The design of scaffolds can support or take away opportunities for student sensemaking. We will identify scaffolds already built into high quality curriculum, like OpenSciEd, and analyze teacher designed scaffolds to determine if they support or undermine sensemaking.

TAKEAWAYS:
Before high quality curriculum, teachers had to aggressively scaffold materials. Teachers will see how the materials support sensemaking without major redesign. They will consider how additional scaffolds may support or undermine student sensemaking elevating the deep expertise of teachers

SPEAKERS:
Hillary Paul Metcalf (Boston College: Chestnut Hill, MA), Nicole Ruttan (Boston College: Chestnut Hill, MA), Ji-Sun Ham (School Support Specialist: Chestnut Hill, MA)

Come learn how to carefully unpack elements of the Crosscutting Concepts to support the development and implementation of curriculum, instruction, and assessment using this brand-new version of the NSTA Quick-Reference Guide to the Three Dimensions. The “purple book” is now better than ever.

TAKEAWAYS:
A deeper understanding of the Crosscutting Concepts and how a well-designed reference guide can make it easier to unpack the three dimensions for work in curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

SPEAKERS:
Ted Willard (Discovery Education: Silver Spring, MD)

NextGen TIME is a free suite of tools and processes that supports districts in preparing to evaluate instructional materials for quality and design for NGSS. This collaborative process helps you plan for next steps including customization to improve student outcomes and effective implementation.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how NextGen TIME supports the evaluation of current instructional materials to strengthen their design for NGSS and how NextGen TIME tools and processes can serve as critical components of curriculum-based professional learning. You’ll walk away with free access to NextGen TIME resources.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Gomez Zwiep (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Jody Bintz (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Jenine Cotton-Proby (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

Opening a lab is a daunting process. Learn about how Fairport developed a vision, wrote a horizontally and vertically aligned curriculum, and utilized intentional decision making to design the Elementary STEAM Lab experience.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with recommendations for creating STEAM Labs in their districts based on the blueprint that Fairport used to launch Labs that incorporate the NGSS Engineering Design standards, Computer Science and Digital Fluency Learning Standards, and a focus on social-emotional learning.

SPEAKERS:
Travis Wood (Fairport Central School District: No City, No State), Kristin Larsen (Honeoye Falls- Lima CSD: Honeoye Falls, NY)

Science notebooks can be a powerful tool for students to capture their thinking and chart growth in learning. But, how can notebooks be assessed to help students grow in their science and engineering practices? Proficiency rubrics will be shared to allow teachers and students to assess notebooks.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave this session with 4 different proficiency scales to assess student notebooks through the science and engineering practices. While notebooks should not be assessed as “right and wrong,” they can be used to help students grow in their science and engineering practices.

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

In this interactive session, we share important lessons learned through our work with states, educators, and developers to support equitable systems of science assessment. These lessons can help us develop better 3D assessment tasks, processes, and systems that lead to better outcomes for learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
Three dimensional assessment design is tricky - come join us to discuss how we can take a systems approach and develop better 3D assessments.

SPEAKERS:
Katie Van Horne (Concolor Research: Orlando, FL)

This session will introduce participants to a NSTA lesson designed to introduce high school students to cutting edge research on Artificial Intelligence. The lesson is designed around the critical aspects of sensemaking: students experience a phenomenon, engage in science and engineering practices and share ideas and to build and/or apply disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts needed to explain how or why the phenomenon occurs. Sensemaking is in the vision of A Framework for K-12 Science Education - “the doing of science and engineering is highlighted as a strategy that can capture students’ interest in science and motivate their continued study.” (A Framework for K-12 Science Education, pp 42-43). NSTA lessons and units provide opportunities for all students to engage in science learning that is meaningful to them

TAKEAWAYS:
The JHU Wavelength lesson introduced in the session provides opportunities for high school students to learn about cutting edge science research, figure out science ideas related to artificial intellligence, and consider how it could benefit their community.

