This session will involve a synthesis of my two accepted conference sessions, each of which deals with a different NSTA Press Book.

SPEAKERS:
Ted Willard (Discovery Education: Silver Spring, MD)

Data is key to NGSS, yet many students struggle to make sense of it. Many of us are confused about how to help our students (especially post-pandemic learning) build and strengthen these skills. These classroom-ready, quick activities are based on what research says about how students learn from data! Come discuss strategies and access ready-to-use activities to integrate these skills into whatever your curriculum or platform is, as Do Nows and Exit Tickets. These strategies both foster science sensemaking for all students and increase students' interest in working with data (from Pre-K to 8th). Let’s set ourselves and our students up for success by building strong foundations... without having to reinvent the wheel ourselves or take away lots of time from the rest of our instruction!

TAKEAWAYS:
Access ready-to-use activities to build your students' data and graph skills, without taking a lot of time from the rest of your curriculum.

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

Teacher leaders are super heros. This STEM Share-a-Thon presentation will focus on being a teacher leader for STEM education. Participants will walk away with valuable information on how they can impove STEM education by following the Teacher Leader Model Standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will walk away with valuable information on how to improve their teacher leadership skills in the area of STEM education.

SPEAKERS:
Jessica Wagenmaker (Holton Middle School: Holton, MI)

This is a Share-a-Thon presentation highlighting the learning of computational thinking with the guidance from artificial intelligence. Through a live demonstration of describing a game's logic in English, the AI will guide the user to think computationally and bring the game to fruition.

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

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

This presentation revolves around the development of two distinctive research projects: Vitamin C Project and the Carbon Dioxide Project. In the Vitamin C project, participants extract juice from fruits and determine the vitamin C content using common household chemicals. In the Carbon Dioxide Project, participants quantitatively determine the amount of carbon dioxide and water produced when mixing specified amounts of baking soda and vinegar. The capture of carbon dioxide and water in clear balloons is an engaging way to apply basic mathematics to a chemical reaction. Embracing an integrative approach to teaching science and mathematics helps bridge the gap between knowledge learned and knowledge applied. This presentation will provide educators with innovative, standards-aligned projects that foster student interest in science and mathematics. For 3rd - 6th graders, these research projects can be delivered through storybooks!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain full activity descriptions and handouts for at least three projects and learn how to integrate math skills into research projects that promote critical thinking and discovery (targeting 3rd - 12th grade).

SPEAKERS:
Sharron Jenkins (Georgia Gwinnett College: Lawrenceville, GA)

This session will showcase how artificial intelligence (AI) can be integrated within STEM-based design challenges to enhance student engagement and the 'improve' step of the engineering design process. Teachers usually stop design challenges after students test their designs. The presenter will walk participants through how to develop AI prompts, engage students in reflecting upon the AI responses, building/creating and testing the AI provided solution, and ultimately, guiding students through the reflection and optimization process. The students are challenged to "beat the computer" by utilizing data collected through the test phase to create an optimized solution that will be tested against the AI-generated solution. The presentation will take the form of demonstration, discussion, and provision of examples.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) within STEM-focused design challenges to engage in the test and improve/optimize steps of the engineering design process.

SPEAKERS:
Dennis Dagounis (Berkeley Heights Public Schools: Berkeley Heights, NJ)

This poster presentation will use the Krebs Cycle of Creativity, as created by Dr. Neri Oxman, as a framework for a new approach to interdisciplinary sciences. I will explore the intersectionality of art, science, engineering, and design. This will include how the synergy between these disciplines creates opportunities to study how art and design affect our behavior, how design and engineering impact utility, how engineering and science creates knowledge, and how science and art portrays information. I will use examples from my own classes to highlight how the Krebs Cycle of Creativity can provide a new lens to view interdisciplinary teaching in the science discipline. This will include examples of projects, teaching materials, and student samples. Visitors will leave with a tangible understanding of how their school can move away from the siloed STEAM approach and move towards a more holistic approach that connects the many different disciplines of science.

TAKEAWAYS:
Visitors will leave with a new lens to view interdisciplinary science teaching including examples of projects, teaching materials, student samples, and a tangible understanding of how their school can move away from the siloed STEAM approach and towards a more holistic take on teaching science.

SPEAKERS:
Adam Vorel (6th Grade Science Teacher: Webster Groves, MO)

Children are naturally inquisitive about the world around them. ASSET activities nurture that innate curiosity by engaging students in an interactive, hands-on exploration of the world of biology using safe, easily manipulated live Tetrahymena. Each module introduces students to a core biological concept using an interactive approach that involves scientific observation, manipulation of experimental materials, and evaluation of results. Each module is a stand-alone unit that comes with information relating the content to core concepts and, and is supported by an equipment lending library that can provide teachers at under-resourced schools with the materials needed to carry out the modules. Comprehensive teacher guides and detailed student handouts are provided for each module to facilitate classroom implementation.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be introduced to ASSET and will conduct modified lab activities to see how ASSET can be used in the classroom to address topics like microscope use, cell parts and processes (phagocytosis & osmolarity), and the effects of smoking, vaping, and alcohol on living cells.

