus Science Museum to see fossils that call Georgia home and discuss how to incorporate place-based geoscience education with elementary science standards.

Multidimensional Assessment Tasks and a Virtual Learning Community for Elementary Science Teachers
Learn about two free, complementary online resources: NGSS-aligned assessment tasks for Grades 3-5 and a website to support teachers in using the assessment tasks and participating in an online community of practice.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Codere (CREATE for STEM Institute, Michigan State University, Retired), Hannah Eisla (Tellus Science Museum: No City, No State), Jeanne Di Domenico (The University of Chicago: Chicago, IL), Carla Strickland (UChicago STEM Education: No City, No State)

Learn how to use the Uncovering Student Ideas probes in an explore-before-explain instructional sequence to support a classroom where all students' ideas matter!

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn about a resource for formative assessment and explore-before-explain teaching.

SPEAKERS:
Page Keeley (NSTA Past President: No City, No State), Patrick Brown (Fort Zumwalt School District R-II: O'Fallon, MO)

This session is presented by members of the Georgia Science Teachers Association Board of Directors and shares ways to incorporate literacy in science lessons using inclusive teaching strategies. The session will be a panel presentation that addresses using a broad range of analogies, a mix of textual and visual representations, inclusion of examples that include both women and ethnic minority groups, students with disabilities, use of funds of knowledge, a variety of learning exercises and assessments and the use of rubrics. Justin Harvey (GSTA Director) is submitting this proposal on behalf of the GSTA Board, but he is not one of the presenters. The panel of presenters include: Teresa Massey, GA District 10 Director Robert Bice, GA District 1 Director Jane Reed, District 2 Director Michelle Thompson, District 8 Director Kathryn Mullen, District 12 Director Melissa Niemi, GSTA President-Elect

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will see how the need to consider diversity is important for all students learning science. Participants will gain research-based strategies for integrating diversity in science lessons that meet the needs of all learners.

SPEAKERS:
Teresa Massey (Graduate Student), Michelle Thompson (Effingham College and Career Academy: No City, No State)

Rubrics are great assessment tools when grading lab reports and projects. Rubrics help to clarify expectations, inspire students to set goals and give educators a way to improve feedback that stimulates student reflection. Emphasis is on application and analysis not getting the right answers.

TAKEAWAYS:
The Poster will highlight best practices for creating and using rubrics to grade lab reports and projects. The poster will include best practices, main components of a rubric, tips for creating rubrics and well as best practices for feedback and grading using rubrics.

SPEAKERS:
Kimberly Morton (Instructional Coach)

Although cancer biology is an important topic with the study life science, the definition of cancer literacy has been ill defined. This project demonstrates limitations of using one measure of cancer literacy, the Cancer Health Literacy Test-6, within the scope of a cancer biology outreach program.

TAKEAWAYS:
Cancer literacy has been broadly defined and assessed. Assessment of cancer biology knowledge may be best suited by the use of instructor-prepared, lesson-specific assessments.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Heath (Student: Warrenville, SC), Kamani Barnes (Student: Warrenville, SC), Alexandria Martin (Student: , SC), Christie Palladino (Teacher: Warrenville, SC)

This session presents a science and literacy instruction intervention aimed at helping improve student achievement on high-stakes standardized tests. This study found statistically significant results with medium to large effect sizes at multiple campuses. Findings contribute to research and practice by demonstrating how to make science education accessible to all students, including minorities, economically disadvantaged, English learners, and At-Risk students. It also advances knowledge about effective science and literacy instruction interventions. Participants in this session will learn how to strategically target academic vocabulary, visually display connections between inquiry activities and vocabulary, explore opportunities for students to experience vocabulary in context, actively process word meanings, and practice using vocabulary to speak and write sentences. Easily replicable classroom strategies and examples that may be used to facilitate implementation will be shared.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will strategically target academic vocabulary, visually display connections between inquiry activities and vocabulary, and explore opportunities for students to experience vocabulary in context, actively process word meanings, and practice using vocabulary to speak and write sentences.

SPEAKERS:
Julie Jackson (Texas State University: San Marcos, TX)

The Science Teacher Residency (STaR) Program was launched in 2018 in response to the need to expand access to high quality professional development for science teachers in Arizona. It is designed for third through eighth grade teachers from Title 1 designated schools, and provides instructional tools and resources to participants for free. The program is designed around its Theory of Change, which involves four facets: pedagogical approaches, content learning, access to expertise, and materials and resources. The program is externally evaluated by the Lawrence Hall of Science. Data on content knowledge level, fascination level, interest level, and intention to pursue science will be featured on the poster. Our target audience is for professional development providers.

