Welcome to the 2019 Alaska Cross Content Conference at West High School in Anchorage, AK, October 25th and 26th with follow up activities at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Sunday, October 27th.
Do the students in the grade level and content area that you teach need Computational Thinking? YES! You may already be teaching CT without knowing it. Attend this session to learn about the 4 basic components of CT and how they are addressed in all grade level and content area classrooms. Participate in hands-on activities that you can use in your classroom tomorrow. Find out how Computational Thinking, Computer Science, and Coding are related.
Digital Teaching & Learning Specialist, Inspired Impact, LLC
Tammy has provided professional learning opportunities, both in-person and online, for Alaska educators statewide since 2009. Prior to that she served as a classroom teacher and as an Ed Tech PD Coordinator in the Fairbanks and Ketchikan school districts. As an independent contractor... Read More →
Friday October 25, 2019 2:30pm - 3:30pm AKDT
Room 21
Learn about Early Career Explorers classroom resources, and the I Know I Can and Kids2College early college/career awareness programs. Programs and resources are designed for Pre-K through 6th grade, with flexibility for multi-grade classrooms. Understand program details, review success statistics, learn how to bring these programs to their schools, and discover potential partners.
K-12 Specialist, Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education
As the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education (ACPE’s) K-12 Specialist, I manage the early college & career exploration programs I Know I Can and Kids2College, connect schools with Early Career Explorer classroom resources, and assist upper elementary and middle school classrooms... Read More →
Friday October 25, 2019 3:45pm - 4:45pm AKDT
Room 14
Explore the basics of Alaska’s mineral and energy resources. This session will provide you with a snap-shot of Alaska’s mineral and energy resources. We will cover where the resources are, how we get them, what we use them for, and the careers associated with them. We will also try out some hands-on activities that you can easily incorporate in your classroom. Jelly belly geology, mine a cookie, finding oil in a cupcake, and wind blade design to name a few! All activities include new vocabulary, meet state science standards, and can be applicable to science, social studies, Alaska Studies, Natural science of Alaska or a variety of other ASD classes. This course is great for all grade levels as all of our activities are easily adaptable. You will also have the opportunity to get a free Alaska Resource Kit!
Did you know ASD teachers can visit the Anchorage Museum for free? Learn about this and other ways the Anchorage Museum can support teachers and students both onsite and in classrooms. This session will cover everything from field trip offerings to primary sources and activities available for free online to professional development opportunities for teachers.
Kristin Link is an artist and scientific illustrator. During this hour session participants will get to draw from life, and consider how drawing helps one see. Drawing helps in understanding how something really looks and functions, and the language of visual arts provides tools for explaining what one sees. Participants will work to create descriptions with pictures and words, expanding our ability to communicate. We'll discuss applications for observational drawing with science and other subjects. Kim Sweeney is a long-time AAEC board member who will assist and introduce the Alaska Arts Education Consortium.
Science labs are fundamental to the curriculum, and it is rare to see a secondary or postsecondary science class without one. Researchers at the University of Alaska Anchorage examined data from thousands of introductory biology students - some who took just the lecture section, and others who took the same course with a paired lab. We match students on a variety of academic, demographic, and course characteristics to infer a causal relationship between the lab and course outcomes. The presentation and planned discussion will consider how the findings support science curriculum, assessment, and policy.
Dr. Dayna DeFeo joined ISER in 2014 and is currently a research assistant professor and the director of the Center for Alaska Education Policy Research. She holds a PhD in Curriculum & Instruction form New Mexico State University. Dayna's primary research interests include college... Read More →
Saturday October 26, 2019 11:00am - 12:00pm AKDT
Room 19
The Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science is an entirely teacher-run project to help middle school science teachers. We provide evolution content and ready-to-use resources for the classroom, including presentation slides, online sites, and hands-on labs. Everything is free and high-quality. With over 92 workshops completed across the country in just three years, our goal is to inform interested middle school science teachers about the most up-to-date concepts of natural selection and evolution. The session has four parts. It includes a bell-ringer activity on evolution misconceptions, a presentation with valuable evolution content, a brief tour of the peer-shared resources on our webpage, and an inquiry-based activity illustrating how the environment and genetic variation contribute to natural selection. Everything will be free and
available to the participants, including many active learning ideas for the classroom found in the slide presentation.
