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

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

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Kat Chamberlain (Ridgetop Middle School: No City, No State)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Dr. Sagirah Wheeler (NASA Education Specialist: No City, No State), Monica Uribe (NASA Education Specialist)

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)

Problem based learning uses observable events and processes that occur in the world. It is important to provide students with sensemaking opportunities that require them to combine their knowledge about multiple, cross-disciplinary DCIs, science and engineering practices, and cross cutting concepts, and ELA, math, and social studies, to design solutions to a real-world problem. The purpose of this session is to model the intentional combination of multiple disciplines to design a solution to the impact farming can have on the environment. During the session, participants will engage in designing a windmill that will help them reduce the impact of farming on the environment. We will explore the transdisciplinary nature of designing windmills and work in engineering teams to create the most efficient windmill. This presentation provides access to an NGSS Design Badge 5th grade unit, and strategies for combining multiple disciplines to design solutions to real-world problems.

TAKEAWAYS:
The audience will walk away with access to an NGSS Design Badge 5th grade unit that exemplifies strategies for engaging students in real-world problem-solving using multiple disciplines.

SPEAKERS:
Christi Sanderson (mySci Instructional Specialist: University City, MO), Lauren Ashman (Washington University in St. Louis Institute for School Partnership: Saint Louis, MO)

Too frequently, teachers wait until Black History Month to incorporate diversity topics into their curriculum. For this workshop, I will be sharing how to incorporate diversity and equity topics year-round into a STEM program for both lower and middle school students. We will examine different science topics, including my second grade engineering unit, that can seamlessly be included in the science classroom. I will be showcasing some of the work my second, fourth, and sixth grade students have completed. In addition, I will be discussing the latest addition to the sixth grade weather and climate unit: Hurricane Relief and Environmental Racism. Finally, we will be examining the stories that different cultures have composed about the origin of constellations. Participants will have an opportunity to develop their own constellations and to write a story that explains the origin of their star pattern.

TAKEAWAYS:
After this workshop, participants will see how to incorporate diversity and equity topics into their STEM classroom. Teachers will experience some of the lessons my students have experienced and will discover how easily it can be to adapt lessons to celebrate the contributions of many cultures.

SPEAKERS:
Joan Gillman (The Browning School: New York, NY)

To analyze data from space and ground-based telescopes, scientists rely on computers, not only to do calculations, but also to change numbers into images. Scientists and programmers go through painstaking calibration and validation processes to ensure that computers produce technically correct images. Visual representation of X-ray data, and radio, infrared, ultraviolet, visible, and gamma, involves the use of representative color techniques where colors in the image represent intensity, energy, temperature, or another property of the radiation. This activity creates models from numerical data. Each model will be unique, depending upon how the photon intensity and energy data was processed – binned and assigned color values – and then analyzed. Artistic representations of this data will be made "by hand" and also by using web-based js9 imaging and analysis software. This is one step in allowing students to do their own astronomy research using real data sets.

TAKEAWAYS:
Scientists learn about astronomical objects from the light they produce. Colors in images are based on data from this light and are used to highlight different features.

SPEAKERS:
Pamela Perry (Lewiston High School: Lewiston, ME)

An extension of our previous NASA/JWST ambassador and NSTA workshops, this session empowers educators with deeper understanding of orbiting observatories and provides an inherently engaging hands-on activity which works from pure STEM/STEAM fun to serious exploration of multi-wavelength astronomy. We provide gel filters that participants use with their phones to capture monochrome images at three wavelengths (630nm, 530nm & 470nm for red, green and blue). Participants then open their images in a free, browser-based image processing app to combine them into a "color" picture. This locks in an understanding of how "color" results from image processing. Then, participants choose NASA image files from an archive and repeat the process -- only now, they are assigning RG&B to wavelengths that are not actually visible to the eye. The tool we use includes both presets to make this fun as an introductory activity, and an array of math-driven functionality for deep dives into image processing.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn to process multi-wavelength image sets to create color images from space telescopes and your own devices. This leads to a deeper understanding of space-based astronomy and how space telescope images are made – and provides a classroom activity that is fun, rich, and economical.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Kaiser (Stamford High School: Stamford, CT), Vincent Urbanowski (Academy of Information Technology & Engineering: Stamford, CT)

