Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Transform your classroom into a forensic lab with this whodunit-themed experiment. Guests at a party are getting sick, and a few have even succumbed to the illness. Using spectroscopy and Beer’s law, your students will uncover the truth in this active, inquiry-based learning experiment.

SPEAKERS:
Nüs Hisim (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

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: 3D Molecular Designs

Learn how physical models can be used to introduce your students to the field of cancer immunotherapy and CRISPR-engineered T-cells.

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

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

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

This session will integrate programming/coding as a tool for use in a science classroom. Participants will use various tools, such as Scratch, to implement programming in their already designed science classes.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: 1. learn how to integrate computer science into their science classroom; 2. experience resources they can use in their classrooms; and 3. develop a lesson using computer science in their classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Tammie Schrader (NorthEast Washington ESD 101: Spokane, WA)

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Do you have Vernier equipment but don’t know how to get started? Do you have questions but aren’t sure whom to ask? Learn about the resources and support available to you from Vernier Science Education and gain confidence to use our technology with your students!

SPEAKERS:
David Carter (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Wondering how to teach your students about enzymes? Leave the liver behind and bring complex concepts to life with hands-on experiments. Vernier biology expert Colleen McDaniel will walk you through an inquiry-based experiment that explores the different variables that affect catalase.

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

Sponsoring Company: Stile Education

The NGSS calls for a shift from knowing to doing. This includes analyzing real-world data and using that analysis to create models. Join us as we talk about tangible classroom strategies that meaningfully improve students' skills with data and receive the award-winning game, CHARTY PARTY!

SPEAKERS:
Julianna Jimenez (Stile Education: Los Angeles, CA), Hailey Vogel (Head of Teaching and Learning: Los Angeles, CA)

Much of the technology around us has been designed for persons with different needs. We can now set an alarm just by asking a device to do so. We can enter stores without touching doors, and read captions for the news on television while listening to music on earbuds. Online curriculum needs to mirror this type of access to give all students the ability to engage with content. Can the visually impaired student in a biology classroom use a microscope? Where are videos with captions for hearing impaired students? Can a student with limited dexterity independently access interactive slides? Deliberate planning of online lessons and selective use of virtual resources can help foster your students’ independence and alleviate barriers. Come learn from the experts.

TAKEAWAYS:
All students have unique needs in regards to online learning. Deliberate planning of online lessons and selective use of virtual resources can help foster your students’ independence and alleviate barriers.

SPEAKERS:
Christopher Like (Iowa Department of Education: No City, No State), Jennifer Bliss (Iowa Educational Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired: Council Bluffs, IA)

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Discover hands-on activities using temperature probes and other Vernier sensors that will excite your students. See how age-appropriate, sensor-based experiments teach students about data collection and analysis—practices that promote scientific inquiry, build STEM literacy, and boost test scores.

SPEAKERS:
David Carter (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Python is a dominant programming language, and we have created libraries and sample code so that you can use most of our sensors in Python programs. Web VPython even allows you to read our Go Direct® sensors without installing anything, and it works on Chromebooks, PCs, and Mac® computers.

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

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: Museum of Science, EiE

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SPEAKERS:
Amanda Cramer (ALSDE DLCS Integration Specialist: Hoover, AL), Mallory Schmidt (Museum of Science, Boston: Boston, MA)

This session takes attendees on a journey using their premade avatar or sprite from Pixel Art and integrating it into their own nostalgic video game using Microsoft Make Code!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave knowing how to insert graphics created in Pixel Art into an online game creator. It can be implemented as an alternative to a standard formative or summative assessment.

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

Building student capacity in 3-D design is an opportunity to prepare our students for the future. 3-D design is not just for engineers but used by STEAM professionals. Bring your laptop and learn how Tinkercad can be used with your students while you create African masks.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this workshop participants will learn how to ​3-D ​design and print using Tinkercad and learn how​ to use Tinkercad as a virtual manipulative in classes. We will create A​frican Masks, looking at possible math and technology standards as we learn 3D design.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Yoo (STEAM Specialist)

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Let us shed light on guided-inquiry lessons for your classroom. We’ll walk you through guided-inquiry simple circuit lessons, with attention to both the student experience and the teacher's view. You’ll be able to customize the lessons to feature the sensors and software you already have!

