Explore the properties of light with hands-on activities. Build a spectrometer, make an LED saber, “see” sound with a laser light show, reflect/refract and absorb light in an obstacle course and more! Easily and cheaply bring back to your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn about light and the properties of light through engaging and fun, hands-on activities they can easily and cheaply take back to their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Betty Bigney (Blue Creek Elementary School: Jacksonville, NC), Holly Mentillo (Ocean Breeze Elementary School: Indian Harbour beach, FL)

Participants will learn how to choose a picture book as a basis for an engineering unit, examine examples of several books that we have turned into engineering units, follow our journey to construct a force and motion unit, and participate in the Engineering Challenge to build a better race car.

TAKEAWAYS:
The participants will understand how to select a picture book to support a science standard, as well as be able to construct an engineering unit based on the chosen book. Participants will also receive a copy of our force and motion unit based on to use in their classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Jenna Henkel (Georgia Youth Science and Technology Centers, Inc.: Kennesaw, GA), Pamela Parks (Georgia Youth Science and Technology Centers, Inc.)

Engaging in scientific investigations can motivate students to read, write and participate in productive discourse. This session provides educators with lessons and resources to support teaching three-dimensional hands-on scientific investigation that motivates student learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants leave the session with insights into how to use engaging hands-on investigations to motivate students to read, write, and engage in discourse. They will receive a complete set of lesson plans for their NGSS state grade-level standards.

SPEAKERS:
Candace Penrod (Salt Lake City School District: Salt Lake City, UT), Brett Moulding (Partnership for Effective Science Teaching and Learning: Ogden, UT)

Increase student engagement in analysis and evaluation of real data. Engage students of different ability levels in mathematical models with measurements not previously accessible in the classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Use real data to develop mathematical models and learn how to test your hypothesis by performing an experiment and analyze your results, combining graphing calculators with handheld sensors to maximize class time.

SPEAKERS:
Karlheinz Haas (Science/Math Instructor, Retired: Tequesta, FL)

Come learn some fun hands on activities that you can use in your classroom and/or lab that don't cost an arm and a leg! We will focus on activities for Chemistry, Environmental Science, Forensic Science, and Physical Science. Everything from student made projects to instructor demos!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees with leave with Low Cost Hands-On Activities.

SPEAKERS:
Andrea Knowles (Teacher), Rachel Kakesh (Bowdon High School: Bowdon, GA)

"PV=NRT" is nearly 200 years old! However, the ideal gas law has remained a relevant tool that's helped us progress from Sterling Engines to Solar Panel Cars. How? Engineering. Come be a student in an engineering project based physics/ physical science class.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will have hands-on opportunity to experience engineered based lesson (mini unit). Teachers will come away with an example scope and sequence, example projects with directions, materials guidelines, and rubrics.

SPEAKERS:
Briana Clarke (Park Day School: Oakland, CA)

Engage in the science practices of investigating, modeling, and arguing from evidence to make sense of why a toy train moves forward and backward without physical contact. Participants will explore gravity, static electricity, and magnetism to determine which most likely causes it to move.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants explore forces at a distance and make sense of how they might cause the phenomenon to occur by developing a model via a three-step sequence. Teachers examine sample student work to uncover ideas and determine that some ideas may make sense despite being inaccurate for the situation.

SPEAKERS:
Christi Pace (Augusta University: Augusta, GA), Jaclyn Murray (Mercer University: Macon, GA)

Sponsoring Company: Great Minds

In this workshop, participants dive into a 2nd grade module on Matter. Using the six steps of the Engineering Design Process, participants will ask, imagine, plan and test a solution to the real-world problem: How can you design and build a shelter that provides protection from rain?

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Do your students struggle with the meaning of the slope of a graph? We'll demonstrate how to use all the sensors in a Go Direct® Sensor Cart to explore kinematics, force, and mass. These engaging, hands-on experiments will give your students multiple ways to practice working with these principles.

SPEAKERS:
Josh Ence (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR), Frances Poodry (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

Sponsoring Company: Simulation Curriculum

Experience Simulation Curriculum’s award-winning Starry Night Curriculum featuring classroom-ready, standards-based, interactive lesson plans. Covers grades K-4, 5-8 and 9-12 with engaging simulations, jaw-dropping interactions, activities and comprehensive teacher support resources!

Sponsoring Company: Savvas Learning Company

What's so phenomenal about phenomena? Join the Savvas science team for an engaging, hands-on workshop as we explore the purpose of phenomena, the power of using it to drive your instruction, and the way it will support your students as they bring their own life experiences into your classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Jessi Davis (Savvas Learning Co.: Paramus, NJ)

Sponsoring Company: Simulation Curriculum

Join us as we use Simulation Curriculum’s Layered Earth to investigate Geology including Plate Tectonics and Meteorology including Weather & Climate using our amazing interactive Earth simulator to engage and excite students!

Sponsoring Company: Edvotek

Explore the science of candy colors! We will extract food dyes from candy and separate them using agarose gel electrophoresis and paper chromatography. By separating the different colors, students learn about complicated mixtures, charges on molecules, and how science relates to everyday life.

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

Link physical science concepts like circuits and charged particles to the essential biotech method gel electrophoresis. Build a reusable gel electrophoresis system with the Bandit STEM Electrophoresis Kit, and use it to separate colorful dyes. Also add the A to STEAM with creative pipetting art!

SPEAKERS:
Katy Martin (miniPCR: Cambridge, MA)

Starting with eliciting students' initial ideas, experience a responsive teaching sense-making structure to take students through a process of developing conceptual understanding of core disciplinary ideas in science using NSTA's highly Uncovering Student Ideas in Science Formative Assessment Probes

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to transition from diagnostic probes to formative assessment and responsive teaching by taking students through a sense-making structure to change or further develop their initial ideas.

SPEAKERS:
Page Keeley (NSTA Past President: No City, No State)

Teachers learn how to use the Gather, Reason, and Communicate Reasoning (GRC) instructional sequence and Vernier tools to engage students in science investigations aligned to the NGSS and Georgia Science Standards. Participants learn how to use a set of lessons aligned with their standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators learn how to engage students in GRC investigations and where to find hundreds of GRC lessons. Teachers will learn to use Vernier probes to gather accurate data through scientific investigation.

SPEAKERS:
David Powell (Norman High School: Norman, OK), Brett Moulding (Partnership for Effective Science Teaching and Learning: Ogden, UT)

The various metals and alloys used in the minting of the US penny over the years provide for rich explorations. We will share activities that combine some very basic lab activities conducted by some of our Chemistry classes with detailed mathematical modeling done by the students in AP Statistics.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will use real data to develop mathematical models and learn how to test your hypothesis by performing an experiment and analyzing the results, combining chemical analysis with statistical sampling for a cross-curricular approach;

SPEAKERS:
Karlheinz Haas (Science/Math Instructor, Retired: Tequesta, FL)

Explore the issues surrounding earthquake prediction with your students through an activity that allows students to examine the rates of earthquakes occurrence around the world.

TAKEAWAYS:
The focus question for the session will be “Can past history of Earthquake occurrence “predict” future occurrences?”

SPEAKERS:
Michael Hubenthal (IRIS | Earthscope Consortium: Washington, DC), Tammy Bravo (IRIS | Earthscope Consortium: Vancouver, WA)

Sponsoring Company: EarthScope Consortium

Explore our new web-based interactive earthquake lab! Have your students learn and practice earthquake location and analysis techniques with real seismic data! Bring a laptop/ipad!

