PDI Pathway Sessions—Philadelphia 2010
- PDI-2: Enhancing Field-Based Learning in Environmental Science for the Upper Elementary Classroom (The Center for Science and Mathematics Education (CSME))
- PDI-3: Deepening Science Thinking and Reasoning Through Discussion and Writing in K–8 Inquiry-based Science (Center for Science Education, Education Development Center, Inc.)
- PDI-4: Outdoor Learning: A Path to Science and Literacy (First Hand Learning)
- PDI-5: Issue-Oriented Science: Engage, Motivate, and Educate (Science Education for Public Understanding Program (SEPUP) of the Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley)
- PDI-6: Designing Effective Science Instruction: Developing Student Understanding Through Classroom Inquiry, Discourse, and Sense-Making (McREL, Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning)
- PDI-7: 21st Century Skills (Jackie Miller, Irene Baker, Marian Pasquale)
- PDI-8: We've Got Data! Using Mathematical Representations to Talk About, Model, and Explain Scientific Phenomena (TERC)
- PDI-9: When a Two-Page Spread Isn't Enough: Navigating Your Instructional Materials (K-12 Alliance/WestEd)
- PDI-10: Assessing and Promoting Teachers' Understanding and Skills in Assessment and Instruction for Student Learning (Facet Innovations)
PDI 1: Inquiring into Inquiry
BSCS Pathway: Common Resources, Shared Consequences—Helping Students Understand
Friday 2:00 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 414/415
Intended Audience: High School; College
Science Area: Biology/Life Science
Humans continue to debate questions about population growth, resource consumption, and resource management. In this session you’ll experience activities to help students evaluate these issues and consider consequences associated with people’s decisions
Presenter(s): Paul Numedahl
BSCS Pathway: Do Your Students "Get it"? Sense-Making Strategies for Your Science Class
Friday 9:30 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 414/415
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level; High School
Science Area: Integrated/General
Come and see how several sense making strategies can help your science students “get it” in your classroom.
Presenter(s): Betty Stennett
BSCS Pathway: Got Inquiry? How Do We Know?
Friday 8:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 414/415
Intended Audience: Supervision/Administration
Science Area: Integrated/General
Are you an administrator observing classes? Wonder what the students are doing? Learn about “look fors” as you observe classes.
Presenter(s): Elizabeth Edmondson
BSCS Pathway: Inquiry in the Class—It's Elementary
Thursday 2:00 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 414/415
Intended Audience: Elementary; Supervision/Administration
Science Area: Integrated/General
Help your students make sense of science through an inquiry-based approach. Consider how inquiry is defined in national documents and learn ways to apply the research on scientific explanations as sense making strategies for elementary students.
Presenter(s): Sam Spiegel
BSCS Pathway: Review the Research: Teaching Science for Effective Understanding
Thursday 8:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 414/415
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level; High School; College; Supervision/Administration; General
Science Area: Integrated/General
Get the ammunition you need to teach science the way research says it should be taught - using conceptually-coherent inquiry-based approach.
Presenter(s): Janet Carlson
BSCS Pathway: Student Talk—Who's Accountable?
Friday 12:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 414/415
Intended Audience: General
Science Area: Integrated/General
This session will use modeling and video vignettes to introduce participants to Accountable TalkTM as a means of facilitating discourse in the science classroom through classroom environments and routines that engage students as a community of learners.
Presenter(s): Rebecca Kruse
BSCS Pathway: The BSCS 5E Instructional Model—Constructing Your Own Understanding
Thursday 9:30 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 414/415
Intended Audience: General
Science Area: Integrated/General
Do you use the BSCS 5E Instructional Model in planning your units? Does your curriculum use this instructional model? Engage with BSCS (the birthplace of the 5Es) to deepen your understanding of this instructional model.
Presenter(s): Betty Stennett
BSCS Pathway: Using Science Notebooks to Develop Conceptual Understanding in Science
Friday 3:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 414/415
Intended Audience: Middle Level; High School
Science Area: Integrated/General
Looking for ways to help your students construct a coherent understanding of science content? In this hands-on session, learn how science notebooks can be used as an effective sense-making and assessment tool in the science classroom.
