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)

When students encounter intriguing phenomena, their innate instincts to question and explore are activated. To truly grasp this concept, you have to experience it! We're going to go through a set of learning experiences (shortened for time) that are based on a phenomenon.

TAKEAWAYS:
This immersive journey into the heart of science education, where phenomena are the gateway to deeper understanding and lifelong curiosity, can be integrated into any science classroom. Invaluable phenomena resources will be shared to enrich lessons and foster a culture of inquiry.

SPEAKERS:
Sara Tolman (SET2Teach, LLC/Idaho Department of Education: Boise, ID)

Investigating the motion of a pendulum will help your students understand gravity's effect on an object and Newton's First Law of Motion.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be able to relate pendulums to Newton's first law of motion and determine how the motion of the pendulum is related to its length.

SPEAKERS:
Dr. Diane Smith (Wells Academic and Performing Arts Complex: Flowood, MS)

Bring your computers and join this workshop to explore innovative approaches to enhance science instruction and support teacher effectiveness through personalized learning and AI technology. Develop and share practical examples and leave empowered to transform your science classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to integrate personalized learning and AI technology into science instruction. Through hands-on exploration of personalized curriculum, instructional strategies, and assessment practices, educators will leave equipped to transform their classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Bonnie Diehl (Catholic Central High School: Burlington, WI)

Explore free existing K12 resources and contribute to the development of new resources through collaborative engagement with three US NSF-funded facilities. Experiment with activities on electromagnetism, light and wave interference.

TAKEAWAYS:
Resources from NSF facilities are useful in connecting the NGSS aligned K-12 classroom to current, cutting-edge science efforts that are implementing Science and Engineering practices in real-time.

SPEAKERS:
Carlos Villa (National High Magnetic Field Laboratory: Tallahassee, FL), Robert Sparks (NSF's NOIRLab: Tucson, AZ), William Katzman (LIGO's Science Education Center: Baton Rouge, LA)

The Question Formulation Technique (QFT), created by the Right Question Institute, will be explored in a hands-on, multidisciplinary, teacher-to-teacher training session exploring “How can we work together on creating more opportunities for all students to ask their own questions?”

TAKEAWAYS:
This session will give educators a proven and novel instructional strategy, and teachers who participate in the session will understand the mechanics of the QFT strategy, have experience practicing the QFT strategy, and obtain concrete examples of how to use the QFT strategy in their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Katy Connolly (Right Question Institute: Cambridge, MA), Maureen McGrail (University of Notre Dame: Notre Dame, IN)

This session is the third of a series of four - join for one or more - focused on early childhood science and language arts integration. Engage with concrete examples of interdisciplinary connections focused on physical science. Part of the NSTA Early Childhood/Lower Elementary Science Pathway.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be able to plan and implement instruction that integrates early childhood physical science and language arts learning targets with fidelity.

SPEAKERS:
Jenn Brown-Whale (Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE): Randallstown, MD)

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)

This 60-minute workshop presents a new NSF-funded Middle School science storyline curriculum unit called Build it Green! (BIG!). BIG! addresses human impacts of energy systems through a green building engineering design process.

TAKEAWAYS:
Workshop participants will learn about our 14-lesson unit, the standards it addresses, and its unique use of digital tools, architectural design, and hands-on learning. Participants have a chance to engage with a new digital design tool that was made for BIG! using authentic architectural data.

SPEAKERS:
Caiden Webb (Graduate Student: Columbia, MO), Rebekah Snyder (University of Missouri: CLINTON, MO)

This workshop will focus on describing methods that physics teachers can use to develop instructional units leveraging students' cultural resources as a way to engage with physics ideas. We will go through the process of developing these units and designing assessments.

TAKEAWAYS:
The takeaway from this workshop is that physics teachers will gain a reference and a clear outline of steps for developing instructional units. These units will be especially useful for students from backgrounds where physics is not typically emphasized.

SPEAKERS:
Clausell Mathis (Assistant Professor: Lansing, MI)

Students explore Newton’s Laws of Motion as a member of an automotive engineering team preparing for the Egg Dash. These collaborative engineers investigate speed and velocity while thinking critically and creatively to design and optimize a model race car capable of beating a rival team’s racer.

