NSTA 2025
We’re excited to provide a professional learning institute, hands-on workshops, and presentations at this year’s NSTA National Conference in Philadelphia, March 26-29, 2025! Details listed below, or click here for more information and the most recent room locations and times (enter in search bar: BSCS Science Learning).
March 26
PLI-1: OpenSciEd for Elementary is HERE!
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING INSTITUTE
Wednesday, March 26 • 8:15 a.m.–3:15 p.m.
Pennsylvania Convention Center – 202 A
Purchase a ticket (they’re going fast!)
STRAND: Students and Sensemaking
Join us to experience how students make decisions and engage in class discussion as part of their sensemaking. Learn how the OpenSciEd Elementary’s instructional approach supports all students in figuring out complex science issues in their world through a coherent storyline.
TAKEAWAYS:
OpenSciEd Elementary units are designed to support students in collaborative sensemaking through use of Science and Engineering Practices and engagement in equitable discussions.
PRESENTERS:
Janna Mahfoud (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Yanira Vazquez (OpenSciEd: New York, NY), Susan Gomez Zwiep (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)
March 27
How can we get high-quality instructional materials into the hands of teachers prepared to use them?
PRESENTATION
Thursday, March 27 • 8–9 a.m.
Pennsylvania Convention Center – 202 B
STRAND: Leadership
NextGen TIME is a free suite of tools and processes that supports districts in preparing to evaluate instructional materials for quality and design for NGSS. This collaborative process helps you plan for next steps including customization to improve student outcomes and effective implementation.
TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how NextGen TIME supports the evaluation of current instructional materials to strengthen their design for NGSS and how NextGen TIME tools and processes can serve as critical components of curriculum-based professional learning. You’ll walk away with free access to NextGen TIME resources.
SPEAKERS:
Jenine Cotton-Proby (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)
How can we get staff ready for the shifts required for the effective implementation of high-quality instructional materials?
HANDS-ON WORKSHOP
Thursday, March 27 • 12:30–2 p.m.
Pennsylvania Convention Center – 202 B
STRAND: Leadership
The implementation of high-quality instructional materials requires support as teachers make the shifts needed for effective use. Dig into Change Management from The Elements of curriculum based professional learning to figure out how key lessons can help you lead change.
TAKEAWAYS:
Join other leaders to consider key lessons from change and dig into Change Management from The Elements: Transforming Teaching through Curriculum-based Professional Learning.
SPEAKERS:
Jim Short (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Jody Bintz (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)
Classroom Agreements to Support Sensemaking: OpenSciEd Elementary
HANDS-ON WORKSHOP
Thursday, March 27 • 1–2 p.m.
Pennsylvania Convention Center – 202 A
STRAND: Students and Sensemaking
Experience how classroom agreements can create productive and safe spaces for elementary students to share their ideas, let those ideas change and grow, and engage with each other as a community of learners.
TAKEAWAYS:
Elementary students can co-construct classroom agreements that support an environment where they recognize that science can be done in many ways, feel safe and compelled to share their ideas and questions, listen/look/respond to others’ ideas, and let their ideas change and grow.
SPEAKERS:
María González-Howard (University of Texas at Austin: Austin, TX), Carla Robinson (University of Texas at Austin: Austin, TX), Leticia Garza (PhD Student), Janna Mahfoud (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)
OpenSciEd Elementary Classroom Discussions: Supporting students to share and discuss their ideas with the classroom community.
HANDS-ON WORKSHOP
Thursday, March 27 • 2:20–3:20 p.m.
Pennsylvania Convention Center – 202 A
STRAND: Students and Sensemaking
Engage in an OpenSciEd Elementary unit and see how classroom discussions can support ALL students’ in using their ideas, experiences, and evidence for collective sensemaking.
TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn about how to engage elementary students in classroom discussion to share initial ideas, build understanding and come to consensus about the phenomenon they are trying to collectively figure out.
SPEAKERS:
Guy Ollison (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Susan Gomez Zwiep (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)
How Can Leaders Support Student-centered Teaching and Learning?
HANDS-ON WORKSHOP
Thursday, March 27 • 2:20–3:20 p.m.
Pennsylvania Convention Center – 202 B
STRAND: Leadership
Explore how leaders can use the new BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning (AIL) instructional model to support teachers in creating learning experiences that motivate students with significant, real world phenomena and problems! Learn how AIL cycles of inquiry and sensemaking culminate in student agency!
