Pick up your badge, bag, and program book before the conference starts. You can beat the morning rush and head straight to the first session of the day on Friday morning.
Enjoy a hot cup of coffee before heading off to your first session of the conference.
Sponsored by DeVry University
Located just outside the exhibit hall. Pick up your badge, buy a ticket for a Short Course, and get going on your conference adventure.
Join Flinn as we present dynamic, exciting, easy-to-perform demonstrations on core chemistry and physical science. Discover new demonstrations and remember classic demonstrations, all guaranteed to make your classroom come alive!
Discover the physical and chemical properties of water using magnetic water molecules. Explore how these chemical principles of water influence protein structure using physical models.
Hands-on activities in diffusion, passive transport, simulated cell organelles, MRI, hydrophilic/hydrophobic properties, similated microbes,energy transfer, optical illusions and forensics
Attendees will see samples of effective instructional science materials, appropriate teaching strategies, and models of professional development training aimed to address the developing Next Generation Science Standards.
Would you like to teach more effectively with the help of molecular simulations that are scientifically sound? Bring your laptop (Windows or Mac OS X) and learn how to engage your students.
BABEC presents models and best practices for supporting high school biotechnology programs. We will demonstrate novel and engaging ways to bring hands-on, inquiry-based biotechnology into your classroom.
Click here to download workshop handout (.pdf, 3MB)
Take your students on an aerial adventure in science with the Hiller Aviation Museum! Experiment with forces using inexpensive gliders, airplanes and helicopters in an exciting make-and-take workshop.
Learn about earthquake hazards, vibrations of buildings, and damage, through an exciting activity using model buildings and simple shake table. Buildings are tested by applying vibrations on shake table.
Do you want to make your physics more inquiry-based? We made the change this year and will share our insights and several resources to help you make the switch too.
Not enough time to teach science? Learn how EARTHS, a science-centered elementary school, integrates science, language arts, and ELD. Take home a rubric to assess science content, processes, and communication.
See inexpensive models for teaching about cells, respiratory and digestive systems. Try out an esophagus modeling lab by using a balloon, marble, and your fingers to begin peristalsis.
Handouts:
California’s beaches are constantly changing. Examine a wonderful diversity of sand, learn about the “sand highway,” and discover why beaches may be “here today, gone tomorrow.” Free curriculum.
See a model lesson used by teachers and Monterey Bay Aquarium which increases student curiosity, modeling how scientists actually “do” science - asking questions, accumulating evidence, extracting knowledge, and applying to new contexts.
Science or Writing? Accomplish both at the same time. Come learn various ways of helping students make student-authored science projects to demonstrate learning and take home to discuss with parents.
Utilize technology to further students’ understanding and engagement. Use phones, computers, and tablets to conduct real-time, in-class assessments, both formative and summative. Integrate vodcasting for remediation and differentiated instruction.
Teaching the 8th grade standards with a "paper chemistry set", inexpensively, using a paper chemistry set, to teach the organization of the Periodic Table, ionic and covalent bonding, atomic structure. Grade 8.
The Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope (GAVRT) Project allows students to take control of a 34-meter radio astronomy antenna from their classroom. Grades 4-12.
This session will provide teachers with the tools they need to explicitly teach students literacy strategies that will both increase their involvement in and expression of the scientific process.
This hands-on environmental science workshop models effective strategies to teach students about waste reduction and resource conservation. Participants will experience center-based activities focusing on landfills, decomposition, and natural resource conservation.
Sponsored by Sargent-Welch, Science Kit, and Ward’s Natural Science
New to the California Science Education Conference? Enjoy a complimentary cup of coffee during an orientation session let by CSTA board members and experience conference goers will give you a warm welcome and show you the ropes. You’ll get the inside scoop on where to go, what to do, and how to make the most of your conference experience. Register to win exciting science-based prizes that will be raffeld during this session.
The exhibit hall will open for the first time on Friday at 9:00 am.
Here are a few of the exhibitors that will be in this year's exhibit hall.
Click here to view a current floor plan of all exhibitors.
Click this link to download Dr. Quinn's Power Point presentation (.ppt, 3.3MB)
This is your opportunity to hear first-hand from one of the primary authors and architects of A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas, the guiding document for the development of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The first draft of the NGSS caused quite a stir in the science education community in California. Attend this session and learn about the research behind the Framework, the rationale behind the choices made, and learn about ways to start implementing Framework concepts in your classroom. The second public draft of the NGSS is expected out around the time of the conference, or just after. This session will help to inform and prepare you to participate in that second review process. Have a burning question you would like Dr. Quinn to address? Let us know, email your question to conference@cascience.org and we will share your questions with Dr. Quinn. Your questions can help to shape her presentation, making this a truly valuable experience for you.
Dr. Quinn's presentation will be preceded by the CSTA annual meeting of membership.
Digital microscopy: utilize advanced technology, hardware, and software, to enhance your stem based science inquiry. The workshop includes demonstrations and hands-on activities with the latest digital scopes and flex cameras.
Flinn presents activities for middle school – integrating life, Earth, and physical science topics. Participants perform and observe experiments designed to capture the curiosity and engage the energy of students.
Come see how the built-in wireless capabilities of our new LabQuest 2 support data collection on iPad and other mobile devices.
Project STEM provides research-based materials that integrate STEM seamlessly into existing K-8 curricula and instruction. Try out one of 18 innovative modules in this hands-on workshop.
Teachers will participate in a DNA Fingerprinting exercise. Applying skills include plotting data using logarithmic. Other STEM - related experiment that are adaptable for your classrooms will also be demonstrated.
Enjoy an hour in the exhibit all networking, shopping, and learning about all of the great resources and opportunities available to science educators.
Here are a few of the exhibitors that will be in this year's exhibit hall.
Click here to view a current floor plan of all exhibitors.
Dynamic changes are occurring at unprecedented rates in our information-rich, highly visual, and interconnected "flat" world necessitating quick, adaptive, and inventive (not "standardized") thinking. Creative thinking is superseded by "standardized" thinking, which is easier to assess, but no longer in demand in the "Innovation Age." Most American 8th grade students know how to multiply 9 X 5, but the vast majority does not know when to do so. The overarching goal of education should be to teach students to think and problem solve (including problems that do not exist yet). Innovative thinking is often eliminated or neutralized in schools by standardized thinking, although creativity turns out to be three times stronger than IQ as a predictor or lifetime success and accomplishment. Nothing is more important to our collective future than teaching flexibility in thinking, finding multiple answers, visualization, and inventive thinking.
