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

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

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Samuel Ramsey (Professor: Boulder, CO), Minerva Contreras (Graduate Student Researcher: La Jolla, CA)

N/A

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

SPEAKERS:
Bill Penuel (: Boulder, CO)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Abbott (The Lawrence Hall of Science: Berkeley, CA), Kimberley Astle (Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction: Vancouver, WA), Sharon Cates (Phenomenon Science Education: Greenfield, MA), Zoe Evans (Bremen City Schools: Carrollton, GA), Leah Litz (Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium: Omaha, NE)

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

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

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

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

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

SPEAKERS:
Patricia Kopkau

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

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

SPEAKERS:
Hoover Herrera (Carolina Biological Supply Co.: Cranford, NJ)

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: Westmoreland, KS)

Sponsoring Company: Amplify

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

Sponsoring Company: Stile Education

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

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Sara Krauskopf (University of Wisconsin-Madison: Madison, WI), Wayne Wright (NSTA: Battle Creek, MI), Kate Henson (University of Colorado Boulder: Boulder, CO)

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

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

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Blake Touchet (National Center for Science Education: ABBEVILLE, LA), Ericca Thornhill (Mizzou Academy: Columbia, MO), Lin Andrews (Independent Contractor: Wichita, KS)

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

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

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Jason Zackowski (Science Curriculum Lead: Red Deer County, AB)

Sponsoring Company: Great Minds

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

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

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

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

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Flavio Mendez (NSTA: Owings Mills, MD)

N/A

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

SPEAKERS:
Bill Penuel (: Boulder, CO), Tiffany Neill (OpenSciEd: New York, NY)

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: Avon, IL), Kerri Wingert (Good Question Research: Boulder, CO)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Abraham Lo (BSCS Science Learning: Ambler, PA), Sara Cooper (Contextus: Lincoln, NE)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Patrice Scinta (NSTA: Brooklyn, NY)

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

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

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

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

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

SPEAKERS:
Hoover Herrera (Carolina Biological Supply Co.: Cranford, NJ)

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

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

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

N/A

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

SPEAKERS:
Bill Penuel (: Boulder, CO), Tiffany Neill (OpenSciEd: New York, NY)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Lindsey Roy (Science and Digital Learning Coordinator: Lincoln, NE), Betsy Barent (Lincoln Public Schools: Lincoln, NE)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Blake Touchet (National Center for Science Education: ABBEVILLE, LA), Michael Lowry (McCallie School: Chattanooga, TN), Lin Andrews (Independent Contractor: Wichita, KS)

Sponsoring Company: Great Minds

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

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Abbott (The Lawrence Hall of Science: Berkeley, CA), Sharon Cates (Phenomenon Science Education: Greenfield, MA), Leah Litz (Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium: Omaha, NE)

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

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

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

Sponsoring Company: hand2mind

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

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

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

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

SPEAKERS:
Ruth Hutson (3D Molecular Designs: Westmoreland, KS)

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

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

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

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

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

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

N/A

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

SPEAKERS:
Kelsie Fowler (University of Washington: Seattle, WA), Deb Morrison (University of Washington: Salt Spring Island, BC)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Meg Richard (Piper School District USD 203: Wichita, KS), Stephanie Alderman-Oler (Kansas State Dept. of Education: Topeka, KS), Spencer Martin (Kansas City Kansas Public Schools: Kansas City, KS)

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

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

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

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Sara Krauskopf (University of Wisconsin-Madison: Madison, WI), DeAnna Lee Rivers (University of Colorado Boulder: DIAMOND BAR, CA)

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

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

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Stephanie Miller (Ohio Unviersity: Athens, OH), Kelly Moore (Tennessee Tech: Cookeville, TN), Kelli Feldman (Professor and Associate Dean: Lawrence, KS), Hannah Koford (Research Assistant: Provo, UT)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Jan Weaver (Retired: Iowa City, IA), Joseph Spurlock (The Ohio State University: Westerville, OH)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Zoe Evans (Bremen City Schools: Carrollton, GA), Wayne Wright (NSTA: Battle Creek, MI), Kristin Rademaker (NSTA: Freeport, IL)

