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Join this hands-on workshop demonstrating the enormous potential for data collection, analysis, and student lab reporting in your digital laboratory. Handouts.

Join us to learn about this collaborative partnership that brings STEM education to gifted and talented elementary and middle school students. Participating students are provided with intensive and interactive activities in science, technology, engineering, and math. Specific connections to the NGSS, as well as practices to increase student interest and knowledge in the STEM subjects will be included.

Enzymes are active proteins that listen, follow directions, and complete the job they are supposed to do. Similar to students, correct?

Designing and implementing assessments for the NGSS require a markedly different approach to science assessment than traditionally taken. Effective assessments have the potential to generate a robust suite of usable information about science performance, if designed and used well. Emphasis will be placed on practical dos, don’ts, and strategies for transitioning assessments to be 3-D.

Model stellar evolution processes using NASA images, plot H-R diagram transitions, and determine the chemistry and physics of supernovas using NASA STEM image analysis tools.

Attention will be paid to breaking down the essentials of computational thinking (CT) with examples and providing strategies and activities to infuse CT into existing STEM curriculum.

Join us as we explore AACT and ACS lab safety resources and how to use them in your middle school and high school science classrooms.

Life science activities designed to address the newly accepted NSTA/ASTE 2020 Science Standards for Teacher Preparation and increase the pedagogical content knowledge of elementary preservice and inservice teachers will be presented.

Introduce basic energy concepts early on with hands-on lessons disguised through songs, stories, games, and chants to teach energy buzz words.

We will use common rock types and specific fossils to provide evidence of how the landscape of the Midwest changed over billions of years.

Examine obstacles and solutions for rural girls in STEM and analyze data from a supporting lab to demonstrate effectiveness to administration and community partners.

Feeling overwhelmed by all there is to see and do at an NSTA conference on science education? Join us for an interactive exploration through the program, the conference app, and NSTA’s social media. By the end of the session, you will know just how to get the most from your conference experience in addition to building new networks with science colleagues.

What does pH actually measure? In this investigation, you will measure pH indirectly using indicators and absorption using the Lab-Master. Using their data, participants generate a graph of absorbance versus pH. This graph can be used to determine the pH of solutions, within the measured pH range. Join us for this activity from The Natural Approach to Chemistry program.

Explore the role literacy plays in the IQWST classroom. Take part in a science lesson that demonstrates the integration of literacy strategies in the context of science, including the incorporation of academic language in written responses and oral discourse in conjunction with investigations using an interactive word wall. Reading and differentiation strategies highlighted.

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.

Explore a new, atomically accurate model of double-helical DNA that can be untwisted into the familiar two-dimensional ladder and separated into two single strands to model the processes of replication and transcription! Engage students with manipulatives that allow them to convert deoxyribose to ribose sugars and generate the universal currency of energy, ATP.

Scientific argumentation is more than filling in boxes. Experience how students grapple authentically with competing claims, evaluate evidence quality, and are supported in the struggle to make their reasoning clear—all with examples from the newest curriculum from UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science, designed from the ground up for NGSS.

We distill water to purify it, or so we think. So why does the clear distillate from apple cider smell like apples? Join us and find out! Using a clever test-tube distillation apparatus, we will distill the essence of vanilla and the scent of mint…and even show you how to make brandy from wine! Distillation is a crucial process in chemical engineering and technology, yet few students ever get to explore the process.

Looking for lab activities that work every time, not just periodically? Explore easy, engaging, and safe chemistry activities that will produce a reaction in your students. Whether you’re new to chemistry or feeling out of your element, you’ll learn new ways to create excitement with hands-on labs, demonstrations, and digital content.

Add action and excitement to your science class with live organisms! Discover fun, simple hands-on three-dimensional activities with a variety of insects and arthropods you can use in your labs. Learn about care and handling, as well as easy ways to introduce phenomena. Additional resources available online for your classroom.

What is the difference between subscripts and coefficients? What does “balancing” a chemical equation mean? Many students have trouble with these fundamental concepts in chemistry. If a student does not fully understand the chemical formula, then moles, reactions, and stoichiometry are hopelessly confusing. Join us for some elegant, intuitive, and well-differentiated lessons that allow students of all levels to master the chemical formula and thereby move confidently into a deeper understanding of chemistry.

