Learn how supercomputers are used to understand earthquakes. Participants receive resources that provide students with a 21st century perspective of earthquake science including a Quake Catcher Network sensor and kit.
Fee: $35

New teachers will be engaged in discussions, activities, and open dialogue as it pertains to classroom management, standards-based instructional design, literacy and math connections, and universal access for all students.
Fee: $20

Come learn fun, educational, and teacher-friendly labs geared for 1st-3rd grade students. You'll leave with hands-on experience and worksheets to use on Monday.

The course will focus on using discourse and writing to deepen student understanding of science content. Participants will experience a FOSS hands-on lesson using the essential components of science notebooks. (CSP)
Fee: $20

Learn about NASA’s new solar system science and language arts program, “Our Solar System Through the Eyes of Scientists.” Teachers will receive free curriculum materials and learn to use them.
Grades: 4-8
Fee: $10

This session will offer a series of hands-on activities that will provide students with an understanding of bioenergetics while making these topics fun to learn.
Fee: $20

Science matters in primary grades! Use the K-12 Alliance's matter unit to boost your students' understanding of physical science. Learn 14 hands-on/inquiry-based lessons and receive a copy of the matter unit. (K-12A)
Fee: $30

Would you like to incorporate new place-based technologies into your classroom? Bring your laptop for a hands-on training. Learn to create media-rich, interactive, science-based maps using free tools from Google.
Fee: $35

What do you do when students appear unmotivated? Find out what research and practice tell us about the components of student motivation and instructional practices that help in motivating students. (CSP)
Fee: $38

Experience California's first, standards-based, State Board of Education-approved, 85-unit, K-12 curriculum that teaches California's academic content standards using environmental content and context—to rave reviews by educators throughout California. (CEEIN)
Fee: $10

Develop observational skills through the use of unexpected events. Learn innovative ways to teach observations, and receive a packet of activities, with scientific background on each. (K-12A)
Fee: $15

Plasma, and its interactions with electric and magnetic fields, play integral roles in our daily lives. Interactive, assessable classroom plasmas are shown, and important laboratory fusion processes will be discussed.
Fee: $10

Scientific inquiry provides concrete experiences to launch writing and make the process easier for all students. Abstract ideas become more understandable. Frames help students process thoughts. Handouts provided.
Grades: 1-6
Fee: $11

Engage in and explore hands-on science integrating English-language arts and EL strategies for elementary students using the "5E" model.
Fee: $35

Introduce earth science with NASA's Mission Geography program. Compare images from space and satellites to understand volcanic eruptions. Actual data helps graph, evaluate, and predict human impacts of volcanic events.

We will be building igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks that you and your students will enjoy making and learning about. Lesson plans and worksheets included—get ready to get building!

Motivate students to become independent inquirers about the natural world through social action projects. Engage in activities that simulate the process, receive project components, and get ideas for integration and correlations with state standards.

Elementary kids love learning about both the natural world and chemistry. These simple and fun investigations build content knowledge and develop key process skills in learning about our water resources.
Fee: $35

Join us to discuss and investigate overlapping skills between art and science. Take home classroom-ready activities focused on light and field trip activities suitable for any art or science museum. (CAS)
Fee: $26

Hands-on activities teach electricity and the energy of moving water. Build and test hydropower turbines that generate electricity, and learn the advantages and disadvantages of using this renewable energy resource.
Fee: $10

CSTA is pleased to present Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, hosts of Discovery Channel's science and technology television series, MythBusters. You’ll enjoy excerpts from the series that illustrate a key point most science teachers know from experience: That scientific investigations rarely go where we think they will. You’ll also enjoy an entertaining interview and learn how they’ve used their more than thirty years of experience in feature film special effects, animatronics, and toy prototyping to design and execute experiments that validate—and sometimes disprove—key aspects of modern misconceptions and urban myths. They’ll talk about the importance of inquiry in everyday life and how they get kids excited about the science that’s all around them. After the interview, audience members will be able to ask Jamie and Adam their own questions during an exclusive Q&A session.
Sponsored by: Chevron.

The Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology (CBST) at University of California, Davis is an NSF-supported Science and Technology Center. Biophotonics is an interdisciplinary, cutting-edge science that can be defined simply as the study of the interaction of light with biological material. CBST research scientists work to improve bioimaging, understand molecular/cellular systems, and develop innovative non-invasive medical diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Tour the state-of-the-art research facilities in Sacramento, meet CBST scientists, and participate in a workshop where CBST educators demonstrate standards-based classroom activities exploring light/matter interactions in living systems. Biophotonics has a broad appeal to students at the middle/high school and undergraduate levels and can easily be integrated into life science and physical science courses or informal science activities/programs.
Fee: $25

The Yolo Basin Foundation is a wetlands education nonprofit that provides a state standards-based science educational experience for over 4,000 K-12 students every year. Join Foundation staff and volunteers to learn more about their "Discover the Flyway" program and spend the morning at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area experiencing the beginning of waterfowl migration along the Pacific Flyway. The Wildlife Area is a 16,000-acre regional resource in the Yolo Bypass and within view of the California state capitol.

Fee: $25

Note: Field Course ticket prices include round trip bus transportation to and from the Sacramento Convention Center and Field Course sites.

Biodiversity is the foundation of human economic and ecological well-being. As our world changes ever more rapidly, our dependence upon biodiversity will only increase in ways that are vastly underappreciated. We will discuss the renewed importance of conserving Earth’s biological heritage and the evolving role of educators and citizens in the most innovative conservation efforts of our time.
Sponsored by: Northrop Grumman.

Fee: $25

Get your students interested in science and cover half of the standards. Solar-cooking allows teachers to explore climate change, energy conduction, convection, electromagnetic-spectrum, and issues facing non-renewable energy resources.

Learn a structured way to use science notebooks to enhance learning in your classroom. Practice using notebooks yourself by delving into a hands-on lesson that focuses on the scientific process. (CAS)

Use polymerase chain reaction to track down the most infectious microbe on the planet. Bring current research using Wolbachia into your classroom. Engage your students in an exciting scientific adventure.

ACE (Alliance for Climate Education) aims to inspire, educate, and empower high school students on climate change through a dynamic, multi-media assembly presentation.

Observe dramatic demonstrations sure to leave your students with memories of air pressure. Learn to use them to promote inquiry and scientific methods. Handouts provided.
Fee: $20

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are and will be areas of high demand in California. Panel members will describe STEM programs at their schools. Time provided for discussion. (CEEIN)

Learn how to incorporate the most popular and exciting scientific field into your classroom. Participants will receive hands-on experience solving realistic crime scene scenarios using actual forensic techniques.

In this jam-packed session, you will learn time-tested, research-based strategies and techniques designed to drastically reduce problem behavior, improve student focus, and increase instruction time.

You will collect position vs. time data from the motion of a toy car to derive the relationships between velocity, position, and time. Fun, simple, and cheap.

This is a fun performance-based assessment covering many of the 7th grade cell biology standards. Students create analogies between parts of a cell and a topic of their choosing.

Contour maps of all kinds, but especially weather maps are easier to understand if 3-D representations instead of 2-D are used. This makes the information they convey easier to visualize.

The use of chemicals available in the supermarket enables students to safely explore a variety of chemical reactions in sealed zip-top bags. Appropriate for first grade and above.

6th grade curriculum to teach the fire triangle, heat transfer, and the history of wildfires. Students will create defensible space plans for their homes and measure and predict wildfire danger. (CEEIN)

Learn how to integrate climate change science, sustainability, and renewable energy into your curriculum. Subject matter experts in wind, solar, biomass, and alternative transportation will provide cutting-edge information to keep your science curriculum fresh and current. Stops include the Solano Hills wind farm, a biomass generator, a utility scale solar array, residential solar display, and a stop to see an electric car fleet. You will tour a LEED certified office building and walk-through model home demonstrating residential energy efficiency and smart home applications. Participants will receive complete renewable energy curriculum and sample renewable energy kits. Hosted by Rahus Institute and SMUD. Lunch provided.
Fee: $50

Be taken on a guided tour of the Sacramento County District Attorney’s laboratory of forensic services. During the tour, you will have an opportunity to see a variety of live demonstrations conducted by experts in the field of firearms and toolmark identification, footwear and tire track identification, forensic biology, forensic chemistry, and toxicology.

Participants will learn strategies to address key issues in starting or improving a biotechnology program, including funding, facilities, curriculum, student recruitment, workplace experiences, assessment, etc.

Analyze a suggested scope and sequence of measuring skills for grades K-5 by trying out metric tools and exploring sample hands-on activities for elementary students.

Learn how to create a mini-video that enhances your class discussions/lectures. All programs shown are free on-line or included on your computer. All levels of technology expertise welcome.

Learn how to make an inexpensive near-IR camera and investigate properties of infrared radiation in the classroom. Make IR measurable, visible, and audible, and test the transmission, reflection, and refraction of IR.