SPEAKERS:
Rama Chellappa (Bloomberg Distinguished Professor: Baltimore, MD), Patrice Scinta (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Rama Chellappa (Johns Hopkins University: Baltimore, MD)

We have developed a flexible, equitable assessment strategy that can be applied to all levels, grades and courses, that keeps students engaged and accountable. Even better, it can be scaled: used by an individual or by an entire district. We call this the Learning Progression Model.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will understand how learning progressions are used to assess student learning, provide descriptive feedback, set goals, evaluate teaching, and report out achievement.

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

Use NASA’s Universe of Learning (UoL) multiwavelength image sets of star formation regions, protostars, red giants, white dwarfs, planetary nebulas, neutron stars, pulsars, supernovas, and black holes to investigate stellar evolution, as physical properties and brightness of stars change over time.

TAKEAWAYS:
Stars form in giant molecular clouds of gas and dust in star formation regions, and depending on their initial mass, usually follow a sequence that ends in their destruction in catastrophic collapses and explosions. Plotting their changing physical properties on the H-R diagram shows the process.

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

As long as there have been CER templates, there have been students who struggle. What’s the difference between evidence and reasoning, or an explanation and an argument, exactly? Our Mi-STAR CER lesson and templates help answer these questions and they are open to all - join us to learn more!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with clear and concise definitions of reasoning, explanations, and argumentation, along with a lesson plan, activities, and templates to help students define and construct all three in the science classroom.

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

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

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

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

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)

How can career and technical education support science learning? How can science support career and technical education? Student understanding of how science is integral to success in their chosen career pathway is critical in many CTE programs, but oftentimes these connections are overlooked.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will reflect on strategies for how to engage students in using scientific and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts in career and technical education courses. And participants will discuss how to engage students in developing college, career, and life skills in science courses.

SPEAKERS:
Bridina Lemmer (Illinois Science Teaching Association: Jacksonville, IL), Chris Embry Mohr (Olympia High School: Stanford, IL)

Learn about free STEM educational resources including virtual reality, themed resource collections and lesson plans to increase ocean and climate literacy with your students.

TAKEAWAYS:
NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries offers lessons, videos and activities that can be used in K-12 classrooms to teach students about the ocean and Great Lakes with engaging real life examples of our nation's underwater parks.

SPEAKERS:
Tracy Hajduk (NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries: Monterey, CA)

Students will gain a deeper knowledge about sustainable energy generation / conservation and architectural ecology through hands-on, collaborative labs, which use on-campus student-built green roof models, a green roof section on our middle school, and ground-level on-campus solar panels.

TAKEAWAYS:
You will learn how to identify a key sustainable energy or ecological practice that fits your school culture. We'll show you how to design labs and select equipment that will engage the students in learning about sustainability. You'll identify learning objectives and assessments.

SPEAKERS:
Brian Ward (Science Teacher: Wallingford, PA)

Presenters will share two units in which science is integrated with ELA, math, and social studies. This session will share the process of unit creation and how incorporation with other content areas strengthens science instruction. Two units will be shared-one for kindergarten and one for 3rd grade.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to integrate multiple content standards to strength science instruction as well as leave with two examples of fully integrated elementary units. In addition to the sharing of the units, presenters will share the creation process so participants can engage in this work.

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

Sensemaking with the three dimensions is the focal construct we want to measure in science assessments - not the phenomenon or problem or the three-dimensions. Join us for a deep dive into centering sensemaking in 3D assessment design.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with examples of 3D sensemaking in assessment tasks and activities for building better assessments that elicit sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Cooper (Contextus), Katie Van Horne (Concolor Research: Orlando, FL)

Want to teach climate literacy but don’t know where to start? NOAA offers lesson plans, videos, data, webinars, and more to inform and inspire students.

TAKEAWAYS:
How to improve climate literacy and discuss climate and climate change in your classroom with free resources from NOAA.