Glowing cats? Personalized medicine? Designer babies! Empower and prepare your students to think critically as modern biology revolutionizes medicine, industry, and human lives. Learn from a leader in biotechnology education how to build your bioscience lab program step-by-step with equipment, supplies, and student credentials.

Explore how instructional sequences designed around real-world problems can lead students to figure out phenomena using the three dimensions of science and engineering. Leaders from UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science will showcase an example from the Hall’s research-based pedagogy and curriculum.

Explore the role literacy plays in the Science Companion Prime classroom. Participate in a lesson that demonstrates the integration of literacy strategies in the context of science. This includes the incorporation of academic language in written responses and oral discourse in conjunction with investigations using an interactive word wall. Reading and differentiation strategies highlighted.

Explore STEM with concrete, metal, clay, and plastics. Apply math concepts to lots of real-world examples. Cheap supplies and destructive testing ROCK!

We will combine biology and coding to create an artificial heart! With some basic materials, you will construct a four-chambered heart and then innervate it with an artificial nervous system. From there, write some very simple code (no coding experience required) to bring the heart to life! If time permits, you will also create an AED! Appropriate for middle school and high school.

Support three-dimensional learning with materials that engage your students in an exploration of the unique chemical and physical properties of water and the phospholipid bilayer that separates cells from their surrounding environment. Construct a model to explain diffusion, osmosis, active and passive transport across cell membranes.

Experience a novel approach to Earth science. This new pedagogy uses a “systems” approach for plate tectonics, astronomy, natural resources, geology, and paleoclimatology. There will be several take-home activities and ideas to implement or augment your existing Earth science curricula. This curricula is put together by AGI (American Geoscience Institute) out of Washington, DC.

Experience how students use models, analyze data, and gather evidence from text to figure out ideas about structure, function, and adaptive traits, to inspire their biomimicry designs. Join a hands-on dive into Amplify Science for Grades K–5, a new NGSS-designed curriculum from UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science.

The NGSS have raised the bar for scientific rigor and thinking. In grades 3–5, students define problems using criteria for success and constraints or limits of possible solutions. Learn how Building Blocks of Science 3D helps students use criteria and constraints to solve real-world problems. Take home lesson and workshop materials.

Students develop a model for an ecosystem and then introduce a new species to explain how this new component in the system affects the flow of energy and cycling of matter throughout the ecosystem. This activity provides an opportunity to assess student work related to ecosystems and heredity (MS-LS2-3).

An after-school program such as the Drone Racing Club presents a broad range of applications for students. The drones should grab the students’ attention and engage them in an activity as they apply and master the skills they learn in their science and STEM classes. The use of robotics in general allows students to have concrete examples of how STEM concepts are applied and used in the real world.There are a lot of lessons to be learned when it comes to responsibility, as well as technology when it comes to using drones.

Enable your students to understand the meaning of data by using a mathematical/algebraic model to analyze multiple representations—in a table, graphically.

Uncover information and engage in memorable activities on soils so you become more comfortable teaching that topic.

How are crime scenes mapped and processed? How is evidence collected, documented, and photographed? We will show how to develop an activity for your students. Handouts.

We will work through an inexpensive, hands-on activity that allows students to clearly understand why Hubble’s famous graph implies an expanding universe.

Cultivate new learning by using engineering design principles to teach ecology and sustainability through active student involvement in an urban garden.

Come explore strategies for linking science and literacy that support students’ abilities to read, write, and discuss in the context of science and inquiry-based learning using fiction and nonfiction texts. Hands-on examples of how science supports literacy and literacy supports science will be used.

We will examine sample student responses to explore how to design cognitive assessments of 3-D learning and engage in sensemaking to interpret student responses. Participants will work together to define options for next steps of instruction based on their understanding of student thinking of sample student responses. Issues of equitable assessment will be discussed, including addressing linguistic diversity, cultural assessments of student and community interests and funds of knowledge, and ways that assessments intersect with students’ identity development.

Learn about an integrated project that asks students to explain and construct dynamic 3D models that demonstrate the formation of geologic features around the Earth.

Attention will be paid to NGSS test writing, from starting the story to identifying topic trees and relevant standards to writing the questions.

