Conference opening

(Note: Timings listed are in Mountain Time)

Keynote presentation by Dr. Jennifer Adams

Title: Expansivising Practices for meaningful science education: Centering teacher agency and desires for inspiring learners

Abstract: This talk is situated in a study of learning to teach science, informal science education and identity.  The study initially aimed to learn how teachers’ identities were influenced by teacher learning experiences in informal science institutions and sites. What emerged was how teachers transformed meanings, pedagogies and applications of informal science in ways that both resonated with their identities as teachers and social agents as well as the identities and needs of their students.  In this talk I will first describe an overview of the study and then historically situate contemporary ideologies and corresponding practices. I will then describe the emergences from the study for educators who are committed to authentically enacting equity in learning spaces; that is learning that is attentive to and affirming of students’ and teachers’ identities and desirings to utilize education as a tool to create imaginations of alternative futures. Based on this I will discuss frameworks for designing professional development and learning experiences that afford critical awareness, creativity and culturally affirming science education both in formal and informal contexts.

Bio: Dr. Jennifer D. Adams is a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair of Creativity, Equity, and STEM and Professor at The University of Calgary in Department of Chemistry. She is the PI of the Creativity, Equity and STEM Lab where she leads her team in research on equity in STEM teaching and learning environments with an emphasis on identity-affirming, anti-deficit, desiring, and justice-oriented approaches. She is sought after for talks and workshops around her work in equity in postsecondary STEM. She is in leadership on several Canadian national projects including “Securing Black Futures” which seeks to increase the visibility and support the flourishing of Black students in STEM and the Canadian Black Scientists Network where she is the PI of the STEM Beyond Borders initiative that examines Black in STEMM equity-oriented research, policy and practice in Canada and the United States. Dr. Adams was recognized by the Calgary Black Chambers with an award for Black Achievement in STEM.  Her prior appointments include Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York, the American Museum of Natural History, and The New York City Department of Education. She is a daughter of the Caribbean Mountains and Sea and a Type 2 fun junkie who enjoys open-ocean swimming and triathlon training.

Keynote presentation by Dr. Greg Lowan-Trudeau

Title: Nuclear Technologies, Environmental Education, and News Media in Canada

Abstract: Amidst a rise in global conflicts and search for energy and climate change solutions, nuclear technologies have been prominent in recent news media and public discourse. In this presentation, Greg Lowan-Trudeau will share related insights from a comparative study of K-12 curricula and news media in Canada through a critical environmental lens. Examining nuclear-related news media coverage and K-12 curricula provides an opportunity to understand how media discourses relate to what students are learning in Canada. Increased understanding of nuclear topics will facilitate more active engagement in related educational conversations, news media, and societal decision-making processes.

Bio: Greg Lowan-Trudeau, PhD is Associate Professor in Curriculum and Learning with the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. His research occurs at the intersections of environmental education and communication with science, technology, and society (STS). Greg often explores topics related to critical media literacy, critical energy literacy, digital technologies, climate change, environmental politics, outdoor and experiential approaches, environmental justice, and intersectional perspectives. His current methodological interests include content, discourse, and framing analysis.

Keynote presentation by Dr. Aditi Wagh

Title: Paying Attention to Our Teachers: Leveraging Teacher Resources & Practices to Make Computational Modeling a Sustained Practice in K-12 Classrooms

Abstract: Decades of research on the use of computational modeling in science education has shown that it supports both learning of science and computational practices. We know that teachers play a key role in supporting students’ sense-making in classrooms. However, relatively less work has examined how to support teachers to make computational modeling a sustained practice in their classrooms. In this talk, I argue that as a field, we need to pay more attention to teacher resources and the existing systems they operate in to make computational modeling a sustained practice in science classrooms. Drawing on insights from long-term collaborations with teachers and districts, I will share lessons learned around resources teachers bring to this work, stories of teacher learning, and how to create structures within a district to support them. Finally, I will propose a framework - artifacts, practices and values - as a lens to think about how to study and support teachers as they bring this critical scientific practice into their classrooms in a sustained way.

Bio: Aditi Wagh is a Research Scientist in the Scheller Teacher Education Program at MIT. Her work sits at the intersection of learning sciences, science education and computing. Her research examines how computational modeling can become a tool for expression and sense-making for youth in classrooms and informal learning spaces. In one line of inquiry, she collaborates closely with teachers in school districts to make computational modeling a sustained practice in classroom communities. More recently, she has started thinking about how more expansive experiences with computational modeling can enable youth to relate modeling and scientific sense-making with everyday practices. Dr Wagh leads several NSF projects in science and computing education. She has a PhD in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University. 

Keynote presentation by Dr. Jrène Rahm

Title: Interrogating learning and identity in science by attending to embodied, affective, and more-than-human entanglements

Abstract: In this presentation, I interrogate learning and identity in science by attending to embodied, affective, and more-than-human entanglements. By bringing such a lens to science education, I aim to move away from a representational reading of learning and identity in science locked in time and space. Through case studies from dignity-affirming informal education, I put to work such a conceptual lens and address its methodological challenges. I center moments of learning and identity that uplift voices, that are future oriented, and that help us reimagine more socially just and equity driven science practices.

Bio: Jrène Rahm is an Educational Psychologist and Full Professor at the Université de Montréal, Canada with an expertise in the learning sciences and educational anthropology. Through multi-sited and longitudinal studies grounded in sociocultural and critical theory, driven by a space-time lens, she explores diverse youths’ navigations of community organizations, gardens, and other educational venues, driven by future aspirations of becoming somebody. That interest led to stories of counter-spaces and educational pathways in science marked by equity and social justice.

Conference closing and announcement for STEM 2026

(Note: Timings listed are in Mountain Time)

ISSE Executive committee meeting (closed)

(Note: Timings listed are in Mountain Time)