We’ll Bring Our Most-Requested Workshops to Your Next PD Day!
MMSA now brings our science professional development workshop sessions directly to your school or district, featuring relevant topics and using research-backed strategies proven to engage students.
Here’s how to schedule a science workshop for your school:
Choose your Topic
Select your workshop topic from the menu below. Sessions can be facilitated for 1 to 2 hours, and multiple workshops can be run on the same day.
Schedule your Workshop
Connect with MMSA to coordinate a date, time, and location. Then, we’ll bring the resources and PD to you! Email Shelby Dillman at sdillman@mmsa.org to reserve a date.
Cost
Each workshop session costs $400 for up to 2 hours of run time. Facilitator travel time is $100 per hour with travel mileage billed at the federal rate.
Workshop Menu
Choose from the workshop topics below. Each workshop can be facilitated for 1 to 2 hours, depending on your needs and schedule.
Anchoring Learning in Real-World Phenomena (K-12)
Learn how compelling anchoring phenomena can spark curiosity, drive student questions, and provide coherence across an entire unit of study. Participants will explore strategies for selecting, introducing, and revisiting phenomena to support three-dimensional science learning.
Building Productive Science Discourse (K-12)
Discover practical routines and teacher moves that help students engage in meaningful scientific discussions. Participants will learn how to create classroom cultures where evidence-based reasoning, questioning, and collaborative sensemaking thrive.
Centering Science in the Elementary Classroom (K-5)
Explore practical strategies to elevate science instruction in the elementary school day through engaging interdisciplinary units. Participants will leave with tools for designing learning experiences that connect science with literacy, mathematics, and other content areas while making the most of limited instructional time.
Discover OpenSciEd (6-12)
Experience the instructional design principles that make OpenSciEd a leading NGSS-aligned curriculum. Participants will examine unit structures, lesson routines, and implementation strategies that support student sensemaking and three-dimensional learning.
Making Sense of Authentic Data (6-12)
Students are exposed to enormous amounts of data every day, yet many struggle to interpret what they see or feel overwhelmed by large, messy datasets. Participants will explore strategies for helping students analyze, visualize, and interpret real-world data to identify patterns, make sense of variability, and construct evidence-based explanations.
Assessing for Three-Dimensional Learning (K-12)
What does it mean to assess students’ ability to use science ideas and practices together? Participants will examine examples of three-dimensional assessments and learn strategies for designing tasks that reveal deeper student understanding.
Play-Based Science (PreK-2)
Discover the brilliant and intuitive ways young children engage in science and engineering through self-directed play. Learn how to enrich their natural inquiry and investigations through purposeful play environments, open-ended materials, and well-timed teacher moves. Participants will leave with new insights, field-tested tools, and practical strategies to enrich child-led STEM learning.
Want to Bring a Science Workshop to your School?
Let us know what science workshop topic you’re interested in, what dates and times you have available, and your group size, and we’ll bring the workshop to you!
Questions? Ready to Schedule? Contact Shelby Dillman at sdillman@mmsa.org.
What people say...
Our experiences with our MMSA professional learning sessions enabled us to start the important conversations that we haven’t had for a long time. Students truly are different types of learners now than in the past and we need to find ways to engage and include them in their learning.
MMSA’s professional learning and coaching process has been invaluable. I am a far better teacher because of MMSA!
MMSA has encouraged me to think more deeply about the topics I'm teaching and even push my own knowledge to the next level, just what we want our students to do! I continue to attend events and professional development by MMSA because they are always full of positive energy and relevant, research-supported information that I can bring back to my colleagues and classroom.