STEM careers are for ALL students! Learn how to bridge the gap between STEM careers & classroom spaces by exploring proven strategies for hosting STEM professionals in your middle school classroom! Walk away with an engagement guide written for middle school teachers, by middle school teachers!

TAKEAWAYS:
Through the lens of equity and inclusion, participants will explore tips for sustained classroom-based STEM career exposure success (both in-person & virtual), including: selecting and preparing speakers, planning an engaging classroom visit, and maintaining relationships with STEM professionals.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Pearson (Adams 12 Five Star Schools), Cameron McKinley (Technology Integration Coach), Tehmina Khan (Science Department Chair: Stratford, CT), Kristen Record (Bunnell High School - National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY): No City, No State)

The Cellphone Holder Design Challenge is a 2-to-3-week unit that utilizes the engineering design process and entrepreneurial thinking and instills in students the importance of communication, documentation, and precise measurement in the creation of new products. During this challenge, students work with a partner and each designs a desktop holder for their partner’s cellphone per their partner’s requirements. Students must document the problem and requirements and design a solution that meets their partner’s approval. They render their design using 3-D modeling software and test the dimensions. Final solutions are 3-D printed for additional testing and presentations, and students walk away with a tangible product made to their specifications. Classroom-based research conducted as part of an NSF Math and Science Partnership has shown that the Cellphone Holder Design Challenge is a highly engaging activity for both students and teachers, and that it supports science and math learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session describes a 2-3-week unit that utilizes the engineering design process as students complete a whole product design cycle, from RFP, client interviews and defining requirements, to ideating, 3-D modeling, prototype testing, and delivering the final 3-D printed product.

SPEAKERS:
Meltem Alemdar (CEISMC, Georgia Institute of Technology: Atlanta, GA), Jessica Gale (Senior Research Scientist), Jeffrey Rosen (CEISMC, Georgia Institute of Technology: Atlanta, GA), Marion Usselman (CEISMC, Georgia Institute of Technology: Atlanta, GA)

Two solar eclipses will cross the U.S.--a 2023 annular and the big 2024 total--with the entire country seeing at least a partial eclipse in both instances. It is important that we aspire to the goal of No Child Left Inside, as the U.S. will not experience another total solar eclipse until 2045!

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to integrate "eclipse science" into your existing curricula to prepare you and your students to observe, record and analyze data from the 2023 Annular and 2024 Total U.S. Solar Eclipses (including a STEM demo on how to construct devices and methods to safely view the Sun).

SPEAKERS:
Charles Fulco (NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassadors: Brooklyn, NY)

Learn how, working with Latinx communities, we’re developing a conceptual framework for a strengths-based approach that guides development of new resources and messaging to generate interest in STEM. Iterative prototype development and formative research are part of the project.

TAKEAWAYS:
Ideas for exploring community-based effort to increase STEM opportunities and resources for Latinx and other youth.

SPEAKERS:
Shawn Stevens (GBH Education: Brighton, MA)

This session will highlight a project that engages elementary and middle school-aged girls in citizen science focused activities. Come and learn how we developed equity and advocacy minded adolescents through place-based community activities.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to establish a collaborative program with community and business partners and engage in equity-supported STEM/STEAM Citizen Science focused activities.

SPEAKERS:
Kyana Young (Assistant Professor: Winston Salem, NC), Denise Johnson (Associate Professor: Winston Salem, NC)

Students have the ability to change this world for the better. They just need a facilitator to help them culminate ideas and put those ideas into action. This session will talk about how students used real life situations that mattered to their schools to create proposals to solve the problem.

TAKEAWAYS:
The use of real life situations can allow an educator to work through multiple disciplines of study to engage student learning.

SPEAKERS:
Kari Walters (Power Center Academy: Memphis, TN)

Bring your community into the classroom by engaging students with the local impacts of STEM careers. This presentation will include resources and strategies for partnering with civil engineers and other field experts in your state and local community.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will have immediately actionable resources that can be used in different curricula and district guidelines including tools for classroom visits, lesson plans for learning about local infrastructure, frameworks for virtual site tours, and templates for networking with local experts.