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

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: Werkz Publishing Inc.

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SPEAKERS:
Pamela Gullotti (US Lead Sales Team & Trainer), David Gentry (Stem Teacher: , NC), Amanda Hightower (4th grade Math and Science: , NC)

We share a free online toolkit based on our recent experiences building community partnerships intended to support development of STEM career pathways for youth in a rural mountain community. Learn how you might use these tools and strategies in your own community.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to build a network of community partnerships that can support efforts to increase youth interest in STEM careers. This toolkit provides strategies and tools that you can use to develop a STEM partnership program that brings together students and STEM professionals from your community.

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Rummel (UCAR Center for Science Education: Boulder, CO)

In this session, you will learn about how the Iowa Governor's STEM Council, CSTA Iowa, local area education agencies, and business partners came together to bring a collaborative approach for CS Education week to all sectors, not just educators, because CS Education week is about being all in!

TAKEAWAYS:
How to leverage partnerships to bring a collaborative, high quality computer science resources and professional development to educators as well as activities for students.

SPEAKERS:
Corey Rogers (Grant Wood Area Education Agency: No City, No State), Mauree Haage (Iowa Governor's STEM Advisory Council: No City, No State)

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: Vernier Science Education

While building bottle rockets, students are instructed not to use more than 10 pumps on a bicycle pump. When a bottle bursts and injures students, it's up to you to investigate. Use Avogadro’s law and a Go Direct® Gas Pressure Sensor to solve the mystery in this hands-on experiment.

SPEAKERS:
Nüs Hisim (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

Sponsoring Company: NOAA

Learn to leverage freely available global data visualizations using the SOS Explorer mobile application.

SPEAKERS:
Juan Pablo Hurtado Padilla (NOAA Office of Education: Silver Spring, MD), Eric Hackathorn (NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory: Boulder, CO)

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.

The world is full of complex problems to solve, and today's youth will be the solvers of tomorrow. In this multidisciplinary and interconnected world, solvers will need to bring scientific thinking, reasoning, questioning, and computation as a part of their toolbox every day. Integrating these high-end skills is no easy feat. In this session, we will aspire to imagine a classroom that brings these multidisciplinary skills into practice connected to research and standards.

SPEAKERS:
Leigh Ann DeLyser (Executive Director)

Are you looking for creative ideas to stimulate the minds of your students in grades K-12? Listen to Middle-School STUDENTS present and demonstrate some of the coolest projects around! These students, along with their teacher Mike French, will amaze you with some spectacular PBL ideas for any grade!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be amazed at the presentation/demonstration by middle school students, and their teacher Mike French. Each attendee will walk away with ideas on how to create an exciting learning environment in ALL of your school's classrooms through projects designed to enhance any lesson.

SPEAKERS:
Mike French (Northview Middle School: Newbern, TN)

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: Vernier Science Education

Engage your students in learning about the effects of climate change with this hands-on experiment. Using the latest Vernier data-collection technology, we'll define ocean acidification, determine how we can measure it, and discuss why it is bad for our marine ecosystems. Get ready to dive in!

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

Sponsoring Company: Texas Instruments

The number 1 sensor in most science departments is the temperature probe. Probes make it easier for students to quickly and reliably collect data so they can spend more time making sense of it. Come to this session and meet, "The Lord of the Probes"!

Designing the solution that solves a real-world problem requires the application of knowledge and skills from multiple disciplines, as in STEM practices. Through the exploration of STEL and the EDP, students learn how to evaluate their design solutions based on constraints and criteria.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators learn how to use performance tasks to measure students’ application of the knowledge and to assess individual student performance.

SPEAKERS:
Denise Clarke-Mayers (East Orange STEM Academy: East Orange, NJ)

We share an approach used to recruit and train STEM professionals in a rural community to engage middle school youth using programmable environmental sensors and 3D printing technology to design solutions to real-world problems. The result? Authentic connections to STEM careers in their community.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how a research team developed and implemented a model to increase middle school students’ interest in STEM careers through integration of STEM curricula using programmable sensors and 3D printing technology, STEM mentors from local community partnerships, and career focused activities.

