PAESTA Conference 2013 Schedule

Conference schedule has been finalized.

Friday, October 4, 2013
TIME CONFERENCE LOCATION
6:00 - 8:00PM Screening of Extreme Ice TBA

Watch Extreme Ice - Preview on PBS. See more from NOVA.



Saturday, October 5, 2013
  CLASSROOM PRACTICES CLASSROOM & PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES MAPPING OUR WORLD
Time \ Room 101 Tomezsko 209 Tomezsko 203 Tomezsko

9:00 - 9:30 AM

Welcome by PAESTA President Kelly Hunter, Teacher Award Presentation

9:30 - 11:00 AM

Morning Keynote - Scientific Thinking in Earth and Space Science

11:00 - Noon

"What's Your Evidence?" Pushing students toward stronger scientific explanations using the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning framework

Authentic Earth and Space Data in the Physics Classroom (30 min)


From The Birth of the Universe to the Birth of the Planets: How did we get here [and how do I teach it]? (30 min)

An Interactive Web Mapping Application - Harnessing the Power of Spatial Data and Maps

Noon - 12:45 PM Lunch

12:45 - 1:45 PM

Scaffolding Claims, Evidence and Reasoning in the Middle School Classroom

A School Garden as an Outdoor Classroom (30 min)


Grant Writing (30 min)

Using Geospatial Tools in PA Earth Science Classrooms

1:45 - 2:15 PM

New Horizons Encounter with Pluto: Coming in 2015!

Invitations and Barriers Teacher Leaders Encounter in Curriculum Reform

Using "Extreme Ice" in the Classroom

2:15 - 2:30 PM Break

2:30 - 3:45 PM

Afternoon Keynote - Teacher Leadership: In and Out of the Classroom

3:45 - 3:55 PM Survey

105 Tomezsko
3:55 - 4:00 PM Raffle and Closing Remarks

Tomezsko Lounge

Conference Abstracts

Morning Keynote - Scientific Thinking in Earth and Space Science

David Bauman, Science Education Adviser for the Pennsylvania Department of Education

We will look at the scientific practices that are needed to carry out inquiry in classrooms.  This will include asking questions, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting evidence, and arguing from evidence as it applies to an ESS classroom.  We will look towards putting these scientific practices into action in regards to the PA Academic Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards.

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Classroom Practices

"What's Your Evidence?" Pushing Students Toward Stronger Scientific Explanations Using the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning Framework

Lauren Beal (AMY Northwest Middle School) and Heather Spotts (Bellefonte Area Middle School)

Presenters will share their successes and challenges implementing the Claims-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) framework for scientific explanation in two different middle school classroom environments, and explain how the use of the framework resulted in significant improvements in student engagement, argumentation and use of evidence in class discussions. The teachers will lead session participants in practicing effective strategies for improving quality of student explanations in the science classroom, including structured peer review, gallery walks and facilitated class meetings. Participants will collaborate to create a shared bank of CER questions for Earth Science units.

Presentation Files
ATTACHMENT SIZE

"What's Your Evidence?" Pushing Students Toward Stronger Scientific Explanations Using the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning Framework

3MB PDF

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Authentic Earth and Space Data in the Physics Classroom

Greg Collins (Southern Lehigh High School)

Many Earth and space science phenomena are well explained with physics, which make them excellent examples for use in the physical science classroom.  In this session, we will discuss concepts from Earth science that fit into a typical physical science or high school physics curriculum.  Sample lessons that utilize authentic data from geology, meteorology, and astronomy will be presented.  Other links between specific physics topics and Earth science will also be examined.  Session participants will be encouraged to share their thoughts on the use of Earth science in the physics classroom and physics in the Earth science classroom, leaving attendees with a list of ideas they can readily implement in their own classes and share with fellow science teachers.

Presentation Files
ATTACHMENT SIZE
Authentic Earth and Space Data in the Physics Classroom 1.7MB PDF
Surface Gravity - NEO 113KB MS Word
Power - Hurricane Data 118KB MS Word
Linear Motion Graphs - Plate GPS 104KB MS Word

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Scaffolding Claims, Evidence and Reasoning in the Middle School Classroom

Katie Bateman (Mariana Bracetti Academy Charter School)

In this session, participants will first review the meaning of the Claims, Evidence and Reasoning (CER) format. A brainstorm board will be created to address concerns of participants in the use of CER with students who have not previously been exposed to the method.   After that, a unit designed by the presenter for middle school students on “Introduction to Science” will be presented and reviewed, with specific focus on the use of multiple choice answers to assist students in the beginning use of CER. The progression of the lab experiments through the unit to eventually remove the support scaffolds and allow students to create their own CER responses will also be highlighted.  Finally, participants will work in small groups to modify an existing lab that might be included in an “Introduction to Science” Unit, specifically variables and buoyancy.  Groups will be given a specific section to modify the Claim, Evidence or Reasoning.  The collective, finalized product can be presented to the PAESTA Classroom for all teachers to utilize.