TAKEAWAYS:
This hands-on session will present a micro- and macro-look at a dynamic, 21-Century unit in collaborative science. This STEM unit encourages students to communicate their findings, think both critically and creatively, and collaborate to produce a successful racer in a final performance assessment.

SPEAKERS:
Samantha Meehan (Classroom Teacher: Brookline, NH), Gregory Snoke (Brookline School District: Nashua, NH)

Discover how the concept of wing loading influences the physics of airplane flight, bird wings, and wind-dispersed seeds. From aerodynamics to ecological adaptations, this hands-on lesson will explore the interconnectedness of flight across diverse organisms and systems.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to calculate and apply the concept of wing loading to the flight dynamics of airplanes, birds, and wind-dispersed seeds. Life science and physical science teachers will leave with lesson plans and resources to take back to their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Matthew McVay (Clinical Lecturer: Auburn, AL)

Participants will build a fan cart to explore Newton's 3rd Law of Motion which would be appropriate for middle school and high school physical science.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn a deeper understanding of the physical phenomena of Newton's 3rd Law with action-reaction pairs as it occurs with building their own small fan cart.

SPEAKERS:
Sophia Crook (LIGO Livingston Observatory: Livingston, 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)

Move beyond the need to buy and break eggs and into the world of the digital egg drop. Participants will learn how to program a digital data collection device to measure acceleration, build their egg drop device, and engineer improvements until they can keep their digital egg from cracking!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will employ all aspects of STEM to the egg drop, including the physics of collisions, the technology of data collection, the engineering of their egg device and modifications, and the math used in analyzing collisions—all without the mess and waste of a typical egg drop!

SPEAKERS:
Brad Posnanski (Comsewogue High School: Port Jefferson Station, NY), Todd Graba (Crystal Lake South High School: Crystal Lake, IL)

Academic games can support the understanding of challenging concepts. Come play device-free comprehensive unit review games that are designed to provide an opportunity for all chemistry students to problem solve and think critically while working as a team in a growth-mindset environment.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will walk away with device-free game materials and proven strategies that encourage collaboration and communication while increasing students' application of concepts in 14 units of the high school chemistry curriculum. All resources are free, editable & adaptable to various levels taught.

SPEAKERS:
Laura Hessling (New Trier High School, Winnetka Campus: Winnetka, IL), Elaine Kollar (New Trier High School, Winnetka, IL (retired): Northbrook, IL), Tracy Smith (New Trier High School, Winnetka Campus: Winnetka, IL)

Create large scale models and diagrams on a wide variety of subjects in open spaces both on inside floors and outdoors. Learn how to get the most out of your school building spaces and engage your students’ interests using inexpensive materials and kinesthetic activities!

TAKEAWAYS:
You and your students will learn how to make and use large scale models to explore many scientific topics. Using materials like electrical tape, sidewalk chalk, rope and other simple materials, we will make and use large scale models of an ellipse, heart and body systems, cells, water cycle.

SPEAKERS:
David Ebersole (Greece Athena Middle School: Caledonia, NY)

Chat GPT is a powerful language model that can be used to create background knowledge for lessons. By using Chat GPT, educators can help students get a starting point for their research and provide them with the necessary information to explore various topics such as periodic table, environment issu

TAKEAWAYS:
One takeaway from this session is that you will understand that ChatGPT is a powerful tool for teachers. This application will allow you to answer questions or ideas you have and improve research activities that might be difficult for students.

SPEAKERS:
Ricardo Padilla (Brookhurst Jr HIgh School: Placentia, CA)

Join us for an interactive workshop where we delve into research-based methods for seamlessly weaving student discourse and writing into hands-on activities. Discover strategies to engage students in discussions and foster writing skills while they actively participate in learning experiences.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn to incorporate strategies that promote student discourse and writing when students engage in hands-on activities. These strategies are research based and focus on ensuring students walk away with deep content understanding while engaging in an interactive learning experiences.

SPEAKERS:
Ashley Shine (Garland Independent School Dis: Richardson, TX), Jawan Wiltz (Science Instructional Design Facilitator: Wylie, TX), Leon Chatman (Garland Independent School District: Garland, TX)

We live in a 3D world. Do your assessments? Come learn how to measure the dimensionality of your assessments and how to write two- and three-dimensional questions. Participants will be given time to apply their learning to their own assessments to integrate the CCCs and SEPs.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to write two- and three-dimensional questions and edit current assessment questions to integrate the cross-cutting concepts and science and engineering practices.

