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Our Mission

To give teachers the materials, support, and power to get kids excited and curious about the world around them and confident in their ability to figure it out through questioning, investigating, and solving problems.

Our Core Values

We believe that:

All students can excel in science

Historical practices and entrenched cultural perceptions of science education need to be challenged

The science education community, together, can solve problems in science classrooms

High-quality science materials should be freely available and customizable

Science teachers feel empowered when allowed to use their expertise and creativity in the implementation of the materials

Professional learning is key in unlocking the power of great materials

Teachers and students need equitable and exciting learning experiences

We provide teachers the materials and support to get ALL students excited and curious about the world around them and confident in their ability to shape it through questioning, investigating, and solving problems.

Too many teachers know the reality of the opportunity gap, and too many students live that reality. In addition to existing and systemic educational inequities, COVID-19 has exacerbated the crisis disproportionately affecting Black and Brown students as well as traditionally marginalized populations. OpenSciEd exists to change the status quo and remove the predictability about who succeeds and shows affection for the STEM fields.

The high cost of quality science materials often prevents districts from adopting the best curricula, and those who invest in good programs do it at the expense of adequate professional learning that helps teachers make necessary instructional shifts. Being freely available, OpenSciEd creates an environment where districts don't need to make this compromise.

We believe that the best materials are rooted in the standards; created, reviewed, and approved by the science educator community; and field-tested to ensure their equity, efficacy, and usability. Our materials carry a creative commons license, which helps foster equal access to excellent, flexible materials that teachers can customize and adapt to meet the needs of their students. Our work is guided by the vision for science literacy described in the Next Generation Science Standards and supported by 10 partner states in the development of the materials.

Team Bios

Jim oversees the leadership of the project, hires and manages a small staff, and supervises the work of the curriculum developers consortium. The Executive Director is responsible for facilitating the Advisory Board meetings. He will be responsible for building partnerships with outside organizations to build revenue streams and/or networks that can support the spread of the materials. Jim has worked in a variety of capacities to improve STEM education for all students. He was a high school mathematics teacher and site administrator for ten years. He worked as an analyst, programmer, and team lead for Apple Computers, and then served in several leadership roles at Key Curriculum Press, a leading publisher of mathematics and science tools and curricula. In his work at Key he was Vice President of Professional Development and Marketing teams and led the creation of a new division focused on supporting the implementation of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Prior to his current role, STEM Executive Director for San Francisco Unified School District where he oversaw the development and implementation of core curricula in math and science as well as the computer science for all initiative in SFUSD.

Sarah Delaney

Sarah coordinates communications with core partner states and facilitates communication between states and consortia. The Director will manage the interactions between the Developers Consortium and Learning Tapestry as well as oversee the public deployment of the completed units. Sarah comes to OpenSciEd from San Francisco Unified School District where she led the development and implementation of their Science Core Curriculum aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards across grades K-12. Sarah's experience includes six years as a middle school science teacher, four years as a professional development provider and instructional coach, and an exciting summer spent teaching science to three and four-year-olds. She has been involved in work at the state level, having been a part of California's development of an Environmental Literacy Blueprint and has led teacher professional development for teachers across all grade bands on a variety of science education topics.

Matt Krehbiel

Matt began his career in science education as a high school science teacher in Kansas, where he taught a wide range of high school science courses over ten years. In 2010, Matt joined the Kansas State Department of Education as the state science supervisor where he led Kansas' participation as a lead state in developing the Next Generation Science Standards, coordinated the standards adoption process that led KS to be the 3rd state to adopt the NGSS, and coordinated the state-wide effort to use the implementation of these standards as an opportunity to advance science education for all students. For his efforts to advance science education in Kansas, Matt was awarded the Kansas Association for Teachers of Science Outstanding Contributions to Science Education Award in 2013 and was selected by Bethel College for their Young Alumnus Award in 2015. Matt was elected President of the Council of State Science Supervisors in 2014 and transitioned to a new position at Achieve, where he became their Director for Science and coordinated efforts to develop the supply of and demand for high quality instructional materials designed for the NGSS. Matt also served on the Board on Science Education at the National Academies for Science, Engineering, & Medicine from 2013 through 2019.

Theresa Siliezar

As the Operations Associate, Theresa is responsible for the general operations of the organization. She will play a vital role in orchestrating the growth of OpenSciEd as a market leader in science education.

Theresa is deeply committed to her work in education and helping at-risk communities. Her most recent role in education was supporting Project Based Learning at PBLWorks as the Publications and Production Manager. For ten years she brought her project management skills to their publications department, while also meeting the e-commerce demands of a continually involving education community.

