Participants in this session will be introduced to the Shared Waters curriculum, a classroom-ready, watershed-focused, 10-lesson unit. This presentation will provide attendees with a brief overview of the unit exploring overall content, learning goals, lesson resources, and the culminating student-driven action project. During the workshop, participants will engage in a hands-on activity that explores watershed boundaries and how pollution enters waterways via stormwater runoff. There will be a demonstration of pervious vs impervious surfaces and a showcase of an online learning tool titled 'runoff simulator' that connects the two activities. Finally, presenters will highlight the culminating student-centered action project and how the Shared Waters curriculum guides educators through the process with students. All participants will have free access to the Shared Waters curriculum, including all lesson plans, worksheets, and PowerPoint slides.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn more about this curriculum while participating in a hands-on watershed activity and demonstrations exploring pervious and impervious surfaces' connections to waterway health. We'll tie it all together with an easy-to-implement student-centered action project that can be completed in one day.

SPEAKERS:
Liz Fulton (Graduate Assistant: Millersville, PA)

The NSTA Sensemaking Tool (adapted from the research-based NGSS Lesson Screener) is designed to help educators be critical consumers of curricular materials as well as create and/or revise science lessons to reflect the instructional shifts required by new standards (sensemaking). Join us to gain experience using the tool and facilitating criteria-based consensus conversations with colleagues.

TAKEAWAYS:
Recognize the critical aspects of sensemaking in a science lesson.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Mathews (NSTA: Skokie, IL), Holly Hereau (NSTA: Lake Angelus, MI), Kate Soriano (NSTA: Jersey City, NJ)

Science writing is an essential part of authentic science. However, both perception and reality suggest that science texts of various genres are difficult and challenging for many students. What can a teacher do to help students meet challenges so that they can realize the beauty and significance of pivotal works in the history of science, groundbreaking contemporary research, and the deep reflections found in scientific creative non-fiction? In this workshop we will try out techniques based on cooperative groups who create graphic narratives and lay summaries. An assortment of texts will be available to explore, like the concluding paragraph to Darwin’s Origin of Species and the story of Carbon by Primo Levi. Experience in the classroom will be shared where understanding of the texts is achieved by students, including reluctant readers and English language learners.

TAKEAWAYS:
Great, significant, and sometimes difficult written works in science can become accessible to students through cooperative groups, graphic narratives, and lay summaries.

SPEAKERS:
Richard Frazier (retired: Holts Summit, MO)

Participants will experience using dialogue structures and literacy skills in the science classroom. Research shows that when students are engaged with the content and are allowed the chance to make sense of it for themselves, they will learn more. Participants will experience mini lessons that incorporate phenomena and showcase research-proven structures. Participants will be actively learning strategies that can be implemented in classrooms to increase visual literacy amongst students. Strategies include reading, writing, speaking, and graphing skills. Science examples will be modeled. There will be collaborative discussions on how these strategies can be incorporated into a variety of grade levels. Throughout these strategies, we will focus on the dialogue structures set in place to encourage all students to participate and use the academic language. Each of these structures focuses on the teacher being the facilitator of the learning, rather than leading the discussions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Takeaways include: 1. Identify how literacy and dialogue are an integral part in sensemaking; 2. Engage in examples of activities that integrate speaking, listening, and reading into the science classroom; and 3. Pick up tips to promote retention of vocabulary through scaffolding.

SPEAKERS:
Molly Niedens (Tays Junior High School: Katy, TX)

Data is key to NGSS. Yet many students struggle to make sense of it. Leaving many of us baffled by what our students do with data and/or confused by the claims they make from graphs. What can we do? Leverage classroom-ready strategies based on what research says about how younger students learn from data! Join us to discuss the data skills our young learners need and try strategies to integrate these skills into whatever your curriculum or platforms. We will explore how such strategies foster science learning for all students and increase students' interest in working with data (from Pre-K to 8th). We will discuss how novices and experts interact with data differently and what that means for our teaching. As we explore classroom-ready resources around data, data visualizations, and instructional strategies to enhance our current K-8 science content instruction and increase our toolkits. Let’s set ourselves and our students up for success by building strong foundations!

TAKEAWAYS:
Acquire skills and resources to unpack strategies for K-8 students to use when interpreting science data and visualizations in our existing curriculum for building data skills.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Hunter-Thomson (Dataspire Education & Evaluation, LLC: Santa Cruz, CA)

According to recent studies, teaching elementary reading, writing, and math in isolation is not the most effective way for students to learn. We will show how it is possible to develop integrated learning opportunities using all of the subjects as attendees work together to analyze data and primary sources from the 1930's regarding the Dust Bowl in Kansas. Using a jigsaw method, attendees will first be divided into specialties: Horticulturist, Biologist, Geologist, Climatologist, Government employee, Native American, and a monoculture farmer to work together, from their discipline's unique perspective, to investigate how the Dust Bowl could have been avoided. They will analyze soil samples, graphs, charts, weather patterns, etc. and come to conclusions. Each member of the group will then be assigned a new group that includes one member from each discipline to present and share their perspectives with others in order to design a solution for the droughts being experienced in the 21st century.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to integrate historical problems, primary source analysis, and STEM practices in engaging and meaningful ways to reinforce student learning as they work together to explore and debate possible solutions from multiple perspectives to prevent another Dust Bowl like the 1930's.

SPEAKERS:
Deborah Draper (Cedar Ridge Elementary School: OREM, UT), Julie Siebach (Alpine School District: Loveland, OH)

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 characteristics of phenomenon-based instruction and sensemaking (5 mins). • A discussion of obstacles to sensemaking during a learning experience (10 minutes). • An opportunity for participants to experience an example of how support learners use DCIs, CCs, and SEPs during a learning experience in a way that makes the process of sensemaking useful and inclusive (40 mins). • Questions and suggestions for learning more (5 mins).

TAKEAWAYS:
Introducing meaningful phenomena is necessary, but not sufficient for fostering sensemaking. Students must also have opportunities to use DCIs, CCs, and SEPs during the learning experience, and the experience must be structured in ways that make the process of sensemaking useful and inclusive.

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

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Kat Chamberlain (Ridgetop Middle School: Silverdale, WA)

As third grade teachers in a STEAM school, we continuously work to create, plan, improve our science curriculum. Teachers who join us will learn how we apply the three-dimensions to our science planning while actively participating in our natural disaster unit. We will lead a discussion on how we breakdown and integrate the 3-dimensions of NGSS science in our unit plan. We will then showcase core instructional practices by completing an activity from our unit. During this time, participants will grow in their understanding through hands-on learning and journaling. They will leave with the natural disaster unit, along with materials to recreate this in their own classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will walk away with a better understanding of the three-dimensions of the NGSS. We will break apart each of the three dimensions to see what they are, how they guide us, and how they make science more attainable within our classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Olivia Witherspoon (3rd Grade Teacher: Nixa, MO), Amanda Fenley (5th Grade Teacher: NIXA, MO), Daesha Parks (3rd Grade Teacher: Nixa, MO)

The growth of human settlements and natural resource use have impacted our wild spaces and led to fragmented habitats, pollution, and overharvesting. In this hands-on session, the presenter will lead participants in hands-on classroom activities that explore ecological footprints and possible paths toward sustainability. The presenter will introduce concepts around human ecology, including human population trends, biodiversity trends, and how human activities (agricultural expansion, deforestation, etc.) have impacted wildlife habitats. Most of the session will be the demonstration of hands-on activities that address NGSS content, but also integrate mathematics, social studies, and language arts. Activity formats include a large-group simulation on carrying capacity in nature, a visual demonstration of the breakdown of land use around the globe, and a modeling activity on biodiversity threats in different ecosystems.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn hands-on, collaborative approaches to guide students’ inquiry around key ecological concepts on population, wildlife, and biodiversity, using 3-D strategies and sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Vanessa Wyss (Ferris State University: Big Rapids, MI)

Animal movement patterns are phenomena that students can make sense of and explain. A variety of animal movement data sources will be shared with participants, along with strategies for assisting students in data organization and interpretation. During the presentation, participants will engage as students exploring data to answer questions about specific animal movements. Since this is an elementary session, there will be connections made to trade books and disciplinary text, as well as connections to math and geography standards with an emphasis on integration of disciplines that will assist students in making sense of problems and phenomena of animal movement. Examples of data sources include: Movebank, eBird, Journey North, Department of Fish and Wildlife, Tagging of Pelagic Predators, etc.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to access data related to animal movement and migration, along with strategies that enable students to make sense of that data in explaining phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth (Betsy) O'Day (Retired Educator: Kansas City, MO)

The Nature of Science and Scientific Inquiry are important topics that should be explicitly taught to students, because research tells us that students do not implicitly pick up on the ideas of NOS through just engaging in science. They must engage in direct conversations and activities that address what Science is and how it operates. These conversations should be grounded in accessible phenomena and activities so every student has the opportunity to develop their understanding. The NOS is foundational to being able to engage effectively in science and understanding science at is most basic and conceptual level, as emphasized by the K-12 Framework and NGSS. This session will share some simple activities through rotation stations that can quickly be used throughout the course of a science class to help students discuss and engage in ideas about the Nature of Science.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. It is important to explicitly teach the nature of science to students; 2. The nature of science should be presented in an accessible way to all students; and 3. Attendees will walk away with activities they can use in their class immediately to teach the NOS.

