Sponsoring Company: PASCO

Learn how collecting carbon exchange data from plant leaves can help you correct students’ most common misconceptions about respiration and photosynthesis.

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

What happens when you cook an egg? Is it possible to un-cook it? Investigate the characteristics of amino acids, the levels (and rules!) of protein folding, and how denaturing a protein alters its function, in an engaging hands-on modeling investigation using the Amino Acid Starter Kit ©.

SPEAKERS:
Mark Arnholt (3D Molecular Designs: Milwaukee, WI)

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: Edvotek

There’s a break-in at the lab. Your students become forensic scientists as they walk into a crime scene. Analyze samples for blood and then catch the criminal with DNA fingerprinting. This exciting workshop will include ways to incorporate biotechnology and gel electrophoresis into your classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Danielle Snowflack, PhD (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC), Tom Cynkar (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

Engage students in authentic research through Genes in Space: the experimental design competition that launches experiments to the International Space Station. Learn about free educational resources, including lesson plans, classroom activities, explainer videos, and biotechnology equipment loans.

SPEAKERS:
Marc Bliss (miniPCR: Cambridge, MA)

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)

Sponsoring Company: Edvotek

The gene-editing tool CRISPR is one of the most exciting biotechnology breakthroughs of the past decade. In fact, this technique won the Nobel Prize in 2020! In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore CRISPR biology using fast, easy experiments that model the development of a cure for Cystic Fibrosis.

SPEAKERS:
Danielle Snowflack, PhD (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC), Tom Cynkar (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

Give your students a deeper understanding of what is happening inside those tiny tubes during PCR, endonuclease digest, and incubation wait times through hands-on modeling. This workshop will feature the use of the Biotechnology Kit © and focus on plasmid ligation.

SPEAKERS:
Mark Arnholt (3D Molecular Designs: Milwaukee, WI)

Sponsoring Company: Lab-Aids

Learning Sequences to drive phenomena through a unit is one way to help students understand the content. In this model activity from a new Lab-Aids program; Science and Global Issues: Biology, developed by SEPUP, you will use data to investigate how abiotic factors and species diversity are related.

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Participants use the lactase enzyme to produce lactose-free milk in an easy-to-perform lab and then modify experimental conditions to design and test their own procedures to maximize production of lactose-free milk.

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

Sponsoring Company: Edvotek

Explore the science of candy colors! We will extract food dyes from candy and separate them using agarose gel electrophoresis and paper chromatography. By separating the different colors, students learn about complicated mixtures, charges on molecules, and how science relates to everyday life.

SPEAKERS:
Danielle Snowflack, PhD (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC), Tom Cynkar (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

A purrfect introduction to genetics! Track inheritance in a family of cats using Punnett squares. Then, use gel electrophoresis to examine the gene that controls that trait. Students connect Mendelian genetics with our modern understanding of genes! No stains or extra visualization equipment needed.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Hennessy-McDonald, PhD (miniPCR: Cambridge, MA)

Sponsoring Company: PASCO

Microscope Scale activities to build skills for better interpretation of what they view in the eyepiece. Techniques help teachers use any equipment to establish scale for further investigations across organism kingdoms.

Sponsoring Company: Edvotek

Creating colorful bacteria with transformation is a memorable way to teach the central dogma of molecular biology. Take it a step further and have your students create art with the colorful cells! In this workshop, we’ll share tips for transformation success and create bio-art with microbial paint!

SPEAKERS:
Danielle Snowflack, PhD (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC), Tom Cynkar (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

Discover a new way to study DNA and enzymes! Use fluorescence to see changes to DNA structure and enzyme activity with your own eyes. Explore how temperature, pH, and genetic sequence affect DNA base pairing. Then, see inhibitors, concentration, temperature, and pH affect enzymatic reaction rates.

SPEAKERS:
Allison Nishitani, PhD (miniPCR: Cambridge, MA)

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

Examine how modeling deepens student engagement. Explore carefully designed models to discover basic features of DNA structure and function using an atomically accurate model. Model nucleotides, DNA and RNA polymers, genetic sequences, genetic engineering,...and epigenetics.

SPEAKERS:
Tim Herman (3D Molecular Designs: Milwaukee, WI)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Molly Malone (The University of Utah: Salt Lake City, UT)

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)

Sponsoring Company: Edvotek

Discover the awesome potential of the ELISA! This highly-sensitive assay allows for detection of low levels of antigens in biological samples, making it perfect to identify pathogens, allergens, and more. We'll also practice pipetting to improve accuracy and precision, ensuring experimental success.

SPEAKERS:
Danielle Snowflack, PhD (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC), Tom Cynkar (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

Add a hands-on lab to your study of the central dogma! With the cell-free BioBits® system, students can watch as polymerases transcribe RNA and ribosomes translate it to make protein, all using fluorescent indicators. Now you can experiment directly with transcription and translation!

