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resources and units

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Home - OpenSciEd

Home - OpenSciEd

Our curriculum fosters deep, engaging science learning and is the only curriculum designed for the NGSS that has had every unit rated as quality -and it's freely available to anyone.

MAKING HIGH QUALITY SCIENCE EDUCATION AVAILABLE TO ALL STUDENTS

TEACHERS TESTED & APPROVED

GROWING NETWORK OF TEACHERS

What Educators Say

"My students have begun to realize they have the power and knowledge to plan and investigate how the world works around them."

-Kym Whitney, 7th Grade Teacher

"My students are more excited about science than ever, and they're connecting what they're learning to their lives and experiences."

-Megan Euler, 7th Grade Teacher

"OpenSciEd lessons are a lifesaver. They are standards-based, easy to implement, and, best of all, my kids LOVE them!"

-Taylor Halliday, Gifted Intervention Specialist

Adopt the Curriculum.

To make the shifts in science education that today's science standards demand, we've created high quality instructional materials paired with transformative professional learning. Tied to our mission of providing high quality science learning for all students, we also have partnered with a variety of organizations that can offer additional materials and support to ensure the long-term success of your implementation. Learn more about the different paths for adopting our instructional materials.

Learn More

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Scope and Sequence

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Structure of LEAP 2025 Achievement Level Descriptors (ALDs)

Achievement-level descriptors (ALDs) describe the knowledge, skills, and cognitive processes generally demonstrated by students at each level of achievement.
ALDs are currently available for all content areas and for all state summative assessments, including the ELPT and LEAP Connect. Teachers can use the ALDs to understand what their students can generally do and what type of knowledge, skills, and cognitive processes students need to grow in achievement.

The Louisiana Association of Teachers of Mathematics (LATM) and the Louisiana Science Teachers Association (LSTA) invite you to attend, present a session and/or exhibit during our 2019 Joint Conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, November 4th -5th at the Baton Rouge River Center. They expect approximately 1000 formal and informal math and science educators and administrators from pre-K through college levels to attend.

The Louisiana Science Teachers Association (LSTA) is a special group of interdisciplinary science educators. Our membership includes K-12 classroom teachers, university faculty, informal educators, concerned citizens, and business personnel.
If you are in Louisiana and a member of the science teaching community, become a member of LSTA and help ensure the highest quality science education for our children. Complete and mail an application today. LSTA Membership

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Structure of LEAP 2025 Achievement Level Descriptors (ALDs) Achievement-level descriptors (ALDs) describe the knowledge, skills, and cognitive processes generally demonstrated by students at each level of achievement.ALDs are currently available for all content areas and for all state summative assessments, including the ELPT and LEAP Connect.

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This curriculum is designed to help professional development leaders work with teachers on NGSS-aligned curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

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Madera Unified

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Sunnyside HS, Fresno USD

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NGSS Rollout Example

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Kingsburg Unified

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FCOE Science Practices & Energy Inquiry Probe Template 2018-19

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Grades 3-8

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This site contains Earth Science content, activities, and other resources presented at Science Partnership workshops and summer institutes for Grades 3-8 teachers. The science content and resources from our programs may be accessed by clicking on the links below. This site will be updated frequently, so check back later!
Geology Atmospheric Science Water Global Change Planetary Science
As you explore the Earth Science content and resources, you can return to this page with the links to the different units by clicking on Home at the top of each page.

Open Source Textbooks
These open source textbooks are freely available online. They are college level texts that are a valuable resource for teachers wishing to review.

The National Academies Press has a large number of free books available for download at their site https://www.nap.edu/topic/281/earth-sciences. These tend to be advanced texts or reports.

Earth Science Misconceptions
Scientific misconceptions are common and hinder deeper understanding of science content. People commonly build their knowledge of science on their current understanding including their misconceptions. The way that we may identify misconceptions in our students is through questioning and listening (assessment). Although a student may be told that their understanding is incorrect, most have a hard time giving up their misconception. The video documentary A Private Universe is an excellent study showing the prevalence of scientific misconceptions and the difficulty that students have in giving them up. A Private Universe can be viewed online by clicking here. The following are links to some lists of misconceptions in the Earth Sciences.

