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Ticket Price: $125; with conference registration

Add your tickets when you register online or via the Attendee Service Center if you’re already registered.

A Framework for K–12 Science Education advocates a three-dimensional approach to teaching science that integrates disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and science and engineering practices. But we need to leverage a fourth dimension—discourse—to effectively engage our nation’s fastest-growing group of students: English language learners and multilingual learners (MLLs). Presenters will offer approaches, applicable for grades K–20, for engaging MLLs with their peers in the exciting and complex reasoning and discourse of science. Presenters will highlight the importance of experiential work and key language practices to simultaneously increase students’ effectiveness in scientific reasoning and language use.

Ticket Price: $180; with conference registration

Add your tickets when you register online or via the Attendee Service Center if you’re already registered.

The NSTA Atlas of the Three Dimensions maps the elements of the core ideas, practices, crosscutting concepts, connections to nature of science, connections to engineering, and performance expectations described in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and other standards based on A Framework for K–12 Science Education. Applying the same techniques used to develop AAAS Project 2061’s Atlas of Science Literacy, the 62 maps in this new Atlas show how the elements of the dimensions relate to and build on one another. Learn how the Atlas was developed and how you can use it to support your work in curriculum, instruction, and assessment by gaining a deeper understanding of the progressions and connections in the standards. All attendees receive a copy of the Atlas.

Ticket Price: $125; with conference registration

Add your tickets when you register online or via the Attendee Service Center if you’re already registered.

This full-day institute prepares participants to use tools developed by the NextGen Science Storylines project to teach with, adapt, or design NGSS storylines that are coherent from the student''s perspective. In a coherent storyline, students help plan and manage investigations rather than simply follow instructions. Storylines support students in developing ideas over time, motivated by questions about real-world phenomena and problems, where each step is an attempt to address a question or gap in the classroom’s current explanations or design solutions. These tools help participants analyze or develop units that incorporate the teaching strategies needed for coherent storylines, and have been used to design four middle school and high school units (from NextGen Storylines and OpenSciEd) that have been awarded Achieve’s NGSS Design Badge.

Ticket Price: $125; with conference registration

Add your tickets when you register online or via the Attendee Service Center if you’re already registered.

Using technology in three-dimensional learning experiences can be truly transformative, empowering learners to discover the world for themselves. Concord Consortium experts guide participants through a series of interactive investigations using technologies ranging from probes and sensors, to data exploration tools, to flexible tools for modeling and simulation. In the process, participants observe how technology can make scientific phenomena more accessible and understandable and how the use of technology can personalize students’ learning. Participants gain experience with free tools they can use for their own teaching and develop a research-based understanding of the importance of investigation and modeling that can make all their science lessons more engaging and effective.

Discussion centers on a professional development project enabling teachers and pupils to explore the roles of microorganisms and their roles in supporting and threatening human survival on Earth.

Explore Springfield Public School’s journey of building an environmental science college and career pathway through community partnerships. Learn about curriculum, field experiences, and funding resources.

Explore tools and resources for teachers to increase cultural awareness and equity for all learners in the diverse classroom.

Palm Beach Day Academy is excited about coral research. We help the Coral Restoration Foundation to solve problems of coral destruction by regrowth of coral.

Join us and get the necessary information to incorporate all elements of STEAM into cross-curricular, project-based learning opportunities for K–8 students.

We will highlight phenomena to drive lessons in elementary and middle school classrooms from memorization to scientific inquiry.

Take an existing science lesson and use Universal Design for Learning (UDL), to easily modify it to be accessible to all, including students with special needs.

Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School students will share how their interest in sharks led them to investigate the multi-faceted world of public policy, ocean ecology, and marine management in Massachusetts with the ultimate goal of forming opinions based on scientific research rather than fear or opinion.

We describe our progress in using students’ pre-course perceptions of teacher support, science self-efficacy, science identity development, mind-set, and grit to predict performance.

Want to develop a better understanding of a coherent science curriculum? Journey with us as we engage in NGSS three-dimensional learning from instruction to assessment.

We will demonstrate a variety of interactive Web 2.0 websites and tools to assist science teachers and students in the classroom. Afterward, you will participate in an open forum with all other participants to add to the knowledge base!

Energy, energy, everywhere is an exciting concept that is all around us. We will use toys to demonstrate different types of energy.

Cultivate ways that your school garden and outdoor classrooms can become a crossroads for learning science while transforming the lives of students and communities.

