(Providing all 3 presenters) Making sense of the world as part of a classroom community requires a classroom culture where all students feel like they belong and it is safe to participate, share their ideas, disagree, and productively struggle together. Participants in this session gain strategies and resources for developing and supporting the ongoing use of classroom norms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Classroom norms create a culture of equitable science learning.

SPEAKERS:
Edel Maeder (Rochester City School District: Rochester, NY), Zoe Evans (Bremen City Schools: Bremen, GA), Kristen Moorhead (PLI, LLC: Mesa, AZ)

Students take ownership while working in the cycle of Obtain, Evaluate, and Communicate Information. Teachers are a facilitator, a helpful guide to support students in their sensemaking journey. While students are working independently or in groups, they may get to points where they need the support of their teacher. However, how can students get the teacher’s attention without causing a disturbance? By using everyday items like popsicle sticks, construction paper or plastic cups, this strategy called Red Light, Green Light is a way students can non-verbally communicate with their teacher about where they are at in their sensemaking journey and if they need help. A variation to this strategy is adding a yellow light. This low-risk strategy can be used by all students including students who are multilingual learners and/or students with disabilities. Teachers benefit by providing a method to informally assess their students; thus, providing immediate feedback and support.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn about an informal formative assessment strategy to quickly gauge their students’ confidence level during the sensemaking process.

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

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)

Are you a secondary teacher looking for resources for your classroom? Join this team of educators in sharing their experiences of tools and routines designed to support students' sensemaking.

Students Teaching Students
Students can learn so much by teaching each other. Give them a challenging conceptual question that they can debate after choosing initial answers (with cards or free software). Ask the question again when debate is done, and students will likely have all arrived at the correct answer!

Integrating Anchor Phenomena as Engagement and Assessment
Phenomena are an essential element to science teaching. But, we often do not refer back to them in our unit! Come see how a biology and chemistry teacher not only use them as anchors, but also incorporate them as part of an end of unit assessment!

SPEAKERS:
Karen Cianciulli (Physics Teacher: Asheville, NC), Erin Springthorpe (Gwinnett Online Campus: Lawrenceville, GA), Jennifer Barnes (Gwinnett Online Campus: Lawrenceville, GA)

Join middle school educators as they share strategies for supporting students to develop questions, writing of lab reports, and the development of time management skills.

A better way to do middle school lab reports
One challenge that we face as science teachers is the dreaded lab report. How do we teach the scientific method with such diverse classes, without it being too overwhelming? I have a strategy that has worked well with middle school students to introduce lab reports, and I will share the template.

Time Management Techniques for the Science Classroom
Are your students disorganized with labs/activities not getting completed? Do you find that sensemaking activities are taking more time than expected? This session presents time management techniques to support students efficiently using class time.

Effectively Engage Students in the SEP Asking Questions with the Question Formulation Technique
Participants will engage in an effective instructional strategy, the Question Formulation Technique (QFT), to help students develop explanatory questions to investigate phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Kyla Corelli (Atlanta International School: Atlanta, GA), Alison Seymour (Science Teacher: Winchester, 0), Rebecca Garelli (Arizona Science Teachers Association)

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)

Integration of the critical aspects of the three dimensions in NGSS is meant to drive and equip teachers to promote real science in students’ daily lives. These pillars of the three-dimensional learning delineated in each standard of the NGSS provide effective strategies that address important focus areas that positively impact Urban Science Education. How can we ensure that quality science education is being promoted in all school settings, especially urban ones? An asset-based pedagogical approach focuses on the strengths, interests, and connections to students’ prior knowledge in a culturally responsive way. Science educators constantly seek resources and strategies to promote successful science education. Challenges that are faced in urban educational settings such as overcrowding, limited resources, and equity in the distribution of the resources have negatively impacted science education directly. In many cases, urban science teachers constantly engage in the mitigation of these

SPEAKERS:
Acacia McKenna (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

This session will be organized around curriculum-anchored assessment literacy. Building on the compelling evidence emerging for curriculum based professional learning (i.e, professional learning that is connected to the curriculum teachers are implementing in the classroom), this speed session will explore ways to forget the decontextualized modules that have defined assessment literacy for decades, and focus on strategies to build assessment literacy through the process of more deeply understanding curriculum implementation. This session will highlight strategies educators across the country are using to advance better assessment practices, including those related to curriculum-based assessment system analysis, student work analyses, and equitable grading practices. Note: we will organize our own set of presenters, drawn from teachers, regional science instructional leaders, and state leadership. This session is appropriate to all grade-levels.