TAKEAWAYS:
The research-based BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning instructional model succeeds the 5Es and forms the basis for high-quality instructional materials. Leaders can leverage this model to support teachers in creating a student-centered classroom that provides effective teaching and learning for all.
SPEAKERS:
Cynthia Gay (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)
March 28
Choosing Phenomena for Standards-Based Assessments that Connect to Students’ Interests and Community Priorities
HANDS-ON WORKSHOP
Friday, March 28 • 8–9 a.m.
Philadelphia Marriott Downtown – Franklin 1
STRAND: Assessment
Want to create 3D assessment tasks that students enjoy completing and leave wanting to learn more? Join us for this session where we will explore three different approaches to choosing phenomena and problems for assessments that align to standards and connect to students’ interests and identities.
TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will leave with a plan for learning about your students’ interests and the priorities of their communities pertaining to a 3D standard you are teaching and assessing next semester.
SPEAKERS:
William Penuel (University of Colorado Boulder: Boulder, CO), Abraham Lo (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)
Leaders Institute Pathway Session 4 of 7 Leadership for the Implementation of High-Quality Instructional Materials: Launch through Sustainability
HANDS-ON WORKSHOP
Friday, March 28 • 9:20–10:20 a.m.
Pennsylvania Convention Center – 202 B
STRAND: Leadership
Once you’ve adopted high-quality instructional materials (HQIM), how do leaders ensure effective and sustained implementation? Join us to explore critical actions of leaders to launch and sustain the implementation of HQIM!
TAKEAWAYS:
Effective and sustained implementation of high-quality instructional materials requires planning for change prior to implementation, generating excitement, providing transformative professional learning, monitoring implementation progress and using data to support continuous improvement.
SPEAKERS:
Jody Bintz (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)
Coherent Lesson Components in K-5 Science Units
PRESENTATION
Friday, March 28 • 9:20–10:20 a.m.
Pennsylvania Convention Center – 202 A
How can we fit student-centered science instruction into the varied schedules of K-5 classrooms? Experience and explore how OpenSciEd Elementary’s free high-quality units are designed to support teachers in making time to engage their students in 3D science.
TAKEAWAYS:
OpenSciEd Elementary lessons are organized in four components: Navigate, Explore, Connect, and Synthesize. These components support teachers in understanding the purpose of each part of a lesson, allow for more flexible timing, and can be implemented in various parts of the school day.
SPEAKERS:
Guy Ollison (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Gail Housman (Northwestern University: Evanston, IL)
How can we anchor science leadership in equity principles?
HANDS-ON WORKSHOP
Friday, March 28 • 10:40 a.m.–12:10 p.m.
Pennsylvania Convention Center – 202 B
STRAND: Leadership
Equity is often stated as a key value in education, but how can we anchor equity in science leadership work? Reflect on your own ideas, beliefs, and approaches to equity and learn how one science leadership development program embeds equity as part of learning to lead curriculum implementation.
TAKEAWAYS:
Beliefs, knowledge, context, and lived-experiences shape approaches to equity work. The NEXUS Academy for Science Curriculum Leadership has developed Equity Principles to consider and intertwine with other leadership knowledge bases as leaders work to ensure equity for all learners in the system.
SPEAKERS:
Susan Gomez Zwiep (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)
How can we support equity in educational systems?
HANDS-ON WORKSHOP
Friday, March 28 • 1–2:30 p.m.
Pennsylvania Convention Center – 202 B
STRAND: Leadership
Curriculum implementation provides an opportunity to uncover and confront persistent inequities in educational systems. Engage with us in an equity simulation to consider how policies and practices related to science curriculum implementation can either support or hinder equity goals.
TAKEAWAYS:
Barriers to equity are not in learners, but rather in environments. When seeking to reach “all”, historical and current policies and practices need to be examined. Educational policies and practices that are seemingly neutral can contribute to persistent inequities for marginalized student groups.
SPEAKERS:
Janna Mahfoud (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Jenine Cotton-Proby (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)
Supporting Schools and Districts: Furthering NGSS Implementation through Curriculum Based Professional Learning
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING WORKSHOPS
Friday, March 28 • 1–3:20 p.m.