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

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

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

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)

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: St. Libory, NE)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Erin Snelling (Sturgeon High School: Columbia, MO)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Ted Willard (Discovery Education: Derwood, MD)

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

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

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Blake Touchet (National Center for Science Education: ABBEVILLE, LA), Lin Andrews (Independent Contractor: Wichita, KS)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Rick Henningfeld (Vivayic, Inc.), Brian Beierle (Relevant Classroom, a Division of Vivayic, Inc.: Wauwatosa, WI)

Sponsoring Company: EARTHDAY.ORG

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

SPEAKERS:
Bryce Coon (EARTHDAY.ORG: Gaithersburg, MD)

Sponsoring Company: STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning

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

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

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

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

SPEAKERS:
Patricia Kopkau

N/A

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

SPEAKERS:
April Luehmann (University of Rochester: Rochester, NY), James Kostka (Warner School: New York, NY), Hannah Cooke (Research Assistant: WINDSOR, CT), Katrina Robinson (Penfield High School: Rochester, NY), Ellen Ellison (Science Teacher: Naples, NY)

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

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

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Abby Tolley (Learning Analyst: Lafayette, IN), Brian Beierle (Relevant Classroom, a Division of Vivayic, Inc.: Wauwatosa, WI)

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)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Calvin Atkins (Bellingham High School: Bellingham, WA), Colleen LaMotte (Einstein Middle School / Shoreline School District - President Elect WSTA (Washington state CAG): Shorline, WA), Jenna Mobley (: White Salmon, WA)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Stephanie Harmon (PIMSER (KY): Mount Vernon, KY)

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

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

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Jenna Mobley (: White Salmon, WA), Colleen LaMotte (Einstein Middle School / Shoreline School District - President Elect WSTA (Washington state CAG): Shorline, WA), Calvin Atkins (Bellingham High School: Bellingham, WA)

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: Carolina Biological Supply Co.

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

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

As a district, we have worked to ensure that all courses have three dimensional standards. We currently teach all of the NGSS standards by the completion of sophomore year. Our freshmen physical science course teaches the physical science standards and one-half of the earth science standards, while our sophomore biology course teaches the biology standards and the other one-half of the earth science standards. To meet the rigor of NGSS, our elective courses such as Chemistry, Physics, Environmental Science, Earth Science, Forensics Science and Plants and Propagation have all built upon the NGSS standards in content, along with identifying Science and Engineering Practices and Crosscutting Concepts. Our goal would be that participants would leave with a process in which they could do the same. Our process has been influenced by the 5 tools training as well as many of the NSTA publications designed to lead teachers and teacher leaders in standard development.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with a process for creating elective standards that are three-dimensional.

SPEAKERS:
Teresa Bender (Omaha Northwest High School: Omaha, NE), Jennifer Rhine (Omaha Public Schools: Omaha, NE)

Nature, we vacation near it, we immerse ourselves in it, we need it for survival. A student’s natural curiosity about nature and the world around them can drive science learning and outcomes. Investigating natural phenomena within your state and close to your school creates authentic and relevant opportunities for students to research their local ecosystems. Experiences with nature not only promotes learning, but can help close the achievement gap (Liberman, 1998. Closing the Achievement Gap.) Citing studies, we will discuss how spending time in nature is healthy for students, faculty, and staff. Nature can lower blood pressure, calm anxiety, and improve mood. Using Missouri Department of Conservation’s Discover Nature Schools Curriculum as an example, we will discuss how taking learning outside can meet NGSS Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics and the Earth and Human Activity Strands. We will discuss ways to find and/or create nature experience near you.

TAKEAWAYS:
Nature is everywhere, accessible to everyone; from studying a crack in the sidewalk, where ants and other insects travel, to studying ponds, prairies, and forests. I can find and create nature study opportunities at my school, whether it is urban, suburban, or rural.

