Sponsoring Company: Lab-Aids

Students collect evidence which indicates that different colors of light carry different amounts of energy. Students analyze and interpret light transmission graphs for three different lenses. They determine which sunglass lens (structure) provides the best protection (function) for the eyes.

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: Lab-Aids

Learn about the intentional design of our units to embed equitable opportunities in phenomenon-based learning. This hands-on workshop uses a model activity showing how students use data to develop an evidence-based argument supporting the best way to recover copper from a waste solution.

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: miniPCR bio

Link physical science concepts like circuits and charged particles to the essential biotech method, gel electrophoresis. Build a reusable gel electrophoresis system with the Bandit STEM Electrophoresis Kit, and use it to separate colorful dyes. Also, add the A to STEAM with creative pipetting art!

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

Participants will learn research-based methods for supporting emerging multilinguals in their science classroom. These methods will be modeled by sharing sections of Biology labs that have been modified to support English learners. At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to take home sample lessons and labs specifically developed for a multilingual science classroom. Teaching methods presented are based on research and actual classroom experience, developed collaboratively by a team including a science teacher, English as a new language teacher, and a language development researcher. Labs shared with participants are designed to foster critical thinking while incorporating appropriate scaffolding. Lab handouts for participants to take back to their classrooms will include the following topics: scientific method, ecology, enzymes, biomolecules, cell transport, photosynthesis, and cellular respiration.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn and practice teaching techniques for supporting English learners in their science class while engaging with lessons that model these procedures.

SPEAKERS:
Tina Ahmadi (PhD Student: Indianapolis, IN)

Sponsoring Company: PASCO

For students new to describing motion, graphs of position and velocity can be difficult to interpret. In this hands-on workshop, you will learn how to use sensors to create and discuss graphs of motion with your students.

Sponsoring Company: Great Minds

In this workshop, participants undergo a challenging student experience as they work through a complex investigation. Throughout the course of the session, participants discover the importance of fostering an environment that encourages challenges where students can struggle in a safe space.

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

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Apply creative problem-solving skills and engineering practices to chemistry and physical science challenges. Experience how Carolina makes it easy to incorporate STEM into your classroom. Launch a chemical reaction rocket and race a car powered by a balloon.

SPEAKERS:
Patricia Kopkau

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

Do your students struggle with the meaning of the slope of a graph? We'll demonstrate how to use all the sensors in a Go Direct® Sensor Cart to explore kinematics, force, and mass. These engaging, hands-on experiments will give your students multiple ways to practice working with these principles.

SPEAKERS:
David Carter (Vernier Science Education: Beaverton, OR)

My first years of teaching Physics at Title 1 schools in Memphis were challenging. Many of my students were very behind, especially in math. However, I developed 5 strategies to make learning physics accessible and they completely transformed my classroom. 1. “Building Block” Method The biggest breakthrough in my classroom was breaking long problems down into building blocks. I will show how to do this with a sample forces unit. 2. Pre-manipulated equations I will share an equation sheet that shows all forms of each equation. It is a game-changer for students who struggle with algebra. 3. Setting-Up for Success I will model a consistent way to help students stay organized on different types of problems. 4. Simplifying Motion I will illustrate how to solve motion problems using simpler notation and simpler equations. 5. Simplifying Circuits I will show how to use the “routes method” so students can solve most circuits in a more conceptual way.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will come away from this session with strategies that they can immediately implement in their classrooms to make physics more accessible and engaging, especially for their lower-level learners.

SPEAKERS:
Jack Replinger (FormerTeacher / Founder: , WA)

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: PASCO

Give your students a real-world engineering challenge! Explore the relationship between momentum and impact forces by designing and testing crash barriers with live collision data.

Sponsoring Company: Vernier Science Education

TI graphing calculators now work with Vernier’s Go Direct sensors, wirelessly, with the TI-Bluetooth Adapter! Students can code their own data collection programs using Python to ensure their experiments are customized to their specific needs. Or they can use pre-existing programs from the TI web site to quickly start collecting data. Once the data is on the calculator, students can use one of many applications to better visualize, analyze, and understand the data they’ve collected.

SPEAKERS:
Gregory Dodd (Retired Chemistry Teacher: Pennsboro, WV)

Sponsoring Company: PASCO

Experience the best way to teach basic circuits! Learn how to build circuits with modular components that look identical to schematic drawings. We'll show you how to skip the tangled wires that confuse students and focus on the physics.