National Science Olympiad provides opportunities for students to gain in-depth knowledge and skills in specific disciplines, enter STEM-related careers, and remain involved as NSO alumni.

Develop a progression of the engineering design model and ways to encourage science fairs and family STEAM nights for elementary grades. Discussion centers on how to integrate curriculum that meets national standards. 

Get the tools to develop and implement a districtwide safety seminar for middle school and high school teachers.

Take part in actively connecting elementary science inquiry with engaging investigations while strengthening reading and writing skills.

Learn how we have incorporated standards-based grading in our classrooms over the past 10 years and how we now use it to support three-dimensional learning in the NGSS.

Moving from cookie cutter phenomena to phenomena that connects to students begins with knowing your students and the world they live in. We will share our journey and strategies toward making phenomena connect to the personal experience of students.

By sharing classroom videos and notebooks, we will present a variety of platforms for talking, listening, and writing that actively and thoughtfully involve all students.

Middle school grades NGSS-focused, activity-filled energy lessons will be presented. Access to an online curriculum is provided for Connecticut educators. Giveaways!

Experience the Students With Inquiring Minds are Scientists (S.W.I.M.A.S.) approach to student-driven inquiry within the science classroom. Learn how the S.W.I.M.A.S. model supports three-dimensional learning.

Come learn about NASA robotics. Design and construct a robotic arm while using the engineering design process. Walk away with hands-on standards-focused activities.

Bring student learning to life with green screen and augmented reality technology. Learn easily replicated cross-curricular projects to virtually put students IN their creations.

Discover recommended resources to use in your classroom instruction for any standard. Receive multiple options for finding and using authentic science literature to support your students in becoming scientifically literate citizens.

We will provide participants with tools for eliciting students’ interests and strategies for selecting phenomena and design challenges that align with community priorities.

Discover how the digital content in interactive e-books can meaningfully engage K–2 students in three-dimensional explorations of science phenomena, while also engaging them in grade-level appropriate English language arts and mathematics.

Encounter strategies to assist English language learners in the science classroom. Focus will be on language development to increase concept understanding.

Discover four practical evidence-based writing strategies to support all students to be good science writers.

Work the arts within inventive projects in your science classes to open up creativity on both sides of the brain! Join us to find out how.

Find out how to engage students in community-based NGSS lessons, field trips, and action projects, all driven by student interest.

This lab is based on a real case of post-conviction DNA testing, which connects to topics of population genetics, criminal justice, and mass incarceration.

Engage in argument-driven scaffolds for Earth and environmental science topics to critically evaluate connections between evidence and alternative scientific explanations using model-evidence link (MEL) diagrams.

Storylines led by engaging phenomena improve student engagement. Tuskless elephants, disappearing sea otters, and the plight of Tanzanian albinos can anchor instruction in meaningful ways.

Explore a variety of inquiry-based activities to engage students with authentic scientific data, thus, improving data literacy through strategies that support science practices.

We will cover examples of how popular topics have been incorporated into the classroom with time to explore what participants could do in their classrooms.

Engage in activities that explore energy in a variety of ecosystems and use children’s books to enhance student learning in science and language arts simultaneously.

Building relationships with students allows them to become more engaged in and take risks in an NGSS classroom.

Want some clarity implementing the NGSS crosscutting concept of patterns applied to biology concepts? Join us for a collaborative “think tank” as together we brainstorm direct examples and methods to add rigor and relevance for our students.

Computer science courses lend themselves to using both scientific inquiry and engineering design to solve problems. Knowing this can help you navigate your curricula to find places to input inquiry into courses using products and tools that are sometimes created without it. Develop methods to ensure students are not missing this part of learning.

High school and college students measure angles to geostationary satellites with smartphone apps and calculate the distance to the satellites by triangulation.

Earth science and algebra teachers collaborated on a STEM unit. Join in the fun; try some of the activities and take home the unit plan!

We will cover how you can use the “Identify, Interpret” or “I Squared” strategy to help give students a new streamlined way to analyze data in graphs, diagrams, and figures. Participants will receive an immersive chance to try using the strategy before learning how they could apply it in the classroom.

Explore resources that enable deep science learning through citizen science. From building context to analyzing data sets, participants use tools to enhance citizen science learning experiences.

Learn how OpenSciEd aims to improve science education through the development and implementation of high-quality, freely available, science instructional materials, and associated professional learning materials.

The National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) invites you to engage in hands-on activities and take home resources for your classroom. Join us to discover how you can become involved in both ocean and freshwater initiatives from local and national organizations to promote ocean and climate literacy.