SPEAKERS:
Kathi Moore (Conservation Educator: HANNIBAL, MO), Sherri Russell (State Wildlife Veterinarian: Jefferson City, MO)

The Framework for K-12 Science Education and NGSS calls for learning that is grounded in real world phenomena and problems to ensure that science learning is relevant to all students. The BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning (AIL) instructional model succeeds the 5Es and utilizes complex and culturally relevant societal challenges to anchor multiple cycles of inquiry and sensemaking, culminating with student explanations/design solutions. AIL employs science education research emphasizing coherence from students’ perspective. In this session, participants will: 1) consider their own ideas about teaching complex societal challenges, 2) experience 3-D learning and sensemaking strategies and consider the science concepts of a societal challenge (e.g., antibiotic resistance, heart disease, food sustainability, anthropogenic changes to biodiversity), and 3) consider how using societal issues as anchoring phenomena and problems can motivate students and develop agency in addressing complex issues.

TAKEAWAYS:
The research-based BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning instructional model succeeds the 5Es and leverages complex societal issues as anchoring phenomena/problems, culminating tasks, and performance assessments in 3-D units of instruction to motivate students and develop agency in addressing these issues.

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

I will walk the audience through a landing page of my scale development for grading based off of Marzano’s book of scales for NGSS. I will explain how to convert the 0-4 grade into percentages for conventional grading systems. I will walk them through how to allow students to self-assess their knowledge gain based on objectives and putting those objectives into ladders of curriculum sequence. I will also explain how to use benchmark sheets for the Science and Engineering Practices that match their SEP part of the scale. I will also share the books and websites I gained my knowledge from, so attendees can develop their own mental model of the system for Standards-Based Grading and Learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
You will walk away with a landing page that lays out a system that can be your starting point into SBG & L in the three dimensions, with many resources contained within.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Gall (North Bend Central Junior/Senior High School: Scribner, NE)

Sponsoring Company: Stile Education

N/A

SPEAKERS:
Kat Gentry (Head of Stile USA: Portland, OR)

The HS-level NGSS practices of Analyzing Data (SEP 4) and Using Mathematical and Computational thinking (SEP 5) present a quandary: most HS-level curricula separate math into a rote set of instructional materials like the “stoichiometry unit” or the “forces calculations.” We illustrate a different approach, using OpenSciEd Biology, Chemistry, and Physics units to show how to meet the 3D vision of NGSS and not artificially separating content from mathematical modeling or calculations. By leveraging mathematical thinking contextually and just-in-time, students engage with these practices as sensemaking tools, deepening student understanding of the science and fluency in employing math in novel ways. We explore how complex engagement with these practices is supported in high school courses and discuss how to meet the demands of mathematical thinking in various contexts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Leveraging data analysis and mathematical thinking in the context of meaningful phenomena and problems like food sovereignty, rather than frontloading rote math “skills,” helps students engage with these practices as sensemaking tools, deepening student understanding of both science and math.

SPEAKERS:
Wayne Wright (NSTA: Battle Creek, MI), Nicole Vick (Northwestern University: Avon, IL), Michael Novak (Northwestern University: Grayslake, IL)

Sponsoring Company: hand2mind

Unleash the power of wonder with phenomenon-based lessons that nicely integrate the 5E instructional model.  We’ll explore how each lesson evokes investigations to gain conceptual understanding, and it’s done in 30 minutes or less!

SPEAKERS:
Madison Evans (hand2mind: Vernon Hills, IL)

Sponsoring Company: TCI

Join TCI in this interactive session to learn how to integrate language skills while guiding students in developing their science knowledge.

What do we really want from our students? Ultimately we want our students to succeed and not feel intimidated by content. When students are leading contributors to their own learning, that has the potential to increase student engagement and academic success. In this session, two educators share their perspectives on implementing research in the classroom. They explore how curriculum could be used to increase student academic success and change students’ attitudes about science.

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore how curriculum could be used to increase student academic success and change students’ attitudes about science.