Do you have a lesson you’d like to use, but aren’t sure it is truly three dimensional? Join us to experience an elementary science lesson “before and after” NGSS. We’ll evaluate lessons using a structured process and NGSS resources. Leave with a format to help evaluate your lessons and those you are considering.

Citizen science provides an accessible way to facilitate student science investigations and engaging STEM learning. Students making citizen-science observations ask questions through curiosity and interests.

Experience engaging activities that allow you to take young children outside and easily integrate, art, music, science, math, and social studies while using NGSS science practices. Handouts.

Beyond motivation, music is a phenomenon that includes all the elements of STEM. Go beyond “good vibrations” to sampling, mixing, spectrograms, and musical problem-solving.

We will demonstrate how students learn as they see beauty in the environment—and their organic response is ethical: We want to take care of this!

The American Chemical Society has produced Guidelines for Chemical Laboratory Safety in Secondary Schools. The guidelines also outline a protocol, designated by the acronym RAMP, for designing and writing improved safety procedures for chemistry experiments. We will explore examples and applications of the four principles of safety: Recognize the hazard; Analyze the risk of the hazard; Mitigate the risk; and Prepare for emergencies, as well as show examples on how to integrate RAMP into lab activities.

I will model integration of STEM disciplines for grade 3–8 students—analyzing shapes, constructing physical structures, and creating with robotic devices—to advance learning and ignite engagement, critical thinking, and creativity. Handouts.

Join National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) representatives as they introduce the invention process as the ultimate teaching and learning tool for all learners.

Learn how to access and explore NOAA’s data-rich resources, lesson plans, and visualization tools to help you build student proficiency in scientific data analysis.

Viruses are everywhere in our world! Engage students in a hands-on NGSS-focused engineering/modeling activity that challenges students to explore the world of viruses.

Connect the human impact of plastic pollution to engineering design. Get your students thinking critically and creatively as they collaborate in real-world problem solving.

With the transition to three-dimensional learning and NGSS, is there still a place for dissections in the classroom? The answer is yes! As you dissect a Carolina’s Perfect Solution® frog, we will demonstrate how to integrate the three dimensions of learning, highlighting adaptations and the relationship between structure and function.

STEM picture books/tradebooks are different from other picture books. They incorporate divergent thinking and problem-solving skills, which expand student understanding of content and process.

In 2019, Achieve launched a network of districts in Tennessee with the goal of building their collective capacity to move toward their vision for science education for all students. Find out how the network used a collective need for better assessments as a key lever for change to simultaneously improve assessments, increase teacher capacity, and advance equity in science.

Emphasis will be placed on illustrating the science and engineering practices described in the Framework and NGSS through the engaging pGLO Bacterial Transformation activity.

We used to call it integration of science and literacy. Now we recognize that reading science text, engaging in science talk, and constructing written and oral scientific arguments is simply part and parcel of science. Learning to obtain, negotiate, and communicate information in evidence-based ways is an essential part of preparing students for a lifetime as evidence-based thinkers. Jacquey will discuss this pivotal moment in science education, why it promises to transform how we think about teaching and learning science, and why that’s a good thing!

As one of the science practices embedded in the NGSS, asking questions and defining problems provides students with an authentic and meaningful entry point into science and engineering. Taken from “Investigating and Questioning our World through Science and Technology” (IQWST), participants will experience a puzzling chemistry phenomenon and learn how to elicit, organize, and revisit students questions so that students feel ownership over their own learning.

The practices included in the NGSS are based on exploring and solving problems. The act of engaging students in this problem solving can often be a problem in itself. Join in to work on and solve some puzzles that you can take back to the classroom. Also find out how the online STEM competition, eCYBERMISSION, gives students a chance to explore and solve problems using science and engineering and how you and your students can participate at no cost.

Join us for an introduction to the modeling method of instruction by working through a condensed modeling cycle. Discussion includes application in model-based secondary physics, chemistry, and biology courses.

The ACS ChemClub program provides free fun and educational materials! Learn about the program, try out a few activities, and take home some resources.

STEM is there when exploring outdoor and placed-based science lessons that enhance students’ knowledge of trees, forests, and the real-world environment! You will want to be there!

