March Madness Promo for Team of Three - Ends April 3rd! Must be NSELA Members

Breakout Sessions

Throughout the day, participants will explore strategies for strengthening science education through four powerful strands alongside impactful sessions from our partners! Pick and choose sessions from any strand or deepen your leadership strategies by attending all of the sessions in one concentration.

Strand #1: Leadership by Design: Designing for Community and Place

Explore how leaders can connect science learning to local issues, community partnerships, sustainability, climate resilience, and place-based learning experiences that make science more relevant and responsive for students.

Integrating Community-based Sustainability Topics into K-12 Science Instruction: What Does the Research Say?

Carol O'Donnell and Brian Mandell

Discover how forward-thinking science education leaders can integrate sustainability into classroom instruction! Explore standards, hear research on perspectives of U.S. educators and administrators, and learn to adapt high-quality materials for community-based issues like clean water and climate impacts. Leave with free resources and strategies to prepare students for a more sustainable future.

Math in Place: Deepening Community Science With Data Exploration and Visualization

Rosina Garcia and Harshil Parikh

Place-based science connects students to their communities through data collection, but instruction needn’t end once data is submitted. When students analyze and interpret their data, they close the loop— completing the full cycle of science inquiry. Learn to use community-sourced data, Tuva’s free data and graphing tools, and grade-level math skills to deepen place-based science experiences.

Planting the Future, Rooted in Community: The Greenhouse Initiative as a Model for Equity, Student Voice, and Place-Based Learning

Elizabeth Nunez

The Greenhouse Initiative at New Brunswick Public Schools transforms a greenhouse into a living lab for equity, sustainability, and student voice. Through NGSS-aligned, place-based learning, Multilingual and Ability Diverse Learners engage in authentic investigations that connect science, health, and community problem-solving aligned to UN SDG #11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

Leading with Purpose: Designing Integrated, Place-Based Climate Learning Ecosystems that Transform Instruction and Community Resilience

Sarah Kirby, Tana Shepard, and Jenoge Khatter

Using Oregon’s new Climate Education law as a case study, this session highlights the power of community partnerships in building coherent, place-based climate learning. Participants will explore localized resources, analyze partnership models, and leave with tools to connect climate and community resilience to their own communities.

Strand #2: Leadership by Design: Teacher Leadership Pathways

Learn how schools and districts are building teacher leadership through teacher-designed professional learning, peer observation, leadership development, and support for high-quality 3D science teaching.

From PD to Practice: How Teachers Design, Lead, and Refine Their Own Learning

Anna Monteiro and Laura Shafer

This session shares a practical model for teacher-designed, teacher-led professional learning that replaces “event PD” with a fast cycle: design → facilitate → evidence → iterate. Drawing on the Knowles Academy approach, participants will explore how teachers identify problems of practice, test strategies, gather quick evidence, and refine PD within weeks, building teacher leadership capacity.

Empowering Educators: Nurturing Teacher Leaders Through Peer Observation

Stacey van der Veen and Lisa Kiel

We will share lessons learned from a program to support teams of teachers and administrators as they engage in an iterative cycle of professional development, classroom visits, and reflective discourse to learn from implementation. We will share materials and resources as well as provide opportunities for participants to plan for how they could develop something similar in their districts.

Building Leaders' Capacity for Leading 3D Science Teaching and Learning

Chatoria Franklin and Nancy Hopkins-Evans

Explore how district, school, and teacher leaders can support the shift to next generation science instruction. This session highlights strategies for building collaboration, coherence, and effective change management. Leave with practical tools to strengthen implementation and empower teacher growth.

Providing Leadership for Science Teachers in this Era of Science Denial

Rodger Bybee

This session introduces a response for leader’s understanding of contemporary situation of science denial. Science teachers K-12 can implement content related to the nature of science as described in the NGSS and many state science standards. The session will include a rationale for an achievable response and approach for classroom teachers that is based on the 5E instructional model.

Strand #3: Leadership by Design: Building Coherent Systems through Networks and Structures

Examine how leaders create the conditions for strong science instruction by developing shared vision, strengthening networks and PLCs, and using structures that support lasting systemwide improvement.

Where Vision Becomes Structure: Leading the Future of Science Instruction

Solina Hollis and Amanda Drenth

What does it take for leaders to create the conditions where strong science instruction can thrive? In this session, participants will see how districts can utilize a system-conditions framework to develop a shared vision, clarify roles, and align professional learning and resources to support high-quality, project-based science teaching.

Building Data-Strong Ecosystems: Regional & District PLCs That Transform Instruction

Kristin Hunter-Thomson, Annette Brickley, and Jennifer Weibert

Discover how regional and district leaders intentionally design PLCs that strengthen data literacy and develop local science teacher experts. Learn from two models - the Oregon STEM Hubs and Fresno County Office - what worked, what didn’t, and how to architect a sustainable professional learning ecosystem in your setting.

Advocacy and Leadership Resources to Accelerate K–5 Science Education Through Networks and Design (ASCEND K-5)

Rebecca Abbott, Suzy Loper, Daniel Alcazar-Roman, Shannon Wachowski, and Leslie Stenger

Get an exclusive first glimpse into emerging resources from the ASCEND K-5 project, an initiative based out of UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science dedicated to tackling persistent challenges facing elementary science education. Join us to contribute your expertise, provide critical feedback to the project, and become part of a network of passionate educators prioritizing science in K-5 systems.