SPEAKERS:
Michael Hubenthal (IRIS | Earthscope Consortium: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Company

Students can drive their learning through hands-on activities integrated with digital and print resources. Learn how using Smithsonian Science for the Classroom engages students with science and engineering practices and promotes scientific literacy for all students. Take home materials available.

SPEAKERS:
Hoover Herrera (Carolina Biological Supply Co.: Burlington, NC), Melissa Rogers (Smithsonian Science Education Center: Washington, DC)

We will share a model of science home/school partnership, focused on families of young multilingual learners (MLs) that fuels their science and language learning across contexts, sparks their interest and self-efficacy in science, and can be leveraged to support their school science learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with concrete strategies, tools, and resources for building science partnerships with families of MLs that support language-enriched science experiences at home and mutually reinforce children's NGSS-aligned science and language experiences at school.

SPEAKERS:
Mandell Academy (Connecticut Science Center: Hartford, CT), Rachel Shurick (Connecticut Science Center: Hartford, CT), Becky Fahey (Connecticut Science Center: Hartford, CT), Cindy Hoisington (Education Development Center, Inc.: Holbrook, MA)

Flight is amazing! Even more amazing is the fact that students at any level can understand how flight works. In this session, we will share resources and strategies to teach aviation in any educational setting and how you can inspire students to pursue STEAM careers.

TAKEAWAYS:
We will share strategies, conduct hands-on STEAM activities, and provide a range of activities, developed by NASA, for all ages and all educational settings. Come have some fun and leave with useful resources you can use right away.

SPEAKERS:
Steve Kirsche (NASA Headquarters: No City, No State)

Get ready for the 2023 and 2024 solar eclipses. See how learning activities about the Earth, Moon and Sun provide three-dimensional learning experiences that connect to these events that will be more spectacular than the 2017 eclipse.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will have a better understanding of what is meant by three-dimensional learning, see how 3D learning can lead to knowing what causes lunar phases and eclipses, and be prepared to enjoy the solar eclipses in 2023 and 2024.

SPEAKERS:
Dennis Schatz (Institute for Learning Innovation: Beaverton, OR)

A multidisciplinary and open-ended investigation that incorporates absolute and relative dating techniques, anomalies, historical context, volcanoes, solar proton events, energy cycles, Earth systems, terrestrial events, and supernovas by analyzing 430 years of Earth history from 1562 to 1992.

TAKEAWAYS:
In constructing knowledge, there is no definitive answer, only plausible conclusions based on constructing, analyzing, and comparing data and research from multiple disciplines. This investigation provides a better understanding of the scientific process of developing models and defending results.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Young (NASA/NSO/UoL Program Manager: Laughlin, NV)

Each Attendee will be given assorted materials to create the up and down quarks and the strong nuclear force to construct protons, neutrons, and the hydrogen-2 Isotope models using both the String Theory and Solid Sphere Models. Hand-outs and examples will be given. Attendees will take their models.

TAKEAWAYS:
This hands-on classroom quark modeling activity was designed for students to use both the String Theory and the Solid Sphere Models for the nuclear synthesis of protons, neutrons, and the hydrogen-2 isotope. As a class, students will create their own criteria for model comparison and probability.

SPEAKERS:
Gary Schiltz (Retired Chemistry Teacher: Naperville, IL)

Engage in teacher play with us and ponder how light sources and open-ended materials entice children to grow executive function skills as they construct systems that produce unique images.  

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will engage in teacher play as they handle light sources and open-ended materials and receive a handout to help them get started in preparing an environment for independent STEM experiences that can be offered daily in their PK-2 classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Beth Dykstra VanMeeteren (University of Northern Iowa: Cedar Falls, IA)

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: PASCO Scientific

Give your students a real-world engineering challenge! Explore the relationship between momentum and impact forces with real-time measurement of collisions.

Sponsoring Company: Plasma Games

It's all fun and games but does it work? Take a deep dive into the difference between gamification and game based learning and how to incorporate both into your classroom for the best outcome. Bonus: Leave with an all inclusive access code to a 3D game based platform!

Sponsoring Company: UL Research Institutes Xplorlabs

Over 500 fires in the last 2 years are linked to thermal runaway, a phenomenon caused by short circuits in lithium-ion batteries. Participants will learn how Xplorlabs' free online pathway supports student understanding of energy transformations and culminates with an engineering design challenge.

SPEAKERS:
Jessica Sparacino (Senior Education Specialist), Katey Shirey (edukatey: Washington, DC), Amy Gilbert (Griffin Middle School: Smyrna, GA), Megan O'Keeffe (senior content specialist: canton, GA)

Many states are adopting policy that promotes the use of high-quality standards-aligned curriculum for all grade levels. However, educators may question the accessibility of these units for all students. In the Science Curriculum Adaptation Project for Special Educators (SCAPE) program, science specialists from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education worked with special educators to adapt the NYU SAIL “Garbage” unit for students with moderate to severe disabilities. Science specialists provided learning activities around the structures and routines in the unit and guided teachers through key lessons. Teachers then identified barriers and used Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to adapt the unit for their students to access ideas and SEPs in the unit. Each teacher participant left with an adapted unit to pilot with students. In this presentation we will outline the program and share examples of adaptations made for students with disabilities.

TAKEAWAYS:
Session attendees will learn about a MA program designed to support special education teachers in using the high quality “Garbage” unit with their students. Attendees will also see examples of UDL-based adaptations that can be used with science students with moderate to severe disabilities.

SPEAKERS:
Angela Palo (Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing: Boston, MA), Casandra Gonzalez (Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education: Malden, MA)

Alka-Seltzer is a great tool to bring phenomenon focused teaching into the chemistry classroom. It has many applications from simple chemical and physical changes to designing your own reaction rate experiment. Participants will pop the lid off of a film canister. Come join the jump scare.

TAKEAWAYS:
Alka- seltzer is a versatile resource that can be used in a variety of safe and inexpensive activities that allow students to design and carry out their own investigation.

SPEAKERS:
Alecia Hagberg (Harrison High School: Kennesaw, GA), Sarah Holcomb (Harrison High School: Kennesaw, GA)

Learn how to add the third form of circular motion, galactic rotation, to your lessons on circular and planetary motion and let your students find out how dark matter was discovered from a simple physics principle. Lesson and slides provided.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students will learn that galactic rotational motion follows different rules than either circular motion or Kepler’s planetary motion laws. That discrepancy will lead students to their own discovery of dark matter.

SPEAKERS:
John Clark (Volusia Online Learning: Port Orange, FL)

Looking to increase engagement and leverage student curiosity? Sensemaking frames the inquiry process from the student’s point of view and puts them in charge of their own learning. Find out how this process can increase your teaching effectiveness and fundamentally change how your students learn.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will leave with an understanding of sensemaking as a practice, its place in the 3 dimensions of Next Gen Science Standards, and insights gained from experiencing hands-on, minds-on sensemaking of phenomena from the student point of view.

SPEAKERS:
Mariel Kolker (Morristown High School: Morristown, NJ)

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Keep your students engaged by giving them opportunities to move and interact in class. Explore limb position and grip strength, balance, and EKG and EMG experiments designed to encourage students to think about the physiology of various human organ systems. Come ready to participate!

SPEAKERS:
Colleen McDaniel (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

Sponsoring Company: PASCO Scientific

Join us for a hands-on workshop where we will use PASCO’s latest innovations to perform experiments on rotation, torque, optics, and even Lenz’s law!

Sponsoring Company: ExploreLearning

This interactive session will explore a digital interface that develops models to capture students' thinking when designing and testing solutions to real-world problems. We will immerse ourselves in solving a puzzling STEM Case to develop a model and use it to optimize a solution.