Presenter(s): Paul Numedahl
back to top ^
PDI-1 main page »
PDI 2: Inside-Out: Enhancing Field-Based Learning in Environmental Science for the Upper Elementary Classroom
CSME Pathway: Constructing Essential Ideas of Topography with Elementary Children
Thursday 2:00 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 403
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level
Science Area: Integrated/General
Participants will learn to implement a field-tested, inquiry-based, elementary-level outdoor lesson that addresses essential ideas in topography. The lesson utilizes real topographic maps, a simple three-dimensional wooden mountain model, and an ordinary hill that can be found in many outdoor environments. In the lesson, children construct a series of contour lines on a hill using levels, stakes, string and tape. The maps and model are used to bookend this hands-on activity, serving first to engage prior knowledge and later to reinforce and apply the essential ideas developed on the hill.
Presenter(s): Pamela S. TLottero-Perdue, Steven Lev
CSME Pathway: Ecology of the Graham Cracker Marine Reserve
Friday 8:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 403
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level
Science Area: Environmental Science
Inspired by a research experience at the Galapagos Marine Reserve, this presentation explains what biofilms are and how they are used for research. Participants simulate biofilms using graham crackers, frosting, sprinkles and marshmallows, and examine authentic biofilms.
Presenter(s): Beth Jewell
CSME Pathway: Exploring Environmental Issues: Places We Live. Offered By and URL: Project Learning Tree
Friday 12:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 403
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level
Science Area: Integrated/General
What environmental issues are impacting your community? Project Learning Tree’s Exploring Environmental Issues: Places We Live secondary module is a set of activities where students examine how their community is changing. Each participant will receive the module.
Presenter(s): Al Stenstrup
CSME Pathway: Integrating Biotechnology in Environmental Education
Thursday 9:30 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 403
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level
Science Area: Biology/Life Science
Biotechnology has numerous applications in environmental science and new curriculum from Project Learning Tree addresses this connection. Participants will use the hands-on, minds-on approach to understanding the integration of technology as it applies to environmental education. Participants will carry out DNA fingerprinting of plant DNA by electrophoresis, discuss the development of edible vaccines, simulate a viral epidemic to better understand how epidemiology can be used to control or prevent disease transmission in plants and map the progression of fungal infection of the American Chestnut through history.
Presenter(s): Cindy Ghent
CSME Pathway: Talking Dirty
Thursday 3:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 403
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level
Science Area: Environmental Science
In this session, participants will learn all about soil as it pertains to out-of-the-classroom lessons; the structure, the function and the art of dirt. Frequently soil studies involve models or collected samples that are brought back to a classroom for analysis but that procedure eliminates the excitement/engagement of a true “field study”. There are ways to take students outside and to remain outside while exploring and experimenting the foundation upon which all else depends … dirt.
Presenter(s): Mark Herzog
CSME Pathway: Water, the "connective fluid" of our ecosystem
Friday 9:30 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 403
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level
Science Area: Environmental Science
Water is the connective fluid in our ecosystem that brings together terrestrial and aquatic environments and connects the interfaces of air, land and water. Learn about the properties of water, how water connects to various ecosystem cycles, and how water can be used as an engaging inquiry based stimulus material for elementary school students.
Presenter(s): Jackie Takacs
CSME Pathway: Watershed Exploration Using Project WET and Project Learning Tree curricula
Thursday 8:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 403
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level
Science Area: Environmental Science
What is a watershed? How do humans impact the local watershed? What are the components of the water cycle and how are they linked to human activity? See how PLT and Project WET activities can be used to introduce these concepts to your students.
Presenter(s): Sarah Haines, Robert Blake
back to top ^
PDI-2 main page »
PDI 3: Deepening Science Thinking and Reasoning through discussion and Writing in K-8 Inquiry-Based Science
EDC Pathway: Active Literacy Learning in Science
Thursday 12:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 411/412
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level; Informal Education
Science Area: Biology/Life Science
Promote literacy by using trade books as exemplars and descriptive writing as a source for reflection. Observation and critical thinking build from first hand experiences.
Presenter(s): E. Wendy Saul
EDC Pathway: Connecting Science and Literacy: The Role of Explicit Teaching
Thursday 9:30 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 411/412
Intended Audience: Elementary
Science Area: Integrated/General
We will share ways to use mini lessons to support the connection between inquiry science and literacy instruction at the upper elementary level.