SPEAKERS:
Allison Nishitani, PhD (miniPCR: Cambridge, MA)

Sponsoring Company: Aidmics Biotechnology

This workshop supports teachers to implement inquiry-based science learning and helps students to develop meaningful scientifically literate views of the world by using the uHandy Microscope that acts as your second pair of eyes, which ignites your curiosity and your genuine passion for science!

SPEAKERS:
Jolanda Hsu (Aidmics Biotechnology: Taipei City, Taipei City)

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

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

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

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

Participants will model the aspects of water and ion transport across cell membranes using the Phospholipid and Membrane Transport Kit © and our MIGHTY Model © Channel collection. 3-D models of Na+ and K+ channel proteins and aquaporin will help your students understand cellular transport.

SPEAKERS:
Mark Arnholt (3D Molecular Designs: Milwaukee, WI)

Sponsoring Company: Bio-Rad Laboratories

Join us for this fun, interactive workshop in which you will apply a molecular diagnostic test, basic principles of virology, and clues hidden within a restaurant to track the chain of infection of a novel norovirus. The results may just make you want to wash your hands…

SPEAKERS:
Leigh Brown (Bio-Rad Laboratories: Hercules, CA), Tamica Stubbs (Bio-Rad Laboratories: Hercules, CA)

Sponsoring Company: HHMI BioInteractive

Bring ecology to life for students as we explore free, hands-on resources from HHMI BioInteractive that model how keystone species regulate ecosystems through trophic cascades.

SPEAKERS:
Heather Peterson , Timothy Guilfoyle (Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology: Charlotte, NC)

Sponsoring Company: Texas Instruments

A decomposing corpse is found in a field. Four possible missing persons fit the description. But who is it? Using clues near the scene will help determine identity. Forensic anthropologist Diane France helped to develop this free middle school and high school forensic science lesson.

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

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Keep your students engaged by giving them opportunities to move and interact in class. Explore limb position and grip strength, balance, and EKG and EMG experiments designed to encourage students to think about the physiology of various human organ systems. Come ready to participate!

SPEAKERS:
Colleen McDaniel (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

Sponsoring Company: Savvas Learning Company

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SPEAKERS:
Christopher Moore (University of Nebraska Omaha: Omaha, NE)

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

Puppies are born to Molly the Labradoodle and students must use genetics to solve the paternity mystery. Use Punnett squares and DNA gel electrophoresis to track inheritance of the furnishings trait across the litter. Then decide who’s the daddy: Zeus the Poodle or Otto the Labradoodle?

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Hennessy-McDonald, PhD (miniPCR: Cambridge, MA)

Sponsoring Company: PASCO

From analysis of individual ions to calculating an overall index for general water quality. Explore tips for best results and how to leverage your work for students beyond those who go to the field to collect the data. Importance of Temp, DO, conductivity, pH, hardness, nutrients, and bacterial load

Sponsoring Company: Visible Body

Lab time and access to specimens can be limited, expensive, or sometimes entirely out of reach. Visible Body’s 3-D content and Courseware platform provide a digital alternative to wet labs and 2-D textbook images and diagrams, allowing students to “cut” as many times as they need.

SPEAKERS:
Rachel Buchanan (Sales Director: , SC)

Sponsoring Company: Bio-Rad Laboratories

Is your food genetically modified? Learn three different hands-on activities that explore this topic. First, simulated PCR analysis using pre-amplified DNA (no thermal cycler needed), then DNA extraction and PCR, and next, quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). Bonus activity: use ELISA to detect GMOs!

SPEAKERS:
Tamica Stubbs (Bio-Rad Laboratories: Hercules, CA), Leigh Brown (Bio-Rad Laboratories: Hercules, CA)

Sponsoring Company: Lab-Aids

In this interactive workshop from our new Biology program from SEPUP, students will engage with a model of how human choices affect the sustainability of a particular resource—the fish population of a fictitious lake—and the potential effects of various actions.

Sponsoring Company: HHMI BioInteractive

Inquiring minds want to know! Join us as we explore how BioInteractive Phenomenal Images and Data Points spark student questions and help them develop explanations.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Fassler (Marshfield High School: Marshfield, WI), Christina Bowers (Meridian School: Round Rock, TX)

Sponsoring Company: Texas Instruments

Bring a friend with you to attend, "Zombie Apocalypse!" Just make sure you can run faster! Zombies provide an excellent way to get students interested in understanding how diseases move through a population. Great for middle and high school students.