SPEAKERS:
Lauren Chiota (Learning Designer), Jared Jackson (Director of Production: Decatur, GA)

Find out how to use explore-before-explain learning to flip the traditional teaching script and promote long-lasting understanding in physical science.

TAKEAWAYS:
How you do it—ready-to-teach lessons that use an explore-before-explain sequence to provide an experience that meet the Next Generation Science Standards and make interdisciplinary connections to the Common Core State Standards.

SPEAKERS:
Patrick Brown (Fort Zumwalt School District R-II: O'Fallon, MO)

Join this session for information about content-language integration and discuss the design of a multimodal task that emphasizes 3D Science learning through the interpretive and expressive modes of communication. Then, take an in-depth look at examples that you can integrate into your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn about lesson activities that provide students with the opportunity to make progress towards both the Science Ga Standards of Excellence and WIDA English Language Development Standards.

SPEAKERS:
Laura Canepa-Redondo (Science/ESOL Program Specialist)

We are sending them into their own classrooms, but do they know their science? Are emerging science teachers aware of their students’ ideas and misconceptions?

TAKEAWAYS:
Characteristics of pre-service science teachers and their content knowledge and knowledge of students' misconceptions.

SPEAKERS:
Cynthia Crockett (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian: Cambridge, MA)

Do you impact your school and community with STEM? If you teach K–12, come learn how to apply to win up to $20K through this teacher competition.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to apply for the Shell-sponsored teacher competition, and collaborate with past winners and judges to learn how to strengthen your application.

SPEAKERS:
Ruth Ruud (Cleveland State University: Cleveland, OH), Amanda Upton (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

Teachers participate in hands-on lessons for Kindergarten, 2nd Grade, and 5th Grade from the free online resource inquiryinaction.org. Teachers investigate the questions: What makes it rain, are M&Ms or Skittles better dissolvers, and does baking soda or baking powder bubble the most with vinegar.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will practice using grade-appropriate explanations of atoms and molecules to help students better understand the causes of the phenomena they observe.

SPEAKERS:
James Kessler (American Chemical Society: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: School Specialty - FOSS

Engage in activities using lasers and optical fibers and concepts of refraction and reflection in the FOSS Next Generation Waves Course for middle school. Explore the phenomena that allow information transfer by fiber optic technology, and identify connections to the three dimensions of NGSS.

SPEAKERS:
Jessica Penchos (The Lawrence Hall of Science: Berkeley, CA), FOSS Project Staff (The Lawrence Hall of Science: Berkeley, CA)

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Get ready to exercise more than just the muscle between your ears when you use the Vernier Video Analysis app to investigate the physics of a bench press and bicep curls. You'll walk away with experiment best practices, lesson suggestions, and tips on successful video collection.

SPEAKERS:
Josh Ence (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR), Frances Poodry (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

Sponsoring Company: Simulation Curriculum

Experience Simulation Curriculum's newest addition - Interactive Anatomy & Physiology - for grades 9-12. See the jaw-dropping interactive anatomy simulator with its 40+ lesson plans, simulations and images along with complete teacher resources.

Sponsoring Company: Plasma Games

Let's expose students to the diversity in STEM careers x3! Explore how to inspire the next generation of STEM experts by showing them STEM experts who are diverse in how they look, diverse in what they do, but most importantly diverse in how they got there.

Sponsoring Company: Flinn Scientific

Turn the traditional prescriptive lab on its head, adapting the learning style to meet your students as they explore and do science around real-world phenomena. See how you can combine videos, simulations, VR experiences, flexible assessments, and editable labs to create hands-on curriculum.

Sponsoring Company: Discovery Education - Pivot Interactives

As teachers, if we limit science practices to ‘lab days’ are we missing opportunities? Find new ways to effortlessly integrate the science practices, like asking questions, using models to generate data, carrying out investigations, and analyzing data, into all parts of the instructional cycle.

Are you interested in how to integrate literacy and science? Join this team of educators as they share strategies and resources for using science-focused texts in the secondary classroom. Read Alouds: Developing Literacy and Thinking Skills in Science Read-alouds are a valuable strategy for introducing nonfiction text, articles, and current events to students that can also promote deeper understanding, higher-level thinking, and increased engagement. Learn how to prepare and implement read-alouds in your science class. Planning and Implementing a Whole School Book Read in an Urban High School I will share my experiences with 5 years in a row of planning and implementing a whole school book read at my urban high school. Each book had a health science focus and was read, at least in part, in every classroom, in every content area. This culminated with a whole school exhibition. The Martian in the Physical Science Classroom Incorporating science literacy into the curriculum can be seamless when using the right novel. The Martian by Andy Weir provides an ideal launchpad to bring real-world science "faction" enrichment to your classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Lindsay Santen (Columbus City Schools: Columbus, OH), Meredith Hegarty (Middle School Science Teacher: College Park, GA)

Hear from middle school educators about the resources and tools they have used to develop a community of collaborative learners. They will share ideas for hands-on manipulative learning experiences and building scientific literacy skills.

Making Salsa = Making Connections!
How can making salsa help you grow your classroom community? This session will describe an engaging activity that was educational and impactful in many different ways. Students dehydrated and rehydrated salsa recipes so astronauts on the ISS could enjoy some flavorful food.

Meaningful CER in Physical Science
Exploration on developing more in-depth Claim Evidence and Reasoning investigations in Physical Science. Now that the Milestone EOC has been removed from this course, learn more about diving deeper into content will support students' scientific literacy.

SPEAKERS:
Kathy Biernat (Zanilu Educational Services, LLC: No City, No State), Stephanie McDonald (Teacher: , GA), Aliyah Johnson (Alpharetta High School: Alpharetta, GA)

Join these middle school educators as they share strategies to support students in modeling their ideas in the classroom.

Model Your Anchor Phenomenon Early and Often: A Strategy for Sensemaking
1. Have students make an initial model based on prior knowledge and assumptions about the natural world. *Predict. Wonder. Be wrong!* 2. Dedicate time for students to continually revise their models as they acquire more evidence and content understanding. 3. Watch the lightbulb turn on!

Read Alouds: Developing Literacy and Thinking Skills in Science
Read-alouds are a valuable strategy for introducing nonfiction text, articles, and current events to students that can also promote deeper understanding, higher-level thinking, and increased engagement. Learn how to prepare and implement read-alouds in your science class.

Flippity: A go to versatile tool to increase engagement
Flippity can "easily turn Google™ spreadsheets into flashcards and other cool stuff." This session will highlight three go to interactives to increase student engagement with one another and with content. Consider bringing a device to practice creating one or two of these cool things. Hacking the Secret Garden with 3D eLearning Experiences Elementary preservice teachers and students hack the science of school gardens and digitally present details of garden-based phenomena that meets NGSS 3D learning.

SPEAKERS:
Allison Wise (American Community School of Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates), Jeff Thomas (University of Southern Indiana: Evansville, IN)

We all make assumptions about how we think students will respond to our seemingly basic questions on what they know. We also assume that they are thinking what we are thinking – until they tell us.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will learn to work with research-based misconceptions that students hold across grade bands in the physical sciences in order to incorporate those into assessment.

SPEAKERS:
Cynthia Crockett (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian: Cambridge, MA)

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 STEM activity includes reading a book and involves one-hour lessons over seven days. Student groups design, build, test, and analyze parachute models.

TAKEAWAYS:
Student groups learn that the engineering design process and the scientific method are circular processes as they design, build, test, and evaluate a parachute model then improve it.

