Sponsoring Company: Milestone C & STEMI

Bring AI tech to your classroom in an engaging way!  Visit this workshop to learn about how this technology is influencing and controlling our lives and how educators can teach your students so they are prepared and connected to the jobs of the future that are waiting for them.

SPEAKERS:
Dave Conelias (Milestone C LLC: Shelton, CT)

Learn about free NSTA resources that support integrating learning in Life Science, Computer Science, and Artificial Intelligence. Experience programming your own Artificial Intelligence device on your laptop. Discover the free professional learning available to support implementing the lessons.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn code to program a simple dialogue with an AI Device. Discover how NSTAs free lessons authentically integrate Life Science, Computer Science, and AI. Learn about free professional learning that supports the lesson materials.

SPEAKERS:
Rob Wallace (NSTA: Kenner, LA), Michelle Phillips (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

The room will be set up with stations containing different technologies such as Sphero, MircoBits, etc. At each technology, there will be task cards with a mixture of beginning/intermediate/advanced tasks appropriate for elementary-level students. Teachers will explore each technology station and related task cards. Following the activity, we will discuss how task cards can be a starting point when creating full EDP STEM lessons. Examples will be shown using one of the task cards and how it can be transformed into a full STEM experience. The teacher will then have an opportunity to use one of our task cards to create a STEM experience of their own, based on their selected card. Teachers will be given blank task card templates and lesson planning guides for designing their own STEM lessons.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will leave with some new ideas on how to take a simple STEM task card activity and turn it into a full lesson in their classrooms, while also getting to explore a variety of classroom technologies and elementary-appropriate STEM activities.

SPEAKERS:
Chauntèe Pitts (Professional Learning Specialist), Lauren Kelly (Crowley ISD: Fort Worth, TX)

Prolonged exposure to radon, a colorless, radioactive, noble gas, is the second-leading cause of lung cancer. Researchers at Georgia State University (GSU) and GSU Perimeter College are conducting research to measure levels of radon gas in metropolitan Atlanta with support from the U. S. Department of Agriculture and National Science Foundation. GSU researchers are testing soil samples and remotely monitoring radon levels. To disseminate this research to the broader community, the researchers hosted a week-long radon research workshop for 6-12 grade teachers in DeKalb County Public Schools, Georgia, in June 2022. Four teachers attended the summer radon workshop at the GSU Perimeter College-Decatur Campus. They participated in experiments on soil and water quality testing, soil porosity measurements, gene editing for cancer treatment, and virtual reality lung exploration. The project was highly successful and received positive feedback. This poster will detail the workshop experience.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how universities can successfully partner with local districts to provide research experiences for teachers to expand their content knowledge and lab experience. This project demonstrates the broader impact of the project’s initial goal of measuring radon levels in Atlanta.

SPEAKERS:
Samantha Andrews (GSU Perimeter College: No City, No State)

Winchester is 1 of 10 public schools in the country, out of 43 schools in total, to receive the coveted Education Innovation and Research Early-Phase grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Through the Metrics program, students at John Kerr Elementary School and Garland Quarles Elementary School have an immersive experience with computer science and computational thinking which are driving the 21st century economy. This session is meant to be a dissemination of our five year project, to share what we have learned about immersing students and teachers in grades K-4 in computers science, and to provide resources and time for participants to experience some of our activities and build a trajectory for building their own computer science program.

TAKEAWAYS:
Build your own pathway to develop techies {thinkers} and tinkerers in your space.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Thomas (John Kerr Elementary School: Winchester, VA), Jennifer Ramsey (Garland R. Quarles Elementary School: Winchester, VA), Jennifer LaBombard-Daniels (Winchester Public Schools: Winchester, VA)

The vision of the Fairport STEAM Lab is to support, challenge, and prepare all Fairport students to be Future Ready. We believe that by engaging with curricular and extracurricular projects and inquiries, students will utilize their innate creativity to actively construct knowledge. Students engage with materials and technologies that help them share their learning and tell their stories. The Labs are a place for young people to develop skills that they can transfer to other parts of their lives as they prepare themselves for the future. The presenters will share our experience with building a Lab with attendees that are interested in creating them in their districts and how we have expanded our work to other area districts. We will explore how our curriculum is scaffolded to increase levels of sophistication regarding engineering design, computer science, and digital literacy concepts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with recommendations for creating STEAM Labs in their districts based on the blueprint that Fairport used to launch Labs that incorporate the NGSS Engineering Design standards, Computer Science and Digital Fluency Learning Standards, and a focus on social-emotional learning.

SPEAKERS:
Travis Wood (Fairport Central School District: No City, No State), Kristin Larsen (Honeoye Falls- Lima CSD: Honeoye Falls, NY)

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: Voorhees, NJ)

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)

We report results from a large-scale nationwide study titled “Researching Pre-College Factors that Lead to Persistence in Computer Science,” which has been supported by the National Science Foundation. This retrospective cohort study, including data from 6,044 students at 58 institutions of higher education across the U.S., investigated, among other questions, the effects on students’ computer science related career intentions of designated computer science classes in high school, and the teaching of computational thinking in high school classes other than computer science classes. We specifically looked at the effects of various types of in-school computer science classes (AP CS A, AP CS Principles, non-AP courses), of grades received, and of specific pedagogies in computer science classes, as well as in other classes.

