UtSTA 2024: Out-Of-This-World Science Teaching

This session will focus on innovative strategies for integrating Mathematics, English Language Arts (ELA), and Computer Science into the elementary STEM classroom, ensuring full alignment with the Utah SEEd standards.

Educators will gain practical insights and discover engaging, research-based activities that enhance student learning and foster a deeper understanding of core STEM concepts. Participants will explore effective ways to embed Math, ELA, and Technology/Computer Science into their existing science curriculum, resulting in a more dynamic and immersive learning environment.

The session will emphasize the value of hands-on, experiential learning and the application of real-world contexts to promote student engagement and relevance. By the conclusion of this workshop, attendees will have access to a comprehensive toolkit of resources and strategies, equipping them to seamlessly incorporate authentic, interdisciplinary integrations of Math, ELA, and Technology/Computer Science into their STEM instruction.

Determining the most essential standards is the most important part of science storytelling. If you are to teach your students about science you first need to know what you are teaching, and what proficiency looks like on that skill. From there you can design lessons and activities that are inquiry-based and reflective allowing students to implement the CCCs and SEP during instruction and assessment. Once clarity is reached students understand what they need to know, and all the teacher has to do then is facilitate the understanding. The story line does the rest of the work. This approach also makes grading and lesson planning simplified and less vague.  In this multi-grade-level workshop I will focus the storytelling on 7th grade science units in 7.2 and 7.1, but the information involved is applicable for any upper-elementary and/or middle school classroom.

This unit is so popular with the students that the 9th biology teacher said the students who did this in 7th grade know punnet squares so well she didn't have to teach it this year! This unit was specifically designed to align and teach all of the standards in 7.4 as well as 7.5.1. It slowly works the students into it so that they get the hang of learning genetics as well as talking about sexual and asexual reproduction, mutations and how they could be beneficial or negative or neutral. The students get to create punnett squares for each mutation that occurs and use dice to determine which dragon is born as well as using dice to determine if they survive the natural hazards the students get to design.

We will have supplies for 20 lab station groups. This is for high school science teachers, but could be modified for junior high students as well (even possibly elementary). This data collecting and analyzing process, as well as it's emphasis on energy make this lab applicable to all subjects.

In this very hands-on workshop, teachers will:

Discover the World of Enzymes: Kick off with an introduction to enzymes, their roles in biological processes, and the specifics of catalase activity.

Prepare for Experimentation: Learn how to set up the experiments using easily accessible materials and equipment, ensuring that the activity can be replicated in your own classrooms.

Conduct Experiments: Engage in a series of experiments that demonstrate the effects of various factors on catalase activity, such as pH, temperature, and substrate concentration.

Data Collection & Analysis: Quickly collect real-time data as the experiments unfold. Teachers will practice using simple yet effective methods for recording and analyzing experimental outcomes.

Curriculum Integration: Discuss and plan how to integrate these experiments into your current curriculum, aligning with the Utah Science SEEd standards.