Animal movement patterns are phenomena that students can make sense of and explain. A variety of animal movement data sources will be shared with participants, along with strategies for assisting students in data organization and interpretation. During the presentation, participants will engage as students exploring data to answer questions about specific animal movements. Since this is an elementary session, there will be connections made to trade books and disciplinary text, as well as connections to math and geography standards with an emphasis on integration of disciplines that will assist students in making sense of problems and phenomena of animal movement. Examples of data sources include: Movebank, eBird, Journey North, Department of Fish and Wildlife, Tagging of Pelagic Predators, etc.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to access data related to animal movement and migration, along with strategies that enable students to make sense of that data in explaining phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth (Betsy) O'Day (Retired Educator: Kansas City, MO)

If the ultimate goal is for students to understand from experiences, we must carefully consider our professional practices. While hands-on learning can naturally be engaging for students, the experiences must be carefully woven into the flow of instruction to produce the desired outcomes. An important finding from America’s Lab report is that many students view science as a “false dichotomy,” meaning that students think that the hands-on, “doing” part of science is separate from content (Singer, Hilton, and Schweingruber 2006). As a result, the desired outcomes are for students to discard incorrect ideas, accept the most accurate scientific explanations, and for students to learn the nature by which these scientific explanations are generated. Explore-before-explain teaching allows teachers to meet these goals by providing students with immediate experiences to form accurate understandings; and connecting students’ claims to scientifically accepted explanations.

TAKEAWAYS:
An overview of essential planning considerations covers becoming an “explore-before-explain” teacher and designing lessons that use the assets all students bring to learning science.

SPEAKERS:
Patrick Brown (Fort Zumwalt School District R-II: O'Fallon, MO), Anne Green (Fort Zumwalt School District R-II: OFallon, MO)

To get kids excited to come to school, we built a School Zoo with 113 small animals that is run by an Animal Science elective class and student zookeepers. The students learn and run everything, including tours to over 3,000 elementary students. We will discuss the zoo and how to replicate it.

TAKEAWAYS:
Create a classroom or school zoo where your students become advocates and leaders while they learn by solving practical STEM related daily issues that come up.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Szydlowski (Jefferson Middle School: Columbia, MO), Mike Szydlowski (Science Teachers of Missouri: Columbia, MO)

While the concept of the interconnectedness of species seems fairly easy to understand the depth and complexity of these relationships is sometimes overlooked. Ecosystems are built with layers and layers of dynamic relationships and dependencies on top of one another and webbed among one another. In the following simulations, students will begin to visualize just how complex ecosystems are by simulating various scenarios using experiential learning. These simulations are fun and engaging - and also thought provoking and enlightening.  Most of all, students should come away from them with a deeper understanding of the relationships between living things both seen and unseen.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will experience the games as a student would and receive electronic versions of the game pieces for adaptation to your local environment and classroom.

SPEAKERS:
John Lawler (School Programs Instructor: St. Louis, MO), Matthew Magoc (Manager, School Programs and Partnership: No City, No State)

Four methods to integrate (Charles W. [Andy] Anderson): Identify productive questions and goals; Provide rules for sensemaking; Guide the search for evidence; Support analogical reasoning. Using the lesson example - Marshmallows in a Vacuum: Set up a vacuum chamber and place a marshmallow inside. Start removing the air from the chamber. Ask students to make observations of what they see. Once most of the air is removed, stop and reverse the air movement to return to the chamber. Take the mass before each step. Another lesson example, Cookie Alarm: Design a cookie jar that sounds an alarm every time someone opens the jar. Participants are provided a container and micro:bit that they use to construct a solution. We will look through what information we need to gather in order to find the optimum solution to the problem. This will be accomplished without participants needing to code or have access to materials.

TAKEAWAYS:
How to harness the power of CCC's as tools to assist students in making sense of phenomena or solving engineering problems.

SPEAKERS:
Susan German (Hallsville Middle School: Hallsville, MO)