The Nature of Science and Scientific Inquiry are important topics that should be explicitly taught to students, because research tells us that students do not implicitly pick up on the ideas of NOS through just engaging in science. They must engage in direct conversations and activities that address what Science is and how it operates. These conversations should be grounded in accessible phenomena and activities so every student has the opportunity to develop their understanding. The NOS is foundational to being able to engage effectively in science and understanding science at is most basic and conceptual level, as emphasized by the K-12 Framework and NGSS. This session will share some simple activities through rotation stations that can quickly be used throughout the course of a science class to help students discuss and engage in ideas about the Nature of Science.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. It is important to explicitly teach the nature of science to students; 2. The nature of science should be presented in an accessible way to all students; and 3. Attendees will walk away with activities they can use in their class immediately to teach the NOS.

SPEAKERS:
Kelly Moore (Tennessee Tech: Cookeville, TN)

The EYE curriculum unit was co-created by middle school science teachers and architectural studies and science education faculty with the goal of improving students’ energy literacy and energy conservation practices. It consists of four modules that span six weeks of classroom instruction. The modules include investigations on energy and energy systems, natural and artificial lighting, building heating and cooling, and a capstone engineering project that guides students in designing a new classroom. The unit is place-based, using the local school building as a source of shared student experiences to connect to abstract energy concepts. Our workshop will overview the EYE unit structure and rationale and cover some of the key energy and architecture concepts embedded in the unit. We will provide hands-on experiences and a venue tour to model how building features can be leveraged to teach fundamental energy concepts in a real-world context for improved student engagement and learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Our workshop venue will allow us to model how the EYE unit leverages tangible building features to enhance students’ understanding of abstract energy concepts. Attendees will receive a link to EYE’s classroom-ready materials, including engineering game cards, a budget spreadsheet, and slide decks.

SPEAKERS:
Meera Sood (Smithton Middle School: Columbia, MO), Suzy Otto (University of Missouri: Rolla, MO)

In this session educators will be presented with the following equity frameworks: (1) Equity and NGSS, (2) Inclusive Ed Tech, (3) Culturally Responsive and Sustaining STEM, (4) Anti-Racist STEM, and (5) Environmental Justice. Educators will work in small groups to learn more about their equity framework of choice and summarize their learning for a larger group. Next, groups will unpack equity moves to identify how they support or hinder equity work through the lens of the framework they selected and identify next steps. By the end of the session, each group will share out actions they can take in their classroom to create a more equitable STEM classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will leave with knowledge of equity frameworks and unique next steps that can be implemented into their classroom for a more equitable, inclusive, culturally responsive, and anti-racist classroom community.

SPEAKERS:
Kelly Houston (STEM Ed Innovators: Yarmouth Port, MA)

Science writing is an essential part of authentic science. However, both perception and reality suggest that science texts of various genres are difficult and challenging for many students. What can a teacher do to help students meet challenges so that they can realize the beauty and significance of pivotal works in the history of science, groundbreaking contemporary research, and the deep reflections found in scientific creative non-fiction? In this workshop we will try out techniques based on cooperative groups who create graphic narratives and lay summaries. An assortment of texts will be available to explore, like the concluding paragraph to Darwin’s Origin of Species and the story of Carbon by Primo Levi. Experience in the classroom will be shared where understanding of the texts is achieved by students, including reluctant readers and English language learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
Great, significant, and sometimes difficult written works in science can become accessible to students through cooperative groups, graphic narratives, and lay summaries.

SPEAKERS:
Richard Frazier (retired: Holts Summit, MO)

The Smoky Mountains STEM Collaborative is a STEM learning ecosystem in rural western North Carolina and has been a NASA Science Activation partner since 2016. We have over a decade of combined experience in assisting educators in utilizing NASA resources through a local lens in their classroom and out-of-school-time programs. As a rural region, we are familiar with the difficulty that comes with reaching disenfranchised learners that may struggle with broadband access. Participants will be introduced to a number of resources and hands-on activities they can utilize in low or no-bandwidth areas, as well as partners they can collaborate with in order to broaden and deepen their impact in their classroom and community. We will conduct a few example activities tailored for middle school educators, with suggestions to be scalable for learners in high school, post-secondary, and informal settings.

TAKEAWAYS:
After engaging in some hands-on activities, attendees will leave with access to a digital library of resources as well as personal connections to bring NASA Science into their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Randi Neff (STEM Program Coordinator: Sylva, NC), Matthew Cass (Physics and Astronomy Instructor: Sylva, NC)

Participants will experience using dialogue structures and literacy skills in the science classroom. Research shows that when students are engaged with the content and are allowed the chance to make sense of it for themselves, they will learn more. Participants will experience mini lessons that incorporate phenomena and showcase research-proven structures. Participants will be actively learning strategies that can be implemented in classrooms to increase visual literacy amongst students. Strategies include reading, writing, speaking, and graphing skills. Science examples will be modeled. There will be collaborative discussions on how these strategies can be incorporated into a variety of grade levels. Throughout these strategies, we will focus on the dialogue structures set in place to encourage all students to participate and use the academic language. Each of these structures focuses on the teacher being the facilitator of the learning, rather than leading the discussions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Takeaways include: 1. Identify how literacy and dialogue are an integral part in sensemaking; 2. Engage in examples of activities that integrate speaking, listening, and reading into the science classroom; and 3. Pick up tips to promote retention of vocabulary through scaffolding.

SPEAKERS:
Molly Niedens (Tays Junior High School: Katy, TX)

The session will give teachers an opportunity to participate in the same sort of rich and meaningful learning experiences that are called for by the NGSS. This session, as a result, will include approximately forty minutes of audience participation in student hat. Teachers will leave with high-quality instructional materials that they can use in their own classrooms. The agenda for this session is: • A discussion of characteristics of phenomenon-based instruction and sensemaking (5 mins). • A discussion of obstacles to sensemaking during a learning experience (10 minutes). • An opportunity for participants to experience an example of how support learners use DCIs, CCs, and SEPs during a learning experience in a way that makes the process of sensemaking useful and inclusive (40 mins). • Questions and suggestions for learning more (5 mins).

TAKEAWAYS:
Introducing meaningful phenomena is necessary, but not sufficient for fostering sensemaking. Students must also have opportunities to use DCIs, CCs, and SEPs during the learning experience, and the experience must be structured in ways that make the process of sensemaking useful and inclusive.

SPEAKERS:
Victor Sampson (The University of Texas at Austin: Austin, TX)

This presentation will provide teachers with a ready-to-teach Unit designed to help their students experience several Physical Science, Earth-Space Science, and Engineering NGSS standards. The unit addresses global weather patterns and the impacts of potential pattern changes. It also addresses thermal energy and its applications in building design. All middle school science teachers; whether new to the profession, new to phenomena-based learning, or seasoned veterans will find something new and exciting to bring back to their classrooms. This Unit combines my understanding of the middle school science classroom with expertise of curriculum writers at Pacific Education Institute. Teachers will receive help planning lessons, activities, and discussions. They will also take the role of a student to have first-hand experience with labs and activities. Teachers will receive a digital copy of all of the instructional materials including grading rubrics.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn how to teach and assess a dynamic 3-D unit addressing Physical Science and Earth Space Science NGSS Standards. Teachers will leave with editable access to all Unit materials. Teachers will get time and guidance on how to adapt the Unit to their classroom and student needs.

SPEAKERS:
Kat Chamberlain (Ridgetop Middle School: Silverdale, WA)

Participants in this session will learn about NASA’s Heliophysics Big Year (Oct 23-Dec 24), including an annual eclipse, a total eclipse, and the culmination of the Parker Solar Probe Project. Learn the basic mechanics of how and why eclipses occur while engaging in low-cost and hands-on activities such as Sun Paper, UV Beads and Solar Radiation, and how to make a cereal box viewer. Attendees will enjoy engaging activities while learning about the next total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. A total solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth and completely blocks the face of the Sun. Those in the path of totality will experience a total eclipse and the sky will become very dark as if it were dawn or dusk. If the skies are clear, people can even see the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, with their own eyes. Learn about these solar eclipses as well as NASA’s Solar Eclipse Toolkit, including lesson plans, activities, safety guides, videos, and so much more!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn about the upcoming solar eclipse, explore resources within NASA STEM’s Solar Eclipse Toolkit, learn how to view the eclipse safely with their students, and walk away with standards-aligned hands-on activities that can be shared with students in both formal and informal settings.

SPEAKERS:
Dr. Sagirah Wheeler (NASA Education Specialist: Baltimore, MD), Monica Uribe (NASA: Kyle, TX)

The growth of human settlements and natural resource use have impacted our wild spaces and led to fragmented habitats, pollution, and overharvesting. In this hands-on session, the presenter will lead participants in hands-on classroom activities that explore ecological footprints and possible paths toward sustainability. The presenter will introduce concepts around human ecology, including human population trends, biodiversity trends, and how human activities (agricultural expansion, deforestation, etc.) have impacted wildlife habitats. Most of the session will be the demonstration of hands-on activities that address NGSS content, but also integrate mathematics, social studies, and language arts. Activity formats include a large-group simulation on carrying capacity in nature, a visual demonstration of the breakdown of land use around the globe, and a modeling activity on biodiversity threats in different ecosystems.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn hands-on, collaborative approaches to guide students’ inquiry around key ecological concepts on population, wildlife, and biodiversity, using 3-D strategies and sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Vanessa Wyss (Ferris State University: Big Rapids, MI)

Learn a design process for creating three-dimensional assessment tasks that support instruction and student learning. Participants will be introduced to each phase: unpacking dimensions, developing integrated dimension maps, articulating learning performances, identifying phenomena, and designing tasks.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn the steps of a systematic process for designing three-dimensional tasks that align with NGSS performance expectations, take into consideration students’ diverse backgrounds, and can be used in classrooms to provide information to teachers and students to improve learning.

SPEAKERS:
Joseph Krajcik (CREATE for STEM Institute, Michigan State University: East Lansing, MI)

In today’s fast-paced world, chronic stress is common, but your mind and body can pay a high price. Learn to recognize overwhelming stress—and what you can do about it. Most importantly, learn how to use the power of your senses to relieve stress on the spot and stay calm, productive, and focused—no matter what life throws at you.

TAKEAWAYS:
Tips on how to manage stress.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Phillips (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Azra Chughtai (NSTA: McLean, VA)

The drinking bird is a classic heat engine toy that has been featured in popular culture. Although the cause-and-effect relationship for this phenomenon is clear, the mechanism for its repetitive movement is puzzling for most students. In this workshop, participants will use investigative and sensemaking practices to explore the drinking bird phenomenon. This interactive 3-D lesson is in alignment with the goals, standards, and practices of the NGSS. In addition, tips to enhance the development and use of student explanatory models will be featured.

TAKEAWAYS:
Workshop participants will experience an interactive and engaging three-dimensional lesson that is in alignment with the goals and practices of the Next Generation Science Standards. In addition, tips to enhance the development and use of student-created explanatory models will be featured.

SPEAKERS:
Bryan Horan (Northport - East Northport UFSD: Coram, NY)

Curriculum implementation is complicated and requires significant planning so that the system, including everyone in it, can make the needed shifts in practice to reap the benefits of using high-quality instructional materials to strengthen science teaching and learning. Participants will have a common experience with “a change” and consider important lessons that can help them lead change in their systems.

TAKEAWAYS:
Leaders can create a culture that is conducive to the significant changes in knowledge, beliefs, and practices required to support the implementation of high-quality instructional materials for next generation science.