SPEAKERS:
Courtney Hausner (Teacher), Anne Deken (John Burroughs School: St. Louis, MO), Alexandra Forgerson (Instructional Specialist: University City, MO)

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 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: No City, No State)

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 review 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, learning strategies of engagement in science class using gamification.

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

Birds provide an accessible context for student science investigations and creative engineering design projects. From building a bird feeder from recyclables, to building nest boxes for specific species, to thinking critically about bird adaptations, using citizen-science projects to inspire authentic questions and original scientific studies… we aim to help creative students engage in STEM! During this workshop, I will provide free resources to help teachers develop students’ science and engineering practices—while also supporting a connection to the local environment. During this time, teachers will: • Work to create a bird feeder and chat about the factors that make a successful design • Design a well-adapated bird that can survive in a challenging habitat

SPEAKERS:
Susan Licher (Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Ithaca, NY)

A quality STEM program is key to developing within students the skills needed to be happy, healthy, and productive citizens. This requires quality STEM instructional practices to be employed in our classrooms. The majority of school districts in Indiana have a single evaluation instrument to evaluate all certified teachers, with no specific focus on STEM instructional practices. Providing teachers actionable feedback, specific to STEM instructional practices, is a critical component of this work. The tool created for this work can be adapted to any local teacher evaluation instrument.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will come away with a tool, that they can adapt to their own district, to support identifying and providing actionable feedback for STEM instructional practices.

SPEAKERS:
Christina Hilton (Central Indiana Educational Service Center: Indianapolis, IN)

This presentation disperses the published findings of the science standards and science content research for including the lived experiences and narratives of African American Gullan/Geechee and Black heritage, and situates the lived experiences and narratives of Black people in the science curriculum content. The author has created lessons and implemented these by looking at the pre- and post- changes in students’ understandings of the nature of science. This particular presentation shares and unpacks these science standards and provides resources that can be used to carry out these activities. Multimedia products have been used as an engaging context to lead inquiry explorations using best practices in science education pedagogy, such as argumentation. This work provides takeaways that bridge theory and practice in science education. For example, framing includes, but is not limited to, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Understanding by Design to show the thinking and rationale.

TAKEAWAYS:
Practical inclusive science standards that benefit all and considers best practices in science education pedagogy. A different way of thinking about inclusion by considering how we approach the science content and what science content is included.

SPEAKERS:
Catherine Quinlan (Howard University)

Using the Disciplinary Core Ideas and a research-based “citizen science” approach, science educators contributed their own test items, and helped to revise existing test items in order to address crucial issues such as difficulty, gender, and racial/ethnic bias that were present in the item analysis characteristics. We share the analysis and results of these efforts so that educators can assess their own test items to be more inclusive of all students’ understandings in one of the dimensions of the 3D-approach to learning. Learn what changes contributed to improvement of the item as well as what types of changes or revisions made the item worse than before. We also share results of field testing of these items in student classrooms and discuss the importance of incorporating students’ misconceptions into the response choices to capture their true understanding of science concepts as outlined in the DCIs.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn to evaluate assessment questions that you use to assess students’ sensemaking of elements outlined in the NGSS DCIs. Are the questions free of bias, not too difficult, indicative of overall student performance? Do they include common misconceptions that students hold? Utilize a free resource.

SPEAKERS:
Philip Sadler (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian: Cambridge, MA), Cynthia Crockett (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian: Cambridge, MA)

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 links to 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: Beaverton, OR)

In this interactive presentation, the presenter will share a schoolyard science template and guide attendees through how to customize the template for their local community. The presenter will share examples and resources to support each component of the schoolyard science template including (a) the use of satellite imagery and schoolyard assessments to identify existing schoolyard resources, (b) connecting 3-D learning standards to place-based schoolyard science opportunities, and (c) opportunities for stewardship and civic engagement. The presenter will share several strategies to engage students with the SEPs in the schoolyard as they observe, measure, monitor, and experiment with their local environment. The schoolyard science template was developed as part of Advancing Science’s NOAA-funded grant to develop an environmental literacy plan in collaboration with Adams County, PA school districts.

TAKEAWAYS:
The ability to customize a schoolyard science planning template for their local community. Connect local schoolyard resources with the DCIs and SEPs to help students make sense of their local environment while learning science content.