SPEAKERS:
Nina Blanton (Educator: Saint Louis, MO), Nicole Vick (Northwestern University: Avon, IL)

The Framework requires that students engage in three-dimensional sensemaking around phenomena. In OpenSciEd units, this begins with the anchor lesson, in which students engage with a phenomenon in supported ways before generating the questions that drive the unit. Many teachers wonder how we get students to ask questions that align with the learning goals of the unit. In this session, participants will see for themselves how crosscutting concepts can appear in student questions and how those questions are motivated in the lesson. The presenters will discuss the important role crosscutting concepts play in supporting students' question generation, and participants will have an opportunity to see how students' initial questions and key crosscutting concepts continue to play a prominent role in sensemaking later in the storyline.

TAKEAWAYS:
Instruction can be designed so that crosscutting concepts are both a tool for student sensemaking as well as a desirable outcome. In particular, crosscutting concepts can help students ask questions that will be productive throughout a storylines unit.

SPEAKERS:
Whitney Mills (BSCS Science Learning: Shawnee, KS), Jamie Noll (BSCS Science Learning: Evanston, IL), Dan Voss (Northwestern University: Minneapolis, MN)

Sponsoring Company: PEER Physics

Join us for an interactive workshop to explore how science practices can be used to build a more inclusive and engaging learning environment. Participants will explore the PEER Physics Learning Cycle and gain access to a phenomenon-driven Waves unit for high school physics and physical science.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Quinty (University of Colorado Boulder: Boulder, CO)

Sponsoring Company: Phenomenon Science Education

You will do phenomenon based, 3D activities explicitly linked to the three dimensions and student-centered nature of K-12 Framework based science education. We show teachers how they can center science education on student investigation and explanation of a phenomenon with sensemaking strategies.

SPEAKERS:
Joshua Smith (Phenomenon Science Education: Orange, MA), Sharon Cates (Phenomenon Science Education: Greenfield, MA)

The Framework and NGSS vision calls for creating opportunities for ALL students to meaningfully engage in sensemaking and learning in science. A culturally responsive approach to instruction highlights the range of intellectual resources that students bring to learning situations based on their cultural histories. Intellectual resources such as student language, perspective, gestures, and prior knowledge are classroom assets. Through a series of concrete accounts of learning situations, this session will create opportunities for participants to work with others to ‘learn to see’ students’ sense-making resources—and connect these pedagogical strategies to their own classroom practice. We frame this approach through an equity and justice framework for culturally responsive instruction centered in the NRC Framework for K-12 Science Education, which posits that science learning should be rooted in students’ ways of being and ways of knowing.

TAKEAWAYS:
Culturally responsive education supports student sensemaking and learning in science. Inclusive science strategies help teachers learn to see students’ diverse sensemaking resources. These methods help us create and adapt curriculum that is equitable and centered on justice.

SPEAKERS:
Philip Bell (University of Washington: Seattle, WA)

Sponsoring Company: Pivot Interactives

What do hands-on labs do well? What not well? Are you open to considering a paradigm shift? Come see how Pivot Interactives expands the options to implement phenomena, the science practices, feedback, and scaffolding easily across the learning cycle.

SPEAKERS:
Eric Friberg (Pivot Interactives: Minneapolis, MN)

Join us for a speed-sharing session on the latest research in secondary science education and how it can be applied to the classroom. This is a great opportunity to learn about the latest research and how it can help you make a difference in your students' learning.

STEM IRL: STEM Trailblazers for children of color
Addressing inequity in STEM professions starts with exposing students to current minority trailblazers in the field. If students see successful people who look like them, they can begin visualizing themselves in those roles, which can ignite a spark of curiosity and lead to a future in STEM.

Curricular Interventions to Improve Rural High School Students' Relatability to Scientists
Scientist Spotlights homework assignments that feature non-stereotypical scientists can help students see their possible selves in science. Students that author assignments on diverse scientists improve their science identity more than students that complete teacher-authored assignments.

