The present-day Gulf of Mexico has long been known for its amazing diversity of sharks, rays, and skates. Join the Dauphin Island Sea Lab to learn a little known fact: Alabama leads the nation in extinct and extant shark species! Learn about and "dig" through coastal Alabama's geologic history!

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn about the paleontological history of northern Gulf of Mexico sharks, and why Alabama is a hot bed of past and present shark species, while giving attendees a chance to be amateur paleontologists by sieving their own northern Gulf coastal sands for evidence of this diversity.

SPEAKERS:
Greg Graeber (Dauphin Island Sea Lab: Dauphin Island, AL)

Sponsoring Company: Edvotek

Explore the world of forensic science with these fun and exciting escape room activities! Try forensic blood detection and agarose gel electrophoresis experiments, decipher clues, and solve puzzles. Learn to design your own escape room to have students unravel the evidence and free the innocent.

SPEAKERS:
Danielle Snowflack, PhD (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC), Brian Ell (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

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

SPEAKERS:
Rose Chaffee-Cohen (miniPCR: Cambridge, MA)

Sponsoring Company: Edvotek

Unleash the power of gene editing with your students using REAL CRISPR-Cas technology to knock out colorful genes in E. coli. Identify successful knockout based on the color of the cells. Experiment by switching RNA templates and analyzing results, letting your students prove the specificity of CRIS

SPEAKERS:
Danielle Snowflack, PhD (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC), Brian Ell (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

Dive into modeling the movement of ions and nutrients across membranes. Help your students connect theory with the results from popular homeostasis labs.

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

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

Molly the Labradoodle has surprise puppies. Students use Punnett squares and DNA gel electrophoresis to track the furnishings trait and determine the father. Mendelian genetics has never been this cute!

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

Humans’ arms race with pathogens shaped history and influences life today. Understanding the evolutionary ecology of diseases, including H1N1 flu, COVID and HIV, that infect two or more species is vital to understanding current and future threats to individual and public health.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn to use our fascinating relationships with infectious disease in demonstrating the importance of evolutionary and ecological concepts in medical practice, public health, and students’ lives.

SPEAKERS:
Joseph Levine (Science Writer and Producer: Concord, MA)

Sponsoring Company: Edvotek

Bring inquiry into your classroom with food science! Learn how to extract dyes from candy to analyze using agarose gel electrophoresis and paper chromatography. Students use the simple techniques as a starting point to design experiments, test hypotheses, and use STEM techniques to analyze results.

SPEAKERS:
Danielle Snowflack, PhD (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC), Brian Ell (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

What happens when you cook an egg? Is it possible to un-cook it? Investigate the characteristics of amino acids, the levels (and rules!) of protein folding, and how denaturing a protein alters its function in an engaging investigation of the Amino Acid Starter Kit.

SPEAKERS:
Mark Arnholt (3D Molecular Designs: Milwaukee, WI)

Sponsoring Company: PASCO Scientific

Discover how PASCO's innovative equipment seamlessly integrates with OpenSciEd's standards-based curriculum. Engage in hands-on Middle School investigations. See how sensor-based data transforms traditional labs into dynamic learning experiences, empowering students to think like scientists.

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

Use gel electrophoresis to investigate if someone was wrongfully convicted. Based on the principles from the FBI’s CODIS system, this forensics investigation allows your students to make connections between DNA analysis and its uses in the criminal justice system. Inspired by the Innocence Project.

SPEAKERS:
Rose Chaffee-Cohen (miniPCR: Cambridge, MA)

Sponsoring Company: Pets in the Classroom

Learn about new STEM tools teachers are using for innovative standards based instruction by engaging students with a classroom pet. 98% of teachers reporting see increase in student responsibility and student engagement. Grants are available to help teachers with pet expenses.

Have you always wanted to try project-based learning… but you aren’t sure how to start? Join the News Literacy Project as we walk attendees through the PBL design process to create an extension for our FREE news and media literacy educator resources.

TAKEAWAYS:
Presenters will engage educators in the development of a PBL experience for their students. Attendees will receive a demonstration of “Be Health Informed,” one of NLP’s STEM Checkology® lessons, and explore creating a PBL extension. Attendees will leave with a PBL planning template and project ideas.