SPEAKERS:
Melissa Rummel (UCAR Center for Science Education: Boulder, CO)

Introducing students to real-world engineering problems is a key component to engaging them in the science classroom. In this project, students solve the problem of saving pets from a hot car. Many students are aware of this issue and would have many ideas on how this could be achieved. This projects gives them the tools to help solve such a problem by building a model and finding a solution. Participants in this session will get to build the model themselves to see how information from sensors (input) can determine what should be done (output) through simple lines of code. No coding or engineering experience is needed, just imagination and logical thinking. Projects like these can expose students to STEM Careers. The exposure to coding and engineering design can also get them interested in doing more in the STEM field.

TAKEAWAYS:
Solve a real-world problem with coding and engineering design - no prior experience needed.

SPEAKERS:
Stacy Thibodeaux (Southside High School: Youngsville, LA)

How could the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows bridge have been prevented? How can we ensure electronic devices hold up to everyday use? Developing well-defined criteria and constraints is critical to successful engineering. Experience ways to help your students plan and evaluate solutions like pros!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn the importance of well-defined criteria and constraints, and will experience activities to share with students to help them develop and evaluate successful solutions to engineering challenges. Everyone leaves with access to a Mi-STAR NGSS aligned OER lesson.

SPEAKERS:
Stephanie Tubman (Michigan Technological University: Houghton, MI), Chris Geerer (Mi-STAR: , MI)

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Introduce your students to renewable energy to sharpen their problem-solving and engineering skills. This workshop will provide three-dimensional learning opportunities for your students as they explore the engineering design elements of a wind turbine, such as number of blades, blade shape, etc.

SPEAKERS:
David Carter (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Don't let complex concepts slow you down! Join us as we explore kinetic and potential energy in mechanics using Vernier sensors and software. Learn how your students can calculate columns to create graphs of energy vs. position or time to observe the transformation of energy between forms.

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

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!

Our FlyGirls program was developed to introduce young women in grades 4–8 to aerospace using drones. The Cobb County School District has partnered with Lockheed Martin, FTW Robotics, female drone pilots from across the U.S., and other informal educators to offer our FlyGirls program.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: 1. learn how to cultivate a dynamic partnerships between multiple agencies; 2. receive step-by-step guidance to start your own local chapter of FlyGirls; and 3. receive access to the resources we developed and used with our FlyGirls group.

SPEAKERS:
Alana Davis (Cobb County School District: Marietta, GA)

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Looking for ways to get your middle schoolers excited about science? We can help. Explore ways that Vernier technology can engage students in hands-on STEM learning and help them learn about important scientific concepts, including temperature, light, friction, and grip strength.

SPEAKERS:
David Carter (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Find out how you can use a simple reaction between food color and bleach to teach reaction kinetics. Learn how to select the best wavelength on a spectrometer, analyze the data to determine the rate constant, and write the rate expression. Collect data on your own device or use one of ours!

SPEAKERS:
Nüs Hisim (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

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!

Designing the solution that solves a real-world problem requires the application of knowledge and skills from multiple disciplines, as in STEM practices. Through the exploration of STEL and EDP, students learn how to evaluate their design solutions on identified criteria and constraints.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will learn how to use performance tasks to apply STEL and engineering design process to STEM integration, measure students' application of the knowledge, and to assess individual student performance.

SPEAKERS:
Denise Clarke-Mayers (East Orange STEM Academy: East Orange, NJ)

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Make three-dimensional learning work for you! We will explore an everyday phenomenon, the heating of a gas when it is compressed, using Vernier technology. Using science and engineering practices, you'll actively engage students by integrating crosscutting ideas into this real-world experiment!

SPEAKERS:
David Carter (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Stop counting bubbles! Your students can easily visualize photosynthesis and cellular respiration using the latest Vernier technology. This workshop will cover sample collection, carbon dioxide data analysis, and inquiry ideas to test variables that affect photosynthesis and cellular respiration.