TAKEAWAYS:
STaR expands access to high-quality teaching practice in science education for Arizona teachers. PD facilitators can obtain new ideas for research-based implementation of pedagogy, content learning, access to expertise, and materials and resources.

SPEAKERS:
Brenna Chambers (Manager of Professional Learning), Judith Lozoya (Professional Development Facilitator: Phoenix, AZ), Jennifer Petersen (Professional Development Facilitator: Phoenix, AZ)

Claim Evidence and Reasoning a strategy to increase engagement and assess student learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will use the Claim Evidence and Reasoning protocol to check student content knowledge, increase discourse and improve literacy.

SPEAKERS:
Lindiwe Ngubeni (Atlanta Public Schools: Atlanta, GA), Felicia Pratt (Atlanta Public Schools: Atlanta, GA), Warren Edwards (Atlanta Public Schools: Atlanta, GA)

Sponsoring Company: College Board

Come for an active session about helping students prepare for AP-level course work in STEM. We will align challenge areas identified using AP Chem exam data and correlate these with the Pre-AP Chem Course Framework and explore instructional strategies to help students meet these challenges.

SPEAKERS:
Laura Casdorph (College Board: New York, NY), Mitch Price (College Board: New York, NY)

This is session #4 in the PL Committee CCCs Pathway and is designed to support K-12. The crosscutting concepts provide a consistent language for student communication. When teachers’ assessment prompts are designed with the crosscutting concepts, the focus of student thinking can be directed to different aspects of the phenomenon or, the system being investigated. Patterns may be used as evidence to support explanations or arguments for the causes of a phenomenon. Participants will explore the progression of Crosscutting Concepts throughout a student’s K-12 career. They will consider phenomenon and discuss several appropriate prompts that bring different CCCs to the forefront (patterns, scale, systems). Participants will engage with the process of developing assessment prompts which use the Crosscutting Concepts to initiate student sensemaking responses.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participant will leave with resources that guide their development and use of Crosscutting Concepts to focus student sensemaking on assessments. These can be integrated with assessments prompts which are aligned to Science and Engineering Practices and Disciplinary Core Ideas.

SPEAKERS:
Leah Litz (Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium: No City, No State), Christopher Soldat (Grant Wood Area Education Agency: Cedar Rapids, IA)

Sponsoring Company: Savvas Learning Company

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.

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

At the elementary level, having students explain what they are observing and learning in science class can be challenging. Using a strategy such as a claim, evidence, and reasoning (CER) to guide explicit instruction and student responses can immensely impact their understanding of the curriculum.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to use silly commercials to engage your elementary science students into creating detailed written responses to what they are learning in class using the CER strategy. CER will help them unlock their thinking skills in a way that can then be easily transferred to classroom content.

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Oberdorf (Big Spring School District: Newville, PA)

Join NSTA Professional Learning Facilitators for informal conversations about science teaching and learning. Bring questions and ideas to explore and discuss — no topic is too big or too small! Let’s work together to make science learning engaging, important, and accessible to all students.

TAKEAWAYS:
We’ll draw on the expertise of NSTA professional learning facilitators and educators in the room to answer questions, provide research-based feedback, and share resources to help you continue to shift your practice toward three-dimensional teaching and learning.

Join us and learn how to incorporate Kagan cooperative grouping structures into your science curriculum. Your students will benefit from these research-supported strategies that are easy to implement and flexible enough to meet your needs.

TAKEAWAYS:
We will model each structure as our participants join in. This experience will help participants develop a sense of efficacy and confidence to add these structures to their own programming. Each participant will leave confident in his/her ability to use three different cooperative groups structures.

SPEAKERS:
Traci Kell (Assistant Professor of Education: , AL), Grace Langston (Student: , AL), Tami Shelley (Auburn University at Montgomery: Montgomery, AL), Nicholas Bourke (Auburn University at Montgomery: Montgomery, AL)

Making observations about the world around us and being able to record that in written and drawn form is a skill critical for scientists. In the elementary classroom, students comprehension greatly increases when observation skills are expanded. Learn how to increase this within your own classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to engage your students as scientists in a new way, drawing! Understand the basics of drawing and how it connects to scientific observations. These simple and easy steps will transform the scientific drawings your students are creating during class to increase their overall comprehension.

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Oberdorf (Big Spring School District: Newville, PA)

Gifted students are a unique population we rarely have time to focus on while common misconceptions often prevent them from reaching full potential. This session offers an assessment tool to help students capitalize on strengths and realize their own potential in a STEM classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
A Total Talent Portfolio can be used to identify students’ interests, preferred learning styles, and expression styles to leverage motivation, engagement, & autonomy. A Talent Portfolio also serves as an assessment tool teachers can use to document talent development throughout the year.

