Join us to learn how OpenSciEd materials can help you build science learning experiences anchored in compelling phenomena and meaningful community and global problems. This PLI will introduce you to the first unit in the OpenSciEd High School physics course. You will experience firsthand how the unit is driven by student questions, you will put on your “student hat” to feel what it’s like to be a student whose thoughts and questions help drive learning forward in the unit, and reflect on coherence in the unit by unpacking the unit storyline. You also will gain a birds-eye view of the structure of units for all three courses of OpenSciEd– biology, chemistry, and physics– and discuss the routines and resources that promote equitable science learning in high school. Additional follow-up sessions throughout the conference will dig deeper into other courses in OpenSciEd and provide practical strategies for implementing OpenSciEd in your classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
You will experience firsthand how the unit is driven by student questions, you will put on your “student hat” to feel what it’s like to be a student whose thoughts and questions help drive learning forward in the unit, and reflect on coherence in the unit by unpacking the unit storyline.

SPEAKERS:
Zoe Buck Bracey (Senior Science Educator and Director of Design for Justice: Colorado Springs, CO), Kate Henson (University of Colorado Boulder: Boulder, CO)

Come join us to see how OpenSciEd’s materials can help you reveal your students’ brilliance. The first full day of the professional learning institute (PLI) will simultaneously prepare you to teach the first unit in the OpenSciEd middle school program and provide the support you need to advance your practice so that learning is both driven by student questions and leads to the foundational science learning they need to be successful. To do this, this session will put teachers in the student’s seat so they can feel what it's like to be a student whose thoughts and questions are valued in the drive to figure out puzzling phenomena. We actually do science together with the facilitator acting as the "teacher" and then dig in to help you see the coherence across the program and the details in the first units you will be teaching.

TAKEAWAYS:
How OpenSciEd's free and publicly available instructional materials and professional learning can make my vision for science education a reality.

SPEAKERS:
Whitney Mills (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Thomas Clayton (K-5 STEAM Specialist: Berkeley Heights, NJ)

This full day course will introduce and immerse participants in 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 for designing 3-dimensional tasks that align with NGSS performance expectations, take into consideration students’ diverse backgrounds, and create their own tasks at the grade level and science topic of their choice.

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

Our brains are wired for stories. Stories make learning stick and can make science relatable and relevant to students’ lives. Stories in science are also shaped by both who is doing the telling and how they’re telling us about it. We want our students to have the opportunity to envision themselves as scientists. If a scientist looks like our students, speaks their language, struggles, and celebrates like them, then students begin to see science as a possibility for themselves—something to explore and enthusiastically engage with. To make science learning more story-driven and inclusive, Complexly and BioInteractive have teamed up to refresh Crash Course’s hugely popular YouTube biology series. The new series, produced fully in both English and Spanish, opens a window into the process of science, highlighting its collaborative, community-driven nature, through engaging stories of discovery by a diversity of scientists both past and present.

TAKEAWAYS:
We want our students to have the opportunity to envision themselves as scientists. If a scientist looks like our students, speaks their language, struggles, and celebrates like them, then students begin to see science as a possibility for themselves.

SPEAKERS:
Samuel Ramsey (Professor), Minerva Contreras (Graduate Student Researcher)

In pre-NGSS approaches to science teaching, units were often sequenced based on how experts understand the relationship among concepts. This means that it typically requires an understanding of the concepts being taught to understand why a unit is sequenced the way it is. The result is that the sequence of activities may make sense to a teacher, but doesn’t necessarily make sense to the students. The shift to phenomena-based 3D learning brings the student to the center of the learning and uses their life experiences and approaches to sensemaking to drive the learning. This session will highlight how powerful this shift is for student ownership of learning and general engagement. Additionally, we will describe HOW to make this a reality in classrooms and provide participants with resources and supports to bring this learning to life in their classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
The shift to phenomena-based 3D learning brings the student to the center of the learning and uses their life experiences and approaches to sensemaking to drive the learning forward.

SPEAKERS:
Matt Krehbiel (OpenSciEd: New York, NY)

The NSTA Sensemaking Tool (adapted from the research-based NGSS Lesson Screener) is designed to help educators be critical consumers of curricular materials as well as create and/or revise science lessons to reflect the instructional shifts required by new standards (sensemaking). Join us to gain experience using the tool and facilitating criteria-based consensus conversations with colleagues.

TAKEAWAYS:
Recognize the critical aspects of sensemaking in a science lesson.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Mathews (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Holly Hereau (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Kate Soriano (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

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)

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)

Data is key to NGSS. Yet many students struggle to make sense of it. Leaving many of us baffled by what our students do with data and/or confused by the claims they make from graphs. What can we do? Leverage classroom-ready strategies based on what research says about how younger students learn from data! Join us to discuss the data skills our young learners need and try strategies to integrate these skills into whatever your curriculum or platforms. We will explore how such strategies foster science learning for all students and increase students' interest in working with data (from Pre-K to 8th). We will discuss how novices and experts interact with data differently and what that means for our teaching. As we explore classroom-ready resources around data, data visualizations, and instructional strategies to enhance our current K-8 science content instruction and increase our toolkits. Let’s set ourselves and our students up for success by building strong foundations!

TAKEAWAYS:
Acquire skills and resources to unpack strategies for K-8 students to use when interpreting science data and visualizations in our existing curriculum for building data skills.

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

According to recent studies, teaching elementary reading, writing, and math in isolation is not the most effective way for students to learn. We will show how it is possible to develop integrated learning opportunities using all of the subjects as attendees work together to analyze data and primary sources from the 1930's regarding the Dust Bowl in Kansas. Using a jigsaw method, attendees will first be divided into specialties: Horticulturist, Biologist, Geologist, Climatologist, Government employee, Native American, and a monoculture farmer to work together, from their discipline's unique perspective, to investigate how the Dust Bowl could have been avoided. They will analyze soil samples, graphs, charts, weather patterns, etc. and come to conclusions. Each member of the group will then be assigned a new group that includes one member from each discipline to present and share their perspectives with others in order to design a solution for the droughts being experienced in the 21st century.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to integrate historical problems, primary source analysis, and STEM practices in engaging and meaningful ways to reinforce student learning as they work together to explore and debate possible solutions from multiple perspectives to prevent another Dust Bowl like the 1930's.

SPEAKERS:
Deborah Draper (Cedar Ridge Elementary School: Cedar Hills, UT), Julie Siebach (Retired Teacher: Cedar Hills, UT)

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)

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 (Professor: 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)

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

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

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

Explore how the Project Approach is effective for increasing authentic sensemaking experiences in PreK-2 settings. Grounded in classical procedures of science, the Project Approach builds a foundation for science learning. A project, or long-term investigation, begins with children’s questions about the phenomena of interest, proceeds to cycles of predictions and data collection, and concludes with representation of learning. Projects provide rich opportunities for discipline integration, optimizing learning for young children through integrated curricula. Project work assists teachers in building on children’s innate abilities and curiosity about phenomena that they find intensely interesting, such as worms seen on sidewalks after it rains. Participants will identify key project phases, how to use planning tools for topic selection, and intentionally teach through standard integration. Participants will examine documentation of project work including photos and children’s questions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Examine classroom documentation to evaluate alignment between NGSS sensemaking pillars and the Project Approach components, such as how to select topics for investigation; gather children’s questions; and support young scientists to plan, investigate, collect data, and communicate their learning.

SPEAKERS:
Karrie Snider (Associate Professor: Lee's Summit, MO), Rebecca Wilson (Van Meter Community School District: Van Meter, IA)

The claim, evidence, reasoning method is a well-researched and effective tool in helping students engage in argumentation. However, in our work with teachers, we find that the method is often not well understood or implemented. In practice, especially in elementary classrooms, teachers are using claim to replace the word hypothesis, leading to the incorrect use of the method. Teachers are also starting by having students make a claim and then evaluating the evidence shown as to provide reasoning. A better way of using the method is to evaluate the evidence, then make a claim, and finally use reasoning to support the claim. We want to help teachers understand the research and how to use the method in their classrooms. Once the background is understood, the teachers will practice the method themselves by gathering evidence from the provided visualizations, writing a claim based on the evidence, and using the evidence along with their own background knowledge as their reasoning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn where and how to use the claim, evidence, reasoning method and practice using it to make their own reasoned claims based on evidence.

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

Join us to see how OpenSciEd’s materials can help build science learning experiences anchored in compelling phenomena and in important community and global problems. OpenSciEd high school uses a storyline approach that emphasizes coherence from the student perspective. Participants will explore the curricular routines, discourse strategies, and comprehensive assessment system that support equitable participation

TAKEAWAYS:
OpenSciEd HS's storyline approach, curricular routines, student discourse strategies, and assessment systems work together to help students build equitable science learning experiences.

SPEAKERS:
Zoe Buck Bracey (Senior Science Educator and Director of Design for Justice: Colorado Springs, CO), Michael Novak (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL), Kate Henson (University of Colorado Boulder: Boulder, CO)

It's difficult for educators at the primary level to imagine creating “additional time” for science, but when we understand strong language skills provide greater success in reading and writing, we see that science isn't just "one more thing." Science and critical thinking creates opportunities for students to have authentic conversations–which allows us to guide student language in a way that's unmatched! We will include a brief review of SEPs, standards for spoken/written language, and examples for using NGSS DCIs to facilitate student conversations. Ideas for explicitly teaching conversational language skills and behaviors will be shared. Participants will learn ways to combine the use of guided student language and current best practices in literacy instruction along with other ideas that can be used immediately. The session will end with participants developing plans for scientific conversations in their own classrooms, and ideas for how they might guide & build student language.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be provided with ideas for engaging students in scientific conversations, ideas for guiding student language within those conversations, and ideas for using language to facilitate literacy instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Paige Garrett (Teacher: Nixa, MO), Courtney Mills (John Thomas School of Discovery Partner School: Nixa, MO), Shannon Winkler (John Thomas School of Discovery Partner School: Nixa, MO)

This is session 1 of 4 in the PL Committee CCCs conference course. It is designed to support K-12. This session is an opportunity for members of NSTA's PL Committee to recruit and connect with fellow NSTA members. Attendees will be introduced to topics included in the conference course highlighting how CCCs are used as tools in service of DCIs and SEPs, student sensemaking, and assessment of CCCs to guide further instruction. Using the Framework progression documents and STEM Teaching Tools, attendees will have the opportunity to collaborate with fellow participants to uncover vertical progressions of CCCs and have tools to use within the classroom to elicit student sensemaking. The PL Committee will utilize research from Jeffery Nordine and Okhee Lee's book, "Crosscutting Concepts: Strengthening Science and Engineering Learning," to ignite the call to action for realizing the power of CCCs.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session is a call to action for realizing the power of CCCs. Attendees will have an opportunity to connect with NSTA's PL Committee, collaborate with fellow science leaders, and leave with an invitation to continue the conference course to further understandings of sensemaking and CCCs.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Abbott (The Lawrence Hall of Science: Berkeley, CA), Kimberley Astle (Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction: Olympia, WA), Sharon Cates (Phenomenon Science Education: Amherst, MA), Zoe Evans (Bremen City Schools: Bremen, GA), Leah Litz (Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium: No City, No State)

N/A

TAKEAWAYS:
Presenting a compelling phenomenon or design challenge requires framing a question and choosing material carefully. Building a storyline requires testing out a launch of a unit to anticipate student questions about it, and first identifying what students will figure out in each lesson of a unit before it occurs.

SPEAKERS:
Bill Penuel (: Boulder, CO)

In this session, teachers will explore the concept of wonder and how it can be applied to teaching and learning. Through activities and discussion, teachers will gain an understanding of the importance of wonder in the classroom. Educators will also learn how to embed wonder into their lessons through creative strategies, such as using hands-on activities, engaging visuals, and technology-based activities, focusing deeply on making space for student sensemaking and exploration. Additionally, teachers will explore how to connect wonder to curricular standards and create lesson templates that promote exploration and discovery. Teachers will also reflect on what they have learned and brainstorm ways to implement a culture of wonder in their classrooms. AND HAVE A GOOD TIME DOIN' IT

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave the session understanding how sensemaking is supported through our NGSS standards. They will have time to explore and understand methods that inspire student thinking and wonder.