SPEAKERS:
Kelly Moore (Tennessee Tech: Cookeville, TN)

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)

In this session, teachers will explore the concept of wonder and how it can be applied to teaching and learning. Through activities and discussion, teachers will gain an understanding of the importance of wonder in the classroom. Educators will also learn how to embed wonder into their lessons through creative strategies, such as using hands-on activities, engaging visuals, and technology-based activities, focusing deeply on making space for student sensemaking and exploration. Additionally, teachers will explore how to connect wonder to curricular standards and create lesson templates that promote exploration and discovery. Teachers will also reflect on what they have learned and brainstorm ways to implement a culture of wonder in their classrooms. AND HAVE A GOOD TIME DOIN' IT

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave the session understanding how sensemaking is supported through our NGSS standards. They will have time to explore and understand methods that inspire student thinking and wonder.

SPEAKERS:
Jacey Suda (John Thomas School of Discovery Partner School: Nixa, MO), Hannah Buckner (John Thomas School of Discovery Partner School: Nixa, MO)

The purpose of this session is to engage participants as learners in the process of making sense of a phenomenon through engaging in scientific practices. The modeled lesson provides attendees with a shared learning experience similar to that of a typical science classroom, seeded with instructional strategies designed to support their sensemaking before, during, and after an investigation. Attendees will be introduced to a phenomenon, provided materials to carry out an investigation, given a model scaffold to record their thinking, and a talk tool to support equitable idea sharing and listening. They will reflect on their experience as learners, debriefing sensemaking strategies, and using the four attributes of sensemaking (phenomena, science and engineering practices, student ideas, and science ideas) to reflect on the model lesson and their classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will walk away with a greater understanding of how key science practices work in tandem to support student sensemaking and will experience tools like model scaffolds, driving question boards, and talk tools designed to support learners in explaining phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Alex Gerber (Instructional Specialist: University City, MO), Heather Milo (Washington University in St. Louis: University City, MO)

This activity has students/participants act as particles. To start, participants are given baseline information about how attractive forces between particles can vary from very strong to negligible, & that particles are always in motion. Participants then split into three groups, strong, moderate, & weak forces. To model very strong forces participants link arms at the elbow, for moderately strong forces they hold hands, & for weak/negligible forces they can only hold each other’s pinky fingers. Participants start far apart & move very slowly to model a very cold temperature. At this speed, all of the participants are able to catch onto each other & form an organized structure (solid). With each iteration the participants move faster; this results in the weak-force group not being able to form a structure (gas), the moderate-force group being clumped together but not organized (liquid), & the strong-force group still being able to form an organized structure (solid).

TAKEAWAYS:
Students will not only know the properties of solids, liquids, and gasses, but will be able to give in-depth explanations as to WHY the properties are different by behaving as the particles at different temperatures and with different attractive forces.

SPEAKERS:
Clark Ellis (The Kinkaid School: Houston, TX)

Digitized versions of Thomas Jefferson’s weather journal, Robert Hooke’s first drawings of cells, photographs from the Dust Bowl, and historic newspaper accounts of electric cars all provide opportunities to understand how scientists and engineers think, practice, and apply scientific principles in the real world; how scientific ideas evolve over time; and how science and engineering are related to society. The Library of Congress has millions of free primary sources online. This workshop will focus on how analyzing such sources can help K-12 teachers meet standards and teaching goals, particularly around the nature of science, practices of scientists, and how science, technology, and society interact. Library education experts will facilitate hands-on activities using primary sources and share ways teachers nationwide have used them. Participants will also leave with strategies for using primary sources to develop critical thinking skills and highlight interdisciplinary connections.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to access millions of free digitized primary sources and practice hands-on strategies for using them to promote critical thinking skills and a deeper understanding of real-world scientific practices, the nature of science, and connections between science and society.

SPEAKERS:
Kelsey Beeghly (Einstein Fellow: Altamonte Springs, FL), Michael Apfeldorf (Library of Congress: Purcellville, VA)

Data literacy is integral to students engaging in real-world science and NGSS practices. However, it can be challenging to design data experiences that help students to develop deep understanding of data. The Building Blocks for Data Literacy (Hunter-Thomson & Schauffler, 2021) offers a developmental approach to the design of data experiences: Get Data, Explore Data, and Infer Meaning From Data. Each realm is further broken down into the functions that students should be encouraged to do with data. Session participants will experience a typical path through the data journey, including the opportunity to see how the decisions that we make as educators can shape what students take away from the data experience. Our focus in this session will be at the elementary grade level, but the Building Blocks are a continuum across the K-12 grade span. This work complements the ADVizE grant project (NSF #2142692), which supports the integration of data skills into preservice STEM Methods courses.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will gain an understanding of the way data literacy can be developed developmentally across the realms of Getting Data, Exploring Data and Inferring Meaning from Data.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Hunter-Thomson (Dataspire Education & Evaluation, LLC: Santa Cruz, CA), Michael Jabot (SUNY Fredonia: Fredonia, NY)

Mi-STAR is a program at Michigan Technological University dedicated to quality NGSS-aligned curriculum since 2015. We listen carefully to teachers and respond with support. One of the struggles teachers mention most often is in scaffolding students to write CERs and arguments. In our presentation, we propose an addition to the traditional template: the scientific principles, which are then combined with evidence in the reasoning statement. Later, we add another part: a space for using persuasive writing to construct an argument. We model activities from our 5E lesson throughout. Teachers collaborate to create CERs, and to evaluate arguments written by others. Then, they construct their own arguments using a productive talk routine and persuasive language prompts. Participants gain confidence in supporting students to construct explanations and arguments, as well as get first-hand experience with a lesson, tools, and activities they can take back to their classroom for immediate use.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with clear and concise definitions of reasoning, explanations, and argumentation, along with a lesson plan, activities, and templates to help students define and construct all three in the science classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Jenne VandePanne (Michigan Technological University/Newaygo Public Schools: Newaygo, MI), Chris Geerer (Mi-STAR: Rochester, MI)

The drinking bird is a classic heat engine toy that has been featured in popular culture. Although the cause-and-effect relationship for this phenomenon is clear, the mechanism for its repetitive movement is puzzling for most students. In this workshop, participants will use investigative and sensemaking practices to explore the drinking bird phenomenon. This interactive 3-D lesson is in alignment with the goals, standards, and practices of the NGSS. In addition, tips to enhance the development and use of student explanatory models will be featured.

TAKEAWAYS:
Workshop participants will experience an interactive and engaging three-dimensional lesson that is in alignment with the goals and practices of the Next Generation Science Standards. In addition, tips to enhance the development and use of student-created explanatory models will be featured.

SPEAKERS:
Bryan Horan (Northport - East Northport UFSD: Coram, NY)

This is session #2 in the NSTA Professional Learning Committee's CCCs Conference Course and is designed to support K-12. Attendees will explore the Framework progression documents to understand what is appropriate for their grade level. They will learn about and engage in hands-on activities paired with talk strategies and protocols that focus classroom talk on making sense of observations and data using the Crosscutting Concepts. Attendees will have the chance to talk with fellow participants about how they might use these strategies and tools in their classroom or role and how they can be differentiated to be used at different grade levels. Participants will leave with a virtual toolbox of resources they can take home and apply right away in their sphere.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with discussion strategies and tools they can implement right away in classrooms to support student discourse and sensemaking anchored in the Crosscutting Concepts.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Garelli (Arizona Science Teachers Association: Gilbert, AZ), Kimberley Astle (Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction: Vancouver, WA)

Participants will experience the potential of teaching climate science through the lens of writing climate fiction. We will learn about the history of the science fiction genre as well as the newer subgenre of climate fiction ("CliFi") and note key contributions to science through innovative and speculative thinking made possible through literature. Participants will experience a crash course version of a unit in which students write a climate fiction novella integrating NGSS and CCSS for Science and Technical Subjects which will spur their curiosity in what “could be” with regard to climate science solutions. Participants will dive into aspects of unit facilitation of the writing and reading processes and leave with a framework for K-12 implementation as well as publication pathways. This experience can be personalized to meet student need through Universal Design for Learning strategies.

TAKEAWAYS:
Through implementation of a climate fiction writing unit, teachers can introduce skills and habits of mind that support youth innovation in addressing climate issues.

SPEAKERS:
Erin Lark (Kognity: Vancouver, WA)

Homeothermic, or warm-blooded, animals have several game-changing advantages compared to ectothermic, or cold-blooded creatures. Yet in the real world of Nature, nothing is free, and a price must be paid for these advantages. In order to supply all cells with oxygen and fuel, warm-blooded animals require an enormous blood supply and an efficient circulatory system with a 4-chambered heart at the center of it all. In this session, participants will work with research-generated data to build a mathematical model that allows them to estimate their own blood volumes. In addition, we will look at metabolic data comparing warm and cold-blooded animals, and the oxygen requirements of each. Finally, we will evaluate the food input requirements of warm-blooded animals in cold environments compared to warm environments.

TAKEAWAYS:
Being "warm-blooded" brings both good news and bad news for an animal. In this session, attendees will calculate their blood volume, why a 4-chambered heart is needed to move all that blood around, and how the circulatory system is the key to unlock all of these physiological phenomena!