Participants will construct an understanding of California’s water and associated supply & demand dilemmas, through hands-on, data-centered activities involving maps, all ready for immediate classroom use.
Click here to access session handouts.
Bring your laptops to explore SimScientists Human Body Systems, supplementary simulation-based instructional modules focusing on a multilevel model of carbohydrate metabolism. The modules include formative and summative assessments with reports.
How is carbon connected to plants, fossil fuels and carbon dioxide? Check out our students assessment tool, and the hands-on lessons we use to help students explore this concept.
Handouts:
Forest ecosystems provide essential resources: water, carbon, and soil. Learn about balancing forest sustainability on the global level. Take home Project Learning Tree’s curriculum Global Connections: Forests of the World.
Join us to learn how you easily you can integrate media-making projects into your science program to engage learners, foster communication of science, and assess understanding!
Click here to access handouts from presenter's website.
Explore new DNA, protein, and virus models developed at The Scripps Research Institute, and accompanying activities. Participants will receive a paper model and links to use in their own classes.
Click Here for Workshop Handout
Research shows that time spent planning "smarter" translates into improved student achievement. Explore elements of a standards-based instructional unit, using the backwards mapping model. Receive printed materials and interactive CD.
Experience an interactive rock cycle game that is inquiry-focused and built on the three key findings in “How People Learn”. Leave with a complete lesson that can be used immediately.
Handouts:
Learn about the benefits and barriers to taking students on field trips, including current research findings about integrating field trips and classroom curriculum, and essential components of exemplary field trips.
Join Monterey Bay Aquarium educators for inquiry-, technology- and standards-based activities exploring the tagging and tracking of ocean animals. Appropriate for middle- and high-school classrooms with computers and internet.
Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of our nation’s ten sources of energy using innovative, grade appropriate activities that engage all learning types.
Come learn how to integrate technology like PHET, Google Docs, and more into your physics curriculum to make it more efficient, effective, and relevant to students.
Explore hands-on science assessment and its relationship to students’ mastering Common Core standards. Engage in a hands-on performance task. Explore the uses and advantages of this form of assessment.
Click here to download session handouts.
Grab lunch from the concession stand while visiting the exhibit hall. Enter your name for door prize drawings which will take place on Saturday afternoon.
Here are a few of the exhibitors that will be in this year's exhibit hall.
Click here to view a current floor plan of all exhibitors.
The experiment focuses on procedures utilized in DNA fingerprinting and blood type-based screening for suspects who may have been present at crime scene. Take home a t-shirt and educational resource flashdrive.
Use inquiry to discover the concepts of heredity and adaptation by manipulating a crazy creature. Participants will leave with a CD of the activities and a few kits will be raffled off.
Teaching and learning science just got easier with the new FOSS California website! In this interactive session, we’ll unveil new resources, including electronic teacher guides and student books.
Teaching science academic vocabulary for comprehend and retention is one of the greatest challenges to teaching science. Learn how to meet this challenge by integrating multimedia content and research-based strategies.
Handouts:
In studying Earth’s carbon cycle—the exchange of carbon between the planet’s land, atmosphere, and oceans—scientists are trying to understand the role played by huge tropical rainforests such as the Amazon River basin. In particular, they want to determine how long an ecosystem stores atmospheric carbon dioxide in its plants, soils, and rivers. Karis McFarlane is an environmental scientist who has been using radiocarbons to study and better understand this cycle since 1999. She will discuss the ways radiocarbon is used to study carbon cycling in ecosystems and why it's unique and important for climate change. She will focus on the importance of understanding how much and for how long carbon is sequestered in soil and the role it plays in the carbon cycle. This session is a must for all environmental science educators.
How do astronomers tell what stars are made from? Participants in this workshop will take an ordinary digital photograph and make a spectrum graph using a grating and free software.
Density in three distinct and differing lessons. Two hands-on lessons and one method to help deal with density word problems.
Build, test and run real working electric motors. Great for showing the relationship between electricity and magnetism to all ages.
Ready to expand your Family Science Night? Learn about implementing a multi-night program using hands-on science and conservation activities. Find out about ideas to get started, and roadblocks to avoid.
In this workshop the activity of different peroxidase enzymes is compared. Participants conduct a peroxidase assay on different plant and animal tissues and learn to extract and assay for HRP.
This hands on workshop will include participants involved in "joint productive activities" using science observations and misconceptions integrated with literacy strategies to build academic language and vocabulary for English Learners.
We consider how educators provide opportunities for students to look at the nature of science explicitly, engage in practices of science and think about what we mean by scientific understanding.
Learn the impacts of marine debris. Integrate a shoreline or neighborhood cleanup into your program. Analyze real Coastal Cleanup Day data. Empower your students to make a difference! Free curricula.
Learn how to partner with an astronomer in Project ASTRO, a program focused on sparking student interest through hands-on, inquiry-based activities, and engage in an activity classifying solar system objects.
Handouts:
Teachers will experience different strategies to develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills outlined in the new CCSS for English Language Arts while learning meaningful science and using critical thinking.
Experience open-ended, creative activities that deepen students’ understanding of physical science and mathematics present in structures they see every day. Explore using PBS media as an integral part of the curriculum.
This workshop will focus on techniques to make science notebooks meaningful for students. Participants will engage in hands-on activities, analyze student work and reflect on challenges and successes using notebooks.
Handouts:
Comprehensive marine biology course teaching all California biology standards! Lessons, labs, activities, assessments, games, interactives/webquests. CST test scores were: 96% Advanced /Proficient in an inner-city 100% Black /Latino public school!
Take part in hands-on activities that explore how our species’ population has expanded to dominate the Earth and remake the natural world in unprecedented ways.
Reveal the power of enzyme kinetics using a key enzyme in the production of cellulosic ethanol. Expand the lab with studies of mushrooms and fungi in different ecological niches.
Click here to download handouts from the presenter's Dropbox folder.