SPEAKERS:
Frank Niepold (NOAA Climate Program Office: Silver Spring, MD)

This presentation highlights 10 unique and unusual science-based examples of solar system modeling that use simple materials and all activities stress the use of decimals, fractions, and proportions in a scalable, adaptable, and fun exploration of the planets, distance, time, density, and scale.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will view the solar system in new ways through hands-on activities addressing geologic age, light distance, object ratios, density, gravity, and travel time.

SPEAKERS:
Martin Horejsi (University of Montana: Missoula, MT)

Join the GaDOE science team to get updates on resources, professional learning, virtual communities, and other information related to the science teaching community. See what has just been released and how you can use it in your classroom tomorrow!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will receive updates from the Georgia Department of Education science team. Many new resources and professional learning opportunities are now available. Check out the phenomenon-based resources, including instructional deliverables, assessment tasks, literacy plans, and more.

SPEAKERS:
Laura Canepa-Redondo (Science/ESOL Program Specialist), Judie Beccaro (Georgia Department of Education: Atlanta, GA), Renee Shirley-Stevens (Science Program Specialist), Keith Crandall (Science Program Manager: No City, No State)

The purpose of this session is to explain how NGSS-aligned state assessments are developed alongside our state partners. We will use our Item Review Framework to analyze a sample item from New Meridian and ask participants to compare/contrast that with released items from their state. This comparison will provide teachers with the tools they need to review their own state assessment content and provide evidence for the changes they would like to see enacted within their state program.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will leave with a better understanding of how state-wide assessments are created and the role educators can play in influencing the direction of those assessments.

SPEAKERS:
Christopher Lazzaro (New Meridian Corporation: austin, TX)

This session will cover how the science department at our school worked with our director of collaborative curriculum to create transdisciplinary lesson plans for grades 5-8. Some of the topics covered in our units include light and perception, climate change, breadmaking, sustainability, and water.

TAKEAWAYS:
Our work shows how science can be the center of a transdisciplinary study. We wanted to connect science to real world issues and bring the world into the classroom. We are using science skills and understanding to take action in our community.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Melman (San Francisco Friends School: San Francisco, CA), Rich Oberman (San Francisco Friends School: No City, No State), Jeffrey Porter (San Francisco Friends School: San Francisco, CA), Jennifer Stuart (Director of Collaborative Curriculum: San Francisco, CA), Christine Tantoco (Science Teacher: San Francisco, CA)

This session helps participants use the tools and reports available from EdReports to select high-quality instructional materials for their classroom or school. Participants will learn how the tools evaluate for NGSS-aligned instruction and have the chance to practice evaluating sample materials.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with tools to help them evaluate instructional materials for NGSS-aligned instruction based on making sense of phenomena and integrating the three dimensions.

SPEAKERS:
Shannon Wachowski (EdReports.org: Fort Collins, CO), John-Carlos Marino (Science Lead)

Engineers around the world use system models as a go-to tool to solve problems, and your students can too. Create system models related to real-world problems and learn pedagogy for supporting students to develop and share system models. Leave with an engineer-approved 5E lesson to use tomorrow!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will understand the origin and use of system modeling as an engineering tool and be able to use student talk, whiteboarding, and system schema to implement system modeling in their classrooms. Teachers receive Mi-STAR’s OER lesson plan to introduce system models to their students.

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

Incorporate coral reefs into your existing curriculum – biology, chemistry, climate studies, art, and more – using lesson plans, demos, activities, and multimedia from NOAA.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn what corals are, why they are important, and how to fit coral reefs ecosystems into your curriculum using free NOAA resources.

SPEAKERS:
Kayla Smith (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: Silver Spring, MD), Denise Harrington (NOAA TASAA Fellow: Garibaldi, OR), Bekkah Lampe (NOAA Office of Education: Silver Spring, MD)

Scared of science? Wondering how to put it ALL together? Join us as we look at how a K-6 STEAM Elementary school creates science units that are project-based and student focused, without breaking the bank or burning out!