Connecting electrochemistry to materials science: From modeling redox reactions to exploring materials science with dye-sensitized solar cells
Presentation of lab-based modeling approach to metal-metal ion (“single replacement”) reactions. Discussion of ways to integrate materials science concepts, specifically electrochemical cells and dye-sensitized solar cell construction, into the chemistry curriculum.

TAKEAWAYS:
Hear from experts in the field about innovative approaches to teaching science, as well as practical tips for improving your own practice.

SPEAKERS:
Christa Buccola Henriquez (MS 363 The Academy for Personal Leadership and Excellence: Dobbs Ferry, NY), Fabiola Perez (Student: Edwardsville, IL), Maurina Aranda (Assistant Professor: Edwardsville, IL), Aaron Musson (Omaha Public Schools: Elkhorn, NE)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Holly Hereau (NSTA: Lake Angelus, MI)

Sponsoring Company: Kognity

Incorporating aspects of the NGSS into lessons can be difficult, daunting, and overwhelming. Join us while we break down how to understand, interpret, and model the application of three-dimensional learning into your instruction. Sponsored by Kognity for High School Science.

SPEAKERS:
Sasha Ferreira (Senior Curriculum Specialist: Jersey City, NJ)

As a district, we have worked to ensure that all courses have three dimensional standards. We currently teach all of the NGSS standards by the completion of sophomore year. Our freshmen physical science course teaches the physical science standards and one-half of the earth science standards, while our sophomore biology course teaches the biology standards and the other one-half of the earth science standards. To meet the rigor of NGSS, our elective courses such as Chemistry, Physics, Environmental Science, Earth Science, Forensics Science and Plants and Propagation have all built upon the NGSS standards in content, along with identifying Science and Engineering Practices and Crosscutting Concepts. Our goal would be that participants would leave with a process in which they could do the same. Our process has been influenced by the 5 tools training as well as many of the NSTA publications designed to lead teachers and teacher leaders in standard development.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with examples of elective standards that are three-dimensional.

SPEAKERS:
Teresa Bender (Omaha Northwest High School: Omaha, NE), Jennifer Rhine (Omaha Public Schools: Omaha, NE)

For the purposes of the STEM Share-a-Thon, NCSE will have two mini-stations set up to provide quick, meaningful previews of our evolution and climate change lessons. We will have a variety of student and teacher handouts ready to take home for immediate use in the classroom, and a variety of SWAG to help spread the word about scientific literacy and our evidence-based approach to NGSS storylining. The National Center for Science Education's mission is to ensure all students have access to a sound science education, regardless of societally contentious regional topics like evolution and climate change. Our lessons were developed for teachers by teachers and have been extensively field-tested over the past three years. As we are a non-profit organization, all our resources are free. For more information, and to check out the variety of lessons we will have available at the Share-a-Thon, go here: https://ncse.ngo/supporting-teachers/classroom-resources.

TAKEAWAYS:
Scientific literacy and critical analysis of verified evidence are more important than ever in the secondary classroom. NCSE has developed lessons to resolve common misconceptions encountered online and through social media. All resources are free, NGSS-aligned, and readily available online.

SPEAKERS:
Blake Touchet (National Center for Science Education: ABBEVILLE, LA), Lin Andrews (Independent Contractor: Wichita, KS)

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:
Polla Renken (Science Instructor: Kearney, NE), Stacey Bauer (Spalding Academy: Spalding, NE), Marie Wadas (Arcadia Public School: St. Libory, NE)

Stoichiometry is a topic in foundational chemistry that is often difficult for students to grasp. In this lesson, students learn about stoichiometry from the perspective of making paint. The lesson plan brings together many chemistry topics that are often taught in siloed chapters: types of chemical reactions, balanced chemical equations, net ionic equations, limiting reactants, molarity, and solution stoichiometry. This lesson brings these topics together and students make sense of how the different topics are conceptually bound. The art component of painting a personal tile gives each student the opportunity for self-expression and the inclusion of each tile into a class quilt makes for a unique perspective of the collective.

