The sky belongs to everyone - including middle-school age youth. Learn how to join the YouthAstroNet program of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, where students practice sense-making by telling their own star stories using images they capture from real robotic telescopes.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn YouthAstroNet’s strategies for engaging students from culturally diverse backgrounds in exploring their place in the cosmos through sense-making of astronomical images and find out how to join the YouthAstroNet community, supported by the National Science Foundation.

SPEAKERS:
Mary Dussault (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian: Cambridge, MA), Erika Wright (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian: Fitzwilliam, NH)

The AREN Project provides NASA technology tools to educators, learners, and citizen scientists who want to collect local earth science data. Lesson plans and equipment are made available to investigate phenomena like the Urban Heat Island Effect, and how land use affects flooding.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will experience various methods of using remote sensing and in-situ measurement with common scientific tools and NASA-developed educational platforms. Participants will be invited to join upcoming virtual professional learning opportunities that provide training and materials at no cost.

SPEAKERS:
Lisa Ogiemwonyi (Wayne RESA: Sterling Heights, MI)

ARISS provides a once in a lifetime educational opportunity for youth by enabling them to conduct a 10-minute interview directly with astronauts on-board ISS. This presentation will provide hints for educators to develop an ARISS contact proposal that will positively impact their youth.

TAKEAWAYS:
This presentation will provide many hints and tips for educators on how to develop a winning ARISS contact proposal that will positively impact their youth through inspiring, engaging and educational STEM activities.

SPEAKERS:
Tanya Anderson (ARISS-Amateur Radio on the International Space Station: Lisle, IL)

This workshop delves into the environmental consequences of flooding. Participants will explore resources and activities that highlight the chain reaction of events triggered by floods, including soil erosion, the spread of pollutants, and the effects of these on overall soil health.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will explore resources to understand that floods disrupt the delicate balance in soil impacting soil health and structure.

SPEAKERS:
Sequoyah McGee (American Geosciences Institute: Herico, VA), Lindsay Mossa (American Geosciences Institute: ANNAPOLIS, MD)

Sponsoring Company: Simulation Curriculum

Unlock the cosmos for your classroom with our tailored workshop for teachers! Discover teaching methods, explore resources, and delve into the latest astronomical discoveries. Gain confidence and tools to ignite students' curiosity about the wonders of the universe, fostering a passion for science.

Engaging middle school students.

TAKEAWAYS:
PEEPs impact student engagement resulting in increased proficiency results in science and engineering assessments.

SPEAKERS:
Carri Wissman (Hilo Intermediate School: Hilo, HI), Pascale Pinner (Hilo Intermediate School: Hilo, HI)

Sponsoring Company: Activate Learning

Get a close look at the pedagogical strategies of a highly acclaimed Earth Science book. Developed by the American Geoscience Institute, this book relies on student-centered activities, students doing science! Take part in several activities and connect with other earth science teachers.

SPEAKERS:
Gary Curts (Activate Learning: Greenwich, CT)

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Company

Participants will examine how models can be used to drive understanding of complex concepts. Tree ring data will be used as an example of a line of evidence to support climate models and a balloon model will be used to support universe expansion.

SPEAKERS:
Crystal Risko (Carolina Biological Supply Co.: Burlington, NC)

Come engage in an earth science activity about geologic time periods (MS-ESS1-4) and a biology activity about cell membranes (MS-LS1-2) to explore how to make science relevant for their students. We will also demonstrate and discuss strategies for increasing the relevance of any NGSS lesson.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will experience two examples of how we make science relevant for our students. We will also discuss tips and strategies for increasing relevance in any lesson.

SPEAKERS:
Alexa Clements (Associate Professor: Cedar Falls, IA), Jesse Wilcox (University of Northern Iowa: Cedar Falls, IA)

Sponsoring Company: Simulation Curriculum

"Dive into Earth's wonders! Our Earth Science workshop for teachers offers hands-on activities, expert insights, and teaching strategies to inspire curiosity and deepen understanding. Join us in exploring the dynamic systems of our planet!" Geology, Meteorology, Climate, Physical Geography!

Designed to empower teachers with knowledge and tools to address issues facing coastal communities in the Mississippi Delta, this immersive experience combines place-based exploration and the engineering design process to strategize solutions to foster resiliency and sustainability in the Gulf.

TAKEAWAYS:
This immersive experience combines place-based exploration and the engineering design process to strategize solutions, foster resiliency and sustainability, and empower teachers.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle Sanchez (Tulane University: New Orleans, LA), Erica Smith (Tulane University: Addis, LA)

Students collaborate in small groups to design and develop a sustainable island with a universal theme utilizing various subject areas, seamlessly integrating STEAM standards. It fosters cross-curricular learning and real-world applications through project-based learning activities.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees learn how to implement project-based learning, cross curricular concepts, and real-world scenarios to actively engage and assess students throughout the year.

SPEAKERS:
Katharine Kintz (Needlessly Nerdy: Allenhurst, GA)

Sponsoring Company: NOAA

Join us for a demo of our database of 1,300+ educational resources from NOAA. We host ocean, coast, Great Lakes, weather, and climate resources. Tour our lesson plans and activities and ask us your questions. Learn more at noaa.gov/education/resources. This session is appropriate for K-16 educators.

SPEAKERS:
Bekkah Lampe (NOAA Office of Education: College Park, MD), Kayla Smith (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: Silver Spring, MD)

Prepare for an exhilarating journey as you work to save the crew of a spacecraft in jeopardy. Work with a team on the ground to communicate a life-saving solution to the crew in space. Come be one of the great minds to save our crew! Ready-to-use lesson and chance to win a prize!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will receive a lesson that encourages communication and teamwork from their students. By participating in the activity, participants will have a first-hand look at how to conduct the lesson.

