Join Lab-Aids at the NSTA Fall Conference this October in Kansas City, Missouri.
Make sure to mark your calendars to attend our workshops and stop by booth 2229 to talk us.
WORKSHOPS:
Thursday, October 26
Waves: Comparing Colors in Sunglasses
From Middle School Issues and Science, Redesigned for the NGSS
Time: 8:00-9:00a | Location: Room 2501
Students collect evidence that indicates that different colors of light carry different amounts of energy. Students analyze and interpret light transmission graphs for three different lenses. They determine which sunglass lens (structure) provides the best protection (function) for the eyes.
Equitable Unit Designs with Lab-Aids and SEPUP: Recovering Copper
From Middle School Issues and Science, Redesigned for the NGSS
Time: 10:50-11:50a | Location: Room 2501
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 2501
Learning Sequences to drive phenomena through a unit is one way to help students understand the content. In this model activity from a new 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 Human Body and Structure and Function
From Middle School Issues and Science, Redesigned for the NGSS
Time: 2:20-3:20p | Location: Room 2501
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!
Modeling a River Delta
From Middle School Issues and Science, Redesigned for the NGSS & EDC: Earth Science
Time: 3:40-4:40p | Location: Room 2501
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, October 27
Developing and Using Models: Measuring and Graphing Speed
From Middle School Issues and Science, Redesigned for the NGSS
Time: 8:00-9:00a | Location: Room 2501
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.
Sustaining the Commons
From Science and Global Issues: Biology
Time: 10:40-11:40a | Location: Room 2501
In this interactive workshop from our new Biology program from SEPUP, students will engage with a model of how human choices affect the sustainability of a particular resource—the fish population of a fictitious lake—and the potential effects of various actions.
Making Sense of Cell Differentiation and Gene Expression
From Science and Global Issues: Biology
Time: 1:20-2:20p | Location: Room 2501
Explore the use of sensemaking strategies to help students understand how selective gene expression works. Come experience a model lesson from a new Lab-Aids' program: Science and Global Issues: Biology, developed by SEPUP. This hands-on workshop will also show a connection to genetic engineering.
Driving Questions Boards (DQB) with Lab-Aids and SEPUP
From Middle School Issues and Science, Redesigned for the NGSS
Time: 2:40-3:40p | Location: Room 2501
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 2501
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.
Saturday, October 28
STEM! - Make a Ride for your Toy
From Tinkering Labs
Time: 8:00-9:00a | Location: Room 2501
This hands-on workshop challenges participants to make a vehicle to move a toy or other small object using motors, wheels, wires, and other equipment. This activity is one of 10 engineering design challenges in the Electric Motors Catalyst, a STEM curriculum for grades K-5.
A Natural Approach to Chemistry: One in a Million
From A Natural Approach to Chemistry: Third Edition
Time: 10:40-11:40a | Location: Room 2501
How do we teach topics such as electron configurations so that high school students can learn and understand them? Walk away with some effective ways to teach the structure of the atom. Using a user-friendly spectrophotometer, explore how light interacts with dyes. Then use unique spectrum cards to show how atoms, color, and spectra are related, making a conceptual bridge between a core chemical technology—making dyes—and the fundamental structure of the atom.
A Natural Approach to Chemistry: Chemical Formulas and Amino Acids
From A Natural Approach to Chemistry: Third Edition
Time: 1:20-2:20p | Location: Room 2501
What is the difference between subscripts and coefficients? What does "balancing" a chemical equation mean? Many students have trouble with these fundamental concepts in chemistry. Join us for some elegant, intuitive, and well-differentiated lessons that allow students of all levels to master the chemical formula and thereby move confidently into a deeper understanding of chemistry.