TAKEAWAYS:
What difference do various "flavors" of in-school computer science classes (AP CS A, AP CS Principles, non-AP courses) make?

SPEAKERS:
Gerhard Sonnert (Harvard College Observatory: Cambridge, MA)

Prolonged exposure to radon, a colorless, inert noble gas, is the second-leading cause of lung cancer. Researchers at Georgia State University and Perimeter College are conducting research to measure and monitor the levels of radon gas in metro Atlanta through support from USDA and NSF grants. This project will detail the partnership between Georgia State University and DeKalb County Public Schools to provide an authentic experience by hosting a radon research summer workshop for 6-12 grade STEM teachers in 2022 and 2023. The teachers conducted hands-on laboratory experiments that modeled the research that is being conducted by the Georgia State University researchers and toured the sampling sites. The workshop received positive feedback from both cohorts. The workshop will detail how universities and school districts partner to strengthen the STEM pipeline and incorporate university-level research in a secondary classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how universities and K-12 school districts can partner to provide authentic science experiences to transfer high-level university research to a secondary classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Samantha Andrews (GSU Perimeter College: No City, No State)

Computer science promotes problem solving, decision making, communication, and critical thinking. Students in early grades need the opportunity to participate in programming activities that engage them while also strengthening reasoning and problem-solving skills. Project STEM+C2 provides this opportunity for Grades 2 and 3 classroom students while motivating young learners and promoting cognitive reasoning. Computer science provides students with opportunities to learn about process thinking, troubleshooting, the iterative nature of problem solving, and perseverance. We engaged students in building computational thinking skills through unplugged computer science activities. Featured lessons include placing items on a bookshelf using positional words, writing a program for a battleship to find a target, and using conditionals to guide hedgehogs through a maze. Implemented and field-tested through a U. S. Dept. of Education project, STEM+C2, the activities will engage young learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
This poster will describe and link to three unplugged computer lessons including using positional words to model computational thinking, how to write a program using algorithmic thinking, debugging programs and looping, and using conditionals to write programs.

SPEAKERS:
Monica Meadows (University of Arkansas at Little Rock: Little Rock, AR)

The vision of the Fairport STEAM Lab is to support, challenge, and prepare all Fairport students to be Future Ready. We believe that by engaging with curricular and extracurricular projects and inquiries, students will utilize their innate creativity to actively construct knowledge. Students engage with materials and technologies that help them share their learning and tell their stories. The Labs are a place for young people to develop skills that they can transfer to other parts of their lives as they prepare themselves for the future. The presenters will share our experience with building a Lab with attendees that are interested in creating them in their districts and how we have expanded our work to other area districts. We will explore how our curriculum is scaffolded to increase levels of sophistication regarding engineering design, computer science, and digital literacy concepts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with recommendations for creating STEAM Labs in their districts based on the blueprint that Fairport used to launch Labs that incorporate the NGSS Engineering Design Standards, Computer Science and Digital Fluency Learning Standards, and a focus on social-emotional learning.

SPEAKERS:
Travis Wood (Fairport Central School District: No City, No State), Kristin Larsen (Honeoye Falls- Lima CSD: Honeoye Falls, NY)

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)

We report results from a large-scale nationwide study titled “Researching Pre-College Factors that Lead to Persistence in Computer Science,” which has been supported by the National Science Foundation. This retrospective cohort study, including data from 6,044 students at 58 institutions of higher education across the U.S., investigated, among other questions, the effects on students’ computer science related career intentions of designated computer science classes in high school, and of teaching of computational thinking in high school classes other than computer science classes. We specifically looked at the effects of various types of in-school computer science classes (AP CS A, AP CS Principles, non-AP courses), of grades received, and of specific pedagogies in computer science classes as well as in other classes.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn what works--and what does not work--in boosting students' computer science-related career interests and identity, and be able to use these findings to help make the case for CS in their schools.

SPEAKERS:
Gerhard Sonnert (Harvard College Observatory: Cambridge, MA)

Pathogen Patrol is a gamified learning experience created by Project Lead The Way (PLTW) and Tipping Point Media on the Roblox platform. This immersive classroom learning experience is designed to teach students about the human immune system's response to infections. Students are transformed into one of five different white blood cell types, and they must work with other players to protect the host from invading pathogens. The experience combines fun and engaging gameplay with applied learning, building students' problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and enduring understandings of the human body and its response to infection. PLTW believes that Roblox is the perfect platform to engage students in deep learning that builds the same transportable skills they develop in the classroom. In this workshop, teachers will be transported into virtual human hosts and experience stealth learning experience how stealth learning can create deep understanding of complex systems.

TAKEAWAYS:
Well-designed immersive learning experiences can engage students and create deep learning opportunities through repeated gameplay.

SPEAKERS:
Sheila Robles (Instructional Developer: , TX), Taylor Puett (Project Lead The Way, Inc.: Indianapolis, IN), Jason Rausch (SVP of Programs: Indianapolis, OK)