Sponsored by the Notre Dame Center for STEM Education and the College Football Playoff Foundation.
Thank you for your interest! We have reached our capacity and will be unable to register more participants.
Conference registrants have been emailed the conference website that includes session materials and webinar links.
If you have registered for the conference and you have not received an email by February 6th, please contact the conference planning team at .
About the Conference
STEM education serves more than an economic means. STEM education can be used as a force for good throughout our communities and as a means for helping young people shape their own futures. This virtual, 3-session Conference will draw on research and the wisdom of practice to help teachers from the STEM disciplines as well as the humanities integrate core concepts and practices from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in ways that address problems that are meaningful to our nation’s youth.
Speakers will address issues of curriculum, instruction, and assessment at the intersection of problem-based learning and relevant, authentic contexts as a means for generating agency among STEM learners. Break-out sessions will provide opportunities for teachers to explore developmentally appropriate ways for young people to engage in rigorous STEM education as a means for respecting the dignity of all people and fostering the common good.
One month after the final session, participants will have the opportunity to attend an optional 4th session in which they will be able to revisit the main ideas of the conference and discuss ways in which the conference’s themes have played out in their own classrooms.
Schedule
Session 1: Framing STEM Education as a Force for Good
Saturday February 13, 2021
1:00 – 2:30 PM Eastern / 10:00 - 11:30 AM Pacific
Gina Navoa Svarovsky, Ph.D. and Christine Trinter, Ph.D.
This session introduces a framework for how STEM Education can connect science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to principles of equity and social transformation. The session lays the groundwork for understanding four foundational principles rooted in Catholic Social Teaching, yet which are universally applicable in other private and public educational contexts. These are: 1) affirming the dignity of all human beings; 2) promoting the common good; 3) advancing human flourishing of the marginalized and vulnerable; and 4) acting with rights and responsibilities.
Session 2: Applying An Equity Framework To STEM Contexts
Thursday, February 18, 2021
7:30 – 8:45 PM Eastern / 4:30 - 5:45 PM Pacific
This session serves as a bridge between the conceptual overview of Session 1 and the embedded-in-practice focus of Session 3, by providing one mechanism for thinking about the ways in which teachers might orient their thinking in relation to both curriculum and instruction. The session will draw on lived experiences of teachers and connect them to the conceptual framework, specifically here in the two ways related to curriculum – explicitly integrating content experiences with principles of Catholic Social Teaching – and instruction – explicit ways of interacting to promote these equity principles. Participants will meet in facilitated break-out rooms to develop, discuss, and deepen new ideas at the intersection of the four equity principles, curriculum, and instruction.
Session 3: Disciplinary Perspectives & Applications
Thursday, February 25, 2021
7:30 – 8:45 PM Eastern / 4:30 - 5:45 PM Pacific
Participants will advance their understanding of how the disciplines that comprise STEM can move from abstract contexts and discrete content to socially-meaningful experiences for youth. Participants will have a choice of the following break-outs that will draw upon the framework for equity as well as how to embed those principles into aspects of curriculum or instruction. Presenters will address adaptations for these ideas for primary and secondary students.
Altering Perspectives: Using Data Visualization to Analyze Authentic Situations
In this session, participants will explore the essential role that visualization plays in our increasingly connected digital world and the ways visualization can be used to engage students in complex data analysis through the lens of societal issues.
Engineering Design as a Pathway to Human Flourishing
Participants in this session will consider different ways that engineering and engineering design can be used, not only to solve complex challenges but also to engage and empower individuals and the communities in which they live.
Integrating Equity into CS Curriculum Design and Instruction
This session explores different perspectives on culturally-relevant curriculum design for computer science and the different ways those are enacted in Scratch Encore, a computer science curriculum for 4th-8th grade students. Participants are welcomed to use their computers to experience some of the beginning lessons themselves! No programming experience necessary.
Student Ideas as Assets to Science Learning
This session will frame principles and provide strategies for elevating student voice and using their conceptions of the natural world as assets to class-wide learning. The session will focus on the use of student-created conceptual models and of productive talk tools in order to help all students develop deep explanations of science phenomena.
Session 4 (Optional): Reflections on Practice -- Making STEM a Force for Good
Thursday, March 25, 2021
7:30 – 8:45 PM Eastern / 4:30 - 5:45 PM Pacific
Participants will have a chance to reconvene in a facilitated discussion about their ongoing ideas for making STEM a force for good in their school communities. Members of Notre Dame’s Center for STEM Education will facilitate small group discussions, focused by grade-level and/or content area. This session will draw educators together to explore how they are seeing opportunities for integrating these equity principles in their own educational contexts.
Price and Scholarships
Price:
The registration fee is $50.00 per person for the virtual conference (includes access to all 4 conference sessions).
Cancellation Policy
- Refunds requested before February 1st, 2021 will receive a 50% refund ($25).
- No refunds will be available after February 1st, 2021.
Scholarships:
The Melanie (McLenighan) Maione Memorial Scholarship
The Melanie (McLenighan) Maione Memorial Scholarship is awarded annually to four teachers attending the Excellence in Teaching Conference. Special consideration is given to teachers from each of Maione’s four schools in which she served as principal: SS Cyril and Methodius, Deer Park, NY (2001-2002); Blessed Sacrament, Valley Stream, NY (1995-2001); St. Elizabeth Seton, Palo Alto, CA (1987-1994) and Queen of Apostles, San Jose, CA (1976-1986). In addition, teachers who work with children with learning disabilities -- one of Melanie’s specialties -- will also be given special consideration.
Scholarship Applications are now closed.
Undergraduate Admissions Scholarship
The Notre Dame Office of Undergraduate Admissions has a limited number of scholarships for Notre Dame clubs to cover registration for middle and high school teachers whom they will be sponsoring. In order for a teacher to receive a scholarship, an application must be completed by the teacher and a separate application must be completed by the club
Scholarship Applications are now closed.
College Football Playoff Foundation Scholarship
Thanks to a financial gift from the College Football Playoff Foundation (www.cfp-foundation.org), money is available for grants to be awarded to teachers who are attending the 2021 Excellence in Teaching Conference sponsored by the University of Notre Dame.
Scholarship Applications are now closed.