SPEAKERS:
Jeffrey Lukens (Roosevelt High School, Sioux Falls, SD: Sioux Falls, SD)

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

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

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

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)

Explaining phenomena (e.g. “Why do I feel heavy in an elevator?”) requires sense-making of complex physics ideas and mathematical representations. Teachers will “wear a student hat” to explore visualization and writing strategies through active participation. First, we’ll explore the modeling practice of diagram and chart representations (e.g. energy bar charts). They’ll try using our “More is L.E.S.S.” (Model, List variables, Equations, Substitute & Solve) tool on engaging energy problems with a get-up-and-move “World-Café” collaborative learning strategy. In the second half of workshop, teachers will use informal writing. They’ll practice “Write a Story” in which they are given a representation (e.g. energy pie chart or equation) and they write a question. We’ll facilitate an interactive Gallery Walk to share additional writing activities: See/Think/Do; Annotated Derivations; Sticky Summaries, What’s Wrong With It, and One-Pagers). The “gallery” will include student work.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to use visual representations, informal writing activities, and collaborative structures to help students explain physics phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Jaimie Foulk (Rock Bridge High School: Columbia, MO), Karen King (Physics Teacher: Columbia, MO)

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)

This is session #3 in the PL Committee CCCs Pathway and is designed to support K-12. Participants will explore the Framework progression documents to understand what is appropriate for their grade level in relation to the Crosscutting Concept of Patterns. They will learn about and engage with a few effective instructional strategies, including the I2 Strategy from BSCS (Identify and Interpret), and how to use a “slow reveal” approach to help students make sense of data and graphs. Attendees will also have the opportunity to explore a variety of online sources for obtaining data for students to analyze and interpret. Participants will leave with a virtual toolbox of resources they can take home and immediately apply in their classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with sensemaking strategies for engaging students in the Science and Engineering Practice of Analyzing and Interpreting Data, through the lens of the Crosscutting Concept of Patterns, that can immediately be implemented with students!

SPEAKERS:
Kimberley Astle (Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction: Vancouver, WA), Rebecca Garelli (Arizona Science Teachers Association: Gilbert, AZ)

Students today are exposed to an information-rich environment that is inundated with visual images. Likewise, science relies heavily on the use of visuals to present technical information. Instructional strategies will be shared that use infographics to engage students with the science and engineering practices to make sense of complex information quickly and clearly. Participants will experience a “think-aloud” to extrapolate information from an infographic and work through an evaluation tool to determine its scientific credibility. In addition, they will learn ways to incorporate infographics to spark debate, construct a scientific argument using the claim-evidence-reasoning framework, and complete a problem analysis to find a solution to an everyday problem. Finally, resources will be shared in how to develop student-created infographics.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn instructional strategies to support student sensemaking through the use of visually-rich infographics. This includes using science and engineering practices to analyze and interpret data, construct explanations, and engage in argument from evidence in secondary classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Tina Hovance (Katy ISD: Katy, TX)

Are science journals getting in the way of your students learning? Are they becoming just "another" thing we have students do in their everyday routine? Time to spice up those science journals! Join us as we explore the science behind journals and notebooks, discuss best practices for science journaling, and highlight resources that work. Don't let journaling get in the way. Embrace student's writing and learn how to make science journals work for you. Participants will learn how to set up science journals at the beginning of the year, do different experiments and activities to show how to use science journals, and review best strategies to use for student learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
How do you introduce journals, organize, maintain, scafforld, etc., while teaching students to use it as their own personal tool? Teachers would walk away with a better understanding of how to make journals meaningful to students and help me see/understand their learning.

SPEAKERS:
Joe Shaughnessy (John Thomas School of Discovery Partner School: Nixa, MO)

Are you ready to start inventing with your students but don’t know how to start? Do you have students with innovative ideas who need help protecting those ideas? Intellectual property can be a complex and often confusing topic, but it's essential for students to understand how to protect their own ideas and creations. Many teachers recognize the need to help their students protect their ideas and inventions when they work on science and engineering projects, but may not have a background in IP or the resources to teach it effectively. This presentation will provide an overview of how to teach IP and invention education in science classrooms, with a focus on practical and hands-on activities that engage students. Participants will leave with resources and ideas for incorporating invention education and IP into their own classrooms.This presentation is suitable for science teachers of all levels, from elementary to high school. No prior knowledge of IP is necessary.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with resources and ideas for incorporating invention and intellectual property education into their classrooms. This presentation is suitable for science teachers of all levels, from elementary to high school. No prior knowledge of IP is necessary.

SPEAKERS:
Kathy Hoppe (STEMisED, Inc: Rio Rico, AZ), Kathleen Lanman (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office: Alexandria, VA)

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)

Slides with diagrams of the anatomy of the larynx are shown with the parts & functions being described to participants. As the anatomy is being taught there will be breaks for participants to talk to each other while feeling their throats, chest, nose, mouth, jaw, etc to feel the vibrations & notice how damping the vibrations changes how participants sound to themselves & others. Next, videos of an opera singer in an MRI machine are shown to see the anatomy in action. After this whistles, & recorders will be passed out for participants to play the same note but hear the difference in sound. A visualizer showing the relative amplitude of each frequency is used as participants play so they can see that each instrument creates its own unique set of waves in addition to the fundamental tone that is being played. The process is repeated for multiple singers that are singing the same note.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be able to use direct instruction, demonstrations, and short activities to explain the basics of how human voices are able to produce sound, why each person/instrument has a unique sound, and why your voice sounds different to you than it does on recordings.

SPEAKERS:
Brendan Emig (Middle/Upper School Choral Director: Houston, TX), Clark Ellis (The Kinkaid School: Houston, TX)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Laurie Boulden (Warner University: Frostproof, FL)

How do populations fluctuate in the Hudson River ecosystem, and how do these changes affect the larger ecological community? Using data and hands-on investigations, we will explore how food webs and the abiotic resources have changed in response to the zebra mussel invasion. Teachers will get a lesson explaining how the zebra mussel invasion affected the food web of the Hudson River and be able to explain at least two connections within the food web that were affected using evidence from provided data. Data will include charts and graphs that depict organisms commonly found in the Hudson. When utilizing this lesson in the classroom, students will know what lives in the Hudson River, and will be able to create & study a food web drawing to represent the organisms living in the river. They will also know that the Hudson River food web is changing in response to the zebra mussel invasion, and will be able to make predictions about how native organisms will be affected by this invasion.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will get a lesson explaining how the zebra mussel invasion affected the food web of the Hudson River and be able to explain at least two connections within the food web that were affected using evidence from provided data.

SPEAKERS:
Karen Pennywell (Cardiff Junior High School: KATY, TX), Sandra Rodriguez (Katy ISD: Katy, TX)

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)

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)

This session is geared towards new teachers and veteran teachers alike, who are interested in supporting their students with literacy strategies. Students can struggle to access information from nonfiction text, however, with the right tools they can not only learn science, but be able to use that knowledge in the classroom without the instructor lecturing on that information. By developing their skills in pre, during and post reading they will become more confident in their science literacy and be able to use it as evidence in their daily practices. Some of the strategies in the presentation include: anticipation guides, vocabulary front loading, chunking, annotating, gist statements and vocabulary connections. The audience will learn about several strategies, as well as experience a lesson from a student’s point of view. There will also be time allotted to create a classroom ready lesson from text with support from the presenters.

TAKEAWAYS:
The main takeaways from our session are ready to use pre, during, and post reading strategies that work for a variety of grade levels and with a variety of texts.

SPEAKERS:
Deanna Warkins (Adlai E. Stevenson High School: Mundelein, IL), Kellie Dean (Adlai E. Stevenson High School: Lincolnshire, IL)

In this workshop, participants will learn strategies for leading meaningful conversations around climate justice topics with young audiences. Students come to school with a variety of prior experiences and understandings about climate change and justice topics. Understanding where your students are and their willingness for and openness to having conversations around ideas of fairness, equity, and justice is key to creating a safe and nurturing environment where students will willingly participate in potentially uncomfortable conversations. In this session, we will discuss the various approaches we have taken to introduce climate justice to 6th grade students while supporting diverse backgrounds, experiences, and readiness for these conversations. Attendees will learn about strategies and participate in hands-on activities that have led to a successful teaching and learning environment where students feel empowered by knowledge to seek positive change in their own communities.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this workshop, participants will learn strategies for leading meaningful conversations around climate justice with youth. We will showcase various approaches to teaching climate justice to 6th graders while supporting diverse backgrounds, experiences, and readiness for these conversations.

SPEAKERS:
Bess Caplan (Howard County Conservancy: Woodstock, MD)

It is often thought that a makerspace activity is something that is nice to do with students, but not a necessity. Yet when makerspace activities are integrated into daily instruction, it can open many avenues that promote an inclusive classroom. This workshop will focus on strategies and ways to use makerspace to promote student voice and choice for areas of concept development, empathy-driven problem solving, and assessment. Participants will explore the key elements of makerspace and examine ways to use makerspace challenges to support sense-making. The discussion will also focus on the idea that makerspace activities can nudge all students to consider multiple ways of solving problems, thus enhancing their “out of the box” thinking. As part of this session, participants will explore different strategies in using makerspace to introduce a phenomenon, model a phenomenon, and assess students' understanding on three different dimensions of learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore makerspace challenges and activities as a means to provide student voice and choice in how they make sense of a phenomenon, a solution to a problem, and core ideas while demonstrating their understanding of core ideas as a means of assessment.