SPEAKERS:
Suzanne Cunningham (Purdue University: West Lafayette, IN)

We will explore the what, why, and how of integrated science and language teaching. We will describe, illustrate, and model research-based strategies, tools, and resources teachers can use to support inquiry, sense-making, and language development with their young multilingual learners (MLs)

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with some research-based strategies, tools, and resources to support planning and facilitation of language-enriched and inclusive science experiences that leverage science as a context for language and for building skills across the developmental domains with a focus on MLs

SPEAKERS:
Mandell Academy (Connecticut Science Center: Hartford, CT), Rachel Shurick (Connecticut Science Center: Hartford, CT), Becky Fahey (Connecticut Science Center: Hartford, CT), Cindy Hoisington (Education Development Center, Inc.: Holbrook, MA)

How can we use gravity to get electricity? This session showcases a physics/physical science unit based around the phenomenon of the Gravity Light - a small generator that uses falling weights to power an LED lamp. Students develop models and carry out investigations in electricity and magnetism.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave the session with lessons and resources to support them in teaching a three-dimensional, phenomenon-based unit where students perform hands-on investigations and develop models to understand the relationship between electricity and magnetism.

SPEAKERS:
Alan Cummings (Physics Teacher: No City, No State), Justin Harvey (Brookwood High School: Snellville, GA)

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Studying complex physics phenomena can be exciting for your students with photogates! Join us to explore strategies for engaging your students in learning about velocity vs. time graphs, acceleration, and kinematic equations. Demystify these helpful tools and bring hands-on learning to your class!

SPEAKERS:
Josh Ence (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR), Frances Poodry (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Company

Explore easy, engaging, and safe chemistry activities that guarantee a reaction in your students. Whether you’re new to chemistry or feeling out of your element, create excitement with hands-on labs, demonstrations, and Carolina’s digital content. These lab activities support 3-dimensional learning

SPEAKERS:
Laurie Nixon (Chemistry Teacher: Boone, NC)

Step-by-Step Skills explains how to break down a scientific skill into a series of steps. Presenters will provide examples from their own classroom as well as a framework for how to utilize the technique across multiple grade levels and science disciplines.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to break down a scientific skill into a series of steps and why it is helpful for all learners, but especially those within a neurodiverse classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Catherine Beck (Randolph School: Huntsville, AL)

Examine how climate understandings are developed over the three courses in the OpenSciEd high school program. Discussions will revolve around incorporation of Earth and space science throughout the program and look closely at human impacts on various scales of Earth systems.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will see how climate understandings are built coherently across the OpenSciEd high school program while addressing social justice and equity. Various disciplinary lenses are leveraged across courses to explore how humans influence and are influenced by climate.

SPEAKERS:
Kate Henson (University of Colorado Boulder: Boulder, CO), Nicole Vick (Northwestern University)

The Light Up! Lab will have participants building their own series and parallel circuits with low-cost items, including aluminum foil, paper clips, 9-volt battery, and Christmas lights. In the Transfor-Mation of Energy Lab Stations, participants will be provided with ways for students to investigate the transfer of energy through conduction, convection, and radiation. Using metal ball bearings, paper, and aluminum foil, they will create shock waves in the Shock ‘Em Lab. The relationship between magnetism and the movement of electrical charge will be explored through the experience with the Tinsel demo, and the Magic Soda Can demo. Soda cans, and balloons will help explain the abstract idea of the movement of an electrical charge and the build of of static electicity will make an electric field that will make a piece of tinsil float above a pie tin. We will also have on hand a Van de Graaf generator to explore electric fields and fun, engaging ways invite student interest.

TAKEAWAYS:
We will teach you have to do fun and engaging labs and demonstrations on a shoestring budget. All lab and demonstration ideas will cover topics and themes in both NGSS and GSE Physical Science under the theme of electric currents and electric fields.

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Rowe (Teacher: Summerville, GA), Christopher Tallent (Chattooga High School: Summerville, GA)

Teachers can engage their students, teach content areas and process skills, and address standards using a specific inquiry-based format. The format incorporates a two-setup discrepant event, one forming an expectation and the other resulting in unexpected outcome and thus a problem to be solved.

TAKEAWAYS:
A specific inquiry-based format allows teachers to engage students, teach content areas and science process skills, and address standards. This discrepant-event method is easy for teachers and students to learn and gives students skills needed to feel comfortable and competent when doing science.

SPEAKERS:
Mary Jean Lynch (North Central College: Naperville, IL), John Zenchak (North Central College: Naperville, IL)

If you’re new to coding, then come get up to speed! By combining coding and hands-on activities, you can learn how to "program" a robotic vehicle to perform different challenges.

TAKEAWAYS:
By bringing coding and hands-on science learning together, Participants will earn creative ways to use the engineering design process to teach science and use a Rover to explore the relationship between speed, distance, and time.

SPEAKERS:
Karlheinz Haas (Science/Math Instructor, Retired: Tequesta, FL)

Teachers may have a range of comfort with various disciplinary core ideas in ESS1. To engage students in figuring out these abstract ideas we have developed a unit to support 3D teaching and learning related to stars and exoplanets. This unit has been field-tested across NYC high schools and evidence has shown that the modeling activities, data analysis and simulations utilized in a unit can empower students to feel like space scientists and argue from evidence about which exoplanet is most likely to be habitable. Using a phenomena-driven 3D unit for providing access to students who may have been previously disengaged in STEM is essential for equity. Participants will have an opportunity to immerse in an activity from this high quality unit with an NGSS badge after EQuIP review, explore how the unit addresses some of the 3D learning goals for space science (HS-ESS1), and discuss how to make this content personally relevant to students in diverse settings.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to access, use, and adapt a free HS Earth & Space Science unit - currently the only HS ESS unit with an official NGSS badge - to attend to student interest and relevance, and to support argumentation.

SPEAKERS:
Charles Link (DeWitt Clinton High School: Bronx, NY)

SPARK®, developed by energy and educational specialists, shares expertise with teachers to enhance energy concepts, applications, and career options. The curriculum (60+ 5E lessons) uses active student engagement in sciences and math. Explore how this workable plan can be applied in your area!

TAKEAWAYS:
SPARK® uses “actions” in NGSS-based standards to make concepts cognitively “visible.” In multidisciplinary science/math, flexible entry points engage diverse students in simple to complex energy investigations using creative problem solving, data collection/analysis, and evidence-based conclusions.

SPEAKERS:
Gail Marshall (self-employed consultant: No City, No State), Margaret Reenstra (Economic Development Coordinator: Palmetto, GA), Judy Cox (N/A: No City, No State)

Inclusive Community Science Workshops in schools, libraries, and communities fosters STEM learning, creativity, innovation, and identity through play, making, and positive social interactions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn about instructional innovations, resources, and ideas for enhancing STEM learning and teaching.

SPEAKERS:
Jerry Valadez (Fresno State and SAM Academy CSW)

Sponsoring Company: Texas Instruments

This session will challenge you to code a TI Rover to avoid hitting a dog! Using the relationship between distance, time, and speed, you will try to get rover as close to scruffy as possible without making contact. Students LOVE this activity! You can borrow TI gear for free to do this project!

Sponsoring Company: PASCO Scientific

Graphs of position and velocity often confuse students attempting to describe motion. In this hands-on workshop, we will create these graphs and discuss their meaning.

Sponsoring Company: Propello

Learn how to seamlessly embed scaffolds and supports to assist special populations (English learners, Special Education, Gifted/Talented) in NGSS phenomenon-based science lessons. Walk away with support ideas you can use in your classroom right away.