SPEAKERS:
Hannah Reed (The University of Alabama: Tuscaloosa, AL)

Learn about the next generation of Moon Trees! In honor of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 14 and the original Moon Trees, NASA’s Artemis I rocket contains a new set of seeds. Explore free Moon Trees classroom content tied to STEM and citizen science and receive materials related to Moon Trees.

TAKEAWAYS:
The Artemis Moon Trees provide a unique opportunity to engage students in STEM education that ties together space, Earth, and conservation science. Attendees will learn how to use Moon Trees Education materials and get involved in Moon Trees citizen science opportunities.

SPEAKERS:
Nissa McKinney (FIND Outdoors/Forest Service Cooperator: No City, No State), Rachel Bayer (Environmental Education Specialist), Jessica Nickelsen (Forest Service/ Natural Inquirer)

Community-based STEM (CBSTEM) programs, in this context, are school and organization-independent entities that were founded by local community members who recognized the importance of making STEM learning accessible to girls from populations that are traditionally underrepresented in STEM. This particular CBSTEM program is structured to leverage the financial and human resources of local businesses, organizations, and other community members, i.e., high school students. Middle school girls living in urban communities had an opportunity to engage in authentic STEM learning experiences, mentorship with STEM professionals, and exploration of careers. In addition to providing details about the structure of the program and how it functioned to extend the work of science practitioners, this session will explore how this CBSTEM program was able to pivot and evolve during the COVID-19 pandemic.

TAKEAWAYS:
The main takeaway of this session is to raise awareness about this school-independent community program and others like it that function to extend the work science practitioner do in classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Marisol Jimenez (student), Vanessa Dodo Seriki (Morgan State University: Baltimore, MD)

Incorporating STE(A)M in the classroom is more than just a project at the end of a unit. This session will provide guidelines to create effective STE(A)M lessons or revise lessons currently being used so they are more effective.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain a clear understanding of STE(A)M and identify key considerations for planning an appropriate lesson or unit.

SPEAKERS:
Cathy Barthelemy (STEMexperts: Keller, TX)

The International Space Station National Labs Space Station Explorers has over 25 programs that can help your students be inspired and engaged in real space science and research. As a non-profit organization we strive to bring educators free and low cost K-12 programs.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to become a Space Station Ambassador which will offer them free professional development, access to a community of STEM professionals and give them premier access to new ISS programs.

SPEAKERS:
Courtney Black (ISS National Laboratory: Melbourne, FL)

The CDC Museum has produced a set of 20 free hands-on STEM Lessons centered around public health topics for middle and high school students. Attendees will review the lesson catalog and discuss how they can use them to broaden students’ understandings of public health.

TAKEAWAYS:
The CDC Museum’s STEM Lessons explore issues in public health using the engineering design process, scientific method, or public health approach to outbreak investigation. Learn more about how STEM and public health concepts can be used to improve critical thinking and communication.

SPEAKERS:
Emma Domby (Museum Visitor Experience Manager/Educator: Atlanta, GA), Trudi Ellerman (Education Director: Atlanta, GA)

Teachers will learn about the iWonder process and online tools that help connect students to the community (locally and globally) through place-based, scientific, research projects they create!

TAKEAWAYS:
Students' imagination will be sparked, and science connections with the world outside the classroom will be ignited with iWonder!

SPEAKERS:
Ian Collins (Maine Math and Science Alliance), Rebecca Clark Uchenna (Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance: Augusta, ME), Megan McCall (Barton Academy for Advanced World Studies: No City, No State)

With the Artemis rockets to the moon, we hope to be walking on the lunar surface by 2024. So let's teach more about the moon than just the phases. Here are 5 scalable hands-on activities that explore the lunar features and surface including craters, earth-moon dynamic, moon dust, gravity, and more

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will experience Hands-on Moon activities from the craters to the mountains, from ⅙ the gravity to the single side we see and to what to look for with binoculars alone.

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

Engineering instruction can empower students to address complex societal issues. See students investigate how nutrient pollution impacts ecosystems and their communities, and apply earth and life science concepts to develop and optimize a plan to reduce excess nutrients in a local watershed.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how expanding engineering instruction beyond building simple prototypes can increase students’ interest and stretch their ideas about the role of engineering in society.

SPEAKERS:
Nancy Gifford (Monomoy Regional Middle School: Chatham, MA), Shawn Stevens (GBH Education: Brighton, MA)