Designing for Improvement: Using Kaizen to Build Systems that Move Science Education Forward

Jeremy Blinn

Science education leaders are constantly navigating complex challenges, from curriculum implementation to professional learning and assessment systems. This interactive session introduces a practical Kaizen-inspired facilitation framework that helps leaders transform stakeholder conversations into prioritized actions through collaborative problem-solving and data-informed decision making. Participants will leave with a facilitation protocol they can immediately use to guide improvement efforts within science departments, district offices, state leadership, and organizations.

Driving the Shift: A Strategic Roadmap for Moving to Phenomenon-Based, Sensemaking Instruction with Open Sci Ed .

Edward Cohen

The session will provide leaders with a strategic roadmap for transitioning to phenomenon-based, sensemaking instruction by using the OpenSciEd (OSE) curriculum. This presentation introduces The OpenSciEd Playbook, a first-of-its-kind comprehensive guide designed to bridge the gap between NGSS theory and classroom reality. Drawing on case studies from around the United States and the Rutgers Center for Mathematics, Science, and Computer Education professional development implementation with diverse districts, the session explores critical levers for success, including navigating buy-in (administrative, staff, parent, student), integrating AI, multiple choice vs. formative assessment, and ensuring equity for MLL and special education students. Participants will gain actionable strategies for coaching, safety management, and scaling three-dimensional learning to ensure high-quality science instruction is accessible to every student.

Strand #4: Leadership by Design: Data-Informed Implementation

Discover how leaders can use feedback, implementation tools, curriculum-based professional learning, and aligned data systems to support ambitious science instruction and sustain meaningful change over time.

Leading Through Listening: Designing Responsive Systems of Support

Dora Kastel, Heather Cabrera, and Libby Chatham

In this hands-on session, participants will explore how professional learning ecosystems evolve through listening and iteration. After examining the components of their own systems, they will consider how feedback and reflection can enhance coherence, support educator growth, and strengthen leadership across their contexts.

Key Areas for Effective and Sustainable Science Curriculum Implementation

Vanessa Wolbrink and Jenny Sarna

Why do curriculum materials sometimes fail to change practice, even when carefully selected? Learn from district leaders' lessons about monitoring progress and building teacher capacity and buy-in. Analyze authentic artifacts (survey data, teacher reflections, professional learning models) and leave with a framework to inform your own implementation work.

Leading Curriculum Based Professional Learning with BSCS's Anchored Inquiry Learning

Cindy Gay

Explore how leaders can use the new BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning (AIL) instructional model in Curriculum-Based Professional Learning (CBPL) to support sustained implementation of high quality instructional materials. Learn how AIL cycles of inquiry and sensemaking support teachers in enacting 3D lessons that culminate in student agency!

Building the Blueprint: How Districts Developed an IPG for a Shared Vision on HQIM

Andrea Berry, Trudy Rogers, Megan Burnette, and Brian Caine

Effective instructional improvement happens by design. Tennessee districts, working in partnership with the state department, set out to design a coherent, system for strengthening science instruction. This session shares how that collaboration led to the development of an implementation plan and a statewide Science Instructional Practice Guide (IPG).

Measuring What We're Teaching: Designing Data Systems to Support Ambitious Science Instruction

Aneesha Badrinarayan

Districts are doing the hard work of shifting science instruction: adopting HQIM, building phenomena-based units, and developing teacher capacity for three-dimensional learning. But if the assessment and data systems feeding decisions at every level don't reflect that same vision, the instructional initiative stalls. This session explores what coherence really means for science leaders: not just alignment between standards and assessments, but genuine integration between what we're asking students to do, how we measure it at scale, and how that data flows back to support instruction. Grounded in national science assessment work, this session offers a framework for building (or rebuilding) measurement systems worthy of the instruction districts are working hard to enact.

Partner Sessions

We are eternally grateful for the continued support of our partners. Please be sure to stop by their sessions or their booths during the conference to learn how they can support your local initiatives!

Increase Student Learning Outcomes with Vernier

Ann Hammersly and Stephanie Dixon

Discover what’s new at Vernier Science Education and explore practical tools that drive measurable student growth. In this interactive session, participants will preview what’s new at Vernier—including Connections®, a standards-based assessment and progress-monitoring solution designed to integrate seamlessly with high-quality, 3-dimensional instruction for grades 3–12. Connections combines hands-on investigations using Vernier probeware, interactive simulations, and ready-to-implement instructional activities to support student sensemaking and data-driven instruction. Participants will explore Vernier’s newest sensors—such as Air Quality, Turbidity, Soil Moisture, which allows students to conduct place-based investigations that connect real environmental data to the health of their own communities. Leave with strategies to strengthen engagement, streamline instruction, and improve learning outcomes.

Streamline, Simplify, Inspire: PASCO’s Tech-Infused OpenSciEd Experience

Heidi Brennan

Experience hands-on how PASCO has infused our award-winning sensors and technology into OpenSciEd investigations, bringing real-time data collection and analysis to the classroom. Explore how PASCO Portal® streamlines and organizes the entire OpenSciEd curriculum to simplify planning and instruction while providing additional supports such as on-demand professional learning and more.

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