Sponsoring Company: Lab-Aids

This interactive workshop uses a model cart system with ramps to help students learn to measure speed and rate. They also match segments of a distance-vs-time graph to portions of a narrative to help conceptualize the meaning behind slopes on motion graphs.

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

Explore easy, engaging, and safe chemistry activities that guarantee a reaction in your students. Whether you’re new to chemistry or feeling out of your element, create excitement with hands-on labs and demonstrations.

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

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)

A lab done in science classes leads students to discover that the force of a hanging mass can be offset by the force of a spinning mass, finding equilibrium between centrifugal force and gravity. Discover how that same physics principle used in astronomy applies to the rotation of the Milky Way and led to the discovery of Dark Matter. Students will compare their calculations for circular and planetary motion with those for the rotation of the galaxy as collected by radio astronomer’s plotting the movement of neutral hydrogen. How will your students react when they discover these calculations don’t match? Learn how to lead your students through a discussion of the world of radio astronomers who grappled with the same problem when their data did not align with the laws of physics. The explanation became a new field in cosmology – the study of dark matter and dark energy.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students will learn that galactic rotational motion follows different rules than either circular motion or Kepler’s planetary motion laws. This led to the discovery of dark matter.

SPEAKERS:
John Clark (Volusia Online Learning: Port Orange, FL)

Sponsoring Company: PASCO

Rediscover the most versatile tool in your physics lab: the meter stick! Learn how to facilitate investigations of rotation, torque, optics, and even Lenz's law using the PASCO Aluminum Meter Stick and accessories.

I will take participants through my process of crafting sets of formative multiple choice questions that each use 2 of the 3 dimensions of NGSS, so that all dimensions are addressed. I will also show my process for refining free response questions to get the exact responses I am looking for and that allow for an ease of grading and seeing students’ understanding. I will provide examples from my own classroom & direct them to where they can find more examples from various storylines. As an iHub Chemistry writer, I learned to write 3-D multiple choice formative questions. An assessment graduate course taught me how to write quality distractors to see limits of student understanding and get useful feedback data. I merge these 2 in my own classroom to create assessments to get to what my students know. I will share my learning from these trainings and more to set teachers on the path to quality 3-D classroom assessments.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn to craft three-dimensional assessments, multiple choice, and free response. Using quality distractors in multiple choice formatives allows you to pinpoint student misconceptions. Free response questions direct students to the specific response you want so that grading goes quicker.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Evans (Olathe South High School: Olathe, KS)

Engage your students with a real-world application of physical sciences and biology through our scaffolded nuclear radiology case study. Nuclear medicine is a branch of radiology that uses radioactive materials to diagnose and treat disease. The purpose of this session is to introduce students to medical imaging and nuclear medicine alongside Next Generation Science Standards as they attempt to diagnose and treat a hypothetical patient. In addition to fostering critical thinking, this session connects FDG-PET (a type of nuclear imaging) to the following next generation science standards: 1) Develop models to illustrate the changes in the composition of the nucleus of the atom and the energy released during … fission, fusion, and radioactive decay. (HS-PS1-8), and 2) Use a model to illustrate the role of cellular division (mitosis) and differentiation in producing and maintaining complex organisms. (HS-LS1-4).

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will feel prepared to incorporate a nuclear radiology problem-based learning activity (developed by a radiologist and science teacher team) into their own classrooms!

SPEAKERS:
Peter Gunderman (Radiologist), Tina Ahmadi (PhD Student: Indianapolis, IN)

Teachers will explore a data collection activity to investigate pH and a pH titration curve. Teachers will also explore a variety of card sorts, hands-on activities to model acid base chemistry as well as the application of buffers in real world situations.

TAKEAWAYS:
Acid base chemistry and buffers are difficult concepts for students to grasp. This session will help teachers create and modify traditional lecture activities to be student-centered, hands-on learning opportunities.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Coker (Camden Fairview High School: Camden, AR), Stacy Thibodeaux (Southside High School: Youngsville, LA)

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)

Differentiation in the science classroom is essential for student learning, allowing students to enter the lesson from different points and gain the tools to access material and ensure enduring understanding. In this session, participants will learn about a variety of strategies they can use in their classroom to engage students, identify misconceptions, provide varied practice activities, and offer choices in the learning progression. Differentiation seems to be a wide umbrella, but this session aims to narrow the focus and provide teachers with tools and tips they can implement as soon as they’re home from NSTA!