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)

Participants will be given an outline map of Middle Earth. They will color-code landforms including mountains, hills, plateaus, and plains and then add bodies of water including oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers. Given weather scenarios, they will add weather features to the map and make a weather report for a specific location. Participants will then read literature descriptions from the series and match igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks on the map.

TAKEAWAYS:
This activity is especially geared toward gifted students. Participants will see how to apply earth science concepts to a fictional world.

SPEAKERS:
Laurie Boulden (Warner University: Lake Wales, FL)

Participants will use light curve graphs and image analysis software tools located on the web to investigate stellar objects at the centers of supernova remnants, and determine if the objects are white dwarfs or neutron stars. Two sets of data from the Chandra X-Ray public archive will be used to plot brightness versus time to determine the rate of rotation of the object. Centripetal acceleration and Newton's Universal Law of gravitation calculations will then be applied. This activity is designed for physics and/or astronomy classes and integrates STEM analysis tools with the crosscutting concepts, physical science core disciplinary content and engineering concepts embodied by NGSS. Students may also use tools learned in this activity to use js9 to do further research projects using publicly available astronomy data sets.

TAKEAWAYS:
Light curves generated from web-based js9 image analysis software can be used to determine the period of rotation and identify objects as white dwarfs or pulsars using Newton’s Universal Law of gravitation and centripetal acceleration calculations.

SPEAKERS:
Pamela Perry (Lewiston High School: Lewiston, ME)

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)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Dennis Schatz (Institute for Learning Innovation: Beaverton, OR)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Janet Struble (: Toledo, OH)

Presentational content will include a high level overview of NASA’s Great Observatories and other past and present orbiting telescopes, how their missions are coordinated, and how they work in concert to provide full spectrum data from across the sky in bands from gamma down to far infrared – almost all of which are invisible to the human eye. In the workshop portion, participants will access archived astronomical data from orbiting observatories using the same browser based tools used by astronomers. They will process their datasets using a variety of tools and techniques for reducing data, vetting objects, and generating results, such as Spectral Energy Distribution, Color-Color and Color-Magnitude plots. Teachers will bring this experience back to their classrooms adding depth of knowledge to astronomy content they may teach, as well as a deeper understanding of the conduct of science research.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn to access astronomical data such as monochrome images at various wavelengths and wavelength magnitude measurements for thousands of stars at a time just as professional astronomers do, and how to process such data for research using techniques of professional astronomy.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Kaiser (Stamford High School: Stamford, CT), Vincent Urbanowski (Academy of Information Technology & Engineering: Stamford, CT)

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)

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

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

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

NEED’s Exploring Marine Hydrokinetics (MHK) is an exploratory unit for secondary students that includes teacher and student guides containing comprehensive background information on energy, the properties of fluids and waves, electricity, hydrokinetic technologies, and careers in the emerging industry of MHK. Participants will have the opportunity to apply the science of the oceans and electricity generation as they learn about the many types of MHK technology, explore case studies, consider siting a project, and build their own sample wave generator model. The curriculum is available for free and includes hands-on, inquiry-based explorations, group presentations, and cooperative learning activities.

TAKEAWAYS:
The energy of moving water can be harnessed and converted into electricity in many ways, including technologies for harnessing the energy in ocean tides, waves, and currents. Participants will learn activities for students that explore these concepts and best practices for implementing.