SPEAKERS:
Brittney Smith (The University of South Carolina: Cincinnati, OH)

Sponsoring Company: Edvotek

You’ve planned the experiment and collected data, now let’s discuss the best way to analyze it. In this workshop, we’ll use PCR and ELISA to bring quantitative data analysis and statistics to the lab. Mastery of these skills is crucial to prepare students for careers in biotechnology and STEM.

SPEAKERS:
Danielle Snowflack, PhD (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC), Brian Ell (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

Teach topics ranging from protein function to genetic diseases with this engaging hands-on activity. It only takes one class period! Students help a fictional family obtain molecular diagnoses using gel electrophoresis. Bonus: a free hands-on activity to model sickle cell gene therapy treatments.

SPEAKERS:
Ally Huang (miniPCR: Cambridge, MA)

Sponsoring Company: PASCO Scientific

Learn how to facilitate simple hands-on photosynthesis experiments with wireless sensors. Help students collect and analyze carbon exchange data from plant leaves in real-time! Dispel student doubts in their understanding of photosynthesis and respiration.

Explore the relationship between adaptations and niches using an interactive lesson from the National Center for Science Education. This activity uses phenotypes and karyotypes to illustrate the complexities of creating phylogenetic trees of marsupials and placental mammals.

TAKEAWAYS:
The goal of this session is for participants to experience a lesson from students’ perspective and take the free materials back to their own classrooms. The purpose of the activity is to address the NGSS standards related to evidence for evolution, natural selection, and adaptation.

SPEAKERS:
Blake Touchet (National Center for Science Education: ABBEVILLE, LA)

Experience how discussion diamonds can help support students’ argumentation skills and Claim Evidence Reasoning writing through peer discourse. This workshop will introduce the discussion diamond protocol and allow participants to engage in the activity from the students’ perspective.

TAKEAWAYS:
The discussion diamond protocol is a versatile tool that can be adapted for students of varying skill levels and across any subject. It provides a supportive environment for students to engage in discourse and develop their argumentation skills.

SPEAKERS:
Nicole Ciccarello (Beverly Hills High School: Los Angeles, CA)

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

Empower your high school students to unlock the secrets of enzyme specificity through hands-on biotech design challenges

SPEAKERS:
Mark Arnholt (3D Molecular Designs: Milwaukee, WI)

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

Experience an easy-to-implement genetic engineering lab with simple teacher prep - no starter cultures or incubator required! This robust lab allows students to visualize the transformation of bacteria from white to bright blue using a protocol that can be completed in a 45-minute class period.

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

The session will walk participants through the Teaching and Learning Cycle, the WIDA pedagogical framework that supports the development of students’ content knowledge and literacy skills through multiple modalities.

TAKEAWAYS:
The participants will observe and receive lessons on the Teaching and Learning Cycle (Writing with Multilingual Learners) in 6th-grade and high school science classes.

SPEAKERS:
Leslie Jones (Manassas City Public Schools: Culpeper, VA)

The Oregon Coast STEM Hub has been leading transdisciplinary work with 3-person teams of a math teacher, a science teacher and a marine scientist. Teams develop units for grades 6-12 with authentic phenomena and data to integrate math and science standards and create open source materials.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn the process for building transdisciplinary math and science units and gain access to open source data and lessons.

SPEAKERS:
Micki Halsey Randall (Blanchet Catholic School: Silverton, OR), Carrie Averill (Tillamook Jr. High School: Tillamook, OR), Slade Sapora (Tillamook High School: Tillamook, OR), Kim Norberg (Teacher: TILLAMOOK, OR), Kama Almasi (Oregon Coast STEM Hub: Yachats, OR)

Sponsoring Company: Edvotek

Explore Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR in our hands-on electrophoresis workshop! This powerful biotechnology breakthrough is making dramatic changes to human health RIGHT NOW. Dive into CRISPR biology with quick experiments modeling cures for genetic diseases like Sickle Cell Anemia and Cystic Fibrosis.