Finding time to teach physical science in primary (PreK-2) grades is daunting! Come delve into the world of physical science, learn about exciting possibilities for integrating science and literacy, and explore our new Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. Grade level PreK-2. Ticket: $20
This Short Course is six hours in total. The second part of the course will be presented on Saturday, Oct. 20, 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
LiMPETS (Long-term Monitoring Program and Experiential Training for Students) is an environmental monitoring and education program for 6th grade- College level students. Learn how to get your students involved in hands-on, authentic scientific monitoring at your local beach. Participants receive the 5-unit Sandy Beach curriculum. Grade level 5-12.
Ticket: $20
Participants will develop a model of mechanical waves and explore methods that maximize reasoning. This mechanical wave model gives students an in-depth understanding of waves as a mechanism of energy transfer and foreshadows the scientific practices described in the new Framework for K-12 Science Education. Grade level 9-12.
Ticket: $30
Handouts:
Learn how one team of biology teachers built a model-based sequence of lessons for the trophic pyramid and energy as it relates to the trophic pyramid. Take home the sequence of activities and model-based classroom strategies to make your students better learners. Grade level 9-12.
Ticket: $15
Enrich your classroom with a suite of standards-based activities focusing on plastic pollution issues and solutions that highlight physical and chemical properties of plastics including density and buoyancy. Help your students RETHINK current plastic use and REFUSE single-use plastics through alternatives to disposables. Grade level 6-8.
Ticket: $10
Incorporate engaging, collaborative, narrated slideshows! Bring your laptop for a hands-on training. Learn to create narrated slideshows in iMovie or Windows Movie Maker for science learning. Earth Science examples will be used for this course, however narrated slideshows can be used with any science standards. Grade level 6-12.
Ticket: $20
Short Course Resources:
Enjoy an hour in the exhibit all networking, shopping, and learning about all of the great resources and opportunities available to science educators.
Here are a few of the exhibitors that will be in this year's exhibit hall.
Click here to view a current floor plan of all exhibitors.
Collect data, capture and analyze images, all in one seamless and intuitive environment using PASCO's SPARKvue® application and Ken-A-Vision® Microscopes.
Experience the future of science instruction with Discovery Education's High School Science Techbook. Discovery's High School Techbook engages students through a multimedia approach to science instruction.
Bring your laptop (Windows or Mac OS X) and learn how to work effectively with "Odyssey" a molecular modeling teaching tool in the 2012 releases for High School Chemistry and AP Chemistry.
Want science fun in your primary classroom? Mary Miche will sing nature songs and share her new book, "Nature's Patchwork Quilt." Join her for nature-science learning and sing-along fun.
The deep sea: Earth’s final frontier. Delve into the great blue deep with Rich Mooi as he discusses his deep sea research in the Bahamas, Antarctica, and the coast of the Pacific Northwest. Learn first-hand about the findings and discoveries from the California Academy of Sciences’ recent biodiversity expedition to the Philippines.
Integration of any two subjects-including science and art-is truly a dance. Who leads? Who follows? Learn how science and arts integration can help students understand difficult science concepts.
Activity Before Content: Instructional strategies and activities that provide students with the essential experiences that serve as context for building knowledge in biology, earth science, chemistry, and physics.
Learn how to integrate climate topics and activities into your science curriculum. We will include opportunities for educators to engage in activities and interact with the presenters through table activities. Grades 4-5.
Explore new, computer-based, virtual chemistry lab activities that help students connect procedural knowledge with authentic chemistry learning! Participants will learn about freely available online materials, aligned with California science standards.
Click here to download session handout.
For teachers who wish to learn more about earthquakes, seismology, seismic waves, California earthquakes, plate tectonics and related Earth science, and implement exciting hands-on activities. Free materials provided.
..with time-saving tips to manage lots of labs without losing your equipment or your mind, in an illustrated talk with resources, and time for problem-solving your equipment management issues.
Click here to access presenter's website with links to materials and resources.
Family STEM events are a great way to encourage families to do hands-on STEM together. Benefit from the experience of a team that has worked on dozens of these events.
Participants will assemble an intriguing hands-on kit which demonstrates key concepts of motion. RAFT facilitators will model effective classroom management strategies. Participants will receive free sets of materials!
Handouts:
Learn about Key to the Sea, a marine environmental education program for teachers and elementary school children. Engaging, hands on activities will focus on watersheds, coastal environment, and environmental stewardship.
This workshop will explore sustainability concepts and how they can be integrated into the science curriculum. Participants will map connections between sustainability concepts and science standards for their grade level.
Keeping iPads inside classrooms neglects the most powerful feature of these devices. See how the Monterey Bay Aquarium guides K-12 students to access and create information anywhere, using iPads.
Click here to access workshop handouts.
We'll present activities for using on-line data to teach about physical, chemical, and biological factors in marine systems. Learn how to find data from California ocean and coastal areas.
Learn about new PLT’s GreenSchools! program. Engage your students in “greening” their school through investigations and on-line calculators involving school site use of energy, water, recycling and transportation.
Enjoy an hour in the exhibit all networking, shopping, and learning about all of the great resources and opportunities available to science educators.
Here are a few of the exhibitors that will be in this year's exhibit hall.
Click here to view a current floor plan of all exhibitors.
The pGLO lab’s inducible gene expression and robust results provides a great system for inquiry. Learn how to expand the lab for student directed experiments that develop critical thinking skills.
Click here to download handouts from the presenter's Dropbox folder.
Explore the concepts of Electricity & Magnetism and apply your knowledge to build, test and revise a wind turbine model for maximum efficiency. Take away STEM activities and an understanding of the Engineering Cycle.
Learn to integrate technology and hands-on inquiry. STEM-focused forensic activities that link the scientific method with analysis and investigative skills to solve “cases” involving fingerprint, trace, DNA, and document evidence.
Explore new instructional tools that will take your students beyond understanding DNA as a double helix – to understanding bioinformatics and its importance in genomics and personalized medicine.
Discuss the issues surrounding wet labs in school with a practicing pathologist, analyze the pros and cons and receive a free one year subscription for The Digital Frog 2.5.
Enjoy an hour in the exhibit all networking, shopping, and learning about all of the great resources and opportunities available to science educators.
Here are a few of the exhibitors that will be in this year's exhibit hall.
Click here to view a current floor plan of all exhibitors.
Atoms and cells are the same thing, right? Help students make sense of the very large and very small in this hands-on workshop.