SPEAKERS:
Janna Mahfoud (BSCS Science Learning: Laveen, AZ), Susan Gomez Zwiep (BSCS Science Learning: Long Beach, CA), Jody Bintz (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

This is session #2 in the NSTA Professional Learning Committee's CCCs Conference Course and is designed to support K-12. Attendees will explore the Framework progression documents to understand what is appropriate for their grade level. They will learn about and engage in hands-on activities paired with talk strategies and protocols that focus classroom talk on making sense of observations and data using the Crosscutting Concepts. Attendees will have the chance to talk with fellow participants about how they might use these strategies and tools in their classroom or role and how they can be differentiated to be used at different grade levels. Participants will leave with a virtual toolbox of resources they can take home and apply right away in their sphere.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with discussion strategies and tools they can implement right away in classrooms to support student discourse and sensemaking anchored in the Crosscutting Concepts.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Garelli (Arizona Science Teachers Association: Gilbert, AZ), Kimberley Astle (Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction: Vancouver, WA)

Participants will experience the potential of teaching climate science through the lens of writing climate fiction. We will learn about the history of the science fiction genre as well as the newer subgenre of climate fiction ("CliFi") and note key contributions to science through innovative and speculative thinking made possible through literature. Participants will experience a crash course version of a unit in which students write a climate fiction novella integrating NGSS and CCSS for Science and Technical Subjects which will spur their curiosity in what “could be” with regard to climate science solutions. Participants will dive into aspects of unit facilitation of the writing and reading processes and leave with a framework for K-12 implementation as well as publication pathways. This experience can be personalized to meet student need through Universal Design for Learning strategies.

TAKEAWAYS:
Through implementation of a climate fiction writing unit, teachers can introduce skills and habits of mind that support youth innovation in addressing climate issues.

SPEAKERS:
Erin Lark (Kognity: Vancouver, WA)

University of Illinois STEM educators have created classroom activities that allow students to conceptually explore topics in electricity. The workshop activities include assembling a breakout board that models a simplified power system for a small neighborhood. The circuit prototype responds to an outage and redirects the flow of power. Participants explore the components and characteristics of simple circuits, logic gates, and relays. They also engage in an energy delivery themed, escape room style activity developed by educators at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with support from the US Department of Energy. This virtual environment presents a fictional, but based on real events, cascading blackout scenario and challenges players to find the cause. Participants analyze data from the blackout, determine what went wrong, and propose strategies to prevent another such event in the future. Time will be allotted for debriefing and sharing ideas for classroom implementation.

TAKEAWAYS:
The US power grid is the system of producers and consumers of electricity. It includes power generators, switches, substations, miles of power lines, and millions of transformers. The power grid is continually evolving as we integrate alternative power resources and invent technologies.

SPEAKERS:
Lara Hebert (Assistant Director, Engineering Public Engagement: Urbana, IL), Jana Sebestik (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Champaign, IL)

Digitized versions of Thomas Jefferson’s weather journal, Robert Hooke’s first drawings of cells, photographs from the Dust Bowl, and historic newspaper accounts of electric cars all provide opportunities to understand how scientists and engineers think, practice, and apply scientific principles in the real world; how scientific ideas evolve over time; and how science and engineering are related to society. The Library of Congress has millions of free primary sources online. This workshop will focus on how analyzing such sources can help K-12 teachers meet standards and teaching goals, particularly around the nature of science, practices of scientists, and how science, technology, and society interact. Library education experts will facilitate hands-on activities using primary sources and share ways teachers nationwide have used them. Participants will also leave with strategies for using primary sources to develop critical thinking skills and highlight interdisciplinary connections.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to access millions of free digitized primary sources and practice hands-on strategies for using them to promote critical thinking skills and a deeper understanding of real-world scientific practices, the nature of science, and connections between science and society.

SPEAKERS:
Kelsey Beeghly (Einstein Fellow: Altamonte Springs, FL), Michael Apfeldorf (Library of Congress: Purcellville, VA)

This activity has students/participants act as particles. To start, participants are given baseline information about how attractive forces between particles can vary from very strong to negligible, & that particles are always in motion. Participants then split into three groups, strong, moderate, & weak forces. To model very strong forces participants link arms at the elbow, for moderately strong forces they hold hands, & for weak/negligible forces they can only hold each other’s pinky fingers. Participants start far apart & move very slowly to model a very cold temperature. At this speed, all of the participants are able to catch onto each other & form an organized structure (solid). With each iteration the participants move faster; this results in the weak-force group not being able to form a structure (gas), the moderate-force group being clumped together but not organized (liquid), & the strong-force group still being able to form an organized structure (solid).

TAKEAWAYS:
Students will not only know the properties of solids, liquids, and gasses, but will be able to give in-depth explanations as to WHY the properties are different by behaving as the particles at different temperatures and with different attractive forces.

SPEAKERS:
Clark Ellis (The Kinkaid School: Houston, TX)

Participants will learn about forms of energy and their transformations by experimenting through six stations. Stations cover potential and kinetic energy, endothermic and exothermic processes, radiant energy, thermal and motion energy, chemical energy, and electrical energy. Within each, there are multiple activities to showcase the energy transformations occurring. The stations will be set up with materials needed, a hypothesis prompt, procedure list, and a station guide for recording data. For example, a yo-yo stores gravitational potential energy when it is in your hand until it drops. When it drops, the yo-yo transforms the potential energy into motion. At the end of experimenting, participants will review a “What’s Happening” sheet that explains what form of energy and energy transformation occurred in that station, as well as how it’s tied to the real-world applications. NEED activities are free and easily differentiated at the elementary, intermediate, and secondary level.

TAKEAWAYS:
How to help students master forms of energy and their transformations and how it can be visualized in the world around them.

SPEAKERS:
Don Pruett, Jr. (Washington Science Teachers Association: Puyallup, WA)

Mi-STAR is a program at Michigan Technological University dedicated to quality NGSS-aligned curriculum since 2015. We listen carefully to teachers and respond with support. One of the struggles teachers mention most often is in scaffolding students to write CERs and arguments. In our presentation, we propose an addition to the traditional template: the scientific principles, which are then combined with evidence in the reasoning statement. Later, we add another part: a space for using persuasive writing to construct an argument. We model activities from our 5E lesson throughout. Teachers collaborate to create CERs, and to evaluate arguments written by others. Then, they construct their own arguments using a productive talk routine and persuasive language prompts. Participants gain confidence in supporting students to construct explanations and arguments, as well as get first-hand experience with a lesson, tools, and activities they can take back to their classroom for immediate use.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with clear and concise definitions of reasoning, explanations, and argumentation, along with a lesson plan, activities, and templates to help students define and construct all three in the science classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Jenne VandePanne (Michigan Technological University/Newaygo Public Schools: Newaygo, MI), Chris Geerer (Mi-STAR: Rochester, MI)

As the Clean Air Partners’ Education Program Manager, I will introduce the Clean Air Partners organization, our On the Air © curriculum, and how to navigate and implement the curriculum in science classrooms. There are five modules: 1) Our Lungs, Our Air, Our Health; 2) What’s the Forecast; 3) Air Pollution in the Community; 4) Air and the Chesapeake Bay; and 5) Air and Climate Change. I will explain how modules and lessons are formatted for faster navigation and facilitation. I will also share how to access the lessons for free on our website. Teachers will engage in very brief activities from five selected lessons, one from each module. I will highlight best science teaching practices, such as CER, anchor charts, KWL charts, and other visual thinking routines embedded in lessons. Teachers will have paper copies of the student-facing documents for each lesson and will be encouraged to work together during the session to complete lesson activities.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to access and teach the free On the Air © curriculum resources to explore air pollution issues and solutions.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth Spike (Clean Air Partners: Alexandria, VA)

The session will open with having participants work through pieces of Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 from Once Upon a Physical Science Book. We will play with marbles to explore inertia, read about inertia's effect on kids in a school bus, and write an explanation of inertia. Then we'll try out gumdrop wave machines read, an article on bat echolocation, and outline a short letter that students could write after doing the reading. Next, we will discuss the "shape" of the lesson we just worked through, called a literacy learning cycle. From there, we will look at several specific difficulties that arise for students when they are asked to read and write (expectations, background knowledge, and meaningful writing). These topics will illustrate why a literacy learning cycle is so helpful. Finally, we will talk briefly about how the Once Upon a Science Book series can serve as a resource for literacy learning cycles.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be introduced to the literacy learning cycle format, in which hands-on work precedes meaningful reading and writing activities. They will see how this system works by participating in lessons on wave motion and inertia.

SPEAKERS:
Matthew Hackett (Delta Woods Middle School: Blue Springs, MO), Jodi Wheeler-Toppen (Author/ Staff Development: Atlanta, GA)

In this interactive session, we share important lessons learned through our work with states, educators, and developers to support equitable systems of science assessment. These lessons can help us develop better 3D assessment tasks, processes, and systems that lead to better outcomes for learners. With over a decade of assessment evaluation and design experience, our team is excited to share ideas for how to improve the 3D assessment design process. These lessons range from shifting assessment development to focus on 3D sensemaking to thinking holistically about unpacking and design to taking an assessment system lens throughout the development process. We will engage participants in activities that demonstrate our lessons learned and connect to how these lessons lead to equitable curriculum-anchored assessment systems. The resources and processes shared in this session are applicable to K-12 science learning. The session will be interactive.

TAKEAWAYS:
Three-dimensional assessment design is tricky -- come join us to discuss how we can take a systems approach and develop better 3-D assessments.

SPEAKERS:
Kelley Turner (Winchester Public Schools: Winchester, VA), Sara Cooper (Contextus: Lincoln, NE), Dawn Novak (Northwestern University: Grayslake, IL)

How do populations fluctuate in the Hudson River ecosystem, and how do these changes affect the larger ecological community? Using data and hands-on investigations, we will explore how food webs and the abiotic resources have changed in response to the zebra mussel invasion. Teachers will get a lesson explaining how the zebra mussel invasion affected the food web of the Hudson River and be able to explain at least two connections within the food web that were affected using evidence from provided data. Data will include charts and graphs that depict organisms commonly found in the Hudson. When utilizing this lesson in the classroom, students will know what lives in the Hudson River, and will be able to create & study a food web drawing to represent the organisms living in the river. They will also know that the Hudson River food web is changing in response to the zebra mussel invasion, and will be able to make predictions about how native organisms will be affected by this invasion.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will get a lesson explaining how the zebra mussel invasion affected the food web of the Hudson River and be able to explain at least two connections within the food web that were affected using evidence from provided data.

SPEAKERS:
Karen Pennywell (Cardiff Junior High School: KATY, TX), Sandra Rodriguez (Katy ISD: Katy, TX)

Slides with diagrams of the anatomy of the larynx are shown with the parts & functions being described to participants. As the anatomy is being taught there will be breaks for participants to talk to each other while feeling their throats, chest, nose, mouth, jaw, etc to feel the vibrations & notice how damping the vibrations changes how participants sound to themselves & others. Next, videos of an opera singer in an MRI machine are shown to see the anatomy in action. After this whistles, & recorders will be passed out for participants to play the same note but hear the difference in sound. A visualizer showing the relative amplitude of each frequency is used as participants play so they can see that each instrument creates its own unique set of waves in addition to the fundamental tone that is being played. The process is repeated for multiple singers that are singing the same note.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be able to use direct instruction, demonstrations, and short activities to explain the basics of how human voices are able to produce sound, why each person/instrument has a unique sound, and why your voice sounds different to you than it does on recordings.