Presenter(s): Jeff Winokur, Martha Heller-Winokur, Sally Crissman, Karen Worth
EDC Pathway: Establishing science notebook habits and skills: successes and challenges from the field
Thursday 3:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 411/412
Intended Audience: Elementary
Science Area: Integrated/General
A panel of teachers, science mentors, and professional developers will discuss the successes and challenges they are experiencing as they work to make science notebooks authentic tools of inquiry.
Presenter(s): Jeff Winokur, Lori Fulton, Karen Worth, Sally Crissman, Martha Heller-Winokur
EDC Pathway: Expository Writing and Science Notebooks: Documented Success in Increasing Achievement in Expository Writing and Inquiry-Based Science in the Elementary Grades
Friday 8:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 411/412
Intended Audience: Elementary
Science Area: Integrated/General
Through mini-lessons and discussion, learn research-based strategies for using word banks, graphic organizers, and writing frames to increase student achievement in science and expository writing.
Presenter(s): Betsy Rupp Fulwiler
EDC Pathway: Linking science and literacy through nature journals
Friday 11:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 411/412
Intended Audience: Elementary
Science Area: Integrated/General
Three easy-to-learn, easy-to-teach methods introduce your science students to nature journals as a tool for linking inquiry-based science to literacy.
Presenter(s): Mark Baldwin
EDC Pathway: The Art of Talk and the Power of the Circle
Friday 2:00 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 411/412
Intended Audience: Elementary
Science Area: Integrated/General
Using classroom video and discussion, we will share strategies for developing students' skills for engaging in productive classroom science discussions in grades 3–5.
Presenter(s): Jeff Winokur, Karen Worth, Martha Heller-Winokur, Sally Crissman
EDC Pathway: Writing in science using first hand data
Friday 5:00 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 411/412
Intended Audience: Elementary
Science Area: Integrated/General
This session will focus on teaching strategies that help students write reports that are based on their own experiences and their own thinking.
Presenter(s): Jeff Winokur, Karen Worth, Sally Crissman, Martha Heller-Winokur
back to top ^
PDI-3 main page »
PDI 4: Outdoor Learning: A Path to Science and Literacy
FHL Pathway Session: Louisville is Engaging Children Outdoors (Louisville ECHO)
Friday 8:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 407/408
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level; Informal Education
Science Area: Integrated/General
Presentation and discussion of Metro Parks’ signature inquiry-based environmental education initiative focused on urban 4th and 5th grade students with multiple meaningful outdoor experiences.
Presenter(s): Bennett Knox
FHL Pathway: Active Literacy Learning in Science
Thursday 12:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 407/408
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level; Informal Education
Science Area: Biology/Life Science
Promote literacy by using trade books as exemplars and descriptive writing as a source for reflection.
Observation and critical thinking build here from live experiences.
Presenter(s): E. Wendy Saul
FHL Pathway: Consider the Evidence—Using Student Journals to Drive Instruction
Thursday 9:30 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 407/408
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level
Science Area: Integrated/General
Daily journal assessment in middle school science classes provides direction for science instruction. We'll analyze student journal entries, noticing what students know about science process skills and content. We'll discuss strategies for using journals to drive instruction.
Presenter(s): Therese Arsenault
FHL Pathway: Local Knowledge—Addressing the gap between what students already know and what gets taught
Friday 3:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 407/408
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level; High School; Informal Education
Science Area: Integrated/General
Discuss with colleagues your experiences and ideas to address the gap between student conceptions of natural phenomena, based on their local knowledge, and scientific descriptions presented in formal academic settings and language.
Presenter(s): David Hartney, Leanne Avery
FHL Pathway: Mapping the Schoolyard
Friday 9:30 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 407/408
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level; Informal Education; General
Science Area: Environmental Science
Learn how to evaluate the educational potential of a site by mapping its resources, both natural and human made and by making cross-curricular links to math, measurement, scaling, and drawing explicit.
Presenter(s): Patricia McGlashan
FHL Pathway: Nature Journals and Field Guides: Tools for Linking Science and Literacy
Thursday 3:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 407/408
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level; Informal Education
Science Area: Biology/Life Science
Learn how to link nature journals as tools to propel inquiry with making field guides as tools to promote literacy.
