Conference Sessions

KSTA is proud to offer a variety of outstanding workshops and featured sessions.

All sessions will be held at the University of Louisville Event and Conference Center at Shelby Campus. Schedule is subject to change.

SESSION 5 - Friday, November 3 - 3:20PM - 4:20PM

School Specialty featuring FOSS Presents:  Supporting ALL students: making sense of phenomena through shared experiences

Phenomena is emphasized in the Next Generation Science Standards, but why? In this session, participants will learn about the role phenomena play in access and equity through relevant, shared experiences that increase student engagement and learning. We will engage in a lesson using FOSS Pathways that shows the instructional experiences.

Speakers: Caryn Walker & Kathleen Schutter

Grades: K-5

Kentucky Association for Environmental Education  Presents: Kentucky Green Schools & You!

Explore the newly re-envisioned and recently launched Kentucky Green Schools program (kaee.org/greenschools) during this interactive session that will help you learn how to propel your students and school communities toward enhanced STEM skills and environmentally sustainable changes starting at your school site! Kentucky Green Schools (KGS) are places where student-led green teams work together to reduce their school’s environmental footprint and create a more sustainable learning environment for all. Thematic investigations will help guide students through examining their school’s energy use, waste and recycling, water consumption, school site, and environmental quality (such as indoor air quality, school transportation, and use of chemicals). Using the results of their investigations, student-led teams select, design, and implement one or more action projects, and measure their impacts. Join this session to learn how you can jumpstart a green team at your school, connect with local community partners who can help enhance your curriculum and projects, and inspire environmentally friendly behavior and action on campus and around the community. The KGS program promotes eco-literacy, investigative skills, STEM content knowledge, leadership skills, and sustainability practices.

Speakers: Katherine Bullock

Grades: K-12

Effective Assessments to Support Rigorous Middle/High Student Thinking

The Kentucky Science Standards ask our students to engage in rich, rigorous thinking – including foundational thinking guided by both the set of science and engineering practices as well as the crosscutting concepts. The depth and quality of the targeted thinking increases substantially in rigor as our students progress to middle and then high school. In order to support the development of those rigorous thinking abilities in our middle and high school students, strong well-developed assessments for learning can provide both teachers and students with actionable feedback to support ongoing student development. This session will explore resources and approaches for developing and evaluating high-quality multidimensional assessments to support student learning. In most cases, these assessments can be seamlessly embedded in the instructional flow so that, from the student perspective, there is no break or discontinuity between instruction and assessment.

Speakers: Tom Tretter

Grades: 6-12

Using a Driving Question Board to Improve Student Engagement

In this session, you will learn how to implement and organize a Driving Question Board into your Science Units. A Driving Question Board is an opportunity for students to engage in the practice of “asking questions and defining problems.” It can also serve as a formative assessment, a record of the learning that has happened over the course of the unit, and an opportunity for collaboration and community learning. Using a “Driving Question Board” for your units will help students take ownership of their learning since they see their questions are influencing the way the Science lessons are taught.

Speakers: Missy Weatherly

Grades: K-8

Kentucky Department of Education Presents: Anchoring Phenomenon for Three-Dimensional Teaching

In this session participants will deepen their understanding of what an anchoring phenomenon is and its importance in engaging students in three-dimensional learning. Participants will experience an anchoring phenomenon that drives instruction through a science content storyline. We will examine how the Kentucky Academic Standards (KAS) for Science can be bundled around an anchoring phenomenon and reflect on how the experience can impact student learning. Walk away understanding the trans-formative power anchoring phenomena can have in developing science ideas and building an equitable learning community.

Speakers: Amanda Prewitt, KDE Elementary Science Consultant

Grades: K-5

Walk-along Gliders for Everyone 

Since 1930s, flying paper airplanes has been an inspirational activity that instigates one’s learning of basic aerodynamic concepts such as lift, drag, sinking rate, gliding rato, and etc. More recently, around 2010, other types of easily accessible flying objects have been getting attention from school science classes and aeronautics communities. These are walkalong gliders and tumbling wings. They were popularized by people such as, Tyler McCready, John Collins, Michael Thompson, and Slater Harrison. Paper airplanes usually require many folding procedures which may be complex, and they are flying a relatively short time. On the other hand, walkalong gliders and tumbling wings are easy to make and can be kept in the air for a long time (more than 10 minutes, with practice) by steering airflow with cardboard. By using guided activities featuring walkalong gliders, tumbling wings, and paper airplanes, students can closely observe the complexity of aerodynamics, therefore broadening their knowledge. This is an engaging, experiential, evidence-based educational session for all participants. The presenter hopes for participants to have fun and to rekindle curiosity and interest based on the learnings from these simple flying instruments.

Speakers: Duk H. Lee

Grades: K-12