SPEAKERS:
Justice Ejike (Educator), Lisa Thayne (Lead Program Manager, Science: Murfreesboro, TN), Julie Waid (Propello: Austin, TX)

A special education teacher and science consultant worked together to plan, create, deliver and assess the middle school Essential Elements Science standards for students with significant cognitive disabilities. All assessed students increased three full grade levels.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with an understanding of how to teach science using the Dynamic Learning Maps for middle school students with significant cognitive disabilities using best practices in special education and science teaching. Unit samples will be available.

SPEAKERS:
Mandie Sanderman (Central Rivers Area Education Agency: Cedar Falls, IA), Nancy Scheel (Teacher), Chelsie Byram (Central Rivers Area Education Agency: Cedar Falls, IA)

Bridging the Gap between the School and the Community through STEM is a very promising strategy designed by the project investigator to increase active parent involvement in the education of their high school teen particularly to the students of chemistry 1 honors through take home STEM projects.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be able to pick up strategies to improve student learning through STEM and increase parent involvement in the education of their teens

SPEAKERS:
Maria Maderal (Chemistry Teacher)

Whack-A-Pack is a great tool to bring phenomenon-focused teaching into the chemistry classroom. It has many applications from simple chemical vs physical changes all the way to designing your own stoichiometry investigation. Also, come join the BCA Table Train, if you haven't already.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use Whack-A-Pack as an instructional tool and as a safe way to let students design and carry out an investigation. Attendees will also brush up or learn about using BCA tables in stoichiometric calculations.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Holcomb (Harrison High School: Kennesaw, GA), Alecia Hagberg (Harrison High School: Kennesaw, GA)

Feeling timid about embracing the challenge of engaging students in fun and creative engineering design challenges? The presenter will share a method for structuring, scaffolding, and assessing student growth and learning during NGSS aligned engineering design challenges.

TAKEAWAYS:
Engaging students in the engineering design process fosters life long skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication. Assessment of engineering design should focus on these skills rather than the overall success or failure of a student designed project.

SPEAKERS:
Rachel Stasi (Retired Secondary Science Educator: , IL)

This session introduces participants to NASA resources including a closer look at STEMonstrations which are STEM demonstrations filmed in the microgravity environment aboard the International Space Station and taught by astronauts. Each of these videos includes a corresponding Classroom Connection lesson plan which is ready for educators to immediately implement in their classrooms. This session focuses on the Moment of Inertia STEMonstration where participants watch the Moment of Inertia STEMonstration video and participate in the Moment of Inertia Classroom Connection lab investigation. Participants alter chip cans using household materials to explore how mass distribution affects ease of rotation.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will become familiar with STEMonstrations and be able to integrate these videos and corresponding Classroom Connection lesson plans into their classrooms. participants will leave this session with hands-on, ready-to-go STEM lesson plans including student activities and worksheets.

SPEAKERS:
Michele Hooks (Education Project Manager), Lynn Dotson (NASA Office of STEM Engagement-GoH: Kennedy Space Center, FL)

Participants will build a balloon powered car; How does mass affect acceleration? OR build a 1st class lever, 2nd class lever, 3rd class; Which lever does not make doing work easier? OR Build a circuit; Which solution conducts electricity? Then do experiment and create a CER poster.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn the CER process.

SPEAKERS:
Aliyah Johnson (Alpharetta High School: Alpharetta, GA), Stephanie McDonald (Teacher: , GA)

How do scientists study dark matter in a world where we only see matter? How do they study neutrinos, a subatomic particle with almost no mass, no charge, that travels near the speed of light and is constantly shifting? At the Sanford Underground Research Facility, scientists are doing just that!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with ideas for classroom strategies that support introducing difficult and abstract topics. Leveraging the SEPs, teachers can help students use what they can see to figure out things they cannot.

SPEAKERS:
Ashley Armstrong (Sanford Underground Research Facility: Lead, SD)

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Company

Experience the pedagogy of OpenSciEd for middle school by engaging in a model lesson from the new Carolina Certified Version. Teachers will experience the four elements of the anchoring phenomenon routine. Teachers will experience how the anchoring phenomenon routine motivates students.

SPEAKERS:
Cory Ort (Carolina Biological Supply Co.: Burlington, NC), Hoover Herrera (Carolina Biological Supply Co.: Burlington, NC)

Sponsoring Company: Lab-Aids

Learn about the intentional design of our units to embed equitable opportunities in phenomenon-based learning. This hands-on workshop uses a model activity showing how students use data to develop an evidence-based argument supporting the best way to recover copper from a waste solution.

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)

Sponsoring Company: Propello

Teachers will learn practical ways to take baby steps or giant leaps towards a student-centered, inquiry-style classroom while guiding effective, engaging learning.

SPEAKERS:
Justice Ejike (Educator), Lisa Thayne (Lead Program Manager, Science: Murfreesboro, TN), Julie Waid (Propello: Austin, TX)

Sponsoring Company: Discovery Education - Pivot Interactives

Teachers know that students are engaged by active learning, but creating active learning environments and opportunities take time, expertise, equipment, and supplies. Let’s explore interesting ways to engage students with MORE active learning and “doing science” throughout the learning cycle!

Explore STEAM with concrete, metal, polymers, and clay. Apply math & design concepts to many real-world examples. Supplies are cheap and students love destructive testing!

TAKEAWAYS:
Affordable labs exploring these properties of material categories and ways to adapt these labs for specific classroom needs while referencing real-world applications and iterative design.

SPEAKERS:
Briana Richardson (Washington High School: Washington Court House, OH)

Create an electric car and race it against other participants’ cars. These cars are made using cardboard strips, paper fasteners, wooden skewers, tape and plastic wheels, in addition to motors and AA batteries, whose total cost is about $1.50.

TAKEAWAYS:
A car consists of a base, wheels, a battery, a motor and a drive system. Only one drive wheel is needed to propel the car, and the simplest drive system has this wheel attached directly to the motor.

SPEAKERS:
Jazlyn Mena (Castle Bridge School: New York, NY), Jody Hilton (P.S. 44 Marcus Garvey Magnet School of Engineering and Design and The City College of New York), Lacey Samsoe (Teacher: Brooklyn, NY)

In this session, participants will work on hands-on activities and test a prototype to learn about forces using the engineering design model and translanguaging for elementary grades.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to teach about forces for elementary grade level using an engineering activity and translanguaging (English/Spanish).

SPEAKERS:
Brianna Ricker (Student: No City, No State), Max Vazquez Dominguez (University of North Georgia: Dahlonega, GA)

Sponsoring Company: Plasma Games

Scientific literacy goes beyond understanding and requires students to make a claim that is supported with fact and reasoning. By incorporating comics, anchoring phenomenon, and repetition, we are taking these CER charts to the next level! Bonus: Leave with an all inclusive access code to a 3D game

This session will demonstrate drag, gravity, thrust and lift and how those forces are integrated into a unit that uses paper airplanes to explore science and engineering practices and disciplinary literacy techniques in reading and writing with Amelia Earhart, aviator & champion of women’s rights.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will come away from this session with concrete resources on how key concepts in physical science can be embedded within an engaging unit using airplanes that also support student learning in the practices of science and engineering.

SPEAKERS:
Michele Koomen (Research Professor: No City, No State)

STEP UP is a national community of teachers, researchers, and professional societies. We design high school physics lessons to empower teachers, create cultural change, and inspire young women to pursue physics in college. Come learn about the free lessons, materials and supports for your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Research shows classroom teachers play a pivotal role in their students’ physics identity development. Learn about actions you can take every day to support cultural change in your classroom and the field of physics. We will share our resources to support you with these student-centered lessons.