SPEAKERS:
Brendan Emig (Middle/Upper School Choral Director: Houston, TX), Clark Ellis (The Kinkaid School: Houston, TX)

Human activities have caused changes in global temperature and weather patterns. This generation of students will need to understand climate science in order to adapt to this changing environment. In this session, participants will explore a project in which students incorporate engineering and basic coding - no experience necessary. We will use micro:bit technology to connect basic coding commands to collect authentic data using embedded sensors. Participants will use this collected data to modify design solutions based on human vulnerabilities to severe weather. Participants will find ways to expose their students to the engineering capabilities needed to solve problems. This project allows students to compare design solutions to identify which is best for the problem at hand and to experience the interactive process of evaluating solutions. This project allows for the authentic integration of technology, mathematics, crosscutting concepts, science practices, and easy implementation

TAKEAWAYS:
Use technology to expose students to coding and engineering design solutions for severe weather.

SPEAKERS:
Stacy Thibodeaux (Southside High School: Scott, LA), Jessica Kohout (Educational Consultant: Ellicott City, MD)

Opportunities abound for young people to learn about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in a range of settings outside of the classroom. They can engage with STEM in summer camps, after-school programs, Boys & Girls Clubs, and even trendy birthday parties. Numerous studies document the benefits of effective out-of-school STEM learning—e.g., increased interest in STEM, enriched knowledge of STEM ideas, enhanced confidence, and a sense of accomplishment. Given the benefits of out-of-school STEM learning and to increase access to high-quality STEM experiences for our middle schoolers, we developed an after-school program for them to enjoy STEM in engaging, authentic, and relevant ways. We will (1) share the framework/commitments that guided the design of our “Out-of-School and Into STEM” club, (2) model an abbreviated club session, and (3) provide resources for participants that may be helpful in designing their own out-of-school STEM experiences for students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be provided with a framework and resources to guide the design of an out-of-school STEM Club and participate in a design-based club activity.

SPEAKERS:
Raven Brzeszkiewicz (Indianapolis Public Schools: Indianapolis, IN), Jared Simoneaux (Longfellow IB World School: Kokomo, IN), Megan Johnson (Longfellow Middle School: Indianapolis, IN), Lynn Bryan (Purdue University: West Lafayette, IN)

This is session #3 in the PL Committee CCCs Pathway and is designed to support K-12. Participants will explore the Framework progression documents to understand what is appropriate for their grade level in relation to the Crosscutting Concept of Patterns. They will learn about and engage with a few effective instructional strategies, including the I2 Strategy from BSCS (Identify and Interpret), and how to use a “slow reveal” approach to help students make sense of data and graphs. Attendees will also have the opportunity to explore a variety of online sources for obtaining data for students to analyze and interpret. Participants will leave with a virtual toolbox of resources they can take home and immediately apply in their classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with sensemaking strategies for engaging students in the Science and Engineering Practice of Analyzing and Interpreting Data, through the lens of the Crosscutting Concept of Patterns, that can immediately be implemented with students!

SPEAKERS:
Kimberley Astle (Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction: Vancouver, WA), Rebecca Garelli (Arizona Science Teachers Association: Gilbert, AZ)

Curriculum implementation requires a robust professional learning program to support teachers in making the shifts toward the three dimensional phenomenon-and-problem-driven science teaching and learning called for in NRC’s Framework for K-12 Science Education. This experience is grounded in BSCS Science Learning’s new instructional model, Anchored Inquiry Learning (AIL), and an immersion model of professional learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Leaders can support teachers with making the instructional shifts called for in the NRC’s Framework through immersive, curriculum-based professional learning programs.

SPEAKERS:
Jenine Cotton-Proby (BSCS Science Learning: Waldorf, MD), Cynthia Gay (BSCS Science Learning: Steamboat Springs, CO), Jody Bintz (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

This will give information that will enable participants to replicate a STEM outreach event with various theme ideas. The activities are all low-cost and adaptable across student ages and generations of family members. The activities are meant to provide opportunities for students and families to experience success in a fun and enriching way while engaging with STEM concepts from the NRC K-12 Framework. We will also discuss how we used this event as a way for our preservice teachers to experience and practice implementing informal education strategies. This event was hosted at our local STEM Center, but we will also discuss ways that it can be implemented at school STEM nights, at community events, or even as neighborhood "pop-up" events to reach diverse learners in equitable ways.

TAKEAWAYS:
STEM Outreach events can be a way to engage students and families in equitable STEM learning to encourage and support all learners. This will provide information on how to replicate a STEM outreach event we hosted at our local STEM Center along with ideas about implementing it in different formats.

SPEAKERS:
Kelly Moore (Tennessee Tech: Cookeville, TN)

Students today are exposed to an information-rich environment that is inundated with visual images. Likewise, science relies heavily on the use of visuals to present technical information. Instructional strategies will be shared that use infographics to engage students with the science and engineering practices to make sense of complex information quickly and clearly. Participants will experience a “think-aloud” to extrapolate information from an infographic and work through an evaluation tool to determine its scientific credibility. In addition, they will learn ways to incorporate infographics to spark debate, construct a scientific argument using the claim-evidence-reasoning framework, and complete a problem analysis to find a solution to an everyday problem. Finally, resources will be shared in how to develop student-created infographics.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn instructional strategies to support student sensemaking through the use of visually-rich infographics. This includes using science and engineering practices to analyze and interpret data, construct explanations, and engage in argument from evidence in secondary classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Tina Hovance (Katy ISD: Katy, TX)

Are you ready to start inventing with your students but don’t know how to start? Do you have students with innovative ideas who need help protecting those ideas? Intellectual property can be a complex and often confusing topic, but it's essential for students to understand how to protect their own ideas and creations. Many teachers recognize the need to help their students protect their ideas and inventions when they work on science and engineering projects, but may not have a background in IP or the resources to teach it effectively. This presentation will provide an overview of how to teach IP and invention education in science classrooms, with a focus on practical and hands-on activities that engage students. Participants will leave with resources and ideas for incorporating invention education and IP into their own classrooms.This presentation is suitable for science teachers of all levels, from elementary to high school. No prior knowledge of IP is necessary.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with resources and ideas for incorporating invention and intellectual property education into their classrooms. This presentation is suitable for science teachers of all levels, from elementary to high school. No prior knowledge of IP is necessary.

SPEAKERS:
Kathy Hoppe (STEMisED, Inc: Rio Rico, AZ), Kathleen Lanman (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office: Alexandria, VA)

Mi-STAR, now also known outside of Michigan as Anchored Science, is a program at Michigan Technological University dedicated to quality NGSS-aligned curriculum since 2015. We listen carefully to teachers and respond with support. Consistently we’ve heard teachers request materials that will help them promote literacy in their science classrooms. In response, we’ve worked with West Ed's Reading Apprenticeship specialists and classroom teachers to develop both integrated instructional practices and optional reading support materials. Our literacy activities are designed with strategies to promote metacognition and model the text interactions of skilled readers for students of all reading levels. We’d like to share our journey, and also share some examples and templates for teachers to use in their own classrooms. Come see how this approach can promote literacy and equity in science.

TAKEAWAYS:
A selection of Anchored Science by Mi-STAR examples and templates for scaffolded literacy supports will be provided. Use them with your own texts in your classroom next week!

SPEAKERS:
Jenne VandePanne (Michigan Technological University/Newaygo Public Schools: Newaygo, MI), Chris Geerer (Mi-STAR: Rochester, MI)

Sensemaking with the three dimensions is the focal construct we want to measure in science assessments - not the phenomenon or problem or the three-dimensions. Making sense of phenomena and/or problems is how students show us they can use the three dimensions to figure out something. This is what we want to assess and how we will really know that students understand the three dimensions. Yet, centering sensemaking in assessment design is difficult and often sensemaking is missing in assessments. Join us for a deep dive into sensemaking and 3D assessment. In this interactive session, participants will engage with exemplary examples of sensemaking in assessment tasks and practice foregrounding sensemaking in assessment design. The resources and processes shared in this session are applicable to K-12 science learning. The session will be interactive.

TAKEAWAYS:
Leave with examples of 3-D sensemaking in assessment tasks and activities for building better assessments that elicit student sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Cooper (Contextus: Lincoln, NE), Kelley Turner (Winchester Public Schools: Winchester, VA)

EdReports is well known for its reports evaluating high-quality instructional materials (HQIM), however this session will support participants in understanding EdReports beyond the reports. We will dig into how to identify local priorities and set an instructional vision that will serve as a benchmark for a smart instructional materials adoption process. We will deliver strategies for engaging local educators and stakeholders in decision making and equip leaders with how to be advocates for HQIM. Participants will engage in large and small group conversations to reflect on their local adoption practices and learn about how to utilize EdReports resources to improve current practice. Participants will be provided with resources highlighting the resources EdReports offers around materials adoption as well as aspects of the review tools and reports.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to develop local priorities and establish an instructional vision, will engage with EdReports reviews of instructional materials to make informed decisions based on local context, and will leave with materials to support replicating this process with local educators.

SPEAKERS:
Teresa Eliopoulos (EdReports.org: Alexandria, VA), Sam Shaw (EdReports.org: PIERRE, SD)

Science does not exist in a vacuum. From environmental policy, to public health issues, to the regulation of food, drugs, and dangerous materials, addressing socio-scientific challenges requires an understanding of both scientific concepts and social contexts. Analyzing historical primary sources from the Library of Congress – including photographs, political cartoons, newspapers, maps and more – can provide students with an opportunity to reflect on this interplay between science and society and offer insights into how citizens and scientists have contributed to social change. The Library has millions of primary sources free online. In this workshop, Library education experts will facilitate hands-on activities using select primary sources and share ways that teachers have used them with students. Participants will leave with concrete strategies for engaging students in primary source analysis to build critical thinking skills and deepen their understanding of socio-scientific issues.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to access millions of free digitized primary sources and practice hands-on strategies to help students gain critical thinking skills while they reflect on the connections between science, society, and social change through authentic historical examples.

SPEAKERS:
Kelsey Beeghly (Einstein Fellow: Altamonte Springs, FL), Michael Apfeldorf (Library of Congress: Purcellville, VA)

A meta-learning experience of Claim Evidence Reasoning for participants to experience best practices first hand. Intro Activity: Reflect and share their level of knowledge with CER Explore the CER framework and the importance of each component Guiding Question: How can we deeply incorporate CER throughout an entire concept? Claim What is a claim? Benefits of teaching CER? How do we support students in stating claims? Activity: Make your claim about the guiding question after they explore an engaging phenomena. Observations to Evidence What is evidence? Why is it important? How do we build students' muscles to collect quality evidence? Activity: Explore several examples of evidence and use a rubric to determine the quality of evidence. Reasoning and closing Share criteria for a strong reasoning and how students can differentiate evidence from reasoning Activity: Look through reasoning examples, highlight key components based on the criteria. Close out with a 3-2-1 reflection

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to improve evidence-based writing skills and communicate scientific knowledge exploring each component of CER. Specifically, how students can construct clear claims, select appropriate evidence to support their claims, and how reasoning ties together claim and evidence.