Discover what holds our universe together–GRAVITY! Attendees become inquiring scientist as they replicate Galileo’s Leaning Tower of Pisa experiment using everyday objects to discover the effects of gravity.

A well-planned unit on the kelp forest and open ocean environments. A veteran teacher will share personal lessons, student contracts, graphic organizers, student samples, and assessment rubrics.

Earthquake prediction—determining that a particular earthquake will occur at a particular time—has proved a stubbornly intractable problem. Many theoretical issues contribute to the difficulty, especially that useful predictions require knowing the magnitude of the future event, and different magnitude earthquakes appear to start in the same way. However, earthquake probabilities and rates have useful information for emergency response even though they do not give a particular time for a particular magnitude. This talk will describe the theoretical challenges and how earthquake hazard maps at a variety of time scales are being created and used for improved response.

Most textbooks focus almost exclusively on microevolution—small changes at the population level. Few explore how we know about the evolution of major groups of organisms and their adaptations. Dr. Padian will focus on the importance of teaching macroevolution and effective strategies for doing so.

Ants may be tiny, but they play a huge role in their ecosystems. In fact, biologists estimate that the collective weight of all the ants on Earth is equal to the weight of all humans. Join Dr. Brian Fisher as he describes the unique behaviors and incredible adaptations of our planet’s most charismatic small animals. See how ants farm, hunt, and tend "herds of livestock." Learn how primitive Dracula ants feed on their sisters' blood. Watch the fastest recorded movement of any animal—a feisty ant with lightening-quick jaws that Dr. Fisher filmed with one of the world's most advanced high-speed cameras.

Although the debate between creationists and scientists is really a debate about faith vs. evidence, the creationist community makes several arguments that claim to be scientific. This talk presents 10 of the most common creationist arguments and illustrates their logical and scientific flaws.

The recent discovery of water in the lunar polar regions has profound implications for our understanding of the formation and evolution of the moon, the history of the solar system, and future human space exploration. This talk will outline the history behind these important questions for the moon and other planetary bodies, and the impact of this new result on our future plans for space science and exploration.

Through coordination of  topics and schedules, data collected in science classrooms can be analyzed and modeled in the math classroom. This coordinated effort liberates the science teacher from teaching math skills, allowing them to use the time for more productive discussions of science concepts.
Fee: $35

Learn how online simulations help students develop experimentation skills and conceptual understanding in science. Students manipulate key variables, generate and test hypotheses, and engage in extensive “what-if” experimentation.

Participants will learn how to use a cheese-making activity to teach scientific methodologies and to illustrate how biotechnology has impacted an industry.

The Galápagos are famous for their unique wildlife and their pivotal role in helping Charles Darwin formulate his theory of evolution by natural selection. They have also become a tourist mecca and are facing significant challenges from increasing human impact. Come see and learn more about Galápagos treasures, threats, and conservation efforts.

Skiing has evolved to become more acrobatic, with the use of terrain park jumps and other features playing a prominent role in an increase in serious spinal cord injuries. Yet these jumps are rarely, if ever, designed or engineered. This talk presents a coherent methodology for the design of ski jump landing surfaces that can yield exhilarating flight experiences without the danger posed by jumps created in an ad hoc manner.

Research literature suggests that English learners may not possess language capabilities sufficient to demonstrate their content knowledge in areas such as math and science when assessed in English. Thus, the level of impact of language factors on assessment of EL students is greater in test items with higher levels of language demand. To provide fair and valid assessment for all students, particularly for EL students, the impact of language unrelated to the content must be controlled. This presentation will focus on the concept of linguistic complexity as it applies to science test items.
The Annual CSTA Membership Meeting will be held in conjunction with the general session.
Sponsored by: Delta Education

Adaptation, variation, and survival are essential topics in elementary science that lay a critical foundation for later understanding of complex topics in biological evolution. The roots of this start in elementary school. Gain a deeper understanding of the concepts, discover misconceptions that impede learning, and see how to bring these topics alive in the elementary classroom. A variety of hands-on activities and resources will be shared along with the science content needed to more confidently teach these topics.
Sponsored by: Northrop Grumman
Fee: $35
This program is 6 hours in total and takes place in two parts over two days:
Friday, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Saturday, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Increase achievement in K-12 classrooms by examining how well-designed questions and structured responses explicitly teach students to communicate in a polite and productive way. Get strategies to use Monday morning. (K-12A)

Using dry ice, learn hands-on that science is about wondering why, asking questions, observing, coming up with possible explanations, and then designing investigations to test those explanations.