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will understand how to create unit frameworks that are informative, easy to use, and lead to quick lesson planning.

SPEAKERS:
Joe Shaughnessy (John Thomas School of Discovery Partner School: Nixa, MO), Ryan Mahn (John Thomas School of Discovery Partner School: Nixa, MO)

This program aims to dramatically increase the exposure to and consumption of locally produced honey by developing a network of apiaries and supporting curriculum for preK–12.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn about: 1. how educational apiaries can be used in an education setting; 2. the benefits of implementing curriculum related to honey production; and 3. strategies to engage migrant students in STEM education.

SPEAKERS:
Spencer Cody (Edmunds Central School District: Roscoe, SD)

PFAS are a harmful class of widely used chemicals that can be found in everything from drinking water and crops to cosmetics and food packaging. Secondary science teachers from North Carolina used design-based thinking to develop standards-aligned activities featuring the cutting-edge research taking place to understand exposure to PFAS and to describe the biological processes behind health outcomes, such as autoimmune disease or cancer. This session will showcase how teachers adapted published scientific data for use with diverse learners to address life science standards while conveying important environmental health concepts and promoting biomedical research careers. Teachers also will receive an array of curated media resources to help them incorporate this nationally relevant topic into their instruction.

TAKEAWAYS:
Humans are exposed to PFAS before birth, and exposure continues throughout life due to the prevalence of these chemicals in our environment. Attendees will learn about the biomedical research taking place to understand the biology underpinning health effects and receive standards-aligned activities.

SPEAKERS:
Andromeda Crowell (Orange High School: Hillsborough, NC), Clare Matusevich (Chapel Hill High School: Chapel Hill, NC)

Problematizing phenomena requires that tasks pose productive uncertainties related to a phenomenon or problem explicitly to students. During this interactive session, participants will analyze various assessments and artifacts for how problematizing is an integral part of the assessment.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will engage with well problematized assessment scenarios and will have access to these assessments for future use.

SPEAKERS:
Dawn Novak (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL), Sara Cooper (Contextus)

An 11 year old recently found a trilobite in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Let's explore this phenomenon and how customizing existing high-quality, open-source lessons for local stories create a cohesive storyline for elementary students.

TAKEAWAYS:
1) How to customize existing high-quality, open-source lessons that pair with local phenomena; 2) What fossil evidence scientists use to support claims about past environments; and 3) Where to find open-source storylines for the elementary classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Rachel Cox (Knox County Schools: Knoxville, TN)

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)

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)

OpenSciEd's first high school chemistry unit, Thermodynamics in Earth Systems, helps students figure out how polar ice melt and sea level rise can be slowed. Session presents the unit anchor, final model, and system of assessments in this first of five free, open-source, 3D units in the course.

TAKEAWAYS:
OpenSciEd HS Chemistry has an NGSS-aligned first unit that scaffolds typical early-year topics such as measurement, experiment design, significant digits, and unit conversion while supporting 3D learning and HS PEs in a coherent, phenomenon-driven, justice-oriented storyline.

SPEAKERS:
Samantha Pinter (Norwalk Public Schools: Norwalk, CT), Dan Voss (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL)

Department of Energy national labs provide opportunities for researchers to be involved in developing authentic STEM learning experiences for students. Join this hands-on session to see how Berkeley Lab energy technologies research is reflected in projects on sustainability and alternative energy.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn about NGSS-aligned curriculum resources that reflect authentic STEM research at Berkeley Lab, and directly experience hands-on sustainability/alternative energy projects.

SPEAKERS:
Faith Dukes (Director, K-12 STEM Education Programs: Berkeley, CA), Alisa Bettale (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: Berkeley, CA)

In this session, we will share how to use NGSS performance expectations to design classroom assessments. Sample assessments will be provided that require students to incorporate models and use evidence to support their responses.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will come away with both examples of assessments and tools for developing their own three-dimensional assessments.