Pennsylvania Convention Center – 303 B
STRAND: Curriculum-Based Professional Learning
Join us to consider how engaging in curriculum based professional learning (CBPL) can strengthen the shared vision of the instructional shifts called for by the NGSS. Hear how one district’s CBPL experience deepened teacher’s knowledge of three dimensional phenomena driven teaching and learning.
TAKEAWAYS:
Curriculum based professional learning experiences can support teachers and leaders to deepen their understanding of the NGSS as they analyze instructional materials.
SPEAKERS:
Jenine Cotton-Proby (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Guy Ollison (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)
Engaging in Participatory Science through Inquiry, Sensemaking, and Data Visualization with FieldScope
HANDS-ON WORKSHOP
Friday, March 28 • 4–5 p.m.
Philadelphia Marriott Downtown – Franklin 13
STRAND: Research to Practice
Learn about FieldScope, a community science platform for visualizing environmental data and supporting an understanding of science and inquiry. Join this session if you are an educator excited to use data in your programs, or want to engage communities in participatory science.
TAKEAWAYS:
Leave with the next steps for planning data explorations in existing or future projects, examples of how to learn with data generated by participatory science projects, particularly in middle and high school settings, and also how to host their own project data.
SPEAKERS:
Jamie Noll (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)
March 29
How can we achieve the promise of High Quality Instructional Materials to promote equity?
HANDS-ON WORKSHOP
Saturday, March 29 • 8:30–10 a.m.
Pennsylvania Convention Center – 202 B
STRAND: Leadership
Far too often equity efforts are relegated to the sidelines instead of embedded in core curriculum leadership tasks. Join us to consider how anchoring science leadership in equity principles can remove barriers to science teaching and learning through curriculum implementation efforts.
TAKEAWAYS:
The implementation of high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) can lead to more equitable systems when barriers to equity are confronted and removed. The process of confronting barriers includes collaborating for justice, taking small actions to learn, and continual reflection and revision of implementation plans based on data.
SPEAKERS:
Janna Mahfoud (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)
Evaluating Health Risks: Opportunities for Student Learning and Action
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING WORKSHOP
Saturday, March 29 • 9–11 a.m.
Pennsylvania Convention Center – 303 B
STRAND: Sensemaking and 3D Learning
Experience how leveraging genetic and environmental risk for complex disease as authentic phenomena supports student understanding through 3D teaching and learning. Learn how the BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning instructional model develops student agency that leads to individual and community action.
TAKEAWAYS:
The research-based BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning instructional model succeeds the 5Es and leverages complex societal issues as anchoring phenomena/problems, culminating tasks, and performance assessments in 3D units of instruction to motivate students and develop agency in addressing these issues.
SPEAKERS:
Nancy Hopkins-Evans (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Cynthia Gay (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)
Embedding Literacy Supports in 3D Units for Equitable Sensemaking and Learning
PRESENTATION
Saturday, March 29 • 1–2 p.m.
Pennsylvania Convention Center – 202 B
STRAND: No Strand
Experience how embedding literacy supports for reading, writing, and academic discourse in 3D teaching and learning promotes sensemaking and science understanding for ALL learners! Learn how the BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning instructional model embeds literacy supports throughout cycles of inquiry.
TAKEAWAYS:
The research-based BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning instructional model succeeds the 5Es and embeds literacy supports for reading, writing, and academic discourse in conjunction with science and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts to promote students in figuring out key science ideas.
SPEAKERS:
Nancy Hopkins-Evans (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO), Cynthia Gay (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)
Developing and Leading Partnerships among Students, Teachers, and Scientists
PRESENTATION
Saturday, March 29 • 1–2 p.m.
Pennsylvania Convention Center – 126 B
STRAND: No Strand
Learn how one program developed and sustained classroom-based partnerships with scientists to strengthen teacher practice. PlantingScience is a free online resource for teachers. It provides volunteer scientists, resources, and activities to support innovation in teaching, learning, and mentoring.
TAKEAWAYS:
The Planting Science Student Teacher Scientist Partnership provides a unique opportunity for teachers to provide inquiry experiences for their students, by connecting volunteer scientists to student teams for student-centered research projects. Learn how to access the free PlantingScience resources.
SPEAKERS:
Jenine Cotton-Proby (BSCS Science Learning: Colorado Springs, CO)