SPEAKERS:
Jacey Suda (John Thomas School of Discovery Partner School: Nixa, MO), Hannah Buckner (John Thomas School of Discovery Partner School: Nixa, MO)

The purpose of this session is to engage participants as learners in the process of making sense of a phenomenon through engaging in scientific practices. The modeled lesson provides attendees with a shared learning experience similar to that of a typical science classroom, seeded with instructional strategies designed to support their sensemaking before, during, and after an investigation. Attendees will be introduced to a phenomenon, provided materials to carry out an investigation, given a model scaffold to record their thinking, and a talk tool to support equitable idea sharing and listening. They will reflect on their experience as learners, debriefing sensemaking strategies, and using the four attributes of sensemaking (phenomena, science and engineering practices, student ideas, and science ideas) to reflect on the model lesson and their classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will walk away with a greater understanding of how key science practices work in tandem to support student sensemaking and will experience tools like model scaffolds, driving question boards, and talk tools designed to support learners in explaining phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Alex Gerber (Instructional Specialist: University City, MO), Heather Milo (Washington University in St. Louis: St. Louis, MO)

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

With the transition to 3-dimensional learning and NGSS, is there still a place for dissections in the classroom? The answer is yes! As you dissect a frog, we will demonstrate how to integrate the 3 dimensions of learning while highlighting adaptations and the relationship between structure and function.

SPEAKERS:
Patricia Kopkau

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Experience how science lessons can be structured using teacher instructional slides, where students work in groups, with specific roles, to develop claims [about how motion energy moves and changes] based on evidence observed through hands-on experiences. Leave with classroom resources.

SPEAKERS:
Hoover Herrera (Carolina Biological Supply Co.: Burlington, NC)

Sponsoring Company: Amplify

Elementary students deserve science! Experience a research-based approach to teaching science that leverages the mutually supportive aspects of phenomena-based science instruction and literacy. Explore how this approach can help you increase instructional time for science while making ELA gains.

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

Everything is dependent on water. Explore several properties of this remarkable compound with tried-and-true phenomena. Learn multiple ways to model those phenomena using the Water Kit©.

SPEAKERS:
Ruth Hutson (3D Molecular Designs: Milwaukee, WI)

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: Washington, DC)

Data literacy is integral to students engaging in real-world science and NGSS practices. However, it can be challenging to design data experiences that help students to develop deep understanding of data. The Building Blocks for Data Literacy (Hunter-Thomson & Schauffler, 2021) offers a developmental approach to the design of data experiences: Get Data, Explore Data, and Infer Meaning From Data. Each realm is further broken down into the functions that students should be encouraged to do with data. Session participants will experience a typical path through the data journey, including the opportunity to see how the decisions that we make as educators can shape what students take away from the data experience. Our focus in this session will be at the elementary grade level, but the Building Blocks are a continuum across the K-12 grade span. This work complements the ADVizE grant project (NSF #2142692), which supports the integration of data skills into preservice STEM Methods courses.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will gain an understanding of the way data literacy can be developed developmentally across the realms of Getting Data, Exploring Data and Inferring Meaning from Data.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Hunter-Thomson (Dataspire Education & Evaluation, LLC), Michael Jabot (SUNY Fredonia: Fredonia, NY)

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: , MI)

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: Northport, NY)

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), Kimberley Astle (Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction: Olympia, WA)

Activating Students' Ideas! is a one-stop professional learning experience that will inspire you to reimagine how you teach. This session discusses how two popular teaching resources can be used in tandem: (1) Uncovering Student Ideas formative assessment probes and (2) Explore-before-explain teaching. We show how simple shifts in arranging and combining activities help students construct knowledge while allowing you to put the three dimensions of the K-12 Science Education Frameworks into practice. The session includes: (1) A concise review of research on why the order in which you structure your lessons is so critical; (2) The critical planning considerations for becoming an “explore-before-explain” teacher; (3) Ready-to-teach lessons that use science phenomena as a hook to provide an interdisciplinary learning experience; and (4) Reflection questions will spark thinking throughout the sequencing process and help you develop the knowledge to adapt these concepts to you

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn about a resource for formative assessment and explore-before-explain teaching.

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

This unit helps students develop an understanding of the elements of evolution by natural selection and learn to apply that understanding to protect populations endangered by urbanization. Students learn through modeling, reading and discussing adaptations of published scientific studies of nonhuman populations impacted by urbanization. They develop criteria for designing urban systems that protect populations from the harmful effects of fragmentation in urban systems and evaluate proposals for development in a real US city.

TAKEAWAYS:
Leave motivated to use OpenSciEd’s storyline to teach the elements of evolution by natural selection using real-world examples. Students will learn how their understanding of biological concepts can be used to design more sustainable systems that benefit the human and more-than human world.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Krauskopf (University of Colorado-Boulder: No City, No State), Wayne Wright (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Kate Henson (University of Colorado Boulder: Boulder, CO)

Participants will discover how argumentation can support the vision of inclusive instructional strategies across the curriculum. This session will anchor in learning theory and focus on student work examples, including graphic organizers and transcripts, that tell the story of an instructional sequence about pollinators. How the routines of science support learning for literacy and math will be investigated and made explicit. We’ll pull apart the underlying instructional practices evident in the student work for how to plan for engagement, elicit student ideas, support changes in student ideas, and press for complete explanations through argumentation.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will come away with an example of how to structure argumentation in the 4th grade classroom through observing student data organization and student discourse.

SPEAKERS:
Lindsey Roy (Science and Digital Learning Coordinator: Lincoln, NE), Miranda Orellana (Elementary Teacher: Lincoln, NE), Betsy Barent (Lincoln Public Schools: No City, No State)

According to recent studies, teaching elementary reading, writing, and math in isolation is not the most effective way for students to learn. We will show how it is possible to develop integrated learning opportunities using all of the subjects in the elementary school day-- building strong connections within young students' brains. Such rich and impactful experiences in student learning enhances the likelihood for students to make lasting connections with what they're learning every day. The Framework for K-12 Science in Education in conjunction with the NCSS C3 Framework is our basis for designing lessons and units. Presenters will model and help teachers brainstorm robust, integrated lessons with STEM, ELA, and social studies to improve student understanding in all subject areas as they gather, reason, and communicate connections in problem-solving STEM activities, fiction, informational text, writing, and simulated learning experiences– all capable of supporting each other.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn the connections between NGSS, NCSS, and CCSS and the impact they can have on student learning with mindful integration of these subjects. Using a template to guide their planning, attendees will begin to practice integrating lesson/unit plans based on their own core requirements.

SPEAKERS:
Deborah Draper (Cedar Ridge Elementary School: Cedar Hills, UT), Julie Siebach (Retired Teacher: Cedar Hills, UT)

Supporting the teacher as the “designer” of science instruction is essential to cultivating a learning environment in the science classroom that leverages sense-making. Participants will learn about “look for’s” for high quality instruction, their implications for evaluation and the value of giving teachers both confidence and inspiration to innovate.

TAKEAWAYS:
Administrators will learn practical ways to support teachers in shifting instructional practices that support the demands of the NGSS.

SPEAKERS:
Zoe Evans (Bremen City Schools: Bremen, GA), Michael Fumagalli (Assistant Director of Teaching & Learning: Glen Ellyn, IL)

Over the last few years, access to digital resources to capture student understanding of chemistry concepts has greatly increased. This technological shift, along with a focus on the use of storylines to engage students in chemistry, provides an opportunity to implement digital interactive notebooks. Through the use of various on-line platforms, student beliefs and understanding can be documented and tracked over the course of a storyline. Digital notebooking is a dynamic process that integrates different learning experiences to challenge and reinforce student understanding. This method actively engages students in a manner that encourages discussion and collaboration. Support is built into the digital notebook for absent students and those that need additional resources to understand a concept. This session provides an overview of the digital interactive notebook creation, along with guidance for educators to take this process and use phenomena relevant to their students.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session will provide a brief overview of how I use digital interactive notebooks in my classroom, along with guidance on how educators can begin the process of building their own. Resources and editable chemistry notebooks will be shared that focus on different chemistry phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah English (Sweet Home High School: Amherst, NY)

In this session, participants will learn about the characteristics of high-quality instructional materials, and how to use EdReports’ reports to identify these characteristics in a curriculum adoption process. Participants will participate in a mock materials adoption where they will learn how to use EdReports’ resources to identify priorities and compare and contrast sample programs around the identified criteria. Through this process participants will learn how to effectively read and leverage EdReports reports and how to begin to narrow materials selection through a critical lens, through guided practice and discussion. Finally, we will orient participants to EdReports' complete reviews of instructional materials, existing adoption and selection tools, as well as other resources for making materials selections for their school or classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Through engaging in a sample materials selection process, participants will gain an understanding of the characteristics of high-quality instructional materials and how to use EdReports' free resources.

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

The NSTA Sensemaking Tool (adapted from the research-based NGSS Lesson Screener) is designed to help educators be critical consumers of curricular materials as well as create and/or revise science lessons to reflect the instructional shifts required by new standards (sensemaking). Join us to gain experience using the tool and facilitating criteria-based consensus conversations with colleagues.

TAKEAWAYS:
Recognize the critical aspects of sensemaking in a science lesson.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Mathews (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Holly Hereau (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Kate Soriano (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

Science is often portrayed as conducted in a simple linear way (i.e., the scientific method). But this is rarely true in actual scientific practice. Instead of a step-by-step series of actions, science is conducted more cyclically, with scientists working back and forth between pursuing exploration and discovery, assessing benefits and outcomes, and developing analysis and feedback. At the core of this process is evidence, against which ideas in science are constantly tested. Evidence is what drives all scientific understanding. By examining environmental DNA (eDNA) collected from areas where recent Bigfoot sightings have occurred, participants can provide students with a logical and rational way scientists can use evidence to dispel the pseudoscience of cryptozoology. Upon completing this activity, attendees can apply their new knowledge to how eDNA is currently used to identify viruses and diseases in wastewater. Resources: https://ncse.ngo/supporting-teachers/classroom-resources

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore and appreciate the importance of evidence to the scientific process by taking a deep dive into an NGSS storyline sequence developed to help students understand that science must be substantiated by multiple lines of evidence to be accepted by the scientific community.

SPEAKERS:
Blake Touchet (National Center for Science Education: Oakland, CA), Ericca Thornhill (Mizzou Academy: Columbia, MO), Lin Andrews (National Center for Science Education: Oakland, CA)

Sponsoring Company: Stile Education

Join our session to learn strategies for teaching data analysis and modeling in line with the NGSS. Empower your students to analyze real-world data, create accurate models, and apply their knowledge with easy-to-implement techniques. Participate in and win CHARTY PARTY while enhancing your toolkit!

SPEAKERS:
Hailey Vogel (Head of Teaching and Learning: Los Angeles, CA)

Sponsoring Company: Great Minds

In this workshop, participants interact with a 4th grade module to figure out how Balinese Rice farming has endured for 1,000 years. While exploring farming practices in Bali, participants uncover a new process for developing models in science.

SPEAKERS:
Sally Robichaux (Great Minds: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Come experience a model lesson from OpenSciEd for Middle School and see how the new Carolina Certified Edition makes these high-quality instructional materials even better! Leave with classroom resources.

SPEAKERS:
Cory Ort (Carolina Biological Supply Co.: Burlington, NC)

Over the course of the last five years I have developed an engaging resource based card game to teach the cell. I grew disillusioned the projects and activities that we were currently doing as it didn't get to the heart of the parts of the cell. The Cell Game fixed that. In one class students compete to build different organelles that require resource cards. By having more organelles, your cell becomes more complex. The students LOVE the cell game and clamor to play it at lunch after being exposed to it. I'd love to share it with other teachers.

TAKEAWAYS:
Build a cell. Divide. Grow. Get excited about cell microbiology!