SPEAKERS:
Michele Detwiler (Gary Adult High School: Valrico, FL)

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)

A meta-learning experience of Claim Evidence Reasoning for participants to experience best practices first hand. Intro Activity: Reflect and share their level of knowledge with CER Explore the CER framework and the importance of each component Guiding Question: How can we deeply incorporate CER throughout an entire concept? Claim What is a claim? Benefits of teaching CER? How do we support students in stating claims? Activity: Make your claim about the guiding question after they explore an engaging phenomena. Observations to Evidence What is evidence? Why is it important? How do we build students' muscles to collect quality evidence? Activity: Explore several examples of evidence and use a rubric to determine the quality of evidence. Reasoning and closing Share criteria for a strong reasoning and how students can differentiate evidence from reasoning Activity: Look through reasoning examples, highlight key components based on the criteria. Close out with a 3-2-1 reflection

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to improve evidence-based writing skills and communicate scientific knowledge exploring each component of CER. Specifically, how students can construct clear claims, select appropriate evidence to support their claims, and how reasoning ties together claim and evidence.

SPEAKERS:
Brooke Bouldry-Morrison (Standards Alignment Specialist: Barrington, NH), Anna Meyer (Pickerington Local School District: Pickerington, OH)

eCYBERMISSION is a free online STEM competition for students in grades 6-9 that promotes teamwork, self-discovery, and real-life applications of STEM. The competition’s phenomenon-based learning approach encourages students to investigate challenges in their community while developing critical thinking and problem-solving. We’ll discuss how you can utilize the standards-aligned resources, grants and student awards worth thousands of dollars to engage students. We’ll also form teams to compete in our own mini-eCYBERMISSION competition. You’ll choose a community challenge, develop a plan to explore it and apply STEM concepts throughout the process. The winning team will even walk away with a special prize! This session is aimed at STEM educators who are looking for innovative ways to engage their students. Join us as we discover how eCYBERMISSION can enhance your students' learning experience! eCYBERMISSION is part of the Army Educational Outreach Program and administered by NSTA.

TAKEAWAYS:
eCYBERMISSION is a free, virtual STEM competition for grades 6-9 that is supported by a wealth of standards-aligned resources. Attendees will discover strategies to utilize student-chosen local phenomena as the basis for long-term projects while participating in a rewarding STEM competition.

SPEAKERS:
Carey Dieleman (National Science Teaching Association: Bettendorf, IA), Brian Kutsch (National Science Teaching Association, eCYBERMISSION: Maumelle, AR)

The conceptual understanding of the interactions between Earth Systems, particularly the atmosphere and the hydrosphere, allows students to expand their knowledge further of concepts like weather, climate, and climate change. But research (Dove, 1999; Henriques, 2002; Phillips, 1991) shows that teachers and students have a poor understanding of basic weather-related concepts. In this workshop, teachers will be given a 5E lesson incorporating activities that will enable them to better integrate the phenomena of high and low-pressure systems (Disciplinary Core Idea ESS2D) into their curriculum. Besides the 5E lesson, participants will receive additional resources for implementing how these highs and lows interact during the winter to produce Nor'easters and Midwestern Winter Bomb systems. This workshop aims to better prepare those teaching about this important phenomenon in our nation's classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will be given a 5E lesson incorporating activities that will enable them to integrate better the phenomena of high- and low-pressure systems into their curriculum. Participants will also receive additional resources on incorporating winter weather systems in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Dannah Schaffer (Minot State University: Minot, ND)

Science does not exist in a vacuum. From environmental policy, to public health issues, to the regulation of food, drugs, and dangerous materials, addressing socio-scientific challenges requires an understanding of both scientific concepts and social contexts. Analyzing historical primary sources from the Library of Congress – including photographs, political cartoons, newspapers, maps and more – can provide students with an opportunity to reflect on this interplay between science and society and offer insights into how citizens and scientists have contributed to social change. The Library has millions of primary sources free online. In this workshop, Library education experts will facilitate hands-on activities using select primary sources and share ways that teachers have used them with students. Participants will leave with concrete strategies for engaging students in primary source analysis to build critical thinking skills and deepen their understanding of socio-scientific issues.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to access millions of free digitized primary sources and practice hands-on strategies to help students gain critical thinking skills while they reflect on the connections between science, society, and social change through authentic historical examples.

SPEAKERS:
Kelsey Beeghly (Einstein Fellow: Altamonte Springs, FL), Michael Apfeldorf (Library of Congress: Purcellville, VA)

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)

If the ultimate goal is for students to understand from experiences, we must carefully consider our professional practices. While hands-on learning can naturally be engaging for students, the experiences must be carefully woven into the flow of instruction to produce the desired outcomes. An important finding from America’s Lab report is that many students view science as a “false dichotomy,” meaning that students think that the hands-on, “doing” part of science is separate from content (Singer, Hilton, and Schweingruber 2006). As a result, the desired outcomes are for students to discard incorrect ideas, accept the most accurate scientific explanations, and for students to learn the nature by which these scientific explanations are generated. Explore-before-explain teaching allows teachers to meet these goals by providing students with immediate experiences to form accurate understandings; and connecting students’ claims to scientifically accepted explanations.

TAKEAWAYS:
An overview of essential planning considerations covers becoming an “explore-before-explain” teacher and designing lessons that use the assets all students bring to learning science.

SPEAKERS:
Patrick Brown (Fort Zumwalt School District R-II: Saint Charles, MO), Anne Green (Fort Zumwalt School District R-II: OFallon, MO)

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)

The hexagonal thinking strategy stems from a business background and made its way into the secondary education realm in the past five years. It has not been utilized in the elementary setting, so I joined with a local 4th grade classroom teacher to determine the best way to implement the activity with younger students. The strategy is simple: the teacher creates a set of hexagons for each group with vocabulary and concepts. The students work together to determine connections and how everything is interrelated. It is then glued to a large paper and annotated with students' thoughts about the connections. At the same time, the most important aspect is the conversation among students throughout the activity. We conducted six classroom sessions over the course of 3 months to find what worked and what did not. We also collected student work, quotes, and videos with feedback from students. Although the focus was on science , we included a variety of topics and cross-curricular sessions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will experience the strategy from a student POV and learn the process of implementation for a variety of settings (traditional and digital) and materials. Examples of student work will also be shown.

SPEAKERS:
Jeff Thomas (University of Southern Indiana: Evansville, IN), Simone Nance (University of Southern Indiana: Newburgh, IN)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Dennis Schatz (Institute for Learning Innovation: Seattle, WA)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Janet Struble (: Fenton, MO)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Molly Malone (The University of Utah: Portland, OR)

Mi-STAR, now also known outside of Michigan as Anchored Science, is a program at Michigan Technological University dedicated to quality NGSS-aligned curriculum since 2015. We listen carefully to teachers and respond with support. Consistently we’ve heard teachers request materials that will help them promote literacy in their science classrooms. In response, we’ve worked with West Ed's Reading Apprenticeship specialists and classroom teachers to develop both integrated instructional practices and optional reading support materials. Our literacy activities are designed with strategies to promote metacognition and model the text interactions of skilled readers for students of all reading levels. We’d like to share our journey, and also share some examples and templates for teachers to use in their own classrooms. Come see how this approach can promote literacy and equity in science.

TAKEAWAYS:
A selection of Anchored Science by Mi-STAR examples and templates for scaffolded literacy supports will be provided. Use them with your own texts in your classroom next week!

SPEAKERS:
Jenne VandePanne (Michigan Technological University/Newaygo Public Schools: Newaygo, MI), Chris Geerer (Mi-STAR: Rochester, MI)

Sensemaking with the three dimensions is the focal construct we want to measure in science assessments - not the phenomenon or problem or the three-dimensions. Making sense of phenomena and/or problems is how students show us they can use the three dimensions to figure out something. This is what we want to assess and how we will really know that students understand the three dimensions. Yet, centering sensemaking in assessment design is difficult and often sensemaking is missing in assessments. Join us for a deep dive into sensemaking and 3D assessment. In this interactive session, participants will engage with exemplary examples of sensemaking in assessment tasks and practice foregrounding sensemaking in assessment design. The resources and processes shared in this session are applicable to K-12 science learning. The session will be interactive.

TAKEAWAYS:
Leave with examples of 3-D sensemaking in assessment tasks and activities for building better assessments that elicit student sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Cooper (Contextus: Lincoln, NE), Kelley Turner (Winchester Public Schools: Winchester, VA)

During this workshop small group work with pill bugs set the stage for exploring the SEP’s through a discovery-based investigation. An anonymous poll will be taken at the beginning of the workshop to identify JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion) hurdles teachers are facing. During the investigation, technology and non-technology based methods will be explored. After the investigation, participants will share in a facilitated discussion on modes of dismantling barriers. Review handouts of SEP’s & CCC’s identified and applied during the investigation will compliment elementary level DCI’s. Discussion will drive beyond just the facts of finding an answer to the investigation question, but to take an examination into knowledge of helping illustrate how the SEP’s and CCC’s can serve as an entry point at the elementary level to build science literacy and help move us beyond just facts but deepen our understanding and discovery of the world around us.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers struggle with access and affordability when designing discovery-based investigations. With minimal to no cost, this ready-to-use complete elementary LS investigation will demonstrate ways to increase equity in science sensemaking practices through standards-based hands-on investigations.