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

Bring molecular techniques to Ecology and Evolution units. Join an expedition to Madagascar to decide if an extinct lemur species has been rediscovered! Test DNA with gel electrophoresis, build phylogenetic trees, and analyze authentic field data from the Duke Lemur Center.

SPEAKERS:
Allison Nishitani, PhD (miniPCR: Cambridge, MA)

Sponsoring Company: Savvas Learning Company

Techniques such as CRISPR, mitochondrial transfer, and mRNA therapeutics have opened new possibilities for genetic manipulation, bringing with them new opportunities to energize the biology curriculum.

SPEAKERS:
Kenneth Miller (Brown University: Providence, RI)

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

Experience our new collection of protein models enhanced by molecular stories, digital resources, and augmented reality technology. Bigger, better… and more robust.

SPEAKERS:
Tim Herman (3D Molecular Designs: Milwaukee, WI)

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

Physical models reveal the invisible molecular world, but can have limitations. Digital media can address these limitations, but is experienced separate from the models. With 3DMD AR, digital overlays appear directly onto the physical models, seamlessly combining the strengths of physical models and digital media.

SPEAKERS:
Mark Hoelzer (Director of Materials Development: Milwaukee, WI)

Sponsoring Company: HHMI BioInteractive

Join us as we explore free, classroom-ready HHMI BioInteractive resources to model how the species-area relationship impacts biogeography and conservation of protected areas.

SPEAKERS:
Jeannie Long (Teacher), Chris Monsour (Tiffin Columbian High School: Tiffin, OH)

Sponsoring Company: Bio-Rad Laboratories

Two out of three drug overdoses are due to opioids. Understanding the environmental & genetic links to drug dependency can reduce risk when opioids are prescribed to high-risk patients. Discover how math, genetics, & personalized medicine can determine the likelihood of addiction.

SPEAKERS:
Leigh Brown (Bio-Rad Laboratories: Hercules, CA), Tamica Stubbs (Bio-Rad Laboratories: Hercules, CA)

Sponsoring Company: Lab-Aids

Explore the use of sensemaking strategies to help students understand how selective gene expression works. Come experience a model lesson from a new Lab-Aids program; Science and Global Issues: Biology, developed by SEPUP. This hands-on workshop will also show a connection to genetic engineering.

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

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

PTC tasting is a classic way to link genotype and phenotype. Use PCR and gel electrophoresis to determine if students have taster or non-taster alleles for bitter perception. Learn about our all-new curriculum and see how easy it can be to bring molecular genetics to your class!

Going from pure to applied science is an emphasis today. STEM makes science applicative. A competitive workforce and making science relevant are reasons for making applicative connections. Do these “connective pushes” (e.g., STEM) make studying science for science’s sake worthwhile? We think so. We’ve created a biology-based assignment where students are involved in SEP through biomimicry after first studying seeds. We chose seeds to show how pure science can blend into the applicative sciences for two reasons. The diversity in physical characteristics and the means of transportation open possibilities for creative uses beyond what seeds themselves provide humankind. Using biomimicry as the driving force to incorporate the concept of SEP in lessons works well in the middle grades. Studying science, using argument from evidence, getting an inventive idea, building a prototype, and finishing with an engineered product is possible through biomimicry. The lessons cover about 3 class days.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn the processes behind how learning pure science concepts can become STEM, by way of using both biomimicry and SEP in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
William Sumrall (The University of Mississippi: University, MS)

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)

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

According to the CDC, there were 110,000 overdose deaths in the US in 2022. 75,000 of those were due to fentanyl, a powerful and dangerous synthetic opioid. Join us as we model action potentials, how fentanyl disrupts synaptic signaling, and how Narcan can stop an overdose.

SPEAKERS:
Mark Arnholt (3D Molecular Designs: Milwaukee, WI)

Sponsoring Company: Bio-Rad Laboratories

Experience CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing experiments designed for your students' learning! In this hands-on workshop, edit a chromosomal gene, complete with essential experimental controls, using the same cut-and-repair technology used in medicinal and agricultural applications.

SPEAKERS:
Tamica Stubbs (Bio-Rad Laboratories: Hercules, CA), Leigh Brown (Bio-Rad Laboratories: Hercules, CA)

Sponsoring Company: Anatomage, Inc.

The Science Table by Anatomage provides a library of biology, chemistry, and physics experiments with realistic-quality visuals and an interactive touchscreen experience. The workshop will focus on incorporating the Science Table into middle school, high school, and college-level classrooms.

Sponsoring Company: Texas Instruments

The King of all sensors in most science departments is the temperature probe. Probes make it easier for students to quickly and reliably collect data so they can spend more time making sense of it. Come to this hands-on session and interact with, "The Lord of the Probes!"