SPEAKERS:
Jason Zackowski (Science Curriculum Lead)

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: Olympia, WA), Rebecca Garelli (Arizona Science Teachers Association)

Seaworthy STEM in a Box activities were developed through collaborative efforts between STEM education specialists at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division and master teachers participating in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Albert Einstein Distinguished Education Fellowship Program. Seaworthy STEM endeavors to inspire and prepare the next generation of STEM professionals by supporting teachers’ efforts to engage students – from early childhood through high school – in more hand-on science inquiry and engineering design. Activities are organized around grade bands with Naval-relevant themes and involve simple phenomena that support student sensemaking around key science and engineering concepts. Our workshop will allow teachers to practice several hands-on activities from the Seaworth STEM suite and will provide strategies for classroom integration, including content selection, standards alignment, materials acquisition, and tips for classroom implementation.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this hands-on workshop, teachers will explore several Seaworthy STEM in a Box activities and receive teacher background information on NGSS standards alignment, career connections, and relevant Naval and physical science concepts. Links to classroom-ready lesson materials will also be provided.

SPEAKERS:
Stephanie Klixbull (Penn State University: No City, No State), Tom Jenkins (Greenon Junior/Senior High School: Enon, OH), Melissa Thompson (Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship: No City, No State), Suzy Otto (University of Missouri)

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)

OpenSciEd Chemistry units use a justice-centered storyline approach to help students figure out answers to their questions. The central focus of the Oysters unit is food sovereignty engineering design: how can people reclaim important foods that they’ve lost due to colonization and ecosystem disruption? In this session, participants will experience portions of the unit’s anchor in “student hat” before reviewing the unit as a whole in teacher hat. Participants will see how students develop engineering design solutions using NGSS-aligned chemistry and Earth and space science models and practices including the carbon cycle, acid-base interactions, reversible reactions, and stoichiometry (scale, proportion, & quantity). These lessons include testing pH of various solutions and concentration; using mathematical thinking to inform design solutions; and identifying how humans have impacted the carbon cycle.

TAKEAWAYS:
This unit supports students as they figure out understandings of reversible reactions through explaining changes in ocean chemistry to engineer solutions to prevent oyster die offs. Participants will see how students build these ideas and develop mathematical thinking throughout the unit.

SPEAKERS:
Nicole Vick (Northwestern University), Kerri Wingert (Good Question Research: Boulder, CO)

Interest and identity are key for supporting meaningful science learning for students (NRC, 2012), yet traditional secondary science assessments do not invite students to bring their sensemaking repertoires and interests to assessment tasks. This session shares a research-driven, “five-dimensional” (5D) process for assessment design that grounds students’ interests and identities as co-equal dimensions to the 3 NGSS dimensions. Participants will use 5D Assessment tools to create more meaningful and equitable assessments that better leverage the assets that students bring and support students as knowers and doers of science. Participants will examine features of meaningful, phenomenon-driven assessments and adapt a community survey tool they can use in classrooms to elicit information about their students’ interests and identities. We will share how they can use this information to guide the development of a “5D” assessment.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators engage with the 5-D Assessment Project's tools to elicit and use information about students' interests and identities to design meaningful, phenomenon-driven assessment opportunities. Work with examples of meaningful assessment aligned to the elements of the NGSS.

SPEAKERS:
Abraham Lo (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Sara Cooper (Contextus)

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)

The more senses we use when learning something, the better we are able to remember it, so in this session teachers will learn how to incorporate movement into their classes. Here are the activities we will do: 1) Modeling an action potential. The graph of an action potential looks a lot like a wave and so to help students remember this, we say the stages of the graph while we make a wave with our bodies (like in a stadium). Then students need to describe what is happening at the cellular level while their bodies are moving. 2) Modeling translation. Participants will be given supplies to take on the role of tRNAs, with anticodons and amino acids, and then show how they enter the ribosome through the A, P and E sites to undergo translation. 3) If time permits, we can also model a signal transduction pathway or DNA replication. 4) The last 15 minutes will be for groups to come up with one way they can incorporate movement and present this to the group.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to get your students up and moving as they use their bodies to act out cellular processes.

SPEAKERS:
Ilana Saxe (The Lawrenceville School: Lawrenceville, NJ)

In order for teachers to support the three-dimensional learning of their students, they need high-quality professional learning (PL). This presentation outlines a PL approach that focuses on Ambitious Science Teaching (Windschitl, M. Thompson, J., & Braaten, M., 2018) as an approach to support teacher and student three-dimensional science learning. The PL model includes 4 PL sessions followed by 3 action periods to “try-on” strategies in their classrooms. During the PL sessions teachers experienced ambitious strategies as learners, connected theory to practice, collaborated meaningfully with colleagues, and reflected on their implementation of strategies. The sessions led to a change in teacher practice that was evident through the artifacts they collected. Teachers also made cross-curricular connections with many of the introduced strategies. This presentation provides suggestions for supporting teachers in implementing ambitious science teaching strategies.

TAKEAWAYS:
The audience will walk away with a model for high-quality professional learning for teachers that supports student growth in three-dimensional science learning. The model can be implemented at the school, district, or cross-district level.

SPEAKERS:
Heather Milo (Washington University in St. Louis: St. Louis, MO), Alex Gerber (Instructional Specialist: University City, MO)

School and district leaders will learn about the variety of professional learning opportunities that NSTA offers, delivered in-person, online, and blended, that give their teachers the power to personalize their learning as well as the ability to learn with their peers. Presenters will share how to utilize NSTA's online learning resources to support in-person professional learning experiences. A few case-studies will be presented representative of different professional learning options available, including coaching, in-person workshops, online book studies, and district/school partnerships.

TAKEAWAYS:
School and district leaders will learn about the variety of professional learning opportunities that NSTA offers, delivered in-person, online, and blended, that give their teachers the power to personalize their learning as well as the ability to learn with their peers.

SPEAKERS:
Flavio Mendez (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

This session will help administrators to answer: What should I see and not see in a 3-dimensional science classroom? How do I provide effective feedback to the teacher? How do I support instructional innovation as an instructional leader?

TAKEAWAYS:
Administrators will feel empowered to lead science instruction in their schools, even without a science background.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Fumagalli (Assistant Director of Teaching & Learning: Glen Ellyn, IL)

The negotiation and construction of scientific ideas through talk is a central part of the science learning described in the Framework for K-12 Science. Discussion is the glue that connects science and engineering practices to one another, and it connects those practices to disciplinary core ideas and cross-cutting concepts. But just because it is a key part of the vision, making it a reality in the classroom isn't always easy. In this session, we will dig into the types of discussions and approaches for ensuring they are equitable and meaningful. We will share planning tools, and teaching moves that will support science discussion. Participants will engage in discussion, analyze classroom videos and plan for how they may implement aspects in their own classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discussion is the way that a classroom community makes sense of what it is investigating, and there are tools and approaches that teachers can use to ensure that all students have access to this sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Matt Krehbiel (OpenSciEd: New York, NY)

This session will introduce participants to a lesson designed to introduce high school students to cutting-edge research on planetary science. The lesson is designed around the critical aspects of sensemaking: students experience a phenomenon, engage in science and engineering practices, and share ideas to build and/or apply disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts needed to explain how or why the phenomenon occurs. Sensemaking is in the vision of A Framework for K-12 Science Education -- “the doing of science and engineering is highlighted as a strategy that can capture students’ interest in science and motivate their continued study.” (A Framework for K-12 Science Education, pp 42-43). JHU Wavelengths lessons co-designed by NSTA and Johns Hopkins University provide opportunities for all students to engage in science learning that is meaningful to them.

TAKEAWAYS:
The Johns Hopkins Wavelengths lesson introduced in the session provides opportunities for secondary students to learn about cutting-edge planetary science research and figure out science ideas related to earth and space science, and physical science.

SPEAKERS:
Patrice Scinta (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

N/A

TAKEAWAYS:
Phenomena is foundational to science and intellectual pursuits in general! Come make sense of the idea and think about how phenomena-based instruction can engage your students in meaningful learning.

SPEAKERS:
Bill Penuel (: Boulder, CO), Tiffany Neill (Research Scientist: Oklahoma City, OK)

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Discover new ways to help students think & work like scientists and engineers. We will model instruction and resources that support 3-dimensional teaching and learning including teacher instructional slides, student friendly materials, simulations, and student investigation sheets.

SPEAKERS:
Hoover Herrera (Carolina Biological Supply Co.: Burlington, NC)

It is often thought that a makerspace activity is something that is nice to do with students, but not a necessity. Yet when makerspace activities are integrated into daily instruction, it can open many avenues that promote an inclusive classroom. This workshop will focus on strategies and ways to use makerspace to promote student voice and choice for areas of concept development, empathy-driven problem solving, and assessment. Participants will explore the key elements of makerspace and examine ways to use makerspace challenges to support sense-making. The discussion will also focus on the idea that makerspace activities can nudge all students to consider multiple ways of solving problems, thus enhancing their “out of the box” thinking. As part of this session, participants will explore different strategies in using makerspace to introduce a phenomenon, model a phenomenon, and assess students' understanding on three different dimensions of learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore makerspace challenges and activities as a means to provide student voice and choice in how they make sense of a phenomenon, a solution to a problem, and core ideas while demonstrating their understanding of core ideas as a means of assessment.

SPEAKERS:
Michele Detwiler (Gary Adult High School: Tampa, FL)

Crosscutting Concepts, the links between different science disciplines, can be challenging to use as an anchoring storyline activity. However, it can be one of the best ways to engage students, as they can make personal connections between different domains. Teachers will begin by becoming familiar with the NGSS Appendix G Systems and System Models progression, identifying essential learning by grade. Then, they will investigate how this CCC has been built into a storyline anchor, extending this concept from the initial activity (involving video games) into a different aspect of science–climate modeling. Teachers leave prepared to utilize this storyline in the classroom. Upon completion, students will be able to identify the factors used in climate models and create a model that depicts the flow of energy/matter in a climate system. They will also be able to express the reliability and validity of climate models. Resources: https://ncse.ngo/supporting-teachers/classroom-resources

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will walk away with a better understanding of how to use the Systems and Systems Modeling Crosscutting Concept to help students analyze the precision and reliability limitations of past and present climate models, dispelling major misconceptions about climate science along the way.

SPEAKERS:
Blake Touchet (National Center for Science Education: Oakland, CA), Michael Lowry (McCallie School: Chattanooga, TN), Lin Andrews (National Center for Science Education: Oakland, CA)

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), 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: No City, No State), Brian Kutsch (National Science Teaching Association, eCYBERMISSION)

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)

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: Washington, DC)

OpenSciEd HS Physics units use a storyline approach to help students figure out answers to their questions in a three-dimensional, coherent, and equitable way. In this session, participants will experience that approach firsthand as they engage with the fifth unit’s anchor in ""student hat"", a unit anchored in the use of the microwave and its interactions with wireless devices. Participants will see how students develop and use different models to explore ideas about electromagnetic waves and their interactions with matter. They will also see some of the investigations students plan and carry out using different materials inside the microwave oven to explain energy transfer. Participants will also see how the unit supports students’ sensemaking to explain how different technologies apply these ideas to produce, transmit, and capture signals, and the potential risk associated with their uses.

TAKEAWAYS:
This unit is anchored in the use of the microwave and its interactions with wireless devices. Students figure out and use ideas about waves and their interactions with matter to explain how different technologies apply these ideas to transfer energy and to produce, transmit, and capture signals.

SPEAKERS:
Zoe Buck Bracey (Senior Science Educator and Director of Design for Justice: Colorado Springs, CO), Diego Rojas-Perilla (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

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

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

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

While not always the case, the experiences that students have had in middle school with genetics can be limited to plug and chug Punnett squares investigating traits in aliens, SpongeBob, and dragons. In an effort to help students see how patterns of inheritance and gene expression can be more nuanced than that and to connect to a real world example, I created a Genetic Counselor project for the 9th graders at The Lawrenceville School (Lawrenceville, NJ). In this session, participants will have the opportunity to work through aspects of the project, specifically creating the pedigree and working with primary literature and analyzing data. This project is great because it includes representation of people of different backgrounds and identities, is based in the real world, introduces students to a career path, and teaches about primary literature. Please see the project launch pad here: https://tinyurl.com/GCPNSTA --Thanks!

TAKEAWAYS:
Work through the genetic counselor project from a patient background, solving a pedigree, learning how to use NCBI, and interpreting primary literature. You will take home the student directions, exemplar projects, list of relevant primary literature articles, and teacher key.