TAKEAWAYS:
Student engagement in learning and understanding a difficult concept like stoichiometry is buoyed by inclusion of an art component and a descriptive narrative that allows for open expression of a student's interests or culture.

SPEAKERS:
Caroline Gochoco-Tsuyuki (Archbishop Riordan High School: Lafayette, CA)

Hands-on lab experiments are crucial for students to develop proficiency with the science and engineering practices in the Next Generation Science Standards, but traditional labs often require hazardous materials, expensive equipment, long lab times, and dedicated facilities, leaving them out of reach for many schools. Paper microfluidics provides a safe, low-cost, and easy-to-use platform to do hands-on chemistry experiments without specialized equipment or lab spaces. MICRO Project experiments use paper microfluidics to teach inquiry-based chemistry labs. Each MICRO lab is designed to engage students in science and engineering practices and includes instructor notes, customizable pre- and post-lab questions, student procedures, and background on a relevant issue of equity and justice. These labs have been used by thousands of students at universities, community colleges, and middle and high schools. Participants at the Share-a-Thon will perform a MICRO titration lab.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to integrate authentic scientific practices into safe, hands-on, low-cost lab experiments.

SPEAKERS:
Rachel Roller (PhD Candidate: Mishawaka, IN)

Presenting on the NSTA/HESI (Health and Environmental Sciences Insitute) partnership curriculum - Health DataWell. To understand the varied roles of citizens and health scientists in protecting and promoting the health and wellness of their communities This curriculum is designed for teachers to use with high-school level science students and can be freely accessed and implemented by teachers anywhere in the world. The program content is aligned with common educational standards of learning (SOLs) in the US but is not specific to any State. At present the curriculum will only be offered in English, but future iterations may include translation into other languages.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students will build skills and knowledge in three primary focus areas: data analysis and visualization, social and environmental determinants of health, and increasing awareness of careers and civic roles in societal health protection.

SPEAKERS:
Raechel Puglisi (Scientific Program Manager: Washington, DC)

N/A

TAKEAWAYS:
Leave with practical strategies and resources to adapt OER materials effectively, making science education more culturally relevant, engaging, and impactful for their students.

SPEAKERS:
Bill Penuel (: Boulder, CO), Lindsey Mohan (BSCS Science Learning: Burnet, TX), Tiffany Neill (OpenSciEd: New York, NY)

Over the past decade, researchers and practitioners have been calling for more attention to coherence from the student perspective as a key part of curriculum design. This type of coherence arises when students see what they do in the science classroom as productive for addressing meaningful questions and problems. A curriculum that is coherent from the student perspective provides opportunities for all students to contribute to class sensemaking. We will present co-design strategies used by OpenSciEd teams to develop high quality, NGSS-aligned instructional materials that are coherent from the student perspective. Participants will engage in a student hat experience to focus on how that lens can support student coherence in materials and instruction. Participants will explore a variety of co-design strategies for building coherence in developing and implementing instructional materials, with an emphasis on coherence from the student perspective through the use of student hat.

TAKEAWAYS:
When designing and revising NGSS-aligned high-quality instructional materials, co-design in student-hat is a powerful tool for weaving together coherence from the teacher’s perspective within science content, and from students’ perspective.

SPEAKERS:
Laura Zeller (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Diego Rojas-Perilla (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

Hands-on lab experiments are crucial for students to develop proficiency with the science and engineering practices in the Next Generation Science Standards, but traditional labs often require hazardous materials, expensive equipment, long lab times, and dedicated facilities, leaving them out of reach for many schools. Paper microfluidics provides a safe, low-cost, and easy-to-use platform to do hands-on chemistry experiments without specialized equipment or lab spaces. MICRO Project experiments use paper microfluidics to teach inquiry-based chemistry labs. Each MICRO lab is designed to engage students in science and engineering practices and includes instructor notes, customizable pre- and post-lab questions, student procedures, and background on a relevant issue of equity and justice. These labs have been used by thousands of students at universities, community colleges, and middle and high schools. Workshop attendees will perform a MICRO titration lab.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to integrate authentic scientific practices into safe, hands-on, low-cost lab experiments.

