WSST Conference 2025: Full Schedule

8:00am CDT

Workshop: Engaging Students in the Science and Engineering of Food - IL Ag Ed Apples Storyline

Thursday April 3, 2025 8:00am - 8:50am CDT

Obtaining food to meet our energy and matter needs is a basic requirement of humans, in addition to helping define our cultural practices and ways of life. This presentation will share how to use elements of the three dimensions of the NGSS and Framework to engage students in making sense of phenomena and problems related to the production and consumption of food. Strategies for how to use driving question boards, 3-dimensional learning outcomes, and engagement of all learners will be shared.
Students will ask questions for how perfect apples are mass produced, how nutrients and environmental factors affect the quality of fruit, and how to attain the right balance of sweet-tart flavor. This storyline weaves together concepts such as meiosis and mitosis, pedigrees and probability, plant structure and function, nutrient cycles, and the role of photosynthesis in producing food in order to explain why it took 30 years to produce the Honeycrisp apple.

Speakers

Kathy Van Hoeck

Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science

Chris Embry Mohr

Shane Cullian

Teacher, Badger High School

Sponsors

Illinois Agriculture Education - Agricultural Biology Leadership Team

Thursday April 3, 2025 8:00am - 8:50am CDT
BF Carter

10:00am CDT

Workshop: Leading Through STEAM: Empowering Middle School Mentors with NGSS and the Engineering Design Process

Thursday April 3, 2025 10:00am - 10:50am CDT

John Lynch

Transform your classroom into a hub of innovation and leadership with a STEAM mentorship program! In this dynamic workshop, discover how middle school students can develop hands-on STEAM challenges for younger peers, fostering confidence, communication, and cross-curricular learning while implementing the engineering design process. Using real-world examples from St. Mary School in Richland Center, where students created agricultural-based projects like the Cranberry Bog, you’ll explore how to guide your students in crafting and presenting their own challenges to elementary students.

Learn essential tips and tricks for building students’ presentation skills, encouraging them to take ownership of their work, and differentiating activities to meet diverse learning needs. Discover how to introduce college and career readiness skills through mentoring opportunities that emphasize critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration.

You’ll also dive into strategies for gaining stakeholder buy-in, building community partnerships, and organizing lesson plans across multiple grade levels using Google Drive. This interactive session will provide you with practical tools, templates, and strategies to inspire your students to lead, mentor, and create—while promoting a love for STEM and agriculture. Walk away with everything you need to launch a successful cross-curricular STEAM mentorship program in your school!

Speakers

Beth Schaefer

Coordinator, Wisconsin Agriculture in the Classroom - Wisconsin Farm Bureau Foundation

I am passionate about food, farming, and people. For the past 22 years I have worked in both formal and informal roles related to agriculture literacy and education. I spent five years as an Agriculture Educator and Biology teacher in both rural and urban schools and for the past... Read More →

Mary Cooper

Sponsors

Wisconsin Agriculture in the Classroom

Thursday April 3, 2025 10:00am - 10:50am CDT
John Lynch

Engineering Pedagogy/Teaching Strategies Workshop

2:00pm CDT

Books to Builds: STEM Activities to Compliment Your Favorite Read-Alouds

Thursday April 3, 2025 2:00pm - 2:50pm CDT

Herietta

Discover innovative STEM activities tailored to complement popular read-alouds. Participants will experience firsthand three engineering challenges inspired by beloved books. This hands-on workshop empowers educators to confidently integrate STEM into their existing curriculum, enriching students' learning experiences. Leave equipped to inspire young minds with the magic of reading and the excitement of engineering.
Learning Objectives
·       Discover how to transform activities from arts and crafts to rich, STEAM experiences that meet the NGSS engineering standards
·       Explore 3 popular read-alouds and 3 follow-on STEM activities
·       Conduct the STEM activities during the session so you leave confident and ready to implement in the classroom

Speakers

Terra Tarango

Thursday April 3, 2025 2:00pm - 2:50pm CDT
Herietta

Elementary Engineering

2:00pm CDT

Designing a Digital Mood Ring: Exploring Science Concepts with Coding

Thursday April 3, 2025 2:00pm - 2:50pm CDT

Lefevre

Discover how to engage students in scientific inquiry and coding by designing a digital mood ring! This hands-on session will guide participants
through the process of creating a “mood ring” that changes color based on temperature
readings from a sensor. With simple coding teachers will
explore foundational science concepts—such as temperature sensing, data collection, and
thermodynamics—while introducing students to basic coding and data visualization skills.
No coding or advanced technical experience is needed; this session is designed to equip all
teachers with the tools and confidence to bring this interactive project into their classrooms.
Teachers will leave with a project outline, sample code, and step-by-step instructions, making
it easy to replicate in a science or STEM curriculum.