'Easier to Address' Earth Science Misconceptions (SERC)

Common Geoscience Misconceptions Organized by the Earth Science Literacy Principles (Michigan Teacher Excellence Program)

NGSS and Integrated Science
In California, Middle School courses may be organized as discipline specific in different grades or as integrated science from Grades 6-8. Click here to view the configuration of the Performance Standards by grade under both models.

Click to download a PDF.

Mathematics and Earth Sciences
The Math You Need, When You Need It. This is a terrific website with student tutorials (also great for teachers) that supports math skills in the Earth Sciences.

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Earth Science is an interdisciplinary science that includes content from Geology, Atmospheric Science, Oceanography, and Space Science.

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This site contains Earth Science content, activities, and other resources presented at Science Partnership workshops and summer institutes for Grades 3-8 teachers. The science content and resources from our programs may be accessed by clicking on the links below. This site will be updated frequently, so check back later!

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Excellent for 7th Grade Curriculum

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CarbonTIME | Transformations In Matter and Energy

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Carbon: Transformations in Matter and Energy (Carbon TIME) is a program that includes publicly available teaching units, teacher professional development, and teacher networks based in local education agencies. The teaching units, designed for middle and high school science classes, focus on processes that transform matter and energy in organisms, ecosystems, and global systems: combustion, photosynthesis, cellular respiration, digestion, and biosynthesis.

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Tustin Unified

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This website provides access to resources and curriculum that provides a differentiated and student-centered approach to teaching the middle school Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The goal...

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Standards for 6, 7, 8th grade

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Tools for

Ambitious
Science
Teaching

Companion Book available now on Harvard Ed Press

Pressing for evidence- based explanations

Planning for engagement with important science ideas

Supporting on-going changes in thinking

Eliciting students' ideas

What is Ambitious Science Teaching?

Great teaching can be learned. This web site provides a vision of ambitious science instruction for elementary, middle school and high school classrooms. Ambitious teaching deliberately aims to support students of all backgrounds to deeply understand science ideas, participate in the activities of the discipline, and solve authentic problems.

We feature 4 core sets of teaching practices that support these goals. These core sets make up the Ambitious Science Teaching Framework. The framework has been based on classroom research from the past 30 years-research that has asked, "What kinds of talk, tasks, and tools do students need in order to fully engage in meaningful forms of science learning?"

If you are a member of a group of science educators committed to the improvement of teaching, the vision, practices, and tools here will furnish a common language for you about teaching. You will be able to identify "what we will get better at" and how to get started.

Become Part of a Community That Shares a Common Vision of Excellence in Teaching.

Because ambitious science teaching focuses on doing four things really well in the classroom (the core practices), members of our community can speak a common language about how to continually improve instruction and support student learning. We can frame problems together and work towards solutions with help from each other. The expertise of our community comes from our members (teachers, instructional coaches, teacher educators) as well as from extensive empirical classroom research. On this site you can explore how other professionals are using core practices and the tools that go with them.

Explore New Tools That Support Student Learning

This site provides a constantly evolving set of tools to help improve student participation and learning. Some of these tools will help you plan for student engagement with "big" science ideas. Some will help students reason publicly with each other about science ideas. Others will help students engage in scientific modeling, explanation and argument with evidence. Still others will scaffold science-specific writing and talk. We have unique sets of tools for teachers, instructional coaches, and teacher educators.

But here's what is really important about our tools-they belong to the community, meaning that they need to be continually tested under different classroom conditions in order to be improved and diversified.

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Pressing for evidence- based explanations Planning for engagement with important science ideas Supporting on-going changes in thinking Eliciting students' ideas Great teaching can be learned.

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BSCS

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Grades 6-12 Units

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What is bundling? "Bundles" are groups of standards arranged together to create the endpoints for units of instruction. Bundling is just one step in a curriculum development process; many other steps are required to create instructional materials designed for the NGSS.

Why bundle? Bundling is helpful step in implementing standards because it helps students see connections between concepts and can allow more efficient use of instructional time.