Please join DEED staff as they outline and highlight the updated Science Standards for Alaska. These standards mark a significant update to the Science GLEs and bring Alaska in line with other state standards based on the Framework for K-12 Science Education. The new standards place a greater focus on comprehension and problem-solving, and integrate content from across the curriculum.
The use of narratives in science education has been promoted as a way to increase the enthusiasm, interest, and knowledge retention in science. This hands-on workshop will engage participants in several classroom and community learning activities for using storytelling throughout the science learning cycle model. We demonstrate how this model has been used in a berry citizen science project, and share the early results on how it is impacting student learning. You will leave this workshop with lesson plans for community story landscapes, story boarding with student observations, and scenarios storytelling with student data that can be adapted to any grade level or environmental science topic area.
Co-Presenters: Christine Villano (CV Education), Doug Cost (UAF School of Education), Sarah Satnley (UAF English Department)
The Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science is an entirely teacher-run project to help middle school science teachers. We provide evolution content and ready-to-use resources for the classroom, including presentation slides, online sites, and hands-on labs. In this hands-on session, teachers will have a chance to see and even participate in at least 2 different lessons to take back to their classrooms immediately. More lessons if time allows in person and links to the lessons will be provided for even more information. Everything will be free and available to the participants, including many active learning ideas for the classroom found in the slide presentation.
This lesson guarantees a conceptual understanding of the metric system by following the patterns involved and using manipulatives. Over the years, it has been immediately successful for students in grades 3 through High school. This is a true STEM activity, supporting students in both their math and science classes and activities.
Join us for an exploration of Vernier's Video Physics app and how to engage students in Physical Science, Physics and Algebra 1 and 2 students in relevant coursework with projectile motion and parabolas! Come for some hands on activities that bundle standards and pique interest for students. Let's have some fun combining science, math and technology!
Have you ever walked across Alaska? Followed the Iditarod Trail? In this session participants will do just that, while learning about key landforms, bodies of water, absolute location, and points of significant historical value. The National Geographic Society has gifted each state with a Giant Traveling Map for use by schools across the state. Measuring 20’ X 20’ this map, and its accompanying materials, will be available for checkout by educators attending this session. This resource is excellent for use by grades K-12 and college/university geography and education preparation classes. All participants must be wearing socks.
Principal-Teacher 3rd-5th, Iditarod Area School District
This is my third year teaching in Takotna, Mile 329 on the Iditarod Trail. I retired in Oklahoma after 30 years and moved to Alaska in 2015. I currently hold National Board Teacher Certification.
Whether you have students directly affected by Alaska’s recent wildfires, or students in communities who will be affected by climate change and Alaska’s fire regime in the future, this session will give you the tools needed to engage students in exciting learning experiences relating to fire ecology, fire effects, fire management, FireWise practices and climate change and fire. The Alaska Natural Resource and Outdoor Education Association (ANROE) has developed a number of classroom ready resources now available to assist K-12 educators in teaching about fire. Learn about engaging hands-on PD opportunities in the upcoming year. You will walk away from this session with a flash drive containing ready-to-go curricula and powerpoint presentations for MS and HS, as well as ideas for teaching about wildfire to elementary students. You will view samples of the new Project Learning Tree online Alaska fire modules just launched. The session will be presented by Cathy Rezabeck, Project Coordinator and Deb Berg, elementary teacher from Tok.
Contractor, Alaska Natural REsource & Outdoor Education Association
The Alaska Natural Resource and Outdoor Education Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting & implementing excellence in natural resource, outdoor and environmental education for all Alaskans. We are implementing the Alaska Natural Resource and Environmental Literacy... Read More →
Algebra can be as visual as geometry. Algebra Tiles allow students to "see" the models behind the zero principal in addition and subtraction, solving linear equations, solving for unknown variables, multiplying and dividing polynomials, factoring, and completing the square. Totally hands-on class.