Using this Road Map module, educators will engage in 5Es (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate) activities, culminating in a collaborative design of rides and games based in physics principles.

Join us and receive strategies and tools needed to advocate for and sustain equitable and equal education rights for all students.

Participants actively engage in a series of useful formative assessment techniques that support three-dimensional science learning through engineering design at the elementary school level.

How can three-dimensional formative assessment be the lever for changing teaching and learning? Participants will analyze formative assessment tasks to identify evidence of student understanding of phenomena through the application of practices and crosscutting concepts.

Discussion centers on what affects student motivation (and a survey to help determine this). Review a study of expectancy-value-cost motivation categories of 860 Black/African American fifth grade students in an urban school district.

Experience how leaders can use the new, updated CTS process with any set of standards to deepen teachers’ understanding of content, instruction, and assessment.

Kids are natural scientists. Foster their curiosity by infusing your units with strategies that promote the science and engineering practices. Explore hands-on activities and learn strategies. Handouts.

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.

Join us for a hands-on experience and discussion about modeling! It will feature quick-start guides, student work samples, and modeling assessment strategies.

Educators who specialize in the teaching of students with dyslexia describe vocabulary modifications, schema development, kinesthetic activities, and methods to modify science content for students with language-based learning issues.

The Kinetic Sculpture Project combines science, art, and technology and demonstrates student-directed learning. Learn how we implemented this project and how you could, too.

New science standards raise the bar for rigor for grades 3–5 classrooms. Students need to define problems using criteria for success and constraints for limits on possible solutions. Experience how the Building Blocks of Science 3D helps students use criteria and constraints to solve real-world problems. Leave with classroom resources.

Tell the story of island biogeography—including habitat fragments that function as ecological islands—through authentic data sets. Using free HHMI BioInteractive resources, we will identify patterns leading to a broader understanding of biodiversity and conservation biology. Participants are encouraged to bring laptops/tablets.

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.

Attend this engaging, hands-on workshop to explore introductory coding using Vernier sensors with the inexpensive Arduino RedBoard. Topics include an introduction to programming Arduino microcontrollers, using the Vernier Arduino library, and sample STEM projects for controlling motors, LEDs, and buzzers based on sensor readings.

Do your students struggle with visualizing cellular respiration? Analyzing real-time data for difficult concepts has never been easier. Bring your own device with our Graphical Analysis 4 app installed or use ours during the workshop to investigate common biology experiments. All activities are available as a free download for attendees.

Assess knowledge retention using pre- and post-surveys and the osmosis and diffusion conceptual assessment. We will share how we modified the Blooming Biology Tool to assess student writing.

We will introduce the audience to five case studies in which preservice teacher education programs use online resources to develop teachers as lifelong learners.

Emphasis will be placed on student talk as students work in groups engaged in the NGSS practices of science using community-based data. We will share an activity that uses citizen science eBird data.

It is a challenge to work with at-risk youth. Discussion centers on successful strategies for motivating, assessing, and nurturing the science mind of students.

Join us as we share successful strategies for uniting students, teachers, and the greater community through engaging, NGSS-focused culturally and community-relevant project-based learning experiences.

Break out of the science silo, add some math, and your students will view the world through a wider lens. Walk away with amazing lessons.

Examine the impacts and implications of a STEM-focused PLC that implemented structures that nurtured an asset-based learning environment among teachers and the district community.

Looking for best practices and resources to engage students in AP Biology and AP Environmental Science? Look no further!

Explore how science-based trade books and modeling can support young students with conceptualizing and communicating how changes in Earth’s surface occur over time.

Teachers from a Masters Certfication Program will share their research projects in science teaching and learning. Come listen, ask questions, and give positive critique!

Ticket Price: $69 advance; $74 on-site

Add your tickets when you register online or via the Attendee Service Center if you’re already registered.

Join us for this exploration of teaching science outdoors. Led by the Friends of the Boston Schoolyards and the Boston Public Schools (BPS) Science Department, participants will travel by bus to three special sites: the Arnold Arboretum, the Boston Nature Center, and a BPS outdoor classroom, where they will learn how to connect children with nature through authentic and meaningful outdoor science explorations. The Arnold Arboretum, an Olmsted-designed landscape established in 1872, was founded as a public-private partnership. Tour this unique blend of research institution and beloved public park in Boston’s Emerald Necklace to learn how field-based programs advance science standards for BPS students. Mass Audubon’s Boston Nature Center (BNC) features Boston’s first green building and a 67-acre living classroom with wetlands, meadows, and forests. BNC staff will share how, working collaboratively with BPS, they operate Boston Schools Environmental Initiative, connecting teachers and children to nature and science in their own neighborhoods. Over a 20-year period, under the leadership of the Boston Schoolyard Initiative, the BPS schoolyards were transformed into dynamic centers for learning. Participants will meet with a BPS science teacher in her outdoor classroom to learn how she brings students outside to learn. Note: Wear clothing and shoes appropriate for walking outside, rain or shine. Lunch provided.