As is highlighted in the Introduction and Guide, there are a variety of things to consider in thinking through how to build bundles for courses.

These example bundles are not intended to represent the only ways to organize courses, but rather to provide some well thought out, concrete examples of what bundles might look like.

For each grade, two different examples are provided to motivate users to compare the different examples and think about what works in their local context:

For each grade K-5, an example is provided that organizes the bundles based on the Topics arrangement of the NGSS and one that focuses on a particular theme that builds across each year.

For grades 6-8, an example is provided that bundles based on the Topics arrangement of the NGSS, and one that bundles by focusing on phenomena that hold standards together.

The examples for grades 9-12 are built from two of the Model Course Maps of Appendix K.

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What is bundling? "Bundles" are groups of standards arranged together to create the endpoints for units of instruction. Bundling is just one step in a curriculum development process; many other steps are required to create instructional materials designed for the NGSS. Why bundle?

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Stanford

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Learning Through Performance - 6th Grade Curriculum

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Funded by George Lucas Educational Foundation, SCALE developed the Learning Through Performance curriculum as a way to help 6th, 7th, and 8th grade teachers envision what year-long, NGSS-designed/aligned curriculum might look like. Our curricular design embraces the strengths of project-based learning as an effective instructional model, and incorporates rigorous curriculum-embedded performance assessments to provide students with metacognitive access to their own learning.

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All Los Angeles Unified Schools are in full implementation of the California Next Generation Science Standards (CA NGSS). Teachers are highly encouraged to continue to attend professional development provided by the Local Districts and the Division of Instruction to take the learning to their schools as they explore with colleagues the daily practices of NGSS.

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6-8 grade

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Get connected with like-minded individuals in the movement dedicated to innovative thinking and action to improve and advance STEM education. Sign up below for our updates on STEM events in USA and around the globe.

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Project-Based Inquiry Science Print and Digital Resources (PBIS) | It's About Time (IAT)

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Get connected with like-minded individuals in the movement dedicated to innovative thinking and action to improve and advance STEM education. Sign up below for our updates on STEM events in USA and around the globe.

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Get the big picture on NGSS

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8th Grade Standards and Essential Questions

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Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) - Model Teaching

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Readers of the article will be able to define a claim, identify appropriate student evidences, understand how students justify the evidence that supports the claim within their reasoning, and how to implement the CER strategy into classroom labs.

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Also has curriculum

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Phenomenon, Big Idea, Summary Table

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Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) Toolkit | Lawrence Hall of Science

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In an effort to strengthen science education and environmental literacy through the state's local control finance and accountability processes, the Lawrence Hall of Science, along with handful of partners, has assembled an LCAP toolkit to help stakeholders successfully advocate for science and environmental literacy in their local school district budget development process.

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Check out the guidance for the steps to designing a coherent NGSS aligned storyline. Explore unpacking, identifying phenomena, and sequencing investigations to help students build science ideas, step by step.

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Improving Science Education Through Three-Dimensional Learning

Quick Search Next Generation Science Standards

THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF SCIENCE LEARNING

Within the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), there are three distinct and equally important dimensions to learning science. These dimensions are combined to form each standard-or performance expectation-and each dimension works with the other two to help students build a cohesive understanding of science over time.

Crosscutting Concepts help students explore connections across the four domains of science, including Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering Design.

When these concepts, such as "cause and effect", are made explicit for students, they can help students develop a coherent and scientifically-based view of the world around them.

Science and Engineering Practices describe what scientists do to investigate the natural world and what engineers do to design and build systems. The practices better explain and extend what is meant by "inquiry" in science and the range of cognitive, social, and physical practices that it requires. Students engage in practices to build, deepen, and apply their knowledge of core ideas and crosscutting concepts.

Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) are the key ideas in science that have broad importance within or across multiple science or engineering disciplines. These core ideas build on each other as students progress through grade levels and are grouped into the following four domains: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering.

More about 3D Learning

GET TO KNOW

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are K-12 science content standards. Standards set the expectations for what students should know and be able to do. The NGSS were developed by states to improve science education for all students.