Handouts:
Organisms have adaptations that allow them to survive within their habitat. What happens when their habitat changes? Explore California species and habitats, with an emphasis on the coast. Free curriculum.
Discover ways to build collaboration with other teachers through the lesson study process. See how planning lessons, videotaping and reflecting together can assist in teaching lessons that accommodate all learners.
For teachers who wish to learn more about earthquakes, seismology, seismic waves, California earthquakes, plate tectonics and related Earth science, and implement exciting hands-on activities. Free materials provided.
This human evolution activity studies the distribution patterns of human pigmentation. Discover the causal relationship, and examine reproductive success and natural selection. Lesson plans, science background, and resources provided.
This meeting is for leaders of small science organizations to meet and discuss their issues. Representatives of organizations, CSTA Chapters, or anyone interested in starting an organization is welcomed.
Simplify the mathematical concepts of stoichiometry by utilizing low tech manipulatives to encourage critical thinking, collaboration, and communication while increasing opportunities for differentiation and informal assessment.
Handouts:
Paul Robinson will present his favorite physics labs and demonstrations. Attendees will receive a DVD of Paul's favorite physics video clips.
Explore hands-on, standards-based activities to help your students grasp the immense size and scale of the different realms of the Universe and learn about one of NASA’s latest missions, WISE.
Handouts:
Come join us for an overview presentation regarding the Next Generation Science Standards and its connection to Common Core. Develop a deeper understanding of the key elements of these standards, the connection to 21st Century Skills, and the strong emphasis on engineering and technology integration. Time will be devoted to answering your questions and presenting the draft timeline for final development and implementation.
Handouts:
Join me for an inquiry-based plankton party! View plankton on the big screen, design & race your own organism & learn interactive ways to bring the ocean into your classroom.
Learn about NASA’s “Reading, Writing and Rings” program, which teaches both science and language arts, based on the Cassini Mission to Saturn. Teachers will receive instructional materials for classroom use.
Donated and student cell phones are a powerful no-cost solution to technology integration. Used in conjunction with various free web-based applications, teachers can offer students a more interactive learning experience.
Click here to access workshop handouts.
Stop in the hall for some shopping and to visit with exhibitors. View exciting new products, learn about services and opportunitites for students and teachers alike.
Here are a few of the exhibitors that will be in this year's exhibit hall.
Click here to view a current floor plan of all exhibitors.
Enjoy a wine tasting event hosted by J. Lohr. Participants will sample 6 wines and enjoy light appetizers. Network with your fellow science teachers in a relaxed and fun environment. Transportation to and from the winery tasting room and the San Jose Convention Center are included in the ticket price. J. Lohr is a 2012 California State Fair Award winning winery (times 10) whose grapes are grown in Monterey, Paso Robles, and Napa. Tickets are $20. This event is limited to 40 participants, so please buy your tickets early. You must be 21 or older to participate.
This event is included with your registration, but you must request a ticket if you plan to attend.
How does Silicon Valley work to inspire the next generation of learners to care about science and our planet? The evening will showcase a selected number of short films and social media tools that focus on communicating science in innovative ways. A panel of film writers and science educators will critique each media piece and offer thoughts on how to effectively use film and social media in the classroom. The evening finishes with the Green Ninja - a climate-action superhero created by faculty and students at San Jose State to engage young people in topics related to our changing climate.
Located just outside the exhibit hall.
The event features a hot, plated breakfast, the presentation of awards, and a speaker.
Witness the presentation of the 2012 Future Science Teacher Award to Josiah Jones of CSULB, the 2012 Margaret Nicholson Distinguished Service Award to Dean Gilbert, the 2011 Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching California to Dean Baird, and the 2012 Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching California State Finalists: Nathan Fairchild, Michelle French, and Alma Park.
The awards presentation will be followed by a talk from Arden Bucklin-Sporer, Executive Director of the San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance: "How to Grow a Green School Garden".
Tickets: $39
How to Grow a Green Schoolyard and School Garden
Reclaiming a piece of neglected schoolyard and transforming it into an ecologically rich green schoolyard is one of the most beneficial activities that parents, teachers, and students can perform together. Green schoolyards substantially improve the appearance of school grounds while creating hands-on resources that allow teachers to lead exciting "fieldtrips" without ever leaving school property.
A green schoolyard provides an opportunity to connect students to the natural world by teaching the values of environmental stewardship and the importance of nutrition and health. The opportunities to connect to classroom curriculum are endless.
We will see examples of designs for edible gardens, wildlife habitats, rainwater catchment systems, and solar energy generation projects that transforming the conventional school playground into a living-learning laboratory. This will be a comprehensive presentation about developing, planning, building, and maintaining green schoolyards and school gardens.
This session explores PASCO's state-of-the-art science teaching solutions for new AP biology curriculum.
Discovery Education is changing K-8 science instruction with the Science Techbook, a multimedia approach to teaching science. Learn how it is being implemented in classrooms across the country.
Online collaborative tools such as Google Docs are free and easy. Learn to harness their power in your classroom using a new approach we call Computer Supported Collaborative Science (CSCS).
Click here to access session handout.
Join us for demonstrations (activities and projects) for each of the major topics in physics. This session will give you demos and online resources to address HS physics topics.
Click here to access handouts for this session.
Social networking can engage students, increase academic discussion and extend the school day. We’ll explore how to effectively utilize the free social networking tool Edmodo in any classroom.
Click here to access workshop handouts.
Come see demonstrations and activities to bring heat transfer and climate back down to Earth! Students will formulate ideas about heat transfer, and apply them to weather and the atmosphere.
Lively K-2 Hands-On Science and Common Core Standards! Come experience engaging physical science activities integrated with ELA. Work through the grades levels, progressing through science content and ELA skill building.
Handouts:
Enjoy an engaging introduction to our National Parks and the impact of California’s Mediterranean climate on water supplies through the interdisciplinary activities of Project WET (Water Education for Teachers)!
Projects with Pizzazz looks at ways to engage and excite students with open-ended projects. Basic ideas can be applied to science topics across most middle to high school grade levels.
Click here to access the presenter's website hosting the workshop handouts.
Participants will receive a book on risks and printed materials about genetically modified organisms. They will do some activities to assess levels of risk and to make informed decisions.
