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)

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)

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)

Sponsoring Company: College Board

Come for an active conversation about helping introductory learners prepare for AP-level course work in STEM. We will align challenge areas identified using AP exam data with the Pre-AP Course Framework and explore instructional strategies to help students meet these challenges.

SPEAKERS:
Laura Casdorph (College Board: New York, NY), Mitch Price (College Board: New York, NY)

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 (University of Colorado Boulder: Boulder, CO), Katie Van Horne (Concolor Research: Orlando, FL)

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)

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)

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 (Science Educator: Grayslake, IL), Sara Cooper (University of Colorado Boulder: Boulder, CO)

Discover how to build a STEM curriculum from the ground up, from ideation to final product. Design an alarm to protect your stuff, meet the STEM Quality Framework and 50+ free STEM units from Pre-K to High School, and explore amazing resources from the Dayton Regional STEM Center and DoDSTEM.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn the process of designing a high-quality STEM curriculum including; standards alignment, evaluation and improvement of curriculum and implementation within the classroom, along with a library of free, currently available unit plans and resources.

SPEAKERS:
Tim Carey (Xenia Community Schools: Xenia, OH)

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)

Although cancer biology is an important topic with the study life science, the definition of cancer literacy has been ill defined. This project demonstrates limitations of using one measure of cancer literacy, the Cancer Health Literacy Test-6, within the scope of a cancer biology outreach program.

TAKEAWAYS:
Cancer literacy has been broadly defined and assessed. Assessment of cancer biology knowledge may be best suited by the use of instructor-prepared, lesson-specific assessments.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Heath (Student: Warrenville, SC), Kamani Barnes (Student: Warrenville, SC), Alexandria Martin (Student: , SC), Christie Palladino (Teacher: Warrenville, SC)

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)

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)

Sponsoring Company: College Board

Come for an active session about helping students prepare for AP-level course work in STEM. We will align challenge areas identified using AP Chem exam data and correlate these with the Pre-AP Chem Course Framework and explore instructional strategies to help students meet these challenges.

SPEAKERS:
Laura Casdorph (College Board: New York, NY), Mitch Price (College Board: New York, NY)

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: STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning

CER gets students to explain phenomena in a scientific way. Let’s use investigations to demonstrate how to use data collection to drive data-based conclusions. Guide students in how to think deeper, write scientifically, & incorporate vocabulary that strengthens their understanding of a phenomenon.

SPEAKERS:
Ashley Mathis (STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning: Houston, TX)

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

During this session you’ll build a scaffolded, NGSS-aligned assessments to use with your classroom, school, or district! We'll investigate building prior grade level assessments, cover common misconceptions around sensemaking, and best practices for scaffolding assessments for HS students.

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)

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)

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

During this session you’ll build a scaffolded, NGSS-aligned assessments to use with your classroom, school, or district! We'll investigate building prior grade level assessments, cover common misconceptions around sensemaking, and best practices for scaffolding assessments for MS students.

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)

Discover how to build a STEM curriculum from the ground up, from ideation to final product. Improve an aircraft design, meet the STEM Quality Framework and 50+ free STEM units from Pre-K to High School, and explore amazing resources from the Dayton Regional STEM Center and DoDSTEM.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn the process of designing a high-quality STEM curriculum including; standards alignment, evaluation and improvement of curriculum and implementation within the classroom, along with a library of free, currently available unit plans and resources.

SPEAKERS:
Tim Carey (Xenia Community Schools: Xenia, OH)

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

During this session you’ll build an NGSS Benchmark or common assessment from our database of 10,000+ NGSS Assessment items! We'll look at the types of questions best used for these summative assessments and take workshop time to build an assessment you can use immediately

SPEAKERS:
Erin Cooke (Customer Success Manager)