SPEAKERS:
Brooke Bouldry-Morrison (Standards Alignment Specialist: Barrington, NH), Anna Meyer (Pickerington Local School District: Pickerington, OH)

eCYBERMISSION is a free online STEM competition for students in grades 6-9 that promotes teamwork, self-discovery, and real-life applications of STEM. The competition’s phenomenon-based learning approach encourages students to investigate challenges in their community while developing critical thinking and problem-solving. We’ll discuss how you can utilize the standards-aligned resources, grants and student awards worth thousands of dollars to engage students. We’ll also form teams to compete in our own mini-eCYBERMISSION competition. You’ll choose a community challenge, develop a plan to explore it and apply STEM concepts throughout the process. The winning team will even walk away with a special prize! This session is aimed at STEM educators who are looking for innovative ways to engage their students. Join us as we discover how eCYBERMISSION can enhance your students' learning experience! eCYBERMISSION is part of the Army Educational Outreach Program and administered by NSTA.

TAKEAWAYS:
eCYBERMISSION is a free, virtual STEM competition for grades 6-9 that is supported by a wealth of standards-aligned resources. Attendees will discover strategies to utilize student-chosen local phenomena as the basis for long-term projects while participating in a rewarding STEM competition.

SPEAKERS:
Carey Dieleman (National Science Teaching Association: Bettendorf, IA), Brian Kutsch (National Science Teaching Association, eCYBERMISSION: Maumelle, AR)

The conceptual understanding of the interactions between Earth Systems, particularly the atmosphere and the hydrosphere, allows students to expand their knowledge further of concepts like weather, climate, and climate change. But research (Dove, 1999; Henriques, 2002; Phillips, 1991) shows that teachers and students have a poor understanding of basic weather-related concepts. In this workshop, teachers will be given a 5E lesson incorporating activities that will enable them to better integrate the phenomena of high and low-pressure systems (Disciplinary Core Idea ESS2D) into their curriculum. Besides the 5E lesson, participants will receive additional resources for implementing how these highs and lows interact during the winter to produce Nor'easters and Midwestern Winter Bomb systems. This workshop aims to better prepare those teaching about this important phenomenon in our nation's classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will be given a 5E lesson incorporating activities that will enable them to integrate better the phenomena of high- and low-pressure systems into their curriculum. Participants will also receive additional resources on incorporating winter weather systems in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Dannah Schaffer (Minot State University: Minot, ND)

Leaders will study the Core Design Features and Structural Design Features of curriculum-based professional learning to figure out how they can use them together to support teachers in making the shifts called for in NRC’s Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards. These shifts promote three-dimensional phenomenon and problem-driven science teaching and learning. Participants will read and discuss excerpts of the report from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Elements: Transforming Teaching Through Curriculum-Based Professional Learning. They will have opportunities to make connections from the text to the previous two sessions in this series and/or to their prior experiences.

TAKEAWAYS:
By attending to Core and Structural Design Features of curriculum-based professional learning, leaders take a systems approach to supporting teachers in the instructional shifts called for by NRC’s Framework. These shifts promote three-dimensional phenomena/problem-driven science teaching and learning.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Belcastro (Science Educator/Grad Student: Fort Collins, CO), Jody Bintz (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

In this session educators will be presented with several research-based STEM equity moves that can be used in their classroom. These equity moves fall under the following categories: (1) Equity and NGSS, (2) Inclusive Ed Tech, (3) Culturally Responsive and Sustaining STEM, (4) Anti-Racist STEM. Educators will select an equity move and engage in a Remix Protocol to modify the equity moves to fit their classroom and context, and may even modify an activity, lesson, and/or assessment for their own class. Educators will share their ideas and hear the amazing ideas that their peers developed. All the work will be shared in a Padlet that will be available after the workshop to keep the conversation going! The session is designed in a way that educators will engage in some of the equity moves with a learner lens as they are exploring the equity moves. We will unpack this additional layer when we reflect on the learning activities.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will leave this session with tangible ideas to increase STEM belonging in their classroom or district.

SPEAKERS:
Kelly Houston (STEM Ed Innovators: Yarmouth Port, MA)

In this workshop, participants will learn strategies for leading meaningful conversations around climate justice topics with young audiences. Students come to school with a variety of prior experiences and understandings about climate change and justice topics. Understanding where your students are and their willingness for and openness to having conversations around ideas of fairness, equity, and justice is key to creating a safe and nurturing environment where students will willingly participate in potentially uncomfortable conversations. In this session, we will discuss the various approaches we have taken to introduce climate justice to 6th grade students while supporting diverse backgrounds, experiences, and readiness for these conversations. Attendees will learn about strategies and participate in hands-on activities that have led to a successful teaching and learning environment where students feel empowered by knowledge to seek positive change in their own communities.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this workshop, participants will learn strategies for leading meaningful conversations around climate justice with youth. We will showcase various approaches to teaching climate justice to 6th graders while supporting diverse backgrounds, experiences, and readiness for these conversations.

SPEAKERS:
Bess Caplan (Howard County Conservancy: Woodstock, MD)

More than 10,000 observers submitted data to GLOBE collecting more than 20,000 cloud observations with 60,000 photos and 80,000 air temperature measurements using the GLOBE Observer app during the Total Solar Eclipse on August 21st, 2017. The data was used by scientists around the world. Educators will learn how to upload data to GLOBE as citizen scientists in the GLOBE Observer App. The latest updates from NASA will be shared including these current sites on the solar eclipse. The NASA data provides teachers with lesson plans written in 5-E format and activities for students to do. Educators will receive a brief introduction on the protocols used. As a citizen scientist, educators can enter data without going through the GLOBE trainings. Examples of student research projects on the 2017 Solar Eclipse will illustrate the work that can be done by students. Supports NGSS Science and Engineering Practices and following NGSS standards: MS-ESS1-1 and HS-ESS1-1.

TAKEAWAYS:
Contribute to a citizen science database used by scientists to study the effects of eclipses on the atmosphere. Learn how to access NASA resources including teacher lesson plans to use in your classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Janet Struble (: Fenton, MO)

The workshop will provide participants with the following information and learning experiences: 1.) Where and when the solar eclipse will be visible, including how to find what will specifically happen in their location. 2.) Three-Dimensional learning strategies to use with their students to understand what causes both lunar and solar eclipses, including what causes lunar phases and how knowing what causes lunar phases is key to knowing when eclipses occur. 3.) How to safely observe the eclipse using a variety of observing strategies. 4.) Suggestions for how to make the most of the eclipse as a school and/or community-wide event. 5.) What overall resources that NSTA has to help them make the most of this celestial event.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will come away with 3-D teaching strategies for students to understand the science behind eclipses, plus safe viewing strategies and ways to make the event a school-wide experience.

SPEAKERS:
Dennis Schatz (Institute for Learning Innovation: Seattle, WA)

Symbiosis and Other Relationships is a multimedia curriculum module that uses a three-part symbiosis between a wasp, its caterpillar host, and a virus to highlight the varied and sometimes complex ecological relationships. It includes an opportunity for students to analyze data through a simulated experiment, interweaving this example with more general information. Students learn about competition, predation, parasitism, commensalism, and mutualism through examples of 2-way relationships, and tease out the types of relationships at play in examples of 3-way relationships. The module’s materials can be used independently to supplement existing curriculum materials, or used alone in a suggested sequence over 1-2 weeks of class time. Workshop Outcomes • Where to access a free NGSS-friendly, multimedia middle school curriculum module on ecological relationships. • Teasing apart 2-way and 3-way ecological relationships reveals a number of strategies organisms employ to survive.

TAKEAWAYS:
How to access and use a free module that includes an opportunity for students to analyze data through a simulated experiment involving the wasp parasitoid and its host, interweaving this example with more general information in a way that builds an understanding of complex ecological relationships.

SPEAKERS:
Molly Malone (The University of Utah: Portland, OR)

Content will be delivered through Google Slides: participants discuss what bias is and the different types of biases that can show up. Participants will be asked to share biases they may hold (inside or outside of the classroom). We will watch a short video clip, then participants will engage in an activity called "How diverse is your universe?" Several prompts will be read and participants will indicate which racial group the prompt identifies with. An example prompt: "the people I grew up with in my household were...," and participants will indicate which racial group the prompt identifies with. Next, as a group, we will come up with our own definition of bias, and come up with examples of the different types of biases and what they look like in the classroom. We will then look at strategies on how to keep these biases in check. Next, we will discuss how to apply anti-bias work in STEM classrooms. We will develop and share content-specific lessons that we can implement.

TAKEAWAYS:
Anti-bias work in the classroom can be implemented in all curricular areas, especially in STEM/STEAM.

SPEAKERS:
Anissa Williams (Niper Middle School: Kirkwood, 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: Saint Charles, MO), Anne Green (Fort Zumwalt School District R-II: OFallon, MO)

Look across the Essential Elements of Leadership, Resources, and Coherence, to identify enabling conditions for curriculum-based professional learning to ensure that ALL teachers are prepared to leverage high-quality materials as they provide meaningful learning experiences for ALL students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Gain concrete ideas about how you, as a leader, can plan for effective curriculum-based professional learning.

SPEAKERS:
Nancy Hopkins-Evans (BSCS Science Learning: Wayne, PA)

Positioning phenomena and problems in ways that elicit sensemaking from students requires that they are problematized—in other words, that phenomena are presented in a way that highlights a productive uncertainty for students to figure out. Sensemaking requires that there is something authentically uncertain to the students engaged with the task in which they need to make sense of. When a phenomenon-based scenario is problematized, it enables sensemaking by focusing thinking on an authentic, productive uncertainty central to the phenomenon that requires the targeted dimensions (i.e., assessment targets) to figure out. In this session, participants will analyze examples of highly compelling tasks that support problematizing by students as they represent their sensemaking. The resources and processes shared in this session are applicable to K-12 science learning. The session will be interactive.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will engage with a range of assessment scenarios to figure out what it means for a task to be problematized.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Cooper (Contextus: Lincoln, NE), Dawn Novak (Northwestern University: Grayslake, IL)

NA

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will build an understanding of sensemaking and receive a toolkit to lead the session with other educators.

SPEAKERS:
Tricia Shelton (NSTA: Clarksville, TN)

Discussion boards and class discussions can tend to become routine, unproductive, and often frustrating to both teachers and students. After participating in a NGSS Twitter Chat, I began to wonder how I could replicate this experience in my course. Using the structure of Twitter and the function of the Twitter Chat, I reimagined facilitation of a class discussion that promoted increased engagement and learning for all my students. Using the stream format in Padlet and intentional questions for reflection, I replaced a typical reading response and class discussion. To my surprise, it was one of my students’ favorite strategies and continues to be each semester. Participants will engage in a Twitter chat simulation to support their understanding of the simulation and how students participate. Directions for creating the Padlet will be demonstrated and participants will have time to design their own Twitter chat simulation padlet and chat questions to use with upcoming content.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will use the structure and function of social media experiences, understand how they can be safely simulated in our classrooms using tools like Padlet, and leave with a Twitter Chat simulation they design around their upcoming content. (No Twitter account needed.) Upper Elem-PostSec.

SPEAKERS:
Beth Pesnell (Kansas State University: Manhattan, KS)

Since the NGSS, science teachers have been increasingly considering how to effectively engage students during science lessons using science and engineering practices (SEPs). In order to engage in these practices deeply, students need to have effective social and emotional skills. Therefore, embedding social-emotional learning (SEL) can be a tool that teachers use to build a classroom community that deeply engages in the SEPs. This session will engage students in three science activities (one elementary, one middle school, and one high school) that promote 3D learning and SEL. For example, the high school activity will consist of us doing a simulation where participants will act as animals getting "food". We will use it to connect SEL to HS-LS2-8. We will then have participants reflect on SEL teaching strategies such as explicit/reflective SEL questions (Bahnson et al., 2020) in order to demonstrate how to meaningfully embed SEL into 3D NGSS lessons.