TAKEAWAYS:
Takeaway a deeper understanding of approaches to differentiation, including both small- and large-scale strategies that are applicable to all science classrooms. Strategies range from simple techniques that can be implemented during a portion of one class, to unit-long approaches.

SPEAKERS:
Kellie Dean (Adlai E. Stevenson High School: Lincolnshire, IL), Jin Kyung Hwang (Adlai E. Stevenson High School: Lincolnshire, IL), Molly Sponseller (Adlai E. Stevenson High School: Lincolnshire, IL)

Sponsoring Company: Texas Instruments

Graphs are great ways to illustrate patterns/trends in data, but many students do not understand how to use them. By using a motion detector and calculator, students are challenged to "Match a Graph" by changing their position and speed. Come give it a try!

Sponsoring Company: Savvas Learning Company

Questions are an important aspect of effective science teaching. This session will arm you with questioning strategies including SHARE (Wilcox et al., 2021) that use students’ responses to drive the conversation forward, in addition to convergent/divergent questions.

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

Sponsoring Company: Plasma Games

It's all fun and games but does it work? Dive into the difference between gamification and game-based learning to innovate your classroom, and engage and excite students to learn Chemistry. Bonus: Leave with an all-inclusive access code to a 3-D game-based platform.

SPEAKERS:
Alison Baker (Lead Curriculum Specialist: Raleigh, NC)

Sponsoring Company: Plasma Games

It's all fun and games but does it work? Dive into the difference between gamification and game-based learning to innovate your classroom, and engage and excite students to learn Chemistry. Bonus: Leave with an all-inclusive access code to a 3-D game-based platform.

As teachers are required to assess a student’s understanding of competencies in addition to knowledge outcomes, they have used tools more commonly used in other disciplines. For example, rubrics have been a tool used to assess many forms of student work. Their general description of each achievement level provides flexibility and personalization. This is particularly useful for essay assignments. However, in lab reports, this often leads to ambiguity. Students may not know the difference between an “acceptable” demonstration of communication compared to a “skilled” demonstration. Despite repeated instruction, the generalized description of rubrics allows room for conflict and negotiation between students and teachers. Rubrics can be redesigned into checklists to remove the ambiguity. It is clear whether or not students have demonstrated each aspect of a competency. This session will share a few of these checklists for teachers to use in their own classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Checklists can be made from rubrics. Checklists are more clear and reduce ambiguity.

SPEAKERS:
Leon Lau (Teacher: , AB)

It takes a ton of time to make your own 3-D lessons and assessments. Come learn where you can get a ton of great ones that you can use in your classroom right away. Materials for life science, physical science, and earth-space science, grades 3-12.

TAKEAWAYS:
Where to find great 3-D instructional materials and assessments.

SPEAKERS:
Victor Sampson (The University of Texas at Austin: Austin, TX)

Using TI Nspires, Rovers, Hubs, and arrays attendees will learn how a science teacher from South Arkansas incorporated simple coding into his science classroom. We will draw VSEPR molecular models with Rovers, see how hubs and arrays can "brighten" up the electromagnetic spectrum calculations of wavelength, frequency, and energy with sound, pictures, and color. No coding experience necessary.

TAKEAWAYS:
Ideas on how you may incorporate simple coding into the science classroom and give topics new life.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Coker (Camden Fairview High School: Camden, AR)

The presentation will include background information detailing how the presenters traditionally taught energy concepts in their physical science, chemistry, and physics classrooms and then gained familiarity with LOL diagrams and implemented this tool in their own classrooms. The presenters will outline why a shift in the instructional approach was needed and how use of this tool can help students to better understand the abstract concept of energy outlined in the evidence statements for NGSS HS-PS3. We will explore how LOL diagrams enhance students’ sensemaking regarding energy, create models of energy flows in systems, and translate conceptual models into computational ones. This approach allows greater integration of the NGSS’s three dimensions as students and participants work to explicitly define systems, leading to greater transparency in students’ thought processes. Participants will engage in discussion with other examples and then work to apply these concepts to their own work.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how student sensemaking can be supported using LOL diagrams to provide a scaffold for creating a conceptual and computational model of energy flow in a system and collaborate in applying these concepts to their own disciplines.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Evans (Olathe South High School: Olathe, KS), Matt Richard (Teacher: Olathe, KS)

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 a phenomenon (in part) and begin designing a solution to a problem. 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:
Engaging students in the practice of Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking can create and foster wider interests in STEM fields.