Click here to download handouts from PLT website.
"Significant figures" are often used, but often not understood. Students practice taking measurements using scales and equipment with different numbers of gradations, and thereby learn the meaning of "significant figures".
Click Here for Workshop Handout (.doc)
Cell phones in science? Students use them to illustrate science concepts in their lives outside of school. Improve your photo skills and integrate engaging photo assignments into your curriculum.
Click here to access presenter's website with links to materials and resources.
STEM is involved in the production of the food we eat. Explore trends in food safety and satisfy curiosity in investigating what happens from farm to fork. FREE RESOURCES.
This transformative technique engages students in a collaborative dialogue, uses critical thinking, and allows students to share their ideas without ridiculing others. Resources will be shared for immediate implementation.
Click here to access handouts from presenter's website.
Discover how to set the foundation of your biotechnology program with equipment, supplies, labs, textbook, supplemental materials and grants. Hear about model programs, inspiring students with real world lab experiences.
Click here to download handouts from the presenter's Dropbox folder.
Explore the concepts of Electricity & Magnetism and apply your knowledge to build, test and revise a wind turbine model for maximum efficiency. Take away STEM activities and an understanding of the Engineering Cycle.
Join us as we share a dozen of our favorite tried and true plate tectonics models. Each participant receives models, handouts, instructions, and posters ready to use Monday morning. Grade level 6-12.
Ticket: $15
The exhibit hall will open at 9:00 am on Saturday.
Here are a few of the exhibitors that will be in this year's exhibit hall.
Click here to view a current floor plan of all exhibitors.
Finding time to teach physical science in primary (PreK-2) grades is daunting! Come delve into the world of physical science, learn about exciting possibilities for integrating science and literacy, and explore our new Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. Grade level PreK-2. Ticket: $20
This Short Course is six hours in total. The first part of the course will be presented on Friday, Oct. 19, 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm.
Learn how to guide students in developing their own scientific model of Natural Selection, through games, activities and small group collaboration. You will also learn how to structure lessons so students have the opportunity to reason with the model, using it to explain natural phenomena. Grade level 7-10.
Ticket: $20
Wondering how to increase student thinking/writing in notebooks? Science experiences offer opportunities to apply CACCSS ELA through student notebooks. Receive K-12 Alliance Criteria for Writing Conventions Packet and strategies for increasing evidence of student thinking/independence in notebooks. Grade level 3-8.
Ticket: $20
Classes often transform bacteria to express a protein then discard the plates after the “aha” moment. The protein responsible for the glow is the cash of the biotechnology industry! Participants will purify red fluorescent protein and visualize on vertical gels.
Ticket: $10
Need a refresher course in Chemistry in order to teach the 8th Grade Chemistry Standards? Covered topics: organization of the Periodic Table, atomic structure, chemical bonding; balancing equations; properties of matter with easy experiments using common household chemicals. Grade level 8-11..
Ticket: $15
Participants will experience firsthand how to design lessons that meet the needs of all learners and enable students to connect science concepts with inquiry-based hands on STEM activities.
Meet students exactly where they live – in the digital world – with Pearson’s cutting edge new K-8 science program, Interactive Science.
Come join us and build the human heart and some of the circulatory system! We will discuss how teaching with this hands-on system will make both you and your students more successful.
This talk will explore the idea of practices which are a major feature of the NRC Framework for Science Education published in 2011. It will explain why there has been a shift to the notion of practices from teaching science through inquiry, what it means for teaching science in the classroom and discuss what the change signifies. In particular, it will argue that this should not be seen as a revolution but rather an evolution and an improvement for the teaching of science.
Early childhood educators will be engaged in hands-on developmentally appropriate science activities that not only engage your young learners with science content but also provide strong literacy and math connections.
Experience a lab science approach to 6th grade earth science. Use the understandings in sixth grade earth science to focus on lab activities that give students a rich science experience.
Turn your classroom computer into a seismometer on the Quake Catcher Network. Learn how to use this new teaching tool that is also being used to detect earthquakes. Handouts included.
Come learn how to flip your physics classroom (or use an inverted curriculum). Participants will learn the process, and rationale to creating a flipped physics unit.
Learn how to incorporate the most popular and exciting scientific field into your classroom. Participants will receive hands-on experience solving realistic crime scene scenarios using actual forensic techniques.
Handouts:
Connect physical science concepts with hands-on Halloween labs for learning that's sure to thrill. Walk away with 8 lab Halloween themed lab stations that you can use next week!
Handouts:
Utilize Project WILD, DFG Keep Me Wild, technology, social media to inform people, change human attitudes and behavior to benefit people and wildlife. Receive: Project WILD activities, DVD, supplements.
Learn about fantastic online animations that help students understand DNA replication and protein synthesis. Then participate in a fabulously fun hands-on lesson that integrates meiosis and Mendelian genetics. Handouts provided.
Handouts:
Science instruction can support ELs with strategies such as Discourse Circles, Graphic Organizers, Conversation Stems, and Vocabulary Cards. Leverage instruction in science and literacy through text structures and visual literacy. Grade Level K-5
Click here for conference handouts (10MB file)
Engage in inquiry-based activities re-creating and examining observations Galileo used to support the heliocentric model of the solar system, and learn about getting involved in the NASA-supported Galileo Educator Network.
Handouts:
Explore the scale and composition of the earth's atmosphere in this hands-on workshop integrating science and mathematics. Use scale models and visual representations of data to build understanding of our atmosphere.
Even elementary students understand the concept of bias. Watch us demonstrate a lesson in which students use that understanding to assess the reliability of internet sources. (Most appropriate for 3rd-8th.)
Click here to access workshop handouts.
This workshop is designed to help students understand the concept of law of conservation of mass, organize steps in solving stoichiometry problems, and help teachers create relevant test questions.
Learn innovative ways to teach your students observational skills and receive a packet of activities, with scientific background on each, which will engage students and develop quality scientific observational skills.
Enjoy an hour in the exhibit all networking, shopping, and learning about all of the great resources and opportunities available to science educators.
Here are a few of the exhibitors that will be in this year's exhibit hall.
Click here to view a current floor plan of all exhibitors.
What’s in your candy? Extract and identify food dyes from candy by separating them on a DIY electrophoresis box. Integrate STEM, biotech and chemistry!