Speakers

Michelle Grooms

Thursday April 3, 2025 2:00pm - 2:50pm CDT
Lefevre

Engineering STEM

2:00pm CDT

Workshop: Exploring OpenSciEd HS from Carolina Biological (9-12)

Thursday April 3, 2025 2:00pm - 2:50pm CDT

Evelyn

Come experience a hands-on model lesson from OpenSciEd for High School and discover how the new Carolina Certified Edition enhanced these high-quality instructional materials, making them more accessible, user-friendly, and safer for classroom use. Participate in the featured Serengeti board game from the Biology 1 unit and walk away with valuable resources that you can take back to your classroom.

Speakers

Bob Friedel

SciEd Consultant, Carolina Biological/Smithsonian

Bob is a Wisconsin lifetime science educator and has taught at the elementary, middle and high schools levels. He presently is consulting for The Smithsonian and Carolina Biological.

Rick Brost

Sponsors

Carolina Biological

Thursday April 3, 2025 2:00pm - 2:50pm CDT
Evelyn

High Ed Chemistry Engineering Physics

3:00pm CDT

Quantum Information Science and Engineering in High School

Thursday April 3, 2025 3:00pm - 3:50pm CDT

Herietta

Quantum information science and engineering (QISE) is the use of quantum mechanics across a variety of fields, including physics, computer science, math, and engineering. This includes quantum computing, quantum cryptography, and quantum-based measurement devices. Given the increasing relevance of quantum technology to our day-to-day lives, it is important to expose students to these topics before college. Quantum mechanics has a reputation of needing higher level math skills to understand it, but basic ideas of quantum mechanics can be taught with simple addition, subtraction, and multiplication. We will explore this simple approach for teaching the basic ideas of quantum mechanics in high school courses. We will also look at resources for incorporating QISE topics into the high school curriculum. While QISE is most applicable to the NGSS related to physics and with AP Physics, there are applications in chemistry, math, and computer science for QISE topics. Attendees will take away an understanding of how quantum mechanics can be taught using simple math, as well as a list of resources for curricular material to add into their courses.

Speakers

Todd Zimmerman

Thursday April 3, 2025 3:00pm - 3:50pm CDT
Herietta

Engineering Physics

8:00am CDT

Workshop: Integrating Engineering, Electronics, and Coding into Your Science Labs

Friday April 4, 2025 8:00am - 9:50am CDT

BF Carter

You will build a soil moisture sensing system using the Arduino UNO. First you will design and code the project in Tinkercad using the Arduino simulator. Then you will build and code the project using an Arduino UNO and a soil moisture sensor. You will wire your projects and code in C++. You will learn the basics of the electronics behind Arduino connected sensors and the limitless possibilities for your science labs, fairs and national competitions. The workshop will demonstrate 3D learning and how to spark innovation and creativity using the Arduino platform.

Speakers

Isabel Mendiola

Director, Gearbox Labs, Inc.

Gearbox Labs provides project and problem-based curriculum, kits, and learning experiences that integrate engineering, design, computational thinking, and digital prototyping using C/C++ and physical computing in applied STEM/STEAM contexts for K-12 students.

Peter Haydock

Sponsors

Gearbox Labs

Friday April 4, 2025 8:00am - 9:50am CDT
BF Carter

Biology/Life Science Earth Science Engineering Environmental Physics Pedagogy/Teaching Strategies

11:00am CDT

Workshop: Context for Your Content – Civil Engineering Technology

Friday April 4, 2025 11:00am - 11:50am CDT

Evelyn

When are we ever going to use this? Be prepared to answer that question in your Ag, Math, Science, or Tech class. This session seeks to recruit teachers to a partnership with Madison College to foster connections between high school class content and applications in chemistry of concrete, strength of materials, hydrology, water analysis, soils, and surveying & mapping. Participants will learn about opportunities to receive professional development, curriculum, and lab activities that support instruction in the classroom. In addition to technical content, participating faculty will learn about academic and career pathways in engineering and engineering technology.

Speakers

Randall Way

Richard Schneider

Sponsors

Madison College

Friday April 4, 2025 11:00am - 11:50am CDT
Evelyn

High Ed Engineering

11:00am CDT

Engineering Solutions for a Darker Sky: Exploring Light Pollution and Engineering Design

Saturday April 5, 2025 11:00am - 11:50am CDT

Thistle

Discover an engaging, NGSS-aligned activity that introduces students to the science of light pollution and empowers them to develop design solutions to real-world problems. In this presentation, participants will explore light pollution. We will look at the causes and effects of lighting up our night sky. They will then be challenged to use the Engineering Design Process to provide a solution to our current light pollution problem.

Attendees will:
1. Investigate the phenomenon of light pollution and why it matters.
2. Engage in a hands-on activity, constructing and testing mini streetlights in a homemade planetarium.
3. Explore the engineering design process, focusing on optimizing light shields to reduce light pollution while maintaining safety.
4. Learn how skills are used for assessment at Racine Unified School District

Through collaboration and interactive problem-solving, participants will experience the lesson from the student perspective while gaining practical resources to bring this learning to their own classrooms. This activity connects STEAM learning with Earth Science, engineering, and astronomy.

Speakers

Abigail Forst

Saturday April 5, 2025 11:00am - 11:50am CDT
Thistle

Earth Science Engineering