A goal for developing the NGSS was to create a set of research-based, up-to-date K-12 science standards. These standards give local educators the flexibility to design classroom learning experiences that stimulate students' interests in science and prepares them for college, careers, and citizenship.

Get to Know the Standards

IMPLEMENT

The NGSS call for a three-dimensional approach to K-12 science instruction. This represents a significant transition from previous state standards. That's why effective implementation demands a great deal of collaboration and patience among states, districts, schools, teachers, and students.

Thoughtful and coordinated approaches to implementation will enable educators to inspire future generations of scientifically literate students. That is the vision of the NGSS. This website provides a range of high-quality resources that empower educators, administrators, parents, and the general public to help bring this vision to life.

Find Tools and Resources

WHY

Science-and therefore science education-is central to the lives of all Americans.

A high-quality science education means that students will develop an in-depth understanding of content and develop key skills-communication, collaboration, inquiry, problem solving, and flexibility-that will serve them throughout their educational and professional lives.

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Home Page | Next Generation Science Standards

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Improving Science Education Through Three-Dimensional Learning Quick Search Next Generation Science Standards Within the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), there are three distinct and equally important dimensions to learning science. These dimensions are combined to form each standard-or performance expectation-and each dimension works with the other two to help students build a cohesive understanding of science over time.

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http://www.nextgenscience.org/evidence-statements

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Create 3-Dimensional STEM Instructional Units Driven By Real World Phenomena

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The units were developed by pre- and in-service teachers using a planning template developed in alignment with Stroupe and Windschitl's (2015) framework for Ambitious Science Teaching that focuses on "1) planning a unit around a "big science idea", 2) eliciting and activating students' ideas about a puzzling phenomenon (for the purpose of adapting instruction), 3) helping students make sense of science activities, and 4) pressing students to construct evidence-based explanations" (p. 1). The following is a link to the most recent iteration of the planning template that can be used or adapted for developing additional units beyond those at this site: Modeling Explanation Argumentation Unit Plan Template 2.0 The tasks were developed by pre- and in-service teachers using planning templates developed in alignment with Cartier, Smith, Stein, & Ross' (2013) 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Science Discussions that focuses on selecting goals and a task; anticipating and monitoring student work; and making decisions about discussion through selecting, sequencing, and connecting student work. This first template focuses on selecting goals and selecting a task using Next Generation Science Standards performance expectations. For each task, the following four templates are available: (Note: As with the unit planning template, the following are the links to the most recent iterations of the planning templates that can be used or adapted for developing additional tasks beyond those at this site): Selecting Goals and Selecting Tasks Anticipating and Monitoring
Selecting, Sequencing, and Connecting [Note: this is a guide for supporting moment-to-moment decision making during instruction]

Implementation Guide [Note: this guide can be used during instruction, since it aggregates those plans from across the other templates]

This NGSS Assessment Development Template was developed in alignment with Creative Commons by the Research + Practice Collaboratory, 2016 . These five steps were designed to help teams develop assessment tasks.

Step 1: Define what you will assess by analyzing relevant sections of A Framework for K-12 Science Education and crafting learning claims.

Step 2: Brainstorm Possible Scenarios for Eliciting Student Understanding.

Step 3: Use Task Formats to Build Questions to Engage Students with the Scenario.

Step 4: Imagine the Range of Possible Student Responses to the Questions.

Step 5: Share, Review, and Revise.
The following is a link to the most recent iteration of the planning template that can be used or adapted for developing additional units beyond those at this site: NGSS Assessment Development Template

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Frameworks used for Developing Units, Tasks, and Assessments

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The units were developed by pre- and in-service teachers using a planning template developed in alignment with Stroupe and Windschitl's (2015) framework for Ambitious Science Teaching that focuses on "1) planning a unit around a "big science idea", 2) eliciting and activating students' ideas about a puzzling phenomenon (for the purpose of adapting instruction), 3) helping students make sense of science activities, and 4) pressing students to construct evidence-based explanations" (p.