Meet your educational trip leader in the Northeast Lobby of the BCEC on the Exhibit Level at least 15 minutes prior to departure time.

The official demotion of Pluto from planethood in 2006 angered a lot of people who lamented the loss of a beloved planet. But this view misses the true significance of Pluto—located at the inner edge of the Kuiper Belt, Pluto is the gateway to the Kuiper Belt, our best record of how our solar system formed. Join astrophysicist Jane Luu for a far-reaching discussion on Pluto, the Kuiper Belt, and how science goes forward.

NSTA wishes to thank The Kavli Foundation for sponsoring this speaker.

Hear from teachers who have conducted classroom research about the changes that occur for their students and themselves.

Hear how we engaged a community of educators and others in citizen science. This interesting project might spark your interest in engaging in citizen science, too! Come find out!

Discussion centers on an approach to elementary teacher professional development and the implementation of three-dimensional science curriculum and instruction. Come share your experiences as well!

We will share a number of ways that students can connect their direct interaction with their environment with remotely sensed data and scientists.

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 the basics of collecting and analyzing experimental data with a focus on biology and chemistry. 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.

How do we teach topics such as electron configurations—that were graduate school material a generation ago—so that high school students can learn and understand them? Walk away with some effective ways to teach the structure of the atom. Using a user-friendly spectrophotometer, explore how light interacts with dyes. Then use unique spectrum cards to show how atoms, color, and spectra are related, making a conceptual bridge between a core chemical technology—making dyes—and the fundamental structure of the atom.

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 frog and squid, we will demonstrate how to integrate the three dimensions of learning while highlighting adaptations and the relationship between structure and function.

Illuminate the dark corners of your students’ curiosity by teaching them about proteins. This simple classroom exercise allows your students to isolate the green fluorescent protein (GFP) found in jellyfish. Show them that protein science can be tangible and engaging but not overwhelming with this beginner’s activity. Now presented with Carolina’s digital enhancements.

Why is science discourse important? How does it impact improving equity in a science classroom? How do teachers implement this strategy? Learn the answers to these and other questions as you explore engaging STC Middle School lessons from the Smithsonian. Leave with resource materials.

Do you want to develop scientifically literate students? Using free resources from HHMI BioInteractive, we will model instructional strategies, including writing scientific questions, identifying key experimental design variables, and scaffolding the writing of a CER, to enhance the implementation of the science practices and improve data literacy skills.

Come find out what questions teachers and teacher educators are asking and how they are exploring these in their own classrooms.

Increase the sophistication of student thinking through developmental learning progressions with limited core ideas and the integration of science and engineering practices. Join us to see what this means to the classroom teacher. Experience lessons from the Smithsonian Science for the Classroom modules and receive materials.

Learn exciting and engaging ways to teach structure and function within body systems. Use hands-on labs to help students understand kidney function and interactions between the excretory system and cardiovascular system. Set up experiments, collect data, analyze results, and create models to build toward understanding the human body.

Are your students thriving or simply surviving group work? Explore the difference between group work and group-worthy work using free resources from HHMI BioInteractive. We will highlight multiple resources, including the Understanding Global Change interactive, to help your students engage in high-quality collaboration and sensemaking.

Introduce students to the fascinating world of molecular biology through age-appropriate, hands-on activities. They’re designed to make challenging, abstract concepts (including DNA, genes, and enzymes) more concrete—and to make biology fun. Now presented with Carolina’s digital enhancements.

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: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics (MS-LS2-3).

Participate in fun, engaging, hands-on STEM activities using Vernier digital tools to study temperature, light, friction, and grip strength. See how age-appropriate, sensor-based experiments teach students about data collection and analysis—practices that promote science inquiry, improve science literacy, and boost test scores.

Get active and participate in hands-on experiments. Explore limb position and grip strength, balance, and EKGs/EMGs experiments designed to encourage students to think about the physiology of various human organ systems. Walk away with valuable information, including sample labs and teaching tips.