Presenter(s): Mark Baldwin
FHL Pathway: Out Doors After School
Friday 12:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 407/408
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level; Informal Education
Science Area: Integrated/General
Science Firsthand - Partners in Discovery is a project that gives urban youth an adult mentor and time after school for exploring scientifically.
Presenter(s): William Rogers
back to top ^
PDI-4 main page »
PDI 5: Issue-Oriented Science: Engage, Motivate, and Educate
LHS Pathway: Alternative Energy for Transportation: Hydrogen and Fuel Cells
Thursday 9:30 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 404
Intended Audience: Middle Level; High School; College; Informal Education
Science Area: Environmental Science
Learn about the chemistry, environmental science, and issues related to the use of hydrogen and fuel cells for transportation. Take home classroom activities on alternative energy for transportation and how hydrogen fuel cells work.
Presenter(s): Barbara Nagle
LHS Pathway: Developing Literacy and Addressing Content Standards Through Issue-oriented Science
Thursday 8:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 404
Intended Audience: Middle Level; High School
Science Area: Integrated/General
Engage in literacy strategies that work well in issue-oriented science lessons and discuss ways to use these strategies in your secondary science classroom. Examples will include strategies for reading, writing, and discussion.
Presenter(s): Laura Lenz, Heather Maciejewski
LHS Pathway: Differentiating Instruction Related to Science and Societal Issues
Friday 11:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 404
Intended Audience: Middle Level; High School
Science Area: Biology/Life Science
Participate in life science activities related to health and environmental issues and discuss strategies you can use to modify the activities for diverse learners in your classroom.
Presenter(s): Barbara Nagle, Kathaleen Burke
LHS Pathway: Getting Kids Invested with Stories: The Car of the Future
Thursday 3:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 404
Intended Audience: Middle Level; High School
Science Area: Physics/Physical Science
Participants will see how being invested in a story facilitates the learning process, using an example about hybrid cars to teach energy transformations.
Presenter(s): Charles Judson Hill
LHS Pathway: Green Chemistry: Using Chemistry Knowledge to Inform Societal Decisions
Friday 8:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 404
Intended Audience: Middle Level; High School
Science Area: Integrated/General
Participate in classroom activities that engage students in using the key concepts of Green Chemistry and the product life cycle to make evidence-based societal decisions. The materials in this workshop can be adapted for use in middle and high school physical science or chemistry classrooms.
Presenter(s): Burke Kathaleen
LHS Pathway: Integrating Biodiversity Issues into Ecology and Evolution Units
Thursday 2:00 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 404
Intended Audience: Middle Level; High School
Science Area: Biology/Life Science
Participate in activities that integrate issues related to biodiversity into standards-based units at the high school level. Take home classroom-tested strategies to use in your biology or environmental science classroom.
Presenter(s): Laura Lenz, Heather Maciejewski
LHS Pathway: Integrating Sustainability into the Science Classroom
Friday 9:30 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 404
Intended Audience: Middle Level; High School
Science Area: Environmental Science
Issues related to sustainability affect everyone and influence every discipline. Experience how these issues make science come alive in the classroom.
Presenter(s): John Howarth, Laura Lenz
LHS Pathway: Integrating World Health Issues into a Life Science Classroom
Friday 12:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 404
Intended Audience: Middle Level; High School
Science Area: Integrated/General
Learn how engaging classroom-tested activities that incorporate issues related to cell biology and world health can help students understand the relevance of learning about cells and biology. Participate in an activity that can be adapted for use in middle and high school classrooms.
Presenter(s): Laura Lenz
LHS Pathway: Teaching about trade-offs: How science can inform the decision making process
Friday 2:00 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 404
Intended Audience: Middle Level; High School
Science Area: Integrated/General
Participants will be introduced to specific strategies for integrating scientific issues into standards-based science units, and develop plans for integrating issues with science content. Recent personal and societal issues related to biology, chemistry, and earth science will be highlighted.
Presenter(s): Sara Dombkowski Wilmes
LHS Pathway: Using Hands-on Issue-oriented Science to Investigate Important Concepts in Physical Science
Thursday 12:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 404
Intended Audience: Middle Level; High School
Science Area: Physics/Physical Science
Use issue-oriented science to engage students in the study of principles of physical science, such as motion, force, momentum and kinetic energy.