SPEAKERS:
Danielle Snowflack, PhD (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC), Brian Ell (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: Bio-Rad Laboratories

Dive into forensic science's role in justice with our workshop. Study a cold case solved by DNA based technologies like RFLPs & PCR, and its legal implications. Ideal for law and science enthusiasts.

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

Investigate transcription and translation without culturing cells! In this inquiry-based lab, RNA glows green and protein glows red, so you can see gene expression happen in a test tube. Use experimental data to test hypotheses about variables that affect transcription and translation.

SPEAKERS:
Ally Huang (miniPCR: Cambridge, MA)

Sponsoring Company: Texas Instruments

A decomposing corpse is found in a field. Four possible missing persons fit the description. But who is it? Using clues near the scene will help determine identity. Forensic anthropologist Diane France helped to develop this free middle school and high school forensic science lesson.

Sponsoring Company: Edvotek

Wildlife conservators often return captive-bred animals to their native habitats to rewild the area. In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore the use of RFLP analysis and phylogenetics in conservation biology to analyze the DNA samples of two lions. Can we return them to their ancestral home?

SPEAKERS:
Danielle Snowflack, PhD (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC), Brian Ell (Edvotek Inc.: Washington, DC)

Sponsoring Company: Bio-Rad Laboratories

Discover forensic biotech in our workshop. Perform Bradford Assay for biological sex identification from fingerprints, and delve into biochemical analysis with practical skills.

Sponsoring Company: miniPCR bio

PTC tasting is a classic way to link genotype and phenotype. Use PCR and gel electrophoresis to determine if students have taster or non-taster alleles for bitter perception. Learn about our all-new curriculum and see how easy it can be to bring molecular genetics to your class!

Sponsoring Company: Carolina Biological Supply Company

Add excitement to your class with live organisms! Explore how organisms find food and interact. Discuss how these two hands-on activities can be applied to younger students: How creatures find food, and to older students: Social behavior and inter-species interactions.

SPEAKERS:
Laurie Nixon (Watauga High School: Blowing Rock, NC)

Sponsoring Company: Texas Instruments

Bring a friend with you to attend, "Zombie Apocalypse!". Just make sure you can run faster! Zombies provide a great way to get students interested in understanding how diseases move through a population. Great for middle and high school students.

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

Explore DNA and RNA with three different physical models. Discover strategies to help students learn about nucleotide structure, base-pairing, DNA directionality, and even Epigenetics!

SPEAKERS:
Mark Arnholt (3D Molecular Designs: Milwaukee, WI)

Sponsoring Company: Anatomy in Clay

They will acquire the knowledge to engage science students with immediate, hands-on learning using a proven method that is nationally recognized to increase student retention and test scores. Come build the rotator cuff with us!

SPEAKERS:
John-Paul Theriault (ANATOMY IN CLAY Learning Systems: Loveland, CO)

Sponsoring Company: Bio-Rad Laboratories

Join our workshop to explore Ozempic's dual action on diabetes and weight loss. Learn about semaglutide's role in blood sugar and appetite regulation through hands-on ELISA simulations.

Sponsoring Company: PASCO Scientific

Discover how PASCO's innovative equipment seamlessly integrates with OpenSciEd's standards-based curriculum. Engage in hands-on Middle School investigations. See how sensor-based data transforms traditional labs into dynamic learning experiences, empowering students to think like scientists.

Students will be presented with the question if racism is a disease. What is racism? What is a disease? What did you discover?

TAKEAWAYS:
Does racism affect the human body?

SPEAKERS:
Andrea Baxter (Stem Facilitator: Goshen, AL)

Participants will receive a worm culture to interact with, record observations, and conduct research to determine and list facts about the worms. They will then use the results of this research to write a nuanced claim about the worm culture, using facts as evidence to explain their reasoning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about hands-on activities that engage students in science and research, and strategies to improve evidence-based writing in the science classroom including a CER checklist, scaffolding techniques for struggling writers, vocabulary banks, sentence frames, and peer feedback.

SPEAKERS:
Maureen Barclay (Captain Shreve High School: Shreveport, LA), Amy Douglas Kendrick (Jena High School: Jena, LA)

Sponsoring Company: 3D Molecular Designs

Model how our DNA genome replicates – the first stage of the flow of genetic information and preserves genome integrity.