SPEAKERS:
Laura Cohen (Lake Zurich High School: Wauconda, IL), McKenna Serowka (Lake Zurich High School: Lake Zurich, IL)

Join us as a young scientist to investigate different sounds and how and why they occur. Using simple tools, engage your curiosity about the phenomena of sound as you delve into sensemaking to figure out what causes sound to occur, and how you can stop, start, and change sound.

TAKEAWAYS:
Engage in teacher play, investigate making sense of how sound is made, how to change sound, how to create your own song with rubber bands and a simple board, plus explain all of it with your own words/drawings. First 50 participants will leave with rubber bands, a simple board, and an investigation idea.

SPEAKERS:
Lisa Chizek (Iowa State University: Toledo, IA)

The various metals and alloys used in the minting of the US penny over the years will provide for rich explorations. We will share activities that combine some very basic lab activities conducted by some of our chemistry classes with detailed mathematical modeling done by the students in statistics.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will collect and 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)

Density of Stellar Materials is a hands-on interactive workshop that focuses on understanding density and volume, through a series of practical tests, working out the simulation of stellar materials low and high density as they undergo the life cycle of stars.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to collect data through measurement and use number skills in a practical context. This workshop incorporates math and science comparing the results with observational surveying.

SPEAKERS:
Vernita Adkins (LSU-LIGO Physics and Astronomy Demos (LLPAD): Baton Rouge, LA)

This session will provide demos, activities, and advice on how to teach Physics based on NGSS to students at all levels in a secondary setting. New or perhaps new to the subject teachers will leave the session energized and ready to implement new ideas in their classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will be involved in an interactive discussion and conduct various demos and activities aligned with NGSS. They will also learn how to adapt Three Dimensional Learning and phenomena to activities presented.

SPEAKERS:
Misty Heredia (UTRGV: Brownsville, TX)

Explore through six hands-on stations just as your students would! Confidently teach energy forms and transformations to elementary students with experiments that showcase the science behind everyday objects – batteries, toy cars, glow sticks, an apple, yo-yo, and more!

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be able to take hands-on experiments and background information that allow elementary students to explore the different forms of energy and how they are transformed right back to their classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Kimberly Swan (The NEED Project: Manassas, VA)

This session explores how productive uncertainty in science investigations can support meaningful engagement in science practices and conceptual understanding. Participants will engage with uncertainty, analyze examples of elementary students grappling with uncertainty, and explore tools for use.

TAKEAWAYS:
Uncertainty is core to sense-making at all ages. We can elicit and build from specific forms of uncertainty as children move between phenomenon, investigation, evidence, and explanation to support productive classroom sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Annabel Stoler (Boston University: Malden, MA), Eve Manz (Boston University: Boston, MA)

Test some heat-treated metal samples; practice your math skills and artistry with a STEAM activity; work in groups for an engineering challenge! There’s a little something for everyone and we won’t judge you for wanting to be hot and cheap in the classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will leave with at least 3 useful lab activities giving opportunities for measurement, math, engineering, collaborative work, and an understanding of the materials around us. All of the activities use easy to find and household materials that are available at low cost.

SPEAKERS:
Briana Richardson (Washington High School: Columbus, OH)

This session will engage participants in an engineering task using a project management approach called Scrum. Embedded throughout the experience, we will demonstrate how we explicitly teach students SEL. We will share our classroom experiences and strategies to promote SEL and engineering design.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how they can embed an agile project management approach called Scrum and SEL into Engineering Design. We will show strategies we have used to teach SEL and Scrum that have resulted in much more productive group work.

SPEAKERS:
Kathryn Borton (Science Teacher and Ed.D Student: Nevada, IA), Jesse Wilcox (University of Northern Iowa: Cedar Falls, IA)

Explore density with hands-on activities in 'Layers of Learning: Exploring Density through Student Sensemaking.' Engage in creating density columns to understand matter and enhance science teaching with practical strategies.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn to use density columns for teaching, apply sensemaking in science education, and integrate student-driven inquiry to boost understanding and engagement.