Help your students better engage with the topic of cellular respiration by using interactive manipulatives.

Come hear about our school’s STEM program that culminates with an honors engineering course. Leave with ideas for implementing STEM at every level.

Hear how a university prepares preservice STEM teachers for project-based learning while they simultaneously experience a PBL curriculum for teacher preparation. Leave with resources.

We will share strategies and tips for designing and teaching culturally relevant STEM activities for diverse groups of students.

Explore implementation of two storylines (algal blooms/cystic fibrosis) and summative assessments that use scientific modeling. Rubrics provided to assess learning through student models.

We will share examples of how to capitalize on opportunities for students to ask questions and develop investigations that lead to claims, evidence, and reasoning.

By sparking interest in science, students possess the tools to think scientifically about the world. Be prepared to be amazed with where they go next!

Aimed at busy teachers, join us for realistic strategies for implementing PBL in your science classroom. Topics will include, but are not limited to, bee keeping, minimizing waste, deposition and erosion, light and sound, and plant growth.

Come learn how to access and use federal funds that every district receives for science education teacher/leader PD and student access to STEM.

Teachers who have conducted classroom research and made a critical examination of their own practice will share the results of their studies and personal journeys.  Research topics may include, but are not limited to, assessment, flipped classroom, technology, and more.

We co-taught a science methods course for graduate students, via online and face to face. We experienced a wonderful collaboration, and learned a lot! Join us as we share.

How do we encourage students to explore scientific literacy skills using computer software or the tried-and-true “chalk marker?” Examine strategies to help students connect complicated ideas, process data, and communicate their findings through different forms and tools.

Understanding present-day climate change requires understanding past climate through use of indirect (proxy) data. We will share how to incorporate proxy data into inquiry-based NGSS-focused lessons.

Dive into how to develop a culture of authentic classroom collaboration. Learn to use design journals and cloud-based active learning platforms for documentation and discussions.

Experience how packaging a single potato chip can become a cross country and international engineering design project for your students.

Hear about an action research study in a suburban grade 8 classroom that examined how ADI impacted student ability to create evidence-based arguments.

Both teachers and researchers identify low motivation among students as a problem that prevents meaningful science learning. Emphasis will be placed on learning to look at and make sense of students’ willingness to engage.

Most preservice elementary teachers consider themselves mathematics and English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR) instructors. Discover the SPIR and how teachers increased their science-teaching comfort upon implementation. Learn about its components and how it can increase your ability to map science concepts with most fictional texts commonly found in elementary classrooms.

Come find out where your district fits in with other districts across the nation that are implementing new science standards. Achieve, Inc. will share the results from a 2019 district survey of science standards implementation across the nation. We’ll share access to the survey so that you can see where you fit in and offer ideas to focus your efforts to improve your local system for science education.

Review findings from a survey of a STEM outreach partnership between The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis and the Riley Children’s Hospital school.

We will show how these books can be a jumping off place for open inquiry and phenomenon-based teaching.

Learn about Argument-Driven Inquiry and how it can help students learn how to use disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and science and engineering practices to explain natural phenomena.

This innovative and rigorous Ocean Literacy–NGSS-focused document details why teaching ocean concepts is integral and essential to achieving the vision of NGSS.

Explore the strategies used to sequence middle school performance expectations so students incrementally build disciplinary core ideas, practices, and crosscutting concepts across units and years.

No matter where you teach, you have a science community. In our presentation, we will share how we use our community and local resources to create/nurture kindergarten scientists.

Come for conversations with NSTA Distinguished Teaching Award winners who share reflections, describe science teaching approaches/experiences, and discuss favorite projects and current interests.

Discover how collaborative mapping and STEM design strategies can connect students to sea level rise issues in their communities and inspire them to action.

Bring STEM to life as participants use engineering and coding skills (no experience necessary) to learn how cardiologists use technology to keep their patients alive.

Experience hands-on, integrated STEM that meets grade 4 NGSS. We will showcase lessons capturing imagination and creativity through real-world problem-solving and data analysis.

You know what it is and you know why you should do it, so come find out how to do standards-based grading, in order to three dimensionally assess your students.

Share your passion and practice by applying for this $10,000 award. Learn from Shell awardees, finalists, and judging panel members important tips to apply for this award, plus a trip to next year’s national conference in Chicago!

Find out how to set up a Family Science Event at your school or site. We will cover the process and logistics, parental involvement, and provide handouts.

Hear how science content was revolutionized from typical lessons to an odyssey into STEM skills. Using HyperDocs to take students on a learning adventure!