SPEAKERS:
Nicole McRee (KCSD#96), Tracy Eschrich (KCSD96: No City, No State)

A key aspect of the vision in A Framework for K-12 Science Education and Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards is how to develop assessments to advance equity. In this session, participants will use an equity framework developed to analyze three-dimensional assessment task

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will use an equity framework that has been developed to support (re)designing assessment tasks to ensure accessibility by all students. Participants will use this equity framework to analyze example assessments for alignment.

SPEAKERS:
Dawn Novak (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL)

Engage in conversations for how to use the three dimensions of the NGSS and the NRC Framework, storylines, driving questions, formative and summative assessments, and hands-on activities to learn science and engineering skills while making sense of one of our most basic needs – FOOD.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will engage in a morsel of a storyline on producing the perfect apple. In this storyline, students notice and wonder about different varieties of apples and are challenged to explain why it took 30 years for the Honeycrisp apple to be available to consumers.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Chris Embry Mohr (Olympia High School: Stanford, IL)

Are you hybrid, 1:1 or want to be paperless? Then use a digital learning log! Our team has used these in digital classrooms for a year with great success! We’ll demonstrate content logs, and a SPED / EL support strategy log. BYOD as we will provide digital docs you can use now!

TAKEAWAYS:
BYOD Session! Not only will you take away ideas and templates to help you build your own digital interactive learning log, but you will hear ideas of how these can be easily integrated into your current classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Robin Tillotson (Gwinnett Online Campus: Lawrenceville, GA), Wanda Allen (Gwinnett Online Campus: Lawrenceville, GA), Erin Springthorpe (Gwinnett Online Campus: Lawrenceville, GA), Jennifer Barnes (Gwinnett Online Campus: Lawrenceville, GA)

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)

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

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

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

Let's discuss food safety, nutrition, and activities to bring real-world knowledge into the classroom. Activities will be demonstrated and a curriculum will be provided.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students will: 1. be introduced to the fundamentals of microbiology while, at the same time, identifying important public health information through literature and hands-on learning activities; 2. learn about the label, and that nutrition not only aids in general well-being.

SPEAKERS:
Tiska Rodgers (Clarkton High School: Clarkton, MO), Leanne Thele (Perryville High School: , MO)

Learn about the scope and sequence of a model-based Earth science-integrated biology course and how our phenomenon-question-model framework is used to develop a set of models to explore the history of life on Earth and human impact.

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore one way to develop a coherent year-long curriculum that integrates Earth science standards into biology.

SPEAKERS:
Cynthia Passmore (University of California, Davis: Davis, CA)

What does a grade mean in your class? Learn how to create a grading system that is accurate, bias resistant, motivational, and transparent.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Understand the frameworks for creating an equitable gradebook that is accurate, bias resistant, and motivational; 2. Create a transparent gradebook that shows feedback and progress on course standards; 3. Explore assessment literacy within unit assessments, lab assessments and reassessments.

SPEAKERS:
Katti Bachar (Libertyville High School: Libertyville, IL)

Learn how to read the 62 maps of practices, core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and performance expectations in The NSTA Atlas of the Three Dimensions and use them and other features of this powerful navigational tool to develop and implement curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

TAKEAWAYS:
A careful review of the connections between elements of the three dimensions can provide a clearer understanding of science standards and important guidance in planning instructional sequences to support three-dimensional teaching and learning.

SPEAKERS:
Ted Willard (Discovery Education: Silver Spring, MD)

Explore examples of successful collaborations on curriculum for grades PreK-12 between museums & schools and learn how to get what you need from your community partners.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to best utilize your community partners to co-create comprehensive curriculum and experiences for your students.

SPEAKERS:
Tina Seidelson (Director of Student Engagement: No City, No State), Karyn Torigoe (Great Lakes Science Center: Cleveland, OH)

This presentation demonstrates the lasting power and depth of learning through interdisciplinary projects. Come see how science and language arts can be combined for students to have the opportunity to share knowledge about symbiosis through side-by-side poetry.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn to use poetry to communicate how organisms survive. Participants will leave knowing how to introduce side-by-side poetry through a scientific lens, demonstrating a unique way of understanding symbiosis.

