Dr. Jesse Wilcox Friday, March 6 8:00 AM

From Surviving to Thriving: Small Changes that Can Make a Big Impact on Your Teaching Career

Teaching science is a difficult job. Yet, teachers can make small, actionable changes that can increase their joy and excitement for science teaching as well as improve their students’ learning. This keynote will provide examples, grounded in science education research, that you can use to create a thriving career teaching science.

Dr. Jesse Wilcox is an Assistant Professor in Biology and Science Education at the University of Northern Iowa. Prior to becoming a professor, Dr. Wilcox served as a high school general science and biology teacher. Over the course of his career, he has won numerous teaching awards, presented hundreds of times at science and STEM education conferences, and published dozens of articles in science and STEM education journals.

Today, Dr. Wilcox’s research focuses on how to best prepare and support science teachers using research-based practices. As part of this research, he seeks to understand the experiences and content knowledge gains of students when they engage in high-impact instructional practices, as well as identify how to best bridge the gap between research and practice to promote effective science teaching.

Chris Woods Saturday, March 7 at 8:00am

The Joy of Science

In a futuristic and high-tech world of AI and robotics (but sadly no Marty McFly hoverboards), it's even more imperative that we build a culture of science learning that includes joy, inspiration, and creativity. How do we ensure that science keeps including hands-on and problem solving when more of our learning takes place on a screen? And how do we as educators keep that excitement going when science time is limited and the busyness of the school year takes over? We'll answer those questions together, and refresh and rejuvenate your love of teaching science.

Chris Woods has been inspiring kids as a math and science teacher for over 25 years. In addition to his work in the classroom, Chris wrote the book Daily STEM: How to Create a STEM Culture in Your Classrooms & Communities, shares free STEM resources on his website dailystem.com and @dailystem on social media, and is the host of “The STEM Everyday Podcast” 

Chris loves finding creative ways to inspire students, especially by adding STEM to every classroom & making STEM accessible to families at home.  He believes that STEM is not a class we teach, it's a culture we build.

Chris has been happily married to his wife Sue for 27 years & has 3 great kids.