TAKEAWAYS:
You will learn strategies to teach SEL in existing NGSS lessons.

SPEAKERS:
Kathryn Borton (Science Teacher and Ed.D Student: Nevada, IA), Jesse Wilcox (University of Northern Iowa: Cedar Falls, IA)

Students learn and develop at different speeds and in different ways. How can we meet them where they are and move them forward? Enrichment, Practice and Remediation are lessons designed to focus on a science concept (or cluster of concepts) for students to actively engage in accessible learning. EPRs include active learning experiences designed to support students continuing to learn based on their needs. Some students will be ready to dig deeper into the concept, while others might need a little more time for mastery. Experience your own learning by looking at an example score, becoming a student, and joining others as you learn through an enrichment, practice, or remediation activity.

TAKEAWAYS:
Enrichment, Practice, and Remediation allows us to meet students where they are and move them in their science knowledge. EPR will help supervisors, coaches, and teachers understand, visualize, and experience what differentiated learning in science looks like and how simple it can be.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Squires (The School District of Osceola County: Saint Cloud, FL)

This course is designed to introduce participants to the Next Generation Science Assessment (NGSA) design approach including unpacking dimensions, developing integrated dimension maps, articulating learning performances, identifying phenomena, and designing tasks.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn the steps of a systematic process for designing 3-dimensional tasks that align with NGSS performance expectations, take into consideration students’ diverse backgrounds, and can be used in classrooms to provide information to teachers and students to improve learning.

SPEAKERS:
Joseph Krajcik (CREATE for STEM Institute, Michigan State University: East Lansing, MI), Christopher Harris (WestEd: Menlo Park, CA)

The session will give teachers an opportunity to participate in the same sort of rich and meaningful learning experiences that are called for by the NGSS. This session, as a result, will include approximately forty minutes of audience participation in student hat. Teachers will leave with high-quality instructional materials that they can use in their own classrooms. The agenda for this session is: • A discussion of characteristics of collaborative sensemaking and productive discussions (5 mins). • A discussion of some of the challenges with promoting and supporting productive discussions where all students participate during a learning experience (10 minutes). • An opportunity for participants to experience an example of productive small group discussion that fosters collaborative sense-making (20 mins). • An opportunity for participants to experience an example of productive whole class discussion (20 mins). • Questions and suggestions for learning more (5 mins).

TAKEAWAYS:
Collaborative sensemaking requires productive and inclusive talk. Teachers can foster productive talk between students using specific activity structures, talk prompts, talk moves, and supports.

SPEAKERS:
Victor Sampson (The University of Texas at Austin: Austin, TX)

This session will engage attendees in answering the core question, "What is hydroponics?" After viewing phenomena-based video shorts and images of plants growing both in soil and hydroponically, attendees will work in small groups to model the phenomena, compare and contrast similarities and differences, and ultimately answer the questions: 1) What do plants need to grow? 2) How do plants grow through hydroponic farming? This workshop and corresponding lesson aligns with the NGS standards of MS-LS1-1, MS-LS1-3, MS-LS1-8, MS-LS2-1, & MS-LS2-3.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be able to compare and contrast the similarities and differences between growing food through hydroponic farming versus growing food in the soil. They will be able to explain how plants grow through hydroponic farming.

SPEAKERS:
Dr. Kim Kolasa (Assistant Vice-President, Partnership Development: Republic, MI)

How do we know about mass-extinctions and meteor impacts? Using fossils to study past glacial periods? Shells, sand grains and even dust and volcanic ash from faraway lands fall slowly through the ocean and pile up on the seafloor, eventually becoming rocks. When we drill into the seafloor to collect layers of rocks (as cores), the deeper down we go, the further back in time we go. Scientists looking at these cores are effectively reading the pages in a book that reveals the Earth’s past, and sheds light on our future. This workshop will have teachers look at how using real scientific data collected onboard the JOIDES Resolution and other ships in the program, we can translate findings into data sets and activities to inspire students and help them see science in action. The focus will be on how data from oceanic drilling can be used to create activities using real-world phenomena that can connect to many scientific concepts, such as climate, natural hazards, and Earth’s systems.

TAKEAWAYS:
By looking into the past and present, we can begin to predict our future. The International Ocean Discovery Program creates educational resources that enable students to use real data collected by scientists investigating global concerns and explore parts of our world usually hidden to them.

SPEAKERS:
Maya Pincus (Columbia University / U.S. Science Support Program: Palisades, NY), Carol Cotterill (U.S. Science Support Program: Palisades, NY)

(This workshop is geared toward classrooms of all grade levels with minimal technology available.) Teachers will experience what it is like to be a student in a unique and engaging modern classroom that uses innovative methods that place students in the center of their learning. Their assignments will be to view examples from science classrooms currently using the model, and create components of a modern classroom using content from their own courses or provided samples. By completing this workshop, teachers will have a better understanding of how to use technology with blended instruction, mastery learning, and self-paced structures that incorporate collaboration, projects, and hands-on learning into a modern classroom to effectively reach the needs of every student, and receive valuable next steps to begin transforming their teaching and create a Classroom of the Future.

TAKEAWAYS:
​​Participants will experience this model as students as they explore low-tech blended instruction, self-pacing, and mastery-based grading. They will then begin to apply these concepts to their own lessons and units using the toolbox of samples, templates, and resources.

SPEAKERS:
Sumala Paidi (Teacher: Cedar Hill, TX), Julie Gastler (Hickman High School: Columbia, MO)

A key goal of this work is to consider how NGSS assessments can be developed and used to advance equity. This framework draws upon interdisciplinary research and best practices to describe student-centered systems of science assessment. The framework explicitly connects what the field has learned about supporting students in becoming confident, savvy, scientific thinkers with best practices in measuring, monitoring, and providing feedback toward multidimensional science expectations.Participants will receive an equity framework for assessment that has been intentionally designed to help users (1) identify features of high-quality tasks, (2) examine effective assessment implementation practices, and (3) interrogate how assessments are used to support the diversity of students who engage in science learning in finding success. This equity framework has been used with teachers to (re)design assessments to be equitable for their population of students. The resources and processes shared

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will use a newly developed equity framework to consider multiple ways to center equity in assessment tasks and systems. Participants will use this equity framework to analyze example assessments for alignment to multiple equity goals.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Cooper (Contextus: Lincoln, NE)

Countless studies have found that teachers are struggling to support students in maintaining focus, finding self-worth, and being intrinsically creative learners. Gamification provides the building blocks for engagement, community, healthy competition, and self motivation, and works with any grade level and any subject. With gamification, students can use their creativity in learning choices and earn incentives based around curricular and extracurricular themes. Student examples from a sixth grade science classroom include reviewing challenges that emphasize content and game elements. Participants in this session will gain the initial building blocks to create their own game for their classrooms that is manageable and can be enhanced over time. Activities will include defining gamification and creating their own game theme. During the session, the participant will participate in a game challenge by using a choice board to explore and expand the strategies and methods of gamification.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will begin the journey of gamifying their classroom right away. They will also leave with resources to use to continue their gamification journey.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Simmons (Klahowya Secondary School: Bremerton, WA)

Engage in a mini design sprint to develop curriculum-aligned exit tickets. Together, we will use an equity framework and Universal Design to create exit tickets that support equitable sensemaking and 3-D science learning. We will coach you through a process to develop exit tickets that assess your students’ experiences and sensemaking. This workshop will focus on areas that support their learning such as: metacognition and reflection, applying their learning to a new phenomenon, connecting to their experiences and expertise outside of the classroom, and student experience in the learning environment. We will bring in examples of curriculum-anchored assessment using open source curricula. You will walk away with a set of exit tickets to assess student experience in 3-D learning that will give you information to inform instruction and support equitable classroom assessment practices.

TAKEAWAYS:
Gathering evidence of student experiences through short assessment opportunities can help build meaningful relationships with students and provide rich information to inform instructional moves.

SPEAKERS:
Calvin Atkins (Bellingham High School: Bellingham, WA), Colleen LaMotte (Einstein Middle School / Shoreline School District - President Elect WSTA (Washington state CAG): Shorline, WA), Jenna Mobley (: White Salmon, WA)

Participants will be engaged in multiple strategies that include mandatory engagement and collaboration. Many of the activities also include movement. The strategies can be implemented the week they return in any classroom with any subject area. Activities range from a Tea Party (science/literacy) activity, card sorts, and data collecting.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with a variety of strategies to engage students through collaboration and movement.

SPEAKERS:
Carol Moore (STEM West: Claremont, NC)

N/A

TAKEAWAYS:
Tips on how to relieve pressure and regain control.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Phillips (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Azra Chughtai (NSTA: McLean, VA)

The session will give teachers an opportunity to see examples of the rich and meaningful three-dimensional assessment that are called for by the NGSS. This session, as a result, will include 20 minutes of audience participation in student hat and 20 minutes for examining student responses in order to make sense of student thinking. Participants will leave the session with access to a library of high-quality instructional 3-D assessment that they can use in their own classrooms. The agenda for this session is: • A discussion of what makes assessments useful for teaching and learning (5 min) • A discussion of the difference between 3-D, 2-D, and 1-D assessments (5 min). • An opportunity for participants to experience an example of high-quality 3-D assessment (20 min) • An overview of a tech tool that teachers use to access and use a library of these assessments (5 min) • Questions (5 min)

TAKEAWAYS:
Characteristics of high-quality three-dimensional assessments include: (1) can be used to examine how students use a DCI, CC, and SEP to figure something out, (2) easy to administer and take, and (3) include tools that lead to useful insights about student thinking.

SPEAKERS:
Todd Hutner (Del Valle ISD: Del Valle, TX)

We know two things: 1) the purchase of new instructional materials represents a significant district investment and 2) effective classroom use of high-quality instructional materials improves student learning. NextGen TIME can help districts ensure investment in the best possible instructional materials and provide guidance on preparing teachers for effective use. NextGen TIME is a suite of tools and processes to support districts in evaluating, selecting, and implementing instructional materials designed for the NGSS. NextGen TIME is also designed as a professional learning experience for teachers to deepen their understanding of NGSS as they analyze instructional materials. It addresses the needs of states, districts, and schools for a deep understanding of the NGSS to make selection decisions for instructional materials, plan for implementation of those materials, and provide teacher professional learning that enables effective implementation of NGSS‐aligned teaching and learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how NextGen TIME supports the evaluation of current instructional materials to strengthen their design for NGSS and how NextGen TIME tools and processes can serve as critical components of curriculum-based professional learning. You’ll walk away with free access to NextGen TIME resources.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Gomez Zwiep (BSCS Science Learning: Long Beach, CA), Jody Bintz (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Jenine Cotton-Proby (BSCS Science Learning: Waldorf, MD)

By utilizing ChatGPT, start-ups can provide students with a starting point for research by offering them foundational knowledge on a variety of subjects. The use of superheroes to teach the periodic table, for example, could provide students with a fun and engaging way to learn about chemistry. Similarly, focusing on environmental concerns such as ocean acidification can help students understand the importance of conservation and sustainability. Additionally, warm-up activities can be an effective way to build relationships and foster collaboration between students. Whether it be through icebreakers or team-building exercises, getting to know one another can help students work together more effectively and create a more positive learning environment. Overall, utilizing ChatGPT can be an effective way for teachers to create engaging and informative content for students. By providing them with a foundation of knowledge, start-ups can empower students to take control of their own learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
One takeaway from this session is that you will understand that ChatGPT is a powerful tool for teachers. This application will allow you to answer questions or ideas you have and improve research activities that might be difficult for students.