SPEAKERS:
Kim Burnett (American University: Washington, DC), Ollie Bogdon (Missouri Western State University: Trimble, MO)

Ever since the Wright Brothers first took flight in Kitty Hawk, the idea of powered flight has fascinated and captivated people. Unfortunately, despite flight's engaging nature and connections to fundamental physics concepts it is not a common topic in classrooms. Throughout our combined 97 years of existence our organizations, the National Free Flight Society and Science Olympiad, have been working to change this reality. In this session, we will introduce attendees to the idea of free flight model aircraft, demonstrate how these aircraft can be flown safely in schools, and share the variety of instructional resources that are immediately available for classroom use. Following this, we will identify ways attendees can take what they have learned and the activities available to enhance their classroom instruction. The session will close with a demonstration flight of a free flight model aircraft built from start to finish during this 60-minute session.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn the art of the possible when it comes to using flight as a topic to engage students in their study of forces, free body diagrams, and Newton's Laws.

SPEAKERS:
David Lindley (President: Lisle, IL), Julie Newman (Engineer: El Segundo, CA), John Loehr (Science Olympiad: Oakbrook Terrace, 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)

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

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

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

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)

No one disputes the need for effective daily science instructions for elementary children, yet, only 20% of K-3 students and 35% of grades 4-6 students have access to daily science instruction, according to Cafarell, et.al. (2017). Elementary teachers are challenged to get in daily meaningful science instruction. There is a need to design science lessons that are powerful in impacting student learning and economize the curriculum time. The purpose of this session is to explore the “Workshop Model” instructional layout as a means to deliver meaningful science experiences. This model of instruction has a “tried-and-true” history in literacy and mathematics. The instructional model segments the time into 3 areas: opening, work session, and closing. The session will use a lesson on Earth’s Systems where students open the unit by observing a phenomenon, then move into stations or work sessions, and use student lead closing so students can formalize their understanding of the phenomenon.

TAKEAWAYS:
The workshop model isn’t just for math and literacy—elementary teachers can use this instructional approach to fit effective, engaging, hands-on science lessons into their daily instructional routine.

SPEAKERS:
Kelly Bodner (Cobb County Schools & GSTA Board of Directors: Smyrna, GA)

Positioning phenomena and problems in ways that elicit sensemaking from students requires that they are problematized—in other words, that phenomena are presented in a way that highlights a productive uncertainty for students to figure out. Sensemaking requires that there is something authentically uncertain to the students engaged with the task in which they need to make sense of. When a phenomenon-based scenario is problematized, it enables sensemaking by focusing thinking on an authentic, productive uncertainty central to the phenomenon that requires the targeted dimensions (i.e., assessment targets) to figure out. In this session, participants will analyze examples of highly compelling tasks that support problematizing by students as they represent their sensemaking. The resources and processes shared in this session are applicable to K-12 science learning. The session will be interactive.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will engage with a range of assessment scenarios to figure out what it means for a task to be problematized.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Cooper (Contextus: Lincoln, NE), Dawn Novak (Northwestern University: Grayslake, IL)

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 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 characteristics of collaborative sensemaking and productive discussions (5 mins). • A discussion of some of the challenges with promoting and supporting productive discussions where all students participate during a learning experience (10 minutes). • An opportunity for participants to experience an example of productive small group discussion that fosters collaborative sense-making (20 mins). • An opportunity for participants to experience an example of productive whole class discussion (20 mins). • Questions and suggestions for learning more (5 mins).

TAKEAWAYS:
Collaborative sensemaking requires productive and inclusive talk. Teachers can foster productive talk between students using specific activity structures, talk prompts, talk moves, and supports.

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

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)

First, participants will learn how to keep a worm safe and comfortable for handling. Then we will examine external structure, function, senses, and talk about how those connect to a worm's life style. We will even use flashlights to peek inside the worm to see their digestive system. Each activity will be tied to elementary NGSS on organisms, systems, environment, structure and function, and life cycles. The activities will come from my picture book, This is a Book to Read with a Worm (winner of the AAAS/Subaru Excellence in Science Books, 2020), but I will not promote the book. I just want to share the activities.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will experience a series of activities that will help them use earthworms as phenomena in elementary science. For each activity, we will discuss how to move from the specifics of worms into sensemaking on more general concepts that the worms illustrate.

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

Designers and writers from the well known STEM Teaching Tools collection (www.stemteachingtools.org), a free repository of resources that reference other national resources funded by the NSF and created by national leaders in climate science and education, have developed a branch of resources called the ClimateEdTools which provide learning pathways for educators as well as strategies for use in youth centered learning contexts. Come and explore these resources with us as we examine the deeply intersectional socio-ecological issues facing our world and how to teach about them. In this workshop we will explore how to engage in science instruction that centers local climate justice phenomena to teach climate science standards. In addition, we will workshop how educators may apply this collection of resources to meet the needs they have in their own teaching and learning contexts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Climate Ed Tools contain rich examples of climate justice instruction, strategies for engaging youth, and to support climate change learning and communication among educators. These open education resources (OER) include video overviews, valuable guidance educators, and tons of background resources!

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

We will unpack the purpose of each phase within the design cycle (Ask-Imagine-Plan-Create-Improve) and the role it plays in developing and showcasing student understanding of scientific concepts and their development of SEPs. Students often jump quickly from asking questions to designing solutions. Participants will engage in an activity that emphasizes the importance of slowing down the engineering process to zoom in on intentional brainstorming and planning that encourages students to think creatively, yet logically, about their ideas. We will focus on helping students articulate their thinking and communicate their scientific ideas throughout the design process. We will look at how these ideas can be mirrored in the improve phase to allow students to reflect on their process, gather and communicate new findings, and purposefully redesign. Through well-developed design projects, elementary students can build strong scientific understanding and develop critical 21st-century skills.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will take away ideas for enhancing the engineering design process for their students in order to leverage student ideas and collaboration to create better engineering solutions.

SPEAKERS:
Briana Trager (Graduate Student: Angier, NC)

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)

"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)

Engage in a mini design sprint to develop curriculum-aligned exit tickets. Together, we will use an equity framework and Universal Design to create exit tickets that support equitable sensemaking and 3-D science learning. We will coach you through a process to develop exit tickets that assess your students’ experiences and sensemaking. This workshop will focus on areas that support their learning such as: metacognition and reflection, applying their learning to a new phenomenon, connecting to their experiences and expertise outside of the classroom, and student experience in the learning environment. We will bring in examples of curriculum-anchored assessment using open source curricula. You will walk away with a set of exit tickets to assess student experience in 3-D learning that will give you information to inform instruction and support equitable classroom assessment practices.

TAKEAWAYS:
Gathering evidence of student experiences through short assessment opportunities can help build meaningful relationships with students and provide rich information to inform instructional moves.

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)

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

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

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

How can we assess the quality of sampling and variability of the data to help us in decision-making? The various metals and alloys used in the minting of the penny over the years will provide for rich explorations, which are part of the chemistry curriculum. We will highlight the important cross-disciplinary aspect, linking the science content (mass/chemical composition) to the mathematical models outlined in the NGSS section on Systems and Models to show how to use it to simulate systems and interactions. Through hands-on activities and the use of technology, participants will explore a variety of data sets and use this knowledge to better understand and use statistics to make accurate and fair arguments related to everyday topics. We will explore how the sample mean varies from sample to sample. While this is considered one of the more challenging topics for quality control, we will illustrate the concepts though some basic sampling of the typical age and mass of the U.S. penny.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will use real data to develop mathematical models and learn how to test our hypothesis by performing an experiment and analyzing the results, combining chemical analysis with statistical sampling for a cross-curricular approach.

SPEAKERS:
Karlheinz Haas (retired: Tequesta, FL)

Ecological systems have been damaged by humans. Science can be used to guide responses and support the thriving of species. Science education tends to reflect Western perspectives, including the view of humans as separate from and exerting control over nature. However, science learning can build from caring, relational orientations toward multispecies worlds and socio-ecologically just and thriving systems. We must engage learners in ways that highlight these webs of interdependence and support learners in responding to complex human-nature ecosystem dynamics. In this session, we will explore strategies and examples of science learning that cultivate caring ecological relationships, including firsthand experiences of learning by engaging with and investigating land and water systems. We will draw on co-designed resources from STEM Teaching Tools (www.stemteachingtools.org) and Learning in Places (learninginplaces.org) to support these experiences.

TAKEAWAYS:
Human-nature relationships are culturally and historically rooted and are embedded in approaches to science teaching and learning. Supporting reciprocal and caring human-nature relationships leads to socio-ecologically just and thriving systems—and aligns with NGSS 3-D learning.

SPEAKERS:
Philip Bell (University of Washington: Seattle, WA), Kelsie Fowler (University of Washington: Seattle, WA), Nancy Price (University of Washington: Seattle, WA)

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)

Scientific Theater might seem like an oxymoron, but over my decade-plus in high school education, it has become a favorite of my students. The goals of this experience are to encourage the attendees/students to be creative in trying to explain sometimes complicated concepts, and to realize that written words and slide presentations are not the only way to explain something. In this workshop, attendees will be given the opportunity to experience Scientific Theater exactly as my students do, by creating their own one-act play explaining a chemical concept. The concept may be one of their own choosing, or there will be several to choose from. After choosing, attendees will split into groups of four, at which point they will collaborate to develop and write a 3-minute play that they best feel illustrates their concept. At the end of the session, volunteer groups will be invited to perform, and it is hoped that the attendees will have seen theater as the powerful and enjoyable tool it is.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will collaborate to create their own plays to describe a scientific concept. After discussion and rehearsal, volunteers will be asked to perform their masterpieces in front of the group. By doing so, attendees will be able to take what they have learned back to their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Karen Flummerfelt (Downtown Magnets High School: Los Angeles, CA)

During this workshop, the presenters will use improv techniques and connection Jenga to build identity, culture, and story for the classroom. Goals of this presentation are to: -empower individuals to feel they can speak up and contribute by sharing their own stories -engage attendees in an innovative, creative way by building inclusive, interactive bridges through play -ensure a safe environment where people feel comfortable in understanding that everyone has bias -assemble diverse teams who will collaborate to create action plans to share resources back in their districts and states

TAKEAWAYS:
Addressing bias, creating efficacy, and clarifying accessible, diverse, equitable, and inclusive leadership are the primary goals of this workshop.