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Engage your students in learning about the effects of climate change with this hands-on experiment. Using the latest Vernier data-collection technology, we'll define ocean acidification, determine how we can measure it, and discuss why it is bad for our marine ecosystems. Get ready to dive in!

SPEAKERS:
Colleen McDaniel (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

Sickle cell disease is an excellent model to discuss topics ranging from protein structure and function to inheritance and genetic diseases. Add an engaging hands-on activity that only takes one class period! This lab helps a fictional family obtain a molecular diagnosis using gel electrophoresis.

SPEAKERS:
Marc Bliss (miniPCR: Cambridge, MA)

Sponsoring Company: Savvas Learning Company

N/A

SPEAKERS:
Joseph Levine (Science Writer and Producer: Concord, MA)

Sponsoring Company: Anatomy in Clay

They will acquire the knowledge to engage science students with immediate, hands-on learning using a proven method that is nationally recognized to increase student retention and test scores. Come build the rotator cuff with us!

SPEAKERS:
Chuck Roney (ANATOMY IN CLAY Learning Systems: Loveland, CO), John-Paul Theriault (ANATOMY IN CLAY Learning Systems: Loveland, CO)

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

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

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

Sponsoring Company: Bio-Rad Laboratories

Students often struggle to tie cellular respiration and photosynthesis together. Come and experience how algae beads help students easily visualize both processes in one experimental system. They can then extend their learning by changing light intensity, light color, and temperature...."

SPEAKERS:
Leigh Brown (Bio-Rad Laboratories: Hercules, CA), Tamica Stubbs (Bio-Rad Laboratories: Hercules, CA)

Sponsoring Company: HHMI BioInteractive

How do species coexist within an ecosystem? Come explore BioInteractive's niche partitioning resources that have students analyze data to understand ecological restoration efforts.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Fassler (Marshfield High School: Marshfield, WI)

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

Tour a crowded, active plasma cell to see how proteins are made and exported for use by the body. Explore how physical models foster an understanding of how the structure of DNA and RNA determines the structure of proteins, which carry out the essential functions of life.

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

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

Come practice hands-on, authentic CRISPR/Cas learning activities. From using Cas9 to target DNA in a test tube, to knocking out a gene in bacteria, our labs will put real CRISPR/Cas in your students’ hands. Free educational resources like CRISPR/Cas paper models will also be demonstrated.

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

What happens when you cook an egg? Is it possible to un-cook it? Investigate the characteristics of amino acids, the levels (and rules!) of protein folding, and how denaturing a protein alters its function in an engaging hands-on modeling investigation using the Amino Acid Starter Kit ©.

SPEAKERS:
Mark Arnholt (3D Molecular Designs: Milwaukee, WI)

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

This session will preview a professional learning opportunity being developed by 3-D Molecular Designs focused on the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.  This project is funded by an NIH SEPA award to 3-D Molecular Designs.

SPEAKERS:
Tim Herman (3D Molecular Designs: Milwaukee, WI)

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

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

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Catherine Quinlan (Howard University)

The poster will highlight a free unit that is comprised of easy-to-implement multimedia and paper-based activities paired with scaffolded practice in working with models, crafting explanations, and identifying cause and effect relationships. The unit’s student and teacher resources are available at: https://teach.genetics.utah.edu/content/change The poster will feature: • An engaging dog breeding game with achievements • An activity where students see how their own traits would affect their chances of surviving and reproducing in fantastic situations • Online interactives that explore the non-directional nature of natural selection, artificial selection in plants, and the role of proteins in making traits • Videos that illustrate the gene/environment connection, how traits are inherited, and how natural selection works

TAKEAWAYS:
Where to access a new, free, NGSS-friendly unit on genetics, heredity, and natural selection.

SPEAKERS:
Molly Malone (The University of Utah: Salt Lake City, UT)

Discover our newest curriculum, “Students as Scientists: Nature-based Inquiry”. This free curriculum is designed to engage all students in hands-on, authentic, inquiry projects inspired by nature. The curriculum is NGSS aligned, grade-banded K-5 and 6-12, and teacher co-written and reviewed. We intentionally diversified the people representing scientists and incorporated culturally responsive and sustaining techniques. Learn how to harness questions that arise from observing nature and help students discover their inner scientist with materials that aid teachers in scaffolding authentic inquiry. Questions might range from “How do the kinds of birds we see change during the year?” to “Why aren’t we seeing more butterflies at our school and what can we do to get more to visit?” to “How good is the water quality in the stream that runs through town?” By engaging in nature-based investigations, students develop their science skills and engage in science practices.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore our latest K-5 and 6-12 inquiry curriculum, discover tips and techniques for engaging all learners in nature-based inquiry investigations, and discuss ways to make inquiry learning relevant to your students.

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Richard Frazier (retired)