SPEAKERS:
Ilana Saxe (The Lawrenceville School: Lawrenceville, NJ)

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: , 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), Kelley Aitken (Winchester Public Schools: Winchester, VA)

During this workshop small group work with pill bugs set the stage for exploring the SEP’s through a discovery-based investigation. An anonymous poll will be taken at the beginning of the workshop to identify JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion) hurdles teachers are facing. During the investigation, technology and non-technology based methods will be explored. After the investigation, participants will share in a facilitated discussion on modes of dismantling barriers. Review handouts of SEP’s & CCC’s identified and applied during the investigation will compliment elementary level DCI’s. Discussion will drive beyond just the facts of finding an answer to the investigation question, but to take an examination into knowledge of helping illustrate how the SEP’s and CCC’s can serve as an entry point at the elementary level to build science literacy and help move us beyond just facts but deepen our understanding and discovery of the world around us.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers struggle with access and affordability when designing discovery-based investigations. With minimal to no cost, this ready-to-use complete elementary LS investigation will demonstrate ways to increase equity in science sensemaking practices through standards-based hands-on investigations.

SPEAKERS:
Kim Burnett (American University: Washington, DC), Ollie Bogdon (Missouri Western State University: Saint Joseph, MO)

Models engage students, promote critical thinking, and help students connect abstract concepts to real-world phenomena. This session will promote using the science and engineering practice of developing and using models as a technique to explore concepts, promote sense making, and demonstrate student understanding. Presenters will include modeling techniques that have been successfully used in both rural and urban chemistry classrooms to help students better understand complex concepts within storyline units. The use of simulations, hands-on activities, physical manipulatives, drawings, and technology will be demonstrated. The benefits of models used as an equitable tool will be examined using student data and examples. Sample chemistry storylines will be used to show how student coherence builds throughout the unit with the use of models. Strategies for teachers will be provided to help students develop better models, and a discussion of formative assessment value will be stressed.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with various modeling strategies to implement into their chemistry courses. This will promote student sensemaking and more equitable evaluations of student ideas.

SPEAKERS:
Jennifer Jones (Ogallala High School: Ogallala, NE), Christine Gustafson (Millard South High School: Omaha, NE)

Participants will explore the Authentic Literacy and Language (ALL) for Science curriculum framework and discover how the combination of guided science investigations, mini-lessons on science-based disciplinary literacy, and science inquiry circles can increase learner performance. They will receive and be guided through a sample lesson and a template they can use to develop their own lessons using this framework. Teachers who used lessons using this curriculum framework reported that children demonstrated increased engagement with lessons and improved their language skills as they began to read, write, and think like scientists. They also found that children performed better overall on assessments of science concepts, attributing the use of collaborative learning teams that build a community of science practice as a factor. Participants will receive access to the ALL for Science website where they can download FREE curriculum resources aligned with NGSS standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will explore how they can create their own lessons unifying science investigations with science-specific disciplinary literacy using the ALLS framework to engage learners in the practices of science. Participants will receive the framework template and access to free resources.

SPEAKERS:
Jimmie Thomas (Baylor College of Medicine)

The crosscutting concepts provide a consistent language for student communication. When teachers’ assessment prompts are designed with the crosscutting concepts, the focus of student thinking can be directed to key aspects of the phenomenon or, the system being investigated. Patterns may be used as evidence to support explanations or arguments for the causes of a phenomenon. Participants will explore the progression of Crosscutting Concepts throughout a student’s K-12 career. They will consider phenomenon and discuss several appropriate prompts that bring different CCCs to the forefront (patterns, scale, systems). Participants will review and evaluate sample prompts and responses which employ different crosscutting concepts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with resources that guide their development and use of Crosscutting Concepts to focus student sensemaking on assessments. These can be integrated with assessment prompts which are aligned to Science and Engineering Practices and Disciplinary Core Ideas.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Abbott (The Lawrence Hall of Science: Berkeley, CA), Sharon Cates (Phenomenon Science Education: Amherst, MA), Leah Litz (Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium: No City, No State)

N/A

TAKEAWAYS:
Phenomena is foundational to science and intellectual pursuits in general! This session helps you understand powerful qualities of phenomena and how they can support meaningful student investigations in and out of the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Bill Penuel (: Boulder, CO), Tiffany Neill (Research Scientist: Oklahoma City, OK)

Understanding the nature and process of science is critical to scientific literacy. When students engage in the practices of science, they are more likely to integrate science as part of their own identities (Gee, 2007). To do this successfully, students must reflect on what they are doing and why, along with comparing their strategies to those of professional scientists (NRC, 2011). In this session, participants will examine their own conceptions of the nature and process of science, make connections to pedagogical frameworks (NGSS SEPs & CCCs), engage as students to use the Flowchart Mapping tool from the Understanding Science project to trace their approach to figuring out a biological phenomenon about why blue whales are so big, compare their process to that of the scientists investigating the phenomenon, and reflect on how they might use this tool and strategy in their own classrooms with other phenomena or lessons.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to use the Science Flowchart interactive journaling tool to illuminate the dynamic nature and process of science, and how to apply the tool to any phenomenon or lesson in their classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Lindsey Roy (Science and Digital Learning Coordinator: Lincoln, NE), Betsy Barent (Lincoln Public Schools: No City, No State)

Sponsoring Company: Great Minds

In this workshop, participants discover ways to prepare for collaborative conversations with strategies like targeted questioning, talk moves, and instructional routines. Participants then practice applying these strategies to promote effective science discourse in a three-dimensional classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Sally Robichaux (Great Minds: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Add excitement to your class with live organisms! We will explore how organisms find food and interact with other organisms in their environment. For younger students: How creatures find food, and for older students: Social behavior and interspecies interactions will be discussed.

SPEAKERS:
Laurie Nixon (Watauga High School: Boone, NC)

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Take a deeper dive into understanding the importance of learning progressions in 3-dimensional learning using STC Middle School. Experience the importance of a coherent story line in student understanding. Leave with classroom resources.

SPEAKERS:
Cory Ort (Carolina Biological Supply Co.: Burlington, NC)

Sponsoring Company: hand2mind

Discover how to effectively use STEM Bins® as a foundational, developmentally appropriate form of engineering for elementary students. Learn simple ways to implement STEM Bins® for early finishers, enrichment, morning work, centers, makerspaces, and literacy and math extensions.

SPEAKERS:
Brooke Brown (Roosevelt Elementary School: Norman, OK)

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

Help direct student questions towards investigation and modeling several types of inheritance with the Chromosome Connection Kit©. Construct Punnett squares with gene sequences as alleles to connect the inheritance of traits to chromosomes at the molecular level.

SPEAKERS:
Ruth Hutson (3D Molecular Designs: Milwaukee, WI)

No one disputes the need for effective daily science instructions for elementary children, yet, only 20% of K-3 students and 35% of grades 4-6 students have access to daily science instruction, according to Cafarell, et.al. (2017). Elementary teachers are challenged to get in daily meaningful science instruction. There is a need to design science lessons that are powerful in impacting student learning and economize the curriculum time. The purpose of this session is to explore the “Workshop Model” instructional layout as a means to deliver meaningful science experiences. This model of instruction has a “tried-and-true” history in literacy and mathematics. The instructional model segments the time into 3 areas: opening, work session, and closing. The session will use a lesson on Earth’s Systems where students open the unit by observing a phenomenon, then move into stations or work sessions, and use student lead closing so students can formalize their understanding of the phenomenon.

TAKEAWAYS:
The workshop model isn’t just for math and literacy—elementary teachers can use this instructional approach to fit effective, engaging, hands-on science lessons into their daily instructional routine.

SPEAKERS:
Kelly Bodner (Cobb County Schools & GSTA Board of Directors)

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

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)

The three presenters: a classroom teacher, a district science coordinator, and a state science supervisor, will share the different roles and perspectives we each hold in Kansas science education and how that has shaped our different paths to understanding NGSS through collaborative work with each other over the last 6+ years. We will highlight multiple resources that have helped our understanding and implementation of the NGSS in various contexts. During this session, resources will include: unpacking tools, administrative book studies, PLC guidance, and recommendations for how tools might be modified while maintaining integrity of the standards in different contexts.

TAKEAWAYS:
The session will provide resources to collaborate with various stakeholders to improve capacity and efficacy with the NGSS. We will share processes for how we have unpacked the science standards which resulted in better understanding of classroom practices, instruction, & assessment across Kansas.

SPEAKERS:
Meg Richard (Kansas Department of Education: , KS), Stephanie Alderman-Oler (Washington High School: Kansas City, KS), Spencer Martin (Kansas City Kansas Public Schools: Kansas City, KS)

Research shows that when students are typically engaged in science class discussions, the teacher asks a question, one student responds, the teacher gives feedback, and the cycle continues. The teacher then only knows about the understanding of science of one student. But what are the other students able to make sense of? This presentation will share with attendees research that was conducted through a dissertation, explicitly looking at talk moves developed by Sarah Michaels and Cathy O'Connor, and how they increased engagement with female students. This presentation will also provide teachers with these talk moves, and tips and tricks on how they can be used in a middle school science classroom, and how they better help students make sense of science phenomena.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will takeaway with tips and tricks that will get middle school students engaging in sensemaking discussions. Teachers will be provided with a set of talk moves that can be implemented Monday with students!

SPEAKERS:
Betsy Lawrence (Summit Trail Middle School: Olathe, KS)

N/A

TAKEAWAYS:
The goal of this session is to support teachers in understanding how best to meet the needs of all learners by starting from where students are at and drawing on their intuitive ideas and real world experiences to inform instruction. All strategies are framed as equitable 3-D formative assessment.

SPEAKERS:
Kelsie Fowler (University of Washington: Seattle, WA), Deb Morrison (Educator and Learning Scientist: Seattle, WA)

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Dissect several mammalian organs and explore links between anatomy and physiology. Examine real-world examples while connecting structure with function of engaging organs including the cow eye, sheep heart, and bull testicle. Use these workshop objectives to bolster your 3-dimensiona instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Patricia Kopkau

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)

OpenSciEd Biology Units incorporate frameworks such as 5 Dimensions of Reasoning About Complex Socio-Ecological Systems developed by Learning in Places to support multiple Ways of Knowing and interacting with phenomena. These frameworks bring conversations about power and historicity into the classroom and help students consider multiple points of view when making decisions involving science. The Nature-Culture Relations framework helps students and educators identify the positionality of interest holders to explain different perspectives. Learn how these frameworks are incorporated into biology units.

TAKEAWAYS:
Recognize your own positionality in nature-culture relations and think about how to bring this framework to your students.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Krauskopf (University of Colorado-Boulder: No City, No State), DeAnna Lee Rivers (University of Colorado Boulder: , CA)

Using the Disciplinary Core Ideas and a research-based “citizen science” approach, science educators contributed their own test items, and also 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 3-D 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? Access a free resource.

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

In this session, participants will consider three alternatives to traditional multiple-choice pre-assessments: modeling, self-documentation, and class discussions. We will discuss the purpose of pre-assessments as a critical data point for instructional planning, especially with many schools moving towards PLC structures around data cycles. We will see examples of these three alternative strategies for pre-assessment (which can also be used as formative assessment structures). For each assessment structure, we will discuss how to collect and use data. Authentic examples will be provided from the presenter’s middle school and high school classrooms.The session will synthesize and apply ideas from the following ACESSE Stem Teaching Tools: Modeling #8 / self-documentation #31 / class discussions #6, #35 / using pre-assessments #15, #18, #25, #34, #37. These STEM teaching tools will be shared with participants to continue their learning beyond the 60-minute session.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to use different assessment formats to collect data without relying on multiple-choice questions. The assessment formats allow students to use knowledge & experiences of a phenomenon or science idea while providing meaningful information to guide instructional choices.