SPEAKERS:
Valerie Stone (Gettysburg College: Gettysburg, PA)

This STEM Share-a-thon session acts as a come-and-go session where attendees can learn about our outreach for the 10/14/23 eclipse. Our goal with this outreach was to reach most, if not, all 5th grade students in Lafayette County, MS. In Mississippi, students learn about eclipses in the 5th grade. In this session, we will share what we did, how we were able to get all the moving parts in place, and what we learned while conducting this outreach. Attendees will also learn about our partnership with our local library for a public viewing party on the day of the eclipse. Attendees will receive a handout detailing how we conducted and met both outreach goals. Attendees will also see photos from our events and resources that influenced our outreach. Presenters will be available for questions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will receive a handout detailing a report of our outreach in Lafayette County, Mississippi. Attendees will also be able to see pictures of our events, and receive ideas about how they might conduct their own public outreach for the April 2024 eclipse.

SPEAKERS:
Alice Steimle (Director: University, MS), Christian Clark (University of Mississippi: University, MS)

Explore an innovative K-2 STEM unit by Elaine Makarevich. Discover engaging lessons and resources tailored for young learners. Gain insights from the teacher/author on the creation and development process.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will gain access to STEM lessons and resources, and hear from the teacher/author who wrote the lessons on how she developed them.

SPEAKERS:
Elaine Makarevich (SubjectToClimate)

N/A

TAKEAWAYS:
You will takeaway teacher tools to support planning and implementing each flexible practice, along with understanding how these practices have played out with teachers and students. These takeaways will be supported by student and teacher examples of work with, and reflections on, these practices.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Lawson (Teaching Assistant Professor)

To some students, poetry may seem daunting. But if we look at poetry as writing in short lines and lists of words, it becomes less scary. In our science classrooms, students may also find that some concepts are difficult. But what happens if we give students opportunities to play with ideas and rehearse those ideas in short lines and lists, or poems, that they create? In our Linking Science, Mathematics, and Literacy for All Learners program, teachers have developed integrated literacy lessons to help students learn scientific content. As students write to learn, they are also learning vocabulary and approaches to help them read and understand complex science texts. One of these strategies is black-out poetry in which the writer is blacking out, or eclipsing, words on the page to create something new. In this session we will share how blackout poetry can be used in different ways with a variety of texts so that all learners can blend their science learning and poetry writing. We wil

TAKEAWAYS:
In this activity, students read and comprehend a scientific text, and then determine the key terms and domain-specific vocabulary. They use this information to create a poem, as well as a visual representation of the text. This is appropriate for upper-elementary through high school students.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Lannin (University of Missouri: Columbia, MO)

Teacher retention is a big topic across the nation today. While many teachers have retired early, quit in the first few years, or even in mid-career, there are many strategies to up one's classroom management game -- NGSS-style. Beyond that, we want to ensure that we are also taking care of ourselves and planning for our future. This presentation will go over a list of things we can do to stay sane now, and plan for the time when we do transition out of education. It will also give teachers, administrators, and others ways to address the root causes of the exodus. For instance, one school district worked with parents, the community, teachers, and students to implement an almost-total restriction of phone use during the school day (through the use of Faraday bags), with the result of all their schools returning to animated happy kids, eager to learn and participate in class. Other "future focused" strategies will be featured in this guided discussion of options for teachers and schools.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will take away strategies for successfully staying in teaching, reducing stress, and engaging in one major strategy for staying in-- planning for the future! De-stressify, and get ready for the next chapter in your life, while staying sane where you are!

SPEAKERS:
Julie A. Smith (Lennox Middle School: Lennox, CA)

Join us as we take you through a hands-on journey, walking you step-by-step through the process of crafting impactful movies. Whether you’re a seasoned tech enthusiast or new to the world of video editing, this session caters to all levels of expertise. Learn how to: 1. Choose the Right Software: Explore the functionalities of iMovie, Clips, and other popular editing tools, and determine which one suits your presentation style best. 2. Plan Your Story: Dive into the art of storytelling and how to structure your presentation to convey information effectively. 3. Capture and Edit Footage: Discover techniques for capturing engaging video content and editing with precision, including adding transitions, effects, and captions. 4. Incorporate Visuals: Learn how to integrate images, graphics, and animations to enhance your message and keep your audience engaged. 5. Perfect the Audio: Understand the importance of clear audio and explore how to incorporate music, narration, and sound effects.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will learn how to seamlessly integrate critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, information literacy, media literacy, technology literacy, flexibility, leadership, and initiative into their STEM curriculum through video-based projects.

SPEAKERS:
Tambra Clark (Birmingam City: No City, No State), Portrice Warren (William James Christian K-8 School: Birmingham, AL)

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. 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 form an organized structure (solid). With each iteration the participants move faster. This results in the weak force group not being able to form 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). Activity will then be modified to explain WHY gas law variables have the relationships they do (P,V,T, n).

TAKEAWAYS:
Students will not only know the properties of solids, liquids, and gasses, but will also 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)