Experience a quick, engaging STEM activity from Boise State University's Onramp Program. Through creativity, coding, and challenge-based learning, discover how simple, hands-on experiences can build computational thinking, problem-solving, and student engagement across grade levels and content areas. Walk away with ideas and inspiration you can bring back to your own classroom or program.
Onramp Program Facilitator, Boise State University
Jamie Richardson is a member of Boise State's College of Innovation and Design where he facilitates the Onramp Program’s Mobile Lab. The Onramp Program is an innovative approach to engaging Idaho students with STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) education and... Read More →
Wednesday July 29, 2026 9:35am - 10:05am MDT Innovation Playground300 N College Rd W, Twin Falls, ID 83301
Experience the future of educational technology by creating your own AI-powered app with Playlab. This hands-on session will demonstrate how educators can quickly design custom tools to enhance instruction, streamline workflows, and support student learning. Walk away with a working app and ideas for implementing AI across your classroom, school, or district. Please bring your own laptop to fully participate in this interactive session.
AI in Education: Where We Have Been and Where Are We Going? AI has evolved from behind-the-scenes technology like spell check to powerful tools like AI Agents that can write, create, and converse. Students are already using AI, and teachers are experimenting with it for lesson planning, differentiation, and feedback. However, we face challenges around academic integrity, equity, privacy, and keeping pace with rapid change. The future isn't about avoiding AI. It's about teaching with it and keeping education human-centered. AI literacy will become as essential as digital literacy. We need to shift from asking "Is this student work?" to "How did you use AI to learn?" This means updating our assessment strategies, teaching AI ethics, and helping students develop uniquely human skills like creativity, critical thinking, and empathy. Our role is clear: prepare students to thrive in an AI-integrated world while staying grounded in human values. The tools may change, but students will always need caring, expert teachers—like you. Organizations like ISTE, MIT RAISE, and Code.org are creating frameworks and free curricula to support us in this journey. As an ISTE AI Explorations cohort member, I've piloted MIT RAISE curriculum and Code.org AI courses with middle school students, explored tools like Playlab and NotebookLM in the classroom, and introduced preservice teachers to lesson planning tools like Schoolai and Eduaide. These resources are ready for your classroom. Bring a device and let's get to work.
Join Katie Bosch-Wilson from the Idaho Department of Education to learn about key AI updates. This session will cover the new AI legislation passed in early 2026, including requirements, how the Department is supporting new AI standards, a statewide framework, and discussion around available professional development opportunities. Walk away with hands on ideas of utilization of AI in your classroom. Time will also be included for questions and discussion on what these changes may look like in practice.
Experience a variety of hands-on activities that showcase the exciting world of Career & Technical Education (CTE) at the College of Southern Idaho. From Binary Beads and Build a Cow to welding simulation, autobody repair, radiology technology, and wood burning, you'll explore engaging experiences that connect classroom learning to high-demand careers. Discover how CTE programs prepare students with the technical skills, industry knowledge, and real-world experiences needed for success in college, careers, and beyond.
The Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMPs) were designed to describe how students engage with mathematics, yet in many classrooms they remain disconnected from daily instruction. This session introduces a modernized vision of the SMPs that integrates them directly with grade-level content, emphasizing coherence, student agency, and real-world application. Participants will explore practical frameworks for embedding the SMPs into lesson design, with a focus on sense-making, discourse, and purposeful use of representations—including data visualizations tied to audience and context. Through concrete examples, we will demonstrate how aligning content and practice creates richer learning experiences without adding instructional burden. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies and a visual planning tool to support immediate implementation in their classrooms or districts.
Deeply committed to ensuring that children have opportunities to experience mathematics that is meaningful and relevant to the world that they will continue to shape.
STEM classrooms are full of problem solving, collaboration, and critical thinking, but those skills are not always named or reinforced in a consistent way. When that happens, students complete the work without always understanding what they are building or how it applies beyond school. This session explores how the Idaho Career Readiness Competencies can serve as a shared language for making STEM skills more visible and transferable. Participants will look at how competencies already exist within STEM instruction and how small shifts in language, reflection, and feedback can help students recognize and apply those skills across contexts. Examples from K-12, postsecondary, and workforce settings will highlight how a common language strengthens alignment and clarity. Participants will leave with one practical way to name and reinforce a competency in their own classroom. The goal is not to add more, but to make what is already happening more intentional.
Jacque Deahl serves as the GEAR UP Idaho Statewide Coordinator at the Idaho State Department of Education, where she works with colleagues and partners across the state to support college and career readiness efforts for students. Her work focuses on strengthening career connected... Read More →
Become part of an amusement park design team as we explore the laws of repulsion and attraction through magnetic experimentation! Participants will experience a simulated elementary lesson using magnetic poles to exert pushes and pulls onto an object without touching it.
None of the above; Conference Exhibitor, Imagine Learning: Twig Science
I’m Cameron Barger, and I’ve spent the last 20 years teaching STEM in K–12 classrooms in Kansas. Most of my work has focused on helping teachers create classrooms where students are actively thinking, problem‑solving, and making sense of learning together. I now work as a... Read More →
Wednesday July 29, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm MDT 120300 N College Rd W, Twin Falls, ID 83301, USA
This session will explore practical strategies and resources for teaching AI literacy to students. I will share a range of open-source curriculum materials suitable for grades K–12, including those I use in my own classroom, as well as our schoolwide “Hour of AI” curriculum we designed for grades K–6.
Please note: this session does not focus on using AI tools to streamline teaching tasks. Instead, it centers on helping students understand what AI is, how it works, and how it will shape their future. Participants are encouraged to bring a computer for hands-on exploration.
Wednesday July 29, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm MDT 115300 N College Rd W, Twin Falls, ID 83301, USA