SPEAKERS:
Ricardo Padilla (Brookhurst Jr HIgh School: Placentia, CA)

Find out how engaging students with compelling and complex socio-scientific problems necessitates student learning in many disciplines to design solutions. Gain strategies to support students in transdisciplinary learning and apply that learning to problem-solving with shared resources and examples.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to engage students in learning that centers on addressing pressing social challenges and be able to describe transdisciplinary approaches to education.

SPEAKERS:
Rob Wallace (: Houma, LA)

During this workshop we will present and engage participants in literacy and math-based strategies supported by research that science, mathematics, English language arts, and special education middle school teachers can use scaffold learning to engage in informational science text and argumentation connected to life sciences (e.g., vaping) for diverse learners in their classrooms. By the end of the workshop participants will be able to: 1. Define content and instructional scaffolding and how these types of scaffolds can be used to structure learning experiences to engage diverse learners in making meaningful sense of informational text. 2. Identify literacy- and math-based strategies that connect to content and instructional scaffolds that are designed to structure meaningful learning experiences to engage diverse learners in informational text. 3. Implement strategies within their content instruction that will scaffold learning to engage their diverse learners in informational text.

TAKEAWAYS:
All learners, including diverse learners, with the right instructional scaffolds can meaningfully engage in complex informational science text.

SPEAKERS:
TARA GREEN (student: columbia, MO), William Folk (University of Missouri: Columbia, MO), Amy Lannin (University of Missouri: Columbia, MO), Cassandra Smith (University of Missouri: St. Louis, MO), Delinda Van Garderen (University 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)

This presentation is designed to help teachers deepen their understanding of the effective and practical strategies to facilitate academic discourse that promotes inclusive science and STEM classrooms. Participants will engage in a variety of instructional strategies to ensure that all students have access to scientific discourse and opportunities to collaborate with peers through intentional planning. Participants will engage in a variety of formative assessment classroom techniques (FACTS) from Page Keeley’s Uncovering Student Ideas texts, including commit and toss, sticky bars, structured think-pair-share, and more. In addition, we will be discussing the shift away from traditional talk patterns-- like I-R-E (Initiate, Response, Evaluation) and towards Productive Talk to promote an inclusive science and STEM classroom. Finally, participants will leave with a virtual toolbox of resources for additional discourse strategies they can immediately apply in their classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of shifts in classroom talk patterns, like moving away from the I-R-E talk pattern and towards Productive Talk. Attendees will engage with practical and effective discourse strategies that promote inclusive and productive classroom discourse.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Garelli (Arizona Science Teachers Association: Gilbert, AZ)

The NGSS emphasizes practices including: 1) analyzing/interpreting data, 2) constructing explanations, and 3) obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. Passive learning will not help middle school students practice these skills. But by giving students agency, ChatGPT, and proper scaffolding, teachers can incorporate such practices. This workshop will support teachers as they navigate through a scaffolded learning experience with ChatGPT. Attendees will discover that ChatGPT can be used to offload lower-level thinking skills and advance students into higher order thinking. For example, MS-PS1-3 reads: Gather and make sense of information to describe that synthetic materials come from natural resources and impact society. Students could use ChatGPT to gather the information and then analyze, evaluate, and construct explanations to make sense of the information. After one hour, attendees will have developed an NGSS-aligned activity using ChatGPT that they can confidently use!

TAKEAWAYS:
To be successful with ChatGPT in the science classroom, we need to give students agency. In this workshop, attendees will control their learning. They will develop a valuable idea for using ChatGPT in their class AND witness a fully different way of managing their class…by giving students agency.

SPEAKERS:
Walter Ryan (Retired Educator: North Haledon, NJ), Chris Turner (Chief of Staff: Rockaway, NJ), Denise Bressler (Chief Ideologist: Liberty Corner, NJ)

During this workshop, the presenters will use improv techniques and connection Jenga to build identity, culture, and story for the classroom. Goals of this presentation are to: -empower individuals to feel they can speak up and contribute by sharing their own stories -engage attendees in an innovative, creative way by building inclusive, interactive bridges through play -ensure a safe environment where people feel comfortable in understanding that everyone has bias -assemble diverse teams who will collaborate to create action plans to share resources back in their districts and states

TAKEAWAYS:
Addressing bias, creating efficacy, and clarifying accessible, diverse, equitable, and inclusive leadership are the primary goals of this workshop.

SPEAKERS:
Kelly Day (Department of Energy: Washington, DC), Amy Szczepanski (K12 Coalition: New York, NY), Melissa Thompson (Department of Defense: Stevensville, MD), Michael Stewart (Stonewall Jackson High School: Manassas, VA), Kelsey Beeghly (Einstein Fellow: Altamonte Springs, FL), Jacquelyn Southerland (Accokeek Academy: Waldorf, MD)

We believe that to transform science teaching and learning to benefit all students, we as district leaders need to foster educator interest and capacity. A Framework for K-12 Science Education states, “Alignment of teacher preparation and professional development with the vision of science education advanced in this framework is essential for eventual widespread implementation of the type of instruction that will be needed for students to achieve the standards based on it” (p256). The NSTA position paper on Elementary Science declares that to support high-quality elementary science learning, school and district leaders should create time and space to facilitate collaborative professional learning communities for teachers. In the 2023-2024 school year our Howard County Public School System (Maryland) Elementary Science Teacher Leader (ESTL) cohort will be going on its eighth consecutive year. We'd like to share this cohort as an exemplar model for supporting the aforementioned goals.

TAKEAWAYS:
Whether you're starting small with limited resources or looking to enhance an existing structure, join us in this interactive session to learn specific strategies for facilitating -- starting and maintaining -- a collaborative professional learning community for science teacher leaders.

SPEAKERS:
Kelley Hatcher (Hollifield Station Elementary School: Elkridge, MD), Jenn Brown-Whale (Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE): Randallstown, MD)

I'll share concepts and processes of learning from visual stories and walk teachers through my procedure of asking students to tell visual stories about their own observations, research, experiments, and other STEAM related experiences. Since communication of science concepts is vital, we'll start by doing it ourselves -- using prompts to draw and write, discussing the outcomes of three brief exercises, and anticipating how they could be used with students. My visual (of course!) presentation includes an entertaining and challenging assortment of visual story examples -- as well as an educator-created method for using storytelling on children with literacy issues.

TAKEAWAYS:
Visual storytelling is an exciting, fun, and effective way to communicate. It can -- and should -- join writing and science notebooks in student output -- and may make scientists of them.

SPEAKERS:
Karen Romano Young (Science communicator: Bethel, CT)

There is an explosion of data all around us to teach our science standards. But can we use them to help our students struggle less with data? Yes! Come unpack “Analyzing & Interpreting Data” in ways that invite all learners into the discussion. We will explore strategies for finding high-quality datasets and discuss different approaches to integrate real-time data into our teaching to better build data skills. We will discuss how to foster science learning for all students. These short practice sessions that are low-floor-high-ceiling have powerful returns-on-investment in terms of building students' confidence and competence with data skills. We will discuss what this could mean for our teaching. Participants will increase their toolkit of strategies to use data to enhance their current 6-12th grade instruction. Let’s leverage all this data around us to best prepare our learners for the 21st century of data!

TAKEAWAYS:
Identify ways to integrate low-floor-high-ceiling data activities using real-world data into existing curriculum to build data skills, engage learners, and teach your science.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Hunter-Thomson (Dataspire Education & Evaluation, LLC: Santa Cruz, CA)

Learning science can sometimes focus on concepts often challenging to engage in due to the scale of being too small to be seen or too large to comprehend. This NGSS-designed unit offers tools to engage ALL students and connect micro and macro concepts around systems to develop concrete understandings. This 20+ lesson unit is driven by phenomena guiding students toward the concept of a “system,” from the cell level to a global level. Students explore the system at a cellular level through real-world connections and then build models of interacting subsystems. The disruptions of these systems are experienced through the examination of a viral illness and its effect on human systems. Students engage in argument with evidence to support a claim of the interdependence of systems. This concept is then applied to Earth systems and how disruption in a part of an Earth system affects the whole. Participants experience this unit through a 5E format and leave with the unit and resources.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will construct an explanation for how parts of a system are interdependent both at the micro level and the macro level.

SPEAKERS:
Julia Smith (Riverside Unified School District: Riverside, CA), Heather McDonald (Riverside Unified School District: Rancho Cucamonga, CA)

Explore tools you can use with students to help them visualize and create their science content. With Canva, Adobe Express, and Book Creator, you can allow students choice in the action and expression of their science content knowledge, supporting UDL in your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Bring creativity into your 5'E classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Katherine Fielding (Prince William County Schools: Alexandria, VA)

In the presentation, I will be sharing STEM activities for grades 6-8. The activities shared will include STEM icebreakers, STEM projects for content units, and other fun and engaging STEM activities. Get ready to have a STEM-sational time as you will be creating projects to take back to your school. I will also provide links to activities/projects that participants can use that will not be demonstrated/experienced that will align the concept of cells to TEKS for grades 6-8.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will experience hands-on learning for grades 6-8. This experience will give attendees fun and engaging activities for students to learn about STEM.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Rush (Lufkin Middle School: Lufkin, TX), Rebecca Walker (Tays Junior High School: Katy, TX)

STEM can be intimidating content for teachers to implement within their classrooms. Many teachers feel that they don’t have the time to do “extra” activities with state testing and making sure all standards are assessed. However, STEM can be a tool to engage students in the science standards and be a vehicle to help make sense out of the concepts they are learning. In this session, participants will explore projects in which students incorporate engineering and basic coding - no experience necessary. We will use micro:bit technology to connect basic coding commands to develop solutions for real-world environmental issues. All projects can be completed in 45 minutes or less; a perfect way to introduce or extend a lesson while exposing students to fundamental STEM skills. Projects include the following concepts: urban heat islands, energy efficiency, and biodiversity of an ecosystem.

TAKEAWAYS:
Expose your students to STEM skills through short, easy, and engaging STEM activities that can be completed in a single class period.

SPEAKERS:
Brad Posnanski (Comsewogue High School: Port Jefferson Station, NY), Jessica Kohout (Educational Consultant: Ellicott City, MD)

Virtual reality is an emerging technology that has the potential to revolutionize the way we learn and teach. As a tool in education, VR can create immersive and interactive experiences that engage students in ways that traditional methods cannot. VR can be used to create virtual field trips, simulations, visualizations, and collaborative environments that allow students to explore, experiment, and learn in ways that were previously impossible. VR as an educational tool has the potential to improve student engagement, understanding, and retention. The immersive and interactive nature of VR can help students to better understand complex concepts and retain information more effectively. As the technology continues to evolve, it is likely that VR will become an increasingly important tool in education, providing new opportunities for learning and teaching. ClassVR (the platform we will use)can be used as an educational tool that not only engages the students but helps the educator teach!

TAKEAWAYS:
Virtual Reality as a teaching tool is a great way to engage and immerse your students and can help fill any gaps they may have from their personal experiences.