Prior to her current work in education, Theresa has an extensive history of supporting non-profits in the areas of humanitarian aid, physical disabilities, criminal justice, and homelessness. In her role as executive assistant, she mastered the art of office management, system implementation, teamwork, and customer service.

In addition to being passionate about providing a high quality education to marginalized communities, Theresa is excited about challenging her own limits and trying new experiences. She especially enjoys traveling to new destinations with her camera in hand to capture the land and people she meets along the way.

Our Commitment to Antiracist Action

We remain committed to acknowledging and taking on systemic racism in education. We recognize that the education system has often been a tool of oppression against people of color, specifically Black people, recreating power hierarchies and inequities. As science educators, we endeavor to develop science instructional materials and professional learning resources that provide equitable learning opportunities for historically disenfranchised students, with the goal to support their long-term self-determination. Our development process seeks to surface and address inequities in the engagement and participation of Black and Brown students in science learning, as well as other students who have been seen through a deficit lens rather than as knowledge builders in classrooms. Part of our work towards equity and justice involves recognizing the insidious ways racism has operated in science and rooting it out of science education. We strive to implement approaches that de-settle inequitable systems, routines, and assumptions that are in place in too many science learning environments and educational institutions.

We call on all curriculum developers to provide materials that bring forward and value all students' voices and surface the conversations that will empower students to own their education and their futures.

Our work as educators is central to the elimination of racism, Anti-Blackness, and white supremacy in science education and we dedicate our organization to advocate for and work toward a more just society.

OpenSciEd Brand Guidelines

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Science Materials - STEM Teaching Tools - About OpenSciEd

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To give teachers the materials, support, and power to get kids excited and curious about the world around them and confident in their ability to figure it out through questioning, investigating, and solving problems. We believe that: All students can excel in science Historical practices and entrenched cultural perceptions of

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School approved

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Increasing Autonomy with Habits of Mind 

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This website has a blog which is very informative.

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This website has a blog which is very informative.

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There are also products for sale regarding PBL.

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Featured Projects

How can we support younger students through the transition to middle school?

Are GMOs the way to go?

How can we keep our communities safe and prepared for natural hazards?

Featured Resources

The Buck Institute has created this short video to help explain the Project Based Teaching Practices in our model for Gold Standard PBL.. Learn more

How to create and use norms in your classroom to build, positive, productive culture. Learn more

Sample: Explaining PBL and giving project details. Learn more

Announcements

Online Course - PBL Jumpstart: Teach

Register for our 8-week course PBL Jumpstart: Teach. You will learn how to incorporate effective teaching practices you already use into the framework of PBL, and you'll learn how to assume a new and rewarding role in the classroom.

Course Dates:

Winter: Mondays, January 8 - February 26, 2024
Summer: Mondays, July 1 - August 19, 2024
Fall: Mondays, September 9 - October 28, 2024
Learn more about the course

Online Course - PBL Jumpstart: Design

Register for our 8-week course PBL Jumpstart: Design. You will learn how to incorporate effective teaching practices you already use into the framework of PBL and you'll learn how to assume a new and rewarding role in the classroom.

Course Dates:

Winter: Mondays, January 8 - February 26, 2024
Summer: Mondays, July 8 - August 19, 2024
Fall: Mondays, September 9 - October 28, 2024
Learn more about the course

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Your gateway to the very best in Project Based Learning, no matter where you are in your PBL journey. Here, you will find a growing set of resources to help you design and implement powerful learning in your classroom.

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PED website

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Copy of 10 Strategies To Promote Curiosity In Learning (1)

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Basics on teaching critical thinking skills.

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Reciprocal teaching is an instructional technique aimed at developing reading comprehension skills by gradually empowering the students to take on the role of the teacher. Reciprocal teaching makes students active participants in the lesson. It also helps students transition from guided to independent readers and reinforces strategies for comprehending the meaning of a text.

Reciprocal Teaching Definition

In reciprocal teaching, the teacher models four comprehension strategies (summarizing, questioning, predicting, and clarifying) through guided group discussions. Once the students are comfortable with the process and the strategies, they take turns leading similar discussions in small groups.

The reciprocal teaching technique was developed in the 1980s by two University of Illinois educators (Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar and Ann L. Brown). Using reciprocal teaching, improvements have been noted in student reading comprehension in as little as three months and maintained for up to one year. The Highland Park School District in Michigan saw gains of nearly 20% with fourth-grade students and improvement across the board for all students, K-12.

The Four Strategies

The strategies used in reciprocal teaching (sometimes called the "Fab Four") are summarizing, questioning, predicting, and clarifying. The strategies work in tandem to dramatically increase comprehension.