Links

Presentation Files
ATTACHMENT SIZE
Scaffolding for Claims, Evidence and Reasoning An Introduction to Science Unit 470KB PDF
Bouyancy Lab 94KB PDF
Scaffolding for Claims, Evidence and Reasoning An Introduction to Science Unit 13MB PDF
Bouyancy Lab 16KB MS Word

Claim

Evidence

Reasoning

 

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New Horizons Encounter with Pluto:  Coming in 2015!

Chris Palma (Penn State University)

When teaching astronomy, students always ask about Pluto and its demotion from being an official planet.  Pluto's classification was changed by the International Astronomical Union in 2006, but surprisingly, the topic still seems to be at the forefront of students' attention when they are studying the Solar System.  One reason that Pluto is perhaps so engaging to students is its mystery; it remains the only "classical" planet that we have not yet been able to study in detail, and no one knows what it really looks like.  That is about to change, though, as NASA's "New Horizons" mission will arrive at Pluto in 2015!  In this presentation, I will review what we have learned about Pluto since its discovery in 1930, and provide some predictions for what we may learn when New Horizons arrives in 2 years.

Links

Presentation Files
ATTACHMENT SIZE
New Horizons Encounter with Pluto:  Coming in 2015! 12MB PDF

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From The Birth of the Universe to the Birth of the Planets: How did we get here [and how do I teach it]?

Tim Lawlor (Penn State Brandywine)

During the 2013 summer ESSP Astronomy Workshop, we explored the formation of the Solar System and of planets in general. In the discussion we noted that the materials used to make a planet depends on the distance of that material from the Sun or star. So silicates and rocky material can form closer to the Sun, for example, inside the so-called snow line. Among these materials are the building blocks of life itself, including elements like carbon and oxygen. In this talk I plan to discuss the conditions that lead to this during the evolution of the early universe, far prior to planet formation – in fact a very long time before formation. &This includes events and processes that occurred and eventually made planetary formation and eventually life possible. I will present a chronology beginning with the birth of universe, when nothing would have looked familiar, through the dark ages, and to the spectacular birth of the first stars. But early on there were no planets, just massive hot blue stars. Some questions that will be answered include why weren’t there any planets yet, and what happened next in the universe that made them possible? And by making rocky planets possible, what happened that made us possible?

I also plan to preclude the content part of this talk with a brief description of my own pedagogical practices, including some examples, for Penn State Brandywine’s Astronomy 001 course (and occasionally for University Physics for Scientists and Engineers). My own teaching techniques underwent an evolution of their own over the past 12 years, beginning with traditional lectures, to what was then called ‘Problem Based Learning,’ and I currently use something most similar to a teaching technique referred to as ‘Think, Pair, Share.’ This has components that are similar to those described by McNeill & Krajcik, 2012, which was the foundation of the ESSP Astronomy Workshop.

Presentation Files
ATTACHMENT SIZE
From The Birth of the Universe to the Birth of the Planets: How did we get here [and how do I teach it]? 7MB PDF

Professional Practices

A School Garden as an Outdoor Classroom

Wally Wilkinson (Northwest Middle School)

In this session, I will present about the garden we had at our old building before the district closed us down. I teach in an urban school district where the students don't even see many trees. Our campus had 17 acres. One of the first questions we asked the kids was "Where do their vegetables come from?" They said the grocery store, so we decided to start a garden. We had a nice flat spot and we got permission to use it for our garden. We sold snacks and collected money to buy the materials including the fencing to keep the deer out. We had the students plant the vegetables inside and take care of them until we could get them outside in the ground. The kids and their parents worked after school and on weekends, and then some helped all during the summer. We had also planted popcorn, which we harvested and cooked in school for our environmental club. We had about 105 students out of 350 sixth graders in our environmental club. We later went on to build a nature trail through our 17 acres, and won a grant from Lowes for $5000 to build an outdoor amphitheater until the district closed us down. My presentation will talk about finding a place to plant, what to plant, any grants that might be available, the ups and downs of gardening with students.