How can we use the “arts” in STEAM to engage all learners in authentic scientific investigations? Come engage in a hands-on activity from the Cambridge STEAM Curriculum pilot unit to see how an emphasis on the arts can engage diverse learners in scientific investigations.

A fusion of playful observation, song, and autonomy will keep students coming back for more. Experience the power of sneaking in the content using parodies.

Explore strategies, successes, and challenges in building instructional units around phenomena in high school biology and chemistry examples. Brainstorm phenomena and how to use them in your own units.

Hear how grades 1–5 students travel to their local community college campus to present their science findings, explore hands-on sessions led by high school students, and engage in team building activities led by a local camp.

Students often find scientific texts challenging. Come find out how to support your readers’ comprehension of challenging science texts.

The GLOBE Atmosphere NGSS-focused investigation is designed to engage high school students in citizen science through exploration of Earth system data collection.

Explore strategies for using historical primary sources to support explicit reflection on the nature of scientific knowledge in a three-dimensional learning environment.

Chocolate! Join us for an interdisciplinary hands-on journey while we explore the transformation of the cacao bean into a favorite treat.

Arctic climate work has provided a wide range of data graphics and visualizations that provide opportunities for students to dig in and build scientific literacy.

Join us to see how we use multiple technologies to enhance student engagement across the curriculum! Get an up-close look and personal with Dash and Dot, Ozobots, Makey Makey, and so much more!

Looking for an engaging, hands-on experience for your students that focuses on middle school science concepts using a breakout-style session with puzzles and clues.

Join us to explore the collection, organization, and analysis of self-acquired athletic performance data to explain physiological phenomena.

Explore the challenges that students with diverse learning needs face engaging in the Engineering Design Process and learn strategies for making STEM accessible for all.

Come explore how to develop engineering design tasks that meet the NGSS to keep your students engaged in science and help them learn content.

We will focus on designing rigorous lessons structured around cognitively demanding three-dimensional science tasks and facilitating productive discussion in these lessons.

Search for temporal and spatial patterns by analyzing 35 years of data on global bleaching events and heat stress due to climate change.

Thoughtful lab renovations require collaboration between teachers, administrators, and architects. We will highlight specific design elements, lessons we learned, and ways to maximize stakeholders’ expertise.

Find out how to engage students with the equity-based QNG protocol, designed to increase student engagement in phenomena and improve ability to ask questions.

Have you ever gone to a breakout room? You will break out of a virtual room using three-dimensional science content and discover how to make your own.

We will share how to use hydroponics in a classroom to engage students in applying concepts from different disciplines. Learn about how light and energy impacts photosynthesis and how light distance impacts plant growth processes.

We will present an NGSS-focused storyline that integrates concepts of genetic and environmental variation on running in both humans and mice.

Hear about one district’s journey with integrating science into the elementary classroom through the use of professional development, children's literature, student-relevant phenomena, and citizen science projects.

We will provide an overview of our innovative way of getting students interested in engineering through our ICED Epic Challenge class and afterschool program.

Launched by an anchoring phenomenon and propelled by ongoing student model development, students deploy physics and chemistry to investigate and explain high school geologic topics.

Collaboration, interdisciplinary thinking, and communication skills will be modeled to prepare students for success in STEAM and other careers while making them ecologically literate citizens.

Explore a storyline using a combination of static electricity and magnetic phenomena appropriate for grade 3 students (PS2-3). Take away ready-to-use activities that use cheap materials. Classroom video and student work will be shared.

Create an engaging, low-cost Engineering Design elective. Veteran math, biology, and chemistry teachers will share how they used a similar model to develop unique courses.

Engage in a phenomenon-based science performance at the intersection of the practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas. Discussion will focus on gathering information, reasoning with the information to make sense of phenomena, and communicating explanations and arguments for the causes of phenomena.

Ticket Price: $30 advance; $35 on-site

Add your tickets when you register online or via the Attendee Service Center if you’re already registered.

The Harvard Museum of Natural History is an engaging place to visit, but have you ever wondered what is hidden behind the scenes of a museum? Are you interested in the rare, the ancient, or the odd? Join us for a behind-the-scenes tour of Harvard’s amazing zoological collections, comprising more than 21 million specimens not accessible to the public. A Harvard researcher will provide insights into the importance of museum collections to scientific research, and explain how new scanning and 3D technologies are used to share specimen data throughout the world. You will have the option to visit one collection—either Herpetology or Paleontology—where you will see species holotypes, specimens collected by 18th century explorers, and newly described species. Following the tour, you will have time to visit the HMNH public museum, as well as the adjoining Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, and the nearby Semitic Museum. Note: Children and spouses may visit the public museum after paying the entry fee but they cannot participate in the collections tour.

