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)

This workshop looks at Newton’s Laws of Motion in the movement of everyday objects.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will walk away with immediate lessons and activities for their classrooms that can be adjusted to their grade level needs.

SPEAKERS:
Krystal Swain (Dutchtown Middle School: Geismar, LA), Dawn Perret (Sherwood Middle Academic Magnet School: Baton Rouge, LA)

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)

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)

We will be sharing activities for a 6-8 aligned unit on force and motion. The activities will include: a hands-on activity with technology to collect and analyze data that will aid in calculating speed and a hands-on activity using technology to graph motion in real time.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will experience physics fun for 6-8 Science as they apply to the new standards. We will use Hot Wheels to collect data to calculate speed and create motion graphs using hands-on technology.

SPEAKERS:
Becky Walker (Hudson Middle School: Lufkin, TX), Amy Rush (Lufkin Middle School: Lufkin, TX)

We will go through a set of hands-on, physical and digital experiences to learn how objects vibrate and make sound, and how that sound can be turned into music. Participants will get access to free curriculum resources and digital tools created by music neuroscientist and sound artist, Victor Minces

TAKEAWAYS:
You will learn how to use everyday objects and free digital tools to explore the science of sound and music. You will create beats and sound compositions, and tune an orchestra made with beakers and water as an anchoring phenomenon to bring to your students.

SPEAKERS:
Alec Barron (UC San Diego)

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)

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)

We will be sharing activities for a 6 & 8 Force, Motion, and Energy aligned unit using hands-on laboratory investigations, simulations and technology to compare the characteristics of amplitude, frequency, and wavelength in transverse and longitudinal waves, including the electromagnetic spectrum.

TAKEAWAYS:
The activities the participants will experience will include: a hands-on activity with technology to collect and analyze data by comparing the characteristics of amplitude, frequency, and wavelength in transverse and longitudinal waves, including the electromagnetic spectrum.

SPEAKERS:
Amy Rush (Lufkin Middle School: Lufkin, TX), Becky Walker (Hudson Middle School: Lufkin, TX)

Attendees use acoustic data from marine soundscapes to assess the ecological dynamics, functions, and resilience of coral reef ecosystems. The activities incorporate concepts from physics, technology, and biology enabling learners to address conservation challenges using authentic data.

TAKEAWAYS:
Sounds can be analyzed by frequency and amplitude - measures that serve as a “fingerprint” of a sound’s source including species identification and behavior. Because ecosystem health is entwined with biodiversity, bioacoustic monitoring is especially effective in marine environments.

SPEAKERS:
Jocelyn Miller (E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation: Chapel Hill, NC)

A hands-on beam lab produces graphs critical to understanding properties for engineering.  With focus on making, interpreting, and teaching the graphs, real-world uses and applications of stress-strain curves in engineering will be shared and help to illustrate the importance of this type of graph.

TAKEAWAYS:
Real-world uses and applications of stress-strain curves in engineering will be shared and help to illustrate the importance of these graphs.

SPEAKERS:
Scott Spohler (Global Impact STEM Academy: Springfield, OH)

Participants will use patterns seen through the use of red, green, and violet lasers being shown at copper wires and strands of hair to learn about diffraction of light. Briefly learn how technology-mediated lesson study has helped rural science teachers collaborate to design 3 dimensional lessons.

TAKEAWAYS:
During the session, participants will shine lasers at copper wire and strands of hair to construct an explanation for how diffraction patterns can be used to make sense of the phenomena.

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

Using phenomena to teach Wave Particle Duality (WPD) helps students understand this crazy property of light that is critical for understanding how technology works. By sequencing several activities appropriately, students can understand that light is both a particle and a wave. Mystery solved.

TAKEAWAYS:
Clarification of how light has dual properties; sequencing of phenomena, and activities help guide students to a deeper understanding. Teachers will have instructional resources to teach WPD.

SPEAKERS:
Karen Matsler (University of Texas Arlington: Arlington, TX)

Force and motion, simple machines & energy transfer are just a few of the science topics that students learn as the build their own interactive roller coaster projects.  Using just paper, tape and scissors, we will show you how to easily include this fun educational hands-on activity in your class.

TAKEAWAYS:
Hands-on, engaging projects can be done with easily accessible inexpensive supplies. It does not have to cost money to do intereactive experiments

SPEAKERS:
Elaine Sevin (Isidore Newman School: New Orleans, LA), Godwyn Morris (Dazzling Discoveries / Skill Mill NYC: New York, NY)

Attendees will participate in several activities designed to make atomic scale ideas visible and understandable. We will be looking at the Rutherford Gold Foil Experiment, the meaning of Schrodinger probability plots, and covalent bonding.

TAKEAWAYS:
Students learn best by doing and experiencing. This workshop will present new ways to help students experience atomic scale chemistry in a way that they can touch and make sense of.

SPEAKERS:
Larry McAfoos (Jack Barrack Hebrew Academy: Bryn Mawr, PA)

Use STEM web-based analysis software and basic physics gravitation and centripetal acceleration equations to determine if a stellar core is a white dwarf or neutron star.

TAKEAWAYS:
Light curves generated from web-based js9 image analysis software can be used to determine the period of rotation and identify objects as white dwarfs or pulsars using Newton’s Universal Law of gravitation and centripetal acceleration calculations.

SPEAKERS:
Pamela Perry (Lewiston High School: Brunswick, ME)

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)

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)

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)

Explore how students can change a metal’s properties through alloying, heat-treating, and/or cold-working. Classroom activities that will enhance chemistry understanding of atomic structure and real world engineering relevance. Deepen understanding of binary phase diagrams.

TAKEAWAYS:
How do architects and manufacturers manipulate common metal properties to get the metals to behave in the desired way for a specific use? Participants will make a simple low-melt tin-based alloy and explore a binary phase diagram. Heat-treating of steel and cold-working of copper is also explored.

SPEAKERS:
Scott Spohler (Global Impact STEM Academy: Springfield, OH)

Complete a distracted driving hands-on activity and discover award-winning videos and more inquiry-based activities from IIHS’s Crash Science in the Classroom program that illustrates the vital connections between biology, physics, mathematics, medicine, engineering, and teen crash safety.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will measure their reaction time and complete a distracted driving simulation using a series of 4 activities simulating the 4 major types of driving distractions. Participants will also learn how to access detailed lesson plans, teacher tips videos, student lab sheets and answer keys.

SPEAKERS:
Pini Kalnite (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Highway Loss Data Institute: Arlington, VA), Griff Jones (University of Florida: Newberry, FL)

Inspire students to lead energy action and design a campus microgrid system. This hands-on workshop equips educators with practical knowledge to engage students in energy-related concepts, including microgrids and energy analysis, fostering energy literacy and sustainability awareness.

TAKEAWAYS:
This hands-on session will cover the United States’ energy system, energy resilience, transitions toward a decentralized energy generation, and how to solve problems like energy managers. Participants will leave the workshop with concepts and strategies to implement this lesson with their students.

SPEAKERS:
Bahar Pahlevani (The Energy Coalition: Irvine, CA), Tess Hooper (Project Manager: Irvine, CA)