CRISPR-based genome editing is revolutionizing the biomolecular sciences! Join us in a hands-on/minds-on exploration of how you can model this exciting new technology to engage your students in understanding the foundational concepts of molecular biology and biotechnology through two-dimensional and three-dimensional representations of the CRISPR/Cas9 protein.

STEM learning requires integration! Powerful questions and coherent storylines help solve the integration challenge. PBIScience is built around interesting and meaningful Big Questions and Big Challenges, supporting the integration of science and engineering, engaging ALL students in high-quality STEM learning, and embracing the vision of the Framework and NGSS.

Students learn better and faster when they are actively involved in hands-on activities that are not only fun, but create learning opportunities along the way. We’ll share some inquiry-based labs, interactive demonstrations, and collaborative games you can use to motivate your students. Core topics include evolution, genetics, biochemistry, and more—you’re sure to find a Flinn Favorite that works for you! Handouts. www.flinnsci.com

Incorporate NGSS science and engineering practices into your biology class by engaging students to define the problem of world hunger. Considering constraints, students will design a treatment plan (solution) for protein-energy malnutrition in the form of an evidence-based argument.

Students look at historical data spanning the past 100 years to try to understand the causes of current global warming. They ask questions related to the data to figure out what the evidence indicates and to better understand how human activities relate to global warming.

Differentiation in science can be accomplished with leveled labs, centers, contracts, varying texts, and vocabulary strategies. See how to incorporate these strategies into your classroom.

Engage in an exploration of strategies for using pre-assessment and tiered readiness grouping to facilitate differentiation within the guided inquiry framework of Argument-Driven Inquiry.

Reading a label on that can of soda, bottle of pop, sport drink, or a carton of juice is NOT enough. Math is required.

It has been said by some that curriculum “best practice” changes like the weather! But water, wind, and weather are always great themes for a three-dimensional early childhood curriculum. Come participate in great activities for K–3 fully integrated with some of the best literature around. 

Investigate potential and kinetic energy through an M&M masher, collect data, and make initial claims while learning student-student and teacher-student discourse moves.

We will explore ways to support students different sensemaking repertoires in science and engineering through Advancing Coherent and Equitable Systems of Science Education (The ACESSE Project) resources. Discover STEM teaching tools that can be broadly used to support NGSS implementation.

Analyze crime scenes using foot and tire impressions. Easy, inexpensive procedures will be demonstrated. Photographing, documenting, and analyzing impression evidence along with evidence reliability and validity will be discussed. Handouts.

Work with tools, including card sorts and performance task shells, to make the three dimensions explicit. Participants will get electronic access to download the tools.

Hear how an elements project integrates technology, literacy, and arts into the study of atomic structure and the periodic table.

What makes it rain? M&Ms versus Skittles? Baking soda versus baking powder? Free online lesson plans of hands-on activities and animations help your elementary students build foundational concepts in chemistry.

Emphasis will be placed on five-minute daily strategies that will get students to become fluent in scientific vocabulary.

You’ve heard it said, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” Well, 3-D teaching and learning are “The Big Stuff” in science education. Join us for a 100% hands-on session of data collection, data analysis, and data discussion.

Providing stewardship opportunities can increase authentic learning experiences for students. Hear about the successes and challenges involved with writing grants and developing learning opportunities that reinforce content standards while at the same time allowing students to connect directly with the real world.

Find out how to enhance your classroom lessons with real-life science adventure stories from an author of six Scientists in the Field books.

Take a look at the history of Ohio’s land through its ancient ancestors. Fossils are the remains of past life. Use Ohio’s unique landscape to teach Earth science standards.

Watch out Darwin’s finches, a brighter bird is the new biology teacher in town! Learn to teach evolution and natural selection through the birds-of-paradise.

What do you do with an idea? A BIG question. How you encourage students to develop ideas in the first place, could be the answer!

Are you asked to incorporate reading and writing into your lessons to support literacy in language arts? We have the right strategies for you!

Join in to make solar cells, assemble cells into solar panels, and use it to power electronic devices under sunlight.

Spark science interest with the birds on your schoolyard. We’ll share fun K–5 activities and you’ll leave with a window bird feeder!