SPEAKERS:
Stephanie Alderman-Oler (Washington High School: Kansas City, KS)

Building classroom culture is essential for students to collectively make sense of phenomena. Students need to buy into the idea that each of their ideas is crucial for pushing the class forward. In this session, we highlight strategies for co-creating community agreements. We also report on challenges we have encountered in our classrooms, which strategies we have found to be successful, and which tend to turn students off. We highlight how, as culture challenges arise throughout the year, we can return to these community agreements to reground our classroom. The facilitator will begin the session with a brief overview of OpenSciEd’s view of the teacher's role in instruction and community-building, which will then be followed with a guided panel featuring experienced teachers in using storylines, and finally open Q&A.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will understand how community agreements and other strategies are used in OpenSciEd and other high school classrooms to support collective and equitable sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Dan Voss (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL), Kerri Wingert (Good Question Research: Boulder, CO), Rachel Patton (Denver Public Schools), Nina Blanton (Educator: , MO), Calvin Atkins (Bellingham High School: Bellingham, WA), Sarah Evans (Olathe South High School: Olathe, KS)

In the first part, participants will gain an understanding of how anchor texts are connected to science and engineering practices -- what students do using student work samples and sample anchor texts. First, we will explore the use of concept loading in scientific complex texts through a discussion, examples, and video. We will look at how scientific texts are organized to communicate key ideas through concept loading using text/visual features and text structures such as direct definition context clues through a group discussion. In groups, teachers will dissect a given text to develop a think-aloud to explicitly teach scientific key ideas and concepts using text/visual features. Next, we will compare informational and science fiction text using a model and T-chart for text organization/structure. We will unpack an NGSS standard so participants understand which key concepts and vocabulary must be presented in the given text through a group summary for key takeaways.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers as change agents provide the cultural tools through the modeling of science and engineering practices using literacy strategies. Through modeling, teachers can engage students to interact with complex informational texts for increased sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Leslie Birdon (Richwood High School: Monroe, LA)

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)

First, participants will learn how to keep a worm safe and comfortable for handling. Then we will examine external structure, function, senses, and talk about how those connect to a worm's life style. We will even use flashlights to peek inside the worm to see their digestive system. Each activity will be tied to elementary NGSS on organisms, systems, environment, structure and function, and life cycles. The activities will come from my picture book, This is a Book to Read with a Worm (winner of the AAAS/Subaru Excellence in Science Books, 2020), but I will not promote the book. I just want to share the activities.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will experience a series of activities that will help them use earthworms as phenomena in elementary science. For each activity, we will discuss how to move from the specifics of worms into sensemaking on more general concepts that the worms illustrate.

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

Educators have struggled with maintaining student engagement in science, especially as students transition from primary to middle school and upper grades (Vedder-Weiss & Fortus, 2012). With the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards, teachers are looking for curricula to support its implementation. Two curricula, mySci 5E and OpenSciEd storylines, were compared in terms of student academic achievement and attitudes toward science. The research questions were: (1) To what extent is there a difference between achievement in science by eighth grade students experiencing the OpenSciEd storyline science curriculum and those experiencing MySci 5E as measured by end of unit assessment scores? (2) To what extent is the difference between attitudes towards science by eighth grade students experiencing the OpenSciEd storyline science curriculum and those experiencing MySci 5E as measured by My Attitudes Toward Science (MATS) surveys (Hillman et al., 2016)?

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will hear about the results of the study and potential impacts of the perception of coherence on students’ academic achievements and attitudes toward science. Implications for future research will be discussed.

SPEAKERS:
Nina Blanton (Educator: , MO), Nicole Vick (Northwestern University)

As educators shift their teaching practice to align with the Framework for K-12 Science and the NGSS, they face various challenges and barriers. One pressing challenge is how to align their new approach to teaching and learning with existing assessment and grading systems. In this session, we will provide examples of 3D assessments and associated scoring guidance. Participants will review student work for these sample assessments and identify evidence of understanding. They will collaborate with others in the session and determine how they would give grades based on set criteria. The second part of the session will highlight different approaches to grading based on local grading expectations (e.g., standards-based grading, daily grade requirements, or 100 point-based systems). Participants will leave the session with approaches to assessment and grading that support student sensemaking and honor the diverse resources students bring to the classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
The process of giving feedback and assigning grades is easier when there are strong materials and assessments to build from, and technology can help make it faster without decreasing effectiveness for students.

SPEAKERS:
Matt Krehbiel (OpenSciEd: New York, NY)

Join us to learn how to support student sensemaking in science class. We'll explore the importance of student discussion, share strategies for facilitating productive discussions, and provide tips for helping students make meaningful connections between their prior knowledge and new learning. Fishbowls and Reflections: Making space for all voices in discussions Using the fishbowl strategy, you can turn classroom discussions into an event where students all participate, actively listen and then reflect on the conversation. This strategy works really well for engaging students who are quiet as well as moderating students dominate the conversation. Building confidence in using scientific vocabulary Scientific vocabulary is the foundation for discussing and writing in the classroom but for many of our students vocabulary acquisition stops after initial use. Start your class with some vocabulary bell ringers to prepare them for the more challenging application activities ahead!

TAKEAWAYS:
Join us to learn how to support student sensemaking in science class. We'll explore the importance of student discussion, share strategies for facilitating productive discussions, and provide tips for helping students make meaningful connections between their prior knowledge and new learning.

SPEAKERS:
Ilana Saxe (The Lawrenceville School: Lawrenceville, NJ), Adrianne Toomey (Neuqua Valley High School: Naperville, IL), Rebecca Garelli (Arizona Science Teachers Association)

Join us for a speed-sharing session with secondary (MS and HS) science educators who are passionate about STEM education. This session is sure to inspire you to take your STEM teaching to the next level! Microbiology Makerspace, one college-level biology faculty’s attempt to implement the ideas of the Framework for K-12 Science Education in a university course This formative assessment and college microbiology course project was designed to provide an opportunity for college students to learn about sustainability; reusing materials, creating art, and prokaryotic cell structures. Discussion on microbe models, concepts: core HS LSL-1-1 and cross cutting. Exploring Genetics with the Game "Animal Crossing" This session will explore the genetic basis behind hybrid flower production on the video game Animal Crossing New Horizons and how you can use this popular game to gain student interest in genetics. STREAMS - Moving beyond STEAM toward more Transdiciplinary Learning We propose the idea of "STREAMS” as a way to conceptualize the future of STEM: This conversation will be organized around STREAMS 1) Science, 2) Technology, 3) Reading/ELA, 4) Engineering, 5)Arts 6) Mathematics, 7) Social Studies and how this can push the ways we think about STEAM learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
We will hear about educators' innovative teaching practices, effective strategies for engaging students, and creative ways to use technology in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Stephanie Miller (Associate Professor of Instruction: No City, No State), Kelly Moore (Tennessee Tech: Cookeville, TN), Kelli Feldman (Professor and Associate Dean: Lawrence, KS), Hannah Koford (Research Assistant: Provo, UT)

In this session, we'll explore the concept of sensemaking and how to create opportunities for students to make sense of the world around them through discussion. We'll also share some practical tips for facilitating student discussions. Using Booklets to Connect ELA and Science Primary (K-2) teachers already use booklets to teach reading. Why not use them to teach science and sensemaking? Booklets and lessons on different kinds of leaves (~ NGSS K-PS3-1) and sunlight (NGSS K-PS3-2) are shared. Tips and guidelines for producing booklets and lessons are included. Interactive Read Alouds and Imaginative Inquiry with Preschool Students This presentation discusses a series of interactive read alouds and subsequent activities that leveraged imaginative questions like "does earth feel?" and student initiations to engage preschool students in critical thinking, inquiry, and other skills for scientific exploration.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this session, we'll explore the concept of sensemaking and how to create opportunities for students to make sense of the world around them through discussion. We'll also share some practical tips for facilitating student discussions.

SPEAKERS:
Jan Weaver (Retired), Joseph Spurlock (The Ohio State University: Columbus, OH)

This session is designed to be brief and to the point so that you can take away practical strategies for supporting student sensemaking in your own classroom! Using Cooperative Assessment to Support Student Understanding and Promote Retention of Learning in Science Take a look at cooperative assessment as a way to improve students’ understanding and retention of key science concepts in your classroom. We'll discuss the possible formats associated with cooperative assessment including timing, group arrangements, and scoring rubrics. Using One Page Summaries (OPS) to synthesize and encode information Learn how students can create one-page summaries to synthesize large amounts of information into a single page. This session will include research into drawing, color coding, dual encoding, and synthesis. We will have many examples to share from many different classes and age groups. Using checklists for assessment The use of rubrics is widespread in education. However, their general nature allows for ambiguity and conflict when students do not agree with how they were assessed. Checklists provide a clear alternative to rubrics.

TAKEAWAYS:
Topics include how students construct their own understanding of science; the role of prior knowledge in sensemaking; strategies for supporting student inquiry; and tools and resources for helping students make sense of complex concepts.

SPEAKERS:
Becky Sparks-Thissen (University of Southern Indiana: Evansville, IN), Kelly Sparks (University of Southern Indiana: Evansville, IN), Kirsten Landry (Kent Denver School: Englewood, CO), Leon Lau (Teacher: , AB)

Join us for a speed-sharing session on the innovative STEM ideas of students. This session is a great opportunity to learn from your peers and get inspired by the creativity of students.

You mean to tell me... Social media can improve [science] literacy?
Students already spend so much of their time on social media, so why not use it to our advantage? Learn strategies to increase literacy and engagement in science through the social media accounts of science organizations such as the ocean-drilling research vessel JOIDES Resolution.

Nature Journaling: 1 book, 5 ideas, 10 minutes
Be introduced to a free nature journaling curriculum and several activities to get started using nature journaling to enhance science notebook routines in your classroom. Tips will include ways to integrate the SEPs and CCCs , as well as math and ELA, with nature journaling.

TAKEAWAYS:
Hear from informal science educators about how they have incorporated these ideas into their programs and how you can do the same.

SPEAKERS:
Maya Pincus (Columbia University / U.S. Science Support Program: Palisades, NY), Dana Atwood-Blaine (University of Northern Iowa: Cedar Falls, IA)

Join us for a speed-sharing session on how to use sensemaking and phenomena to engage secondary science students in learning. We'll explore the role of phenomena in sensemaking, share tips for selecting engaging phenomena, and discuss how to use sensemaking to support student learning. Using Images and Crosscutting Concepts to Cultivate Reasoning This session will incorporate sorting photos of different eyes to help educators and students explain their sorting choices by focusing on any of the crosscutting concepts to make sense of the images through that particular lens. Connecting precipitation chemistry to community: From modeling precipitation reactions to citizen science and service learning Presentation of lab-based modeling approach to precipitation (“double replacement”) reactions. Discussion of ways to integrate environmental science concepts, specifically biogeochemical cycles and water safety, into the chemistry curriculum. SPOILER ALERT! Avoiding Hazards to Students' Sensemaking and Authentic Science Learning "Spoilers" pervade entertainment news, social media, conversations . . . AND our science classrooms! Teachers must beware of spoilers that can sabotage, short-circuit, or short-change students' learning and sensemaking. Learn how to avoid spoilers and use alternative strategies to enhance lessons.

TAKEAWAYS:
Join us for a speed-sharing session on how to use sensemaking and phenomena to engage secondary science students in learning. We'll explore the role of phenomena in sensemaking, share tips for selecting engaging phenomena, and discuss how to use sensemaking to support student learning.

SPEAKERS:
Heather Summers (Project ECHO for Education), Aaron Musson (Omaha Public Schools: Omaha, NE), Daniel Bergman (Wichita State University: Wichita, KS)

Lecture and PowerPoint are so 20th Century. Move beyond the traditional lecture approach to your introductory college science classes. Put research into practice as you experience these engaging, relevant, and real approaches to teaching non-majors. Your colleagues will share how they use embedded lab and investigation, real time data,, placed-based pedagogy, and other methods to make learning an active process. Question and Answer time is built into this session as is time to share your successful approaches.

TAKEAWAYS:
Make your college science classes more engaging, relevant, and real for your non-majors.

SPEAKERS:
Rhea Miles (East Carolina University: Greenville, NC), Matthew Blank (Assistant Professor: Houston, TX), Richard Jones (University of Hawaii-West Oahu: Kaploei, HI)

This session will introduce participants to NSTA instructional materials (lessons and units) designed for elementary classrooms. These instructional materials are designed around the critical aspects of sensemaking: students experience a phenomenon, engage in science and engineering practices and share ideas and to build and/or apply disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts needed to explain how or why the phenomenon occurs. Sensemaking is in the vision of A Framework for K-12 Science Education - “the doing of science and engineering is highlighted as a strategy that can capture students’ interest in science and motivate their continued study.” (A Framework for K-12 Science Education, pp 42-43). NSTA lessons and units provide opportunities for all students to engage in science learning that is meaningful to them.