SPEAKERS:
Rachel Roller (PhD Candidate: Mishawaka, IN)

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: Lenexa, KS), Matt Richard (Teacher: Olathe, KS)

Come see a successful online professional learning model that promotes collaboration around universal problems of practice. Each session allows educators to learn about new strategies implemented in classrooms, debrief in job-alike roles, share resources, and develop a plan to refine their practice.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain access to tools and resources for use in classrooms from both a teacher and instructional coaching role, as well as work on how they might make use of these resources for their own learning, learning within their own PLCs, or to develop a community of their own.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Johannsen (Southeast Polk High School: Pleasant Hill, IA), Jason Martin-Hiner (Keystone Area Education Agency: Elkader, IA)

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: Jersey City, NJ)

Many students experience high school science without considering the interconnectedness of different domains. By leveraging the Energy and Matter crosscutting concept and uniting this lens with a forces perspective, we consider how a Matter-Energy-Forces (MEF) triangle can help students apply core principles of physical science across multiple domains. We explore the MEF triangle’s use in three different units that highlight Earth and Space Science alongside Biology, Physics or Chemistry to make explicit connections to the crosscutting concept of energy and matter and core life and physical science Disciplinary Core Ideas. Examples include fires, polar ice melt, tectonic plate motion, and meteors. We also consider how this tool could be useful for students over the course of many units and how it can increase access to more difficult life and physical science concepts through the use of this routine. Participants will practice applying the MEF triangle to phenomena in their contexts.

TAKEAWAYS:
The Framework calls for “a common use of language about energy and matter across the disciplines in science instruction.” The MEF triangle uses cues and prompts to draw attention to interactions between matter, energy, and forces to help students make sense of complex phenomena across domains.

SPEAKERS:
Whitney Mills (BSCS Science Learning: Shawnee, KS), Jamie Noll (BSCS Science Learning: Evanston, IL), Dan Voss (Northwestern University: Minneapolis, MN), Diego Rojas-Perilla (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)

OPENING: Define 'green school'; Introduce pillars; Provide examples; “Green Lens” Evaluation: Attendees rate their school for each pillar. 'Challenges' reflection for incorporating green schools practices. WHOLE-SCHOOL SUSTAINABILITY (WSS) & SHOW-ME GREEN SCHOOLS: Define WSS - work within campus, curriculum, culture. Show-Me Green Schools explained with video testimonials: Green Schools Quest (student-driven, project-based contest; community mentors assist lead teacher with project development & implementation); Missouri Green Schools (annual recognition for systems approach to WSS; roadmap for achievement); U.S. Depart. of Education Green Ribbon School Award (national award for demonstrated excellence & innovation of designated pillars); Green Schools Network BENEFITS: Increased job satisfaction, student engagement & achievement, better health for school community, social-emotional well-being; ADDRESSING CHALLENGES: Team development, staff collaboration, whole school support; CLOSING: Programs in US.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn what green schools are and how they benefit students, staff, and administration. Participants will walk away with some ideas for getting started, addressing common challenges, and connecting with green school teams in their state.

SPEAKERS:
Traci Jansen (Kirkwood School District: KIRKWOOD, MO)

Since the first interplanetary probes were launched, the data that have been returned by these probes have been both fascinating in the insight they have returned, but daunting in their sheer volume, making their use by classroom teachers limited. Yet engagement with planetary phenomena rarely cease to generate “wows” among students. A free software package, JMARS, allows GIS-based imagery and chemical data for planetary bodies to be accessed to address the questions of classroom-based investigations. This presentation will show how JMARS, coupled with the broad range of Mars rover photography (Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance) available online, can be used to design virtual field trips on Mars, and mesh with the NSTA Sensemaking framework by generating student questions about another planet, as if they were standing on it themselves. Attendees are encouraged to bring a laptop device and download the software appropriate to their computer at https://jmars.asu.edu/.