Gases exchanged during photosynthesis and respiration can be easily measured when using wireless sensors. With graphing software, students can view live results, plot data trends, and quickly develop ideas about the role of plants in the cycling of energy and matter. The use of sensor technology helps students understand how plants adjust the way they transform energy when light conditions change.

Use algae beads in a colorimetric assay to study photosynthesis and cellular respiration. Learn how students can observe a phenomenon, ask meaningful questions, design and carry out their own experiments to understand how these processes are connected.

How do teachers engage all students in science discourse and ensure success? Experience the importance of “science talk” to improve conceptual understanding. Leave with practical lessons from the Smithsonian STC Middle School program.

Discover how you can teach gel electrophoresis and DNA fingerprinting in a single classroom session with this hands-on genetics and conservation biology lab! You will pour, load, and run a gel—witnessing DNA separation in real time—and analyze the results to deduce a probable conclusion for a WHALE of a forensic mystery.

Collecting and analyzing experimental data has never been easier using Vernier technology in your lab. Bring your own device with our Graphical Analysis 4 app installed or use ours during the workshop. All activities are available as a free download for attendees.

Learn how new genes formed and old genes acquired new roles in the Antarctic icefish. Engage in hands-on free HHMI BioInteractive activities, model icefish blood, view sections of a film, and learn how understanding icefish adaptations may help in treating human diseases.

Are you looking for a strategy to introduce an anchor phenomenon to your students? Join us as we model presenting an anchor phenomenon and creating a driving question board. Participants will be working in collaborative groups to identify anchoring, investigative, and everyday phenomena.

How can we accurately and better assess student's knowledge and meet the NGSS? Discussion centers on my journey into Standards-Based Grading in several different physics classes and how it better cultivates student ownership, student/teacher relationships, and overall a better assessment strategies.

Students get engaged with practical and inquiry-based engineering experiences by using the DIVE-in method. This program was developed in partnership with the New York Hall of Science. Transform your classroom into an authentic makerspace with the DIVE process. Learn how to facilitate and use the design process through consensus.

With shows like CSI and NCIS, forensics is popular with students. Come experience some hands-on forensic activities that you can take back to your classroom. Don’t commit the crime of letting this workshop pass you by! Also, learn about the AEOP GEMS and UNITE programs that give students the chance to experience STEM enrichment over the summer!

Engage with Research Quest—free, online, NGSS-focused, phenomenon-based investigations using authentic museum objects and research to build student critical-thinking, collaboration, and communication skills.

Are we living in a new geologic epoch? Learn how to use free HHMI BioInteractive resources to get your students using scientific argumentation to answer this question. Leave with classroom-ready resources and connections between biology and geology, domains of science that are highlighted by NGSS, but are typically separated in school curricula.

Learn the basics of collecting and analyzing experimental data with a focus on biology. Bring your own device with our Graphical Analysis 4 app installed or use ours during the workshop. All activities are available as a free download for attendees.

Come join Flinn as we go through interactive and fun activities for your first-year chemistry students! Learn multiple ways to keep class interesting and ensure students understand the concepts. Entice students with the beauty of chemistry! We’ll go over labs, demos, and guided-inquiry activities, sure to keep your classroom buzzing! Handouts and door prizes. www.flinnsci.com

Agriculture, biology, and business knowledge are all needed on the modern farm. In this hands-on workshop, use gel electrophoresis to help a rancher choose the dairy cattle breeding pair that will give the best return on investment. Determine the genetic profile of individual cattle and which pair will breed a Ca$h Cow!

Satellites Over Seals is an interdisciplinary project initiated in 2016, which seeks to informally engage citizens with remote sensing and wildlife ecology to ultimately determine the fate of one of Antarctica’s most iconic mammals: the Weddell seal. An ice-dependent species, the Weddell seal lives in some of the most remote habitats in the world, ironically making it perfectly suited for detection on high-resolution satellite imagery. In this talk, Michelle will introduce challenges in understanding the ecology of Southern Ocean predators, and how engaging with citizen scientists via new technologies mutually benefits scientific pursuit and lifelong engagement with the natural world.

What strategies and supports engage English language learners in the authentic practices of science and engineering, and ensure equitable access to deep learning in science? Figure out the answer to this question as you experience an Amplify Science instructional sequence and analyze it through an ELL lens.