Click here to download handouts from the presenter's Dropbox folder.
Come use interactive magnetic water molecules and NaCl ions to explore properties of water, states of matter, evaporation, condensation, erosion, and experimental design. Activities mapped to California science standards.
Making connections between macroscopic and molecular phenomena is at the core of learning chemistry. Bring your laptop (Windows or Mac OS X) and learn how to build, simulate, and analyze molecular samples of matter.
See how students learn physics at 120 mph. iFLY SF BAY Education and Flight Personnel conduct a workshop that shows you the flight operations and academics of a student visit to our 1000 horsepower 200 mph wind tunnel.
Enjoy an hour in the exhibit all networking, shopping, and learning about all of the great resources and opportunities available to science educators.
Grab lunch from the concession stand.
Here are a few of the exhibitors that will be in this year's exhibit hall.
Click here to view a current floor plan of all exhibitors.
Designed with them in mind, this lecture will be sure to please all earth science teachers. California's landscape, resources, and hazards all have resulted from the action of plate tectonic processes over millions of years. Discover how earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic hazards are a direct result of recent plate motions and their effects on California's land surface. The history of North America's Pacific margin beginning about 650 million years ago, with the separation of ancient North America from Antarctica, Australia, and eastern Asia to open the Pacific Ocean basin, to today will be presented. What happened millions of years ago and how that has had major implications for California and the United States in recent history will be explored. You will earn how Earth's movements have played a role in the financing of the Civil War, the opening of the Sea of Cortez, and the development of California's spectacular coastline and the California Water Project.
Investigate forces and Newton's Laws of Motion as we build and test various rockets (stomp rockets and 2L water bottle rockets) collecting data and manipulating variables for the best flight!
Participants will learn five different activities that can be performed the week before Christmas vacation (or any time throughout the year). Each results in a gift to take home. Grade 8-12.
Digital media tools communicates findings of Project or Challenge Based Learning for learners grades 3-12. Strategies for embedding digital media tools into project based assignments, including resources will be provided.
COME FEEL THE FORCE - Second grade physical science. Experience lively activities that build background knowledge for teachers and students. Identify common student misconceptions through student work and assessments.
Handouts:
Try out fresh ideas that engage young students in exploring the natural world. Take home Project Learning Tree’s new early childhood guide and a music/movement CD. .
Experience an engaging, inquiry-based alternative to teaching the periodic table developed by four IMSS (Integrated Middle School Science) educators. The series of activities allows students to make their own discoveries and develop practical understanding of the periodic table. Grade Level 5, 8
Handouts:
This session will highlight notebooking strategies that reinforce the 8 practices outlined in the Next Generation Science Framework and prepare students for college and career.
Discover how to create media-rich, interactive, science-based maps using free tools from Google. Enhance student learning by incorporating this fun, place-based technology into your curriculum.
Click here to access handouts from presenter's website.
Are we alone? Learn about the interdisciplinary field of Astrobiology. Your students can combine biology, chemistry, physics, Earth science, and astronomy to ponder the existence of life beyond Earth.
Reproductive Endocrinology uses a combination of lecture and hands-on activities to help bring the science of saving species into the classroom through investigations into the utility of endocrinology in wildlife conservation.
This "center" based workshop will show you inexpensive and easy ways to illustrate how sound waves travel through solids, liquids, and gases and why there is no sound in space!
Click here for presentation materials. (.pptx, 3.8MB)
The NRC Committee report on Successful K-12 STEM Education, recommends ways that policymakers should elevate science education in grades K-12 to the same level of importance as reading and mathematics.
The Organized Binder increases student success by providing structure; including a starting routine, goal setting, review of the previous day’s standards, metacognitive reflection at the end of class, and more.
Learn to use student-created videos as a meaningful summative activity for a year-long conservation project and connect it to the standards. Make your own video!
Enjoy an hour in the exhibit all networking, shopping, and learning about all of the great resources and opportunities available to science educators.
Grab lunch from the concession stand.
Here are a few of the exhibitors that will be in this year's exhibit hall.
Click here to view a current floor plan of all exhibitors.
The LabQuest 2 is our most versatile interface ever and it supports data collection as a standalone device, with a computer, and now with iPad and other mobile technology.
Come explore a series of amazing cellular landscapes by David Goodsell – each representing the crowded environment of a cell – packed full of proteins, jostling around, trying to do their job.
This is your opportunity to get a glimpse into the past! Uwe Bergmann uses modern technology to reveal the secrets of the past. His research activities focus on the development and application of novel x-ray spectroscopic techniques. Recently, he used a special imaging technique, x-ray fluorescence imaging, to reveal hidden writings in the 10th century Archimedes Palimpsest. He also led an x-ray scanning experiment on Archaeopteryx, a 150-million-year old "dinobird" fossil, which revealed previously unseen elements of the animal's original chemistry.
Click here to access session presentation documents from presenter's website.
This presentation will introduce a research-based approach (developed, in part, with NSF funding) in which teachers use scaffolding and modeling to help elementary students learn how to think, speak, and write as scientists do. The focus of instruction in this approach is not literacy but science, which determines the forms of communication that students learn. Through student notebook entries and a video of a classroom in which a teacher is implementing the approach, the session will present strategies that conference participants can use immediately in their own classrooms.
Can you communicate the scale of the universe? Two new approaches to this fundamental task are presented including a movie and PowerPoint that will expand your mind. Free NASA materials.
This workshop intends to build awareness of the NGSS and effectively prepare educators to evaluate and provide critical feedback on the final version of the NGSS to appear late 2012.
Handouts (Links to Handouts Posted on Goolge Docs):
Start with a brief introduction of the Common Core Literacy standards and 21st Century Skills. Discover the commonalities and make plans to include in your lessons on Monday.
Click here to download session handout.
CIRM, the state stem cell agency, with a UC Berkeley team and high school teachers, created a five-module stem cell curriculum. This workshop will walk through how the menu of activities can be fit into the existing standards.
Fun, interesting and easy standards based labs, activities, and a project demonstrating the scientific method. Participants will leave with engaging activities that you can use on Monday.
Click here for session handouts.
Global warming is a hot topic both politically and scientifically speaking. We will share our cumulative research project that we do in our general physics classes at La Salle HS.
