Join Lab-Aids at the National Science Teaching Association Conference in Denver, Colorado on March 20th!
Make sure to mark your calendars to attend our workshops and stop by our booth 739 to talk to us!
WORKSHOPS- Room 304
Thursday, March 21
Traveling the Water Cycle and Human Impact on Earth's Water
From Issues and Science, Third Edition
Time: 8:00-9:00a | Location: Room 304
Students model the phenomenon of global water movement as driven by the Sun and gravity. Students construct an explanation on the water cycle and the cycling of matter. They consider how the plant's systems interact over various time and spacial scales. They use the crosscutting concept of scale, proportion, and quantity to discuss how water movement can be studied using a model of a system too large to observe all at once. Then students read about human impacts on Earth's water. Learn how to engage students in an interactive activity while embedding literacy and sensemaking into your science class.
Equitable Unit Designs with Lab-Aids and SEPUP: Recovering Copper
From Issues and Science, Third Edition
Time: 10:50-11:50a | Location: Room 304
Learn about the intentional design of our units to embed equitable opportunities in phenomenon-based learning. This hands-on workshop uses a model activity showing how students use data to develop an evidence-based argument supporting the best way to recover copper from a waste solution.
Exploring a Learning Sequence about Patterns in Species Diversity
From Science and Global Issues: Biology
Time: 1:00-2:00p | Location: Room 304
Learning sequences to drive phenomena through a unit is one way to help students understand the content. In this model activity from our Lab-Aids program: Science and Global Issues: Biology, developed by SEPUP, you will use data to investigate how abiotic factors and species diversity are related.
Hands-On Learning: The Moon’s Orbit
From Issues and Science, Third Edition
Time: 2:20-3:20p | Location: Room 304
Why aren't there eclipses during each lunar cycle? Explore this phenomenon through a modeling activity that looks at both the Earth's and the Moon's orbital planes. Come experience this hands-on interactive session and take home your own Lab-Aids Orbital Plane model.
Modeling a River Delta
From Issues and Science, Third Edition and EDC: Earth Science
Time: 3:40-4:40p | Location: Room 304
Students use a river model to investigate how flowing water erodes and deposits sediments to create common landforms. They then design erosion control structures and use the river model to test them. Based on the results of their initial testing, students redesign and retest their structures. Lessons for middle school and high school.
Friday, March 22
Developing and Using Models: Measuring and Graphing Speed
From Issues and Science, Third Edition
Time: 8:00-9:00a | Location: Room 304
This interactive workshop uses a model cart system with ramps to help students learn to measure speed and rate. They also match segments of a distance-vs-time graph to portions of a narrative to help conceptualize the meaning behind slopes on motion graphs.
Presented by SEPUP: Strategies and Tools for Enhancing Computational Thinking in The High School Science Classroom
Wendy Jackson, Maia Binding, Timothy Hurt, & Ari Krakowski
Time: 8:00-9:00a | Location: Hyatt Regency Denver - Mineral Hall B
Gain strategies and tools for enhancing opportunities for computational thinking in your current high school life or physical science curriculum. Bring current lessons and leave with concrete ideas for helping students engage authentically in the SEP of Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking.
Modeling the Human Body
From Issues and Science, Third Edition
Time: 9:20-10:20a | Location: Room 304
Students use diagrams to create a three-dimensional clay model of some of the organs and structures in the human torso. The concepts of structure and function are introduced as students begin to think about how the organs can be grouped into body systems based on their function within the human body. Come experience this hands-on interactive session and take home your own Lab-Aids human torso model!
Making Sense of Cell Differentiation and Gene Expression
From Science and Global Issues: Biology
Time: 1:20-2:20p | Location: Room 304
Explore the use of sensemaking strategies to help students understand how selective gene expression works. Come experience a model lesson from the Lab-Aids' program: Science and Global Issues: Biology, developed by SEPUP. This hands-on workshop will also show a connection to genetic engineering.
Presented by SEPUP: NGSS-Aligned Summative Classroom Assessments Of Three-Dimensional Learning
Maia Binding
Time: 1:20-2:20p | Location: Colorado Convention Center - Bluebird Ballroom 2C
What’s a good assessment? Learn what to look for (or include) in an effective assessment that tracks students’ 3D learning related to middle school PEs.
Driving Questions Boards (DQB) with Lab-Aids and SEPUP
From Issues and Science, Third Edition
Time: 2:40-3:40p | Location: Room 304
Use a DQB to make phenomena meaningfully connected to science content. Pro-tips and exemplary DQB walkthrough – an experienced trainer will guide development of a sample DQB, using a model lesson from our middle school program that looks at the effects of an introduced species on an ecosystem.
Increasing Student Discourse While Prospecting for Mineral Ore
From EDC: Earth Science
Time: 4:00-5:00p | Location: Room 304
How do we engage students to ask questions and develop evidence-based explanations? In this hands-on activity from the Lab-Aids EDC: Earth Science program, discourse occurs authentically as you role-play a geologist testing various site extractions for molybdenum, a valuable mineral.
Presented by SEPUP: Helping Urban Educators Navigate the Rich Landscape of Teaching Resources
Wendy Jackson (with other members of the NSTA Urban Education Advisory Board)
Time: 4:00-5:00p | Location: Colorado Convention Center - 106
Members of NSTA’s Urban Advisory Panel share ideas about free resources and inexpensive indoor gardening ideas for teachers and science club advisors in urban districts.