WSST Conference 2025

Have you ever found yourself in need of making accommodations to better support the range of learners in your room, but you didn’t know how to begin? In this presentation, you will be provided some ways to create a template for accommodating and modifying that can be used consistently throughout the year to speed up the process and provide a starting point. I have taught biology and chemistry for many years with a diverse group of learners, including students assessed on the Essential Elements with significant needs. Whether you just need some ideas for embedding more explicit vocabulary strategies or materials to reach a nonverbal student in a way that allows them to participate in a lab with their peers, there will be an opportunity to see examples and hear how they were created.

The goal of the session is to provide an overview with a few examples of my resources followed by time to brainstorm with peers in the session, ask questions, and create some resources you can use in your classroom when you return. Bring your colleagues for even more collaboration!

Are you using the Illinois Learning (IL) Science Storylines? Would you like to share your experiences and connect with others who are also implementing them in their classrooms? Then join this session to network with fellow educators, exchange ideas, and discuss best practices for using the IL Storylines to enhance science teaching and learning. Whether you're a seasoned user or just starting out, this session offers a supportive space to collaborate and learn from one another.

Wisconsin residents have extensive, high quality water systems and a broad range of individuals and organizations working to understand, protect and enhance them. The Milwaukee Waters Investigation Project (MWI) is a multidisciplinary STEM project focusing on a semester of teacher support, four professional development meetings, and ending with a one day field investigation with over 325 students supported by partners from more than 15 organizations. There is no cost to teachers to participate. The Freshwater Tool Kit.org website, project activities, water systems review, and water quality and water habitat monitoring and the opportunity to reveal and inspire potential career pathways in the water sector connect this project to the NGSS standards.
This presentation includes an overview of the MWI Project, and the experience of a teacher involved in the project. There will also be an exercise for conference attendees to share what they are doing with their students in this space, to identify partners they do or might want to work with, and explore opportunities for collaboration within their community or with peers in other parts of the state to develop real-world projects centered on this vital resource.

Think outside the box! As we continue to face decreasing levels of student engagement, can we design new course offerings to captivate students in a variety of ways?

Science electives offer high school students a unique opportunity to explore their passions and delve deeper into specific scientific fields. Beyond meeting graduation requirements, these courses provide invaluable benefits, such as gaining in-depth understanding of a specialized science area, developing practical skills through laboratory work, fostering critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, exploring potential career paths, and simply satisfying a natural curiosity about the world!

Attendees will hear about the development process for three unique electives including: Cultivating student interest, encouraging exploration and interest-based course selection, and providing opportunities for students to contribute to curriculum development.

Presenters will share reflections on the preliminary offerings, including successes, challenges, and the need for cultural shift in order to maximize the benefit of these courses.

Several high school science teachers in the Chequamegon Bay area who share a common desire to make student learning experiences locally relevant have been connected through their involvement in the Rivers2Lake program. Rivers2Lake, run by the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve, offers year long professional development and mentorship in inquiry-based, place-centered, outdoor learning to regional teachers. Among other support offered through the program, teachers gain access to a library of NGSS-aligned lessons and field trip opportunities. In this session, teachers will share stories of how they are involving local rivers, estuaries, and Lake Superior in student investigations this school year, offer space for attendees to share their own stories about how they’re creating connections to local watersheds, and offer inspiration for where those ideas could lead them. Together the teachers are collaborating on using the stories they share, the Rivers2Lake curriculum library, and Rivers2Lake partner resources to build a NGSS aligned storyline unit investigating local waterways that could be used by regional teachers and start an annual symposium for their students to connect and share their investigations with one another.

I will present for 30 minutes on how I use transects to get kids outside collecting data along a stream corridor. I have found transects are engaging for students without the expectation that they are an expert on identifying plant or animal species. Transects are often the building blocks for our field observations within an outdoor freshwater ecology course I teach and useful to build skills required for the rest of the semester. I will share several different transects that I have found to be effective for mapping, analyzing and collecting field data all within a 45 minute class period (so quick turn around). I will talk about common barriers and future connections with transects as well. The last 15 minutes will be open discussion or time for any questions you may have for me.

HS LS2- 2 Use mathematical representations to support and revise explanations based on
evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of
different scales.HS LS2-7 Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.

This presentation will showcase how UWO’s Biology Department is partnering with UWO’s Dual-Enrollment program, CAPP, to provide transformative educational experiences for students. The focus of this current collaboration is part of a larger endeavor to help STEM learners translate educational experiences into career endeavors by working with regional employers as well. As UWO pivots to a new learner-centered academic structure that emphasizes career clusters, CAPP’s role in providing early access to college courses while students are still in high school can play a larger role in smoothing students’ transition to career pathways available at UWO and increasingly at other institutions of higher education.

A brief overview of UWO’s CAP Program will provide context for how we envision our collaboration with Biology—and other fields—can work to advance student learning in Wisconsin. Drs. Jessica Lucas and Mallory Janquart from the fields of Biology and Laboratory Medical Technology will showcase the career-case studies they have worked on.

As we are seeking more teachers to participate in our collaboration, attendees will learn the role of CAPP adjuncts in developing/ testing new curriculum and how to participate. Attendees will also learn about how UWO is using career clusters and trying to connect students with STEM careers. NGSS are not addressed directly, but college-level science standards are key in the design of the new curriculum. An interactive quiz is part of the presentation of the career-case studies and the new curriculum activities.