CDC staff will provide a tour of CDC’s publicly available STEM resources for teachers. The session will feature the newly released CDC NERD Academy curriculum, which uses real-world COVID-19 data and scenarios to teach foundational science, math, and critical thinking skills. These lesson plans, activities, and videos are designed to include everything a STEM teacher needs, even without previous knowledge of public health. CDC staff will illustrate how Module 2: How does disease spread? can be used to teach students about the science behind prevention strategies. Attendees will also meet a diverse group of fictional characters and real CDC staff to help introduce some public health STEM careers. By session’s end, attendees will have practiced how to use one of CDC’s ready-to-go STEM resources, gained insight on how to create lessons using real CDC data and scenarios from journal articles, and gathered ideas on how to get students interested in public health careers.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use public health examples to illustrate key STEM concepts and skills and to introduce students to STEM careers in public health.

SPEAKERS:
Juliana Azeredo (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Atlanta, GA)

In this session, the presenters will share specific strategies and an intentional design for preparing elementary STEM teachers to create inclusive and equitable STEM classroms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about specific strategies to create inclusive STEM classrooms. Elementary STEM educators will model ways in which they have revised curriculum and integrated specific STEM pedagogy that is inclusive, culturally sustaining, and rooted in social justice.

SPEAKERS:
Bonnie Maur (Sacred Heart University: Fairfield, CT)

This poster presents in-progress research and literature associated with teacher questioning as it impacts science practices and ambitious science teaching.

TAKEAWAYS:
Literature-based recommendations of qualities that lead to strong questions teachers may use during classroom discourse.

SPEAKERS:
Liz McMillan (The University of Texas at San Antonio: San Antonio, TX)

Have you wondered how to teach the Nature of Science in an engaging way? Do you know that there are free accessible websites to help. Come see how a few simple activities that allow students to access the other dimension of the NGSS standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Come away with free resources of Nature of Science activities. In addition learn the backed research principles that make this dimension of NGSS vital for scientific literacy.

SPEAKERS:
Kelly Mulligan (Bridgeport Public School: Bridgeport, NE)

Water is constantly in the news. Between hurricanes, flooding, drought issues and water wars, everyone knows how important water is to our well being. With that being said, do students really understand its importance, it's behavior, the difference between cohesion, adhesion and surface tension?

TAKEAWAYS:
Activities in this session come from the Project WET Curriculum. These will feature hands on activities with copies of lessons distributed.

SPEAKERS:
Karen Henman (Brenau University: Gainesville, GA)

Real-world public health examples help teach middle and high school students concepts and skills across multiple STEM disciplines. Using a fictional novel emerging respiratory disease (i.e., NERD for short), CDC’s NERD Academy curriculum uses real-world COVID-19 data and scenarios to teach foundational science, math, and critical thinking skills. Designed by STEM teachers and CDC public health experts, each module includes engaging videos, STEM classroom activities, and career spotlights that can enrich classroom learning. In eight modules, using educational videos, interactive activities, and a set of diverse characters representing specific jobs in public health, the curriculum helps students answer critical public health questions like, “How does disease spread?”, “Who is at risk?”, or “Why do laboratory testing?”. This session will include an overview of the eight-module curriculum and a brief tour of CDC’s publicly available online STEM lesson plans and other resources.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how real-world public health examples can illustrate key concepts and skills across multiple STEM disciplines and how public health professionals like epidemiologists, laboratory scientists, and health communication specialists use STEM skills in their careers.

SPEAKERS:
Juliana Azeredo (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Atlanta, GA)

Take a closer look at how to structure science learning units through student-driven inquiry. We will examine the components involved in designing a coherent, NGSS-aligned storyline. Teacher teams will collaborate to analyze, critique, and optimize existing storylines and corresponding phenomena.

TAKEAWAYS:
Examine the Five Routines that work together to create a 3D learning experience through the inquiry cycle. Learn where to find existing storylines for Middle and High school sciences. Leave with templates to guide you in your storyline planning.

SPEAKERS:
Lori Fine (Instructional Coach: Managua, TX)

Have you wondered how to implement that appendix H of the NGSS into classroom practice? Wait..What..there's an appendix H? Come see how to implement the Nature of Science principles into your classroom practice with a few simple activities that you can use tomorrow in your classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn what the Nature of Science principles are and how they can be implemented in the classroom. Also, this will help further attendees knowledge of pedagogy practices of using all domains of the NGSS to further help students gain science literacy skills.