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

Most students in Missouri only take physical and life sciences to graduate leaving the Earth & Space Science strands of NGSS untouched. Most educators, additionally, do not have a strong enough earth & space science background to integrate these strands into their science classes. However, most of these Earth and Science strands can easily be adapted into a high school chemistry class (and biology, although my background is in chemistry) without having to give up core content. In this presentation, educators will be do a wet lab (Cleaning Up an Ocean Oil Spill) and receive access to additional labs (precipitation lab, acid rain lab, and viscosity of volcanoes) that meet the basic general chemistry class standards (PS NGSS strands) and incorporate earth and space sciences. Attendees will also learn of additional resources such as Gizmos and NASA that can be incorporated and hit the ESS science standards. Lastly, attendees will learn of books and resources for them to learn more.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to integrate the Earth & Space standards into a basic chemistry high school class. Resources can be adapted for biology and middle school levels.

SPEAKERS:
Stephanie Coyle (Jefferson Middle School: Columbia, MO)

This work is based on the result of a design-based research on internationalizing climate change instruction. During the instruction, the instructor introduced the content knowledge on climate change through a lab activity. Next, the students visited six stations to understand the impact of climate change on different areas of the world. They were also asked to identify the patterns and trends associated with various global maps demonstrating global climate change's differential impacts and complete a provided worksheet based on this gallery-walk activity. After the gallery-walk activity, students were asked to respond through a scientific report to the claim, “Climate change is the great equalizer and equally affects everyone in the world.” The students constructed a scientific explanation either in support of or against the provided claim. The workshop participants will experience the activity and discuss how to adopt it in their classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
How to internationalize climate change instruction for global competence.

SPEAKERS:
Shukufe Rahman (Graduate Student: Bloomington, IN), Conghui Liu (Ph.D. Candidate: Bloomington, MO)

Do your students bring you the rocks they've found? Do they find the weather, volcanos, and fossils fascinating? This workshop will provide classroom-ready activities to teach elementary/middle school students earth science concepts and mineral/rock identification with inexpensive earth science labs. Participants will receive a comprehensive set of earth science activities designed especially for elementary/middle school teachers. All of these activities are tried-and-true to teach all the basics of earth science, from basic rock and mineral identification to volcanoes and why some blow up (and some don’t), from the water cycle and weather to climate and climate change in a way that young learners can grasp. Viscosity labs include peanut butter and syrup, orbital motion with marbles, string, lace curtains, and hula hoops. Everything is readily available, cheap, easy to set up and, most importantly, makes concepts easy to understand for your students. Human impact on the environment will be considered throughout.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teaching about the Earth can be cheap, easy, fun, and is the first step to helping your students become good stewards of our planet.

SPEAKERS:
Melanie Carden-Jessen (Missouri State University: Springfield, MO)

SPIN, a FREE web-based notebook created with funding by NSF, has three customizable lessons for data-focused investigations in Earth Science on Sunspots, Tides, and Hurricanes. Teachers can also input their own lessons into SPIN. One of the teachers who created the lessons in the notebook will be presenting. The first 30 minutes presenters will give teachers accounts in SPIN and show how students can use the notebook and the metacognitive support features such as the Communication Hub, I’m Stuck button, and SPAARC prompts. Experiences of teachers and students who have used SPIN will be discussed. In the final 30 minutes, teachers will customize a lesson in SPIN or input their own lessons with help from the presenters. By the end of the session, teachers will be able to use SPIN effectively with the ability to share the notebook with all of the teachers at their school. Use of SPIN is free and is found at https://spin.cehd.gmu.edu/login. Biology, chemistry, and physics also available.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn how to use SPIN to download and edit a lesson from the Global Marketplace or create their own lesson in SPIN. Teachers who have used SPIN note that it has helped their students understand data practices explicitly.

