2023 Atlanta National Conference

March 22-25, 2023

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FILTERS APPLIED:PreK - 5, Leadership and Advocacy, Preservice Science Education

 

Rooms and times subject to change.
12 results
Save up to 50 sessions in your agenda.

Why Does the Train Move Back and Forth?: Exploring Force at a Distance to Explain a Phenomenon

Thursday, March 23 • 9:45 AM - 10:45 AM

Georgia World Congress Center - C202



(Only registered attendees may view session materials. Please login with your NSTA account to view.)
The train phenomenon
Why does the train move back and forth?
Train Phenomenon Slide Deck

STRAND: Teaching Strategies and Classroom Practice

Show Details

Engage in the science practices of investigating, modeling, and arguing from evidence to make sense of why a toy train moves forward and backward without physical contact. Participants will explore gravity, static electricity, and magnetism to determine which most likely causes it to move.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants explore forces at a distance and make sense of how they might cause the phenomenon to occur by developing a model via a three-step sequence. Teachers examine sample student work to uncover ideas and determine that some ideas may make sense despite being inaccurate for the situation.

SPEAKERS:
Christi Pace (Augusta University: Augusta, GA), Jaclyn Murray (Mercer University: Macon, GA)

Integrating Science and Literacy in the Elementary Classroom with Touch-Talk-Text Lessons

Friday, March 24 • 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM

Georgia World Congress Center - A314


STRAND: Teaching Strategies and Classroom Practice

Show Details

In this session, participants will be introduced to the Touch-Talk-Text interdisciplinary instructional model for teaching science and literacy. Participants will develop interdisciplinary science lessons using NGSS-based lesson resources aligned with the 5E lesson format.

TAKEAWAYS:
Using strategies presented in the Touch-Talk-Text interdisciplinary instructional model, participants will analyze and plan NGSS-aligned elementary science lessons that integrate literacy and science practices.

SPEAKERS:
Briana Trager (Graduate Student: , NC), Danielle Scharen (Horizon Research, Inc.: No City, No State)

Inclusive Excellence in Elementary STEM: Supporting future teachers in designing rigorous STEM classrooms that center equity and engage ALL students

Friday, March 24 • 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM

Georgia World Congress Center - A405


STRAND: Equity and Justice

Show Details

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

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

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

Using Nature of Science in the Classroom

Friday, March 24 • 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Georgia World Congress Center - Exhibit Hall, Poster Session Aisle


STRAND: Research to Practice

Show Details

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

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

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

Doing it all – inquiry, engagement, process, content, standards

Friday, March 24 • 1:20 PM - 2:20 PM

Georgia World Congress Center - A407


STRAND: No Strand

Show Details

Teachers can engage their students, teach content areas and process skills, and address standards using a specific inquiry-based format. The format incorporates a two-setup discrepant event, one forming an expectation and the other resulting in unexpected outcome and thus a problem to be solved.

TAKEAWAYS:
A specific inquiry-based format allows teachers to engage students, teach content areas and science process skills, and address standards. This discrepant-event method is easy for teachers and students to learn and gives students skills needed to feel comfortable and competent when doing science.

SPEAKERS:
Mary Jean Lynch (North Central College: Naperville, IL), John Zenchak (North Central College: Naperville, IL)

Environmental Literacy In Teacher Education through University and Sea Grant Collaborations (ELITE Collaborations)

Friday, March 24 • 2:40 PM - 3:40 PM

Georgia World Congress Center - A305


STRAND: Teaching Strategies and Classroom Practice

Show Details

In this hands-on workshop, participants will explore an Elementary Grades Environmental Literacy learning module on the Eastern Oyster using stereo microscopes, smartphone lenses, the camera+ app, and iNaturalist to examine internal and external structures and how they support the species' survival.

TAKEAWAYS:
Science teachers will experiment with technologies and pedagogies that foster student engagement in scientific inquiry grounded in localized phenomena and environmental literacy.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Green (University of Maryland, College Park: College Park, MD), John Frederick (Maryland Sea Grant: College Park, MD), Angela Stoltz (Asst. Clinical Faculty)

Bringing Dialogue to Teacher Training: Using Cases to Enrich PL and Tackle Tough Situations in the Science Classroom

Friday, March 24 • 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Georgia World Congress Center - A315


STRAND: Leadership and Advocacy

Show Details

Admins, Supervisors & TLs: Do you need a new way to engage your teachers about equity issues? Focusing on diversity, technology, assessment, and more, we will model case-based pedagogy as a tool for your learning community to have tough discussions. K-5 Resources Provided (focus), 6-12 Available.