NSTA wishes to thank the Harvard Museum of Natural History for their in-kind contribution of waiving the museum admission fees.

Meet your educational trip leader in the Northeast Lobby of the BCEC on the Exhibit Level at least 15 minutes prior to departure time.

We have developed a 21 video series to better orient students to undergraduate research experiences and to better prepare them for work in the laboratory.

Come learn and develop strategies for engaging young children in scientific modeling and using their models as formative assessments.

Explore new and simple digital tools for assessing young learners on their understanding of the nature of science and engineering.

Explore how to create a class that measures achievement based on three-dimensional science lessons, feedback, and assessments.

Two identified needs for a sustained pipeline in STEM education are recruitment and retention of highly qualified teachers. We will share a program model situated in small, liberal arts colleges that are seeking to prepare high-quality STEM teachers for high-need public schools.

Reimagine your science fair! Bring together students, teachers, parents, and community members in an exciting day full of engaging science experiences.

Using concept mapping, participants will incorporate 5Es (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate) strategies into NGSS lesson sequences.

Ticket Price: $20 advance; $25 on-site

Add your tickets when you register online or via the Attendee Service Center if you’re already registered.

Follow the footsteps of America’s Founding Fathers on the Freedom Trail! Led by 18th-century costumed guides, this 90-minute walking tour is the Freedom Trail Foundation’s most popular, introductory tour. Preserved and dedicated by the citizens of Boston in 1951, the Freedom Trail is a unique collection of museums, churches, meeting houses, burying grounds, parks, a ship, and historic markers that tell the story of the American Revolution and beyond. This tour will visit 11 of the 16 official Freedom Trail historic sites, featuring Boston Common, Massachusetts State House, Park Street Church, Granary Burying Ground, King’s Chapel and King’s Chapel Burying Ground, Boston Latin School site/Benjamin Franklin statue, Old Corner Bookstore, Old South Meeting House, Old State House, Boston Massacre site, and Faneuil Hall. Note: Dress for the weather and wear comfortable walking shoes. Group will take public transit.

Meet your educational trip leader in the Northeast Lobby of the BCEC on the Exhibit Level at least 15 minutes prior to departure time. *Group will then walk to the Boston subway and board the train to the Boston Common metro stop.

Ticket Price: $45 advance; $50 on-site

Add your tickets when you register online or via the Attendee Service Center if you’re already registered.

Join us for an exploration of Earth’s climate at the Framingham State University Planetarium. New to the FSU Planetarium’s full-dome film lineup, Dynamic Earth explores the inner workings of Earth’s great life support system: the global climate. With visualizations based on satellite monitoring data and advanced supercomputer simulations, this cutting-edge production follows a trail of energy that flows from the Sun into the interlocking systems that shape our climate: the atmosphere, oceans, and the biosphere. Audiences will ride along on swirling ocean and wind currents, dive into the heart of a monster hurricane, come face-to-face with sharks and gigantic whales, and fly into roiling volcanoes. After the film, our educators will demonstrate how we use planetarium visualization software to display real data from NASA’s constellation of Earth Observing System satellites. Travel time is an hour each way.

Meet your educational trip leader in the Northeast Lobby of the BCEC on the Exhibit Level at least 15 minutes prior to departure time.

Hear about the sequencing of organisms in the Adirondacks while in the field using portable technology.

Join us to share ideas, get support, and begin writing your proposal for next year.

Colleagues across multiples disciplines including the sciences collaborated to develop a rubric to use in all of their classes to promote consistency at the school.

Hear how a kindergarten/grade one school created a summer family garden club to engage families in outdoor science learning and using the school garden during summer vacation.

Attention will be paid to the creation and implementation of inquiry-based activities in the co-taught classroom. We will provide examples for how to disseminate tasks and roles between both educators, in order to promote both teacher’s specialties within the classroom. Also cover principles of the universal design for learning in the science classroom.

Hear how the Prevalence of Antibiotic-Resistance in the Environment (PARE) project is being used to connect students across the globe and in our own neighborhood.

Implementing CER across all grade levels. Hear how our high school students learned to make claims with evidence and reasoning then taught our elementary students.