SPEAKERS:
Ashish Vadalia (Chesapeake Lighthouse Foundation)

At its core, differentiation stems from the recognition that individual learners arrive in classrooms each day with ranging knowledge, experiences, abilities, ways of thinking, curiosities, and dispositions. A one-size-fits-all approach to teaching and learning undermines the potential of all students to achieve successfully, yet we struggle with how to meet the needs of individual students in our classrooms. Similarly, we know that one-shot workshops are not an effective means of professional development (PD). Yet, we continue to provide one-shot workshops to teach and rarely, if ever, do we consider how PD may need to be differentiated for teachers. We may differentiate by focusing on different content areas, grade levels, or contexts, but rarely do we take time to look at what individual teachers need. Just like students, we need to consider the individual needs of all teachers. This session will provide several strategies for differentiating PD for teachers.

TAKEAWAYS:
Differentiation is not just for the classroom, it is also a component of designing effective professional learning.

SPEAKERS:
Brooke Whitworth (Clemson University: Clemson, SC)

What does rich student discourse look like in a middle school science classroom? How can spirited debates over scientific principles erupt from prepubescent teens? I found myself skeptical when my colleague first brought the PEER Physics curriculum to my attention. How could a curriculum that was initially designed for undergraduate non-science majors and was revised to be applicable for high school contexts, possibly work in middle school? But I found that it not only “worked”, students thrived. I had longed for my students to authentically engage in science practices. In this workshop, I’ll share my experience with bringing PEER Physics into middle school. I’ll invite you into examples of middle school discourse by showing video and student reflections. Workshop participants will consider norming strategies that can support students in rich discourse in middle school science courses. And see how the three-dimensional learning from PEER changed the rest of my instruction.

TAKEAWAYS:
Through video examples and hands-on learning, participants will see what evidence-based student discourse looks like at the middle school level. They will also walk away with tangible strategies, having experienced some of these strategies themselves.

SPEAKERS:
Daniela Del Cid (8th grade Science teacher: Frederick, CO)

Teachers will experience what it is like to be a student in a unique and engaging modern classroom that uses innovative methods that place students in the center of their learning. Their assignments will be to view examples from science classrooms currently using the model, and create components of a modern classroom using content from their own courses or provided samples. By completing this workshop, teachers will have a better understanding of how to use technology with blended instruction, mastery learning, and self-paced structures that incorporate collaboration, projects, and hands-on learning into a modern classroom to effectively reach the needs of every student, and receive valuable next steps to begin transforming their teaching and create a Classroom of the Future. This workshop is geared toward 1:1 classrooms of all grade levels.

TAKEAWAYS:
​​Participants will experience this model as students as they explore blended instruction, self-pacing, and mastery-based grading. They will then begin to apply these concepts to their own lessons and units using the toolbox of samples, templates, and resources.

SPEAKERS:
Sumala Paidi (Teacher: Cedar Hill, TX), Julie Gastler (Hickman High School: Columbia, MO)

In May 2008 a group of educators exanimated current research and the critical role that teacher leaders play in education. Upon reviewing this data, they believe that teacher leadership is the most powerful method to promote effective and collaborative teaching practices leading to student success. The Teaching Leadership Exploratory Consortium developed the Teacher Leader Model Standards. This set of seven domains describes the knowledge base and skills needed by a teacher leader to assume a leadership role in all aspects of education. In this session participants will examine and discuss the Teacher Leader Model Standards. Digging into the standards they will describe key actions and practices for each of the seven domains. Participants will be asked to reflect on their role as a teacher leader and select one of the domains to focus on as they begin or continue their work as a teacher leader.

TAKEAWAYS:
Digging into the standards, participants will describe key actions and practices for each of the seven domains. They will be asked to reflect on their role as a teacher leader and select one of the domains to focus on as they begin or continue their work as a teacher leader.

SPEAKERS:
Jenne VandePanne (Michigan Technological University/Newaygo Public Schools: Newaygo, MI), Jessica Wagenmaker (Holton Middle School: Twin Lake, MI)

Looking for ways to integrate engineering in your science curriculum? Join us to become familiar with freely-available, high-quality instructional materials that create opportunities for students to apply science ideas to solve real-world problems, gain confidence and see themselves in STEM careers.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to engage students in learning that centers on addressing pressing social challenges and be able to describe transdisciplinary approaches to education.

SPEAKERS:
Rob Wallace (: Houma, LA)

In the presentation, I will be sharing activities for a 6-8 aligned unit on convection currents, as they are related to the layers of the earth, plate tectonics and weather. The activities the participants will experience will include hands-on activities using innovation, creativity, and technology. I will also provide links to activities/projects that participants can use that will not be demonstrated/experienced that will align the concepts of Earth Science.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will experience hands-on learning for grades 6-8 about convection, and how it relates to the layers of the Earth, tectonic plates, and weather.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Rush (Lufkin Middle School: Lufkin, TX), Rebecca Walker (Tays Junior High School: Katy, TX)

A seventh grader writes: “I have learned about watching my surroundings and how every part of the school has an ecosystem that stretches far beyond most people’s understanding.” Searching, finding, observing, and describing living things in students' environment connects them with their place. Questions worth investigating arise with ease and abundance. Developing and implementing systematic protocols help students reach more deeply into ecological phenomena. Animal behavior observed “in the wild” fosters natural engagement. Students’ questions and focused inquiries can lead to original insights that strengthen a sense of place. In this workshop, we will try our hand at the initial stages of a focused field study; perhaps tracking the behavior of urban birds, surveying the diversity of urban spiders, or mapping the travel of urban ants. The goal will be for teachers to relate the workshop experience to the potential of their own schoolyards for study. Samples of student work will inspire.

TAKEAWAYS:
The local environment of the schoolyard and neighborhood offers great potential for students to practice authentic and original field science.

SPEAKERS:
Richard Frazier (retired: Holts Summit, MO)

Part 1: We'll demonstrate how to use the ChatGPT to create dynamic curriculum & lesson plans that encourage student curiosity and foster a love for scientific inquiry. We'll demonstrate how to use the AI to generate thought-provoking questions, design hands-on activities, and provide real-time feedback to enhance student learning. Part 2: Learn how ChatGPT can assist you in designing assessments that effectively measure student understanding and track progress toward learning objectives. We'll cover strategies for generating AI-powered quizzes, tests, and projects, as well as using ChatGPT to analyze student performance and provide personalized feedback. Part 3: Navigate the potential challenges and ethical considerations of using ChatGPT in the classroom. We'll discuss best practices for responsibly and transparently integrating ChatGPT into your teaching, while maintaining student privacy and addressing potential biases in the AI's output.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to effectively integrate ChatGPT into science education, enhancing lesson plans, curriculum, and assessments while addressing ethical considerations for responsible AI implementation.

SPEAKERS:
Ren Mendoza (University of Nebraska at Omaha: Omaha, NE), Noah Glaser (Assistant Professor: COLUMBIA, MO)

During this presentation topics such as creating language objectives, color-coding vocabulary, using graphic organizers to help further comprehension of content, and using the expert readers strategy will be covered.

TAKEAWAYS:
Various strategies for scientific literacy that are easily applicable to any science classroom such as using language objectives, graphic organizers, and color-coding key vocabulary.

SPEAKERS:
Mikayla Kagey (Central Kitsap Middle School: Silverdale, WA), Sydnie Chouery (Science Teacher: Silverdale, WA)

During the session, participants will have the opportunity to engage in mindfulness practices such as body scans, body tapping, centering, and meta-meditation, to experience the benefits of these practices firsthand. These practices will be embedded throughout the content as we explore the latest research on the benefits of mindfulness / bodyfulness, including studies on its impact on stress reduction, anxiety management, and improved cognitive performance. In the second half of the session, participants will have the chance to share their personal and classroom practices with fellow educators in small and large group discussions, gaining insights and inspiration for incorporating mindfulness into your teaching practice.Finally, participants will have the opportunity to practice leading a mindfulness activity, either one of the practices we covered or one of their own, with support from provided scripts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Through hands-on exercises and group discussions, educators will gain insights and inspiration for bringing a more peaceful and centered approach to their work and personal life.

SPEAKERS:
Gina Tesoriero (Student / Educator / Researcher / Healer: New York, NY)

Data is an increasingly prevalent resource for addressing real-world challenges, however, the transdisciplinary skills needed to interpret and think critically about data are lacking in the public. Geospatial data visualizations are tools used to transform large datasets into representations that support learning, but our understanding of how to effectively use them in instruction is under-studied. To support data literacy, a new model for teaching with data visualizations in middle school science uses arts-based instructional approaches including visual thinking skills that apply in both science and art. The model helps teachers develop greater comfort with data visualizations, understand arts-based pedagogies that support close observation and critical thinking, and integrate these approaches in their curricula, resulting in students’ data literacy skills gains. Workshop attendees will experience the program as students and reflect on how the approach supports teaching and learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will experience a new model for exploring geospatial data using arts-based instructional approaches for learning about earth science and learn how this transdisciplinary approach supports teachers and students in improving data literacy.

SPEAKERS:
Kathryn Semmens (Nurture Nature Center)

Today's mission - should you choose to accept - will require teams of engineers to design and build a bridge that will hold at least 20 coins. During this lesson, engineers will be asking questions and defining problems to fully understand the mission, criteria, and constraints. Next, we will design our bridges and sell our design ideas to the team, selecting the optimal ideas to incorporate into the group design. Then, we will construct and test our bridges, identify failure points, and recommend improvements. Teachers will receive a copy of ready-made engineering design worksheet that can be utilized in their classrooms to facilitate incorporation of engineering design challenges (and can be modified to fit any K-12 classroom]. Following the design challenge, presenters will offer a range of applications for design challenges making this content relevant to all disciplines. Examples include protein folding, electromagnets, balancing forces, and Rube Goldberg Machines.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will take away materials for teaching the engineering design process that can be modified to fit ANY K-12 classroom, as well as a list of possible projects with connections to various DCI strands.

SPEAKERS:
Bailey Johnson (Hastings Public Schools: Hastings, NE), Kristen Benton (Kenesaw Public Schools: Grand Island, NE)

Presenters will cover Energy and Electricity concepts and how to have students master and apply them. From the basics of battery, wire and bulb to student designed projects. Participants will make a coal chain to see how electricity is created and build circuits using paper and other inexpensive materials. Student work will be shown to demonstrate how to encourage students to think outside the box and create their own game that includes different circuits and applies the ideas learned. Samples will be given away to participants.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to implement a hands-on unit about energy and electricity for middle school students. Try out the activities and win some giveaways to take back to your classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Carolyn Schaller (Visitation Academy: St. Louis, MO), Tracie Cain (Visitation Academy: Saint Louis, MO)

I would like to introduce and allow teachers to interact with strategies that I have used while teaching at a school that consists of at least 70% English Language Learners (ELLs). I have worked to compile strategies that support students' language development in all four language domains and in all science content areas. For developing reading, I have used stations with multiple means of representation, as well as interactive visual vocabulary activities to frontload vocabulary prior to reading a science text. For listening, I have used videos with pause points for comprehension checks, as well as note-taking while listening, to practice active listening. For writing, I have used sentence frames, single point rubrics, and visual vocabulary word banks to support student writing. For speaking, I have used questioning strategies, as well as organized systems, for student participation. These strategies have positively impacted language and content acquisition in my classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Strategies and supports that can be easily implemented in your classroom tomorrow no matter the lesson, content, or activity.

SPEAKERS:
Celeste Pistole (Guadalupe Centers Middle School: Kansas City, MO)

Attendees will learn techniques and strategies for incorporating scientific sketching and nature journaling into students’ science notebook routines by engaging in the activities themselves. Materials and natural physical specimens will be provided for journaling and sketching activities. Student examples and free resources will be shared. This workshop is appropriate for all K-12 teachers and informal science educators.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be introduced to, and participate in, several nature journaling activities from the free John Muir Laws "How to Teach Nature Journaling" book, as well as receive some scientific sketching guidance from the California Academy of Sciences. Special attention to integrating math will be included.