SPEAKERS:
Kevin Cabaniss (Teacher, Science), Erin Peters-Burton (George Mason University: Fairfax, VA)

Participants will use web-based image and data analysis software and real data sets to compare the Cartwheel Galaxy in optical and X-ray bands to determine the sources of the ultra and hyperluminous X-rays in the galaxy. This investigation can be done on smart phones, laptops, and tablets with an internet connection. The unusual shape of the Cartwheel Galaxy is most probably the result of a collision with one of the smaller nearby galaxies several hundred years ago. The collision produced compression waves within the galaxy which triggered bursts of massive star formation. Participants will use the location of the U/HLXs on the x-ray image and optical image, as well as information about expansion rates and the life cycles of stars to determine what these objects might be. This is a great introduction to the software that astrophysicists use. Participants will also learn about the possibilities for other kinds of investigations and research with the software and the thousands of available data sets.

TAKEAWAYS:
Astrophysicists use light in all bands of the electromagnetic spectrum to determine the nature of an object. Web-based software will be used; the same tools used by scientists. This software can be used by students to do their own investigations in astronomy with real data sets.

SPEAKERS:
Pamela Perry (Lewiston High School: Lewiston, ME)

Rubin Observatory is a public US observatory funded by the NSF. Educational materials and services are freely available to all. “Coloring the Universe” is one of six free online investigations that offer a complete, classroom ready lesson. Designed to support the NGSS, it comes with a phenomenon, teacher guide, presentation slides, videos, and a variety of three-dimensional formative and summative assessments and scoring guides. Since the entire lesson cannot be completed in 60 minutes, we will adopt a drop in approach at various places of the phenomenon and online app, and role-playing from the student perspective.We will then visit the website to preview additional resources. This workshop will also model how the lesson can be incorporated in Earth-Space or Physics storylines, and will demonstrate formative assessment and inclusive learning techniques.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to use the free interactive Coloring the Universe online investigation and support materials designed for NGSS teaching and learning, as well as active learning and assessment strategies that support inclusive techniques for building student communication skills.

SPEAKERS:
Ardis Herrold (Vera C. Rubin Observatory: Tucson, AZ)

Stars form in giant molecular clouds of gas and dust in massive star formation complexes, and depending on their initial mass, usually follow a sequence that ends in their destruction in catastrophic collapses and explosions. The process of stellar evolution provides the energy which drives the universe, and thereby determines its future. During the last stages of evolution, nucleosynthesis creates the elements which will enrich the next generation of protostars and planets. formation of stars also sets the stage for possible exoplanets forming within the debris disks of young protostars as hydrogen begins to fuse in their cores. This basic sequencing activity is one of a series of activities designed to show how scientists view, study, and examine the process of stellar evolution. The card sets have descriptions and links and can be used as a pretest or a posttest, either individually or as a group. Multiple answers are acceptable. A scoring rubric is included.

TAKEAWAYS:
Stellar evolution is a cosmic cycle from the formation of protostars and stars in cold molecular clouds, through their final collapses into remnants and stellar cores. This process creates heavier elements and sets the stage for the formation of exoplanets and the next generation of star formation.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Young (NASA/NSO/UoL Program Manager: Laughlin, NV)

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

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

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Kathryn Semmens (Science Director: Easton, PA)

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

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

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

Rubin Observatory is a public US observatory funded by the NSF. Educational materials and services are freely available to all. “Expanding Universe” is one of six free online investigations that offer a complete, classroom ready lesson. Designed to support the NGSS, it comes with a phenomenon, teacher guide, presentation slides, videos, and a variety of three-dimensional formative and summative assessments and scoring guides. This workshop will model scaffolded teaching and assessment techniques to help students achieve success in making sense of abstract concepts presented in the lesson. Since the entire lesson cannot be completed in 60 minutes, we will adopt a drop in approach at various points by using portions of the phenomenon and the online app, and role-playing from the student perspective. We will then visit the website to preview additional resources.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to use the free interactive Expanding Universe online investigation and support materials designed for NGSS teaching and learning, as well as scaffolded teaching, and as formative assessment strategies to ensure that all students may achieve a successful learning experience.

SPEAKERS:
Ardis Herrold (Vera C. Rubin Observatory: Tucson, AZ)

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

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

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