The annual conference, “Creating a Culture for Ambitious Science Learning” will be held on Thursday, November 2nd (7:30am – 6pm) and Friday, November 3rd (7:30am – 4pm) at the Earth & Space Expedition Center (formerly known as AZ Challenger Space Center) in Phoenix. This professional learning event will bring over 350 PreK through post-secondary educators together to learn and celebrate science education.
On Thursday, Paul Andersen, an educational consultant and YouTube creator living in Bozeman, MT, will lead two 3-hour workshops, one for elementary and one for secondary educators. Paul is an experienced educator having taught science in Montana for 20 years. Paul has provided training for thousands of students, teachers, and administrators around the world and enjoys providing meaningful professional development that can be applied immediately in the classroom. Besides having the opportunity to learn from Paul, attendees will attend a 3-hour session of their choice to deepen their knowledge of science.
On Friday, educators will choose 4 professional learning sessions that are aligned to AZ Science Standards to deepen science content and pedagogical skills. All sessions will be focused on 1 of the 3 following strands:
Building resilience in Science and STEM teaching
Designing a classroom for ambitious science
Creating a community for expanded participation in Science and STEM
In addition, an exhibit hall will be open on Friday for attendees to learn about resources to help them teach their scholars. ASTA will also recognize four outstanding science teachers on Friday and be inspired by our keynote presenter, Paul Andersen, with his presentation “The Wonder of Science and the Science of Wonder.”