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

Sponsoring Company: Bio-Rad Laboratories

Experience CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing experiments designed for your students' learning! In this hands-on workshop edit a chromosomal gene, complete with essential experimental controls, using the same cut-and-repair technology used in medicinal and agricultural applications.

Sponsoring Company: PASCO Scientific

Learn how to facilitate simple hands-on photosynthesis experiments with wireless sensors. Help students collect and analyze carbon exchange data from plant leaves in real-time! Dispel student doubts in their understanding of photosynthesis and respiration.

Sponsoring Company: Activities in a Pinch

Health Science – Activities in a Pinch is a full, interactive educational program designed to help life science teachers use more “show” than “tell” in their student instruction of anatomy, medical terminology, physiology, biology and zoology concepts.

SPEAKERS:
Denise Abbott (: Orem, UT)

Sponsoring Company: Bio-Rad Laboratories

Discover the role of Scenedesmus obliquus in biotechnology, from biofuels to wastewater treatment and microplastics detection. This hands-on workshop includes a powerful teaching lab for photosynthesis and cellular respiration, and allows students to engage in structured and open inquiry

We will present the efforts of twenty secondary schools and partners at Stanford University to create authentic Drosophila-based research experiences, and how you can too!

TAKEAWAYS:
Through coordination with the Stan-X Network of schools, students and teachers can learn science through authentic, open-ended, publishable genetics research.

SPEAKERS:
Nicole Lantz (The Lawrenceville School: Lawrenceville, NJ)

Empower students to take action with an in-depth study of biodiversity and sustainability of urban forests. Use iNaturalist’s Seek App and analyze data from a comprehensive study to examine challenges to urban forests’ sustainability and advocate for communities by developing possible solutions.

TAKEAWAYS:
A lesson that can be used with students to use understanding of biodiversity and sustainability to advocate for their local communities, including use of a free app to collect species data, opportunities to utilize AI tools, and suggestions for community-facing products that students can create.

SPEAKERS:
Laurie Jack (Humble ISD: Humble, TX), Elissa Griffin (Humble ISD: Kingwood, TX)

And imagine futures better. Pair dreams, plans, strategies, and goals with climate science in this expansive lesson that utilizes computer simulations and the principals of climate literacy to expand students’ views of what is possible and build system understandings of the climate crisis.

TAKEAWAYS:
Build confidence in helping students personalize what climate modeling means for their own life.

SPEAKERS:
Luke Gliddon (Teacher: Minneapolis, MN)

Under a NIIMBL grant, NC biopharma industries combined with NC STEM outreach organizations to create a fun and interactive activity to showcase the biotech career pathway.

TAKEAWAYS:
My Future in Biotech is a comprehensive pilot program which addresses the unprecedented growth and demand for a skilled workforce in the biomanufacturing industry. This presentation will go through the pilots, the activity, and what we've learned from the experience and students and teacher feedback.

SPEAKERS:
Courtney Behrle (BioNetwork: Greenville, NC)

Want to implement an experiential laboratory-based neuroscience program at your school, as a stand-alone course or embedded within biology or anatomy and physiology courses? This session will share field-tested methods for students and faculty to explore this emerging science alongside one another.

TAKEAWAYS:
Neuroscience is a rapidly progressing field that captivates student interest and can create a model environment for students and faculty to learn alongside one another while fostering 21st-century skills including experimental design, scientific research, and interdisciplinary investigations.

SPEAKERS:
Hannah Sullivan (Mounds Park Academy: St. Paul, MN)

In keeping with an established New Orleans tradition, different colors of king cake babies are used to examine how the frequency of genes can change in a population following a natural disaster as some of the variations of babies have traits that will benefit their survival while others do not.

TAKEAWAYS:
A demonstration will accompany the presentation that shows how the bottleneck effect can alter gene frequency when the size of a population is severely reduced. This model can be used to incorporate Punnett squares, pedigree charts, genetic drift, and natural selection.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Gingold (Willow School NOLA: New Orleans, LA)

This presentation shows the benefits and methods for bringing local marine animals into the classroom for long term growth in mindset about local ecosystems through hands-on husbandry experiences.

