Students at Ransom Everglades Middle School in Coconut Grove, Florida conducted research using iButton Thermochrons. Students used the iButtons to record heat and humidity data around campus. They then analyzed the data to determine why certain areas were warmer than others.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how this project allowed students to collect data, analyze that data, and ultimately present their research as citizen scientists.

SPEAKERS:
Robin Escobedo (Ransom Everglades School: Coconut Grove, FL)

This poster presents in-progress research and literature associated with teacher questioning as it impacts science practices and ambitious science teaching.

TAKEAWAYS:
Literature-based recommendations of qualities that lead to strong questions teachers may use during classroom discourse.

SPEAKERS:
Liz McMillan (The University of Texas at San Antonio: San Antonio, TX)

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)

This poster will introduce attendees to Transformational Learning Theory and how we have used this as a research to practice framework. We will provide best practices for using it to develop science teacher education programs, particularly focused on study abroad or study away opportunities.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to create transformational learning experiences for their science teacher educators using study abroad and study away opportunities. A template for designing and assessing such experiences will be shared.

SPEAKERS:
Lacey Huffling (Georgia Southern University: Statesboro, GA)

This poster session will present research on how chemistry professors or science content experts view creativity in their subject matter and their subject matter teaching and connect these findings to practical applications in the classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
By studying and realizing how content experts view creativity and how they implement it into their classrooms and labs, this presentation will share how preservice methods instructors can better organize and provide experiences to explain how science content can be learned and taught.

SPEAKERS:
William Veal (College of Charleston: Charleston, SC)

This session presents a science and literacy instruction intervention aimed at helping improve student achievement on high-stakes standardized tests. This study found statistically significant results with medium to large effect sizes at multiple campuses. Findings contribute to research and practice by demonstrating how to make science education accessible to all students, including minorities, economically disadvantaged, English learners, and At-Risk students. It also advances knowledge about effective science and literacy instruction interventions. Participants in this session will learn how to strategically target academic vocabulary, visually display connections between inquiry activities and vocabulary, explore opportunities for students to experience vocabulary in context, actively process word meanings, and practice using vocabulary to speak and write sentences. Easily replicable classroom strategies and examples that may be used to facilitate implementation will be shared.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will strategically target academic vocabulary, visually display connections between inquiry activities and vocabulary, and explore opportunities for students to experience vocabulary in context, actively process word meanings, and practice using vocabulary to speak and write sentences.

SPEAKERS:
Julie Jackson (Texas State University: San Marcos, TX)

Students in K-12 science classrooms don’t think about diagrams the same way adults do, and can be easily “overloaded.” Research in cognition gives us tools to make science diagrams that more effectively support learning. Surprise: often, students learn more without features like arrows and colors!

TAKEAWAYS:
Effective diagrams direct student attention to the most important information and relationships while minimizing cognitive load. Strategies for doing so include tree structures, explicit cues for implicit information, replacing realistic photos with illustrations, and use of the proximity principle.

SPEAKERS:
Audrey Rabi Whitaker (Academy for Young Writers: Brooklyn, NY)

An AD can decrease the amount of waste in landfills, and produce clean energy, the byproduct of digestate (liquid and solid) can be used as fertilizer, it prevents pollution of the atmosphere, and the processing time takes (20 to 30 days) less than composting.

TAKEAWAYS:
This research aimed to identify and create a way to repurpose and utilize organic waste material that usually ends up in landfills. By creating a closed system within the laboratory, we measured the gas production of carbon dioxide and methane gas, and which waste produces the most biogas.

SPEAKERS:
Candace Edmerson (Duncanville High School: Duncanville, TX)

Using a sample of 755 STEM undergraduates from the National Longitudinal Study of Freshmen, we examined the relationship between students’ years of high school study in STEM courses and their retention in STEM college majors.

TAKEAWAYS:
Our findings suggest that STEM undergraduate students who took more Physics and Chemistry courses in their high school tended to be more likely to stay in STEM majors in their college years compared to their peers who did not or did so less.

SPEAKERS:
Peter Cho (Student), Young Kim (Professor: Azusa, CA)

The Science Teacher Residency (STaR) Program was launched in 2018 in response to the need to expand access to high quality professional development for science teachers in Arizona. It is designed for third through eighth grade teachers from Title 1 designated schools, and provides instructional tools and resources to participants for free. The program is designed around its Theory of Change, which involves four facets: pedagogical approaches, content learning, access to expertise, and materials and resources. The program is externally evaluated by the Lawrence Hall of Science. Data on content knowledge level, fascination level, interest level, and intention to pursue science will be featured on the poster. Our target audience is for professional development providers.