SPEAKERS:
Kelly Day (Department of Energy: Washington, DC), Amy Szczepanski (Einstein Fellow: New York, NY), Melissa Thompson (Department of Defense: Stevensville, MD), Michael Stewart (Stonewall Jackson High School: Manassas, VA), Kelsey Beeghly (Einstein Fellow: Altamonte Springs, FL), Jacquelyn Southerland (Accokeek Academy: Waldorf, MD)

This presentation is designed to help teachers deepen their understanding of the effective and practical strategies to facilitate academic discourse that promotes inclusive science and STEM classrooms. Participants will engage in a variety of instructional strategies to ensure that all students have access to scientific discourse and opportunities to collaborate with peers through intentional planning. Participants will engage in a variety of formative assessment classroom techniques (FACTS) from Page Keeley’s Uncovering Student Ideas texts, including commit and toss, sticky bars, structured think-pair-share, and more. In addition, we will be discussing the shift away from traditional talk patterns-- like I-R-E (Initiate, Response, Evaluation) and towards Productive Talk to promote an inclusive science and STEM classroom. Finally, participants will leave with a virtual toolbox of resources for additional discourse strategies they can immediately apply in their classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of shifts in classroom talk patterns, like moving away from the I-R-E talk pattern and towards Productive Talk. Attendees will engage with practical and effective discourse strategies that promote inclusive and productive classroom discourse.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Garelli (Arizona Science Teachers Association: Gilbert, AZ)

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)

OpenSciEd Biology 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 unit’s anchor in "student hat", experiencing the content as students do in the classroom. Participants will also explore ways to use strategic questioning and the development and use of different models for complex phenomena to encourage students to discuss and advance their understanding about concepts of energy and matter, at different levels of systems. Participants will also see how students develop understanding of the changes in matter and energy in these systems through a coherent series of investigations. These investigations include taking measurements when burning peat and other fuels to build understanding of matter and energy capacities, carbon dioxide production rates for yeast at different temperatures to understand a mechani

TAKEAWAYS:
Complex anchoring and investigative phenomena rooted in cause-and-effect thinking can deeply engage students in disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts related to energy and matter that span across the disciplines of earth and life science, in systems.

SPEAKERS:
Jamie Noll (BSCS Science Learning: Evanston, IL), Sara Krauskopf (University of Wisconsin-Madison: Madison, WI), DeAnna Lee Rivers (University of Colorado Boulder: DIAMOND BAR, CA)

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)

Participants in this workshop will learn to plan and design a 5E unit and engage in an example 5E unit on the Isle Royale wolves. They'll explore the history of the wolf population, generate questions for a driving question board, and participate in hands-on activities that integrate science and engineering practices. Through data collection, analysis, research, and making claims supported by evidence, participants will learn how to effectively integrate the 5E model for inquiry-based instruction into their teaching practice. The workshop will also provide resources and strategies for differentiation and inclusion, making science accessible and engaging for all students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn to effectively use the 5E model for inquiry-based instruction to engage students in science education. Gain strategies for designing and assessing instruction, and see how the 5E model supports student engagement, understanding, and achievement.

SPEAKERS:
Kara Ball (Teacher Created Material: Huntingtown, MD)

We will begin by introducing our approach to standards-based learning and providing curriculum documents such as our learning scales derived from the NGSS Science & Engineering practices and Unit “Know, Understand, Do” documents (format adopted from Carol Ann Tomlinson). Participants then engage in a complete learning cycle from the student point of view. This will include a mini task to engage in content and skill development, followed by a formative assessment. We will then share our strategies for self assessment and follow up with a differentiated activity to move participants towards proficiency before showing the summative assessment. Following this learning cycle, participants will have the opportunity to think about or collaborate with others around ways to apply their learning in their own contexts. They will have access to digital examples of content and skill pairings, as well as an opportunity to engage on an individual or small group basis with the presenters.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will walk away with practical applications and examples of skill and content-based instruction and assessment after experiencing an abbreviated learning cycle. This will include science phenomena, differentiated instructional activities, formative assessment, and summative assessment.

SPEAKERS:
Jessica Lemieux (Champlain Valley Union High School: Hinesburg, VT), Rae Bronenkant (Science Teacher: Huntington, VT), Sam Parker (Science teacher: Hinesburg, VT), Carly Brown (Champlain Valley Union High School: Huntington, VT)

Developing students' "soft skills" has been a post-Covid school focus for us. This workshop will provide teachers will ready to use lessons that promote conversation and collaboration among even the quietest of students. These quick lessons of 1-3 periods can be modified to multiple NGSS content standards. In this workshop teachers will model a biotech debate, Instagram challenge, and a prehistoric Sweet 16 bracket. Most importantly- our students requested to do these lessons again! Check out our biotech debate directions: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GFM3Iy2-ITGp-H-H6Q0H93Fdvx7WK2xdAo07kb3QxVU/edit?usp=sharing Check out our biotech debate example: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bKjPCD0wkxyQGPlC6cJdokxU4OPy0xvE82K_lygpasg/edit?usp=sharing

TAKEAWAYS:
Bring home three creative lessons that will animate even your quietest students!

SPEAKERS:
Jacqueline Svetich (Science Teacher: Naperville, IL), Adrianne Toomey (Neuqua Valley High School: Naperville, IL)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Presenters will share student work which showcases art and creativity in the chemistry classroom. Stop-motion videos can be used to show what is happening at the particulate level for different types of chemical reactions, bond enthalpy calculations, and electron excitation in light emission. TV theme song parodies can be used as a way to assess student understanding of a variety of chemistry topics. Sketchnotes can be incorporated to demonstrate knowledge of a particular lab, chemistry unit or short article which pertains to the topic being covered in class. Students also write children's books to showcase their understanding of climate change and ocean acidification. Finally, lab based art projects are a fun way to begin or end a unit of study and the student work can then be displayed in the classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with a variety of ideas about how to incorporate sketchnotes, stop-motion videos, songs, painting, and storytelling into their chemistry classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Nathan Gustin (Adlai E. Stevenson High School: Lincolnshire, IL), Ashley Rose (Adlai E. Stevenson High School: Lincolnshire, IL)

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

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

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

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 an everyday phenomenon elementary students find curious and puzzling. 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:
Elementary students engage in Using Mathematics and Computational thinking everyday as they describe, make comparisons between, and test predictions about systems in the world.

SPEAKERS:
Kate Soriano (NSTA: Jersey City, NJ)

There is an explosion of data all around us to teach our science standards. But can we use them to help our students struggle less with data? Yes! Come unpack “Analyzing & Interpreting Data” in ways that invite all learners into the discussion. We will explore strategies for finding high-quality datasets and discuss different approaches to integrate real-time data into our teaching to better build data skills. We will discuss how to foster science learning for all students. These short practice sessions that are low-floor-high-ceiling have powerful returns-on-investment in terms of building students' confidence and competence with data skills. We will discuss what this could mean for our teaching. Participants will increase their toolkit of strategies to use data to enhance their current 6-12th grade instruction. Let’s leverage all this data around us to best prepare our learners for the 21st century of data!

TAKEAWAYS:
Identify ways to integrate low-floor-high-ceiling data activities using real-world data into existing curriculum to build data skills, engage learners, and teach your science.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Hunter-Thomson (Dataspire Education & Evaluation, LLC: Santa Cruz, CA)

Explore one model of integrating climate literacy into the classroom using hands-on climate lessons. In partnership with the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the legislature-funded ClimeTime program, the Gonzaga Center for Climate, Society, and the Environment has created the Climate Literacy Fellows program. Through this program, the Climate Center hires and trains exceptional Gonzaga undergraduates to deliver high-impact climate literacy activities in elementary and middle school classrooms (grades K-8). The Climate Literacy Fellows help students understand how climate influences them and how they and society influence climate through hands-on, inquiry driven activities that center the NGSS standards and experiential learning. Our presentation would focus on the demonstrating one or more of the climate kits in action and opportunities for improvement, as well as suggestions for implementation in other places.

TAKEAWAYS:
The importance of a hands-on approach to engaging students with the process of science and understanding the broader context that climate change occurs in.

SPEAKERS:
Karli Honebein (Gonzaga Institute for Climate, Water, and the Environment: Spokane, WA)

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)

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)

Pre-K students have brains that are developing quickly and making rapid connections. This session explores sense-making and equitability in PreK, encouraging a love of learning in the young child. At McKissick Academy of Science and Technology, we utilize our Engineering Design Process to engage students in critical thinking, planning, revision, and communication through STEM. Our tools include: Project Lead the Way, Engineering is Elementary, Picture-Perfect STEM, Creative Curriculum, and our own teachers’ Project Based Learning units to further develop their brains. Our school believes in making learning equitable by providing access to STEM education for all our students; not just the upper grades. Join us for a session where you can walk away with some confidence to start your own units that will directly apply to your littles.

TAKEAWAYS:
The way STEM, and the EDP are embedded into Pre-K environments in our school meets the needs of early intervention and provides equitable access to education for children prior to beginning kindergarten.