LET’S GO meaningfully uses technology to help students do scientific inquiry. Join us for three different field-tested activities exploring ecology of soils. While technology enhances these lessons, it’s not required. Grades 5-10.
MAGIC SCIENCE: magic + science = fun + wow! Learn several fun and very teacher-friendly, student-involved demos that "magically" introduce scientific concepts as they capture--and hold--your students ' attention!
Need help integrating media-making projects into your science program? Explore new online resources to add to your professional development portfolio!
Website: Online PD for Media Making
Want to try Project Based Learning in your Classroom? Discover three tools to make it fun and engaging for your students and easy for you while still maintaining rigor.
Model Based Inquiry allows students and teachers alike to formulate and clarify scientific concepts, including the NGSS cross-cutting concepts of: Patterns, Cause and Effect, Scale, Proportion and Quantity, Systems and Systems Model, Energy and Matter, Structure and Function, Stability and Change.
Hanouts:
Use this unit to build the foundation for erosion and deposition. An engaging/interactive slide show, materials to perform hands-on activities that demonstrate the 2 types of weathering and assessment examples.
Explore hands-on science performance assessment and its relationship to students’ mastering Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. Engage in two hands-on performance tasks, explore the uses and advantages of this form of assessment, and take home sample students set-ups.Grade level 3-8.
Ticket: $40
Click here to download session handouts.
Looking for an active and engaging manipulative on Genes and Inheritance? Come check out our creative, budget friendly project/assessment that uses Potato Heads. You will walk away with all of the materials (including a Potato Head suitcase) and black line masters needed for immediate implementation. Grade level 7-12.
Ticket: $30
This short course designed for K-5 educators will provide hands-on practice for orally capturing students’ science stories using Audacity, a free and easy-to-use digital audio recording tool for both Windows and Mac. Participants can immediately use this new digital media tool in the classroom! Grade level K-5.
Ticket: $10
Astronomers observe the universe with telescopes across the EM Spectrum. Build a Galileoscope, and learn how astronomers use telescopes to explore the universe. Free telescope, tripod, lessons, and observing guide. Grade level 6-12.
Ticket: $30
Handouts:
When math and science teachers collaborate, students learn to model and defend science concepts using mathematical reasoning. Participants will develop an understanding of strategies for teaching concepts using common language. Grade level 7-12.
Ticket: $15
This session will show how to work with ELL and the Next Generation Science Standards in planning a learning cycle, developing background knowledge appropriately for Inquiry instruction, and vocabulary instruction through the tiered/ blended approach to scaffolding inquiry science. Grade level PreK-10.
Ticket: $20
This is the last hour and a half of the exhibit hall. Take advantage of the opportunity to grab a late lunch from the concession stand, buy those last minute items, and listen for your name to be called during the door prize drawings. Remember you must be present to win!
Here are a few of the exhibitors that will be in this year's exhibit hall.
Click here to view a current floor plan of all exhibitors.
Many hundreds of planets have recently been discovered around other stars, and the new Kepler mission in space is promising hundreds more. However, many of these planets are completely different from any we have known in our solar system and are revealing a universe of new planet possibilities. We will discuss the clever methods astronomers are using to discover planets beyond the solar system, the strange and unexpected kinds of planets they are finding, and what this means for the possibility of science students on other worlds.
Participants will learn about and role-play challenges relating to teaching climate change science, the role of denial, and the importance of not "teaching the controversy" in a science classroom.
Pen-and-paper activity replicating the physics involved in projectile motion and orbital mechanics. Think "Angry Birds come to physics class!"
This session provides an opportunity for participants to develop their understanding of the importance of using science as a vehicle to increase oral language development in all students.
Learn the nuts and bolts of planning an amazing Dinner with a Scientist event where students and teachers meet local scientists, engage in science activities, and participate in great conversations.
Ever wanted a fun and exciting way to demonstrate the cardiovascular system? We did too, so we built one! Come discover the cardiovascular system and how to build your own.
Handouts:
See how using visuals, realia, graphic organizers and plenty of accountable talk supports all students, especially ELs. Learn to organize instruction by focusing on big ideas, tools and strategies.
Click here for session handouts.
Help students understand the connections between human population pressures and public health through hands-on activities and current data sets. Participants will receive a CD of lesson plans and wall charts.
Click here to access materials from the Popluation Connection website.
This session will look at engaging science activities and the mathematics that is embedded. We will explore the use of graphing, number sense and the common core standards for math.
Come join us for an overview presentation regarding the Next Generation Science Standards and its connection to Common Core. Develop a deeper understanding of the key elements of these standards, the connection to 21st Century Skills, and the strong emphasis on engineering and technology integration. Time will be devoted to answering your questions and presenting the draft timeline for final development and implementation. (This session is a repeat session.)
Handouts:
Learn how to supervise and grade Science PowerPoint projects. The student chooses a topic, determines a thesis, conducts research, creates slides, and presents to the class. Scoring guides provided.
Use model-based reasoning to help students develop an understanding of Newton’s first two laws. Activities are designed to address students’ most common misconceptions regarding forces and motion.
Handouts:
Expand your K-2 classroom walls and embrace the schoolyard environment. You will learn about outdoor teaching techniques and go outside to experience primary outdoor activities firsthand.
Tackle this power standard with greater speed and success using ratios. Shorten your time teaching stoichiometry and conversions, gaining breathing room the “racing calendar” to bring back experiments and activities.
Learn new tools and tips for teaching the EEI Curriculum, including common core connections, the new EEI PD website, tips for increasing digital implementation, and featured hands-on lessons.
Ever wonder how a lotus emerges from mud clean and beautiful? Scientists wondered too, and it inspired amazing innovations. Lessons in observation skills, sustainable solutions, and appreciation of life’s diversity.
Click to view Handouts for Presentation.
Participants will learn about plant nutrients, fertilizer practices, and care that go into producing our abundant food supply. Lessons and activities reinforce academic knowledge through chemistry, environmental education, and mathematics.
Handouts:
Note from presenter:
I would be delighted if you would complete in this one-minute survey about the workshop:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CSTA2012
Online collaborative tools such as Google Docs are free and easy. Learn to harness their power in your classroom using a new approach we call Computer Supported Collaborative Science (CSCS).
Click here to access session handout.