TAKEAWAYS:
Phenomenon-driven, three-dimensional lessons and units provide students opportunities to actively try to figure out how the world works or design solutions to problems (sensemaking).

SPEAKERS:
Patrice Scinta (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

Making sense of the world as part of a classroom community requires a classroom culture where all students feel like they belong and it is safe to participate, share their ideas, disagree, and productively struggle together. Participants in this session gain strategies and resources for developing and supporting the ongoing use of classroom norms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Classroom norms create a culture of equitable science learning.

SPEAKERS:
Zoe Evans (Bremen City Schools: Bremen, GA), Wayne Wright (NSTA: Arlington, VA), Kristin Rademaker (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

The main resource that will be shared is a poster that presents an overview of a case study completed as a part of the Multiple Literacies in Project-Based Learning (ML-PBL) Efficacy Study. The information shared will focus on the affordances of carrying the thinking from science to other parts of the school day and of using science-related texts for multiple purposes in literacy instruction. Overall efficacy study results will be shared. The url for finding the posted free ML-PBL OER curriculum resources will be provided, as well as information for learning more about ML-PBL. The case study has been published in a book of case studies, which will be mentioned (is shown in a section of the poster), but not promoted. Texts used to extend Grade 3 units will be available for attendees to review.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be exposed to free resources and ideas for selecting resources for literacy lessons that allow students to continue to fine-tune and extend the ideas they are developing in science class. Handouts with links to additional resources will be available.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Codere (CREATE for STEM Institute, Michigan State University, Retired)

In this poster session, we highlight how two 5th-grade teachers of linguistically diverse students strategically used the Science and Engineering Practice of Developing and Using Models over the course of a physical science unit to increase opportunities for sensemaking with all students. First, we show sample models from multilingual learners across three time points in the unit: initial, revised, and final model. At each time point, we highlight what the teachers did to elicit and interpret student thinking. In particular, we share how “final models” can serve as a more authentic end-of-unit task when an iterative modeling process has been enacted. We describe how the teachers’ own perceptions of modeling changed over the course of the unit. As a result of heightened student sensemaking with the more iterative modeling process, the teachers shifted away from positioning models as products and toward positioning models as evidence of current and evolving sensemaking.

TAKEAWAYS:
By strategically allowing all students, particularly multilingual learners, to develop and use increasingly sophisticated models over time, teachers shifted away from “models as products” and toward “models as evidence of sensemaking.”

SPEAKERS:
Iovanna Williams (Science Teacher: , NY), Adriana Romanzo (Elementary Science Teacher: New York, NY), Abigail Schwenger (Research Associate)

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)

Primary grades (K-2) are a challenge for science education. With the focus on basic literacy and math, there is little time for stand-alone science lessons. Here is one solution. Printable booklets are widely used to teach sight words (the top commonly used 100 words) or how to decode simple letter-sound relationships. With a careful selection of vocabulary words, they can also be used to introduce science ideas. The 5-part lesson 1) previews student ideas (models) and introduces vocabulary; 2) uses the booklet to get students to notice, wonder, and ask questions; 3) investigates a question from 2; 4) makes sense of results from 3 to build a shared model; and 5) assesses abilities to interpret new material using the model. The approach is illustrated with two booklets and lessons. One is on different kinds of leaves (~NGSS K-LS1-1) and one is on the effect of sunlight (NGSS K-PS3-1) which can tie into building a structure to reduce the warming effect of sunlight (NGSS K-PS3-2).

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to create or recognize science literature that clicks with a teacher focused on reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Use that literature to craft a lesson that explicitly connects teaching ELA to student ideas, science ideas, science practices, and sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Jan Weaver (Retired)

A really fun component of my virology course is virus structure. The first time I taught the class ('21), I gave the students a guided tutorial on how to build a viral capsid using very fancy online software. Students really enjoyed this activity, however, they found difficulty understanding the different axes of symmetry that viruses use to create a capsid shell. Therefore, during the second iteration of the course ('22), I created a paper-based icosahedron (a typical shape that viruses use) folding activity so students could orient themselves with a model before doing the more complex online computational building component. This was such a hit that I am currently working on a case study for publication with a student on this activity in particular. For the third iteration of the course ('23), students printed 3-D models of their viruses that truly enhanced learning for this work. I would present overviews of the activities as well as detail the progression of the course.

TAKEAWAYS:
In an effort to facilitate a complete understanding of viral 3-D structure for the development of antivirals and vaccines, students conduct origami paper-folding activities as well as 3-D printing to complement the more rigorous computational methods used in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Lawrence Tartaglia (Teaching Assistant Professor: Bethlehem, PA)

Participants will learn about the Authentic Literacy and Language (ALL) for Science curriculum framework and discover how the combination of guided science investigations, mini-lessons on Science-based disciplinary literacy, and science inquiry circles can increase learner performance. Teachers who used lessons using this curriculum framework reported that children demonstrated increased engagement with lessons and improved their language skills as they began to read, write, and think like scientists. They also found that children performed better overall on assessments of science concepts, attributing the use of collaborative learning teams that build a community of science practice as a factor. Participants will receive a sample lesson from the curriculum and access to the ALL for Science website where they can download FREE resources aligned with NGSS standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how the ALL for Science curriculum framework unifies guided science investigations and science-specific disciplinary literacy to engage learners in the practices of science. Educators will receive a sample lesson from the curriculum and access to free online resources.

SPEAKERS:
Jimmie Thomas (Baylor College of Medicine)

Polydensity bottles are made with salt, isopropyl alcohol, water, UV beads, and pony beads. These materials are easily accessible and relatively inexpensive. With the polydensity bottles, students can engage in sensemaking related to density, molecular properties, solubility, and other concepts supported by the NRC K-12 Framework. Students can be challenged to complete calculations and create their own bottles, or teachers can make bottles to be used as an introductory or anchoring phenomenon. This session will provide multiple ideas on ways to use these interesting bottles to give students at multiple levels the opportunity to engage in sensemaking and Science Practices. Instructions will be given for creating bottles with multiple recipes, and sources of instructional materials will be provided to participants.

TAKEAWAYS:
Poly density bottles are an effective and inexpensive way to provide a discrepant event to intrigue students. Students at various levels can engage with this phenomenon to engage in sensemaking as they employ several different concepts in Physical Science.

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

COVID locked down our schools and forced many of us to adapt to a new universe of teaching. Now, how do we regain our students' attention and foster full engagement? This session is the result of the presenter’s reflections about the journey he took as an educator at the Health Sciences Academy. HSA is a public-private partnership between Springfield Public Schools in Springfield, MO, and Mercy Hospital. Fifty 8th grade students spend a full year embedded inside a working hospital and learn through a project-based lens. After the shutdowns, recapturing students' imaginations is key, and this session will explore how to do that by giving specific examples of educational philosopher Keiran Egan’s imaginative tools as applied to the health sciences.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how imaginative tools such as narrative, role-play, metaphor, making use of collections, and identifying heroes were incorporated into project-based learning for a unit on communicable disease at the Health Sciences Academy.

SPEAKERS:
Matthew Bills (Teacher: , MO)

This poster discusses the mutli-year implementation of a ‘Genius Hour’ project in a high school stellar astronomy course. Through multiple semester iterations of the project, the classroom teacher has refined the process to make it accessible to students of a variety of ages, learning styles, and abilities. The key take-away from this poster is that with appropriate scaffolds, ANY student can find success with this type of project, regardless of prior knowledge or success in the science classroom. This process, implemented over ten 40-minute periods in the classroom, is 100% student-driven, and allows students to pursue sensemaking and learning of a topic of their choosing as it relates to astronomy. From driving question development to public display, this poster discusses how to guide and motivate students, as well as how to grade the components and final result. In addition to multiple work samples and student achievement data, a framework for implementation will be shared.

TAKEAWAYS:
Key Point: YOU can do this in YOUR classroom! Learn the steps taken to implement Genius Hour successfully in the HS astronomy classroom, including the framework used, ideas for differentiation, and a variety of student work samples.

SPEAKERS:
Katie Mercadante (Montour School District: , PA)

eCYBERMISSION is a free virtual STEM competition for grades 6-9. Supported by a wealth of standards-aligned resources, teams of 2-4 students are engaged in sensemaking as they research a community problem of their choosing. Through hands-on learning, students gain practical experience, enhance problem-solving skills, and develop leadership qualities. eCYBERMISSION strives to be accessible to everyone by providing free resources, grants for teachers, and a primarily virtual participation format. Participating students have the opportunity to compete for awards worth thousands of dollars and an all-expense paid trip with their supporting teacher to the finals. eCYBERMISSION offers a unique opportunity for students to think critically and creatively, paving the way for the next generation of innovators. Let's connect and empower your students today!

TAKEAWAYS:
eCYBERMISSION is a free virtual STEM competition for grades 6-9 that is supported by a wealth of standards-aligned resources. Students are engaged in sensemaking through hands-on learning while enhancing problem-solving skills and developing leadership qualities.

SPEAKERS:
Carey Dieleman (National Science Teaching Association: No City, No State), Brian Kutsch (National Science Teaching Association, eCYBERMISSION)

Using a story, such as Fish in a Tree, that is already being used in the classroom as the structure and inspiration for STEM-related activities is one way to incorporate additional time into the week for STEM. Some of our school districts have 45 minutes every other week dedicated to Science, so the idea is to incorporate scientific thinking and activities into the Literacy and Math blocks through questioning strategies that are directly tied to the existing curriculum. Fish in a Tree is a perfect example of ways to incorporate science habits of mind from a non-science-specific book. In this poster session, we will look at the Mystery Boxes from Chapter 14 and look at ways students will discover, through observation, what is inside the box. I will provide some sample mystery boxes, as well as some questioning strategies to use if students get stuck and some ideas for things to contain within the mystery boxes for varied skill levels.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be able to use mystery boxes to model the theme of persistence; to discover through observations other than sight; to determine what is contained within the box. Mystery boxes can be used with a variety of ages and skill levels as a way to encourage creative thinking and problem-solving.

SPEAKERS:
Heather Summers (Project ECHO for Education)

Coaching Science Olympiad 30+ years and my science teaching cousin still a rookie, we offer tips and tricks on team startup or management. Join us to hear how I took a tiny Nebraska school to win B and C Divisions at Regionals my first year at Arcadia. Having been a veteran coach at four public schools, this amazing educational science event molded careers for my students, cousin, and four children. My cousin started a team in western Nebraska which added travel challenges across our state. We will share ideas on how to manage 2 teams of 30+ students to compete in 24+ events that coaches rarely get to see. Nebraska coaches often make tests for 2 events in 4 time slots to judge. Balancing team preparation and meeting NGSS/state science standards is a challenge while teaching a full day with 3-7 preps. The NE Director asked me to mentor more S.O. coaches so here we are. Teachers will be enlightened with a poster, slide show, paper examples and 3-D visuals to help coaches find success.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will gain ideas to start their own Science Olympiad Team/s. How to select students for various events to earn team points in each, make user-friendly maps with schedules, reminders and information students can follow, and build unity by wearing team designed school shirts .

SPEAKERS:
Marie Wadas (Arcadia Public School: Arcadia, NE)

Sensemaking with the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning process for students is made relatable when they use data sets generated about themselves. They can evaluate the results by examining the population directly in their environment. The Reasoning part that early learners struggle with flows out from their direct experiences with the data.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to measure, graph, and find relationships using their students as the data source.

SPEAKERS:
Stacey Bauer (Spalding Academy: Spalding, NE), Polla Renken (Science Instructor: Kearney, NE)

Although there is no shortage of potential phenomena for teaching about the process of evolution, using human evolution is a sure way to make the topic relevant and engaging for all students. It is also an excellent way to address some of the most common student misconceptions surrounding the subject, such as “humans evolved from monkeys,” “if humans evolved from apes, why are there still apes?” and “humans are the pinnacle of the tree of life and therefore no longer evolving like other organisms.” By examining a wide range of evidence, including different potential variations of hominid skulls (physical replicas, cards, or 3D digital models), geographic data, artifacts, and climate trends, students will be able to piece together a model of hominid phylogeny and learn about the changes in anatomy, behavior, and distribution that led to our unique human features. Resources: https://ncse.ngo/supporting-teachers/classroom-resources

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore a range of paleoanthropology evidence to confidently guide students through one of the most engaging evolutionary phenomena – human evolution. Learn about extinct hominid groups and how they are connected to human origins through features, behaviors, and relationships.