SPEAKERS:
Angela Spearman (McKissick Academy of Science & Technology: Easley, SC), Brittany Clark (McKissick Academy: Easley, SC), Morgan Stancil (Teacher: Easley, SC)

Authentic engineering challenges are a highlight of my physics courses because of the increase in student engagement and depth of content understanding. I’ve also experienced the ways these design challenges level the playing field for all because problem solving and applying knowledge is valued. Yet, despite the many benefits of integrating engineering design in science classrooms, this component of the NGSS can easily be overlooked. In this workshop, participants immerse in the world of engineering design and optimization. Teacher teams will engage in a design task and subsequent design optimization. We’ll debrief strategies for incorporating engineering design activities into high school units and discuss techniques for implementation, while focusing on the engineering design cycle and the importance of optimization. Observations on how these design challenges invite all students into the discipline of physics will be shared. The takeaways are applicable to all science disciplines.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will take away a complete Engineering Design Challenge (EDC) that includes strategies for incorporating an EDC into an energy unit, highlighted disciplinary core ideas, templates for student analysis and reflection, and a three-dimensional assessment based on the EDC.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Swan (Vashon High School: Vashon, WA)

In this hands-on workshop, you will engage in an "assessment FOR learning" activity called Video Modeling. Video Modeling is a teaching technique developed at the intersection of multiple goals: (1) for students to build a strong foundation in disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) while engaging in 3-D learning, (2) to have students cooperatively & actively explain concepts, but to do so as a formative assessment that welcomes failure and reflection, and (3) to have students develop more ownership and agency along with SEL skills. Participants will understand the learning research Video Modeling is designed from, participate in the activity "as students", and see reflections, strategies, and action research from my experience of teaching and revising this method throughout my teaching career.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers can add to their toolbox an "assessment for learning" framework that can be employed with any DCI from any content area to support student engagement in the scientific practices and crosscutting concepts.

SPEAKERS:
Thomas Wolfe (Adlai E. Stevenson High School: Lincolnshire, IL)

various demonstrations will be used to continue to compare and contrast types of solids (materials) and their bonding and properties. For example, (through video) a ceramic alumina rod and metal aluminum rod will be heated to showcase differences in melting point, conductivity, and density. Teachers will also participate in an activity that precipitates copper crystals from copper sulfate. This particular activity mimics how native metals can crystallize in the earth crust naturally. In addition, teachers will participate in a lab that shows how metal atoms can easily be mixed to make an alloy. The concept of solid state diffusion will be discussed.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to teach basic chemistry concepts using common everyday materials like metals, ceramics, glass, and polymers. Hands-on STEM activities, demonstrations, and labs will make learning these chemistry concepts more engaging and relevant.

SPEAKERS:
Gissel McDonald (Spring Hill High School: Spring Hill, KS), Sarah Ortiz (Teacher: Springfield, NE)

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

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

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

Adding engineering design and coding in the context of a core course like Chemistry may be difficult for teachers. This session will have participants collecting real world data, designing a solution to a real world problem, and adding a coding twist to that solution. Participants will either use a pH sensor or a temperature sensor to collect data, code a microcontroller to have an output of a fan or RGB LEDs, and play a sound. No coding or design experience necessary.

TAKEAWAYS:
Coding and engineering design in the Chemistry classroom based on real world data collection.

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

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)

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)

Throughout teaching Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) and General Biology, students often face academic challenges surrounding these two foundational courses. One intended method to overcome these challenges is to implement a preliminary online course that students can complete before starting the academic year. Attendees will discuss how to design their own preliminary online course through an interactive workshop (in electronic and hard-copy formats) with group-based activities (e.g., discussions and demos) for any college-level biology course. We will also demonstrate various methods and assessments (e.g., recorded videos, quizzes, virtual escape rooms) best suited for students who choose to take the prep course through our findings at our current college. A sample of our current preliminary online courses can be found via this link: https://sites.google.com/springfieldcollege.edu/bioprepcoursessc/general-biology-online-course

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn about our experience using a preliminary online course for undergraduates. Attendees will then learn how to design their own prep courses focusing on what students require in general biology and anatomy.

SPEAKERS:
Gemma Bartha (Instructor: Springfield, MA), Joseph Kele (Professor of Biology: East Longmeadow, MA)

N/A

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about a detailed 9-step process for conceiving, developing, testing, refining, and using 3-D science assessments focused on social justice phenomena and topics. Open education resources that support this assessment development process will also be shared. #NSFfunded

SPEAKERS:
Philip Bell (University of Washington: Seattle, WA), Bill Penuel (: Boulder, CO)

What does rich student discourse look like in a middle school science classroom? How can spirited debates over scientific principles erupt from prepubescent teens? I found myself skeptical when my colleague first brought the PEER Physics curriculum to my attention. How could a curriculum that was initially designed for undergraduate non-science majors and was revised to be applicable for high school contexts, possibly work in middle school? But I found that it not only “worked”, students thrived. I had longed for my students to authentically engage in science practices. In this workshop, I’ll share my experience with bringing PEER Physics into middle school. I’ll invite you into examples of middle school discourse by showing video and student reflections. Workshop participants will consider norming strategies that can support students in rich discourse in middle school science courses. And see how the three-dimensional learning from PEER changed the rest of my instruction.

TAKEAWAYS:
Through video examples and hands-on learning, participants will see what evidence-based student discourse looks like at the middle school level. They will also walk away with tangible strategies, having experienced some of these strategies themselves.

SPEAKERS:
Daniela Del Cid (8th grade Science teacher: Frederick, CO)

The Framework calls for students to engage in argumentation from evidence in a way that considers relevant social, ethical, and environmental tradeoffs that cannot be resolved without considering the values of interested parties. As educators, we need to honor students’ diverse experiences and value systems while also engaging students in the process of respectful scientific argumentation. OpenSciEd High School uses the Learning in Places Framework to inform the design of an argumentation tool for students to guide them through the process of weighing science ideas, societal and environmental impacts, and ethical considerations when evaluating potentially controversial arguments and design solutions. Join us to engage with an adapted version of this argumentation process. Participants will explore the Learning in Places Framework for Socio Ecological Decision Making and discuss use of the Learning in Places Framework within the classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
The NGSS calls for students to weigh complex socioscientific tradeoffs, including social, cultural, and environmental impacts. The Learning in Places Framework can be used to help structure student engagement in argumentation that requires decision-making around these tradeoffs.

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

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)

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)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Richard Frazier (retired: Holts Summit, MO)

During this presentation topics such as creating language objectives, color-coding vocabulary, using graphic organizers to help further comprehension of content, and using the expert readers strategy will be covered.

TAKEAWAYS:
Various strategies for scientific literacy that are easily applicable to any science classroom such as using language objectives, graphic organizers, and color-coding key vocabulary.

SPEAKERS:
Mikayla Kagey (Central Kitsap Middle School: Silverdale, WA), Sydnie Chouery (Science Teacher: Silverdale, WA)

I would like to introduce and allow teachers to interact with strategies that I have used while teaching at a school that consists of at least 70% English Language Learners (ELLs). I have worked to compile strategies that support students' language development in all four language domains and in all science content areas. For developing reading, I have used stations with multiple means of representation, as well as interactive visual vocabulary activities to frontload vocabulary prior to reading a science text. For listening, I have used videos with pause points for comprehension checks, as well as note-taking while listening, to practice active listening. For writing, I have used sentence frames, single point rubrics, and visual vocabulary word banks to support student writing. For speaking, I have used questioning strategies, as well as organized systems, for student participation. These strategies have positively impacted language and content acquisition in my classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Strategies and supports that can be easily implemented in your classroom tomorrow no matter the lesson, content, or activity.

SPEAKERS:
Celeste Pistole (Guadalupe Centers Middle School: Kansas City, MO)

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)

Attendees will learn techniques and strategies for incorporating scientific sketching and nature journaling into students’ science notebook routines by engaging in the activities themselves. Materials and natural physical specimens will be provided for journaling and sketching activities. Student examples and free resources will be shared. This workshop is appropriate for all K-12 teachers and informal science educators.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be introduced to, and participate in, several nature journaling activities from the free John Muir Laws "How to Teach Nature Journaling" book, as well as receive some scientific sketching guidance from the California Academy of Sciences. Special attention to integrating math will be included.

SPEAKERS:
Dana Atwood-Blaine (University of Northern Iowa: WATERLOO, IA)

In this workshop, participants will learn about the science behind metal properties through hands-on activities. They will create a simple low-melt alloy and generate a binary phase diagram. That phase diagram will be analyzed and lead to a discussion of melting points of alloys. Participants will explore the effects of heat and working on metal properties, and discover how to manipulate steel properties through annealing, quenching, and tempering. The steel samples include a high carbon and low carbon steel: bobby pin and paper clip. Participants will also compare the properties of copper wire to those of steel samples, gaining a deeper understanding of different metal behaviors."

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will explore how students can change metal properties through alloying, heat-treating, and cold-working. Classroom activities enhance understanding of both atomic structure of metals and real world engineering relevance.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Ortiz (Teacher: Springfield, NE), Gissel McDonald (Spring Hill High School: Spring Hill, KS)

The workshop will offer ideas to move from the typical teacher-led classroom to one that focuses on problem-solving, data analysis and exploratory learning. Learn how to combine graphing calculators with handheld sensors to maximize class time and provide opportunities for engaging inquiry and discussion. We will illustrate how you can utilize science tasks to support your 3-D initiative and the goals outlined in the NGSS, while at the same time reinforcing and seamlessly integrating CCSS for Mathematics. You can use one sensor at a time or multiple sensors simultaneously for lab-based or in-the-field data collection to quickly collect and analyze data. Several sensors will be available to explore this integrated solution. Hands-on science using this integrated technology gets students excited about science and math and deepens their understanding of seemingly complex concepts. It will free up class time for student engagement in the analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of real data.