SPEAKERS:
Dana Atwood-Blaine (University of Northern Iowa: WATERLOO, IA)

Disentanglement puzzles, string figures, rope tricks, magic knots, and other curious objects offer interest for students. Such physical riddles yield engaging, entertaining, instructive, and enlightening opportunities for students. Topology applies to a range of sciences; students can investigate empirically and safely. Advanced math is not needed to search for solutions and to describe procedures/results through language and visualisation. There are occasions for communication, collaboration, and creative problem solving. There are cross-curricular connections abound from cultural anthropology to visual arts. Experience with these puzzles and problems helps develop spatial thinking and gives practice in pattern-finding, hypothesis-testing, and scientific inference. We will construct puzzles to take home, try solving such puzzles and problems, practice describing and systematising solutions, and present/discuss a number of activities for students. NGSS relevance will be discussed and references will be shared.

TAKEAWAYS:
Topology offers rich, diverse, and perhaps surprising opportunities for science learning through practices, core ideas, and cross-cutting concepts. Applicable phenomena, relevant scientific approaches, and rewarding occasions for finding patterns and testing hypotheses emerge.

SPEAKERS:
Richard Frazier (retired: Holts Summit, MO)

A hot topic in energy management circles is microgrids. This activity introduces this concept and is designed to help students build simple DC circuits to “connect” and “light” their microgrid buildings. We’ll further discuss critical thinking activities and idea for classroom discussion to help students develop an understanding of their role in keeping our electric power system running smoothly, as well as how smart technologies in the home apply to a smart grid system.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn activities for students to be able to explain what a microgrid is and how to gather and analyze data to understand electricity use.

SPEAKERS:
Don Pruett, Jr. (Washington Science Teachers Association: Puyallup, WA)

Session participants explore matter-energy ecosystem transfer phenomena by modeling alternative food production & creating design plans/systems to grow food with minimal materials. The phenomena of energy & matter transfers is abstract; yet, as part of ecosystem services, provides for many student-led investigations and design solutions to improve life, such as food production. In MS LS2-3, students develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem. If we take this a step further, students would create functional models of alternative food growth while demonstrating minimal to no impact on the ecosystem. Session participants will explore the idea of alternative food production and create design plans (and possible functioning systems) to grow food with minimal materials. The intent is to provide session participants with realistic, functional modeling to increase student understanding & ability to synthesize the content.

TAKEAWAYS:
The energy-matter transfer phenomena is crucial in ecosystems. Creating functional ecosystem models leads to understanding ecosystem interactions and services such as food production. We can mimic nature to provide sustainable food supplies with less impact to natural environments.

SPEAKERS:
Sue Meggers (Interstate 35 Community School District: Truro, IA)

The session will open with having participants work through pieces of Chapter 11 from Once Upon an Earth Science Book. Participants (as students) will collect information from three models: (the Coriolis effect, major ocean currents, and how wind creates currents). Then they will read an article on the Pacific Garbage Patch and how its existence was predicted based on such models before it was discovered. We will outline a writing assignment in which they predict where a boatload of rubber duckies that capsized off the coast of Morocco might end up. Next, we will discuss the "shape" of the lesson we just worked through, called a literacy learning cycle. From there, we will look at several specific difficulties that arise for students when they are asked to read and write (expectations, background knowledge, and meaningful writing). Finally, we will talk briefly about how the Once Upon a Science Book series can serve as a resource for literacy learning cycles.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be introduced to the literacy learning cycle format, in which hands-on work precedes meaningful reading and writing activities. You will see how this system works by participating in a lesson and come away with practical strategies for your classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Jodi Wheeler-Toppen (Author/ Staff Development: Atlanta, GA)

Data collection and analysis is not only easier and more accessible than ever, it MUST be a part of any solid STEM/STEAM effort. In this session, we will be using state-of-the-art technology that is designed to facilitate effective data collection and analysis in any middle school or high school science classroom. In addition to simply collecting data in this session, we will be analyzing the data by developing mathematical models using the data, and then brainstorming ideas for how to integrate writing into the activities that are done in the lab. There will be a heavy emphasis on curriculum integration: Math, Science, and Writing.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will experience the power of having students collect and analyze their own data, while learning strategies for the effective science-math integration and collaborative instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Jeffrey Lukens (Roosevelt High School, Sioux Falls, SD: Sioux Falls, SD)

There is a strong need in the post (ish) COVID world, to help overworked, under supported teachers find the mental clarity needed to be the creative, innovative, and caring teachers we need to develop the future STEM minds of the future. As a certified nature therapy guide and long time NSTA presenter, I would love to bring this practice to the NSTA community. Participants will meet in the room and listen to a short overview of nature therapy and its roots in Shinrin-yoku. We will walk outside - encouraged to notice what is moving slowly as we walk through the busy conference. Once we are outside, I will lead in a land acknowledgement and sensory meditation. Participants will be given a chance to share what they noticed in a sharing circle. We will walk to the next locations and engage in more invitations / sharing circles. The invitations will be finalized once I am on site and connect with the land for inspiration.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn about the practice of nature therapy and its roots in the Japanese practice Shinrin-yoku which is widely researched for its health benefits.

SPEAKERS:
Gina Tesoriero (Student / Educator / Researcher / Healer: New York, NY)

The Artemis Generation is the next generation of explorers who will push the boundaries of human knowledge and endeavor. To empower this generation, we need to expose them to STEM role models who represent diverse backgrounds and experiences. This exposure can help to broaden students' perspectives and show them that STEM is a field for everyone. Additionally, culturally responsive teaching strategies can help to create an inclusive learning environment for all students. This session will explore the importance of empowering students through equity and inclusion with the help of NASA resources on STEM role models, the First Woman graphic novel, and a STEM identity development activity. By the end of this session, participants will be able to: • Identify the importance of equity and inclusion in STEM education • Develop strategies for identifying and promoting diverse STEM role models • Apply culturally responsive teaching strategies in their classrooms

TAKEAWAYS:
Diverse STEM role models and culturally responsive teaching help all students succeed in STEM. By exposing students to diverse role models in STEM and using culturally responsive teaching strategies, educators create inclusive learning environments where all students can thrive.

SPEAKERS:
Monica Uribe (NASA: Kyle, TX), Dr. Sagirah Wheeler (NASA Education Specialist: Baltimore, MD)

Recent and ongoing research uses an Indigenous methodology to formalize the Cultural Connections Process Model (CCPM)--an approach for authentic co-production of educational resources by Indigenous communities and education/research organizations. This session will showcase the model as well as emergent research findings, and provide hands-on opportunities to explore the resources created when the model was developed and implemented in several Alaska Native communities. These place-based resources are built to target Next Generation Science Standards as well as focus on community priorities, and Indigenous education frameworks, Alaska Native languages, cultural values and cultural content standards. All the resources created using this model are freely and publicly available on project websites, and work is underway to create a long-term repository for these and future CCPM resources.

TAKEAWAYS:
The goal of this session is to share ongoing research formalizing the Cultural Connections Process Model and explore free videos, hands-on lessons, and more, created using the model. Attendees will develop an understanding of how to implement the model and access the free classroom resources.

SPEAKERS:
Lynda McGilvary (Geophysical Institute: Fairbanks, AK), Lori Schoening (Geophysical Institute: Fairbanks, AK)

Although most people do not know a programming language, nearly everyone can read and write. The exposition of plain English text forms a critical part of logically explaining a set of operations and instructions, which are foundational to computational thinking and coding. The learning of programming concepts, such as cause-and-effect, abstraction, logical reasoning, etc., will be explored through each example exercise during the session. We will write a number of games together, guided by artificial intelligence, where each can be completed in just 10 minutes or less! The platform will automatically convert the text into a playable game. Games are engaging learning tools and are perfect for teaching many subject areas. The session will be divided as follows: 1. How to describe a game in English via Setting and Plot. 2. Basic game construct. 3. Pong-like games. 4. Space Invaders. 5. Mario-like games. 6. More complex variables/attributes. 7. Debugging. 8. Sharing games. 9. How to use Online Tutorials.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn to: clearly articulate programming concepts, think like a programmer, relate various aspects of each sentence to computational concepts and constructs, apply lessons to various subjects.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Hsiao (Virginia Tech: Blacksburg, VA)

The materials presented were created by two 8th grade life science teachers. Our students struggle with reading and analyzing nonfiction text. Nonfiction text is an important part of science literacy, and teaching our students how to interact with the text and pull important information is essential. The templates we created can be applied to almost any article or reading that teachers will use in their classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will go away from this session with materials that they can use immediately in their classroom. These materials will help students to read and organize nonfiction texts and use them in discussions with classmates.

SPEAKERS:
Erin Branstetter (Bolivar Middle School: Bolivar, MO)

Science teachers can use visual data strategies to help students come to understand what they are seeing, as well as pick out how those representations differ from reality. Strategies such as teacher modeling, questions, and small group work (McTigue & Coleman, 2013) help direct students’ attention to graphics and help them make sense of them. In this presentation, we will engage students in middle school space science lessons about eclipses, seasons, and moon phases (partially addressing MS-ESS1-1). We will use visual data throughout the 5E, along with teaching strategies, to show participants how we help our students move towards a more complete understanding of eclipses, seasons, and moon phases. We have found that by focusing on teaching students through and about visual data, they are better able to think critically about the content and the way the content is represented. We will discuss specific strategies on how to include visual data and how to help students make sense of that data.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will have examples and strategies to engage students with visual data.

SPEAKERS:
Jesse Wilcox (University of Northern Iowa: Cedar Falls, IA)

In the presentation, I will be sharing activities for a 6-8 aligned unit on force and motion. The activities the participants will experience will include: a hands-on activity with technology to collect and analyze data that will aid in calculating speed and a hands-on activity using technology to graph motion in real time. I will also provide links to activities/projects that participants can use that will not be demonstrated/experienced that will align the concept of force and motion to TEKS for grades 6-8.

TAKEAWAYS:
Vertically aligned lessons for teaching force and motion that involves hands-on experiences which will engage your students. We will use hot wheels to collect data to calculate speed and create motion graphs using hands-on technology.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Walker (Tays Junior High School: Katy, TX), Amy Rush (Lufkin Middle School: Lufkin, TX)

Heat domes! Wildfires! Drought! Students across the world are experiencing the impact of climate change in their everyday lives, but often students feel hopelessness and fear when thinking and learning about these issues. In this workshop, we will discuss Photovoice, a flexible (e.g. low-floor, high-ceiling task) classroom practice that unpacks students’ ideas, experiences, and emotions through critical reflection on self-generated photos of climate impacts in their own community. Through individual and collaborative reflection, students investigate their ideas in ways that shift feelings of fear and hopelessness toward constructive hope and action. We will first explore how student-generated photos from their local community can build teacher capacity to identify and understand students’ thinking about climate change and the phenomena they find compelling about the topic. Then we will dig into how to utilize photovoiceas a launching point for relevant climate change instruction.

TAKEAWAYS:
You will takeaway a Google slide deck with specific teaching tools that are how-to guides for facilitating students' individual and collaborative teams, meaning making around the photos they generate, and how to navigate their emotions towards collective actions around local climate change impacts.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Lawson (Teaching Assistant Professor: Manhattan, KS), Imogen Herrick (Assistant Professor of STEM Education: Lawrence, KS)