Assessing inquiry is essential to instruction. Participants will engage in a hands-on performance task and explore the uses and advantages of this form of assessment.

Universities use active learning instruction based on research demonstrating that the model promotes enhanced learning and retention. Active Learning achieves similar goals in secondary schools, better preparing students for university instruction.

This session is designed to provide teachers the tools to work with real oceanographic, climatic, and polar data in the classroom and field. It will provide hands-on and computer-based activities. (COSEE/SWMEA)

Are we taking advantage of our students' 21st century skills to prepare them for careers and learning in the 21st century? Come see how the use of technology resources such as YouTube, podcasting, and wikis can be integrated into your classroom.

An ocean acidification virtual lab involves students in an interactive lab using actual data from current research. Students look into causes, set up the experiment, and compare individual and class data.

Teach manipulative-based chemistry using a paper “chemistry set.” This inexpensive manipulative tool is highly effective in enabling the student to master fundamentals of 8th grade chemistry standards.

Incorporate new place-based technologies into your classroom to enhance learning. Learn about creating media-rich, interactive, science-based maps using free tools from Google.

The Target Science Investigation Immersions Model for developing better science field investigations through science seminars, field investigations and collaborative design wil be shared along with lesson samples and teacher reflections.

Get a fresh perspective on an important topic: acids and bases. This presentation will show you how to introduce and incorporate acid and bases in a biology and chemistry course.

Where do you fit in the food web? Come and survive the different ecosystems. This workshop will give you ideas to work with English and Spanish Language Learners and gifted students.

Learn about new approaches teachers can use to teach the ocean literacy scope and sequence. Scientists and educators worked together for two years on an ocean sciences curriculum sequence, grades 3-5.

Learn how to plan and run a successful family science event at your school. Receive connections to literally hundreds of activities and other resources. (CSP)

Learn about affordable, engaging, and standards-based ways to teach about forces and motion by studying flight. Use hands-on methods to teach and explore the forces of lift, drag, gravity, and thrust.

Can your students calculate moles given mass and atomic mass? In this workshop you make, use, and learn to teach sliderule to solve science math problems.

Learn about NASA’s Saturn science and language arts program, “Reading, Writing & Rings” and other Saturn educator resources. Teachers will receive free curriculum materials and learn how to use them.

Learn about NASA’s new solar system science and language arts program, Our Solar System Through the Eyes of Scientists. Teachers will receive free curriculum materials and learn to use them.

The author of the Conceptual Physics Laboratory Manual will give a presentation of his favorite physics labs and demonstrations. Attendees will receive a DVD of his favorite physics video clips.

Comprehensive biology course focusing on marine life teaching all required California biology standards. Includes lesson plans, labs, activities, games, and web interactives/web quests. Course components tried, and test scores were phenomenal. (COSEE/SWMEA)

Fun explorations engage young students in physical science through hands-on investigations with magnets. Activities build prior knowledge, preparing students for the magnetic principles covered at the next grade levels.

Participants will learn how to perform four different in-the-Bag inquiry demonstrations and two in-the-bag learning activities.

Participants will learn to conduct blood typing tests as well as learning to interrupt and understand blood spatter. This experience will be a great introduction into the forensic sciences.

The Anatomy in Clay® Learning System promises to excite and engage you and your students, resulting in better retention and higher test scores. Come experience hands-on learning at its finest!

The Anatomy in Clay® Learning System promises to excite and engage you and your students, resulting in better retention and higher test scores. Come experience hands-on learning at its finest!

Use DNA gel electrophoresis to determine which suspect could have committed the crime based on their DNA Fingerprint! Use your DNA data for a plasmid mapping activity.

Come to the FOSS FESTIVAL, a Celebration of Hands-On Science. In one room: notebooking, outdoor connections, life, earth, and physical science, inquiry, leadership models, and more! Plus food and fun!

Discover Newton’s Third Law and the conservation of momentum the CPO way. See how concepts can meet mathematics and accurate data collection in a smashing investigation. Equipment raffle held

The tabletop wave machine enables participants to explore standing waves patterns. This experiment builds a foundation to explore the nature of sound and music using a synthesizer. Equipment raffle held.

Our understanding of matter is so abstract that students have a hard time mastering these concepts. Experience innovative activities that give students opportunities to grasp atomic structure and periodic table

In this hands-on workshop, participants will play a game to discover the relationship between probability and heredity. Find out how well your creature adapts to changing environments. Equipment give away!