TAKEAWAYS:
Use real data to develop mathematical models and learn how to test your hypothesis by performing an experiment and analyzing your results, combining graphing calculators with handheld sensors to maximize class time.

SPEAKERS:
Karlheinz Haas (retired: Tequesta, FL)

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)

This is an overview of the farm-to-table process through the FDA. Labs are written so that the level of literacy is equitable to the grade span for which it is written. Grade levels 5-12 are included in the curriculum and NGSS standards included. The curriculum spans biology, chemistry, physical science, environmental science, and food and consumer science. It is written free of bias so that all students regardless of their life experiences can relate science to everyday food safety and nutrition. Food safety and nutrition will be discussed, curriculum links, methods, and activities to bring real-world knowledge into the classroom will be shared. Ideas for incorporating lessons as well as the literacy standards linking reading nonfiction topics in the science classroom will be addressed. Three classroom activities using beef, milk and salt will be demonstrated to show connections with science literacy standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students will: 1. be introduced to the fundamentals of microbiology while, at the same time, identifying important public health information through literature and hands-on learning activities; 2. learn about the label, and that nutrition not only aids in general well-being.

SPEAKERS:
Leanne Thele (Perryville High School: Cape Girardeau, MO), Tiska Rodgers (Clarkton High School: Dexter, MO)

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)

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)

Students utilize different components (enzymes, yeast, feed stocks, water] to produce ethanol and carbon dioxide through fermentation. Students develop a model and explain how ethanol is made to answer the focus question: "How can fermentation produce a renewable fuel source?" Students develop experimental models to generate data to construct explanations about relationships between components of the fermentation process and to predict how they can be manipulated to produce carbon dioxide. Students will design solutions to make the fermentation process as efficient as possible and generate the maximum amount of ethanol in a small bag environment. Participants will deconstruct a model of starch to examine enzyme and starch reactions to determine how starches change into smaller molecules. Attendees will participate in numerous hands-on activities centered around biofuel.

TAKEAWAYS:
Nourish the Future is a national education initiative developed by science teachers for science teachers to connect students to modern agriculture and provide sound science-based resources that meet teacher and student needs in the classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Leanne Thele (Perryville High School: Cape Girardeau, MO), Tiska Rodgers (Clarkton High School: Dexter, MO)

Session participants explore matter-energy ecosystem transfer phenomena by modeling alternative food production & creating design plans/systems to grow food with minimal materials. The phenomena of energy & matter transfers is abstract; yet, as part of ecosystem services, provides for many student-led investigations and design solutions to improve life, such as food production. In MS LS2-3, students develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem. If we take this a step further, students would create functional models of alternative food growth while demonstrating minimal to no impact on the ecosystem. Session participants will explore the idea of alternative food production and create design plans (and possible functioning systems) to grow food with minimal materials. The intent is to provide session participants with realistic, functional modeling to increase student understanding & ability to synthesize the content.

TAKEAWAYS:
The energy-matter transfer phenomena is crucial in ecosystems. Creating functional ecosystem models leads to understanding ecosystem interactions and services such as food production. We can mimic nature to provide sustainable food supplies with less impact to natural environments.

SPEAKERS:
Sue Meggers (Interstate 35 Community School District: Truro, IA)

Climate science education is foundational for all learners given our changing lands and waters. These changes vary across the landscape and thus we also need to learn about the differential way in which climate change is impacting people across different contexts. Often the most marginalized peoples are the first impacted. This session will explore ways to teach about climate science that provide insight into the lived experiences and current adaptations of those most impacted by climate change. Tools for engaging in conversations around such inequities, curriculum resources, and ways to engage in solutions centered action research with students will all be explored. We will draw on emerging resources being built within the STEM Teaching Tools collection (www.stemteachingtools.org), a free repository of resources that reference other national resources funded by the NSF and created by national leaders in climate science and education.

TAKEAWAYS:
Strategies for engaging in climate change and climate justice learning appropriate to grade band NGSS standards, climate and energy literacy standards, and for both school and community-based learning contexts.

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

This session begins with a video clip to engage. Participants are given a battery, lightbulb, and a wire made from aluminum foil and masking tape. They are directed to make the bulb light up (exploring). They will then be shown 5 resources and how they can be used to explain current electricity. Participants will be given materials to design and build a lighthouse with a working light and challenged to make the light turn on and off (expand). After the design challenge, they will be shown 3 ways to evaluate (formative and summative) student mastery of current electricity. After experiencing the learning cycle, we will look at examples of Next Generation standards and how to develop learning cycle plans as well as Florida science standards.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to turn science standards, both Next Generation and state adopted standards, into learning cycle lesson plans for elementary students.

SPEAKERS:
Laurie Boulden (Warner University: Frostproof, FL)

This presentation will cover the simple principles of redox reactions and corrosion chemistry. Attendees will learn about the transfer of electrons between species, how to write equations for oxidation and reduction, and the factors that affect the rate of corrosion. The presentation will also explore the properties of metals such as zinc and aluminum and their usefulness in various applications. Practical applications of redox reactions and corrosion chemistry will be discussed, including galvanization and reduction of metal ores. Hands-on activities and audience participation will be encouraged throughout the presentation. By the end, attendees will have a solid understanding of the chemistry behind redox reactions and corrosion and how this knowledge can be applied in real-world situations.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn hands-on labs, activities, and demos that can be used to teach about corrosion. A look at corrosion will lead to a discussion of how to teach redox principles in a simple way in the classroom. Examples of redox in action in the real world will make this relevant to students.

SPEAKERS:
Sarah Ortiz (Teacher: Springfield, NE), Gissel McDonald (Spring Hill High School: Spring Hill, KS)

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

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

SPEAKERS:
Earl Legleiter (Legleiter Science Consulting: Englewood, CO)

Disentanglement puzzles, string figures, rope tricks, magic knots, and other curious objects offer interest for students. Such physical riddles yield engaging, entertaining, instructive, and enlightening opportunities for students. Topology applies to a range of sciences; students can investigate empirically and safely. Advanced math is not needed to search for solutions and to describe procedures/results through language and visualisation. There are occasions for communication, collaboration, and creative problem solving. There are cross-curricular connections abound from cultural anthropology to visual arts. Experience with these puzzles and problems helps develop spatial thinking and gives practice in pattern-finding, hypothesis-testing, and scientific inference. We will construct puzzles to take home, try solving such puzzles and problems, practice describing and systematising solutions, and present/discuss a number of activities for students. NGSS relevance will be discussed and references will be shared.

TAKEAWAYS:
Topology offers rich, diverse, and perhaps surprising opportunities for science learning through practices, core ideas, and cross-cutting concepts. Applicable phenomena, relevant scientific approaches, and rewarding occasions for finding patterns and testing hypotheses emerge.

SPEAKERS:
Richard Frazier (retired: Holts Summit, MO)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Data collection and analysis is not only easier and more accessible than ever, it MUST be a part of any solid STEM/STEAM effort. In this session, we will be using state-of-the-art technology that is designed to facilitate effective data collection and analysis in any middle school or high school science classroom. In addition to simply collecting data in this session, we will be analyzing the data by developing mathematical models using the data, and then brainstorming ideas for how to integrate writing into the activities that are done in the lab. There will be a heavy emphasis on curriculum integration: Math, Science, and Writing.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will experience the power of having students collect and analyze their own data, while learning strategies for the effective science-math integration and collaborative instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Jeffrey Lukens (Roosevelt High School, Sioux Falls, SD: Sioux Falls, SD)

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)

STEM educators around the country are working to implement the new vision in the NRC Framework for K-12 Science Education and the resulting Next Generation Science Standards, in addition to the many other initiatives that compete for their time and resources. At the same time, much of the research around improving STEM learning does not make it into the classroom. Research can often lack context and clear connections to everyday teaching practice or learning experiences, and relevant tools and strategies can be hard for educators to find or access. To bridge that gap, the team at the UW Institute for Science + Math Education is working with teachers and researchers to create a suite of accessible, bite-sized practice briefs called STEM Teaching Tools. In this session, we’ll explore the suite of tools and explore how to use them to dive into topics in science education.

TAKEAWAYS:
STEM Teaching Tools is a freely-available collection of practice briefs that contain recommendations and strategies for implementing the vision of the Framework and NGSS. They support fabulous educator professional learning, both individually and in professional learning communities.

SPEAKERS:
Philip Bell (University of Washington: Seattle, WA), Nancy Price (University of Washington: Seattle, WA), Kelsie Fowler (University of Washington: Seattle, WA)

The materials presented were created by two 8th grade life science teachers. Our students struggle with reading and analyzing nonfiction text. Nonfiction text is an important part of science literacy, and teaching our students how to interact with the text and pull important information is essential. The templates we created can be applied to almost any article or reading that teachers will use in their classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will go away from this session with materials that they can use immediately in their classroom. These materials will help students to read and organize nonfiction texts and use them in discussions with classmates.

SPEAKERS:
Erin Branstetter (Bolivar Middle School: Bolivar, MO)

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

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

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

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

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

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