Use a Wireless Pressure sensor and household products to help your students discover how well the enzyme catalase performs under various conditions. Design and conduct experiments to test the effect of varying enzyme or substrate concentration, temperature, or pH on enzyme reaction rate.

Why does climate change matter? Find out which suspected microbes are associated with increased reports of infections and why they may be more common as the temperature on Earth increases.

The Big Three acronyms for science and math teachers are STEM, NGSS, and CCSS. Come see how these three can and should be BFFs.

Discover how to introduce forensics principles into an elementary-science classroom using fairy tales, and explore techniques for collecting and analyzing evidence in this workshop.

Metacognitive learning strategies can improve student learning in both high school and undergraduate courses. Hear about an in-class intervention to promote specific metacognitive learning strategies, with an emphasis on literacy skills.

Kentucky Girls STEM Collaborative has created a Teen Board to make sure girls’ and student voices are part of the work in which KGSC engages. Join KGSC leadership and Teen Board members as they discuss their experiences and how this work prepares girls at multiple levels to sustain mentorship and interest in STEM.

Hear about research on when and where STEM learning occurs, as well as effective science experiences between schools and out-of-school programs. Leave with ideas on similar experiences you can develop in your district or area.

Engage your students and assess their understanding of the complexity of ecosystems through a series of ecology mysteries in which students play detective.

Join us as we bridge discipline silos between science courses and cybersecurity/computer science by showcasing four ready-to-go lessons. Inexpensive Micro:bit technology is highlighted.

Explore instructional resources, collaboratively developed by NSTA and WIDA, to support multilingual learners’ engagement in three-dimensional science while seamlessly integrating language development.

Become a Teacher at Sea. Discover what life is like onboard and requirements after the journey. Come aboard for a trip of a lifetime!

Hands-on planning and sequencing activities integrate the three dimensions of NGSS. Leave with tools and techniques to design more effective K–2 teaching and learning experiences.

Hear how National Science Olympiad competitions including events and supporting resources are easily incorporated into existing curricula to actively engage students with STEM activities and projects.

Science current events journals bring real science into the classroom. Use the news to teach science content, media literacy, analytical thinking, and reinforce language arts.

Hear about various NSTA competitions and how they can bring STEM and the NGSS into the classroom, as well as give students and teachers a chance to earn recognition and prizes. Free food and a gift bag will be distributed to each participant.

Use poker chips to view phenotypic ratios that are observed for linked and unlinked genes. Chi-square analysis will allow for mathematical analysis of the data’s validity.

Explore 3-D models and Google Earth images and national, regional, state, and county maps to describe and draw the shapes and kinds of water and land features.

Emphasis will be placed on exploring phenomena from the outdoors; engaging in exploration through trade books; and increasing student literacies across all areas. Using children’s books and outdoor events as springboards can develop different literacies.

Need a crash course in understanding the fundamentals of weather? Taught by a National Weather Service meteorologist, receive a basic understanding of the science.

The NGSS recommend increasing the sophistication of student thinking through developmental learning progressions with limited core ideas and the integration of the science and engineering practices. Experience examples from the new Smithsonian Science for the Classroom and leave with workshop samples.

Students take on the roles of civil engineers as they model the effect of ocean waves on a cliff. They then design, test, and redesign structures to prevent cliff erosion. They use their observations and understanding of erosion to compare the likely rate of erosion on a hillside and a shoreline cliff. This activity, from the new SEPUP Interactions middle level unit (NGSS middle level edition), addresses Earth’s systems and engineering design (MS-ESS2.C, MS-ETS1.A, and MS-ETS1.B).

Opioid abuse is prevalent in the United States. Students take on the role of researchers as they design an experiment using a fast electrophoresis protocol of pre-amplified DNA samples that predicts addiction risks for opioid abuse, treatment, and implications to precision medicine based on a patient’s genotype.

Participants will visit the Newport Aquarium, Coney Island, and downtown Cincinnati virtually with 360 degree videos and viewers! The 360 degree videos were created by Cincinnati Educational Television. Learning cycles incorporating the 360 degree videos will be shared.

Many students have trouble finding meaning from the data they have collected in the lab. Learn ways to make graphing accessible and fun!

