Breakout Session Descriptions
Agenda Block: Valencia I 9:30AM, 11:00AM
Title: West40 Districts WozED Implementations
Description: West40 serves 41 school districts and three co-ops in West Cook County, changing lives in one of the most populated areas in Illinois and creating ripple effects throughout the state. This session is a joint presentation of West40 Districts sharing their implementation success of WozED curriculum in different school settings.
Agenda Block: Valencia I 10:15AM, 11:45am
TiTLE: Putnam Schools
Presenter(s): Dr. Rick Surrency, Superintendent, Putnam County Public Schools
Michael Helms, STEM Specialist, Putnam County Public Schools
Dr. Kathleen Scholfield, Executive Director, North East Florida Regional STEM2 Hub
Title: Pathways to the Future: STEM in Putnam County, Florida
Description: The session will focus on our systematic approach to the implementation of STEM Pathways in the Putnam County School District in Florida. We will share our strategies for the district's K-12 STEM initiative with a focus on our partnership with Woz Education. Key take-aways will include the planning process for equitable STEM opportunities, both within and outside the school day, our alignment strategy for K-12 students to build necessary skills for the high-demand careers, our process for building teacher content knowledge in STEM and Woz ED Curriculum, and building partnerships with industry to ensure precise alignment to workforce needs.
Agenda Block: Valencia II 9:30AM, 11:00AM
Title: Florida Science
Description: Learn more about the Florida Specific K-8 science kits created by Woz Ed. These kits were created specifically for the Florida Sunshine state standards. There will be an overview of the kits, the contents, structure, and standards as well as a demonstration of an activity from one of the kits. The session will culminate with Sandra Horne and Rudy Keezer from Ballard Elementary school in Manatee County Public school District where they will share how they have used the science kits in their school as well as how the curriculum has affected student test scores.
Agenda Block: Valencia II 10:15AM, 11:45AM
Title: WozED Science Curriculum (NGSS)
Description: This session is an overview of WozED Science Curriculum. Kits are designed and aligned with Next Generation Science Standards progression and incorporates researched based science pedagogy with a focus on the Engineering Design Process.
AGENDA BLOCK: Valencia Ballroom 9:30am, 10:15am, 11:00am, 11:45am
Title: Experience the Science of Drone Racing
Presenter: Taylor Puett
Description: Come fly with us and learn about the newest addition to the Woz ED Drone Pathway. In this session we will explore the Drone Pathway progression from Level 1 all the way up to Level 4, with a focus on the importance for drone pilots to understand the science behind flight. This session will engage participants at all levels, from beginner pilots to advanced, and focus on the importance of our brand new Science of Drone Racing kit.
Agenda Block: Valencia III 9:30AM, 11:00AM
Title: WozED Robotics
Description: WozED Robotics kits foster student development in robotic skills as they explore explore the attributes of robots and discover how roboticist design, engineer, and program robots with the features and functionality to behave a certain way, accomplish a specific task, and/or solve a problem. In this session, participants have the hand-on opportunity to explore using Cubelets (robot blocks that help teach important problem-solving skills – like collaboration, engineering, design, and computational thinking) and GoPiGo (powerful little robot car with the Raspberry Pi computer/mobile robotic platform).
Agenda Block: Valencia III 10:15AM, 11:45AM
Title: WozED Data Science
Description: WozED Data science kits foster student development in understanding how to interpret and create graphs as well as understand why they are important. In this session, participants have the hand-on opportunity to explore climate tags, data collection and data presentation.
AGENDA BLOCK: Valencia IV 9am
TITLE: Chinle and Salamanca – Connecting STEM through Story
DESCRIPTION: The best way we connect as humans is through stories. In education, we’ve all collected funny stories, challenging stories, classroom “war” stories, and inspiring stories. Connect with us as we share some STEM stories from two Native American Schools on different sides of the USA.
Mr. Quincy Natay, Superintendent of Chinle Unified School District on the Navajo Nation built a team that made Chinle a high performing district. He brought consistency, raised expectations, and united the school community around success beyond graduation. He is not afraid of new ideas and Chinle’s recent STEM pursuits have ignited a spark among teachers and students alike. He is a recipient of many awards including the Arizona Superintendent of the Year. He has served on the NAFIS board and is a member of NISISA. Mr. Natay blends timeless traditional values with the global advance of STEM opportunities.
Dr. Beehler has been serving the Salamanca School District for 8 years, seven years as deputy superintendent and now as superintendent. While in Salamanca, student graduation rates have risen from 59% to 91%. He is particularly proud of the improvement in Native American graduation rates from 43% to 89%. Serving the Seneca Nation of Indians, Salamanca has created a Native American Curriculum Team which has developed a Native American Curriculum and Resource Hub which seeks to create a holistic understanding of the indigenous experience using Onöndowa’ga:’ (Seneca) /Hodinöhšö:ni:h (Iroquois) language, history, and culture as examples.
Dr. Beehler’s career in education has spanned 29 years and began as a middle school science teacher. He then taught high school chemistry, driver education, and coached various sports. His administrative career started as a middle school assistant principal in Orchard Park. He then held a variety of building level and district level positions in West Seneca for 12 years. Dr. Beehler has also served as an adjunct instructor at Daemen College for 9 years where he taught a wide range of courses in the graduate school of education.
A veteran of the Air Force Reserves, Dr. Beehler spent 10 years as a combat arms instructor with the Air Force Security Forces. Dr. Beehler holds a doctorate in educational leadership and policy from D’Youville University where he studied student growth percentiles as a unit of measurement for quantifying learning.
Dr. Beehler is a member of the Salamanca Kiwanis Club, the Hughes-Skiba Post of the American Legion, the Allegany Highland Council of the Boy Scouts, the West Seneca Free and Accepted Masons, Ismailia Shriners, and served 31 years as a volunteer firefighter.
Agenda Block: Valencia IV 10:15am, 11:45am
TITLE: Lockport
Presenter(s): Michelle Bradley, Marianne Currie-Hall, Heather Bitka, Marshall Hall, Lisa Schrader, Dawn Wylke
Title: Empowering STEM Learners District-Wide from Kindergarten to Graduation
Description: After attending the Effective Schools Conference in 2017, the Lockport team left energized and immediately began focusing on providing all K-12 students hands-on learning experiences with real-world applications.
STEM lessons were first developed for the earlier grades K-6 and then middle level to High School where now, Woz ED kits are the basis of the K-12 STEM curriculum. Several upper-level kits are the foundation for two newly developed courses offered at the High School. We believe students engaged in STEM courses will help them become more employable and ready to meet the current labor demand. In fact, after coursework, ‘Cyber Lions’ students become part of a project team taking on the responsibility of planning, procurement, and execution of building and districtwide projects.
After years of intentional focus on the delivery of STEM curriculum, a unique K-12 STEM Framework was born, intentionally providing Lockport students at every level exposure to all STEM Pathways. Students as early as Kindergarten are learning to problem solve and work collaboratively while engineering skills and interests develop naturally. As students get older and are provided with higher level projects, they become more independent and continue to explore their passions and strengths.
The Lockport team will share the LCSD K-12 STEM Framework and highlight that where they are today did not happen overnight. With the right curriculum, the right people, and safe, engaging environments the magic of STEM happens!
Agenda Block: Valencia IV 11:00am
Title: Albertville City Schools: Funding for STEM Experiences
Presenter: Spring Charles
Description: Discover how Albertville City Schools delivers funding experiences so that they can make sure they are providing high engagement for their students in STEM content like never before – leads to improved achievement, motivation, and preparedness.