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

Sponsoring Company: Stile Education

Teaching has always been challenging, and a pandemic has only exacerbated the struggles of educators and widened pre-existing gaps. Join us for our session to discuss how teachers can leverage cross-curricular strategies to increase participation, engagement, and outcomes in the science classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Julianna Jimenez (Stile Education: Los Angeles, CA), Hailey Vogel (Head of Teaching and Learning: Los Angeles, CA)

Partnerships between museums, PD providers, and coaches can catalyze partners' expertise and networks and build trust and buy-in to create positive change in STEM learning. NYSCI and NYSCATE will share lessons learned from a research-practice-partnership to improve middle school physics instruction.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn about forming and maintaining partnerships with different stakeholders involved in the professional learning process, catalyzing specific networks based on organizational expertise, and how to establish trust, shared leadership and ownership throughout complex partnerships.

SPEAKERS:
Michaela Labriole (NYSCI: Corona, NY), Linda Brandon (Consultant: Croton on Hudson, NY), Antonio Scordo (Coordinator Technology Integration and Curriculum Development: , NY)

Engage in an interactive panel discussion exploring the importance of English language arts skills for STEM career success, and strategies for building English language arts skills through K-12 science and engineering practices in a sensemaking model.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave the session with ideas for using K-12 science and engineering practices to enhance student acquisition of communication and media literacy skills necessary for success in STEM careers.

SPEAKERS:
Liz Martinez (Curriculum/Professional Development: Escondido, CA), Elizabeth Allan (University of Central Oklahoma: Edmond, OK), Loris Chen (Science Education Consultant: Fair Lawn, NJ)

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

Promising idea or a recipe for disaster? Beta-test a new app that pairs with 3DMD’s physical models.

SPEAKERS:
Heather Ryan (3D Molecular Designs: Milwaukee, WI)

Did you know that using gamification and game-based learning can create a more engaging and interactive learning environment? Learn the difference be gamification and game-based learning. Explore ways that each method can be used in your classroom (with any content). Try both technology-rich examples as well as non-tech or low-tech options. Learn about the research supporting gaming models in the classroom and how it can be used in a way to support learning content, building collaboration, and supporting socio-emotional skills. Come and join us for some learning and of course some fun games! Walk away with ideas you can use immediately with your learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore in an interactive manner how gamification and game-based learning supports collaborative learning, builds intrinsic student motivation, and even supports socio-emotional learning.

SPEAKERS:
Angela Williams-Clermont (Science Teacher), Nikki Gutierrez (Science Teacher: No City, No State)

This session will explore the application of online interactive laboratory simulations in secondary science courses. The presentation will overview different approaches and best practices to introduce virtual labs in blended learning environments.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be able to implement virtual labs into their daily classroom lessons and apply different instructional practices.

SPEAKERS:
Giancarlo Perez-Flores (Teacher)

Often authenticity and authentic audience is a barrier to planning project based learning. Authenticity can extend beyond an authentic audience. By providing students with authentic tools and lessons, project based learning can be inspirational and engaging.

TAKEAWAYS:
You don't need an authentic audience for authentic project based learning.

SPEAKERS:
Brandt Boidy (MS Math and Science Teacher: Charlotte, NC)

Participants will explore scientific tools and digital interactive slides to provide meaningful data collection opportunities from a variety of ecosystems not always available to all students. They will also learn how to design their own interactive slides suitable for all grade levels and content.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will use tools such as a photometer, infrared thermometer, and watt meter to collect data, and enhance this experience with digital interactive slides providing additional data.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Tonkinson (eesmarts: Hartford, CT), Karin Jakubowski (eesmarts: No City, No State), Sharyon Holness (eesmarts: No City, No State)

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

Describe the DNA and enzyme structures that researchers use to create biotechnology applications such as restriction enzymes and PCR. Identify how models can be used to reveal student understanding. Learn formative assessment opportunities in the modeling process.

SPEAKERS:
Keri Shingleton (Biology Teacher: Tulsa, OK)

The poster will highlight and discuss some of the valuable technology resources that played a key role in allowing teachers to provide students with an equitable learning experience during the pandemic and how they can continue to be utilized as we return to the post pandemic classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
The poster will discuss strategies using tools such as Classkick, Gimkit, Blooket, and Edpuzzle to differentiate instruction in the classroom while encouraging persistence and achievement in students.