Discover how engineering is seamlessly integrated into the Amplify Science curriculum across grades K–8. Join the curriculum designers from UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science to experience their cutting-edge approach to engineering and its connections to the NGSS.

Learn the basics of collecting and analyzing experimental data with a focus on middle school. Bring your own device with our Graphical Analysis 4 app installed or use ours during the workshop. All activities are available as a free download for attendees.

Discover genomics with humans’ best friend—dogs! Participants will learn a brief history of genomics and then use several free resources from HHMI BioInteractive as a guide to put together their own lesson on mapping traits. Data analysis strategies will be included.

Reduce teacher talk and increase purposeful student talk as we model consensus building through argumentation around intriguing science phenomenon that matter. ELA skills and the 21st century skills of communication and collaboration are a must in the STEM classroom.

Explore exciting strategies to teach about infectious diseases using free HHMI BioInteractive resources. The story unfolds as we investigate viral disease transmission and intervention programs to combat the spread of Zika and Ebola. The final chapter reveals the human-environmental interactions involved in understanding the spread of infectious disease.

We will bring science and coding together as participants learn to do some basic coding (no experience necessary) while developing a mood ring! The science of color mixing is explored while determining the right body temperature thresholds. Is fuchsia flirty? Should green be groovy? It’s up to you!

ENGAGE students by modeling chemical and physical properties of water using magnetic water molecules. EXPLORE common phenomena such as density, erosion, and weathering. Construct physical representations to EXPLAIN the phases of water, density, and solubility. ELABORATE on the water cycle and its impact on the ecosystem. EVALUATE student learning with models.

Learn the basics of collecting and analyzing experimental data with a focus on physics. Bring your own device with our Graphical Analysis 4 app installed or use ours during the workshop. All activities are available as a free download for attendees.

Experience how students investigate the cause of the high rate of skin cancer in Australia, while figuring out how light waves interact with different materials. Join a hands-on dive into Amplify Science for Grades 6–8, a new NGSS-designed curriculum from UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science.

Rockets zoom and race cars zip through hands-on activities that engage your middle school and high school students. Apply creative problem-solving skills and engineering practices to chemistry and physical science challenges. Experience how Carolina makes it easy to incorporate STEM into your classroom.

In this activity from the SEPUP high school biology program, learn about conditions that lead to speciation, including isolation due to temporal, geographical, and behavioral factors, and more. Then determine whether selected animal or plant pairs are in the early, mid, or late stages of speciation.

Give your students a real-world engineering challenge! Explore the relationship between momentum and impact forces with real-time measurement of collisions in this PASCO workshop. You will design your own crash cushion to minimize the maximum collision force of a moving cart colliding into your crash cushion. Next, analyze your results to iterate and improve on your design. Enter raffle for a chance to win a free Smart Cart!

We have conducted makerspace activities in diverse settings. Discussion centers on philosophy, logistics, resources, and regional contacts for developing effective makerspace programs.

Explore misconceptions surrounding genetically modified organisms (GMOs) while participating in one of the hottest trends in innovative science teaching and entertainment. Free teaching materials available.

We will address key elements of a PD program designed to strengthen early childhood educators’ capacities to integrate three-dimensional science learning in a high-needs district in New York City.

NOAA and NWS’s wealth of free online resources will help inform and inspire students to action in research and stewardship for our vital freshwater ecosystems.

How do water and land use impact soil structure and fertility? Challenge your students using phenomenon and three-dimensional lessons to explore soils. Free teaching materials.

Connect classroom simulations (both hands-on and computer-based) to real-world examples to increase student analysis skills and understanding of concepts.

We will demonstrate three hands-on survey techniques that allow students to calculate actual numbers of plants, herbivores, and carnivores in creating a food chain.

Discover a multidisciplinary open-ended investigation that incorporates absolute and relative dating, anomalies, historical context, volcanoes, solar proton events, energy cycles, Earth systems, terrestrial events and supernovas.

Socioscientific issues (SSIs) can be valuable curricular approaches for teachers. Resources to measure how students work with SSI tend to be lacking. Discussion centers on what SSIs are and why they are necessary in modern science classrooms.

Explore how to use active formative assessment classroom strategies to set up a classroom learning environment where students can think critically and work toward understanding.