SPEAKERS:
Kate Soriano (NSTA: Arlington, VA)

Participants will engage in a thinking classroom for developing and using a constant velocity particle model by: • Observing a constant velocity toy car moving across the floor • Recording and summarizing their observations of the car • Developing a driving question board about their observations • Designing an experiment that could answer their question • Working in small groups to make sense of the model and apply it to a new situation using a thinking task • Discussing in a whole group a consensus model for any particle moving with a constant velocity • Examine the pedagogy that led to student thinking and sensemaking of the scientific model.

TAKEAWAYS:
Thinking classroom practices create the optimal conditions for learner-centered, student-owned science thinking and learning, and have the power to transform science classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Earl Legleiter (Legleiter Science Consulting: Hays, KS)

The impact of battery operated cars have become a hot topic as energy alternatives are explored. Unfortunately, few students get exposed to the true nature of a Voltaic Cell and the vital workings of the transfer of chemical energy to electrical energy through oxidation-reduction reactions. After a junior high demo, Physical Science and Chemistry classes don't relate the function of metals in their tug-of-war with electrons within a Redox reaction. Working with an ELL Specialist, Science Specialists created a series of lessons that incorporate phenomenon, asking questions, creating an investigation, data analysis, justification of their data through science research and application to real world analogous phenomenon. These have been tried in Arkansas Physical Science and Chemistry classrooms. To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of batteries, the next generation must engage on the issue. The answers may come from the next William Kamkwamba not the AP Chem class.

TAKEAWAYS:
When life gives you lemons- make a battery! Educators will see an inclusive approach incorporating a demo to explore how a battery operates. It will relate the simple to the complex Redox reaction with supports and scaffolded instruction to best meet the needs of all learners.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Allison (Dawson Education Service Cooperative: Arkadelphia, AR)

Using the often discarded coinage, attendees will use the penny, calculators, force sensors, graduated cylinders, and formulas to collect and analyze data. This data will be used to analyze density comparisons of pre- and post- 1982 pennies with scientific as well as mathematical tools. Attendees will also use force sensors to analyze mass and force data to find the acceleration due to gravity. Both activities use slope and graphing knowledge to ensure student success in the science and math classroom, as well as solidifying science skills needed for standardized testing.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to incorporate technology in the science classroom that will solidify concepts learned in the math classroom which directly apply to science.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Coker (Camden Fairview High School: Camden, AR)

The presentation will cover the basics of high-altitude ballooning as done at Fort Hays State University. Attendees will be introduced to the FHSU website that we use with school groups who contact us to help with their launch. These cover physics and chemistry involved in launching a balloon, the FAA rules, where to find materials, tracking and recovery systems, designing an experiment, and processing data. We will also introduce the teachers to the technology that can be flown to collect data which includes cameras, data loggers, and how to make and code data collection devices with Arduinos. The presentation will include information about NASA resources on high altitude ballooning. We will also share the high school curriculum developed by Shepherd-Adams that she uses in her classroom for an aeronautics CTE course. Examples of student projects and presentations will be presented. The project aligns with NGSS standards related to engineering, earth and space science, as well as physi

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to prepare and launch a high-altitude balloon that integrates science and engineering.

SPEAKERS:
Cheryl Shepherd-Adams (Teacher: Hays, KS), Paul Adams (Fort Hays State University: Hays, KS)

Visible three-dimensional learning classroom connections can be difficult to assess. In this session, participants will use real-world data collection to determine a phenomenon: why salt is added to freezing roads and when making homemade ice cream, but also is added to boiling water when making pasta. Participants will use the data collected to argue with evidence while creating a visible molecular-level diagram of what occurred. This model will be used to assess student learning of why those phenomena exist.

TAKEAWAYS:
How to use SEPs to drive student instruction and molecular-level modeling of processes using data to support claims.

SPEAKERS:
Jessica Kohout (Educational Consultant: Ellicott City, MD), Stacy Thibodeaux (Southside High School: Youngsville, LA)