At the 5^th Annual STEM Forum & Expo hosted by NSTA, taking place July 27-29 in Denver, Colorado, middle level educators will find more than 80 sessions specific to their area. A successful middle school STEM program allows students to create, innovate, communicate, and collaborate on projects that are driven by their own interests. Check out the 10 sessions below to get a sense of what we’ve got in store, and browse all of the sessions here.

Engineering Soil: It’s Not Dirt (Thursday, July 28 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM)

• Go in-depth into a unit that opens soils to the world of engineering and applies STEM concepts to a science discipline not typically integrated with math and engineering.

Games for Engineering Code: Learning by Design (Thursday, July 28 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM)

• Explore a model for using gaming principles for practicing coding alongside engineering design that was developed in North Dakota for students and adjacently as educator workshops.

Reverse Engineering for Middle School (Thursday, July 28 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM)

• Reverse engineering or disassembly is a useful way to introduce the engineering design process and practice basic engineering skills in a measured and structured setting.

Planning and Designing Safe, Sustainable, and Sustainable Facilities for STEM-Based Science (Science Facilities 101) (Thursday, July 28 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM)

• So you want new science facilities? Does your curriculum define your science teaching facility? With more than 15 years of conducting visits and presentations of new/renovated school science facilities, the author team of the NSTA Guide to Planning School Science Facilities (2nd. Ed.) will present the basics of science facility planning for safe, ergonomically-designed, and sustainable facilities.

Integrating the STEM Disciplines Through Everyday Engineering (Thursday, July 28 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM)

• Engage in hands-on activities that focus on three different aspects of engineering—designing and building, reverse engineering to learn how something operates, and the building and testing of models.

Tinkering with STEM (Thursday, July 28 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM)

• Use tinker labs and maker spaces to address the goals of STEM education in middle school classrooms. Examples from career technical education, art, and upper elementary school classrooms will be presented. The maker challenges will range from challenges to be completed in a class period to challenges lasting the entire school year and beyond.

3-D Modeling with Middle School Girls (Thursday, July 28 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM)

• Hear how teams of girls design Braille materials for museum education programs using NASA altimeter data.

Yes! You Can Teach Computer Science with Scalable Game Design! (Friday, July 29 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM)

• In scalable game design, students learn computational thinking patterns and 21st-century skills while coding video games and scientific simulations. NSF grant funded.

Beat Masters: The Energy of Sound Waves and Audio Engineering (Friday, July 29 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM)

• Tap into new learning in your classroom. Bring your laptop and headphones to hear this STEAM approach for analyzing sound energy as it relates to audio engineering in radio, television and film industries.

Engineering Deeper Understanding of Science (Friday, July 29 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM)

• Discover how integrating engineering and science can deepen student understanding of the NGSS. Take away project ideas ranging from lava lamps to Martian Landers.

Register to attend here—and don’t forget, NSTA members get a substantial discount!

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

 Future NSTA Conferences

5th Annual STEM Forum & Expo, hosted by NSTA

• Denver, Colorado: July 27–29

2016 Area Conferences

• Minneapolis, Minnesota: October 27–29
• Portland, Oregon: November 10–12
• Columbus, Ohio: December 1–3

National Conferences

• Los Angeles, California: March 30–April 2, 2017
• Atlanta, Georgia: March 15–18, 2018
• St. Louis, Missouri: April 11–14, 2019
• Boston, Massachusetts: March 26–29, 2020
• Chicago, Illinois: April 8–11, 2021

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