TAKEAWAYS:
By connecting assessment literacy to what teachers are doing in the classroom, we can focus on deep functional assessment literacy, and worry less about artificial boundaries established based on assessment types and terminology

SPEAKERS:
Aneesha Badrinarayan (Learning Policy Institute: Washington, DC)

Three High School Committee members will share effective strategies to establish a sensemaking culture on the high school classroom based on the Framework for K-12 Science education and the vision of NGSS. Attendees will engage in reflection and discussion focused on applying these strategies to their context.

TAKEAWAYS:
Strategies to begin to lay a foundation for a sensemaking culture in your High School classes!

SPEAKERS:
Jodi Bahr (Harvard Public Schools: Harvard, NE), Wendy Binder (Program Director, STEM Professional Learning: Arlington, VA)

This session will introduce participants to the instructional routines and tools (developed by The Next Generation Science Storylines Project at Nothwestern University) used to create and enact phenomenon-based storylines. Using instructional routines helps support students as they work to explain a phenomenon, by uncovering the science ideas and crosscutting concepts through use of the science and engineering practices found in the Next Generation Science Standards. The session will also introduce participants to Storyline Tools which evaluate lessons for the presence and strength of these routines in existing instructional materials. We will provide all 3 presenters for this speed sharing session.

TAKEAWAYS:
Instructional routines used in storylines provide a coherent path from students’ questions about a phenomenon, to the explanation or model of that phenomenon.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Mathews (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Holly Hereau (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

Are you a middle school teacher looking for resources for your classroom? Join these educators as they share creating units teaching metric measures, discover the Teach the Earth Portal, and hear about one educator's experience of incorporating the 5E model into their lessons.

Designing Units
Learn how to create designer units based on standard metric measures. These units will be built based on volume measurements so students will be able to make connections to liquid measurement containers that students see and use in everyday life.

5 E's Made EEEEEasy!
The 5 E Model in science education is a great tool to help promote hands-on learning. Learn what the 5 E's are and how to effectively use them in your classroom. Help students make sense of their learning and make connections to the real world with the 5 E's.

Teach the Earth: A Portal to Earth Education Resources
The National Association of Geoscience Teachers manages the Teach the Earth portal, where educators can search for online resources in the geosciences and related fields.  Instructional approaches, classroom activities, course descriptions, and sample assignments make up the many resources in TTE.

SPEAKERS:
Elaine Thurmond (Mercer University: Lithia Springs, GA), Mary Kay Bacallao (Mercer University: Atlanta, GA), Kristi Gnage (Science Teacher: St. Petersburg, FL), Christy Visaggi (Georgia State University: Atlanta, GA)

Join High School educators to learn about student collaboration, using website interactives, and engaging students with authentic data.

How science really works: Enhancing instruction with the Science Flowchart interactive
Find out how to modify your current instruction to better communicate the dynamic process of science using an interactive tool from the Understanding Science website. Help students recognize science as a dynamic, exciting, creative, and intensely human endeavor!

Saving the Night with Citizen Science
Provide students with the power of citizen science as they make scientific observations and analyze data to increase awareness worldwide about the impact of light pollution using NSF’s NOIRLab’s Globe at Night program. Students engage with authentic data to propose solutions to light pollution.

We are All in this Together - Collaboration is Key
In this session, we will focus on the importance of student collaboration and how to incorporate student collaboration through sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Betsy Barent (Lincoln Public Schools: No City, No State), Anastasia Thanukos (University of California Museum of Paleontology: Berkeley, CA), Robert Sparks (NSF's NOIRLab), Justine Schaen (NSF's NOIRLab: Tucson, AZ), Elissa Blount (Vidalia High School: Vidalia, GA)