SPEAKERS:
Blake Touchet (National Center for Science Education: Oakland, CA), Lin Andrews (National Center for Science Education: Oakland, CA)

"Designing for justice means centering inquiry on phenomena that cross the artificial boundary between human and natural systems. The result is instruction that not only teaches students to understand the natural world, but broadens their perspectives on how humans fit into natural systems, what constitutes science, and what they can accomplish using science. In high school, some of the design problems that students are noticing in the world may feel overwhelming, but breaking them down using the ideas and practices of science and providing social emotional supports can help students find hope and resilience. For example in OpenSciEd High School Physics, students ask: What can we do to make driving safer for everyone? Consider how instruction can support students in making positive changes in their communities while attending to students social and emotional needs. "

TAKEAWAYS:
In OpenSciEd HS Physics, students use science ideas and practices to make sense of design problems that emerge from complex systems at the nature-human divide with attention to students’ social and emotional needs.

SPEAKERS:
Whitney Mills (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Laura Zeller (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

Roger Bybee's Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) 5E Instructional Model is based on constructivist theories and enhances student inquiry through a series of planning strategies. This model is designed to incorporate all aspects of inquiry learning environments by engaging students and allowing students to explore the concepts being introduced, discover explanations for the concepts they are learning, and elaborate on what they have learned by applying their knowledge to new situations. Through the engage, explore, and explain stages of the model, knowledge about science is gained. In the elaborate stage, a problem is introduced and engineering and mathematics are used to help solve the problem. In this session participants will be introduced to the model through a states of matter lesson that can be adapted to the intermediate, middle, and high school levels. Three-Dimensional Learning will be highlighted and participants will have access to a 5E Model planning template.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will gain an understanding of the 5E instructional model and how the stages incorporate Three-Dimensional Learning -- the framework of the Next Generation Science Standards.

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

In this workshop we will work through the "anchoring phenomenon" from the OpenSciEd Middle School space unit, which helps students see the relevance of astronomy by drawing on traditional indigenous astronomy knowledge, and students' own cultural knowledge to engage students in identifying and explaining patterns in the sky that set the rhythm for our lives. Participants will get a chance to experience the anchoring phenomenon, and share their own experience, expertise and ideas, to begin visioning how astronomy education can draw on student and community resources, connect students to traditional knowledge from around the world, and build on natural curiosity about questions that are older than Western history.

TAKEAWAYS:
Anchoring astronomy instruction in phenomena that invite connections between science and students' identities can support culturally sustaining pedagogy in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Zoe Buck Bracey (Senior Science Educator and Director of Design for Justice: Colorado Springs, CO), Thomas Clayton (K-5 STEAM Specialist: Berkeley Heights, NJ), Jamie Noll (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

The NGSS and other standards based on the Framework of K-12 Education are quite complicated and often tricky to interpret. What teachers need is an easy-to-use reference guide to the standards, and since its release in 2014, the NSTA Quick-Reference Guide has become a perennial best-seller and an essential tool for many educators across the country. This session will be hosted by Ted Willard, the editor of the Quick-Reference Guide and formerly the in-house standards expert at NSTA. Ted will review the features listed above and how educators can use the Quick-Reference Guide to unpack the standards in their work developing curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Specifically, we will spend time exploring the crosscutting concepts in the standards using the tools and other resources in the Quick-Reference Guide.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to unpack the three dimensions using the tools and resources in the Quick-Reference Guide and will gain insights into the meaning of the crosscutting concepts.

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

Helping students make sense of science means planning for high-quality science experiences that engage students in all three dimensions of the NGSS. This session focuses on exploring the ASET 3-D Mapping Tool as a mechanism for planning lesson sequences and units that integrate the Science and Engineering Practices, Disciplinary Core Ideas, and Crosscutting Concepts as outlined in the Framework (NRC, 2012). The presenter will lead the participants in analyzing an existing 6-8 curriculum with respect to the related standards, phenomena, learning objectives, science practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas. The session is concluded by sharing the lessons learned from researchers and practitioners who have used the 3-D map in planning and revising NGSS-aligned science learning experiences. After working in small groups and engaging in whole-group discussions, participants will walk away with an NGSS planning tool and tangible unit and lesson plan ideas linked with NGSS.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore the ASET 3-D Mapping Tool for planning lessons and units that integrate the three dimensions of the NGSS. After working in small groups and engaging in whole-group discussions, they will leave with an NGSS planning tool and tangible unit and lesson ideas linked with NGSS.

SPEAKERS:
Stephanie Harmon (PIMSER (KY): No City, No State)

I will be presenting a short storyline I created. It incorporates the phenomena that whey protein comes from cows. Whey protein is a "buzz" item lately with the workout craze, workout supplements, etc. Throughout the storyline, students will make connections with proteins, dairy (cows), other macromolecules, and homeostasis. Students will learn how to make cheese and that the by-product is whey protein. They will test various workout supplements and health foods for macromolecules. They will learn about homeostasis: positive and negative feedback loops through working out (heart rate and breathing rates). Lastly, they will complete a project where they have to figure out which proteins are best for the human body and then create a product and it's packaging (i.e. protein bar, shake, drink, etc). Teachers will get to experience some of the labs and receive all of the paper resources to take back and implement the storyline or parts of the storyline in their classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
If you have never used storylines, this is a great short one you can try in your class. You will leave this session with beneficial resources you can take back and use in your Biology classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Erin Snelling (Hallsville High School: Hallsville, MO)

The NGSS provides a powerful set of performance expectations to guide improvements in science education. Translating these performance expectations into practices requires support and professional learning opportunities for teachers. Even after a decade, the conceptual shifts and three-dimensional learning laid forth in A Framework, and defined in the NGSS, continues to be a challenge. As we shift students’ learning experiences from "learning about" to "figuring out" so too should we offer professional learning experiences to educators that allow them to experience the three-dimensional elements of science authentically. Immersive or place-based professional learning for teachers builds understanding, empathy, and connection to the three dimensions of NGSS. Learn how to connect educators and enhance their understanding of disciplinary core ideas through immersive experiences.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about the benefits of immersive and place-based learning and how it can bring the sensemaking process to life. We will provide phenomena and examples which fully engage the three dimensions of the NGSS approach, and are in use in daily practice by researchers and scientists.

SPEAKERS:
Rick Henningfeld (Vivayic, Inc.: No City, No State), Brian Beierle (Vivayic, Inc.: No City, No State)

Sponsoring Company: EARTHDAY.ORG

We will highlight the importance of climate education and present educators with strategies and resources to develop climate literacy and advocacy in their classrooms. We aim to inspire and support educators to increase climate education in their classrooms this year.

SPEAKERS:
Bryce Coon (EARTHDAY.ORG: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning

Models such as diagrams, drawings, physical replicas, mathematical representations, analogies, and computer simulations are helpful tools for representing ideas and developing explanations related to phenomena. This training will introduce educators to the ways in which models can be used to deepen student understanding of scientific concepts. Participants will also identify connections to the use of models in their instruction while examining their state standards and/or frameworks.

SPEAKERS:
Laurie Thompson (Accelerate Learning, Inc.: Houston, TX)

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Participants will examine how real data can be used to create conceptual models to drive understanding of complex concepts. Tree ring data will be used as an example of a line of evidence to support climate models and phenotype data are collected to create a conceptual model of inheritance patterns.

SPEAKERS:
Patricia Kopkau

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), 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: No City, No State), Amy Szczepanski (Einstein Fellow: New York, DC), Melissa Thompson (Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship: No City, No State), Michael Stewart (Stonewall Jackson High School: Manassas, VA), Kelsey Beeghly (Einstein Fellow: Altamonte Springs, FL), Jacquelyn Southerland (Accokeek Academy: Accokeek, MD)

The Framework for K-12 Science Education and NGSS calls for 3-D learning grounded in authentic phenomena and problems to ensure relevant learning for all students. Instructional materials design helps achieve these synergistic goals and create meaningful classroom sensemaking and learning. The BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning (AIL) instructional model succeeds the 5Es and utilizes authentic phenomena/problems to anchor multiple cycles of inquiry and sensemaking, culminating with student explanations/design solutions. AIL employs science education research emphasizing coherence from students’ perspective. In this session, participants will: 1) consider how AIL integrates elements of the 5E instructional model, NextGen Science storylines, and problem-based learning instructional models; 2) experience a sample lesson to deepen their understanding of the approach, and 3) consider their own education contexts and how they can apply AIL to design meaningful learning experiences for their students.

TAKEAWAYS:
The research-based BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning instructional model succeeds the 5Es and leverages authentic phenomena/problems to anchor cycles of inquiry and sensemaking. This approach provides instructional coherence from students’ perspective, equitable access, and motivation for ALL learners.

SPEAKERS:
Nancy Hopkins-Evans (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Cynthia Gay (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

Use our new Tending to Student Work Workbook to analyze student work and see how student work can be used to inform instruction, revise feedback and scoring guides, and inform revisions to assessment tasks. Together we will develop an understanding of what it means to tend to student work in caring ways by figuring out what we need to see in student work and how to see student work through an asset-based lens seeking all facets of student thinking. We will work together to find value in student’s non-target thinking and leverage this thinking. Teachers from Washington’s S.A.G.E. project will share their experiences of tending to student work and the impact it has had on their teaching, learning, and assessment. The session will be interactive.

TAKEAWAYS:
Recognizing the assets students bring to an assessment task is critical for understanding how to move their thinking forward. Leave with tools you can use in your classroom to tend to student work in caring ways that lead to stronger relationships.

SPEAKERS:
Calvin Atkins (Bellingham High School: Bellingham, WA), Colleen LaMotte (Middle School Science Teacher: Shorline, WA), Jenna Mobley (: White Salmon, WA)

Participants in this workshop will learn to plan and design a 5E unit and engage in an example 5E unit on the Isle Royale wolves. They'll explore the history of the wolf population, generate questions for a driving question board, and participate in hands-on activities that integrate science and engineering practices. Through data collection, analysis, research, and making claims supported by evidence, participants will learn how to effectively integrate the 5E model for inquiry-based instruction into their teaching practice. The workshop will also provide resources and strategies for differentiation and inclusion, making science accessible and engaging for all students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn to effectively use the 5E model for inquiry-based instruction to engage students in science education. Gain strategies for designing and assessing instruction, and see how the 5E model supports student engagement, understanding, and achievement.

SPEAKERS:
Kara Ball (Academic Officer: , MD)

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: , MO), William Folk (University of Missouri: Columbia, MO), Amy Lannin (University of Missouri: Columbia, MO), Cassandra Smith (University of Missouri: Columbia, MO), Delinda Van Garderen (University of Missouri: Columbia, MO)

In this session, participants will experience and unpack the Phenomenon Questioning Technique and will be able to apply it in their classroom. Students observe a phenomenon and are given time to observe and wonder. In groups, students: - Ask as many questions as they can. - Don’t stop to discuss, judge, or answer questions. - Change any statements into questions. - Circle their best question. Remind students to think about what makes a good question as they make their choice (related to science, helps explain phenomena, able to be investigated or researched, etc.). - Share their questions on a “Student-Driven Question Board.” - ​​Using the commonalities, create one guiding question for the class. - Students reflect on how they did with questioning by way of the formative assessment.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will experience and unpack the Phenomenon Questioning Technique and will be able to apply it in their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Eric Hadley (Little Creek Nature Area: Florissant, MO), Rebecca Prokopf (Regional Curriculum Coordinator)

We will engage with some examples of what has been used to prepare preservice and support novice teachers over the last 6 years leveraging HQIM to assist teachers with making sense of and planning to implement the NGSS. The session will cover how HQIM have been curated and modified to help teachers see examples of resources designed for the NGSS and then use those resources to plan and modify their instruction. Other resources for instruction and planning will also be shared.

TAKEAWAYS:
Ideas for ways use HQIM to help teachers understand and implement the vision of the Framework for Science Education, as well as resources to scaffold unpacking 3-D standards.