SPEAKERS:
Nicole Murawski (Royal Oak High School (retired))

What is the purpose of technology? In this session we want to help you improve the time, effectiveness, and proficiency of curriculum planning, lesson delivery, and student engagement.

TAKEAWAYS:
With these applications, tools, and helpful examples, we will show you how to speed up the process of curriculum planning, lesson delivery, and student engagement.

SPEAKERS:
Felicia Poole (Wilkinson County School District: Irwinton, GA), Chivas Spivey (Educational Consultant: MACON, GA)

This session will introduce NSTA's phenomenon-driven, three-dimensional instructional materials designed for middle school classrooms. These lessons and units provide opportunities for all students to engage in science learning meaningful to them.

TAKEAWAYS:
Phenomenon-driven, three-dimensional lessons and units provide students opportunities to actively try to figure out how the world works or design solutions to problems (sensemaking).

SPEAKERS:
Patrice Scinta (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

Describing, producing, and brainstorming the creative concept of Explainer Sheets as a way to engage all students and assess their understanding of the science standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Bring the freedom of creativity into the everyday science lesson!

SPEAKERS:
Matt Brady (Atkins High School: Winston-Salem, NC)

This session will introduce NSTA's phenomenon-driven, three-dimensional instructional materials designed for elementary classrooms. These lessons and units provide opportunities for all students to engage in science learning meaningful to them.

TAKEAWAYS:
Phenomenon-driven, three-dimensional lessons and units provide students opportunities to actively try to figure out how the world works or design solutions to problems (sensemaking).

SPEAKERS:
Patrice Scinta (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

Looking for more interactive grade 3-5 physical science curriculum? Students will engage with robot SaM-1’s videos and hands on activities while exploring physical science at an animal conservatory and on vacation at the beach! Free access will be given to use this curriculum in your class.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will be given access to a physical science curriculum in grades 3-5 that provides instructional content via videos, hands on lesson and labs, bulletin board ideas and coding. The curriculum is meant to transform elementary science classrooms from using workbooks to real science!

SPEAKERS:
Jim Reynolds (STEM coordinator: Tallahassee, FL), Carrie Meyers (Curriculum Coordinator: No City, No State)

This session will give a brief overview of how to use block-based coding, programmable robots, and data analysis to teach students concepts of physics/physical science in a fun and engaging way. We will also discuss how to adjust the level of the activities to meet the needs of different grades.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to implement block coding, robotics, and data analysis into their physics/physical science labs in order to reinforce students' understanding of motion, forces, momentum, and other mechanics concepts.

SPEAKERS:
Alan Cummings (Physics Teacher: No City, No State)

NASA’s Artemis program will return humans to the moon. Practice computational thinking while including elements of a real NASA mission. Use the engineering design process to design, build, and test a foam rocket to understand the relationship between a rocket’s process to ability and its trajectory

TAKEAWAYS:
NASA STEM educational resources incorporate classroom strategies for implementing Engineering Design Challenges. Gain an understanding of how to integrate computational thinking into a standards aligned lesson.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Kohler (NASA Glenn Research Center: Cleveland, OH)

Explore how excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere makes water more acidic through hands-on activities from the free 5E lesson plans in middleschoolchemistry.com.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers practice using grade-appropriate explanations of the interactions of atoms and molecules to help students better understand the causes of the phenomena they observe and its connection to the problem of ocean acidification.

SPEAKERS:
James Kessler (American Chemical Society: Washington, DC)

Join the author of the Once Upon A Science Book series to try out a specific, hands-on lesson, for kicking off a unit on wave motion. You'll also learn strategies that will help you build literacy while teaching any science topic.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be introduced to the literacy learning cycle format, in which hands-on work precedes meaningful reading and writing activities. And they will see how this system works by participating in a lesson on wave motion.

SPEAKERS:
Jodi Wheeler-Toppen (Author/ Staff Development: Atlanta, GA)

Two upcoming eclipses cross the US: annular October 14 2023 and total April 8 2024. This workshop teaches the why, how and where of eclipses, demonstrates safe solar viewing techniques & citizen science projects. Weather permitting, we will view the Sun. Each teacher receives 25 eclipse glasses free

TAKEAWAYS:
The solar eclipses in 2023 and 2024 will cover much of the nation. Safe observing techniques are critical. Only during the relatively brief totality can you observe the amazing and ghostly corona, and only then can you look at the Sun without eye protection

SPEAKERS:
Patricia Reiff (Rice University: Houston, TX)

Need more support for STEM investigations and projects? Review a 3 year grant-funded STEM training to improve media specialists’ understanding of STEM as “thinking and doing.” Examine sample hands-on investigations, tools, and websites to help media specialists’ support of STEM at all grade levels.

TAKEAWAYS:
Media specialists have access to many different resources but may lack accurate understanding of STEM and the guidance students need for resources to promote STEM. This session will illustrate an effective all grades/subjects in-service program which could be adapted for use in a school or system.

SPEAKERS:
Gail Marshall (self-employed consultant: No City, No State), Melissa Johnston (University of West Georgia: Carrollton, GA), Judy Cox (N/A: No City, No State)

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)

In this workshop, we will explore The National Park Classroom, an approach to inquiry-focused education which combines aspects of several pedagogical models to create engaging and student-centered learning experiences. Students of all ages can benefit from this approach which is rooted in the Buck Institute for Education's HQPBL model, National Geographic Geo-Inquiry model, and tech-infused resources from the National Park Service. You will learn all about where to find these resources, how to align them to your content and learning goals, and how to facilitate student-centered learning experiences, both inside and outside the classroom! Participants will leave with a great exploration-focused lesson and a large list of FREE resources for building their own completed unit of study.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with an understanding of the National Park Classroom model, the research that supports its use, strategies for integrating it into your classroom, and free resources for both teachers and learners.

SPEAKERS:
James Fester (Hill-Murray School: Maplewood, MN)

STEP UP is a national community that designs physics lessons to empower teachers, create cultural change, and inspire young women to pursue physics in college. Two lessons, Careers in Physics and Women in Physics, are freely available and supported by an online community of educators.

TAKEAWAYS:
STEP UP Careers in Physics and Women in Physics lessons show students how physics helps them reach their future careers goals. This poster will walk you through the lessons that aim to increase representation of women with physics degrees and shift deep-seated cultural views about who does physics.

SPEAKERS:
Nicole Murawski (Royal Oak High School (retired))

Water is the major force in shaping our planet. Students use simple models to measure water outwash and soil erosion.

TAKEAWAYS:
Simple models show students how plants and plant residue play major roles in preventing water runoff and soil erosion.

SPEAKERS:
Suzanne Cunningham (Purdue University: West Lafayette, IN)

How do we add physical science emphasis to Earth Science curriculum? Weather and Climate with ADI Gas intro lab Students will use the ideal gas law Pv=nrT in their Earth science lessons Students will explore basic Chemistry in their exploration of the atmosphere Molecular models activity Gas Properties lab Water and Oceans Density Ph labs Salinity labs Geology with ADI Students will study wave theory as it applies to earthquakes and tectonics plates Wave on a string Minerals with an emphasis on the atom and radioactivity Space and Astronomy with ADI Students will look at motion in three dimensions and learn how to calculate azimuth and simple orbital mechanics Students will study the periodic table in conjunction with the cosmic forces that created them Gravity Forces lab Gravity and orbits lab Blackbody Spectrum analysis Introduction to Quantum Chemistry

TAKEAWAYS:
We will review activities, lessons, and experiments that will help enhance your Earth Science class and prepare your student for middle school or high school physical science.