Bring the maker movement to science with open-ended, student-driven projects. Foster creativity and design iteration. See lessons and video for high-tech and low-tech examples.

The goal of this project is to use engineering design principles to teach ecology and sustainability through active student involvement in an urban garden.

We will focus on student supports for using disciplinary literacy in authentic science practices. Supports for annotating text, developing explanations, and engaging in argument from evidence are among the ideas that will be shared.

STEMStarter Capstone increases student interest in STEM and improves 21st-century skills. Learn about this program that includes innovation, mentorship, and an exploration of passions.

Emphasis will be placed on ways in which science notebooks serve as an authentic means to develop elementary students’ scientific ideas, as well as disciplinary literacy.

Teachers and scientists from NASA will share their projects, resources, and experiences with participants!

Preservice teachers take classes, work in classrooms, and with students! Come hear what these exceptional teachers learned through conducting research projects in their classrooms!

Educators who specialize in the teaching of students with dyslexia describe two units that explore the complex concepts of evolution and classification in meaningful ways that work for diverse learners. Come preview our units and try out hands-on activities!

Discover interdisciplinary lessons for exploring the causes and effects of our global population’s growing demand for water resources. Engage in simulations matched to NGSS.

Get introduced to EO Wilson’s Half-Earth digital map with a field-tested teamwork activity that challenges students to use multiple data maps to make conservation decisions.

Teach students how and why areas like Haiti are more greatly impacted by earthquakes.

Vault was developed to engage students in independent, data-based research projects. Hear how it introduces skills commonly used in computational scientific research…and it’s free.

This study examined the extent to which culturally relevant science teaching strategies were taken up by middle school science teachers as a result of a two-year professional development explicitly focused on meeting the NGSS.

Hear about an exploration of science teaching and learning in a Ghanaian secondary school showing the extent to which quality education is attained.

The author of this series will share a Mentor Text Study where your students can write their own Next Time You See books.

Join grades 3–8 teachers in a round robin of phenomena-based investigations developed during collaborative PD institutes with museums/science technology centers, scientists, engineers, and STEM industries/businesses.

Learn how EdReports.org’s educator-led review produces free reports on grades K–8 NGSS full-year materials and provides tools, adoption supports, and opportunities to become a reviewer.

Participants will actively work with the CRULiS rubric as a tool to consider how science lessons can be made to be more culturally responsive.

Dive into a real science classroom and three examples of project-based learning in a grade 9 physics class with a focus on the successes and pitfalls of each project and how they have evolved over time. Come away with resources on how to start and create successful PBL projects.

Get students engaged in understanding human impact with a city simulation. Students choose population, energy, food, transportation, and waste management to make a sustainable city.

Find ways to connect content to the NGSS and CCSS by being involved in an escape room activity and other STEM Day activities.

I have the standards, now how do I create meaningful learning experiences for my students? Join us as we complete a unit study on our middle school life science curriculum focusing on NGSS MS-LS1-1, MS-LS1-2, and MS-LS1-3. Resources provided.

Explore how to use STEM-related strategies to help close the “achievement gap.” Learn about achievement gap data and experience these strategies for facilitating equity conversations and activities.

Hear about an innovative teacher PD model employing youth summer camps to support elementary grade teachers’ authentic understanding of NGSS principles and pedagogy.

Are you a digitally challenged teacher? Join us for free, basic technology tools to develop a paperless classroom. Bring your Chromebook/laptop!

Discover new approaches for teaching seasons with the free, research-tested ThinkSpace curriculum, which blends hands-on physical and virtual models to help students visualize spatially-complex concepts.

Get ideas for using hands-on/minds-on activities to foster inquiry and discussion, while engaging elementary students in learning about ecosystems.

Having successfully used digital portfolios to replace paper student science notebooks, we are excited to engage and train you in how to make the switch.

Come experience the “Fire!” lesson sequence! We will analyze an anchoring phenomenon thorough scientific principles and practices as well as a social justice lens.

The Challenge: How can elementary students become problem-solvers and complex thinkers? The Solution: Students tackle real-world/imagined situations integrating the EDP into the literacy curriculum.

Identity is a major factor in what priorities and values you bring into your classroom. Discuss ways of developing your science teacher identity with intention.

Find out how high school students collaborated with teachers and local engineers at an interactive Engineering Day.

Biochemistry provides profound answers about life, but is neglected by curricula. Participants will use computer and physical models to explore biomolecules answer biology’s greatest questions.

Attention will be paid to modeling as a formative assessment tool to inform students about their learning and to support teachers in planning instruction.