TAKEAWAYS:
Bringing local animals into the classroom allows students to see a local ecosystem inside the classroom instead of just from a textbook and allows them to feel a "sense of place" for the ecosystem, getting them interested in protecting the ecosystem.

SPEAKERS:
Savanna Finley (Science Teacher: Sarasota, FL)

Sponsoring Company: Activities in a Pinch

Health Science – Activities in a Pinch is a full, interactive educational program designed to help life science teachers use more “show” than “tell” in their student instruction of anatomy, medical terminology, physiology, biology and zoology concepts.

SPEAKERS:
Denise Abbott (: Orem, UT)

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

How do we scaffold and prepare students for 3-dimensional, sensemaking assessments? Join us to explore how Louisiana and other states are using InnerOrbit’s bank of scaffolded questions and phenomena to gather actionable data and to prepare for the LEAP and other state tests.

Learn how one program developed and sustained classroom-based partnerships with scientists to strengthen teacher practice. PlantingScience is a free online resource for teachers. It provides volunteer scientists, resources, and activities to support innovation in teaching, learning, and mentoring.

TAKEAWAYS:
The Planting Science Student Teacher Scientist Partnership provides a unique opportunity for teachers to provide inquiry experiences for their students, by connecting volunteer scientists to student teams for student-centered research projects. Learn how to access the free PlantingScience resources.

SPEAKERS:
Jenine Cotton-Proby (BSCS Science Learning: Waldorf, MD)

ASSET, an NIH SEPA funded program at WashU STL, offers modules that nurture students’ innate curiosity through hands-on exploration of biology using safe, easily manipulated model organism, Tetrahymena. Modules are paired with FREE lending materials designed to stimulate inquiry-based learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be introduced to ASSET and will conduct modified lab activities to see how ASSET can be used in the classroom to address topics like microscope use, cell parts and processes (phagocytosis & osmolarity), chemotaxis, and the effects of smoking, vaping, and alcohol on living cells.

SPEAKERS:
Courtney Hausner (Oakville Senior High: Saint Louis, MO), Anne Deken (John Burroughs School: St. Louis, MO), Alexandra Forgerson (Instructional Specialist: University City, MO)

Learn how to use low-cost materials to effectively teach biology students how to use a cladogram model to interpret and test predictions of evolutionary relationships.

TAKEAWAYS:
Identify key features of cladograms and learn to create a cladogram model using pipe cleaners and using plastic pony beads given provided different character states.

SPEAKERS:
Mark Little (Broomfield High School-Retired: Arvada, CO)

Use agriculture to showcase evolutionary relationships with cladistics. Look at the shared characteristics of plants to construct cladograms and interpret data. Free classroom materials and prizes.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learners will engage in an argument from evidence as they discuss the evolutionary relationships of corn and will identify unique traits between corn species, create outgroups to build a cladogram, and create an explanation for evolutionary relationships.

SPEAKERS:
Heather Bryan (Nourish the Future - Education Projects, LLC: McComb, OH)

Sponsoring Company: InnerOrbit

In this session we’ll provide concrete strategies to use throughout each of your units to help students engage with phenomena and sensemaking consistently, so they can more confidently approach the phenomena-driven LEAP (and other state tests) and new phenomena in instruction.

Learn how students create and execute immune system posters, which combine analogy, visuals, and concise explanations. This is a low-cost and creative way for students to demonstrate their understanding of the complex workings of the immune system in an engaging and accessible manner!

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will see samples of student work demonstrating this approach's effectiveness in understanding the immune system. Teachers will come away with the scaffolding, instructions, and rubrics of this immune system visual/oral project to use in their own classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Beth Pethel (Science Faculty: Hudson, OH)

Come experience a new way to review that will have your students saying, "YES! IT'S REVIEW DAY!" Teachers will be introduced to a variety of games that can be applied to any subject area! These games have proven to increase student engagement with material and retention of knowledge.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will leave with new ways to engage students in reviews through using games in the classroom which support students of all levels and lead to increased retention of information.

SPEAKERS:
Amanda Goodwin (Olive Branch H.S.: Southaven, MS)