TAKEAWAYS:
STaR expands access to high-quality teaching practice in science education for Arizona teachers. PD facilitators can obtain new ideas for research-based implementation of pedagogy, content learning, access to expertise, and materials and resources.

SPEAKERS:
Brenna Chambers (Manager of Professional Learning), Judith Lozoya (Professional Development Facilitator: Phoenix, AZ), Jennifer Petersen (Professional Development Facilitator: Phoenix, AZ)

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)

A former national science fair judge provides insights on how good titles can improve the odds of winning at science fairs. The poster will describe what the parts of a "good" title are and how teachers can help your students create one.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn the components of how to create a good project title (from a research project on science fairs) and how to help their students develop a good title for their own project that is structurally similar to those used by scientists to describe their own research at conferences.

SPEAKERS:
G. Michael Bowen (Mount Saint Vincent University: Halifax, NS)

The effects of a Storyline approach was used in a High School biology class. A storyline focusing on the concept of ecosystem homeostasis was presented to students and compared to a traditional teaching approach. Results indicated that student content knowledge and attitudes improved.

TAKEAWAYS:
Storylines are effective teaching tool to help student learn science content through the lens of Science & Engineering Practices and Crosscutting Concepts.

SPEAKERS:
Shane Cullian (Whitewater High School: Whitewater, WI), John Graves (Montana State University: Bozeman, MT)

"Believe you can and you're halfway there!" There's a lot of buzz about self-efficacy, but what does it mean for a science educator? Come discuss how practices that focus on self-efficacy for both students and teachers can impact academic achievement, goal-setting, and resilience in your students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Those that visit this poster will engage in conversation about what current research says about self-efficacy and K-12 science classrooms and will come away with resources to focus classroom practices on raising the self-efficacy of their students for performing scientific practices.

SPEAKERS:
Patricia Rushing (PhD Candidate: , VA)

ML-PBL teachers find ways to further integrate literacy and science throughout their day. ML-PBL's free OER project-based curriculum resources support students in applying their figuring out and critical thinking processes to all subject areas. Check it out!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be exposed to free resources and ideas for selecting resources for literacy lessons that allow students to continue to fine tune and extend the ideas they are developing in science class. Handouts with links to additional resources will be available.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Codere (CREATE for STEM Institute, Michigan State University, Retired)

Learn about an interdisciplinary research project that studied how atmospheric dust affects climate change. A team of educators collaborated with researchers to develop hands-on activities targeted at upper elementary through high school students that highlight science concepts from this project.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how a team of educators collaborated with paleoclimate researchers to develop activities targeted at upper elementary through high school students that explore how atmospheric dust affects climate change, highlighting how climate is influenced by complex interactions within the Earth system.

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

Free phenomenon based unit around chromatin remodeling! Organization of a meter of DNA into a 5-μm nucleus is an obstacle and a way that genes are regulated. Using free resources including a 3D cut-and-paste model, this unit explores how DNA is organized and how access to DNA is controlled.

TAKEAWAYS:
DNA is coiled around histones. Tightly coiled DNA is inaccessible to gene reading machinery. Methyl molecules bind to DNA and block access to genes. Acetyl molecules bind to histones and improve access to genes.

SPEAKERS:
April Thompson (Lakeview Academy: Saratoga Springs, UT)

Our poster session will answer the following questions: What makes a good STEM Challenge? What types of supplies do I need? What happens if students are not engaged in the challenge? How do I assess the challenge? Our interactive poster board will answer these questions and more. Attendees can view videos of activities we have done to help students generate solutions to problems using the engineering design process. When they own it they will do it!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will walk away with a STEM Supply list to use to create an unlimited amount of STEM challenges to encourage creative design and problem-solving. Many of the items on the list are free or very low-cost.

SPEAKERS:
Linda Gowen (Curriculum Consultant), Sue Bedard (iBuild Academy, Inc: ORANGE CITY, FL)

A qualitative phenomenological study investigated high school science teachers who planned and taught lessons that integrated NGSS engineering design practices. Analysis of the data revealed best practices for instruction, assessment, and professional development.

TAKEAWAYS:
The teachers in this study used different ways to teach engineering design, but they all saw engineering as a process of improvement, overcame problems, and grew professionally as they planned and taught engineering lessons with a student-centered pedagogy.

SPEAKERS:
Rachel Stasi (Retired Secondary Science Educator: , IL)