STEM Teaching Tools at NSTA in New Orleans, 2024

Posted on November 04, 2024

Join our team and our collaborators at the NSTA National Conference in New Orleans on November 6-9! We are offering a series of 13 sessions inspired by STEM Teaching Tools and designed to help educators engage in climate justice education and implement equitable classroom practices! At all sessions, participants will receive resources and strategies they can use in their classrooms.

Continue reading for session details.

All sessions are in Ernest N. Morial Convention Center - 276

Thursday, November 7

8:00-9:00 AM: Climate Justice Overview: Priority Areas and Educational
Approaches
Presenter(s): Philip Bell, Kelsie Fowler, Deb Morrison, Nancy Price (All University of Washington)
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Science education has a key role to play in supporting a just response to the climate crisis. Participants will learn about 20 priority areas associated with climate and environmental justice—and explore educational approaches, resources, and groups related to these areas.

1:00-2:00 PM: Teaching about the Intersections of Biology, Race, and Racism:
Strategies, Curriculum Resources, and Research
Presenter(s): Jeanne Chowning (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center), Michal Robinson (K-12 Science, AP/IB Program Manager), Deb Morrison (University of Washington), Kelsie Fowler (University of Washington)
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Racism is prevalent in our society. Participants will examine resources for engaging students in respectful and productive activity that contrast the social construct of race with scientific understandings of genetics. Examples of how science education can be a form of social justice will be shared.

2:20-3:20 PM: Organizing Small Group Classroom Talk to Hear All Students’ Ideas: Equity-focused 3D Formative Assessment Through Talk
Presenter(s): Deb Morrison, Kelsie Fowler (Both University of Washington)
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Talk is fundamental to learning. This workshop engages participants in a variety of talk strategies specifically designed for improving classroom equity while engaging in STEM learning experiences. Many supporting resources are shared that teachers can learn from and directly use with students.

3:40-4:40 PM: How to Adapt Instructional Materials to Focus on Climate Justice (Physics)
Presenter(s): Kelsie Fowler, Philip Bell (Both University of Washington)
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We show how instructional materials can be adapted for local contexts—and how to elevate issues of climate justice and ethical responses to the climate crisis. Participants will learn about how a high school physics unit from OpenSciEd was adapted to attend to Indigenous land rights and sovereignty.

Friday, November 8

8:00-9:00 AM: Engaging in Climate Science Education Through Connections to Everyday Life, Equity, and Justice
Presenter(s): Deb Morrison, Philip Bell, Kelsie Fowler (All University of Washington)
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Climate change is here. Come explore ways to teach about this that intersect with issues of justice and provide action for the future. This workshop will support educators in all grades and contexts, including those who can’t even say “climate change”!

9:20-10:20 AM: Supporting Equity and Justice Through Science Instruction: The Road Traveled and the One Ahead
Presenter(s): Philip Bell (University of Washington: Seattle, WA), Michal Robinson (K-12 Science, AP/IB Program Manager)
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All students have the right to develop a deep understanding of how the world works in ways that support their personal goals and the interests of their community. Come explore how instruction can more equitably support science learning that is consequential to your students and their communities.

10:40-11:40 AM: Centering Justice in Ambitious Teaching: Sharing Core Practices
Presenter(s): April Luehmann (University of Rochester), Molly Wilson (Warner School), Priya Pugh, Todd Campbell (University of Connecticut), James Kostka (Warner School), Katrina Robinson (Penfield High School), Christina Riccardo (IslandWood)
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Learn about the Justice-Centered Ambitious Science Teaching framework and practices teachers have developed to be responsive to students' cultures and communities, recognize and build upon expansive forms of student meaning-making, and committed to naming and disrupting injustice in society.

1:20-2:20 PM: What Questions Do You Have About Teaching Climate Change?
Presenter(s): Deb Morrison, Philip Bell, Kelsie Fowler (All University of Washington)
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Come explore teaching strategies and instructional supports for helping youth learn about climate justice-centered phenomena and issues. Youth are seeking out this type of socio-ecological learning opportunity! Help them learn how to engage in collective action!

2:40-3:40 PM: Making Science Instruction Compelling for All Students: How to
Integrate the Cultural Lives of Your Students into Your Teaching
Presenter(s): Philip Bell (University of Washington), Tiffany Neill (Curriculum Project Manager), Ximena Gallegos Gutierrez (University of Washington)
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This session highlights cultural dimensions of meaningful science learning. It showcases a powerful instructional technique for formative assessment called “self-documentation”—where students collect information related to a particular theme or topic in their everyday lives.

4:00-5:00 PM: Get Your Students Outside to Learn Science!
Presenter(s): Philip Bell, Nancy Price, Kelsie Fowler (All University of Washington)
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How can science learning experiences help students develop ecological caring approaches to the living world? Come explore educational approaches to multispecies justice with us! Expanding how students connect to and care for the living world around them is vital at this time of climate crisis.

Saturday, November 9

10:20-11:20 AM: Supporting All Students in Making Sense of Phenomena By Building All of Their Intellectual Resources
Presenter(s): Philip Bell, Nancy Price (Both University of Washington)
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Students bring amazing intellectual resources to make sense of science phenomena based on their personal and community experiences—including language, perspectives, gestures, and knowledge, interests, and values. Come learn how to notice and leverage those intellectual gifts in your teaching!

11:40 AM-12:40 PM: Analyzing Formative Assessment Responses to Surface and Respond to a Range of Student Thinking about Science Concepts
Presenter(s): Philip Bell (University of Washington), Tiffany Neill (Curriculum Project Manager)
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Students bring a range of intellectual resources—based on their unique life experiences—into the classroom as they learn science. These resources can be considered different “facets” of thinking. Teachers explore a protocol for identifying and attending to facets through formative assessments.

1:00-2:00 PM: How to Design Justice-Focused 3D Assessments in Science
Presenter(s): William Penuel (University of Colorado Boulder), Philip Bell (University of Washington)
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Guiding instruction based on the assessment of student’s developing proficiencies is a key feature of powerful learning experiences. This session focuses how to design assessments that gauge student understanding of justice-related phenomena and topics that are deeply consequential.