SPEAKERS:
Sabrina Ketter (Charleston Middle School: Charleston, AR), Missy Stubblefield (Charleston Middle Schoool: Charleston, AR)

The oil industry has many practical applications for teachers to use in the classroom. One of the less-explored topics is how oil is found. In this session, you will see a multidisciplinary lab where students explore for and extract oil, and deal with the economic and environmental costs as well.

TAKEAWAYS:
Oil drilling can be accurately modelled in a classroom setting to allow students to apply Earth Science concepts to understand how oil is made, explored for, and extracted out of the ground.

SPEAKERS:
Loren Klein (Academically Gifted Teacher: Lafayette, LA)

Sharing free Department of Defense and US Space Force online resources around careers and space science topics. Will have a "light saber" circuit make or take kit.

TAKEAWAYS:
Sharing free Department of Defense and US Space Force online resources around careers and space science topics. Will have a "light saber" circuit make or take kit.

SPEAKERS:
Deb Novak (AFRL STEM Academy: Albuquerque, NM)

Be a structural engineer for the day! Come design, build & test an earthquake proof structure while learning about Earthquakes. In this session we will review the MS ESS standards related to earthquakes & utilize the Engineering Standards to compete in a tallest earthquake proof tower challenge.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session will ignite a love for engineering while focusing on structural engineering as a career. We hope that teachers will be able to turn key this with their own students with these simple materials.

SPEAKERS:
Nicole Jessie (Haverstraw-Stony Point CSD: Garnerville, NY)

Admin breathing down your neck because post-pandemic reading scores are low? Let's look at the linguistic strands of reading and apply them to our Science classroom learning. Text structures for constructing meaning in reading are also sense-making structures for Science. Let me explain how...

TAKEAWAYS:
Morphemes, Syntax, Semantics, & Text Structures: Understanding and explaining the ways they overlap in reading instruction and science content instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Brook Frost (Ryan Middle School: Fairbanks, AK)

WaterMarks360 virtual field trips and curriculum/activity guides are free, open-source materials that support middle school NGSS standards and STEM education by highlighting Louisiana's coastal crisis and wetland restoration efforts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave this session with tools to virtually explore Louisiana's coastal landscape and to investigate the general geologic and regionally specific anthropogenic factors that have influenced positive and negative land change through history, including restoration strategies.

SPEAKERS:
Lauren Leonpacher (Coastal Wetlands Planning Protection and Restoration: Sunset, LA)

The Earth2Class (E2C) Program at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory enables secondary school students and teachers to access cutting-edge research by world-class geoscientists. This free program is provided through hybrid (on-campus) and zoom formats. I will describe its assets and availability.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students and teachers can learn about cutting-edge geposcience resesources.

SPEAKERS:
Michael Passow (Dwight Morrow HS (retd): Englewood, NJ)

If you live in North America, do your students know that a lot of people on Earth are having summer on December 25th? This lesson can be taught with just a lamp and a globe yet deeply challenges your students' concept of the seasons, no matter what hemisphere they live in.

TAKEAWAYS:
This lesson guides students towards making a claim about why there are opposite seasons in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere on a date that is familiar to most students (Dec 25). Using simple materials, students make a model to test their hypotheses and gather evidence.

SPEAKERS:
Chris Sullivan (St. Luke's Episcopal Day School: Baton Rouge, LA)

Engaging students in your classroom with citizen science experiments can be difficult. Come learn about how an entire grade level of science teachers developed, implemented, and evaluated a series of citizen science place-based (aina-based) lessons involving the watersheds and ocean of the area.

TAKEAWAYS:
Many teachers believe citizen science experiments can only be done outside of classrooms. This project supports the idea that citizen science and place-based learning experiences CAN be done in the classroom, and that these experiences are exceptionally motivating and engaging for students.

SPEAKERS:
Pascale Pinner (Hilo Intermediate School: Hilo, HI)

Explore global, environmental challenges with hands-on lessons that build skills in science, math and social sciences, while applying learning to authentic problems. Engage in collaborative problem solving, simulation and 3D modeling related to Human Impacts on Earth’s Systems.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will come away with interdisciplinary strategies for addressing ecology topics in the middle school classroom, with an emphasis on 3D learning, data literacy and student inquiry. They will also be able to align the presented activities to NGSS.

SPEAKERS:
Chantal Correll (Ascension Parish Schools: Prairieville, LA)

Come explore volcano-related resources and hands-on activities developed by the American Geosciences Institute in collaboration with the National Park Service. The ways in which volcanoes relate to sustainability will also be explored.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will understand how the United Nations SDGs can provide a context for learning. Making connections between volcanic activity and the SDGs using hands-on, standards-aligned instruction can be an effective way to highlight how the sciences are used to address global issues.

SPEAKERS:
Sequoyah McGee (American Geosciences Institute: Herico, VA), Lindsay Mossa (American Geosciences Institute: ANNAPOLIS, MD)

This poster presentation will showcase best practices to address that “all forms of energy production” have “risks as well as benefits.” The free, online Switch Classroom provides non-partisan content in this critical area of NGSS instruction. Adaptable for grades 4-12.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn practical strategies to teach energy source pros/cons aligned with NGSS, fostering equity and inclusion in STEM classrooms while empowering students as informed decision-makers for a sustainable future.

SPEAKERS:
Lynn Kistler (Switch Classroom: Pittsburgh, PA)

Middle school special educators share strategies to support reading, writing, and executive functioning in a science classroom. Attendees will have the opportunity to practice skills based on Orton-Gillingham, Writing Revolution tools, and Sarah Ward supports for executive functions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will experience classroom strategies that support students with language-based learning differences.

SPEAKERS:
Cristina Fabricant (Science Specialist: New York, NY)