This hands-on session will go from static electricity to current electricity. We'll do a few activities, address misconceptions and see online simulations to help students learn this topic.
Click here to access handouts for this session.
A great practical introduction to teaching under the Next Generation Science Standards. Examine teacher videos and review curriculum and student work modeling the integration of science practices and content. Grades 6-9.
Handouts:
Excite your students by parachuting into the inquiry process. Learn how to develop an investigable question, design a parachute, test it, and modify the design to make a better parachute!
Learn how student work can be used to integrate elementary science and English Language Arts objectives while serving as a formative assessment of student learning in our district level project. K-6
Unit on the Nature of Science (NOS), integrating a set of NOS lessons from the ENSI website using a student reader and teacher guide. Exposes misconceptions. Use for any science.
Handouts:
Hands-on activities explore the forms of energy – motion, heat, light, sound, electricity, and energy transformations. Gain confidence teaching energy concepts and receive free resource materials to energize your classroom!
Show your students how astronomers know so much about stars. We’ll explore light spectra and use internet tools to identify different stars, white dwarfs, planetary nebula, x-ray binaries, and more.
Handouts:
Get a “fresh” perspective on common misconceptions and misuses in biology and chemistry. Come learn the process of lesson design, critical thinking and incorporating inquiry based activities into your classes.
Workshop Handouts:
This event is included with your registration, but requires a ticket and an RSVP.
Hosted by The Tech Museum, enjoy an exclusive night just for teachers attending the conference. This event will is where adults only can enjoy science, technology, entertainment, and cocktails together with their friends. An exclusive and fun setting of music, games, hands-on exhibits with something unique to discover. Enjoy giant games like 4-foot tall Jenga-style blocks, over-sized chess, and giant Four-in-a-Row. No host bar.
Located in the convention center near the entrance to the Marriott.
Gather with colleagues and get a good start to your day! Chevron will host a continental breakfast before the closing keynote speaker. Take this time to plan you Sunday, grab contact information from colleagues, and get a cup of coffee before heading into the Closing Session.
Speaker: Josh Tickell
Josh Tickell is a thought leader at the intersection of new energy, new technology, new fuel and new urbanism. He serves as a worldwide, in demand, strategist for Fortune 500 Companies, billionaires, and industrialists. As an award winning producer/director his movie FUEL went viral, capturing the Sundance Film Festival’s prestigious Best Documentary Award and millions of viewers worldwide. The movie was screened in the White House and used as a template by the Obama Administration to roll out a $28 Billion dollar new energy campaign that transformed the global markets for algae, fuel and solar power.
Tickell’s motto is: “The History of the Future is Being Written Today.” He educates companies on what is coming next in solar, wind, fuel, batteries, urban design, transportation, and the broad megatrends that are shaping society. Tickell has spoken to global audiences at companies such as Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and at institutions such as MIT. He can show any industry, group, or company how to save money within that industry and also how to take advantage of new emerging technologies to create wealth and profits, transforming your company into a “planet-conscious” enterprise. Tickell’s insights are practical, no-nonsense good business.
Tickell understands how brands, companies, and technologies are changing the planet.
He consults on issues ranging from new technology product launches, to consumer attitudes, legislative strategies, operations-wide waste to energy and new technology installations for companies such as Green Mountain Energy Resources, Clif Bar, Yum Brands, Audi, General Motors and William Morris Endeavor.
Tickell has been a featured guest on Jay Leno’s The Tonight Show and Good Morning America. He is a regularly featured opinion leader in news stories on CNN, Discovery, Reuters, NBC, Fox and NPR. Articles on Tickell, his films, and his work have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, USA Today, The Huffington Post, Maxim Magazine, Popular Mechanics and thousands of international newspapers and magazines.
Josh Tickell’s life story is a miraculous David versus Goliath tale. He grew up in an area of Louisiana, called “Cancer Alley,” home to some 150 petrochemical facilities which process 60% of America’s gasoline. The area has cancer rates that are up to 1,000 times the national average. Tickell watched members of his family suffer with severe pollution related illnesses including cancers, lupus and auto immune diseases. He rose from these adverse circumstances to become a world leader in renewable energy, raising billions of dollars for new technology companies, altering international policies and forever changing the energy future of humanity for the better. Tickell is an active change agent in his home state. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Tickell lead a disaster relief project for which his nonprofit organization was selected by President William J. Clinton as part of the Inaugural Clinton Global Initiative on Climate Change. He recently directed a new documentary, ‘The Big Fix,’ about the BP oil spill in Louisiana which premiered at the Festival De Cannes and is being released by Lionsgate.
Josh has another film with a very positive, optimistic view about the future of energy and fuel coming out in 2013, which will be a major theatrical release with a huge advertising budget from a major studio, as well as major distribution across the US and Internationally.
An informative and entertaining way to start your day. Join us for the closing keynote session (at its new time) before heading off to three hours of workshops and focus speaker sessions. Sunday’s programs offer a full half day of sessions, ending at 1:00 pm, early enough to get most of you home by dinner.
Sponsored by Chevron.
The Exploratorium seeks to inspire learners by showing them how science is interesting, relevant and fun. Participants begin by experiencing the real phenomena of science. Encountering science phenomena naturally leads to questions created by each individual. When people ask their own questions, they truly want to know the answer. We then provide resources where they can do the work necessary to understand the science phenomena. In this presentation we will provide participants with simple materials, then give them sparse instructions, and turn them loose to explore. In this way we will model our way of doing active science learning. Turning the participants loose to explore and report on what they see means that a class will not progress according to a rigid plan. As a teacher you have to know how to deal with the resulting flow of ideas, it is like being a jazz performer in education, you have to be a superb musician/educator and go with the flow, all the while keeping track of where you want to take your audience. In the end, we’ll connect our explorations to the Next Generation Science Standards which emphasize the practices of doing science, as well as the cross-cutting themes, and content standards.
CST biology scores of 96% basic and higher in urban LA! We’ll demonstrate/share proven brain research-based strategies to improve motivation, retention, and success for all. Genetics Resources provided!
This science safety workshop will provide participants with a general overview of science safety for public schools. A comprehensive set of materials will be provided to each participant.
Online collaborative tools such as Google Docs are free and easy. Learn to harness their power in your classroom using a new approach we call Computer Supported Collaborative Science (CSCS).
Click here to access session handout.