SPEAKERS:
Spencer Martin (Kansas City Kansas Public Schools: Kansas City, KS), Matt Krehbiel (OpenSciEd: New York, NY)

Learn to design moments people will remember and experiences that can have immediate impacts by adopting a human-centered mindset. Human-centered design thinking lets you better understand people's needs, motivations, and concerns to create highly-effective learning experiences for teachers and students. Implementing NGSS and three-dimensional teaching and learning requires ongoing support and high-quality professional learning opportunities for all stakeholders in science education. This session will explore how strategies and methods found in human-centered design can be leveraged to create professional learning to address the complexities teachers face in shifting practices to meet the vision of A K-12 Framework and the three-dimensional pedagogy of the NGSS. These strategies will enable designers to create inclusive spaces and environments to enhance professional development. Likewise, these strategies can be used by teachers to facilitate the student sensemaking process.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will experience practical human-centered design processes, methods, and tools used to deeply understand the people they are looking to serve and to continuously innovate solutions. Participants will leave this session equipped with strategies to design impactful learning experiences.

SPEAKERS:
Abby Tolley (Learning Analyst), Brian Beierle (Vivayic, Inc.: No City, No State)

In understanding how cultural bias affects underrepresented populations, teachers as change agents can design learning communities to increase peer collaboration for gender and minority populations. As students interact with each other, teachers provide the cultural tools needed for students to take on the role as a scientist or engineer. We will explore the essential components for framing innovative learning communities for underrepresented STEM populations. First, we will analyze intentionality in selecting cooperative learning structures for making learning targets through different scenarios. Second, we will conduct a reading jigaw on the importance of peer collaboration for increased diversity. Third, we will analyze lesson planning for learning communities using student work samples, videos, and instructional strategies and techniques. Lastly, educators will reflect on sensemaking through collaboration in a group summary.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers as change agents provide the cultural tools to affect learning communities. This session will provide tools and techniques to improve sensemaking through peer collaboration for gender and minority populations.

SPEAKERS:
Leslie Birdon (Richwood High School: Monroe, LA)

N/A

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn tools to create a culture-setting first unit that energizes students’ engagement in deep learning through a focus on equity. Student-created identity maps, discussion circles focused on science and justice, and using student science outside of the classroom are three such tools.

SPEAKERS:
April Luehmann (University of Rochester: Rochester, NY), James Kostka (New Visions Charter High Schools for Advanced Math & Science II: No City, No State), Hannah Cooke (Research Assistant: , CT), Katrina Robinson (Chemistry Teacher), Ellen Ellison (Science Teacher: Naples, NY)

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Experience the versatility of Wisconsin Fast Plants®. These quick-growing plants engage students and are ideal for all grade levels. Easily integrate Disciplinary Core Ideas, Crosscutting Concepts, and Practices in life cycle, heredity & inheritance, variation & evolution, and environmental science.

SPEAKERS:
Laurie Nixon (Watauga High School: Boone, NC)

Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking is unfamiliar to many science educators because they didn’t engage in this practice in their own K-12 careers. Join us as we venture together into the unknown (unfamiliar) using grade-appropriate elements of Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking to build pieces of disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts needed to explain an everyday phenomenon elementary students find curious and puzzling. Participants will reflect on what Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking is all about and how this practice relates to the practices of Developing and Using Models and Analyzing and Interpreting Data.

TAKEAWAYS:
Elementary students engage in Using Mathematics and Computational thinking everyday as they describe, make comparisons between, and test predictions about systems in the world.

SPEAKERS:
Kate Soriano (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

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)

Explore one model of integrating climate literacy into the classroom using hands-on climate lessons. In partnership with the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the legislature-funded ClimeTime program, the Gonzaga Center for Climate, Society, and the Environment has created the Climate Literacy Fellows program. Through this program, the Climate Center hires and trains exceptional Gonzaga undergraduates to deliver high-impact climate literacy activities in elementary and middle school classrooms (grades K-8). The Climate Literacy Fellows help students understand how climate influences them and how they and society influence climate through hands-on, inquiry driven activities that center the NGSS standards and experiential learning. Our presentation would focus on the demonstrating one or more of the climate kits in action and opportunities for improvement, as well as suggestions for implementation in other places.

TAKEAWAYS:
The importance of a hands-on approach to engaging students with the process of science and understanding the broader context that climate change occurs in.

SPEAKERS:
Karli Honebein (Gonzaga Institute for Climate, Water, and the Environment: No City, No State)

Come experience ways to appraise student work transparently that supports and encourages students wanting to continue the sensemaking process as opposed to thinking an assessment is the end of the learning process. We will begin by looking at multiple pieces of student assessment work, looking for the facets of understanding they present in their work. We will consider different methods of providing feedback and the impact on sensemaking and learning these different methods result in. We will look at different tools that have been created over the last five years to support students actively participating in the appraisal process. Participants will use the experience to begin thinking about the shifts in their appraisal system they would like to try with their students. Teachers from Washington’s S.A.G.E. project will share their experiences of reimagining the purpose of feedback and grading student work, and the impact it has had on their teaching, learning, and assessment.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will engage with authentic student work and consider different methods of providing feedback that is equitable and supports students wanting to share where they are in their sensemaking. Participants will leave with some ‘tools’ they can use in their classroom to provide caring collaboration.

SPEAKERS:
Jenna Mobley (: White Salmon, WA), Colleen LaMotte (Middle School Science Teacher: Shorline, WA), Calvin Atkins (Bellingham High School: Bellingham, WA)

School leaders frequently require teachers to share learning targets and success criteria to provide tangible goals for students. However, science sensemaking requires that students figure out, not learn about, science ideas by making sense of phenomena. Learning targets can undermine this sensemaking if they're written, as is often expected, in ways that give away the content. Our collaborative group of teachers developed a way to write learning targets to meet leadership expectations, support the intentions of learning targets, AND preserve the three-dimensional sensemaking at the core of A Framework for K-12 Science Education. This participatory presentation will share our tools and approach to integrating SEPs and CCCs into learning targets, as well as reflections on how this work supports deeper phenomenon sensemaking and standard alignment. Attendees will consider and discuss these tools and reflections, including application to their own classroom contexts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will explore how dimension-aligned sentence stems help to make science learning targets and success criteria more 3-D and supportive of sensemaking. They will consider how the resulting targets and criteria support administration goals while improving teacher planning and practice.

SPEAKERS:
Richard Carroll (Teacher: Green River, WY), Matt Freze (Science Teacher: Green River, WY), Shawna Mattson (Green River High School: Green River, WY), Megan Allen (Teacher: Green River, WY), Katie Camis (SPED Teacher / support science: Green River, WY), Clare Gunshenan (University of Wyoming: Laramie, WY)

Students collaboratively figuring out phenomena or solutions is key to the NGSS. Teachers need tools to facilitate these discussions into academically rich experiences that support ALL students. Science investigations offer opportunities for engagement for all, but need to be guided expertly. Student engagement is critical for academic success, especially for our English Learners, Special Education, and Foster Youth. Science investigations offer a way to engage students at any level and keep them excited about learning. While working through phenomena, students need to crystalize their own thinking, then share these thoughts with others in order to fully develop them. To do so, certain academic language and terms must be used. Through the shared activity of investigating phenomena, students work through science concepts and use the needed science vocabulary. Teachers guide the discussions through scaffolded questions that facilitate student communication by clarifying their t

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn to lead students to conceptual understandings by using discussion tools, academic language, and discussion routines that promote equity and engagement.

SPEAKERS:
Heather McDonald (Riverside Unified School District: Riverside, CA), Julia Smith (Riverside Unified School District: Riverside, CA), Shannon Dadlez (Riverside Unified School District: Riverside, CA)

Our students make sense of science and construct their ideas from many experiences, then use that “knowledge” as a foundation for their learning. However, it may not always be a solid foundation. We can help students develop their science knowledge through a deeper understanding of the misconceptions they hold, using phenomena, observation, sensemaking, and robust assessment. We can then assess students’ ideas and misconceptions in the sciences at various grade levels creating and using research-based assessments, understanding the importance of including their ideas in those assessments. When each item contains a choice between a scientifically correct answer and a common, widely-held, student misconception, we can more accurately evaluate our students’ true understanding of the DCI components of the NGSS.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will learn how to work with misconceptions that students hold in order to incorporate those into useful assessments. Use students’ sensemaking to discover ways to get at those ideas, and share your students’ misconceptions, hear others as well, and build research-based assessments.

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

Many educators do not utilize integrative STEM to its full potential. Integrative STEM benefits all students but can be especially impactful for gifted learners for whom academics come easy and struggling learners who constantly overcome failures. When STEM is done in homogeneous groups, students often contend with collaboration challenges and are forced to compromise. When working in heterogeneous groups, it is often the struggling students who are able to persevere in the face of failure and adversity that serve as leaders. In this session, attendees will be presented with the benefits of integrative STEM for their diverse learners. Examples of the positive impact it has on struggling learners and high achievers will be shared. Finally, attendees will leave with ideas about how to implement integrative STEM in their own classrooms based on their individual needs.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how integrative STEM benefits all students when done collaboratively.

SPEAKERS:
Erika Neuman (University of Texas at San Antonio: No City, No State)

This session will provide two example wet lab assessments and information to design one for the general and college/AP chemistry classroom. Both labs were our summative assessment for our molecular structures unit (topics: polarity, intermolecular forces, Lewis structures) and our measuring matter unit (topics: density, metric units, relationship between mass, volume, and temperature). For the molecular structure unit assessment, students determined the polarity of acetone, water, ethanol, and vegetable oil by testing solubility, evaporation rate, surface tension, and drawing Lewis structures. Students wrote a CER to classify each compound as polar or nonpolar. For our measuring matter lab assessment, students had an unknown metal or liquid and had to calculate density and classify the unknown substance and wrote a short CER. Grading can be traditional or SRG.

TAKEAWAYS:
There are numerous ways to assess besides traditional paper and pencil tests in chemistry. This session will focus on using labs and writing CERs based on lab data as an assessment for concepts.

SPEAKERS:
Kelsey Mescher (Battle High School: Columbia, MO), Stephanie Coyle (Jefferson Middle School: Columbia, MO)

Pre-K students have brains that are developing quickly and making rapid connections. This session explores sense-making and equitability in PreK, encouraging a love of learning in the young child. At McKissick Academy of Science and Technology, we utilize our Engineering Design Process to engage students in critical thinking, planning, revision, and communication through STEM. Our tools include: Project Lead the Way, Engineering is Elementary, Picture-Perfect STEM, Creative Curriculum, and our own teachers’ Project Based Learning units to further develop their brains. Our school believes in making learning equitable by providing access to STEM education for all our students; not just the upper grades. Join us for a session where you can walk away with some confidence to start your own units that will directly apply to your littles.

TAKEAWAYS:
The way STEM, and the EDP are embedded into Pre-K environments in our school meets the needs of early intervention and provides equitable access to education for children prior to beginning kindergarten.

SPEAKERS:
Angela Spearman (McKissick Academy of Science & Technology: Easley, SC), Brittany Clark (McKissick Academy: Easley, SC), Morgan Stancil (Teacher: Easley, SC)

As science educators, we often ask our students to make sense of phenomena that have a direct impact on human life such as hurricanes, floods, or wildfires. During this session, participants will explore free online modules which contain uncertainty-infused argumentation sets and interactive models that allow students to explore these events. Students’ work samples will be examined to see how their capacity for developing scientific arguments grows as they learn more about natural hazards. These samples include making claims from evidence, writing explanations that support their claims, and discussing the uncertainty of their explanations. The uncertainty discussions also include students’ evaluations of the models and data presented. This session is designed to introduce you to the modules and demonstrate how using them can strengthen your teaching and deepen student understanding of natural hazards through modeling and argumentation.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore a series of simulations designed to deepen students’ understanding of natural hazards. They will create a free account to access these simulations and associated curricula. An emphasis on the practices of modeling and argumentation will be used as part of the sensemaking process.

SPEAKERS:
Stephanie Harmon (PIMSER (KY): No City, No State)

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Come experience a model lesson from OpenSciEd for Middle School and see how the new Carolina Certified Edition makes these high-quality instructional materials even better! Leave with classroom resources.

SPEAKERS:
Cory Ort (Carolina Biological Supply Co.: Burlington, NC)