Presenter(s): David Slavsky
LHS Pathway: Using Issues as a Context for Teaching Science Content and Inquiry
Friday 3:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 404
Intended Audience: Middle Level; High School
Science Area: Integrated/General
Examine how personal and societal issues provide a context to motivate students to learn and apply content in the physical, life, and earth sciences.
Presenter(s): John Howarth
back to top ^
PDI-5 main page »
PDI 6: Designing Effective Science Instruction: Developing Studying Understanding through Classroom Inquiry, Discourse, and Sense-Making
McREL Pathway: Designing Effective Science Instruction: Addressing Student Misconceptions (Pre-conceptions)
Friday 9:30 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 401/402
Intended Audience:
Science Area:
How can teachers reveal and address student misconceptions to determine if students really understand science concepts? Learn more about an instructional process that teachers can use to address misconceptions! Handouts provided.
Presenter(s): Anne Tweed
McREL Pathway: Designing Effective Science Instruction: Constructing Understanding Using Visual Tools
Thursday 2:00 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 401/402
Intended Audience:
Science Area:
Research indicates that development of visual representations enhances student understanding of content. Participants will learn more about graphic organizers, models, thinking maps, pictures and other strategies that help students understand content.
Presenter(s): Bj Stone
McREL Pathway: Designing Effective Science Instruction: How do we know that students understand?
Thursday 8:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 401/402
Intended Audience:
Science Area:
Learn how to make decisions during your instructional planning about what students should understand about the science content and how you will know that they have understood. Planning templates and examples provided.
Presenter(s): Bj Stone
McREL Pathway: Designing Effective Science Instruction: Instructional Technology and Virtual Manipulatives that Suppport Student Understanding
Thursday 12:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 401/402
Intended Audience:
Science Area:
Understand how to incorporate technology-based inquiry learning tools, such as virtual manipulatives, into high-quality science instruction. Used correctly, technological simulations intellectually engage students and provide opportunities for them to use evidence based data to support their understanding of science concepts.
Presenter(s): Anne Tweed
McREL Pathway: Designing Effective Science Instruction: Scientific Discourse in the Classroom
Friday 11:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 401/402
Intended Audience:
Science Area:
To learn science concepts, students need to talk about their ideas to clarify their thinking. Learn how to use inquiry questioning strategies to get students to discuss in class and make sense of their learning experiences. Participants will practice using question stems provided.
Presenter(s): Anne Tweed
McREL Pathway: Designing Effective Science Instruction: Student Designing Experiments
Friday 8:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 401/402
Intended Audience:
Science Area:
Can your students design their own experiments? Managing Learn about experimental design diagrams to help students plan for experiments that help them understand the science concepts. Handouts provided.
Presenter(s): Bj Stone
McREL Pathway: Designing Effective Science Instruction: Using a Formative Assessment Process to Determine Evidence of Student Understanding
Thursday 9:30 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 401/402
Intended Audience:
Science Area:
Using a formative assessment process will help teachers gather evidence of student learning that can be used to inform instruction and adapt to the learning needs of students. You will have the opportunity to learn about a feedback process and formative assessment strategies that will close the learning gap of your students. Handouts provided.
Presenter(s): Anne Tweed, Bj Stone
McREL Pathway: Designing Effective Science Lessons: Helping Students Think Scientifically
Friday 3:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 401/402
Intended Audience:
Science Area:
Learn more about how to design your instruction to promote scientific thinking of your students that promotes understanding. Participants will be provided with sample lesson materials.
Presenter(s): Anne Tweed
back to top ^
PDI-6 main page »
PDI 7: 21st Century Skills
Skills Pathway: Active Physics
Friday 2:00 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 405
Intended Audience: High School
Science Area: Physics/Physical Science
In this workshop we will perform a series of guided inquiry activities that prepare students to do a voice-over of a sports video and explain the physics of the action appearing on the screen. Watch what happens to the quality of the students' work when they take ownership of real-world scientific challenges that matter to them. Leave with a practical hands-on activity that you can do in your classroom. We will also focus on how differential instructions can make physics accessible to those with higher math and reading levels as well as those who have difficulties in these activities.