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Mi-STAR provides science curriculum for teachers of Michigan students, grades 6-8. Mi-STAR is designing a middle school curriculum that supports both the NGSS and the Michigan State Standards, while empowering students to use science and engineering practices to address real-world issues.

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7th Grade Standards and Essential Questions

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NGSS Resources

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The State Board of Education (SBE) adoption of new California science standards began in 2013. Adoption of the CA NGSS involved a two-year process.

A statewide plan to implement the Next Generation Science Standards for California Public Schools, Kindergarten through Grade Twelve (CA NGSS), the CA NGSS Systems Implementation Plan (PDF) was approved by the SBE on November 13, 2014.

Senate Bill 300 (Chapter 480, Statutes of 2013) called for the revision of the Science Framework to align with the CA NGSS. A new Science Curriculum Framework was adopted by the State Board of Education on November 3, 2016.

Information and resources for instructional materials are available on the California Department of Education 2018 Science Instructional Materials Adoption (K-8) web page.

CA NGSS Statewide Implementation

A number of state-level California agencies and organizations participate in supporting science education in California. In brief:

The California Department of Education (CDE) provides technical assistance and support to local educational agencies (LEAs) regarding implementation of SBE-adopted science standards, curriculum frameworks, and assessments. The CDE also facilitates the dissemination of state and federal funding to support implementation of science.

The California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA) and the Curriculum and Instruction Steering Committee (CISC) Science Subcommittee provide collaborative leadership among county offices of education (COEs) to improve achievement in science education for all students and to close the achievement gap.

The California Science Project (CSP) supports ongoing quality professional learning for educators with activities and programs designed by university faculty, teacher leaders, and teacher practitioners to improve instructional practices that lead to increased achievement for all students.

The California Science Teachers Association (CSTA) represents science educators statewide, providing leadership opportunities for its members, advocating for policy to support science education, and supporting science professional development through an annual state conference for science educators.

The K-12 Alliance at WestEd provides science professional development for educators that enhances content knowledge and pedagogical techniques to support science achievement for all students.

The NGSS Collaborative

The NGSS Collaborative was developed by the CDE, CCSESA, CSTA, California COEs, CSP, and the K-12 Alliance at WestEd to ensure that every student has access to teachers who are prepared to teach and facilitate student learning to the levels of rigor and depth required by the CA NGSS. The NGSS Collaborative offers the CA NGSS Rollout Symposia (rollouts) annually. These rollouts are two-day workshops which cover a variety of topics for teachers, principals, and other school leaders who wish to learn more about the CA NGSS and the California Science Framework. Rollouts to date include Introduction to the CA NGSS, Understanding the Shifts Required, Focus on Transition, and Understanding the Science Framework. To support local adoption of instructional materials, the 2018 rollout focused on a Toolkit for Instructional Materials Evaluation (TIME). The 2019 rollout will focus on the CA NGSS and environmental literacy.

Electronic Mailing List

Join the STEM-Education and Environmental-Science electronic mailing lists by sending a blank email to join-stem-education@mlist.cde.ca.gov and to join-environmental-science-ed@mlist.cde.ca.gov. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to unsubscribe-stem-education@mlist.cde.ca.gov and unsubscribe-environmental-science@mlist.cde.ca.gov.

History of Adoption of NGSS for California

The history of the NGSS is located on the History of Adoption of NGSS for California web page.

Questions: Standards Implementation Support Office | stem@cde.ca.gov | 916-323-5847

Last Reviewed: Tuesday, December 31, 2019

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The State Board of Education (SBE) adoption of new California science standards began in 2013. Adoption of the CA NGSS involved a two-year process. A statewide plan to implement the Next Generation Science Standards for California Public Schools, Kindergarten through Grade Twelve (CA NGSS), the CA NGSS Systems Implementation Plan (PDF) was approved by the SBE on November 13, 2014.

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UCONN

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Pre-Service and In-Service Teacher Created Instructional Units, Tasks, and AssessmentsThis page was created to provide resources to pre- and in-service science teachers. These units, tasks, and assessments represent teachers' humble attempts to create NRC Framework and Next Generation Scien ...

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6th Grade Standards and Essential Questions