TAKEAWAYS:
Space exploration seems to be an abstract concept to many students, so placing them as close as possible to the available data, including not just images but chemical and physical information as well, allows them to gain a deeper understanding of Earth phenomena and processes.

SPEAKERS:
Eric Pyle (James Madison University: Harrisonburg, VA)

There is a strong need in the post (ish) COVID world, to help overworked, under supported teachers find the mental clarity needed to be the creative, innovative, and caring teachers we need to develop the future STEM minds of the future. As a certified nature therapy guide and long time NSTA presenter, I would love to bring this practice to the NSTA community. Participants will meet in the room and listen to a short overview of nature therapy and its roots in Shinrin-yoku. We will walk outside - encouraged to notice what is moving slowly as we walk through the busy conference. Once we are outside, I will lead in a land acknowledgement and sensory meditation. Participants will be given a chance to share what they noticed in a sharing circle. We will walk to the next locations and engage in more invitations / sharing circles. The invitations will be finalized once I am on site and connect with the land for inspiration.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn about the practice of nature therapy and its roots in the Japanese practice Shinrin-yoku which is widely researched for its health benefits.

SPEAKERS:
Gina Tesoriero (Student / Educator / Researcher / Healer: New York, NY)

Stoichiometry is a topic that many teacher find difficult to teach and for many students, difficult to learn. In this project-based workshop, students will learn stoichiometry principles from the perspective of making paint. Paints are made up of three components: a pigment, a binder, and a thinner. In the water-based paint created in this module, the binder is calcium carbonate, an insoluble precipitate made from the double-displacement reaction between aqueous solutions of calcium chloride and sodium carbonate. When mixed in stoichiometric amounts, an insoluble precipitate, calcium carbonate, forms. Students use stoichiometry to quantify the correct amounts of aqueous reactants to make a desired amount of binder, then mix their own paint using pigment and water as a thinner. The project culminates in a class quilt made up of students' individually painted tiles.

TAKEAWAYS:
Stoichiometry does not have to be an anxiety-producing, tear-jerking unit. When taught in chewable chunks, students gain an appreciation for its importance in daily life. In this workshop, students learn concepts that are tied to an end-product art project.

SPEAKERS:
Caroline Gochoco-Tsuyuki (Archbishop Riordan High School: Lafayette, CA)

A sure-fire way to engage your class is to try to turn your concepts into a game! I have been running a Hogwart's House Cup challenge for 8 years and, for many students, it is the highlight of my students' semester. In short, students are sorted into one of the four Hogwart's Houses and they compete against the other houses for the cup! It seems simple, but it's so much more than that! I'll go through how I set it up, all the tips and tricks that I've learned along the way, and how easy it would be to do it in your class, with your subject, for your grade level. Friendly competition is a great motivator, as well as teaching kids to work together as team. It's the perfect blend of leadership and engagement!

TAKEAWAYS:
Gamification is difficult without a blueprint. This session will give you the blueprint for Hogwarts.

SPEAKERS:
Jason Zackowski (Science Curriculum Lead: Red Deer County, AB)

The session will give teachers an opportunity to participate in the same sort of rich and meaningful learning experiences that are called for by the NGSS. This session, as a result, will include approximately forty minutes of audience participation in student hat. Teachers will leave with high-quality instructional materials that they can use in their own classrooms. The agenda for this session is: • A discussion of some topics that are challenging to teach because many students see them as irrelevant and why students think this way about them (10 mins). • An opportunity for participants to experience an example of how a meaningful and authentic phenomenon can drive a learning experience (40 mins) • An overview of a tech tool to help teachers create these types of learning experiences (5 mins) • Questions and suggestions for learning more (5 mins)

TAKEAWAYS:
Meaningful phenomena and authentic problems can make topics not only more meaningful for students, but can also make instruction more rigorous and equitable.

SPEAKERS:
Todd Hutner (Del Valle ISD: Del Valle, TX)