TAKEAWAYS:
School leaders will be able to use cases (short stories around a central dilemma) to create a layered dialogue bringing together multiple stakeholders in a learning community. Multiple cases will be provided as take-home resources and training material for attendees.

SPEAKERS:
Chelsea Sexton (University of Georgia: Athens, GA)

Maximize Your Students’ Science Conversations with Cooperative Group Structures

Saturday, March 25 • 8:00 AM - 8:30 AM

Georgia World Congress Center - B316


Show Details

Join us and learn how to incorporate Kagan cooperative grouping structures into your science curriculum. Your students will benefit from these research-supported strategies that are easy to implement and flexible enough to meet your needs.

TAKEAWAYS:
We will model each structure as our participants join in. This experience will help participants develop a sense of efficacy and confidence to add these structures to their own programming. Each participant will leave confident in his/her ability to use three different cooperative groups structures.

SPEAKERS:
Traci Kell (Assistant Professor of Education: , AL), Grace Langston (Student: , AL), Tami Shelley (Auburn University at Montgomery: Montgomery, AL), Nicholas Bourke (Auburn University at Montgomery: Montgomery, AL)

PreK and Elementary Science Teaching: A synthesis of DRK-12 Investments

Saturday, March 25 • 8:45 AM - 9:15 AM

Georgia World Congress Center - B401


STRAND: Professional Learning

Show Details

The purpose of this session is to discuss research findings from a synthesis we conducted from projects funded by the NSF's DRK-12 program related to improving preK and elementary science teaching.

TAKEAWAYS:
More research is needed in lower elementary grades and professional development lasting a year or longer showed promised in increasing teachers' self-efficacy and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK).

SPEAKERS:
Danielle Ferguson (Researcher: Arlington, VA)

Engaging with Critical Literacies in the Elementary Science Classroom: Introducing a Tool for Analyzing Children’s Picture Books

Saturday, March 25 • 9:30 AM - 10:00 AM

Georgia World Congress Center - C212



(Only registered attendees may view session materials. Please login with your NSTA account to view.)
Engaging with Critical Literacies to Analyze Childrens STEM Picture Books
PowerPoint Slides from the Session contain background on the potential of children's picture books for science learning, the development of the analysis tool, and examples from pre-service teachers using the tool to analyze STEM picture books and design a lesson plan featuring equity pedagogies.

Show Details

Science methods instructors will share how they engaged pre-service teachers in critical analysis of children’s STEM picture books and the design of literacy-integrated science lessons addressing equity and social justice. The critical analysis tool will be featured along with teaching implications.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about the ways teachers could use the critical tool to analyze children’s science picture books, as a way to become more critical readers, facilitate equity-oriented science discussions for their students, and ultimately develop more inclusive classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Carmen Vanderhoof (Penn State: University Park, PA)

Explore NSTAs Online Professional Development Opportunities

Saturday, March 25 • 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Georgia World Congress Center - Exhibit Hall, Poster Session Aisle



(Only registered attendees may view session materials. Please login with your NSTA account to view.)
NSTA Online Opportunities for PL

STRAND: Teaching Strategies and Classroom Practice

Show Details

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Phillips (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

Increasing Access to Science in Elementary through Distributed Leadership and the Principles of Improvement Science

Saturday, March 25 • 1:20 PM - 2:20 PM

Georgia World Congress Center - A315



(Only registered attendees may view session materials. Please login with your NSTA account to view.)
Participants Folder
This folder has a PDF of the presentation, toolkit , and additional resources

STRAND: Research to Practice

Show Details

Participants will learn how school districts were able to increase elementary science access by establishing a District Science team grounded in distributed leadership and using the principles and tools of Improvement Science. Panelists' insights and a toolkit of resources will be shared.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how several districts developed a distributed leadership team focused on increasing access to elementary science education. They will hear from panelists and explore the tools and processes these teams used as part of their science leadership teams.

SPEAKERS:
Channon Jackson (Alameda County Office of Education: Hayward, CA), Dawn O'Connor (CSU East Bay: Danville, CA)

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