Leadership Lounge

Photographer & Headshots

8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

The Leader’s Itinerary: Coffee, Conversation, and Conference Strategy

8:00 - 9:00 AM

Start the day with coffee and an informal leadership conversation focused on making the most of the conference experience. Participants will compare priorities, identify sessions and networking opportunities aligned to their leadership goals, and share strategies for balancing learning, relationship-building, and time to reflect. This opening-hour conversation is designed to help science leaders build an intentional conference plan, connect with colleagues facing similar challenges, and identify people, ideas, and resources they want to pursue throughout the day.

AI Without Losing Student Sensemaking: How Leaders Can Support Thoughtful AI Integration

1:00 – 2:00 PM

Explore how science leaders can help educators use AI in ways that strengthen, rather than replace, student sensemaking. Participants will examine where AI may appropriately support practices such as questioning, modeling, data analysis, argumentation, feedback, and assessment, while also identifying situations where AI risks doing the intellectual work students need to do themselves.

Photographer & Headshots

8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Coffee & Conversation: Leading the Shift From “Activities” to Coherent Storylines

8:00 - 9:00 AM

Start the day with coffee and an informal leadership conversation focused on making the most of the conference experience. Participants will compare priorities, identify sessions and networking opportunities aligned to their leadership goals, and share strategies for balancing learning, relationship-building, and time to reflect. This opening-hour conversation is designed to help science leaders build an intentional conference plan, connect with colleagues facing similar challenges, and identify people, ideas, and resources they want to pursue throughout the day.

AI Leadership: What Should Our Guidance Actually Say?

10:40 – 11:40 AM

Rather than debating whether AI belongs in education, this roundtable will focus on the practical decisions science leaders are increasingly being asked to make. Participants will compare approaches to teacher and student use, assessment, privacy, academic integrity, transparency, and AI literacy, while identifying where clear expectations are needed across a school or system.

Beyond the Conference: Keeping Your Science Team Inspired All Year Long

1:20 – 2:20 PM

We've all been there. You leave a conference feeling inspired, with a bag full of resources, a notebook full of ideas, and big plans for what comes next. But then you get home, and reality sets in. Join us for a conversation about how to keep that momentum going, turn inspiration into action, and support your team throughout the year, including how NSTA can help along the way.

Joint Region B & E Get Together

2:40 – 3:40 PM

What Is Keeping Science Leaders Up at Night? An open roundtable where leaders identify the most pressing challenges in their schools, districts, states, or organizations. Use the conversation to surface shared problems and connect people working on similar issues.

Leadership Development Academy Meet-Up: Building a Culture of Teacher Leadership in Science

8:00 – 9:00 AM

How can science leaders create meaningful opportunities for teachers to lead without requiring them to leave the classroom? This conversation will focus on developing teacher leadership through roles such as curriculum leads, instructional facilitators, assessment team members, mentor teachers, professional learning facilitators, research mentors, and association leaders.