SPEAKERS:
Selene Verhofstad (Dobie High School: Houston, TX)

Participants experience three different digital design challenges using branching scenarios that provide student choice and data sets involving wind energy, electromagnetism, and the greenhouse effect. Each challenge is done in a different Google platform - Sites, Forms, and Slides.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will engage in three digital design challenges to test the efficiency of wind turbine blades, the strength of electromagnets, and the greenhouse effect on different land surfaces (polar region, water, and desert) using Google sites, forms, and slides.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Tonkinson (eesmarts: Hartford, CT), Sharyon Holness (eesmarts: No City, No State), Kathleen Brooks (CREC: No City, No State)

Bring your creativity and learn how to implement game-based learning in your science classroom. We will explore using hands-on techniques to make science fun.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will: 1. create a science-based game to use in their classroom; 2. develop an understanding of game-based learning; and 3. embed game-based learning in their current content/curriculum.

SPEAKERS:
Tammie Schrader (NorthEast Washington ESD 101: Spokane, WA)

Discover how you can use a free, global science classroom created at Harvard University to promote student sensemaking. Experience how to tailor learning using LabXchange, a powerful, interactive, online learning platform as students explore their ideas about phenomena and design problems.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how LabXchange can be used in a classroom as a mechanism for sensemaking and three-dimensional learning aligned with the NGSS. With LabXchange, attendees will learn how to implement world-class content from a variety of Harvard vetted resources and digital assets.

SPEAKERS:
Jenny Frank (LabXchange, Harvard: No City, No State), Kenneth Huff (Williamsville Central School District: East Amherst, NY)

This workshop will provide you with various resources that you can take back to your classroom to provide your middle schoolers with engaging STEM activities that address the Engineering Design Process. Walk away with many hands-on project ideas, coding and gaming activities and online 3D design.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to incorporate the Engineering Design Process into every STEM lesson they create. Materials and worksheets provided.

SPEAKERS:
Jacie Veno (Plymouth Public Schools: Plymouth, MA)

Creating an inclusive learning environment requires dedication and creativity for incorporating the success skills (21st Century Skills) such as citizenship with culturally relevant education for crafting STEAM and science curriculum.

TAKEAWAYS:
Main goal of the workshops is using the CRE into STEAM or science lesson or unit plan on any topic or subject matter.

SPEAKERS:
Jenniffer Stetler (Chamblee Middle School: Chamblee, GA)

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)

Teams use a programmable robotic ball to design solutions and simulate an unmanned aerial vehicle entering a disaster zone. Set in a post-natural-disaster scenario, students will find solutions to problems that first responders may face. This standards-aligned activity will help students explore challenges engineers face throughout different phases of NASA missions as they conduct research, propose solutions, create designs, build their designs and test their solutions to a set of given problems. Students will investigate how their designs in each stage of the challenge lead to their final design solution. With these activities, students will: Apply the steps of the engineering design process to successfully complete a team challenge. Conduct research, write a proposal and create a basic budget. Program a spherical robot using JavaScript (JS) or block programming to complete various leveled challenges. Design, build and test solutions to each problem. Create a presentation and share.

TAKEAWAYS:
Bring the world of advance air mobility to life in your own classroom. Transform your students into ground pilots and open up the door to their future STEM career.

SPEAKERS:
Lynn Dotson (NASA Office of STEM Engagement-GoH: Kennedy Space Center, FL)

Explore how computational thinking can enhance students’ engineering designs and science sensemaking. You’ll engage with two middle school modules that develop computational thinking practices and skills as they bolster engineering understandings and solutions related to thermal energy transfer.

TAKEAWAYS:
Computational tools are increasingly used by scientists and engineers. Hands-on engineering design challenges provide an authentic and motivating context for students to practice and apply computational thinking.

SPEAKERS:
Mary Dzaugis (Mathworks: Natick, MA), Christine Cunningham (Museum of Science, Boston: Boston, MA)

This session presents an activity using the popular “escape room” format in which students solve clues using science knowledge to complete the challenge.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will experience and explore ideas to enhance in-person learning through competitive activities and gamification using and adapting a digital escape room format with an energy focus or their existing curriculum.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Tonkinson (eesmarts: Hartford, CT), Sharyon Holness (eesmarts: No City, No State)