For many students, an undergraduate general education life science (GELS) course may be the only one where they are exposed to scientific reasoning at the collegiate level. In order to contribute to a scientifically literate and informed society, the Interactions in General Education Life Sciences (IGELS) project aims to engage students in reasoning skills around topics that are highly relevant to students. We describe the goals and activities of IGELS and provide preliminary results of our survey of GELS instructors that assesses their current knowledge and implementation of the “Vision and Change” (AAAS, 2009) framework in their courses. These data will inform our future activities to provide faculty development and develop curricular models that support reasoning and relevancy in GELS courses while implementing principles of “Vision and Change.”

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be able to describe the mission of IGELS and envision how future projects can assist educators in increasing reasoning skills in learners in ways that are relevant to their lives.

SPEAKERS:
Heather Rissler (North Iowa Area Community College)

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)

Join us to explore the variety of online professional development opportunities for educators. We will be highlighting all the opportunities to gain NSTA certificates that could be used as continuing education certificates, including many that are free!

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn about the variety of professional learning opportunities that NSTA has to offer.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Phillips (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

A Framework for K–12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) encourages students to engage in science and engineering practices to develop deeper understanding of disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts. As a partner in the development of the NGSS, NSTA has been at the forefront of the shift toward improving the quality of science instruction for all students. Let us support your school or district efforts to implement three-dimensional standards and transform classroom instruction.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to bring NSTA professional learning services to your school, district, or organization (face-to-face, virtual, and hybrid).

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Phillips (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

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)

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has a clearinghouse of free STEM education resources covering a wide range of health and biomedical research topics for students in grades K through 12. On science.education.nih.gov, you’ll find links to great content from NIH, as well as materials developed through our education grants. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS, part of NIH) has created a section of its Biomedical Beat blog called the Educator’s Corner (biobeat.nigms.nih.gov/educators-corner) with a collection of carefully curated blog posts designed to align with existing NIGMS science education resources, such as its Pathways collection for middle and high school students. You’ll find tools and ideas to enhance lesson plans, building upon existing science education material that’s already available at no cost. We hope these websites will be useful tools to bring STEM materials into the classroom and to encourage students toward health science careers.

TAKEAWAYS:
The National Institutes of Health has a wide range of free curriculum resources for teachers in the health science space. Materials vary from online interactives, Kahoot! games, and blog posts, to free printed magazine copies with teacher guides. Find them all at science.education.nih.gov.

SPEAKERS:
Rachel Crowley (NIGMS, National Institutes of Health: No City, No State)

Due to the increasing environmental concerns among consumers, governments worldwide are focusing on adopting clean mobility solutions through alternative fuel. The team decided to gather leftover seeds to extract oils that will serve as our source of FAMEThe team used grape, pumpkin, watermelon, pomegranate, and cactus seed oils as a source of fatty acid methyl esters or biodiesel as an Alternative Biofuel. Results show that all plant seeds are a feasible source of biodiesel, pumpkin. on the other hand, oil from the pumpkin seeds shows remarkable results wherein it produces 100 mL of oil from 500 grams of seeds and it has also the highest height (9 inches) of flame when measured. It was also observed that it easily captured the fire during the flammability test. On the other hand, the team observed that the flame color of most of the biodiesel was orange, except for the grape seed which shows a more yellow flame.

TAKEAWAYS:
Making of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (Biodiesel) Out of Native Plant Seeds

SPEAKERS:
Roy Basa (Zuni Public School District: Zuni, NM)