Science centers differentiate instruction and build foundational skills through hands-on experiences. Management tips and samples of hands-on science centers will be shared.

Find out how to create your own differentiated lab or instruction based on NGSS practices you teach in your classroom.

Students incorporate science and engineering into an activity and create parachutes for emergency food, water, and medicine air-drops to a storm-ravaged island.

The National Science Education Leadership Association welcomes participants to an open roundtable discussion with experts who will share successful practices.

NESTA offers a chance to win one or more display and classroom-quality rock, mineral, and fossil specimens, as well as other Earth science-related materials.

Species populations change over time. We will present a program taking students on a 100-year journey where some species thrive, and some go extinct.

Second grade teachers will share how students used observations, firsthand and with technology, of their school grounds to create 2D and 3D maps.

Teachers and students used meaningful mobile technologies to present garden-based phenomena and NGSS 3-D instruction. Prepare to try the applications. Activities/assessments will be shared.

Many activities have a “Wow!” factor and little more. What have students learned about science? Participate in the next step for taking students beyond “Wow”.

Whoever is doing the talking is the person doing the learning. Come learn about some powerful strategies for promoting discourse in the science classroom. Walk away with guides, prompts, and resources for facilitating deeper learning in your classroom.

Come show us your surgical skills while you experience the superior quality of Carolina’s Perfect Solution® specimens. Participants dissect a cow eye and then their choice of a sheep brain, pig heart, or pig kidney. Use this excellent comparative dissection to gain a better understanding of these mammalian organs.

A complicated topic is made easy by watching the pressure of a gas product change when the mass of one reactant is varied. Using a Wireless Pressure sensor and common chemicals, any student can use patterns in their data to determine the mathematical ratio between reactants and products. Participants will also use data to distinguish between limiting and excess reactants for different experimental conditions.

Experience a hands-on classroom activity in which students work with their own genes and PCR in the context of personalized medicine, the wave of future disease treatment.

Students often have trouble conceptualizing how selective gene expression works. We will use manipulatives to teach this concept and explain how it is connected to genetic engineering. Innovative activities are selected from the new Science and Global Issues: Biology program from SEPUP and Lab-Aids. Activities focus on ways to integrate selective gene expression as a relevant and engaging sustainability issue.

Science plays a significant role in preparing students for the workforce and life. As Stephen has said from the beginning of the development of the Next Generation Science Standards, understanding and managing a full system change takes time and commitment. In this talk, he will discuss the world that awaits us in 2030, what system changes should entail, how to advocate for the importance of science, and remind us that while we are preparing students for a future, we want them to enjoy the wonder that is science for a lifetime.

Come explore the fundamentals of coding with Vernier. In this hands-on workshop, use your science, mathematics, and problem-solving skills to navigate mBot, an app-enabled, programmable robot. Learn how to connect Vernier sensors to Scratch, a popular block-based programming language. Coding makes a wonderful supplement to traditional science course.

Explore the cellular processes of DNA replication, transcription and translation using hands-on/minds-on manipulatives that support NGSS three dimensions, most notably the science and engineering practice of developing and using models. Analyze the ß-globin gene to discover the anatomy of a gene. Handouts and information on a model lending library provided!

Be part of a zombie apocalypse! Learn about disease-spread modeling using simulations and fun storylines about a zombie outbreak. Applicable for middle school and high school, this workshop is sure to scare you and your little zombies with its exciting Hollywood themes used to engage students in learning science!

Can we use media to convey key weather and climate concepts and enhance curriculum? What does effective media allow you and students to do, see, or explore? Explore digital resources and strategies for engaging students with media about weather and climate concepts for grades 6–12.  Plenty of time for hands-on exploration of our resources on PBS LearningMedia.

Join our quest to solve ecological and environmental mysteries using evidence found in data. Participants will use free HHMI BioInteractive resources, quantitative reasoning, and data literacy skills to uncover stories in data and to determine the causal mechanisms in ecological and environmental mysteries.

Be sure to stop by for this special session. Come “meet and greet” your elected NSTA officers on your way to the exhibits. The President, President-Elect, and Retiring President along with your Board and Council members are looking forward to talking with you at the conference! We will be giving away several gift cards for use in the NSTA Store totaling $100. Must be present to win. Drawing will take place at 3:20 PM.