SPEAKERS:
Bailey Nafziger (Georgia Southern University)

Sponsoring Company: STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning

CER gets students to explain phenomena in a scientific way. Let’s use investigations to demonstrate how to use data collection to drive data-based conclusions. Guide students in how to think deeper, write scientifically, & incorporate vocabulary that strengthens their understanding of a phenomenon.

SPEAKERS:
Ashley Mathis (STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning: Houston, TX)

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

During this session you’ll build a scaffolded, NGSS-aligned assessments to use with your classroom, school, or district! We'll investigate building prior grade level assessments, cover common misconceptions around sensemaking, and best practices for scaffolding assessments for HS students.

Learn how we leveraged the UN Sustainable Development Goals and global partnerships to create authentic three-dimensional summative assessment experiences for our elementary students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to unpack NGSS Performance Expectations, match them with UN Sustainable Development Goals and create high quality standards-based assessments that incorporate authentic audiences.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Ricks (American Community School of Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)

BYO Device to this hands-on workshop for the Next Generation Science Assessment (NGSA) project. Explore free, high-quality, multidimensional tasks, consider how to use them for formative assessment in your elementary classrooms, and view online resources in a virtual learning

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn to access and use two related, freely available online resources that support elementary teachers’ use of NGSS-aligned assessment and instruction: A site with tasks aligned with the performance expectations for Grades 3-5 and a virtual learning community for science teachers.

SPEAKERS:
Jeanne Di Domenico (The University of Chicago: Chicago, IL), Brian Gane (University of Kansas: No City, No State), Carla Strickland (UChicago STEM Education: No City, No State)

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

How do you scaffold students towards sensemaking? Explore strategies of how you can help students leverage DCIs, SEPs, and CCCs to make sense of novel phenomena. Participants will break into groups to analyze scaffolds for their own grade/content, discuss their wonderings, and explore resources.

SPEAKERS:
Erin Cooke (Customer Success Manager)

How do we assess both DCIs and SEPs in a way that is not overly complicated nor burdensome, yet pedagogically sound? There is a clear way to integrate your course content without sacrificing an emphasis on the NGSS practices. You will leave with resources to implement this in your classroom!

TAKEAWAYS:
After outlining the current debate, attendees will examine several effective approaches to deal with both content and skills, while considering issues of equity, differentiation, and opportunity for students of all ages.

SPEAKERS:
Elise Naramore (Pascack Hills High School: Montvale, NJ)

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

During this session you’ll build a scaffolded, NGSS-aligned assessments to use with your classroom, school, or district! We'll investigate building prior grade level assessments, cover common misconceptions around sensemaking, and best practices for scaffolding assessments for MS students.

In this 60-minute workshop, practitioners will share best practices for engaging children in STEM learning. Participants will learn how to plan activities that invite children to explore, investigate, problem-solve, experiment, design and discover ways to improve STEM literacy and language.

TAKEAWAYS:
Workshop participants will participate in hands-on modeling of multidisciplinary best practices for engaging children in daily STEM learning.

SPEAKERS:
Meghan Marrero (Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry Campus: Dobbs Ferry, NY), Amanda Gunning (Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry Campus: Dobbs Ferry, NY), Teresa Quackenbush (Mercy College: Dobbs Ferry, NY)

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

During this session you’ll build an NGSS Benchmark or common assessment from our database of 10,000+ NGSS Assessment items! We'll look at the types of questions best used for these summative assessments and take workshop time to build an assessment you can use immediately

SPEAKERS:
Erin Cooke (Customer Success Manager)

In this 60-minute workshop, practitioners will share best practices for engaging children in STEM learning. Participants will learn how to plan activities that invite children to explore, investigate, problem-solve, experiment, design and discover ways to improve STEM literacy and language.

TAKEAWAYS:
Workshop participants will participate in hands-on modeling of multidisciplinary best practices for engaging children in daily STEM learning.

SPEAKERS:
Teresa Quackenbush (Mercy College: Dobbs Ferry, NY)

Join NSTA Professional Learning Facilitators for informal conversations about science teaching and learning. Bring questions and ideas to explore and discuss — no topic is too big or too small! Let’s work together to make science learning engaging, important, and accessible to all students.

TAKEAWAYS:
We’ll draw on the expertise of NSTA professional learning facilitators and educators in the room to answer questions, provide research-based feedback, and share resources to help you continue to shift your practice toward three-dimensional teaching and learning.

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

How does sensemaking change our approach to science teaching and learning in the middle and high school classroom? Explore a sensemaking simulation and sensemaking criteria for questioning. Educators will experience a small group analysis, take-home resources, and an opportunity for Q&A!

SPEAKERS:
Erin Cooke (Customer Success Manager)