Interactive Lessons engage students in a curricular topic using digital media while supporting literacy strategies. Lessons include video, short readings, writing prompts and assessment. Students practice close reading, learn vocabulary and synthesize data. We'll introduce the lessons and discuss various ways to implement them.
The CDSM is a collaborative of 100+ educators from 30 districts who have used the UbD framework to create curriculum aligned to the 2016 Massachusetts STE Frameworks. Come learn about our process and explore our units which have embedded open-source materials to allow for universal usage of our work.
This session presents initial findings of a review of best practices for K-12 STEM learning spaces commissioned by the Massachusetts School Building Authority. The review includes elementary classrooms, science labs, and makerspaces to provide recommendations for the sizing, configuration, outfitting, management, maintenance, and use of STEM learning spaces.
This workshop will introduce techniques on establishing a learning environment that values and demonstrates the benefits of diversity, confronts bias and bigotry, and expands students’ access to STEM education so they can grow, learn, and to be challenged and reach their full potential.
Learn how National Geographic’s Geo-Inquiry process can further your student's understanding of the world and empower them to generate solutions that to make a difference. In this interactive session, educators will learn new strategies to help students develop the critical thinking skills to ask geographic questions, collect information, use GIS to visualize data, create a compelling story, and ultimately become advocates for change in their community.
How can we use media to convey key space science concepts and enhance curriculum? In this interactive session, we'll explore strategies for engaging students with media and showcase NEW Instructional Modules, produced by WGBH in collaboration with NASA and available FREE on PBS LearningMedia™.
Interactive Lessons engage students in a curricular topic using digital media while supporting literacy strategies. Lessons include video, short readings, writing prompts and assessment. Students practice close reading, learn vocabulary and synthesize data. We'll introduce the lessons and discuss various ways to implement them.
Attendees build a panel-type solar cooker for all-seasons, almost as cheap as the common pizza-box warmer, but much more effective. Associate STE with a quotidian activity like cooking for lifelong learning for all. Concepts: Radiation, absorption reflection & transmission, power, energy, temperature, E-M spectrum, insolation. Apply to borrow high-tech instruments.
Come try your hand at our Wind Weightlifting Challenge! What will make the biggest difference in electrical output of your wind turbine: blade material, blade shape, gear ratio, pitch, number of blades? A hands-on, critical thinking challenge for your students to work as engineers in a competitive setting!
Presenters will share new climate change education resources. Learn to navigate a hyperlinked climate change concept map. Bring a wifi-accessible tool to explore the map on the spot! Receive a Massachusetts weather-climate strand map, an annotated bibliography of climate change education resources, and opportunities for further professional development.
The presenters detail their work with Dr. Charles Camarda, a NASA astronaut, to engage students in design solutions for sustainable human colony on Mars. Key elements explained: “Epic” challenge, ICED methodology, importance of failure, Teamology, mentors, and low cost. They will provide specific example so you can emulate their efforts.
The local community, as well as your own school grounds, offer a range of natural phenomena that can provide K12 students authentic experiential learning opportunities. In this workshop, learn how to identify key field trip locales that promote NGSS 3-D learning. A framework for designing a field trip along with pre- and post-trip information and assessments will be provided.
Science test developers will present information about the new STE tests. Topics will include test designs and reporting categories for the new grades 5 & 8 and high school tests. Constructed responses will also be discussed, with an emphasis on constructing explanations using data.
Model My Watershed is a free, web-based application that invites students to explore the condition of their local watershed with a scientifically valid watershed model. The curriculum allows students to analyze data while they explore authentic science experiences in their local watershed, and use real-data simulations to teach Environmental Sustainability.
This session will help teachers and administrators develop their capacity to integrate the science and technology/engineering (STE) and ELA/Literacy standards. Participants will build a shared understanding of the complementary ELA/Literacy and STE standards by grade level and identify opportunities to integrate across content areas.
Join this hands-on session to learn activities for students that better equip them to visualize climate as a system, how carbon cycles throughout the Earth’s systems, and how CO2 speeds up the transfer of thermal energy. Ideal for grades 6–8!
How are both natural and human forces shaping the land where we live? Using a combination of field ecology in the Schoolyard and land cover change map based activities in the classroom, Teacher Emilie Cushing, will share how she is structuring an exploration into student analysis of how the landscape around her school and town is changing over time. Her students are collecting, recording project data and contributing that information to a region-wide network of Schoolyard field sites based at Harvard Forest. Schoolyard Ecology Program Coordinator, Pamela Snow, will share how teachers in grades 6-12 can participate in the "Our Changing Forest" project or similar work in getting students actively involved in Citizen Science projects led by professional Ecologists and supported year round by education and science staff at an internationally recognized ecological research institution.
Workshop participants will participate in a hands-on activity that involves calculating approximately how much carbon is being stored in the forests in several Massachusetts' towns. Teacher Emilie Cushing developed this activity for use in her classroom and will offer workshop participants the chance to be the students during this workshop. Land Cover Change maps used in this workshop are all available as free downloads online. Many other related free online resources will also be referenced.
Compost at school in a classroom worm bin or outdoor compost bin for sustainability and integrated science learning of life science standards. Bring a 14-gallon or larger plastic tote to make your worm bin; worms provided free! Demonstration of easy outdoor compost bins available from DEP's Green Team program. Great tie-in with school gardening and sustainable life skills.
With rising greenhouse gases, bio-engineers have learned to apply observations from decomposers towards biofuel solutions. In this workshop, learn to extract enzymes from mushrooms (based on their natural decomposing abilities/niche), optimize their reaction rates and model the genetic engineering of a bacterial plasmid (using genes from mushrooms) for biofuel production.
We constantly ask students to write in their own words, but do not teach them the skills they need to do this. This workshop will address misconceptions regarding what plagiarism is, as well as run through an exercise using a science current event article to show students how to avoid copying someone's work. The reading comprehension technique of reciprocal teaching will be used in this activity.
Hazardous weather, such as thunderstorms, hurricanes, and winter storms can cause property damage, bodily injury or even death. Understanding the causes and forecasting of such events is an important skill in New England. This workshop is one of a series produced by Project ATMOSPHERE, an initiative of the American Meteorological Society. It will introduce educators to AMS/National Weather Service resources for teaching about weather.
Discover innovative ways to teach students about human-environmental interactions, while also building STEM skills through problem solving, mathematical modeling, role-playing simulations and more! Receive lesson plans in an electronic format, all matched to state standards.
During the Environmental Data Mosaic Workshop held at the MIT Museum, middle school students engaged with real scientific data. Explore how students learned to read, interpret, and share what they have learned about environmental data sets through the creation of a pictorial “data story.”
Now in its fifth decade of production, NOVA remains committed to producing in-depth science programming. This session will explore NOVA’s free resources for educators that address environmental justice topics—ranging from Flint's water crisis to the impact of climate change on coastal communities—using video, interactives, and virtual reality.
Engage student inquiry projects with Web GIS Storytelling. Use the story within digital Geographic Information System maps to create a stronger narrative based on student-collected data. In this presentation, beginners are introduced to Web GIS mapping and the Story Maps application to analyze student data on community environmental issues.
