National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) 2026 Annual Conference

QTEL's Tanya Warren will present at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) 2026 Annual Conference, held April 15–18, 2026, at the Anaheim Convention Center.

NSTA ANA26 is the premier national professional learning event for science and STEM educators, bringing together teachers, curriculum leaders, instructional coaches, and district administrators for 4 days of learning and collaboration.  

This year’s theme is “Growing Together: Collective Insights for Lifelong Learning.” 

Thursday, April 16 

Amplify Language Learning Through Engineering Design 

Time & Location: 2:20–4:20 p.m. / Anaheim Marriott – OC Ballroom Salon 2 

Speaker: Nico Janik (WestEd) and Tanya Warren (WestEd) 

Engineering in K–5 classrooms creates rich, authentic opportunities for students to communicate and make meaning. In this hands-on workshop, you will experience an engineering design challenge that optimizes opportunities for language learning and sense-making. You will discover how engineering can surface students’ assets and connect to their community and lived experiences—and how it naturally encourages all students to communicate. We will share tools to support multilingual students that include and go beyond scaffolding. You will then apply these insights to your own work and context by modifying and adapting your existing curriculum materials, or by creating your own activities, to amplify opportunities for sense-making in engineering. This session will build on work done in collaboration with teachers in the San Diego Unified School District as a part of the Elevating Engineering With Multilingual Learners (EEMLs) research project. 

Friday, April 17 

Cards on the Table: Amplifying Card Sorts for Scientific Sense-Making  

Time & Location: 10:40–11:40 a.m. / Anaheim Convention Center – 253 B, North Building 

Speakers: Tanya Warren (WestEd) 

Sorting tasks in science create opportunities for students to engage in science practices as they recognize patterns, categorize, hypothesize, generalize, and make connections through multiple modalities. Yet students often engage in “silent shuffles” with little opportunity for sense-making. When designed with intentional purpose and specific steps that structure both the process and language for interaction, card sorts create opportunities for all students to fully participate in making sense of science ideas through language. Participants will engage with a variety of sorts and explore how they can be structured and sequenced within a lesson to support sense-making for Multilingual Learners.  

Saturday, April 18 

Building a Vision for Opportunity and Sustained Interactions for Multilingual Learners   

Time & Location: 8–10 a.m. / Anaheim Convention Center – 210 B 

Speaker: Tanya Warren (WestEd)  

Teaching Multilingual Learners in science classrooms involves intentional planning that integrates language learning with phenomena-based three-dimensional science instruction. Even when schools and districts adopt high-quality instructional materials, teachers often modify lessons to meet the needs of their Multilingual Learners, particularly newcomers. Participants will immerse themselves in curriculum-based professional learning to learn about adapting science lessons and units to leverage Multilingual Learners’ linguistic assets. Using the Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) approach, participants will analyze ways to scaffold language learning, engage in academic conversations, and drive learning using students’ funds of knowledge. Takeaway: Educators will leave with the knowledge and tools to adapt science lessons, scaffold language, and leverage Multilingual Learners’ assets to increase learning opportunities in their science classrooms.