SPEAKERS:
Kelly Mulligan (Bridgeport Public School: Bridgeport, NE)

Explore what NSTA is offering online to support your professional learning needs.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn about the variety of professional learning opportunities that NSTA has to offer.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Phillips (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

In 2018, TNTP published its landmark report “The Opportunity Myth" which showed that to be on track to reach their post-secondary goals, students needed consistent access to four key resources: (1) rigorous instruction, (2) grade-appropriate assignments, (3) deep engagement, and (4) high expectations. In this session, participants will learn about the findings of “The Opportunity Myth” and explore TNTP’s tools for strong instruction and grade-appropriate assignments in Science. During this session, teachers will review the tools and have an opportunity to practice using them with assignments and classroom videos. Participants will also hear the story of how teachers in east Tennessee rapidly improved their practice through the implementation of a single unit from OpenSciEd. Teachers will reflect on the roadblocks they faced, including partial state standards alignment, and will share the benefits they are realizing in their classrooms because of this change in pedagogy.

TAKEAWAYS:
Implementation of even a single unit from a high-quality science curriculum leads to stronger instruction and increased access to grade-appropriate assignments in science classrooms. Despite facing the barrier of partial alignment, teachers still improved learning for students using this method.

SPEAKERS:
Jessica Proffitt (Director, Academics: Richmond, VA), Breshay Helton (Implementation Coordinator: Greeneville, TN), Elizabeth Naegele (TNTP: No City, No State)

Need FREE grant funds for STEAM education, but don't know where to start? This session unpacks the science of grant writing in 12 steps to acquire resources, materials and supplies.

TAKEAWAYS:
From this session, educators will be able to: •Describe grant types and grant funders •Illustrate 12-step grant writing process •Identify sources of grant funding

SPEAKERS:
Bejanae Kareem (STEM & Grant Specialist: Jonesboro, GA)

Preservice and novice teachers will learn tips and participate in systems for running an efficient and safe science classroom from experienced educators. Safety, management, and organization tips are the highlights of this session. Time-saving strategies for lesson planning will also be shared.

TAKEAWAYS:
Pre-planning safety, lesson content, and lesson organization/implementation saves instructional time, freeing up brain space to tackle the inevitable classroom challenge.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Governor (University of North Georgia: Dahlonega, GA), Tasha Thomas (University of Houston Clear Lake), Takisha Gastile (University of Houston-Clear Lake: Houston, TX), Omah Williams-Duncan (University of Houston-Clear Lake: Houston, TX)

Discover CERTL’s proven inquiry-based approach that aims to increase teacher effectiveness. Dynamic scenarios with embedded lab activities deliver content in a real-world context that spark student-led discussions. Participants will experience a hands-on student inquiry and receive takeaways.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will be provided inquiry-based learning scenarios and embedded lab activities that will allow them to deliver content in a real-world context that develops students’ critical thinking skills.

SPEAKERS:
Leslie Russell (The Center of Excellence for Research, Teaching and Learning: No City, No State), Stan Hill (Wake Forest School of Medicine: Winston Salem, NC)

Join us in this workshop to explore ways to review a beloved lesson and give it a 3D upgrade. Shifting to 3-dimensional teaching can seem like an insurmountable challenge. Teachers may wonder, aren’t I already teaching 3-dimensionally? Can’t I take a lesson and make it 3D? In some cases, yes, give that lesson an upgrade! In this workshop, we will explore how to identify if a lesson is 3-dimensional, if it can be tweaked to be 3-dimensional, or if it needs to be completely re-worked. Then, we will examine ways to incorporate 3-dimensional learning and teaching practices into an existing lesson. Finally, educators will be provided time to apply these strategies to a lesson of their own that they bring, or select from a group of provided lessons. By the end, educators will have the skills to make changes in their own teaching practice and take home a ready-to-implement 3D lesson.

TAKEAWAYS:
Research shows that teachers struggle transitioning to 3-dimensional teaching (Smith, 2020). One step that can help teachers begin to make the shift is to adapt familiar lessons. In this session, teachers will walk away with a beloved lesson they have upgraded to a 3D masterpiece.

SPEAKERS:
Ashley Hunter (Clemson University: Clemson, SC), Jennifer Bateman (Clemson University), Meredith Schwendemann (Clemson University)

NGSS storylines will provide the backdrop for a highly constructive, interactive session where attendees experience the power of questioning to drive connected lessons, deepen student thinking, and provide significant learning for all students. This session targets PK-8 teachers.

TAKEAWAYS:
Session attendees will leave with a vade mecum (go ahead and google it, you WANT this!) that will support implementation of transdisciplinary design processes. Takeaways include: Storyline development tools and teacher-constructed model of design processes for use in the classroom and more!

SPEAKERS:
Bridget Miller (University of South Carolina: Columbia, SC), Ashley Gess (University of South Carolina: No City, No State)