SPEAKERS:
Brian Gardiner (Kittredge Magnet School for High Achievers: Atlanta, GA)

In this session , I will model ways to make your elementary and middle school electricity unit light up! I will demonstrate several labs and display a cumulative project that you can assign to your students.

TAKEAWAYS:
The teacher will actively engage students in a tangible session regarding electricity.

SPEAKERS:
Amber Kersey (Henderson Middle School: Jackson, GA)

Learn about a great hands-on tissue paper hot air balloon STEM activity that can be done indoors year-round! Join Dr. Yemothy to learn about this easy and affordable activity that ALL students can accomplish. Leave having seen an example an gained an understanding of the activity.

TAKEAWAYS:
Knowledge of how to do the activity, ways to vary it, and understanding what is needed to do with students along with digital access to the hot air balloon STEM activity.

SPEAKERS:
Nicole Yemothy (K-8 STEM Educator & Trainer)

Pop culture is a shared language between teachers and students. Discrepant events from movies, television, video games, and even TikToks can promote argumentation and meaningful collaboration and are a novel way to approach teaching a STEM curriculum. Using pop culture to draw even distal connections between this world and the classroom increases engagement and helps to make learning accessible to populations historically underserved in STEM. With a bank of strategies developed over years of integrating pop culture in the classroom, we will show how to add relevance and accessibility to the STEM curriculum. We will illustrate how to seamlessly integrate these strategies into existing lesson plans and allow time for audience collaboration and brainstorming on how to incorporate these ideas into their classrooms. Web resources will be provided that are constantly being updated to keep content current and relevant.

TAKEAWAYS:
Mixing pop culture amps authentic engagement and understanding for all learners, including the historically underserved, reluctant, and ESL students.

SPEAKERS:
Matt Brady (Atkins High School: Winston-Salem, NC)

Get ready for the NGSS with ways to sequence instruction that promote long-lasting understanding for your students by using a simple yet powerful sensemaking approach: Explore-Before-Explain.

TAKEAWAYS:
Develop knowledge of important planning considerations covers becoming an “explore-before-explain” teacher and designing lessons that use the assets all students bring to learning science through inquiry-based approaches.

SPEAKERS:
Patrick Brown (Fort Zumwalt School District R-II: O'Fallon, MO)

Good questions help us assess student’s learning, but are we asking the right – or best – questions?

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn the nuances of assessment without bias or excess difficulty that reaches all students.

SPEAKERS:
Philip Sadler (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian: Cambridge, MA), Cynthia Crockett (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian: Cambridge, MA)

Give students a hands-on exploration of heat transfer and insulation with this engineering & design project. Kids build an insulator around a soda can to keep hot water hot, while immersed in an ice water bath. While competing, they develop constructing skills, and analyze their process and data.

TAKEAWAYS:
Get all the files and resources to launch an engaging project applying the concepts of heat transfer (conduction, radiation and convection - things on every middle school science curriculum). You will be inspired!

SPEAKERS:
Jon Coole (Louisville Collegiate School: Louisville, KY)

Come have a BALL and put your own SPIN on how the game of Skee-ball is built and played so you and your students can save Skee-ball, too! This session provides an engaging, hands-on activity that explores physics and engineering through a “cardboard arcade” activity coupled with a fun storyline.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will identify relevant physics concepts related to building and playing a cardboard Skee-ball game through this FUN engineering project that is easily-adaptable for students across grade levels and settings.

SPEAKERS:
Christine Moskalik (NSTA: No City, No State)

Are you unsure how or where to begin with Argument-Driven Inquiry? Are you feeling overwhelmed or confused with the ADI approach? If so, this session is for you! This is an immersive workshop that provides a practical approach using puzzles to introduce ADI to your students. Join the fun!

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers learn a practical way to introduce Argument-Driven Inquiry in classrooms without losing the integrity of the ADI framework and feel confident with the ADI process.

SPEAKERS:
Marwa Crisp (Teacher: No City, No State)

One of the goals of NGSS is that topics should not be taught in a striated series of unrelated levels, but rather learning should be articulated vertically through the grade bands. In this workshop, we are going to address three different examples from the Physical Science topics: Sound (from Waves), Kinetic and Potential Energy (from Energy), and Particles of Matter (from Matter). Participants will engage in several activities for each topic to demonstrat how inquiry activities can be differentiated in the grade band levels for the developmental level of the students and their content knowledge and understanding. Participants will gain an understanding of vertical topic development, i.e. bridging what comes before and/or after their own grade band. The activities have also been selected for the high level of engagement and enjoyment they bring to the participants.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Elementary students are naturally curious and we can capitalize on their curiosity with engaging science activities; 2. Using the NGSS 3-D approach leads to effective science teaching and learning; and 3. The goal of science teaching is to help students become scientifically literate.

SPEAKERS:
Wayne Snyder (Cal Poly Pomona: Pomona, CA), Karen Ostlund (The University of Texas at Austin: Austin, TX)

Learn to make cardboard mechanisms and structures, create a mechanism that looks like a letter, and mount it to make a structure. Students in pre-K classrooms in Brooklyn, NY have learned to identify mechanisms and structures by engaging in these activities.

TAKEAWAYS:
Mechanisms and structures are all around us! Mechanisms have independent moving parts, while structures do not. Increasing the number of fasteners can turn a mechanism into a structure while removing fasteners can turn it back into a mechanism.

SPEAKERS:
Jazlyn Mena (Castle Bridge School: New York, NY), Jody Hilton (P.S. 44 Marcus Garvey Magnet School of Engineering and Design and The City College of New York), Lacey Samsoe (Teacher: Brooklyn, NY)

Come see how you can help your elementary students not only understand the science content but how the people behind the science do their work! This session will be hands-on and provide strategies, examples, and historical short stories to help students understand how science works.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will walk away with resources and examples to teach nature of science (what science is and how science works) they can use right away with their students.

SPEAKERS:
Jesse Wilcox (University of Northern Iowa: Cedar Falls, IA)

Use award-winning videos, crash-science demos and teacher tip-assisted activities including paper car crashes, egg drop cushions and stretchy slime to teach science and engineering concepts related to vehicle crashworthiness and highway safety.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participant will learn how to access inquiry-based lessons and video-supported activities integrating STEM concepts with vehicle crashworthiness and crash avoidance technologies.

SPEAKERS:
Pini Kalnite (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Highway Loss Data Institute: Arlington, VA), Griff Jones (University of Florida: No City, No State)

In this workshop, participants will be guided through the free online module created by Underwriters Laboratories (ULXplorlabs: Fire Forensics Claim and Evidence). This module provides a unique platform for learning fire science in an investigator academy; and then applying this science to an arson investigation simulated in the labs of the UL Fire Research Institute. Participants will have an opportunity to see the potential for blending this media and technology resource with three additional modalities of learning: oral discourse, fire related investigations, and interactive notebooks. Participants will experience these modules and complementary hands-on strategies as means to engage students in sense making via analysis of real fire data.

TAKEAWAYS:
Underwriters Laboratories online ULX modules use current issues to engage and motivate learning about scientific ideas that can be applied to engineer solutions for relevant problems.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Gilbert (Griffin Middle School: Smyrna, GA)

Come discover how free, NSF-funded simulations and curricula from The Concord Consortium can add all three dimensions of the NGSS to your physics, physical science and chemistry teaching, with a special emphasis on the Science Practices. Bring a device and take away free resources!