Summarizing

Summarizing is a vital, though sometimes challenging, skill for readers of all ages. It requires that students use a summarizing strategy to pick out the main idea and key points of the text. Then, the students must put that information together in order to concisely explain the meaning and content of the passage in their own words.

Start with these summarizing prompts:

What is the most important part of this text?

What is it mostly about?

What happened first?

What happened next?

How did it end or how was the conflict resolved?

Questioning

Questioning the text helps students develop critical thinking skills. Model this skill by asking questions that encourage students to dig deep and analyze, rather than summarize. For example, prompt the students to consider why the author made certain stylistic or narrative decisions.

Start with these prompts to encourage students to question the text:

Why do you think...?

What do you think...?

When [specific incident] happened, how do you think...?

Predicting

Predicting is the skill of making an educated guess. Students can develop this skill by looking for clues in order to figure out what will happen next in the text, or what the story's main message will be.

When studying a non-fiction text, students should preview the text's title, subheadings, bold print, and visuals such as maps, tables, and diagrams. When studying a work of fiction, students should look at the book's cover, title, and illustrations. In both instances, the students should look for clues that help them predict the author's purpose and the topic of the text.

Help students practice this skill by giving open-ended prompts that include phrases like "I believe" and "because":

I think the book is about...because...

I predict I will learn....because...

I think the author is trying to (entertain, persuade, inform)...because...

Clarifying

Clarifying involves using strategies to understand unfamiliar words or complicated texts as well as self-monitoring to ensure overall reading comprehension. Comprehension problems may arise due to difficult words in the text, but they can also result from students being unable to identify the main idea or key points of the passage.

Model clarifying techniques such as rereading, using the glossary or a dictionary to define difficult words, or inferring meaning from context. Additionally, show students how to identify problems with phrases such as:

I didn't understand the part...

This is difficult because...

I am having trouble...

Example of Reciprocal Teaching in the Classroom

To better understand how reciprocal teaching works in the classroom, consider this example, which focuses on "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle.

First, show students the book cover. Read the title and author's name out loud. Ask, "What do you think this book is going to be about? Do you think the author's purpose is to inform, entertain, or persuade? Why?"

Next, read the first page out loud. Ask, "What kind of egg do you think is on the leaf? What do you think will come out of the egg?"

When the caterpillar eats all of the food, pause to determine if the students need any clarification. Ask, "Has anyone eaten a pear? What about a plum? Have you ever tried salami?"

Later in the story, pause to find out if the students know the word "cocoon". If not, help the students infer the word's meaning from the text and pictures. Ask them to predict what will happen next.

Finally, after finishing the story, guide the students through the summarizing process. Help them identify the main idea and key points with the following questions.

Who or what is the story about? (Answer: a caterpillar.)

What did he do? (Answer: He ate more food every day. On the last day, he ate so much food he had a stomach ache.)

Then what happened? (Answer: He made a cocoon.)

Finally, what happened at the end? (Answer: He came out of the cocoon in the form of a beautiful butterfly.)

Help students turn their answers into a concise summary, such as, "One day, a caterpillar started eating. He ate more and more every day until he had a stomach ache. He made a cocoon around himself and, two weeks later, he came out of the cocoon as a beautiful butterfly."

As students become comfortable with these techniques, ask them to take turns leading the discussion. Make sure that every student has a turn leading the discussion. Older students who are reading in peer groups can begin taking turns leading their group.

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How to Boost Reading Comprehension With Reciprocal Teaching

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Reciprocal teaching is an instructional technique that boosts reading comprehension by putting students in the role of teacher.

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Sped social communication sample Project Design Overview

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Sped social communication sample Project Design Overview

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RiemenCopy of Project Design_ Overview and Student Learning Guide Template.docx

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Flipped Classroom technique (recording your instruction before facilitating)

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Flipped Classroom technique (recording your instruction before facilitating)

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Free site for educators

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Welcome to Smithsonian Open Access, where you can download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian's images-right now, without asking. With new platforms and tools, you have easier access to more than 4.5 million 2D and 3D digital items from our collections-with many more to come. This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian's 21 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.

What will you create?

#SmithsonianOpenAccess

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Smithsonian Open Access | Smithsonian Institution

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Learn more about Smithsonian Open Access

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Click on pictures for video links.

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Alligned to CCSS 6-12 standards

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What Are Habits of Mind? - The Institute for Habits of Mind

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For Teachers Ever find yourself doubting whether you are creative? Many people assume that creativity is a rare commodity that someone is either born with or not and that it is reserved for the elite among us: artists, writers, and composers, or the likes of Miles Davis, Steve Jobs, or Frida Kahlo.