Sponsoring Company: Legends of Learning

Have fun building a catapult to launch cows and learning about trajectories. After this presentation, you’ll walk away with techniques to bring an engaging gaming experience to your classroom, which your students will explore science and engineer practices through.

Advanced spatial thinkers do well in science, and building spatial skills can improve achievement. In this session, we will explore why science teachers should care about spatial skills, pedagogical tools to build these skills, and how they can be put into practice to build scientific knowledge.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will (1) gain an understanding of what spatial skills are and why they are important to success in science learning, courses, and careers; and (2) learn how to incorporate five spatial “tools” into their pedagogy and their students’ activities during science instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Gagnier (Senior Research Scientist: Arlington, VA)

Gardening in a school setting provides an authentic learning environment filled with wonder for students and teachers alike. From small outdoor flower pots to raised beds, these spaces transform not only the environment, but gives all involved a new perspective on where our food comes from.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students gain hands-on experiences with their environment while making connections between what they have planted and the food that goes into the cafeteria. Learn how we transformed an unusable space to create a school garden/outdoor classroom that has had unexpected benefits.

SPEAKERS:
Shelly Butcher (Tozer Primary School, Weld RE-4 School District)

Background information, teacher demonstrations, and fun, hands-on student explorations to better help you introduce K-3 students to the basic concepts of science and energy, as well as measurement.

TAKEAWAYS:
Help educators learn hands-on activities to introduce primary students to the basic concepts of science and energy using NEED's free curriculum while providing suggestions for use across the K-3 setting.

SPEAKERS:
Kimberly Swan (The NEED Project: Manassas, VA)

Leaders from the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and The Lawrence Hall of Science will share insights from the K-5 Project for Content Integration with Science as the Anchor. Participants will learn about the essential features for mutually supportive content integration and the tools, and strategies explored in the project. Participants will discuss their prior experiences with content integration and consider the research-based models used to ground the work of the teachers in this project, who come in from a variety of contexts and with a range of knowledge of NGSS, much like the diverse attendees of NSTA. We will focus on entry points for furthering implementation by introducing an Organizational Tool for planning with NGSS-designed science materials. Participants will reflect on how the resources can apply in their own context as an instructional leader supporting multiple teachers or a teacher using these ideas for their grade level or classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants in this session will gain insight into the principles and definitions of content integration and take away resources, tools and strategies for how these ideas apply in their K-5 educational context.

SPEAKERS:
Diana Velez (The Lawrence Hall of Science: Berkeley, CA), Sarah Pedemonte (The Lawrence Hall of Science: Berkeley, CA), Vanessa Lujan (The Lawrence Hall of Science: Berkeley, CA), Kimberley Astle (Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction: Olympia, WA), Rebecca Abbott (The Lawrence Hall of Science: Berkeley, CA)

Participants will learn about many different books and resources to integrate multiple subjects into their units, lesson plans, and project-based learning units. Teachers will also have the opportunity to see integrated units and some of the planning materials used to build these units.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to use a variety of picture books to build lessons, pbls, and units. This session will give resources and materials to help you quickly and easily find books and other resources to use in your classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Kahlilah Pagan (Teacher: College Park, GA)

This STEM activity includes reading a book and involves one-hour lessons over seven days. Student groups design, build, test, and analyze parachute models.

TAKEAWAYS:
Student groups learn that the engineering design process and the scientific method are circular processes as they design, build, test, and evaluate a parachute model then improve it.

SPEAKERS:
Suzanne Cunningham (Purdue University: West Lafayette, IN)

Sponsoring Company: Lab-Aids

Explore the use of sensemaking strategies to help students understand how selective gene expression works. Come experience a model lesson from a new Lab-Aids' program: Science and Global Issues: Biology, developed by SEPUP. This hands-on workshop will also show a connection to genetic engineering.

Participants will explore data literacy through guided activities create, analyze and interpret data and explore creative and innovative ways to represent data.

TAKEAWAYS:
Data literacy in more in important than ever in our world. Showing teahcers how to help students understand data in a creative way allows all students access to knowledge gained from intepreting data.

SPEAKERS:
Anna Suggs (Teacher: Las Cruces, NM)

Come experience how “Tub People” can be used to deepen young learners’ understanding of subtraction under 10 and how rapid prototypes help solve compelling engineering challenges. We’ll explore how this text and other literature can be an anchor for hands-on early mathematics and engineering.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Great mathematics and engaging engineering challenges can be found in children's literature; 2. Learners of all ages benefit from identifying patterns and discovering multiple ways to represent their understanding; and 3. Whether it be in solving mathematical expressions or finding engineering so

SPEAKERS:
Kate Burton (Trinity School: Atlanta, GA)

Sponsoring Company: STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning

Teaching students to reason and problem solve is the cornerstone of math instruction. This session will highlight several engaging strategies - Three Reads, Numberless Word Problems, and more. These provide multiple entry points for students to engage in the math problem solving process.

SPEAKERS:
Suzan Morris (STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning: Houston, TX), Susan Arnette (STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning: Houston, TX)

This session will discuss what it means to engage in authentic integrated STEM, with a focus on Mathematics, Science and English Language Arts. Ideas for integrating Technology and Engineering will also be discussed. This integrated lesson encompasses the NGSS three dimensional learning approach to explore the concept of forces and motion. Through the use of a read aloud titled Equal Smeechqual by Virginia L. Kroll, students will engage in sequencing, reading comprehension, equal and unequal forces, and mathematical justifications. Results from this lesson conducted with a third grade class will be shared and discussed. In addition to the results of the lesson, tips for constructing meaningful and logical integrated instruction will be discussed.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will take away an NGSS based three dimensional lesson for a third grade integrated lesson on forces and motion that integrate math and ELA standards, as well as general tips for integrating instruction across content areas that are meaningful, purposeful and logical to benefit students.

SPEAKERS:
Christie Martin (University of South Carolina: Columbia, SC), Bridget Miller (University of South Carolina: Columbia, SC)

In this 30 minute session we will explore the common constraints of elementary teachers and how to overcome some of them by using common classroom structures to support science learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Essential Question: How can elementary teachers leverage existing classroom structures to support science learning? Answer: Through the intentional use of math and reading flex group practice to allow students to reinforce and apply scientific concepts outside of traditional “science” time.

SPEAKERS:
Russell Swanson (Instructor: , KS)

Come to a fun, interactive workshop on integrating elementary science with math and writing. Learn how we prepare elementary science teachers to integrate across content areas in meaningful ways for students. Leave with a plan for integrating your own curriculum standards in your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students collecting data in science creates multiple possibilities to integrate math and writing. This session focuses on taking commonly used investigations and adding interdisciplinary connections. Attendees will learn strategies to integrate writing and math to argue scientific claims.

SPEAKERS:
Bailey Nafziger (Georgia Southern University), Alesia Moldavan (Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Science Education), Katie Brkich (Georgia Southern University: Statesboro, GA)