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Invitations and Barriers Teacher Leaders Encounter in Curriculum Reform

Heather Spotts (Bellefonte Area Middle School)

I am looking to provide a short presentation with an interactive discussion/brainstorming follow-up with participants to welcome questions and discussion about the positive and more challenging experiences that I have experienced as I have worked to further my professional development. I will move the participants through experiences that helped determined my sphere of influence and how I plan to broaden that range of impact over time. I begin the discussion of what initially brought me to make changes within my classroom and end with an action plan that I developed to encourage teachers to make changes within their classroom.

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Grant Writing

Judy Treichler (Reading School District)

This session is an overview of what grants are and why they are important to you as a teacher. This will include a step by step of how to find grants using the internet. A review of buzzwords for writing grants and how to get started writing grants will be included.  Off to happy writing to improve your classroom and/or school.

Presentation Files
ATTACHMENT SIZE
Grant Writing 151KB PDF

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Mapping Our World

An Interactive Web Mapping Application - Harnessing the Power of Spatial Data and Maps

Shahram Yassemi (Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada)

This session introduces a free interactive web mapping application (Geokov.com), which has extended Google Maps functionality for an improved mapping capability and incorporation of topographic maps and environmental data. The mapping site targets educators and students without any mapping knowledge or access to specialized software, and allows them to work within the familiar Google Maps environment. An introduction to relevant spatial data formats such as KML and GPX, used in web mapping and GPS technology, will be given. Links to free data repositories will be provided, and we will go over ways to integrate such data into the mapping application and use the drawing tools in order to make custom maps. Regional environmental data will be accessed and visualized through a custom webpage for Pennsylvania, and we will cover interesting national and global examples such as dynamic earthquake and weather pattern data. We will explore comprehensive coverage of topographic mapping education provided by the site as well as access to seamless topographic maps. Lastly, by taking a 3D virtual tour through Google Earth, we will tackle the important concept of earth's landforms and terrain features shaped by such natural processes as glaciation, volcanism, wind and water.

Links

Presentation Files
ATTACHMENT SIZE
An Interactive Web Mapping Application - Harnessing the Power of Spatial Data and Maps 232KB PDF

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Using Geospatial Tools in PA Earth Science Classrooms

Martin Schmidt, Jr. (McDonogh School, MD)

There are many sources of digital mapping data these days, and various ways to use them.  This session is an overview of a variety of examples of these tools and how they can relate to Earth Science subjects and standards such as NGSS. This will include mapping & data source websites, Google Earth, and GIS; we'll look at geologic maps - for PA and the U.S. – and NASA data.  We'll do some how-to demonstrations as time allows. Pretty soon you will wonder how or why you would ever teach Earth Science without them - great for teaching and great for learning.

Presentation Files
ATTACHMENT SIZE
Using Geospatial Tools in PA Earth Science Classrooms 62KB PDF

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Using “Extreme Ice” in the Classroom

Jenny Hoffman (The Agnes Irwin School) and Kelly Hunter (Snyder-Girotti Middle School)

Small group discussion about the nature and forecast for the future of the cryosphere, and how to engage students with a part of the world that most will never see but which is critical to the homeostasis of Earth temperature and ocean currents will be guided by questions generated by PAESTA Teacher Advisory Committee and at the Extreme Ice film on Friday evening.

Links

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Afternoon Keynote - Teacher Leadership: In and Out of the Classroom

Scott McDonald, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Theresa Lewis-King, AMY Northwest School, School District of Philadelphia

“Are you a Teacher Leader?” The answer to this question could prove critical to the transformation of science classrooms and school communities throughout PA. This conference session will focus on four of the seven domains of the Teacher Leader Model Standards developed by the Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium to guide participants through a series of activities designed to uncover their own interests in taking leadership roles and what knowledge, skills, and resources they need to engage in teacher leadership, including: promote professional learning communities, supporting improved instructional practices and improved student learning outcomes. During an interactive session, participants will identify and clarify key issues that can impact science education in the 21st century, inventory their specific knowledge and skills, and develop an action plan to address a specific challenge.

Presentation Files
ATTACHMENT SIZE
Afternoon Keynote - Teacher Leadership: In and Out of the Classroom 434KB PDF

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