Denver, CO
March 20-23, 2024
Conference Website
Every year the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) hosts a national conference on science education open to member and nonmember science educators. NSTA is committed to promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.
Thursday, March 21
Powerful, FREE Simulations for Three-Dimensional Earth, Climate, and Life Science
3:40 PM – 4:40 PM, Hyatt Regency Denver – Agate
Come discover how free, NSF-funded simulations and curricula from The Concord Consortium can add all dimensions of the NGSS to your Earth, Climate, and Life Science teaching, with a special emphasis on the Practices. Bring a device to this interactive session and take away free resources!
Friday, March 22
FREE Resources and Strategies for Interdisciplinary Data Science Education
8:00 AM – 9:00 AM, Colorado Convention Center – Bluebird Ballroom 3C
Come discover how free, NSF-funded resources from The Concord Consortium and EL Education can bring literacy, math, and social studies into the science classroom through engaging students with authentic real-world datasets. Bring a device to this interactive session and take away tips and resources! Get free resources and strategies for interdisciplinary sensemaking through interactive data-exploration simulations and activities.
Modeling Mayhem in a 7th Grade Classroom: Using Multiple Modeling Perspectives to Explain Phenomenon
Angela Gospodarek (Gorham Middle School, Gorham, ME), Daniel Damelin
8:00 AM – 9:00 AM, Colorado Convention Center – Bluebird Ballroom 2E
Learn how a class studying local ecosystems as part of a community science project utilizes multiple modeling approaches, including embodied modeling, system modeling with SageModeler, and data analysis using CODAP to enhance learning, contribute to research, and raise environmental awareness. Using multiple modeling approaches throughout the year improves understanding and is more inclusive by providing multiple avenues for students to engage with core ideas and crosscutting concepts, as they engage in multiple NGSS practices, specifically those related to modeling and data analysis.
Watershed Awareness using Technology and Environmental Research for Sustainability (WATERS)
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM, Colorado Convention Center – Exhibit Hall, Poster Session Aisle
Explore free WATERS student-centered activities and models for middle school classrooms for learning water concepts and building water career awareness. Students predict the likelihood that water will follow one pathway over another. The lessons include these learning activities: discover your local watershed; learn about your stream organisms; test your local water chemistry; manipulate water models; explore your schoolyard; investigate your schoolyard; model improvements to your schoolyard; and create a road map to action.
YouthQuake: Engaging students in a computational geology experience to forecast earthquake hazards and explore risks
Stephanie Seevers (Teacher, Evergreen, CO), Christopher Lore
2:40 PM – 3:40 PM, Colorado Convention Center – Bluebird Ballroom 3A
Explore classroom tested, free, online curriculum that helps students use block coding to create simulations and data visualizations for investigations of earthquake risks in California. This workshop will allow participants to become familiar with a free, online curriculum focused on estimating the hazards and risk of earthquakes in California. Participants will engage with the GeoCode curriculum as a student to see this innovative approach in teaching earthquake hazards and risk.
Powerful, FREE Simulations for Three-Dimensional NGSS Teaching
2:40 PM – 3:40 PM, Hyatt Regency Denver – Capitol Ballroom 7
Come discover how free, NSF-funded simulations and curricula from The Concord Consortium can add all dimensions of the NGSS to your physics, physical science, and chemistry teaching with a special emphasis on the Science Practices. Bring a device to this interactive session and get free resources!
Students Simulating Phenomena Without Coding or Writing Equations: A More Equitable Approach to Modeling
Daniel Damelin, Angela Gospodarek (Gorham Middle School, Gorham, ME)
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM, Colorado Convention Center – Bluebird Ballroom 2H
Dive into systems modeling with SageModeler, a free web-based tool for engaging students in systems thinking and computational thinking while modeling. SageModeler makes it possible for a wide range of students to create simulatable models as they test their ideas against real-world observations. Attendees will gain the skills to get started using SageModeler as a tool for modeling systems, and brainstorm strategies for integrating systems thinking in their curricula.
Metamorphism of the Rock Cycle Lesson: 3-Dimensional Teaching Linking the Formation of Rocks to Plate Tectonic Settings
Stephanie Seevers (Teacher, Evergreen, CO), Christopher Lore
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM, Colorado Convention Center – Bluebird Ballroom 3B
Participants will get hands-on access to a free online curriculum that uses a computational plate tectonics model, called the TecRocks Explorer, and real-world data to explore the connections between tectonic settings, conditions, and processes, and rock formation.
Saturday, March 23
Teaching for Data Literacy Across K-12 Grades and Subjects
11:40 AM – 12:40 PM, Colorado Convention Center – 709
Come participate in a discussion about teaching for data literacy to better understand strategies and goals to help students learn with and about data. Join a growing community of science educators and researchers seeking to prepare students for citizenship in an increasingly data-rich world. Participants will gain an up-to-date understanding of how to help students learn with and about data in the science classroom, while providing feedback on the development of a national, research-based learning progression framework for data literacy teaching and learning.
Going Beyond Data Analysis into Asking and Answering Questions Through Data Exploration
Daniel Damelin, Angela Gospodarek (Gorham Middle School: Gorham, ME)
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM, Colorado Convention Center – Bluebird Ballroom 2D
Infuse your classroom with data by learning to use CODAP, a free, web-based data exploration tool designed to support students in learning how to answer questions with data. CODAP’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface will move your students beyond spreadsheets into the realm of data inquiry. CODAP moves the focus away from cumbersome graph wizards and allows students to enter a state of flow in exploring the story a dataset has to tell. CODAP was designed with students in mind, and supports sensemaking with data in unique ways not possible with other tools.