TAKEAWAYS:
Strategies in the use of simulations for 3D NGSS-aligned teaching

SPEAKERS:
Chad Dorsey (The Concord Consortium: Concord, MA)

Participants will engage in a series of strategies that have been used with the OpenSciEd curriculum to enhance student engagement. Come see how to diversify the implementation of open source materials with teacher-tested techniques that promote equity in the classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will see the power in utilizing a diverse array of strategies designed to actively engage students while still teaching a curriculum as intended.

SPEAKERS:
Cathi Cox-Boniol (Louisiana Tech University: No City, No State)

Teachers will participate in activities and be given lesson plans from the Teaching About Kinematics manual they will receive free after the workshop.

TAKEAWAYS:
Understanding motion and being able to teach the following concepts: Velocity is not the same concept as speed; Two objects at the same position can have different velocities; Velocity and acceleration are not the same thing.

SPEAKERS:
Ann Robinson (University of West Georgia: Carrollton, GA)

Participants will experience an engaging lesson that addresses abstract chemistry concepts of gas laws and stoichiometry through the lens of NGSS Science and Engineering Practices. This workshop immerses participants in the collaborative nature of science as they observe differences in carbonated soft drinks and make connections to chemistry concepts and mathematical principles. Participants will be able to work collaboratively as they walk through the lesson and will be given time to reflect on how to implement the lesson for themselves. Adaptations of the lesson for elementary, middle, and high school teachers will be provided to teachers as resources at the end of the session.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to connect abstract chemistry concepts of stoichiometry and gas laws to everyday life. Teachers will be able to implement this phenomenon-based lesson in their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Brooke Whitworth (Clemson University: Clemson, SC), Meredith Schwendemann (Clemson University), Ashley Hunter (Clemson University: Clemson, SC)

The gyroscope sensors in smartphones provide an unprecedented measurement capability which enables students to precisely investigate 3D rotational motion. This workshop will introduce teachers to labs which connect foundational physics to real-world applications such as VR and fitness tracking.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will conduct multiple hands-on investigations using the gyroscope sensor in smartphones to explore rotational motion. They will directly experience the amazing capabilities of the sensors and will go away prepared to implement the investigations in their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
David Rakestraw (Senior Science Advisor: Livermore, CA), Michael Tobler (Moreau Catholic High School: Hayward, CA), Helene McLaughlin (Reservoir High School)

Engaging strategies to increase student retention in science will be shared during this session. Strategies shared are focused on excitement and relevancy to entice learner curiosity as well as focus. The session will review musical, inquiry, kinesthetic, literacy, and game-based strategies.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session will include engaging and helpful strategies to reach different learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Courtney Lewis (Katy ISD: Katy, TX), Molly Niedens (Tays Junior High School: Katy, TX)

Introduction: How long does it take you to react when you notice a change in your environment? If you are riding a bike or driving a car, how long would it take for you to apply the brakes? Do you think this time is the same for everyone? Part 1: Desmos Activity: The Tortoise and the Hare: In this interactive mission, participants use the story of the Tortoise and the Hare to develop a motion graph. Once the motion graph is created, participants will analyze the graph to determine where the motion was the greatest, where it stopped, and where it decreased. Part 2: The Fast and the Curious Mission: If you were a timer at a track meet, how would the times you record on your stopwatch compare to the actual times of the runners? Participants watch a clip of a race and they have to use their stopwatch/phone to time the race. They are comparing their reaction time with the actual time using a linear relationship.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will collect data of speed and reaction time, then present their data by creating and graphing an algebraic equation that compares the actual amount of time with the average time that you recorded.

SPEAKERS:
Ashley Neumann (Teacher), Kyan Butler (Spring ISD: Houston, TX)

Explore how communication systems encode and transfer information via digital signals, from texts to images from space. Hands-on activities will introduce signals, binary, and ASCII.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will deepen their understanding of digital signals and information transfer. Attendees will walk away with an overview of a complete unit including hands on activities for both in person and distance learning.

SPEAKERS:
Jayne Kerner (F.A. Day Middle School: Newtonville, MA)

Bring science lessons to life with the integration of augmented reality (AR) & virtual reality (VR). This session explores the use of AR & VR tools such as zSpace, Merge Edu & Oculus Quest to transform science assignments and classroom projects.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will walk away with ideas and strategies that they can immediately implement in science classroom lessons. Attendees will leave with practical examples of AR & VR tools and resources they can begin using with their students in integrated, earth & space, physical, and life science classes.

SPEAKERS:
Tommy Clay (Atlanta Public Schools: Atlanta, GA)

The purpose of this workshop is for the teacher to ask themselves, “How Am I Going To Have My Students Discover This Concept,” rather than lecturing. Examples of converting lectures into hands-on and open-ended investigations will be given. Demos are essential to show concepts and will be discussed

TAKEAWAYS:
Students have had been told and are expected to memorize the mass of an electron is ≈ 1/2000 of a proton. Developing a hands-on student discovery investigation for this concept and other concepts is a far superior learning method than lecturing and memorizing. .

SPEAKERS:
Gary Schiltz (Retired Chemistry Teacher: Naperville, IL)

Join us for a high flyin’ hot air balloon adventure! Learn how you can use hot air balloons to teach properties of gases/gas laws through this project-based lesson- balloon creation and launch included! Easily adapted for most grade levels, it is a fun, versatile addition to your toolbox.

TAKEAWAYS:
Session attendees will learn how to use hot air balloons to teach gas laws through this hands-on, project-based lesson.

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

The magnetometer sensors in smartphones provide students with the ability to precisely investigate the 3D properties of magnetic fields. Workshop participants will conduct investigations which include characterizing Earth’s magnetic field and demonstrating magnetic information storage and readout.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will conduct multiple hands-on investigations using the magnetometer sensor in smartphones to explore magnetic fields. They will directly experience the amazing capabilities of the 3-axis magnetometer sensor and will go away prepared to implement the investigations in their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
David Rakestraw (Senior Science Advisor: Livermore, CA), Michael Tobler (Moreau Catholic High School: Hayward, CA), Helene McLaughlin (Reservoir High School)

Singing science parodies together will create fun and relaxed shared experiences that will strengthen teacher/student bonds and facilitate future learning. Plus they will learn science concepts without even knowing it!

TAKEAWAYS:
Song can teach as well as create a safe and enjoyable environment for students.

SPEAKERS:
Jen Taylor (Lakeview Academy: Saratoga Springs, UT)

Come join the NASA Heliophysics Education Activation Team (HEAT) in exploring how heliophysics, or 'Sun science,' can effectively serve as a model for teaching systems science to K12 students. This session includes hands-on learning activities, NASA printed materials, and more!

TAKEAWAYS:
The Sun gives us light, heat, food and more. It creates patterns on Earth and causes climate change. It is the source of space weather. Studies of the Sun offers a glimpse into the universe. The solar eclipses in 2023 and 2024 are opportunities to learn more about Sun-Earth systems science.

SPEAKERS:
Christina Milotte (Education Specialist), Carolyn Ng (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/ADNET Systems, Inc.)

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)

Engage as a learner in a unit about energy conversions. This unit incorporates project-based learning, the engineering and design process, and 5Es learning cycle.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to use an engineering and design project as the phenomenon. Participants will learn how to build a 3D unit with conceptual flow. Participants will learn how to incorporate inquiry labs within a unit.

SPEAKERS:
Allison Bogart (Stonecreek Junior High: No City, No State)

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

Explore how physical models foster an understanding of the structure of water and how their interactions explain the properties of water observed on the bulk scale.

SPEAKERS:
Ruth Hutson (Blue Valley High/Middle School: Randolph, KS)