Presenter(s): Arthur Eisenkraft
Skills Pathway: Building 21st Century Skills through Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers
Friday 12:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 405
Intended Audience: Middle Level; High School
Science Area: Integrated/General
New workplace skills—what youth know and can do with technology in the service of STEM and “computational thinking” emerging among ITEST youth
Presenter(s): Joyce Malyn-Smith, Siobhan Bredin, Alyssa Naim
Skills Pathway: Copper Extraction and the Power of Story
Friday 11:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 405
Intended Audience: High School
Science Area: Chemistry
To live and thrive in today’s job market and society, students need rigorous preparation in both traditional core subjects such as science and in the higher-order skills embodied in the 21st century skills. Students must know how to work collaboratively, gather, sort and synthesize information, apply it to solving real-world challenges and problems, and communicate their ideas clearly and effectively. In this session will discuss what these 21st century skills are, demonstrate how they can be integrated into the science curriculum, and provide support for teachers in helping students develop these skills as they acquire conceptual understanding and content knowledge.
Presenter(s): Jud Hill
Skills Pathway: Implementing a Framework for 21st-Century Science Learning
Friday 9:30 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 405
Intended Audience: High School
Science Area: Integrated/General
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, which researched and surveyed the skills students need in the classroom to remain competitive for the future says that students need to go beyond just learning today's academic context to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills, communications skills, creativity and innovation skills, collaboration skills, contextual learning skills, and information and media literacy skills. In this session participants will learn about insights from CCT's work in understanding 21st century skills and their impact on STEM education.
Presenter(s): Shelley Pasnik
Skills Pathway: Infusing 21st Century Skills into Your Science Classes
Thursday 9:30 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 405
Intended Audience: High School
Science Area: Physics/Physical Science
Students must know how to work collaboratively, gather, sort and synthesize information, apply it to solving real-world challenges and problems, and communicate their ideas clearly and effectively. In this session will discuss what these 21st century skills are, demonstrate how they can be integrated into the science curriculum, and provide support for teachers in helping students develop these skills as they acquire conceptual understanding and content knowledge.
Presenter(s): Jackie Miller, Marian Pasquale
Skills Pathway: Introducing Cutting Edge Science into the Classroom
Thursday 2:00 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 405
Intended Audience: High School
Science Area: Integrated/General
Almost every day exciting scientific discoveries and advances appear in the news media. These discoveries can result in new technologies that can change how we live our lives, how healthy we are, and how we entertain ourselves. These discoveries can even change the way scientists think about what were once considered fundamental truths in science. The challenge of bringing the latest research into the science classroom is two-fold; where to find it and how to integrate it. This presentation will address both issues.
Presenter(s): Jackie Miller
Skills Pathway: The Intersection of Science and 21st Century Skills
Friday 8:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 405
Intended Audience: High School
Science Area: Integrated/General
Science has unique domain-specific aspects and practices that hold promise for developing 21st century skills.
Presenter(s): Janet Kolodner
back to top ^
PDI-7 main page »
PDI 8: We've Got Data!
TERC Pathway: Didn’t we do graphs like that in math?
Thursday 9:30 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 406
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level
Science Area: Integrated/General
The session introduces strategies for synchronizing data literacy teaching in math and science and helping connect and synthesize learning about data in these content areas
Presenter(s): Karen Economopoulos, Sally Crissman
TERC Pathway: From data to explanation: The challenges of investigations in inclusive science classrooms
Thursday 12:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 406
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level
Science Area: Integrated/General
Participants explore the challenges that organizing and interpreting data pose for students with learning disabilities and learn strategies to support their developing science understanding.
Presenter(s): Gilly Puttick, Karen Mutch-Jones
TERC Pathway: The Art of Talk and the Power of the Circle
Friday 2:00 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 406
Intended Audience: Elementary
Science Area: Integrated/General
Using classroom video and discussion, we will share strategies fro developing students' skills for engaging in productive classroom science discussions in Grades 3-5.
Presenter(s): Jeff Winokur, Karen Worth, Martha Heller-Winokur, Sally Crissman
TERC Pathway: The Shape of the Data: seven common patterns
Thursday 3:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 406
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level
Science Area: Physics/Physical Science
Change over time data and graphs typically fall into seven common patterns that can help students explain observed phenomena using mathematical models.
Presenter(s): Jacalyn Crowe
TERC Pathway: The times they are a’changin’: using data to understand change over time.
