Welcome to the Innovative Minds Conference! Join us for professional development workshops, tours, and venue visits geared towards enhancing student learning and inventive mindsets. In our workshops, discover new tips, tricks, and techniques aimed at fostering student creativity, originality, collaborative mindsets, communication abilities, and problem-solving skills. Together we can build the “innovative minds” of tomorrow.
June 10 & 11, 2025
Rose Room
Velvet Room
2nd Floor Tower Deli Building
3003 N Thanksgiving Way
Lehi, UT 84043
Join us for this free conference provided by Thanksgiving Point and iSEE partners. Attendees to the Innovative Minds Conference will have the opportunity to receive relicensure points.
Schedule
8:30 am
Booths Open
Rose Room
9 am
Welcome and Keynote
You Don’t Have to Build a Farm: Cultivating Curiosity, Confidence, and Compassion Through Community
Rose Room
Presenter: Chad Warnick
Eighteen years ago, a bored student interrupted a dated VHS and sparked a transformation—one that turned worksheets into pig pens, lectures into life lessons, and a lonely classroom into a thriving community farm. In this inspiring keynote, educator Chad Warnick shares how one question—“Are we ever going to do something with animals?”—led to an educational shift fueled by relevance, relationships, and real-world experiences.
Chad’s journey reminds us that you don’t need livestock to make learning come alive—you just need a willingness to listen, to act, and to invite others in. Through funny, heartfelt, and practical stories, Chad explores the roadblocks that prevent community involvement and how to overcome them to build science classrooms where curiosity is sparked, teacher confidence grows, and compassion becomes the culture.
Walk away with renewed purpose and real strategies to help your students not just learn science, but do science—with the support of a village behind them.
10 am
Workplace Readiness in STEM Fields
Rose Room
Presenter: Junior Achievement
Junior Achievement’s in-class programs and immersive experiences at our experiential learning centers empower teachers to ignite creativity and curiosity in students by providing hands-on, real-world learning experiences with an emphasis on STEM. Through interactive lessons on entrepreneurship, financial literacy, work readiness, and STEM fields, students are encouraged to think critically, solve problems, and explore innovative solutions—skills that foster creativity and prepare them for future success in an ever-evolving, technology-driven world.
Botany Bins and Seed Sleuths
Velvet Room
Presenter: Red Butte Gardens
Learn how your 4th grade students can go from sleuth to scientist while using Red Butte Garden’s Botany Boxes. The Seed Sleuths Botany Box directly supports SEEd standard 4.1.1 with hands on observations and experiments using 6 different seeds and fruits. Come observe, draw, wonder, and do experiments with fruits and seeds involving wind, water, gravity and animals. Then design your own seed and model how it would be dispersed.
11 am
Exploring the History of Science Through Art
Velvet Room
Presenter: Roots of Knowledge
Presentation
Rose Room
Presenter: Friends of the Great Salt Lake
From brine shrimp to birds to oolitic sand, the Great Salt Lake ecosystem is full of unique phenomena. In this presentation, we’ll share opportunities to take your students to Great Salt Lake or bring the Lake into your classroom with hands-on activities and resources. Exploring this weird and wonderful ecosystem will spark students’ curiosity and empower them to be part of its preservation.
12 pm
Lunch provided by Thanksgiving Point
Rose Room
1 pm
A Scientific Attitude Will Innovate Your Teaching
Velvet Room
Presenter: Dr. Heath Ogden (UVU Biology)
Understand the importance of scientific and critical thinking in our classrooms. We will discuss why this is important and I will demonstrate hands on activities that can be carried out in the teachers’ classrooms. We will share ideas on thoughts on how we can continue to improve a good scientific attitude in our students and communities.
Presentation
Rose Room
Presenter: Kellie Yates, STEM Action Center
2 pm
Wings and Water Wetlands Experience
Rose Room
Presenter: USU
Shadows, Sundials, and Solar Scopes
Velvet Room
Presenter: Clark Planetarium
Join Clark Planetarium for a hands-on exploration of Earth’s daily and yearly cycles! You’ll create your own sundial to determine the time of day, length of day, and month of the year, and learn how to help students make sense of patterns caused by Earth’s rotation and orbit. If the weather is sunny, you’ll also have the chance to use your sundial outdoors and safely observe the Sun through a hydrogen-alpha telescope.
3 pm
Guided Tour of Curiosity Farms
4 pm
Access to Thanksgiving Point Venues
8:30 am
Booths Open
Rose Room
9 am
Teaching with Heart: Fostering Compassion and Hope in Every Classroom
Rose Room
Presenter: Holly Todd (UVU, School Counseling Programs Specialist)
10 am
Teaching Montessori Science in a Traditional Classroom
Rose Room
Presenter: Dancing Moose Montessori School
Teaching Montessori science in a traditional classroom can be a great way to incorporate hands-on learning, exploration, and curiosity into the curriculum. When adapting Montessori methods to a traditional setting, it’s important to focus on creating an environment that encourages independent discovery, inquiry-based learning, and active participation
Presentation
Velvet Room
The Utah Geological Survey (UGS) has hands-on teaching kits available for Utah elementary and secondary schools free of charge on a range of topics like: Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils, Dinosaurs of Utah, Landforms of Utah, or the Ice Age. Enjoy a presentation on the Landforms of Utah teaching kit and showcasing its contents.
11 am
Presentation
Velvet Room
Presenter: SPY HOP
Presentation
Rose Room
Presenter: Hogle Zoo
Learn how to use the rentable teacher kits from Utah’s Hogle Zoo to help students learn about the connections between adaptations and habitats and the structure and function of animal adaptations.
12 pm
Lunch provided by Thanksgiving Point
Rose Room
1 pm
Empower Your Students: Learn How Water Conservation Impacts the Great Salt Lake!
Rose Room
Presenter: Dr. Greg Carling (BYU Geology)
Did you know the Great Salt Lake’s ecosystem is at risk due to water loss? Learn how you can help your students understand the importance of water conservation and its connection to this iconic local landmark.
Nature Journaling for Teachers
Velvet Room
Presenter: Natural History Museum of Utah
Bring nature and art together with the Natural History Museum of Utah while we explore nature journaling in the classroom. Using hands-on activities we’ll practice observing, nature journaling, and learn more about how these records provide an engaging exploration of place based learning. No artistic skill required only a pencil!
2 pm
Life Cycles of Living Things – Animals and Plants
Rose Room
Presenter: Thanksgiving Point
Explore the life cycles of plants and animals in this engaging presentation designed for elementary educators. Aligned with Utah’s science core standards, this session provides hands-on strategies and inquiry-based approaches to help students understand how living things grow, change, and reproduce. Discover interactive models, discussion prompts, and classroom activities that bring life cycles to life! Perfect for teachers looking to deepen their students’ understanding of the natural world.
Sound Waves and Vacuum Chambers
Velvet Room
Presenter: Thanksgiving Point
3 pm
Guided Tour of Butterfly Biosphere
4 pm
Access to Thanksgiving Point Venues