SPEAKERS:
Candice Autry (Sheridan School: Washington, DC)

Preview of how the OpenSciEd High School Chemistry course will guide students to use force thinking as a lens alongside energy and matter to help them develop and explain chemical phenomena including atomic structure, bonding, and exothermic and endothermic reactions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Forces are not only an important idea in physical science generally, but are necessary, in conjunction with matter and energy, to help students develop the mechanisms underlying diverse phenomena like lightning, creating water on another planet, and energy released in the combustion of fossil fuels

SPEAKERS:
Michael Novak (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL), Dan Voss (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL), Nicole Vick (Northwestern University)

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)

Dr. Michael Wysession, NGSS co-author and geophysics professor, demonstrates how including Earth and space science (ESS) storylines in a high school physics course helps build student understanding of both the ESS content and the fundamental physics topics.

TAKEAWAYS:
For many fundamental physics topics (motion, forces, energy, heat flow, waves, radioactivity, etc.), incorporating ESS topics, and even using ESS-related phenomena and storylines, is a great way to engage students and help them better understand the physics fundamentals.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Wysession (Washington University in St. Louis: Saint Louis, MO)

Learn how to access and explore NOAA’s data-rich resources, lesson plans, and visualization tools to build data literacy and proficiency in scientific data analysis.

TAKEAWAYS:
How to find and use NOAA data in your classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Denise Harrington (NOAA TASAA Fellow: Garibaldi, OR)

Matter, forces, and energy are three powerful lenses to make sense of phenomena. We will use examples from the forthcoming free and open-source OpenSciEd High School physics course, which also incorporates earth and space science, to show how we can scaffold the development of student thinking using these lenses across the year. Participants will receive an overview of the course and the matter-energy-forces (M-E-F) conceptual framework. Participants will also explore examples of phenomena that students will explain through these different lenses. Examples will include (1) deep mantle convection, (2) vehicle collisions, (3) meteors, (4) microwaves, and ionizing radiation.

TAKEAWAYS:
A framework for reasoning about changes in the matter, energy and forces in a system helps students develop the mechanisms underlying explanations of diverse phenomena including deep mantle convection, vehicle collisions, meteors, microwaves and ionizing radiation.

SPEAKERS:
Zoe Buck Bracey (Senior Science Educator and Director of Design for Justice: Colorado Springs, CO), Michael Novak (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL), Kate Henson (University of Colorado Boulder: Boulder, CO)

The session engages participants in the process of developing three-dimensional multiple-choice assessment items to be used as a component of classroom instruction. The focus is on the role of phenomena and crosscutting concepts in assessing student understanding of practices and core ideas.

TAKEAWAYS:
Process for developing three-dimensional multiple-choice assessment items. Strategies for measuring student understanding of core ideas, practices, and of crosscutting concepts. Understanding the central role of phenomena in assessing student application of scientific knowledge.

SPEAKERS:
Juan-Carlos Aguilar (Georgia Dept. of Education: Brookhaven, GA)

During this session participants will learn practical strategies for developing, implementing, and differentiating three-dimensional assessments. Participants will develop an understanding of three-dimensional assessments by engaging in activities to support discussion around how and why three-dimensional assessment tasks and instructional tasks share many similarities. We will discuss how a three-dimensional assessment task attends to access and equity using differentiation strategies already embedded into the task. Participants will also gain experience evaluating student learning across the three dimensions using authentic student work samples. We will also use these examples to discuss strategies and tips for developing success criteria for grading that allows for interrater reliability.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain a stronger understanding of how to use three-dimensional assessments to evaluate student learning.

SPEAKERS:
Zoe Evans (Bremen City Schools: Bremen, GA), Kristin Rademaker (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

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)