For teachers who wish to learn more about earthquakes, seismology, plate tectonics, and related earth science, implement exciting hands-on activities. Extensive free materials provided. Continuation of the 3:15-4:15 session.

Lively hands-on activity stations designed to assist students in constructing knowledge about the laws of motion. Hand-outs include:Conceptually linked lessons, as well as book and technology resources. (K-12A)

New to the California Science Education Conference? CSTA board members and experience conference goers will give you a warm welcome and show you the ropes. You’ll get the inside scoop on where to go, what to do, and how to make the most of your conference experience.

Hands-on activities using GEMS, and other materials showing the relationship between Earth and the sun, distance in relationship to other planets and stars, and data collected from several missions of NASA.  Hand-outs provided.

Learn about a program that includes teacher internships, a summer institute on physical science demonstrations, and an ROP science careers course with internships for students. Receive a DVD of some of the demonstrations.

This science safety workshop will provide participants with a general overview of science safety for public schools. A comprehensive set of materials will be provided to each participant.

We will give a demonstration of WordSift (www.wordsift.com), an interactive vocabulary development tool. Researchers from Stanford and teachers from the SFUSD will share applications and experiences using this tool.

This is a hands-on, ready-to-use, student-friendly workshop. These standards-based manipulatives will motivate and engage your students with visual, kinesthetic, and fun activities.

Project Learning Tree has provided free activities relating biotechnology to American forests. Do some of these hands-on activities and get access to free resources.

Try out hands-on activities for teaching about forests and watersheds. Learn how to receive free copies of a new resource, The Conifer Connection.

For teachers who wish to learn more about earthquakes, seismology, plate tectonics, and related earth science, implement exciting hands-on activities. Extensive free materials provided. Continued at 4:35-5:35.

Want to expand and refresh your labs and activities? Learn 48 low-cost, high-interest activities straight from the classroom. All worksheets and instructions included. Expect demonstration, discussion, and example assignment giveaways.

Secondary school teachers will learn the tools available through GoogleDocs to assist students in completing a science fair research project including the necessary research, experiment design and execution, and presentation.

With just a few materials you can make models of Earth’s layers, role play the rock cycle, take a virtual geology field trip, and locate earthquake epicenters by triangulating seismic data. (CAS)

Learn how to use video to enhance your students' comprehension of motion and forces demonstrations. Equipment and software will be shown with demonstrations of motion and forces.

Receive an introduction to the California Coastal Commission’s science activity guide, Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds, and find out about other free resources available from the commission. (CEEIN)

Take the Hiller Aviation Museum’s most popular hands-on program home today! Build, fly, and control simple airplanes, gliders, and helicopters as your students soar with the science of flight.

Science Olympiad is a competition for elementary, middle, and high school students that is fun and engaging for students. Find out how you can get involved. Hands-on.

Learn basic properties and principles of air and air pollution. Build a simple particulate air sampler while teaching science and math. Free materials and videos. Drawing for electric vehicle kits. (CEEIN)

Learn how to use medical scenarios as an inquiry-based approach for teaching human anatomy and physiology. Participants will take part in scenarios and receive lesson plans.

Forest ecosystems provide resources humans depend upon: water, carbon, and soil. Learn about forest sustainability and take home Project Learning Tree's module and map, "Global Connections—Forests of the World". (CEEIN)

Discover timely, interdisciplinary, hands-on activities to help students understand the connections between human population growth and a host of environmental challenges. Receive curriculum on CD-ROM.

This session will explore simple modifications to SIOP in vocabulary instruction, background building, standards, and scaffolding inquiry to meet the needs of ELs while teaching inquiry science.

Join us to explore photosynthesis and cellular respiration through hands-on investigation, active role-playing, and discussion. Leave the workshop with classroom-ready activities and a clearer understanding of these essential processes. (CAS)

This hands-on workshop shows how a simple greenhouse gases lab activity can be used to show how gases behave, balance equations, predict CO2 amounts, and explain thermodynamics and climate change.

Research shows that time spent planning "smarter" translates into improved student achievement. Explore elements of a standards-based instructional unit, using the backwards mapping model. Receive printed materials and interactive CD.

Engage your students with hands-on science and technology by using national marine sanctuaries as living classrooms. Find out how to get involved and pick up free goodies. (COSEE/SWMEA)

Stoichiometry problems without a calculator? What's a student to do? Help your students do mole conversions using proportional relationships between moles, grams and particles.

This workshop will provide teachers with strategies to assess students’ scientific reasoning by discussing an assessment that incorporates an authentic situation, its accompanying scoring rubric, and student work.