SPEAKERS:
Anthony Cohutt (Thurston Middle School: Sharon, MA)

Physical and engaging classroom activity to explore motion calculations and graphing.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers explore motion graphing from students perspective, learning tricks to address common misconceptions.

SPEAKERS:
Mishael Sedas (LIGO Livingston Observatory: Geismar, LA), Sophia Crook (LIGO Livingston Observatory: Livingston, LA)

We will explore the processes of a STEM project following the Engineering Design Process (EDP) by using data collected by sensors to help teams evaluate the effectiveness of their project.

TAKEAWAYS:
How can we encourage teams to use sensors in their STEM project so that they will better understand the impact of their plan.

SPEAKERS:
David Young (Enter confirmation #: Fayetteville, AR)

Increase student engagement in analysis and evaluation of real data. Engage students of different ability levels in mathematical models with measurements not previously accessible in the classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
Collect and 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 several wireless sensors to maximize instructional time.

SPEAKERS:
Karlheinz Haas (retired: Tequesta, FL)

Good problem-solving in physics is more than algebraic manipulation. Students can learn and you can assess problem-solving through multiple avenues, including graphs, representations, and more.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to assess student problem-solving ability and conceptual understanding through students' use of multiple representations and approaches in physics classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Christopher Moore (University of Nebraska Omaha: Omaha, NE)

In our Exciting, hands-on workshop participants will get to learn about and experience excited electrons as a part of the modern atomic theory and excited molecules in gases. Participants will leave with relevant materials, supply lists, vendor information and instructions to use in their classes.

TAKEAWAYS:
In this workshop, we will demonstrate various examples of exciting electrons using heat, visible light, ultraviolet light, chemical energy and electrical energy. In addition, participants will investigate the relationships that exist in gases between temperature, pressure and volume.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Este (Fontainebleau High School: Abita Springs, LA), Cylinda Barron (Retired: Slidell, LA)

How can we create a visual representation of sound waves? This session will explore a cross curricular PBL unit that takes students through the process of creating visual art from a sound recording.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will explore an overview of a cross-curricular PBL unit on creating art from sound waves created in the Audacity app. Attendees will practice creating and exporting a sound wave and then using a graphic design app to create an art piece. Student samples of 3D artwork will be displayed.

SPEAKERS:
Cheryl Szurkowski (Ursuline Academy: Aston, PA), Eileen Koenig (Ursuline Academy: Cochranville, PA)

Experience the fascinating world of color perception through two intriguing phenomena: colored shadows and afterimages. Experience light color through hands-on exploration and captivating demonstrations. These are ready-to-implement activities for your class (NGSS-aligned).

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers engaging in this fun activity will gain insights into the mechanisms of human color perception, providing them with engaging ways to use these hands-on experiments and captivating demonstrations into their curriculum to enhance students' understanding of waves, light, color and vision.

SPEAKERS:
Sophia Crook (LIGO Livingston Observatory: Livingston, LA), Mishael Sedas (LIGO Livingston Observatory: Geismar, LA)

Participants will experience a lesson designed to use argument from evidence to learn about how the structure and function of natural and designed macromolecules differs. Briefly learn how technology-mediated lesson study has helped rural science teachers collaborate to design 3 dimensional lessons.

TAKEAWAYS:
In one class period, students will make a claim from initial evidence and then revise that claim as they gather evidence through five different tests used to teach them about the structure and function of cotton and spandex.

SPEAKERS:
Rebecca Sansom (Texas A&M University: College Station, TX), Douglas Morris (Carbon High School: Price, UT)

Learn to apply some cool technology to the old calculations of wavelength, energy, and frequency. We will apply some vertical whiteboarding with some calculator technology and a dab of coding to engage students in the classification of the electromagnetic spectrum with lights, sounds, and pictures.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to enhance the rudimentary calculations of energy, frequency, and wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum with hands on activities and ideas.

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

Leveraging guided inquiry strategies we will support educators' interactions with the National Association for Geoscience Teachers' Teach the Earth resource collection. Our goal is to discover new ways to bring Earth & Space Science into the other disciplines.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to navigate the Teach the Earth collection, identify multiple resources that support their curriculum, and share ideas on more effective ways to integrate ESS in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics courses.

SPEAKERS:
Cheryl Manning (OrbWeaver Consulting, LLC: EVERGREEN, CO)