Friday 8:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 406
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level; High School
Science Area: Integrated/General
Participants will use low-tech and computer-generated representations to analyze change over time data such as plant growth, weather, or speed.
Presenter(s): Andee Rubin
TERC Pathway: Thinking Outside the Coordinate Graph: From Data to Art to Understanding
Friday 11:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 406
Intended Audience: Elementary; Middle Level
Science Area: Integrated/General
Participants explore the benefits of finding non-traditional ways for students to represent data and find meaning in those representations.
Presenter(s): Monica Chrambach
back to top ^
PDI-8 main page »
PDI 9: When a Two-Page Spread Isn't Enough: Navigating Your Instructional Materials
WestEd Pathway: Assessment Centered Teaching—a Reflective Practice
Friday 8:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 409
Intended Audience: General
Science Area: Integrated/General
Learn a portfolio process to design assessment plans before teaching a unit; interpret student work for patterns; and modify instruction/assessment based on the student work.
Presenter(s): Jo Topps, Melissa Smith
WestEd Pathway: Providing Feedback: Rubric Development/Feedback Loops
Thursday 3:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 409
Intended Audience: General
Science Area: Integrated/General
Demystify student success! Learn a collaborative process that includes: the development or refinement of rubrics found in instructional materials for student work, planning interventions and providing feedback for students.
Presenter(s): Jo Topps
WestEd Pathway: Selecting Quality Instructional Materials: Analyzing Instructional Materials (AIM)
Thursday 8:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 409
Intended Audience: General
Science Area: Integrated/General
Take the guesswork out of selecting instructional materials! AIM helps collaborative teams of teacher use evidence to select instructional materials that meet the needs of their students.
Presenter(s): Jo Topps
WestEd Pathway: Understanding the Conceptual Flow in Instructional Materials
Friday 12:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 409
Intended Audience: General
Science Area: Integrated/General
Science sense making revealed! Learn a collaborative process to identify the flow of conceptual understanding in instructional materials. Learn how to augment flows that are less than robust for student understanding.
Presenter(s): Jody Sherriff, Susan Gomez-Zwiep
back to top ^
PDI-9 main page »
PDI 10: Effective Formative Assessment in Science: Teachers' Skills, Understanding, and Actions
Facet Innovations Pathway: Collecting with Intention: Effectively Using Questions and Probes
Thursday 8:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 410
Intended Audience:
Science Area:
Good formative assessment is "smart assessment," intended to hone in on ever more specific student learning needs.The main objective is to collect high quality, useful information. Through the evlauation of written probes and excerpts from classroom practice, participants will learn about question types, the associated cognitive demand, and will evaluate and practice specific questioning strategies.
Presenter(s): Eric Magi, Jim Minstrell
Facet Innovations Pathway: What Next? Matching Instructional Actions to Identified Student Needs
Thursday 12:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 410
Intended Audience:
Science Area:
So now the teacher has the results of the Probe, Elicitation Question, or other formative assessment. What next? This session will take participants from having formative assessment data to planning and deciding what action to take based on the results. Moving from the identification and interpretation of specific learner needs, participants will learn to make decisions about the most salient need "variables" to address in subsequent instruction.
Presenter(s): Jim Minstrell, Ruth Anderson, Eric Magi
Facet Innovations Pathway: Using Online Tools to Support Assessment for Learning
Friday 8:00 am
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 410
Intended Audience:
Science Area:
The Tools available atwww.Diagnoser.com will be featured in this session. What assumptions about learning are built into the tools? What are the tools contained at the site? How are teachers using the tools? What are the effects on students' learning when teachers and students use the tools? How might the tools be used for professional development for enhancing teachers' content knowledge as well as their assessment and teaching skills? These questions will be addressed in this session.
Presenter(s): Eric Magi, Jim Minstrell, Stamatis Vokos
Facet Innovations Pathway: Fostering Classroom Culture in Support of Formative Assessment
Friday 12:30 pm
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Room 410
Intended Audience:
Science Area:
Effective formative assessment begins with teachers who are curious about how and why (not just what) students are learning and with students who are actively engaged in their own learning process. Participants will explore strategies for establishing a classroom culture conducive to formative assessment.
Presenter(s): Jim Minstrell, Ruth Anderson, Min Li, Eric Magi
back to top ^
PDI-10 main page »